Chop Wood, Carry Water 7/10
Our mandate is clear
Hi, all, and happy Wednesday!
I’m still a bit wobbly, so I am continuing to bring you shortened newsletters this week—I am hearing your imprecations to not overdo it and trying to heed them!
I did want to say one thing, though:
Someone in the comments yesterday voiced disappointment that I wasn’t expressing more support for Joe Biden in this newsletter. So let me be clear: I stand staunchly with my President. I think he’s the right man for the job, and I am with him as long as he chooses to stay in this race. I think President Biden had one bad, awful, dreadful night, borne out of exhaustion and nerves, but is largely still the man I so deeply admire. I think what he’s done for this country is staggering. I think he’d bring the same remarkable administration he has now into a second term and that, God forbid he should become unable to serve during that term, we’d be guaranteed a strong, youthful, qualified successor in Vice President Harris.
If it were up to me the conversation would end there. If we were Republicans, I might add, it would never have started.
Having said all of that, I am extremely aware that many feel differently. And while those who feel as I do may be right, the “other side” may be right, too!
It is because of this uncertainty, and because there are strong feelings on both sides, and because there are no easy answers, and because I refuse to get bogged down in things I can’t control—not because I am disloyal to Joe Biden—that I am not litigating this question in this newsletter. It will accomplish nothing.
Meanwhile, so much needs doing, and it needs doing now—regardless of who’s at the top of the ticket.
We will have a presidential candidate. It will be a strong Democrat. It will very likely be President Biden. It may not.
Either way, my mandate is not to divide us by insisting that things must play out one way or the other in order for me to be invested. My mandate is to underscore that we must be invested regardless. We do not have the luxury of picking teams right now, except for one: Team Democracy, Freedom, and Survival.
If you care to join me on this team, let’s get to work.
Extra Credit ✅
My subscriber Hardin M. sent me the below video, saying:
This latest "Illustrate to Educate" from Dan Zimmermann is the most concise, insightful deconstruction of Project 2025. I’ve been sending it to everyone!
I have to agree—it’s 7-8 minutes long but if you can take the length it is an EXCELLENT, easy-to-understand distillation of Project 2025.
Your “Extra Credit” assignment? Simply watch and share!
Get Smart! 📚
I’m moderating another event next week with the folks at the Climate Action Now app! Please come (and please download and use the app if you haven’t).
The U.S. Farm Bill is our last big opportunity for federal climate legislation in the foreseeable future. The U.S. will spend $648 billion on farm subsidies, loans, and more, compared with $369 billion on energy and climate change in the Inflation Reduction Act.
But passage of this critical legislation before the end of the year is increasingly uncertain with serious negative consequences, and conservative legislators are trying to use the Farm Bill to preempt local pesticide regulations, significantly reduce Food Stamps funding for the poor, remove climate guardrails from conservation programs, and redirect Inflation Reduction Act funding to programs favored by Big Ag.
In this Action Party, Farm Bill experts will unpack which actions have the greatest impact and why it is critical for all of us to advocate for them. Then we’ll take some actions together—it’ll be easy and fun!
Date: Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Time: 4 pm PT / 7 pm ET
Location: Zoom, registration required
Spread the Word! 📣
This new Navigator polling memo on Project 2025 is fascinating, informative, and deeply helpful from a messaging standpoint. It discusses elements of Project 2025 about which even I wasn’t aware, so from a pure talking point standpoint it’s incredibly helpful. But it also reminds us both that Americans remain largely unaware of Project 2025 and that when you tell them the specific policies that are in it they are, almost without exception, wildly opposed to it.
Especially fascinating is the fact that “non-MAGA Republicans” (mostly white, non-college-educated women) are among the groups that hate Project 2025’s proposals once they learn about them.
This is a potent, potent messaging tool for us, folks. Please, read the memo, learn the talking points, and then get this information out there! We can bring voters—even a few non-MAGA Republicans and the famous “Double Haters”— over to our side simply by educating them about what Trump’s plans are. Let’s do that!
Give 💰!
Reminder this is happening later today!
Be part of “A Rising Force for Good” fundraiser for Blue CD2 New Mexico with Jessica Craven and Robert Hubbell - Wednesday, July 10, 5 pm Pacific/8 pm Eastern. We’ll hear from Jessica and Robert, whose newsletters inspire tens of thousands with their optimism, gumption and defiance in the face of authoritarianism, as they headline a presentation of BlueCD2 New Mexico’s work to save democracy, one reluctant voter at a time. We’ll drill down on the importance of reaching young, low-propensity voters in a rural swing district, and how Blue CD2 New Mexico brought 7000 of these voters to the polls in 2022.
Blue CD2 NM’s mission is to help Representative Gabe Vasquez hold this seat and to build Democratic infrastructure in an historically red district. Gabe is a progressive Democrat who won New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District from MAGA Yvette Herrell in 2022 by just 1,346 votes. We’ll share the methods we used to register new Democrats and motivate reluctant, disengaged voters. We’ll touch on how critical holding this seat is to flipping the house, why we need to double our impact this November, and how you can help by donating and volunteering for our postcard and texting teams. This is a free zoom event. Donations are encouraged.
Click to register for “A Rising Force for Good”.
Win Races! 🗳
Postcard to help get out the vote in Central Milwaukee to win Wisconsin!
From the folks at Be A Voter 2024:
To win in Wisconsin we need to get out the Democratic vote in central Milwaukee. Help us do that with our postcard and poster campaign:” Be A Milwaukee Voter 2024!”
A major part of the Democratic vote in Wisconsin is in central Milwaukee, but getting out the vote there is challenging.
In 2020 we used letters, emails, phone calls, and posters to get out the vote in central Milwaukee. We estimated that this increased the Biden Harris vote by around 11,000 votes when the margin of victory in Wisconsin was a little more than 20,000 votes.
This year we are upping our game, planning to contact by postcard every voter in the central wards, not once as in 2020, but twice, once with an issues postcard, and once with a get out the vote postcard.
These postcards have custom artwork that has been very popular. The “hard” information is printed on the card, with a section reserved for a personal note from the volunteer.
We need your help reaching all these voters. So far we have sent out first round issue postcards for 35,000 of the 82,000 voters in central Milwaukee. Then in October we will follow up with the get out the vote postcards.
To order postcards and addresses you can use this Google form https://forms.gle/9MacxqjLrwfBbH9R8 or email us at beavoter2024@gmail.com with name, address, email and number of cards in 50 card increments. You can also get further information on our website www.beavoter2024.com
I ordered 2,000. Who’s with me?
Chop Wood, Save the Planet 🔥
This is an absolute must-read:
Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻
[To: all 3 reps ] [H/T] [Text SIGN PBAYVU to Resistbot at 50409 or via Apple Messages / WHATSAPP / MESSENGER]
I am writing about the importance of protecting and strengthening the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). SNAP provides many of our neighbors with vital food benefits to purchase groceries from food retailers. It serves people of all ages, staves off hunger, and promotes well-being.
The House Agriculture Committee’s Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024, proposes cuts to SNAP of nearly $30 billion over 10 years according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The bill restricts future efforts to adjust SNAP benefits to reflect costs and to allow SNAP participants to use benefits in ways that meet their cultural, dietary, and health needs, undermining their autonomy. This large cut in future SNAP benefits would impact every SNAP participant, resulting in families losing millions in future SNAP benefits in every state across the country.
Food insecurity happens in every single Congressional District in the country. The average benefit of SNAP is $6 per person, per day. And for every $1 invested, it generates between $1.50 and $1.80 of economic activity.
SNAP is not only our most effective anti-hunger program, it plays a crucial role in helping to reduce poverty, improves health and economic outcomes, is linked to better education outcomes and self-sufficiency, and plays an important role in rural communities.
Instead of supporting proposals that cut future food assistance, please work with colleagues to strengthen and protect SNAP. I urge you to oppose any Farm Bill — including the House Agriculture Committee’s Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 — which proposes cuts to future SNAP benefits and allows states to outsource administrative functions currently required to be performed by public sector merit employees. We’re counting on you to pass a bold and equitable Farm Bill that protects and strengthens SNAP and the commodity assistance programs that support families here and across the country.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk soon.
Jess
Jessica, Love your well stated position on our need to move forward and do the work regardless of who ends up at the top of the Democratic ticket. We absolutely must hold the Senate and re-take the House. In fact, this becomes even more imperative should we fail to keep the White House. If that happens, Congress will be our last defense against tyranny. Let's all get to work doing everything within our power to get the Trifecta we need to have any hope of securing our democracy for future generations.
I will vote and campaign for Elmer Fudd, if that's who the Dems nominate. My opinion doesn't matter. My vote does, and I will use it and everything else I can contribute to make sure that TFG doesn't win. That's all that matters in this moment.