A winning argument for convincing someone to vote

🗳 Voter turnout has gone up in the U.S. over the last decade, but it still falls slightly short of turnout in most democracies, which averages around 67%.
Issue #114: Anthony Bourdain’s jiu jitsu habit and how to build a reading soundtrack
By Harris Sockel

If you’re anxious about the upcoming U.S. election (no matter who you’re planning to vote for), consider channeling your energy into simply encouraging more people to vote. On Medium, you’ll find lots of perspectives on how to do this, and on the value of voting generally — I’ll share two.

First, consider teacher Sam Cook’s experience. On Medium, he bravely admits that he used to not vote. Why? Math. “We’re talking Powerball-level odds” of a single vote mattering, he writes. Righteous, argumentative retorts (“it’s your civic duty!”) never worked on him.

The only argument that convinced him was this:

You don’t vote? Well, I do, and let me tell you why. There are lots of people in this country who are way more impacted by politics than I am: kids born into poverty, people with disabilities or chronic illnesses, people fleeing domestic violence, and so on. I want better things for those people. And how can I say that I support them if I won’t pull over for 10 minutes on my way to work and vote in their interest? How can I look them in the eye if I won’t give them that much?

It’s a simple, first-person message based on empathy, reality, and experience. It makes voting less about math and more about humanity. Voting is a simple act that helps people.

One more resource, this one from Leah Greenberg, the co-founder of Indivisible, an organization that does voter outreach. “Nothing breaks the cycle of election anxiety like doing the work,” Greenberg writes, which is a good lesson for mental health writ large. And there’s lots of work to be done! Every election cycle needs canvassers, poll workers, and ballot inspectors. “Taking action will make you feel powerful, connected, and like part of the solution,” Greenberg adds. “It’s kind of like going to the gym — you know you’re going to feel better afterwards.”

From the archive: Anthony Bourdain’s daily jiu jitsu practice

Three years before his death, Anthony Bourdain posted on Medium about his favorite hobby at the time: Brazilian jiu jitsu. Bourdain was a brilliant food and travel writer in part because he was a brilliant memoirist — he was able to express himself in ways that made lots of strangers feel like they were his friends, which is just another way of saying he was always honest and always himself.

You can feel that come through in the way he writes about jiu jitsu on Medium:

I do it because it’s hard. Because it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And because it never ends. […] It’s like being the newest, worst cook in the kitchen all over again, looking up that impossibly steep learning curve to the broiler station. I liked that feeling then. I like it now.

Your daily dose of practical wisdom: about reading

To help yourself focus on a book, give it a soundtrack. Play the same music whenever you read. Try to choose something that matches the book’s theme.

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Edited and produced by Scott Lamb & Carly Rose Gillis

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