Hi, all, and happy Wednesday!
It’s a somber anniversary today, of course: ten years since Sandy Hook. Like most of you, I remember exactly where I was when news of this horrific event broke. My own child was three at the time, and it was impossible to imagine something so awful happening to children only a few years older than my own.
Had I known how much carnage would follow I wouldn’t have believed it possible.
But here we are. It’s easy to despair when we consider the glacial nature of progress since then. But we owe those kids—and every victim of gun violence since—more than despair. We owe them determination, courage, and persistence. And we have demonstrated all of those!
As a result, we HAVE made progress—especially recently:
Under Joe Biden’s watch Congress passed the first meaningful gun legislation in 30 years.
Democrats confirmed Steve Dettelbach as ATF Director — before this the NRA had blocked confirmation of a permanent Director since 2006.
White House support and generous funding has “turbocharged” community violence intervention efforts that have been underway locally for decades and that are known to be greatly effective in reducing gun violence.
Groups like Moms Demand Action, the Newton Alliance, Brady, and others are helping get strong gun laws passed in many states, and are gaining power in their national advocacy.
A majority of Americans now support common sense gun laws.
President Biden is vocally committed to getting an assault weapons ban passed.
While it’s not everything we want—by a long stretch—it’s movement in the right direction, and it’s picking up steam. So let’s celebrate the wins, and then get back to work creating more.
After all, that’s how we do it, right?
Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
[I know this is repetitive but this vote is today or tomorrow. PLEASE CALL AGAIN!]
I’m calling because I just heard that Senator Schumer is making another last ditch effort to get Manchin's Dirty Deal added to a bill that has to pass by the end of the year. I want the Senator to vote NO on any amendment that would advance this dirty permitting deal. I strongly oppose any legislation that would fast-track fossil fuel projects and undermine our ability to give input on new energy projects.
Also, on the ten-year anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook it seems fitting to say—again—that Congress needs to do much, much more on gun violence. An Assault Weapons ban is the obvious place to start. Please, in the memory of those beautiful children, pass S. 736, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2021, immediately. Thanks.
Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.
I’d like the Congressmember to co-sponsor and work to pass HR 8341, the Youth Voting Rights Act. This bill will protect young people from voter suppression measures and make sure they can be active and engaged citizens. It’s a no-brainer. Thanks.
[If a Democrat add:]
Also, Democrats must pass legislation to lift the debt ceiling before the 117th Congress adjourns. We must prevent MAGA Republicans from taking the US and global economy hostage in the 118th Congress. Thanks.
[If GOP add:]
Also, please ask the Congressmember to support the “Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act” (H.R. 8450). This bill would reauthorize federal child nutrition programs through Fiscal Year 2028. Thanks.
Extra Credit ✅
Let’s call Nancy Pelosi at (415) 556-4862 or (202) 225-4965 and say:
My name is_____ and I’m calling from _____. I’m calling Speaker Pelosi in her capacity as the Democrats’ leader in Congress to say Democrats must pass legislation to lift the debt ceiling before the 117th Congress adjourns. We must prevent MAGA Republicans from taking the US and global economy hostage in the 118th Congress. This needs to be a top priority. Thanks. [H/T]
Stop Disinfo and Hate Speech! 🛑
VERY exciting! A subscriber pointed me to a website that seems to be doing great work getting advertisers to drop platforms allowing hate speech. They even have a specific campaign focussed on Fox News. They’re called Check My Ads.
I signed up for their Fox-specific list yesterday, and I’ve already gotten my first excellent call to action (I’ll put it in Extra Credit tomorrow). Please consider signing up for the “Defund Fox” list here and/or for their main mailing list here. If anyone can help with the Twitter situation, it seems likely it’ll be them.
And thanks again to subscriber Kate O. for calling my attention to this great resource!
Spread the Word! 📣
[Did you hear Simon Rosenberg and Tom Bonier talk this AM about how important it is that we ALL become messengers for the party? 🤗]
STAT OF THE DAY
11 – President Biden has appointed, and Senate Democrats have confirmed, 11 Black women to serve as circuit court judges – more Black women appointed to the US Court of Appeals in this session of Congress than in all other sessions of Congress combined.
Win Races! 🗳
Thought we were done with elections for now? Not quite! There’s a flippable VA Senate seat special election on January 10! Here’s some great info about it from NOPE:
Aaron Rouse is a great candidate. He was a VA Tech football star and a former NFL player, he currently serves on the VA Beach City Council, and has widespread support. Republicans currently control the State Assembly and the governorship; Dems have a narrow 21-19 majority in the VA Senate. The district leans Democratic and is winnable. But winning depends on turnout in such an off-cycle, off-season election. So, here’s your chance to make a difference:
✅ Make Phone calls: You can make calls to voters every day from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. ET Sign up here. (I signed up for today and tomorrow).
✅ Write Postcards: Sign up here. (you’ll need to provide your own cards).
✅ Donate.
Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻
[to all 3 reps] [H/T] [Quick send: text SIGN PUZXLM to 50409]
I want Congress to immediately pass S. 872 / H.R. 2021 the Environmental Justice for All Act, the most significant effort by the federal government to address generations of environmental racism.
Environmental injustice is deeply rooted in American history. Black, brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities suffer vastly disproportionate impacts from climate change and environmental hazards. The EJ for All Act paves the way for remedying a long history of environmental harm and racism and ensuring fair treatment.
The EJ for All Act would enable frontline communities to hold polluters accountable in court for projects that use federal funds and engage in environmental discrimination. It contains bold policies that will strengthen the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to require federal agencies to consider the cumulative and disproportionate impacts of pollution on low-income communities and communities of color and would use new fees on oil, gas, and coal companies to fund investments in environmental justice communities.
Congress must pass the Environmental Justice for All Act and immediately begin to address generations of environmental racism! Thanks.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk soon.
Jess
I want to second! and third! and fourth! Check My Ads as an amazing organization that works to defund far right websites.
I’ve been writing emails, etc., for almost 2 yrs with them, making CEO’s of various companies aware their ads are appearing on websites, etc., that are supporting violent or far right viewpoints. Most of these advertisers never agreed to post their ads there, but because they give their ads to companies that distribute ads without oversight by the corporation, the corporation doesn’t always know where their ads end up. Once we let the corporation know, they pull their ads, and thus the funding behind them, helping to end the funds needed to keep the far right program on the air. It is such an easy thing for us all to do and has a profound effect on helping stop the spread of these destructive viewpoints. Please take some time to check them out at https://checkmyads.org and sign up to help out. Thanks so much.
Instead of attacking Manchin, I want to ask his help and the help of all those who voted for the Respect of Marriage Act to now support respect for citizenship: the Freedom to Vote: John R Lewis Voting Rights Act during the last 2 days of the lame duck congress. For shame to the Senators who don't exercise their powers under Article 1.4 and set a federal election code so IF, How, Where we vote are NOT determined by our zip code. Shameful that our own Senators don't have one person one vote and now 19 states and the Supreme Court are giving in to States' rights over federal civil rights. I think if the religious leaders speak to moderate Republicans as they did in the Respect for Marriage Act, we can get H.R 5746 passed this week. Can’t we get President Bush to speak out to his friends in the Senate? Won’t President Biden work again on Senators Manchin and Sinema. Danger invites this rescue as a national emergency.
H.R. 5746 is alive until the session ends and pressure should be brought to bear on Senator from Wyoming: Senator Lummis who voted for the Respect of Marriage Act because the local church members urged her to stand up for civil rights. Can't you get the Wyoming peoples to get on the phone to her and ask her to save the Native American Voting Rights Bill embedded in H.R. 5746 Section 9000.
Not only the black caucus, the ACLU, the LWV, the Native American Caucus want this to be passed. So do those who spoke out against Harper v Moore and Merrill v Mulligan. These are seriously troubling times for our democracy.
No one would countenance no Uniform Commercial Code. Now we need a Uniform Election Code so your zip code does not determine IF, when, how or where you may vote in any federal election.
Background:
Senator Lummis and 51 other Senators voted for the filibuster in January against H.R. 5746: The Freedom to Vote John R Lewis Voting Rights Act.
Change in circumstances:
In this October 2022 Term the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has taken up 2 significant voting rights cases which likely will further eviscerate the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ("VRA"):
Moore v Harper : By June 2023 SCOTUS is likely to grant North Carolina’s state legislature (and other states) power under Article 1.4 to determine times place and manners of elections even if held unconstitutional under the terms of North Carolina’s State Constitution, making state legislatures superior to the oversight of their State Supreme Courts.
Merrill v Mulligan : The Court is likely to support Alabama’s position that racial consideration in redistricting is impermissible, notwithstanding that eliminating the impact of racial segregation is an underlying purpose of the VRA. Keep in mind that the Roberts’ Court had no problem finding political gerrymandering by state legislatures to be constitutional in Rucho because it is not up to the Supreme Court to question the political decisions of an equal branch of government.
More facts to consider:
The Supreme Court has effectively ruled that unless Congress acts directly and specifically, voting rights shall be determined by individual state legislatures.
Already in 2016 SCOTUS refused to grant certiorari in Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) v. Husted thus upholding Ohio’s perfection rule allowing insignificant errors on the outside envelope of a provisional ballot to disqualify the vote of a properly registered voter - one was a blind 84 year old voter prohibited from voting, clearly a denial of the right to vote in contravention of the rights of disabled voters to be able to vote.
Senators know: Congress does have the power to set uniform national standards for times, places and manner of voting under the Constitution of the United States of America: Article 1.4 grants to each State Legislature the power to set the times, places and manner of holding elections for US Senators and Representatives, “but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations.....”
Congress has acted wisely and carefully when enacting and then amending 8 times, the VRA with the purpose: “No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure, shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color” which purposes were subsequently expanded to include national origin, disabilities, etc.
The VRA’s greatest early impact was in its pre-clearance requirement for federal court or Justice Department approval before jurisdictions that had historically discriminated could change voting rules, processes, or procedures. One result: By 1969, Mississippi’s Black voter registration rate increased to 59% from 6%.
Nonetheless the US Supreme Court has gutted and continues to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965:
● Citizens United v FEC (2010) removed Federal campaign restrictions on Corporations and Unions, unleashing unlimited and undisclosed (foreign) money into politics
● Shelby County v Holder (2013) held that the pre-clearance formula is unconstitutional. Impact: 1688 polling places CLOSED in previously covered States; 30 million voters purged from rolls; restrictive voting laws passed in many states.
● Rucho v Common Cause (2019) ruled that state laws permitting partisan (not racial) gerrymandering are “beyond the reach of the federal courts.”
● Brnovich v DNC (2021) upheld an Arizona law to stop people from collecting ballots to deliver to precincts, which disproportionately impacted indigenous peoples; and to stop counting ballots from people who voted in the wrong precinct.
The discriminatory impact of the Filibuster on Voting Rights:
The filibuster of voting rights is furthering racial and other forms of voter discrimination. States with large urban populations have disenfranchised voters of color, disabled voters, native Americans, homeless and young people.
Consider this: California has 39m voters and 2 Senators; yet the 5 least populous states have a total of 3.5m voters and 10 Senators AND the filibuster. Thus, if subject to the filibuster, it takes 60 votes to pass significant civil rights/voting legislation benefiting all American voters, a super majority.
When it comes to passing voting rights, isn’t it ironic that voting rights advocates are asking the Senate to pass a federal standard for voting to ensure 1 person 1 vote and every vote counted, yet the Senate itself does not have 1 Senator 1 vote when it comes to voting on civil rights.
I urge you to stand up and fight for H.R.5746 – a federal uniform set of laws to ensure
Uniform laws setting times, places and manner of voting:
paper ballots for all voters to ensure post-election audits and accuracy
preventing the horrific 3 hours in line to vote in Georgia just on Friday by reducing to a maximum of 30 minutes the waiting time in line to vote, early voting, no excuse vote by mail,
franking of the vote by mail envelope,
adequate funding for the mandates of H.R. 5746,
a national holiday for election day,
nonpartisan independent redistricting commissions in every state,
no foreign money in our elections through clean money provisions,
the Native American Voting Rights Act and reinstating the preclearance provisions of the John R Lewis Act with defined standards thus ending the impacts of Shelby, Rucho, NEOCH and Brnovich.
Thus our zip code will no longer control if, when and how we vote.
H.R. 5746 will not be repassed by the new Congress on January 2023.
Please do your duty and end the filibuster of H.R. 5746 this week: debate and vote on the Freedom to Vote: John R Lewis Voting Rights Act.
Thank you
Alice Schaffer Smith
Executive Director
National Voter Corps
www.nationalvotercorps.org
nvcsteeringcommittee@gmail.com
a non profit project under the Social Good Fund