Chop Wood, Carry Water 12/12
To bear this worthily
Hi, all, and happy Tuesday!
As always, there’s a lot going on, and most of it is, at minimum, troubling. Very well. We are here to meet it all as bravely as we can. And doesn’t that make us lucky?
Marcus Aurelios thinks so. He wrote:
Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, 'This is a misfortune' but 'To bear this worthily is good fortune.'
Let us bear this moment worthily, folks. It’s all we can do.
And no one is better suited to it than you.
Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
I am furious that the government is standing between women and their doctors. The Texas Supreme Court just decided that even if a woman’s life and fertility are in danger from a high complication pregnancy she can’t access abortion care in her state.
How many women have to suffer before Congress takes action? One is more than enough. Congress needs to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act and restore the right to abortion healthcare nationwide NOW. Thank you. [H/T]
Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.
I’m calling because I strongly oppose the impeachment inquiry into President Biden. There are so many other issues that the House should be focusing on, like lowering health care costs and helping everyday Americans stand up to corporate power. I urge the Congressmember to vote against this partisan impeachment and get back to work on issues that really matter to the people in our district.
One more thing: please pass funding for Ukraine before year’s end. It’s critically important and I’m deeply frustrated that Congress hasn’t done it.
Extra Credit ✅
If you have a Republican House rep please take a moment to send them a letter opposing Biden’s impeachment using Indivisible’s easy tool. You can customize it before sending and I highly recommend you do. Please share this tool with everyone you know who lives in a swingy GOP district.
Get Smart! 📚
Are you interested in all things Supreme Court?
Please join United For Democracy for their next, monthly SCOTUS Coordinating Call on Wednesday, December 20 at 12:30 pm ET. Technically these calls are for organizations working on court reform, but you can put Chop Wood Carry Water down as your org and attend.
Closed captioning will be provided.
Spread the Word! 📣
Indivisible wrote up excellent messaging guidance on Republicans’ impeachment efforts. If you’re going to be talking to anyone about this situation please read it before you do. Very, very helpful.
They’ve also got a letter to the editor tool. Check it out here!
Give 💰!
Last week I ran into a neighbor who told me that this year in lieu of presents she is giving all of her “politically anxious” friends donations to organizations that’ll help us win next year. She then asked me which ones I recommended. I offered to email her my answer. Now that I have it all written out, with explanations for why I chose the three orgs I did and links to donate, I thought I’d share it with you.
So here it is in case you want to send it on to others. Nudge nudge.
Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻
Sorry! No Resistbot letter today!
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk soon.
Jess
Thanks for the Indivisible heads up, Jess. I used their letter as a starting point and sent the following to my Congressman, Jeff Van Drew, who famously (infamously?) switched from D to R and declared his allegiance to the Defendant. Below is what I wrote, in case anyone wants to use the things I added (but unless their rep is Van Drew, they should remove "recently adopted" from the end of the second paragraph).
*************
Dear Congressman Van Drew,
I'm fed up with the shameless political games being played by you and your fellow House Republicans with the Biden impeachment inquiry. It’s nothing but a desperate attempt to damage the President, all to divert attention away from your own lack of accomplishment and the well-founded criminal charges looming over former President Trump.
Instead of focusing on the real issues that impact our communities or finally passing a budget, you’re helping Speaker Johnson attack President Biden despite a total lack of evidence to support moving forward. It’s empty and spiteful politics, all being done to help Trump win in 2024. Instead of embracing the old tenets of the GOP (smaller government, law and order, military supremacy, free markets, individual freedom, etc.), you've abandoned them in pursuit of power, if not for yourself, then for your recently adopted party.
How do we know the impeachment inquiry is empty? Because even your fellow Republicans have said so. After almost a year of hearings and reviewing tens of thousands of pages of documents, Rep. Comer has been unable to come up with a single shred of evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, either while in office or as a private citizen, and embarrasses himself and others every time he opens his mouth.
The voters in our district deserve better. We want the focus to be on real progress: reducing costs, strengthening our economy, protecting programs like Medicare and Social Security that we’ve paid into for decades, and supporting our allies who stand between us and our enemies — not endless theatrics and fake hearings.
Don't get me wrong. If there is any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden or anyone else in government, I fully support an appropriate investigation. An impeachment inquiry, without a shred of evidence of impropriety, is abuse of power, pure and simple.
It's time for you to stop putting party loyalty and fealty to a criminal mastermind ahead of the needs of our district. Your voters want to end this empty impeachment and instead focus on the issues that truly matter – otherwise, we’re going to hold you accountable at the ballot box in 2024.
**************
I realize this is already too long, but it reminded me of a piece I wrote back in July, during the bygone era of Kevin McCarthy, "When the Dais Becomes a Stage." The timeframes have changed, and at least one player, but that's about it.
https://open.substack.com/pub/bobmorgan/p/when-the-dais-becomes-a-stage
Thank you, Jessica for picking up the abortion action from Healthcare Advocacy. I so appreciate your writing. PS we really were very thankful for this past Sunday's good news. We needed it! Be well......Voki and Alan