Chop Wood, Carry Water 3/7

The light of the other half

Hi, all, and happy Thursday.

Lots to say. First, of course, is “good morning.” I hope you’re all hanging in there. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling exhausted and a bit emotionally sapped—it’s only natural after the week we’ve had. Actually the month—heck, the seven years. Contending with the darkness to which half of our country has succumbed is difficult, indeed. I have moments where I find it utterly heartbreaking.

But then I remember all of you. The light of the other half! And I find my hope again.

Now. Speaking of that “half of the country,” one of my readers, who’s a stellar activist himself, wrote me yesterday to take me to task for blaming Trump voters’ choices on “stupidity or greed.” He went on to say:

A lot of the Republicans I talk to believe that Democrats are arrogant elitists who look down on them.  Your statement that all Trump followers are stupid and greedy only affirms that they are often right about that, and it encourages our activists to have that kind of unhelpful attitude.  

This year, we have a golden chance to win over a significant slice of Republicans who have doubts about Trump or dislike him.  There are a lot of those folks, as evidenced by the vote totals of Haley. I would encourage you to read two articles I wrote that were published in The Grassroots Connector, Why Talk to Republicans and How to Talk to Republicans.

Republicans are human beings who can be reached with respectful conversations.  If we talk to Republicans in the right way, we can win over enough of them to significantly improve Biden's chance of winning. 

He’s right, of course. I regret my choice of words yesterday. I tend to speak bluntly, but in this case my bluntness spilled over into unhelpful and belittling caricature, and I’m sorry for it.

Anyway, I highly recommend you read Stephen’s two articles—they’re well worth the five minutes it’ll take you. Trying to persuade Trump voters is not something I’m likely to take on, but it’s good to know that others are rising to the challenge. If you’re up to it Stephen’s articles offer excellent tools for success.

Finally, I want to circle back on the question of whether or not to bring Israel/Hamas actions back to the newsletter. I must confess I’m a bit confounded. 80% of you said yes, but only 600 people (of 22K who opened the newsletter) took the poll. I’m not sure what to make of it.

I will say this, though: I spent hours yesterday fielding emails from readers worried I was going to oversimplify the situation, use harmful tropes, or approach it with a lack of historical context. These are very real and justified fears from valued members of this community and, although I think I have spoken to them repeatedly here, not everyone reads every newsletter.

I feel required, then, to respond to each of these letters at length. And herein lies the problem: I don’t have a staff; it’s just me. I’m behind on everything, my inbox has become a source of inordinate stress, and I simply can’t add more to the pile. So for now I’m going to keep these calls to action in the other newsletter—please sign up if you want to receive actions related to Israel and Hamas, as well as other international crises.

I’m sorry if this choice upsets some of you. There’s no perfect way to approach this situation—I’m simply trying to find the one that does the least harm—and keeps me down to a six day workweek.

I’ll close with a bit of (relatively) good news: the New York Times Editorial Board published a strongly worded piece yesterday outlining the threats today’s Republican party poses. It doesn’t mince words about the dangers of the Trump-led movement they’ve become. Someone sent me a gift link—you can use it, too. It’s not enough, and it doesn’t mitigate the Times’s one-sided, utterly unfair coverage of Biden, but it’s something, and I suspect your many, many letters to them had something to do with it. So thanks for that.

OK, folks. Let’s not forget Frederick Douglass’s timeless admonition: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” It’s hard right now, but that doesn’t mean we’re not moving forward, or that we can’t. We can, we are, we will, and we must.

Sending hugs and gratitude, always so much gratitude, to be in this fight with you.

P.S. — In yesterday’s email I referred to the Republican gubernatorial candidate from North Carolina as Mark Johnson. I erred. His name is actually Mark Robinson (learn more about him at the link. Oy.)

Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲

Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.

I’m horrified that the Kennedy amendment got included in the appropriations package that Congress passed this week. It’s a terrible, dangerous gun policy; these shouldn’t be getting snuck through in must-pass bills. This amendment will put veterans and their families at risk. Is the Senator aware that 17 veterans kill themselves every day in this country, and 75% of those deaths are by firearm? Making it easier for veterans with known mental health conditions to access firearms is just wrong.

This Congress must act urgently to address the gun violence crisis, unique among the world's nations, that currently convulses the U.S. The Kennedy amendment does the opposite and I’m furious about it. Please ask the Senator to do everything they can to counteract the harm this amendment will do. Thanks.

Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲

Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.

I’m horrified that the Kennedy amendment got included in the appropriations package that Congress passed this week. It’s a terrible, dangerous gun policy; these shouldn’t be getting snuck through in must-pass bills. This amendment will put veterans and their families at risk. Is the Congressmember aware that 17 veterans kill themselves every day in this country, and 75% of those deaths are by firearm? Making it easier for veterans with known mental health conditions to access firearms is just deadly.

This Congress must act urgently to address the gun violence crisis, unique among the world's nations, that currently convulses the U.S. The Kennedy amendment does the opposite and I’m furious about it. Please ask the Congressmember to do everything they can to counteract the harm this amendment will do. Thanks.

Extra Credit ✅

No Labels (the GOP front group) is forging ahead with their plan to put a candidate on the ballot in Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and other battleground states. Needless to say, this is bad. No Labels’ plan is to force a contingent election, which would then be decided in the House.

They are expected to vote tomorrow in favor of launching a presidential campaign for this fall’s election.

So let’s write them today, before the vote. Share this ask with everyone you know. Maybe thousands of emails begging them to cease and desist will make an impact. Their email address is info@nolabels.org

We can say something like this—but please, please personalize:

I’m writing as a concerned American to ask No Labels to immediately end their effort to run a Presidential candidate in Nevada, North Carolina, Florida, and other battleground states.

If your group runs a third party candidate it will succeed in one thing and one thing only: throwing the election to Donald Trump and ending the American experiment as we know it. This will be catastrophic for our democracy, the fight to contain the climate crisis, our efforts to stop the gun violence epidemic, for reproductive freedom, for LGBTQ Americans’ civil rights, for immigrants…I could go on.

Can you live with destroying democracy in America? With fueling violence and autocracy? With bringing so much harm to so many millions of people—many of them children? I hope not. Please end this dangerous, destructive, even nihilistic undertaking now, before it’s too late.

Thanks,

[Name]

[City, State]

Get Smart! 📚

The folks at Just Security have a new tool for tracking the promises, plans, and proposals of a Trump II presidency. It’s not happy reading, but it’s terribly helpful to have all of his threats (actually, promises) in one place with links and citations.

Share widely, please.

Spread the Word! 📣

President Biden Delivers Remarks at the 2024 State of the Union 
Thursday, March 7th at 9:00 PM ET

Watch Live Here

Here are some helpful links for you to share. The fact sheets contain more information about announcements he’s going to make tonight.

The White House Announces Guest List for the First Lady’s Box for the 2024 State of the Union Address

FACT SHEET: President Biden Is Fighting to Reduce the Deficit, Cut Taxes for Working Families, and Invest in America by Making Big Corporations and the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share

FACT SHEET: President Biden Takes New Steps to Lower Prescription Drug and Health Care Costs, Expand Access to Health Care, and Protect Consumers | The White House

FACT SHEET: President Biden Is Taking Action to Lower Costs for Families and Fight Corporate Rip-Offs

FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Continues the Fight for Reproductive Freedom

Give 💰!

Please join the Environmental Voter Project on Tuesday, March 12 at 8pm ET for an in-depth data briefing and fundraiser to support the Environmental Voter Project's voter mobilization work in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania is this year's largest swing state, and EVP is eager to run their most robust campaign there ever. Crucially, they also need sufficient funding to begin speaking with their targeted voters before their April 23 state primary, so this needs to be a really successful fundraiser.

Please RSVP here for the log-in credentials. You're welcome to donate ahead of time here.

Win Races—Postcard! ✍🏼

Blue Wave Postcards has a new campaign into Pennsylvania!

For this new campaign, they are asking voters to register and sign up for mail-in voting, as newly registered voters are much more likely to cast their ballots if they can do so from the comfort of their own homes.

Can you help? You do have to pay for their cards but once you receive them the rest is quite easy—they have a short message and come with address labels! I just ordered 2000 for my postcarding hub.

>> Order postcard kits here <<

Win Races—Write Letters! 📝

Whoo! The first Vote Forward campaigns just dropped:

They’re writing into eight states - AZ, GA, MI, NV, NH, NC, PA and WI. There are two campaigns for each state - Social and Political - see write up here.

If you aren't an approved writer yet go here. If you’ve written for Vote Forward already sign up for your letters here.

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

[To: all 3 reps] [H/T

Alan Unell Ph.D.

more in his article here] [Text SIGN PIPRCO to Resistbot at 50409 or via Apple Messages / WHATSAPP / MESSENGER]

I am your constituent and I want you to know that there is a bill in Congress that I STRONGLY urge you to vote against. It is H.R.7513 - “To prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services from finalizing a proposed rule regarding minimum staffing for nursing facilities, and to establish an advisory panel on the skilled nursing facility workforce”. 

It would prohibit the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from implementing a rule that would set safe staffing levels in nursing homes. A major study found that when when staffing levels drop, such as when private equity purchases a nursing home, death rate goes up by 10%. These are people dying before their time. Here is a link to that study, https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w28474/w28474.pdf from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Please do not let this bill pass because it will kill people.

While I have your attention please note that we also need safe nursing staff levels and I would appreciate you passing H.R. 2530/S. 1113, Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2023.

PS Those safe staffing standards for nursing are also in H.R. 3421 the vastly improved Medicare for All Act.

Thank you for helping to save lives.

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

Talk soon.

Jess