You could also convert cars by putting harder valve seats in, not sure if this happened a lot at the time, or whether it’s more for classic cars that are worth enough to make sense to do. I don’t think the lead was primarily an anti knock additive, more of a valve and bore lubricant
I’m not in the US, so maybe I’m wrong on this, but I would imagine trump has pushed a lot of people who would have voted republican into non voters. These would be the group I would be having conversations with, trying to convince them that voting democrat is a bigger protest than abstaining, and to do anything else is to risk an anti democratic felon becoming president.