(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

By Ken Brociner

It’s now less than two weeks before one of the most pivotal moments in the 248 year history of our country. If Trump wins the election – or if he successfully steals it – the foundations of our (highly imperfect) democracy will be blown to bits. Trump has made it crystal clear that he will violate the basic principles of the Constitution from day one. And given how many Republican senators couldn’t muster up the courage to remove him from office during his two impeachment trials, Trump would almost certainly be far more dangerous than ever before. He’s already announced that he’ll seek to prosecute and jail anyone who he sees fit to silence.

Like many of the hundreds of thousands of people around the country who are volunteering to help elect Kamala Harris – and stop Trump- I’ve been making several hours of phone calls to voters in swing states on a daily basis.

 Along with countless contemporaries of mine from the Sixties generation, I’ve gone to more demonstrations in Washington D.C. and the Boston area than I can remember. Many of these protests have been extremely intense – especially those during the Vietnam war.  But these days my main form of activism involves sitting in a comfortable chair in my study waiting for the Democratic National Committee’s “Scale to Win” Dialer to connect me to another swing state voter. The wait between calls rarely lasts longer than 10 seconds. As soon as I hear the chime that indicates that someone has already picked up their phone, I ask if “I can please speak to “Anthony” or “Maxine?” (or whoever) and then identify myself as a “volunteer in the Kamala Harris campaign.” My interactions with people range from very friendly – and often inspiring – to people who are rude, hostile, or profane – just like the candidate they are supporting. Fortunately, the “End Call” tab is always one click away.

Even though common wisdom is that going door to door is the most effective way to reach voters, my own experience has been that I’ve been able to speak to a lot more people per hour with the DNC’s “Scale To Win” Dialer than I ever have by knocking on doors.

Strangely, even though I’m far away from the frontlines of any demonstration, I’m feeling just as intensely engaged and motivated as I ever have in the more than fifty years I’ve been politically active. The mere thought of Donald Trump ever sitting in the Oval Office again has been more than enough to keep me glued to my chair for hours on end, day after day.

If you aren’t already volunteering to Elect Kamala and Stop Trump, the information to get started asap is provided at the end of this article.

In the October 9 issue of The Somerville Times, the Boston chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America had an article entitled “Boston DSA condemns Somerville library harassment and supports LGBTQ+ siblings.” In the article, the DSAers rightfully condemned “the far-right groups {that had} protested a scheduled drag queen story hour at the Somerville Public Library which had culminated in a bomb threat.”

Of course, it’s all well and good that Boston DSA stood up against the intolerance and actual threats of violence posed by those far-right groups. However, the oh so principled DSA also issued a mindboggling expression of solidarity (“without conditions”-see below) with none other than Hamas 48 hours after it massacred 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in Israel on Oct 7, 2023!

“In the wake of the Israeli invasion of Gaza [the fact is that Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza actually began on Oct 27] we are inspired by the courage of the Palestinian people. We call upon everyone in the Boston area to express clear support for the Palestinian resistance, without conditions.” (Boston DSA, Oct 9, 2023).

Naturally, Boston DSA is so “principled” that it wouldn’t even think of supporting Kamala Harris, despite the fact that Trump is, as most Democrats have finally come around to publicly acknowledging, an out -and-out fascist!

I have always really enjoyed the Honk Festival. The joyful, free- spirited atmosphere of the Festival vividly reminds me of the Counterculture and radical movements of the Sixties and early Seventies. But for those too young to have lived through that era, it’s worth noting that often times there were points of tension between those people who stressed alternative lifestyles and those who were more oriented towards trying to end the war in Vietnam and achieve radical political change.

Until 2016, I always saw the Honk Festival as a near perfect synthesis of these two tendencies. But what really struck me about it that year was the near total absence of any sense (by the bands, the signs, and the thousands of people who were walking around Davis Square) that in a few weeks our country was going to hold an election of great consequence, an election that would determine whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump would become the next president of the United States.

Sure, we all thought that Trump was very unlikely to actually win. And Massachusetts was obviously going to provide Hillary Clinton with all of its electoral votes. But still. The Festival was held only a few short weeks before the election – and walking around Davis Square that day, you would be hard pressed to see – or hear – any evidence of that.

So a few weeks ago, I went to the Honk Festival with this in mind. Of course now the political situation is very different than it was in 2016. As anyone who had been paying even the slightest attention had to know, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris were (and still are) essentially tied in each and every one of the seven swing states (according to every reputable poll).

I can’t claim to have listened to every band that played at this year’s Honk Festival. But at about 6 pm on Saturday, I walked over to check out a number of them. In doing so, I did hear one band shout “Vote! Vote!” – but even there, I didn’t hear any specific references to the upcoming presidential election. Then I decided to walk from one end of Davis Square to the other. Again, I didn’t see a single sign with Trump’s name on it (or Kamala Harris’s for that matter). On Sunday morning, a friend of mine watched the entire parade as it passed through Davis Sq. and she told me she too didn’t see or hear any references to what will be the most consequential election in the lives of every single person there.

True, Massachusetts is a solidly Blue State. But in this day and age, it’s fair to say that most people know that you can help elect Kamala/stop Trump by either phoning, texting, writing postcards, or by travelling to a swing state to canvass door to door. Yet as far as I could tell, there weren’t any urgent messages at the Festival to encourage people to do any of those things.

The annual Honk Festival (which is always held in October) does a very good job of combining music, a spirit of political and cultural rebellion and a commitment to social justice. But it seems to me that it’s been failing to rise to the occasion when all-important elections are only a few weeks away.

To be honest, I had thought about walking around Davis Square with a sign on my front and back (a “sandwich board”) but felt too self – conscious to do so. My bad! I definitely should have.

But this is exactly what I would have written on both sides of that sign.

Help elect Kamala and stop Trump!!

Save our democracy!

Make calls to voters in swing states

Call anytime of the day or evening

Computers do the dialing, scripts are provided

Google: “Easy Calls for Harris-Walz”

Ken Brociner has lived in Somerville since 1975. His columns, essays and reviews have appeared in In These Times, Dissent, The Boston Phoenix, the Somerville Journal and Somerville Times, among other several other publications.