Voting for Electronic (Dance) Music Community Values
Deciding what matters for our community should be fairly easy. Most of us believe in Love and Equality as guiding principles. Going further, we have the PLUR mantra, that has been a part of one of our subcultures from the beginning, which can be helpful. PLUR stands for Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect. As a charity, we cannot endorse candidates or tell you what to vote for specifically. We can provide you resources and other information that can be helpful to our community. For instance, if we want to see our community not just survive but continue to thrive, we should find out what candidates are night life friendly and also open to drug reformation laws. Yes, we will have to get political because reforming drug policy will be crucial to our survival as a community. So this election is good practice to get you excited about being a more participatory member of your local government in the future. Depending on the jurisdiction, it can be difficult to implement some harm reduction strategies as they are seen as "gray area" under current drug laws. For our massive events to take place, we have to work with local officials. If we can modify drug laws through our vote, this will make it easier for officials to approve potentially life-saving initiatives at our events. The Drug Policy Action group has provided a guide if this is of interest to you.
How do we apply our values at the polling booth?
Research. Good thing we have resources and information for you.
Research Resources for Candidates and Ballot Initiatives
Thank you Facebook for doing your part to inspire people to #TurnUpTheVote this election season through the creation the productive "ballot preview" tool. You get to preview what will be on your ballot before election day so you can research and make informed decisions.
This type of feature is also available on Vote411 (endorsed by a Women's voter group), TurboVote, and also Rock the Vote. Pick your favorite, but use one.
Bernie. We know he was highly popular for our community. Again, we do not endorse his politics but we wanted to make sure that the many many people within our community that wanted to see Bernie in know that he has a website where he endorses both candidates and ballot measures. If you still want to #FeelTheBern, go here.
Concerned about the Climate?
Still wondering why you should? Watch this. Also, our charity partner, Music for Relief, is currently responding to both the Louisiana and Haiti crises which were both due to climate change.
Why else should you care? Well when you think of the environment, you have to think about it like this. It provides us the ability to live. The cold term "resources" are not just things to be exploited but that literally allow us to continue to exist on this planet such as water, air, earth (soil). These resources are best when "clean"/ non-toxic to us. Pollution takes form in many ways and what pollution does is toxify our environment. It has only been through laws (from people we elect into office) that we have been able to either mitigate pollution or make it better. So voting really does matter about each and every one of our lives in terms of health. Like carbon, health benefits of a clean environment are hard to see. We have to be educated about the situation in order to understand it. Many people in our community do see the connection. It can be easier to see a local connection but the fight for the environment is happening everywhere and for a community that believes "we are all One" we should care about what is happening to our global community, such as the fight for clean water in Standing Rock since polluting that river will affect the local community as well as all others downstream.
League of Conservation has a guide for you if you are concerned about the climate. Climate Nexus has a non-partisan article that you might find of interest. PBS has something you can watch on how the Presidential candidates stand on climate issues.
NextGen Climate might be offering rides to your polling place. Find out if they are here.
Concerned about Social Justice?
Do a search engine search. Here is one we did on Google.
There is a tie between social justice and drug reformation. Our non-profit charity partner, Give A Beat, specifically focuses on the mass incarceration crisis in the U.S. Many people that have been incarcerated are minorities and many have been thrown in jail for petty drug charges. If this is something you would like to see changed, you might want to look at the Drug Policy Action guide. Also, check out the amazing article that Give A Beat wrote.
Greg Pallast is also an interesting person to check out. He currently has a film out called The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and he also has a resource to see if you will be ELIGIBLE to vote on election day. There is something going on that people should be aware of, make sure you are not on this list!
Equality rights important to you? Victory Fund just endorsed a list of LGBT candidates.
Who stands for what
Early voting is happening in certain states. Using one of the ballot preview tools listed above, you can find out if it is happening in your State/ County. Holly Madison did it. You too can be like Holly. No matter what, let's #TurnUpTheVote this season by doing the research, encouraging your friends, and showing up next Tuesday to a polling place near you!
Thanks again to all our amazing supporters on the #TurnUpTheVote campaign: RaveReady.com, Key-frame Entertainment, Opulent Temple, Disco Donnie Presents, Groove Radio, Boogie Basics, Dance Gruv Radio, Party Time Magazine, FELIX, The Crystal Method (and Team), DJ Shar4, Table Syndicate, DJ Mother Earth, Liquid Todd and Sirius XM, International Ravers Charity, DanceSafe, Raver J, Swedish Egil, EMX LA, Fame House, and Give A Beat.
