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Translating Energy From Protests into Institutions of Policy

Stacey Abrams on translating the energy from protests into institutions of policy

Video transcript

STACEY ABRAMS: We begin by telling the truth, that voting is not a magic pill. This is not going to change your world. A single election will not transform anything. But it creates the pathway for change. It is not a simple solution, but it is the only process that guarantees us the ability to influence what happens next.

My parents raised me to understand you protest in the streets and you protest at the ballot box and then you participate in the profit. A lot of P's, but it works, because what it means is that you recognize protesting in the streets is absolutely necessary to declare our vision. Protesting at the ballot box is how we declare who is going to be responsible for executing that vision. And then participation throughout is how we hold them accountable.

But the change we need to make will never stop being undone by those who do not want it. And that's why we have to think of voting as a constant obligation. But it's also our constant possibility in our power to get these things done.

Evil doesn't go away because you beat it in an election. It just regroups and shows up somewhere else. So we've got to be wherever it is to fight back. And sometimes, the good we want is overshadowed unless we're there to lift the shadows and say here it is again.

I think of voting as a not just an obligation, but an opportunity to shape the world I want. And I need people who see the same vision to use their power to make it so.