Chop Wood, Carry Water 9/15
Hi, all. Happy Friday!
And happy Rosh Hashanah to those celebrating the Jewish New Year this weekend! Shana Tova!
I’m off to the Youth Climate Strike in Downtown L.A. today so I have to get this newsletter out quickly.
I did, though, first want to tell you a story.
I phonebanked into Kentucky yesterday with SURJ. It was my first time doing one of their phonebanks; what a great experience! They encourage more of a deep canvassing type of call— you’re not just trying to find out whether the voter will support a candidate—in this case Andy Beshear—you’re asking them questions about their life and their vision for their state.
I was skeptical that people would want to talk to me at that depth, but I was wrong! I had some lovely, fascinating conversations, and at the very least everyone I spoke to was polite.
But my most notable, gutting conversation was with Julie.
Julie is a 43 year old woman. She told me at the start of our conversation that she’d given no thought to the upcoming election at all.
In SURJ’s script you’re supposed to ask undecided voters an open ended question about what’s important to them, so I did. And Julie just opened up. She told me she was a server in a restaurant—in fact she had stepped out of that restaurant to take my call. She worked 7 days a week—seven days!—owned her home in a “really run-down neighborhood,” and hadn’t been to see a doctor in ten years.
TEN YEARS! No doctor of any kind. At all.
I asked why in a horrified voice. She said:
“I know. It’s awful. But I make $2 an hour. I can’t afford to.”
She told me her credit had been wrecked by an unexpected medical bill a decade ago, and that she’d “never make that mistake again.” When I asked why she didn’t get on Medicaid she said:
“People abuse that system. I don’t want to be one of them.'“
She went on to say that she didn’t feel good—she was sure she had something wrong with her. She even asserted, sadly, that she’d likely die before her time. But she continued to insist that she couldn’t get on Medicaid because she’d feel like she was abusing it.
I did my best to urge her to reconsider her position before—maddeningly—our call got disconnected. I’m not sure if I succeeded, although she seemed open to it. “You’re very sweet,” she kept saying. As if my telling her that she deserved basic healthcare was “sweet” and not just common sense!
Here’s the point: Republicans have made a fifty year project of convincing voters that accepting any help from public programs is a sign of weakness and dishonesty. And they’ve done it so they could justify cutting programs people need, all so they could pay lower taxes and enrich themselves. It’s a giant scam, and it’s been wildly successful.
Julie, and millions like her, are suffering because of it.
That’s why you and I are going to fight like hell for change. Because I refuse to accept a country that allows any of what Julie described to be the status quo. I’ll bet you do, too.
Americans deserve a living wage. We deserve affordable healthcare. We deserve a decent work/life balance. We deserve support from our government.
We deserve lawmakers who believe the same.
And by God we will get them. I’m so glad you’re here. We need you.
P.S. — Oh, and congratulations to subscriber, Indivisible member, and all around amazing activist Aftyn Behn for winning her Nashville statehouse seat yesterday! the Tennessee Three is now the Tennessee Four! Woot! Thanks to everyone who chipped in to help her achieve victory!
Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
I understand that House republicans are coming after IRS funding in the appropriations bills, and I want to say that I find this angering and baffling. That funding is being used extremely successfully to upgrade the IRS’s old equipment, hire badly needed staff, and audit rich tax cheats. In fact I just learned that for every one dollar the IRS is spending they are now bringing in six. Their customer service has greatly improved, too. May I ask why we would cut funding that is creating jobs, making the IRS work more efficiently, earning the government money and lowering the deficit? Assuming there is no good answer I trust the Senator will oppose any cuts to IRS funding. Thanks.
Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.
I’m very worried about the upcoming childcare cliff and want the Congressmember to co-sponsor the brand new Childcare Stabilization Act. It doesn’t have a number yet, but Rep. Bobby Scott is the author. It would prevent a potential crisis when funding expires at the end of the month by providing $16 billion in mandatory funding each year for the next five years to continue the successful Child Care Stabilization Grant program. Will the Congressmember sign on? We’re looking at a childcare catastrophe if this bill doesn’t pass. Thanks.
Get Smart! 📚
Here’s some new climate polling I thought you’d be interested in:
Americans are largely unfamiliar with the concept of “climate justice,” but support the goals of climate justice and key climate justice policies when they learn about them [Release, Full Report]
Halted EPA and FDA site inspections rank among voters’ greatest concerns about a federal government shutdown [Article, Crosstabs]
Majorities of Americans say that climate change is caused by humans and contributing to recent extreme weather events [Release, Report + Crosstabs]
Climate and the environment are top issues for young Americans in the 2024 elections [Article, Website, Full Report]
Chop Wood, Save the Planet! 🔥
Swapping 50 percent of the world’s beef, chicken, pork, and milk consumption with plant-based alternatives by 2050 could lead to a 31 percent reduction in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study published this week in Nature Communications. Read more about it here. Then please share!
Give 💰!
Y’all, if you can, please donate to my Virginia Giving Circle for the States Project! I’m trying to raise 20K for them. I have 9K more to go! We need the money to help our candidates NOW! Early voting starts next week!
If you want to know why giving to the States Project via a Giving Circle is the best use of your donor money watch this.
Win Races! 🗳
Our pivotal New Hampshire statehouse election is on Tuesday of next week—I’ve been phonebanking for Hal Rafter every Tuesday for at least a month now and I’m cautiously optimistic we can win. Please join us for a final GOTV phonebank on Monday—remember, last time he ran Hal lost by only 25 votes. Let’s not let that happen again, especially when the balance of power in the NH statehouse is at stake!
Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻
[H/T Alan Unell] [Text SIGN PSZDOB to Resistbot at 50409 or via Apple Messages / WHATSAPP / MESSENGER ]
I am your constituent and and I want you to support and pass the Freedom to Decide Act (H.Con.Res.33). It would codify the current Justice Department policy that access to medication abortion is legal and the Comstock Act does not apply. When you have the opportunity please repeal the Comstock Act too. Thank you.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk soon.
Jess
If you read Nancy MacLean's book, "Democracy In Chains," (and it's not an easy read, but worth the slow going), you will find the narrative pushed by the right: the "makers" (the rich who create jobs) and the "takers" (those who get anything from the government, including Medicare and Social Security, let alone Medicaid or SNAP). The GOP causes their voters to suffer unnecessarily, because they also push a racist narrative here, that those who "take" are people of color...remember Ronald Reagan's "welfare queen?" Those who "make" jobs are, of course, rich white men. Thank you, Jessica, for making those calls, and trying to help that woman, and us all!
WAIT!!! Two 🤬ing dollars an hour?!?!? And she doesn't want to get on Medicaid for fear of abusing it? Hopefully, she understood from you that she's actually the one being abused. Onward... BTW, thanks for sharing - woke my blood pressure up.