The following speech was given by AVA-Berlin Chair Ann Wertheimer on September 22, 2024 in Hamburg at a rally to defend democracy.
My name is Ann Wertheimer. I was born in New Jersey and
lived there until I moved to Washington, D.C. to work as a public
school teacher. I have been living in Berlin since 1971 where I
taught English at the Freie Universität.
I am the chair of American Voices Abroad Berlin—or AVA, for
short. AVA is a politically progressive group independent of all
political parties both in the United States and in Germany. We
offer a community for engaged U.S. citizens and provide a
forum for a wide spectrum of views. We began in 2003 as
Americans in Berlin Against the Iraq War. After a while, we
began to focus on other issues and then changed our name.
And, by the way, we are not only citizens of the United States;
we are also members of the community where we live. We seek
to engage all members of this community in dialogue on issues
of mutual concern.
Und übrigens sind wir nicht nur Bürger der Vereinigten Staaten,
sondern auch ein Teil der Gemeinschaft in der wir leben. Wir
wollen alle in dieser Gemeinschaft in einen Dialog über Fragen
von gemeinsamem Interesse einbinden.
Joining American Voices Abroad is a way of engaging in
American civic life even from here.
Democracy, we think, is something you do. You do it as an
individual and you do it as part of a community.
Doing democracy starts with voting. Free and fair elections are
the basis of democracy. Voting is how you do democracy as an
individual, but significantly as one individual among many.
Voting is a political act that we carry out with all of our fellow
citizens.
A strong democracy needs high voter participation, but the
United States State Department estimates that, of the over
80,000 U.S. citizens of voting age living in Germany, less than
10% voted in the 2022 general election—even though
registering and voting from here is fairly simple. (If you haven’t
yet registered, go to votefromabroad.org and do it.)
So why do so many overseas Americans not vote, not even in
an election as crucial as this one? Do they not know that they
can? Do they not know how? Or is it cynicism? Or resignation?
Or fear of being tracked by the government? Does low voter
turnout possibly reflect a lack of civic engagement among
Americans abroad, a lack of community? In our efforts to
participate in the life of our country of residence, in Germany,
have we forgotten the rights and responsibilities of citizenship?
Are we perhaps confused about what it means to act as
individuals and, at the same time, to be part of the body politic?
With all good will, people may say, “My conscience just won’t let
me vote for this or that person because I disagree with her so
strongly on … name your issue.” So they sit out the election
with a sense of political righteousness. In the end, the
candidate who wins the election is often much further from the
non-voter’s ideals than the candidate who offended their
conscience.
Democracy may be exhausting, messy, confusing, and fragile,
but it is truly our best hope. And we might take heart from legal
scholar Jedediah Purdy, who writes: “Although no formula can
make a polity democratic, there is one that goes a long way
toward doing so: the principle that everybody votes.” (from Two
Cheers for Politics: Why Democracy Is Flawed, Frightening —
and Our Best Hope)
Last November, in addressing his “beautiful Christians,” Donald
Trump asked for their vote this one time so that they would
never have to vote again! Das muß ich auf deutsch
wiederholen, sonst denken Sie, sie hätten sich verhört:
November letzten Jahres bat Donald Trump in einer Ansprache
an seine „wunderschönen Christen“ um ihre Stimme, damit sie
nie wieder wählen müssen!
In the up-coming election, what’s at stake has never been more
clear. It is the understanding that our government must work for
all of us, that we are equal under the law, and that the rule of
law, rather than the whims of one person or small group, must
prevail.
Trump wants to fire thousands of non-partisan civil servants and
replace them with loyalists. Trump will Tausende von
unparteiischen Beamten entlassen und durch Loyalisten
ersetzen. Trump speaks of retribution and intends to weaponize
the Justice Department to accomplish it. Trump spricht von
Vergeltung und beabsichtigt, sein Justizministerium
einzusetzen, um diese Vergeltung zu erreichen.
Trump said he did not want to be a dictator “except on Day
One.” Trump sagte, er wolle kein Diktator sein, außer am ersten
Tag.
We have learned that when wannabe dictators tell us what they
intend to do, we should believe them. Wenn Möchtegern-
Diktatoren uns sagen, was sie tun wollen, sollten wir ihnen
glauben.
The details of what Trump wants to do is presented in Project
2025, an ultra-rightwing plan for a second Trump administration.
You will hear all about it from our next speaker, Linda Weide.
— Ann Wertheimer, chair of American Voices Abroad Berlin
September 22, 2024, Hamburg rally to defend democracy
— WHERE TO FIND US: Our FIRST-THURSDAY-OF-THE-MONTH STAMMTISCH is on Thursday, October 3rd, at 7 pm. at Ristorante Pizzeria Roma, the oldest pizzeria in Berlin, Belzigerstr. 60 in Schöneberg. Check out their menu here: https://www.roma-berlin.de. Join us! There’s a lot to talk about.
