Chop Wood, Carry Water 1/2

Hi, all, and happy first Monday of a new year!

This will be a wee fragment of a newsletter, as today is still a holiday for many. I mostly want to welcome you to another year of activism—woot!—drop a couple of small and, in one case, time-sensitive actions, and remind us all of one critically important fact:

There are no “off years” in a struggling democracy.

What we achieved in 2022 was amazing. Brilliant. Shocking. What we must achieve this year will be more remarkable still. For we must either continue to build on the momentum of our victories or risk losing our hard-won advantage. That, we cannot do.

Because the battle for the future of our country is not over. Not by a long shot.

So while it feels like 2023 should be easier and quieter—and perhaps it shall be—it will still be an extremely significant year. A momentous year. A seed planting and ground tilling year. In some ways, even, a harvest year.

For in it we have hugely important elections in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The start of a momentous Presidential election. A vicious and poisoned Republican party to knock back. Judicial confirmations. Union struggles. Climate battles. A debt ceiling fight that could fatally injure Social Security and Medicare.

We have 5 million young people to register to vote.

We have a stellar President to both support and push, and Democratic accomplishments to amplify.

Our future, in short, and the future of our democracy, will rest as much on what we do this year as on what we did in 2022.

I guess what I’m asking is for you not to leave me now. I so understand the desire to take time off, but your country still needs you. I need you. I promise to make your daily actions manageable. They shouldn’t require much effort.

But collectively they will get us far.

So please, stay. Recruit a friend if you can. We’ve come so far, and proven ourselves to be a formidable and disciplined fighting force.

We are positioned to win the war. The only way we fail is by resting on our laurels now instead of doubling down.

Let’s do the latter.

Get Smart! 📚

Here’s an informative recap of how so many of us got bamboozled by the skewed midterm polls: The ‘Red Wave’ Washout: How Skewed Polls Fed a False Election Narrative. It repeatedly cites Simon Rosenberg and Tom Bonier. Fascinating and mildly enraging. Let’s never let this happen again.

Win Races! 🗳

VERY LAST MINUTE OPPORTUNITY!

From Postcards to Virginia:

We suddenly have the opportunity to flip VA House District 24 due to the recent passing of Republican Delegate Ronnie Campbell. The election process to fill this now vacant seat is moving at lightning speed. 

Former Town Council and Vice Mayor Jade Harris was nominated as the Democratic candidate for this seat last week. The election is on January 10th!

We only have 1 day left to write and mail postcards to spread the word about the Special Election and tell the community that Jade Harris is running for this seat. You must have your postcards in the mail by the end of today, January 2nd.

Click here for addresses. (You will need to provide your own postcards, and create a login to get your addresses and the script. Even if you can write 3 cards you’ll be helping.)

Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻

[To President Biden] [H/T Alan Unell] [Quick send: text SIGN PLGMPA to 50409]

We all deserve quality, transparent healthcare. Please issue an executive order to stop the Medicare ACO-REACH Program and protect Medicare from corporate raiding. 

ACO-REACH will pay middlemen a flat fee to “manage” seniors’ health, allowing them to keep 40% of what they don’t spend on care as profit and overhead. The ACO-REACH payment model establishes a dangerous incentive for middlemen to restrict patient care, an incentive that has never previously existed in traditional Medicare.  Americans deserve better and you can do it!!  Thank you.

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OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.

Talk tomorrow.

Jess