David Plouffe - Ripples of Hope: Your Guide to Electing a New President

You probably arent old enough to vote yet, and because of that, you may think there isnt much you can do to help decide who our next president should be. But I want you to know that you can have something to do with it. You can make a huge difference. Maybe the difference. And I hope you will.

The next presidential election might be even more important to you than it is to the adults you know. There is a lot at stake.

Some of your hopes and fears probably match those of my own kids.

The winner of the next presidential election will need to make a lot of decisions that will affect your future. It must be frustrating that you cant vote on who that person will be. But while you cant yet cast a ballot, you can cast your influence far and wide on those who will be voting.

You dont have a VOTE, but you have a VOICE.

And if you use it often enough, and with enough persistence, you can make the difference in this election.

My hope for this book is to share with younger readers just why I believe your voices are so important and to provide specifics about the most effective ways you can raise them up during this election, and beyond. I should also make clear here at the start that this is not a nonpartisan book. I have a strong point of view. I managed President Barack Obamas campaign. I am a Democrat, and I want the Democratic nominee to win the presidential election in 2020.

The 2020 presidential election will be close. Donald Trump will probably get at least 45 percent of the vote, maybe more. And a bunch of kids your age will be supporting him too and finding ways to help him win reelection.

Everyone has the right to hold their own views and to support the candidate of their choice. We live in a politically divided country. Maybe most of the people where you live think Donald Trump is doing a great job. Its probably more likely, since you are reading this book, that many of the people you know think Donald Trump is doing a terrible job. But if you believe for a moment that Trump is guaranteed to lose because a lot of the people you know dont like him, that can be dangerous.

If you care about this next election and if, like me, you hope the Democratic nominee will win, the most important thing to do is understand that Trump could win again.

Once you accept that, its time to focus on what you can do to ensure the Trump administration only gets four years, not eight.

Four years is, frankly, enough. This president is making the climate crisis worse, making it harder for families to have health care and afford school, discriminating against the LGBTQ community, and alienating our longtime allies. If he has eight years in office, he will do double the damage.

You have the power to make sure this doesnt happen to our country and our world.

When I managed President Barack Obamas campaign, we won in large part because of the support and passion of young people in America. Yes, some were eighteen-to-twenty-five-year-olds who voted in big numbers for Obama. They also worked heroically on the campaign. But an underappreciated part of why we won was the support of people under eighteen. Kids your age who supported Obama so strongly that they talked to their families about what it would mean if he won. Kids who asked to volunteer on the campaign and dragged other friends and family with them. Kids who created posters and poems and songs, which motivated others to get involved.

I think NOTHING is more powerful than a young person believing deeply in something.

If you have that strong belief, if you do not want to live in a country that has Donald Trump as its president, you can be the secret weapon that makes sure his time in office comes to an end.

I have a fifteen-year-old son and an eleven-year-old daughter. They were heartbroken on election night in 2016, especially because I made the mistake of being so confident Hillary Clinton would win. They have the passion to elect a new president, and more creativity, thirst for social justice, and energy than Ive ever had. I know there are millions across the country like them. If you are one of those millions, this book will offer you some ideas about how to channel that passion, talent, and belief in ways that can make a difference in the presidential campaign.

If this election is about anything, its about your future. Dont let that future be dictated to you by othersseize the moment and shape the future you want for yourself and your friends.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy, two years before he was assassinated in 1968, gave an important speech opposing apartheid in South Africa.

He famously said,

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a [person] stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

You can be thatRIPPLE OF HOPE.

YOU can do this.