If you already vote in every election, and your plans for regime change involve just voting again, then I humbly submit that your vote is not enough. You have to get people to vote who wouldn’t ordinarily vote, persuade a fence-sitter, or convert someone. Incidentally, that’s in ascending order of difficulty.
I realize that you may feel that donation to the candidate or party of your choosing is effective, but bear in mind that average cost per vote is misleading because it counts votes by party stalwarts and reliable voters as having the same cost as getting new people and sometimes voters to the polls, or and doesn’t count things like keeping opposition voters at home due to disillusionment. There is an economy in volunteering and knocking on doors yourself, and being engaged in your community that cannot be underestimated. I’m not saying don’t donate, but you may not be able to give in money what you might more directly give in time.
November is coming. If you’ve already been involved in local electoral politics, gold star for you. If you haven’t been, but you have the ability, then you may want to hold off on the start of NaNoWriMo or that Halloween bash and pitch in. I can tell you right now that the first time I voted, I was totally lost, annoyed, and running out of time before the polls closed. I was about to give up when I spotted a volunteer with a senate campaign who gave me directions and a ride.
I’m really down on siloed activism: Twitter speeches to an already sympathetic following, Facebook overtures to friends and family who aren’t going to change their views or who are already on the same boat as you, or even reminders to vote on this here BBS, which seems populated largely with people who do already vote. The only reason I’m even posting here in this forum is to convince people who haven’t decided to do more in the leadup to election day, to do more.
(Finally, and parenthetically, and ideally unnecessarily, I mention that if this does not apply to you for whatever reason, it was never directed at you to begin with)
