This year, despite the coronavirus, America is voting—by mail and in person—and we the people are choosing who among us will lead our nation, as we have done since our Constitution was adopted in 1789.
Since the United States was founded, working people have struggled to make our nation a democracy. And we have given our lives to defend our democratic republic—from the coalfields of West Virginia to the beaches of Normandy to the back roads of Mississippi to the mountains of Afghanistan.
The lesson of our history is clear. Democracies are not, in the last analysis, protected by judges or lawyers, reporters or publishers. The survival of democracy depends on the determination of working people to defend it.
And America’s labor movement is indeed determined to defend our democratic republic. We are determined that the next president of the United States will be the person who is the choice of the people of these United States through the process our Constitution and laws provide.
We, the elected leaders of America’s labor movement, have a message for anyone who would seek to prevent eligible voters from voting, to prevent our votes from being counted, to prevent the electors we choose from being seated, or to prevent those electors’ choice as president and vice president from being inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2021. We will not let you take our democracy away from us. America’s working people are determined and prepared to defend our democracy.
And we are confident that in the days to come, the democratic process America’s people have counted on for more than 200 years will once again work in an orderly fashion to select the next president and vice president of the United States.
Already, working people are voting—by the millions. And we are going to keep voting in record numbers. Together, we, the citizens of the United States, will pick those who we wish to govern us, from the White House to the statehouse to the courthouse. And we will bring a new and better day.