Two decades ago, Sara Carlson, then a mother of three, was newly single because of a traumatic event, and the US’s food stamp program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), helped her feed her children with free food supplies.
“I wouldn’t have been able to afford to live,” said Carlson, 45, who lives in Rochester, Minnesota, and now works as an operations manager for a wealth-management firm and serves on the board of Channel One Regional Food Bank, which works to increase food access.
While the food stamps helped her, the government cut her off after a couple years because she started making too much money, which meant she again had to worry about having enough food.
Now, nearly 42 million people around the country could face the same fate if the federal government shutdown continues and funding for Snap is cut off on 1 November.
Same is true for voting in a lot of places in the US. Cuz making Election Day a national holiday would be a “blatant power grab by the Democrats” (an actual argument against it Mitch McConnell made). Many places don’t have early in-person voting or adequate mail-in voting.
If you’ve gotta spend multiple hours waiting in line at the only polling place in your district that’s makes it hard to do without losing out on a day’s pay you can’t afford to lose.
That the Democrats had the power to do this under Obama and didn’t tells you pretty clearly which side they’re on in the class war.
That’s why so many didn’t bother to vote in 2024. The last eight years have taught them that neither ruling party will make a material difference in their lives, so why lose that day’s pay?