Day 368, Quasi-Quarantine: The Urgent, Country-Altering Message Of "Our Time Is Now"

"The contours and tactics of voter suppression have changed since the days of Jim Crow, Black Codes, or suffragettes, but the mission remains steady and immovable: keep power concentrated in the hands of the few by disenfranchising the votes of the undesirable."

Serving as her own voting rights tornado, Stacey Abrams is inarguably one of the most important American citizens of recent years. And honestly, when you project her contributions globally, she should be a bonafide candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In "Our Time is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America," she painstakingly outlines a blueprint of how to ensure democratic voices are heard and counted. Just as importantly, she broaches the topic of how to rescue our country from what the Republican party has become.

"We must also anticipate the next populist leader's emergence, which means we must strengthen our democratic institutions, we must fortify our voting rights with permanent fixes in law and the constitution, and we have to live our values and hold leaders accountable when they fail to behave."

Serving as much as a history book as a political action plan, her work details both the centuries-old struggle to live up to the ideal of democratic participation and the hard work that lies ahead to retain and build upon small steps of progress. 

"Social movements rise, force change, and achieve gains; however, until the movement's leaders can embed those wins into law and lawmakers, the successes are temporary."

The book can be dense and the subheads can strike too much of a light-hearted chord, but "Our Time is Now" should be required reading. The issues that Abrams underscores are alternately inspiring and infuriating.

"For forty years, a conservative juggernaut of ideology and special interests has eroded trust in government, defunded the capacity of our institutions, and undermined people's belief in science as an independent, reliable tool for fact-finding."

Abrams describes the "New American Majority" and explores the concept of micro-choices and how they add up to broader policies. Bringing the book home, she also explores the underlying the urgency of our times, the fragility of our institutions -- and the requirement of our involvement.

"Voter suppression works its might by first tripping and causing to stumble the unwanted voter, then by convincing those who see the obstacle course to forfeit the race without even starting to run."