Chop Wood, Carry Water 5/19

Hi, all, and happy Friday!

Yesterday evening I attended a SURJ online webinar called “Our 3 Year Strategy to Block MAGA and Build Our Movement.” Maybe some of you also attended—there were 900 people on the call!

I hopped on at the end of a long workday, and had to listen while simultaneously driving to the refill store, doing my shopping, and then picking up dinner.

Distractions notwithstanding, I found myself riveted and profoundly moved by the presentation. If you missed the call, you can—and should—watch the recording here. While it was sobering to learn more about the ways that authoritarianism and white supremacy are making inroads in our country, SURJ offered an evidence-based, concrete, and achievable plan for fighting it. The general tone of the call was both purposeful and buoyant. I finished feeling a renewed sense of joy, both for being on the right side of this battle and for having such stellar human beings on every side of me.

Between this and the Blue Tennessee event the day before I am feeling extremely optimistic for our prospects, particularly in the South. While the challenges we face are grave, the love, cohesiveness, and creativity with which groups like SURJ are meeting them is inspiring. At the same time the right wing seems to be losing its humanity millions on our side are digging deeper into theirs, embracing common needs, leveraging love, growing community. It’s deeply heartening.

And y’all, this is not just feel-good stuff. I’m convinced that it’s also how we win.

The news is a lonely place. But these calls, at which so many extraordinary and diverse Americans come together to conspire for the health of our country—are the opposite. I encourage you to attend as many such events—let’s call them “hope-raisers”— as you can. I truly believe exposure to such is medicinal.

But it’s also tactical. Hope makes us stronger humans, more nimble thinkers, and better fighters.

So let’s seek out hope wherever we can find it, while also taking action to make more!

Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲

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

I know that Sen. Bernie Sanders re-introduced a Medicare for All bill in the U.S. Senate. It would create a single-payer national health insurance program to provide everyone in America with comprehensive health care coverage. Will the Senator be signing on as a co-sponsor? [If yes thank and express support. If no or unsure add:] The United States is virtually the only rich country on Earth whose people are subject to the whims and greed of a private, for-profit health care regime. It’s a national disgrace. We can do better and we must. Please co-sponsor this bill now. Thanks.

Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲

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

I know that Representatives Jayapal and Dingell just reintroduced a Medicare for All bill in the U.S. House. It would create a single-payer national health insurance program to provide everyone in America with comprehensive health care coverage. Will the Congressmember be signing on as a co-sponsor? [If yes thank and express support. If no or unsure add:] The United States is virtually the only rich country on Earth whose people are subject to the whims and greed of a private, for-profit health care regime. It’s a national disgrace. We can do better and we must. Please co-sponsor this bill now. Thanks.

Also, we need to pay the debts Congress already voted to incur. No more debt ceiling shenanigans. Raise it now, no strings attached, and especially no work requirements. These have been tried and they don’t work! Thanks.

Extra Credit ✅

Let’s help a survivor of sexual trafficking and domestic violence. No matter where we live, let’s contact CA Governor Newsom, either by phone at (916) 445-2841 or by contact form here (select “Clemency – Pardon” as the topic).

Say:

I’m contacting you from [STATE] in solidarity with Ms. Marisela Andrade (CDCR#WA7304, A#074-816-783), a survivor of sexual trafficking and domestic violence. Ms. Andrade was approved for parole in 2021 but was transferred directly to ICE custody, before finally winning release in March. I urge you to pardon Ms. Andrade so that she may continue her quest for asylum and remain safely in the U.S. with her children.

You can also sign this CCWP petition.

[H/T Americans of Conscience]

Get Smart! 📚

Want to learn more about gerrymandering? Join the Union virtually on Thursday, May 25th from 8 to 9p.m. ET for an engaging discussion of gerrymandering and its impact on our country, our states, and our districts. You’ll learn what you can do to combat gerrymandering in your community and beyond.

The special guest will be filmmaker Robert Millman, whose film “Line in the Street” documents the fight over gerrymandering in Pennsylvania.

Partisan Gerrymandering Conversation w/ Robert Millman
Thursday, May 25, 8 – 9pm EDT. Register here.

Spread the Word! 📣

Two positive things to amplify!

Wall Street Journal: Job Prospects for Black Workers Have Never Been Better—In Ways That Might Last

USA Today: Exclusive: Biden administration unveils initiative to combat homelessness in 5 US cities, California

Win Races! 🗳

As part of their partnership with the National Women's Political Caucus of Virginia, Postcards 4 VA is writing to women voters in VA about two female State Senate candidates running in the June primaries. They are: Lashrecse Aird and Louise Lucas. These women are both stellar candidates running against terrible incumbent Democrats—one of whom is vocally anti-abortion.

These postcards need to be mailed by June 5. Can you help?

If you’ve never written for Postcards 4 VA get started here.

If you have written for them before you can find more information about former Delegate Lashrecse Aird's campaign and preview the script and instructions HERE. For more information about Senator Louise Lucas' campaign and to preview the script and instructions, CLICK HERE.

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

[to all 3 reps] [H/T] [Quick send: text SIGN PBZBLK to 50409 or share here.

Americans For Tax Fairness just issued a distressing new report revealing that billionaires pumped over a billion dollars into the 2022 elections, nearly 75 percent higher than the last midterm campaign and 300 times more than billionaires spent just a dozen years ago. One out of every nine dollars in total political contributions from every source came from fewer than 500 billionaires.  

Billionaire campaign contributions have exploded since 2010 because of the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision that year allowing unlimited donations to outside groups trying to influence elections. Billionaires also have plenty of money to invest in politics: their combined net worth increased by over half (58%) to a staggering $4.7 trillion during the roughly three years of the pandemic alone. That explosive wealth growth was thanks in part to a tax code that ignores big parts of their income, allowing them more free capital to finance elections or buy influence with Supreme Court Justices. ATF in its report urges a combination of tighter campaign finance rules and tax reforms on the rich to curb the outsized influence of billionaires on our political system. 

David Kass, ATF’s executive director, states: “There are well-known solutions to the problem, including overturning Citizens United and effectively taxing the biggest sources of billionaire wealth, which now often go lightly taxed if at all. Those tax reforms include President Biden’s Billionaire Minimum Income Tax; taxing wealth like work by equalizing the top tax rate on investment and wage income; and closing the stepped-up basis loophole that allows investment gains to go untaxed forever. All that’s needed is for Congress to heed the call of the American people to unrig a corrupt system.”

Will you? Because this situation is untenable for a functioning democracy. Thanks.

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

Talk soon.

Jess