Insights
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October 30th, 2020
This archive futurist.com article was written by Glen Hiemstra, Futurist Emeritus.
Glen Hiemstra founded Futurist.com in the 1990’s and is now Futurist Emeritus in the Think Tank. An internationally respected expert on creating preferred futures, long-range planning and assessing future trends, Glen has advised professional, business, community, and government organizations for three decades. He is available to work with incredible clients on futurist keynotes and foresight consulting projects.
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With just four days to go until the final day of this election, Nov. 3, 2020, I want to encourage you to vote, and to vote for Joe Biden & Kamala Harris, for the future. I believe it is critical for the near term, medium term and long-term future that the current Trump administration and the Trump Republican Party be repudiated and soundly defeated.
Many of you in the U.S. have already voted. If you have not yet voted, we are being advised not to vote by mail anymore at this point, as mail delivery is problematic (the postal service having been deliberately sabotaged) and a late arriving ballot may be subject to court challenge as the Republicans go all out to prevent people’s votes from being counted. Instead, even you have requested and received a mail-in or absentee ballot, go to this website, I Will Vote, to learn how you can deliver your ballot or vote in person. If you must vote in person, mask up and go – just as many generations risked their lives to make this nation, this is one of the times to take the same risk.
When I was a young futurist I was advised to not say anything political and to never reveal my political preferences. Doing so, I was told, could alienate a portion of the population who I could otherwise reach. Even today, many professional futurists carefully conceal their political opinions so as not to lose possible clients. (In 2008, when I wrote a very critical column about then Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, a large American retailer with whom I was negotiating a Leadership Development course notified me that the contract would not happen and, further, that I should never contact them again.)
The case was also made to me as a young futurist that it did not matter who the U.S. President was, as the forces that futurists deal with are larger and of course much longer term than any administration’s four- or eight-year term. But having lived through many presidential elections and experienced the results, I think this is wrong. Yes, there are very long-term forces at play that supersede administrations – solar power will continue to get cheaper, AI will continue to advance, and so on, no matter who is President. But from Reagan over Carter, to Bush over Gore, to Trump over Clinton we can see the profound impact both now and for the long-term of the policies that a President can set.
Later, I worked on a political campaign for one of the greatest of futurists, Barbara Marx Hubbard, who would have been very outspoken this year.
At stake this year is whether the U.S. takes a global leadership role to control the Virus or whether we let it run unchecked with millions of lives at stake. The same applies to climate change, whether the U.S. resumes a global role in trying to confront climate change, or simply denies that it’s a problem, withdraws from all global participation, and actively promotes climate killing policies. Also at stake are income inequality, racial division, honor and integrity in Oval Office, and, I fear, the very idea of democracy itself.
So, if you have not yet voted I encourage you to do so, and vote for Biden.
(Note that this is my opinion and that I am not speaking for the Think Tank participants, having not pre-cleared this with them.)
