Hey there, everyone. I just sent this email to Matt. My work informing and mobilizing my circles happens over Faceboook and Twitter rather than here, but I know this is a forum that really cares. I want us all to rise up in this time as effectively and loudly as possible.
Surely we can put together something that Matt can distribute in the daily emails. Like I say at the end - what’s this even for, if we don’t do what matters when it matters?
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Hey there.
First, thank you so much for all the work you do. I’m able to focus more on local issues because I know you’ll sum up what’s happening at the federal level.
Now to the issue. Summing up, we have ~40 days until the election. Trump is actively working to turn the United States into a fascist monument to himself. The Republicans are busy with myriad forms of voter suppression, including planning to leverage faithless electors. And they are openly planning to stack the Supreme Court ASAP with a Trump loyalist who will grant him the Presidency in a contested election.
We quite literally do not have the time for our representatives to under-react to the threat. In my opinion, we urgently need to mobilize every reader we can and every circle they can reach.
- Contact our reps at every level, whether Municipal or State, and demand they use every level of power at their disposal. If there was ever a time in the lives of our representatives to pull out every obscure obstructionist rule and break every norm to wield their systemic power for good, NOW is the time.
-States where this is relevant need to quickly draft, and pass, legislation that requires their electors to vote with the will of the people - as decided after every single vote is counted.
-We need more polling places in Black and brown neighborhoods, ASAP.
-We are already seeing early voter intimidation, with Trump supporters blocking entrance to voting locations.
-And more. I want to get this email out tonight, you know the issues I’m talking about here.
- Protest. Nonviolence doesn’t mean we can’t be loud, angry, and impossible to ignore. Public pressure is one of the few things that has a chance to bend the levers of power. All who can be need to be out on the streets yesterday. All who can’t be there physically, we need their help behind the scenes organizing and planning protests. We camp in front of city councils, in front of state legislatures, in front of every elected who claims to be worried about Trump but is dragging their feet on concrete action to counter his actions.
I volunteer myself to help draft script(s) to our representatives. If you know someone else who wants to do it, awesome, get on it. But however it happens, I want to mobilize this engaged, informed community to as much specific, targeted action as possible.
If not now, when? What’s this even for?
Far better to overreact and find in January that it wasn’t necessary, than to be overly timid because we couldn’t imagine how desperately we needed to act.