Lawmakers today are jockeying before tomorrow’s test vote in the Senate on S1, the For the People Act. This is a sweeping bill that protects the right to vote, ends partisan gerrymandering, limits the influence of money in politics, and establishes new ethics rules for presidents and other federal officeholders.
Heather, you should write a rebuttal to the WSJ op ed you wrote about. WSJ readers sure could use a history lesson! Thx for doing what you do… your blog gives me hope that we will yet succeed in fixing the System!
URGENT: Subscribers -- INDIVISIBLE -- the grassroots organization that helped defeat -- you know who -- and kept the Affordable Care Act alive wants you -- FOR THE PEOPLE ACT. The battle won't be over tomorrow. DEMOCRACY IS UP TO YOU. Contact the link below:
'We’ve got to make this July recess (June 28th - July 10th) big. We’re encouraging local activists to begin planning their visible, public, press-worthy events now to tell Senators—Democrats and Republicans alike—that the American people are showing up to demand a democracy that works for all the people and that we need them to act urgently on the For the People Act, no excuses.'
As we follow the money, it is as important to support corporations proactively taking a stand in favor of voting rights as is it to boycott corporations staying complicit with new laws for voter suppression and overturning elections.
70+ companies signed a letter urging the Senate to pass the S1 For The People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA). Signers include @patagonia, @NHL, @tumblr, @AtlantaDream and more.
Add your voice! Call your Senators at the Senate Switchboard 202-224-3121 and demand they pass the #ForThePeopleAct #S1. (Call Monday-Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm ET, since their voicemails get full quickly. And no, it’s not a waste of time because their staff track the number of Ay versus Nay calls.)
Thank you, Heather. I admire the effort it must take for you to write with such apparent equanimity about how increasingly fragile and fraying the fabric of our democracy is.
Democracy is not a spectator sport. All those “political nobodies” that Mike Solon and Bill Greene pretend to care about better get involved if they want to keep this representative democracy. Or democratic republic, whatever expression suits you. In the words of Jim Wright, aka Stonekettle Station, "If you want a better nation, be a better citizen."
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! Today's Letter is a call. Many here are already responding with their actions. The Department of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is holding a full committee hearing for "Examining DC Statehood." Hearing starts at 10:00 a.m., to be held in the Senate Dirksen Building, with video conference. Here's a great plan: Give DC statehood!
Mike Solon and Bill Greene have spent too much time in the stratosphere of their ivory towers. Their brains must be starved of oxygen to pen such an arrogant, boneheaded op-ed in a national newspaper. This is the kind of paternal, elitist rhetoric that is usually spoken in hushed tones behind closed doors, not shouted from the town square. Time to take our gardening gloves off and start disrupting the status quo. We will not be dismissed.
On my score sheet, I have to rate this as one of your best, most timely, and informative.
Last week, Rand Paul, with his normal lack of awareness, made the statements below. I point this out because of the direct relationship between the mind of the slavers of a hundred and seventy years ago and the GOP legislators of today. It is very disturbing to see how Paul openly identified democracy and the constitution as a problem, and as the source of Jim Crow laws. Chances are that his target audience never knew it was wrong and anti-American.
“The idea of democracy and majority rule really is what goes against our history and what the country stands for,” Paul said. “The Jim Crow laws came out of democracy. That’s what you get when a majority ignores the rights of others.”
Sen. Rand Paul, Ky.
Rep. Justin Hill, Mo., in March, rationalized his opposition to the Medicaid expansion in remarkable terms:
“Even though my constituents voted for this lie, I’m going to protect them,” he said. “I am proud to stand against the will of the people.”
That is astonishing.
According to Rand Paul, this is how the system is supposed to work.
I see two possible reasons that Republican voters would return such people to represent them in Congress. First, they are totally disconnected from reality. Second, they are quite aware of the intention of the GOP to destroy our republic and support them in their effort.
Finally, I want to thank you for an excellent article and for posting all the sources.
"There are signs that the Democrats are preparing for an epic battle over this bill. " Good. Great. Fantastic. Awesome. Wonderful. It's about time. Godspeed. May the force be with you. You go guys. Hotdamn. Don't give up.
Today (June 22) two events occurred that had effects that are still felt today. (Including the topic of HCR's post here):
80 years ago, Adolf Hitler signed his own death warrant when he sent his armies east, invading the Soviet Union. There are very few things - in fact this may be the only one - that I agree with Vladimir Putin about, but he's right that we in the West disrespect the absolutely crucial, major contribution to eventual victory made by the Soviet Union. 80 percent of *all deaths in World War II* happened on the Eastern Front; More Soviet soldiers died at Stalingrad than all US casualties in the war. Had Stalin not honored his agreement to begin the 1944 summer offensive within 72 hours of the Allied landings at Normandy, the Normandy invasion would have failed when the Germans could bring all their resources to bear to oppose it; instead, they fought for their lives over the rest of the year over on the Eastern front. And despite what you have been told all your lives, the A-bombs didn't end World War II. The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, begun 90 days after the defeat of Germany, as Stalin had promised at Tehran in 1943 and reaffirmed at Yalta in 1945, was the determining event. That's because the Japanese had no defenses in Manchuria or northern Japan, having put all their effort into opposing an American invasion of Kyushu (which they might have accomplished). They knew the Soviets could conquer Hokkaido and Honshu before the US invasion happened. Of course, they told us the bombs worked because it made us responsible to them for defense, and allowed them to become the Ultimate Victims rather than the perpetrators of the Pacific War. Everything that has happened politically around the world in the 80 years since Hitler's invasion was the result of that act. (Including all the external acts and internal responses of the US to world events that led to the creation of the modern Republican Party).
The other event that happened today might not seem as momentous as the above, but it is: 77 years ago, FDR signed the Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill of Rights. The result of that was the creation of the American middle class, transformed society by the development of the single-family social unit (allowing people who couldn't have done so before to buy homes of their own), transformed American higher education, and created the world the readers of this blog grew up in. And in so doing stimulated the politics in this country in the 77 years since.
In both events, like all other Major Historical Events, the people involved with them at the time would be the most surprised to see their results down the timestream.
Good day! You know what, HCR? Methinks that occasional day off unplugged and featuring a miles long kayak stroll that is good for the soul also fired up all cylinders. Today’s letter sizzlin’ like bacon on the griddle.
Thank you for your precise, soulful, and hair raising inspiration. Your pen is truly a sword of a gift.
How utterly maddening and sad, that, due to an orchestrated attempt by the GOP and their man child Trump to change the subject, yet again, we are now focused on the very basic and essential fundamental aspect of this country—the quality of our democracy. How clever to stoke fear into our hearts over voting, the heartbeat of our nation, while so many, so many, issues (they hope will) languish. Don't lose the forest for the trees Dems! You can multitask. It's important. Stay focused. Keep your eyes on the prize. Tackle all the things that need tackling, including, now (thank you Trump), voting and our precious democracy. Don't let the ugly GOP steer you off course.
this is the essence of our dilemma. Do we allow ordinary people to "meddle" in the details of policy, or just restrict them to agreeing with our domination and suppression of their humanity?
A powerful letter today! Some of us were commenting about this very thing here a few days ago. The vast majority of Americans are barely keeping their noses above water as they tread as hard and fast as possible. 163 years ago that's the way Hammond said it should be and so it still is. How desperate the gop must now be to maintain the status quo that they've put Solon and Greene to the task of trying to scare us into complacency, rather than lull us back to it as is their usual M.O.! Of course the reality is that we political nobodies (t-shirts, anyone?) have already been doing the heavy lifting of "rallying, canvassing, picketing, lobbying, protesting, texting, posting, parading and, above all, shouting” for decades but, thanks to the www and SM the efforts of organizers, much of it's so much easier and less time consuming than it used to be for the PNs to register their opinions. People on here like Ellie Kona, Mary Pat, Diane, and others who provide us links and talking points save us so much time by sending us right where we need to go. Many, many thanks! This PN bows down to you.
OMG! “If they knew the tremendous secret, that the ballot-box is stronger than ‘an army with banners,’... where would you be? Your society would be reconstructed, your government overthrown, your property, divided, not… with arms in their hands, but by the quiet process of the ballot-box.” And the Republican base was upset by being called “deplorable”?
I wish this was banner headline all over the country.
Heather, you should write a rebuttal to the WSJ op ed you wrote about. WSJ readers sure could use a history lesson! Thx for doing what you do… your blog gives me hope that we will yet succeed in fixing the System!
URGENT: Subscribers -- INDIVISIBLE -- the grassroots organization that helped defeat -- you know who -- and kept the Affordable Care Act alive wants you -- FOR THE PEOPLE ACT. The battle won't be over tomorrow. DEMOCRACY IS UP TO YOU. Contact the link below:
https://deadlinefordemocracy.org/?source=website
Take Action
'We’ve got to make this July recess (June 28th - July 10th) big. We’re encouraging local activists to begin planning their visible, public, press-worthy events now to tell Senators—Democrats and Republicans alike—that the American people are showing up to demand a democracy that works for all the people and that we need them to act urgently on the For the People Act, no excuses.'
This is our time to make a difference.
https://indivisible.org/
As we follow the money, it is as important to support corporations proactively taking a stand in favor of voting rights as is it to boycott corporations staying complicit with new laws for voter suppression and overturning elections.
70+ companies signed a letter urging the Senate to pass the S1 For The People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA). Signers include @patagonia, @NHL, @tumblr, @AtlantaDream and more.
Add your voice! Call your Senators at the Senate Switchboard 202-224-3121 and demand they pass the #ForThePeopleAct #S1. (Call Monday-Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm ET, since their voicemails get full quickly. And no, it’s not a waste of time because their staff track the number of Ay versus Nay calls.)
https://www.democracydocket.com/2021/06/70-companies-urge-the-senate-to-pass-the-for-the-people-act/
(Amplifying message from Kathleen on More Perfect Democracy.)
Thank you, Heather. I admire the effort it must take for you to write with such apparent equanimity about how increasingly fragile and fraying the fabric of our democracy is.
Democracy is not a spectator sport. All those “political nobodies” that Mike Solon and Bill Greene pretend to care about better get involved if they want to keep this representative democracy. Or democratic republic, whatever expression suits you. In the words of Jim Wright, aka Stonekettle Station, "If you want a better nation, be a better citizen."
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! Today's Letter is a call. Many here are already responding with their actions. The Department of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is holding a full committee hearing for "Examining DC Statehood." Hearing starts at 10:00 a.m., to be held in the Senate Dirksen Building, with video conference. Here's a great plan: Give DC statehood!
https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/hearings/examining-dc-statehood
Mike Solon and Bill Greene have spent too much time in the stratosphere of their ivory towers. Their brains must be starved of oxygen to pen such an arrogant, boneheaded op-ed in a national newspaper. This is the kind of paternal, elitist rhetoric that is usually spoken in hushed tones behind closed doors, not shouted from the town square. Time to take our gardening gloves off and start disrupting the status quo. We will not be dismissed.
On my score sheet, I have to rate this as one of your best, most timely, and informative.
Last week, Rand Paul, with his normal lack of awareness, made the statements below. I point this out because of the direct relationship between the mind of the slavers of a hundred and seventy years ago and the GOP legislators of today. It is very disturbing to see how Paul openly identified democracy and the constitution as a problem, and as the source of Jim Crow laws. Chances are that his target audience never knew it was wrong and anti-American.
“The idea of democracy and majority rule really is what goes against our history and what the country stands for,” Paul said. “The Jim Crow laws came out of democracy. That’s what you get when a majority ignores the rights of others.”
Sen. Rand Paul, Ky.
Rep. Justin Hill, Mo., in March, rationalized his opposition to the Medicaid expansion in remarkable terms:
“Even though my constituents voted for this lie, I’m going to protect them,” he said. “I am proud to stand against the will of the people.”
That is astonishing.
According to Rand Paul, this is how the system is supposed to work.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rand-paul-offers-an-accidentally-useful-jim-crow-analogy-in-rationalizing-his-party-s-illiberal-shift/ar-AAL1OUz?ocid=msedgntp
I see two possible reasons that Republican voters would return such people to represent them in Congress. First, they are totally disconnected from reality. Second, they are quite aware of the intention of the GOP to destroy our republic and support them in their effort.
Finally, I want to thank you for an excellent article and for posting all the sources.
"There are signs that the Democrats are preparing for an epic battle over this bill. " Good. Great. Fantastic. Awesome. Wonderful. It's about time. Godspeed. May the force be with you. You go guys. Hotdamn. Don't give up.
Today (June 22) two events occurred that had effects that are still felt today. (Including the topic of HCR's post here):
80 years ago, Adolf Hitler signed his own death warrant when he sent his armies east, invading the Soviet Union. There are very few things - in fact this may be the only one - that I agree with Vladimir Putin about, but he's right that we in the West disrespect the absolutely crucial, major contribution to eventual victory made by the Soviet Union. 80 percent of *all deaths in World War II* happened on the Eastern Front; More Soviet soldiers died at Stalingrad than all US casualties in the war. Had Stalin not honored his agreement to begin the 1944 summer offensive within 72 hours of the Allied landings at Normandy, the Normandy invasion would have failed when the Germans could bring all their resources to bear to oppose it; instead, they fought for their lives over the rest of the year over on the Eastern front. And despite what you have been told all your lives, the A-bombs didn't end World War II. The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, begun 90 days after the defeat of Germany, as Stalin had promised at Tehran in 1943 and reaffirmed at Yalta in 1945, was the determining event. That's because the Japanese had no defenses in Manchuria or northern Japan, having put all their effort into opposing an American invasion of Kyushu (which they might have accomplished). They knew the Soviets could conquer Hokkaido and Honshu before the US invasion happened. Of course, they told us the bombs worked because it made us responsible to them for defense, and allowed them to become the Ultimate Victims rather than the perpetrators of the Pacific War. Everything that has happened politically around the world in the 80 years since Hitler's invasion was the result of that act. (Including all the external acts and internal responses of the US to world events that led to the creation of the modern Republican Party).
The other event that happened today might not seem as momentous as the above, but it is: 77 years ago, FDR signed the Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill of Rights. The result of that was the creation of the American middle class, transformed society by the development of the single-family social unit (allowing people who couldn't have done so before to buy homes of their own), transformed American higher education, and created the world the readers of this blog grew up in. And in so doing stimulated the politics in this country in the 77 years since.
In both events, like all other Major Historical Events, the people involved with them at the time would be the most surprised to see their results down the timestream.
Good day! You know what, HCR? Methinks that occasional day off unplugged and featuring a miles long kayak stroll that is good for the soul also fired up all cylinders. Today’s letter sizzlin’ like bacon on the griddle.
Thank you for your precise, soulful, and hair raising inspiration. Your pen is truly a sword of a gift.
Write on! 💯💜✅
HCR at her best; making a point with spot-on historical comparisons illustrating just what is at stake here and how we got here.
I agree with Chet Lyons that a WSJ OpEd rebuttal is called for; at least a letter, making the same points HCR made in today's letter.
How utterly maddening and sad, that, due to an orchestrated attempt by the GOP and their man child Trump to change the subject, yet again, we are now focused on the very basic and essential fundamental aspect of this country—the quality of our democracy. How clever to stoke fear into our hearts over voting, the heartbeat of our nation, while so many, so many, issues (they hope will) languish. Don't lose the forest for the trees Dems! You can multitask. It's important. Stay focused. Keep your eyes on the prize. Tackle all the things that need tackling, including, now (thank you Trump), voting and our precious democracy. Don't let the ugly GOP steer you off course.
this is the essence of our dilemma. Do we allow ordinary people to "meddle" in the details of policy, or just restrict them to agreeing with our domination and suppression of their humanity?
A powerful letter today! Some of us were commenting about this very thing here a few days ago. The vast majority of Americans are barely keeping their noses above water as they tread as hard and fast as possible. 163 years ago that's the way Hammond said it should be and so it still is. How desperate the gop must now be to maintain the status quo that they've put Solon and Greene to the task of trying to scare us into complacency, rather than lull us back to it as is their usual M.O.! Of course the reality is that we political nobodies (t-shirts, anyone?) have already been doing the heavy lifting of "rallying, canvassing, picketing, lobbying, protesting, texting, posting, parading and, above all, shouting” for decades but, thanks to the www and SM the efforts of organizers, much of it's so much easier and less time consuming than it used to be for the PNs to register their opinions. People on here like Ellie Kona, Mary Pat, Diane, and others who provide us links and talking points save us so much time by sending us right where we need to go. Many, many thanks! This PN bows down to you.
OMG! “If they knew the tremendous secret, that the ballot-box is stronger than ‘an army with banners,’... where would you be? Your society would be reconstructed, your government overthrown, your property, divided, not… with arms in their hands, but by the quiet process of the ballot-box.” And the Republican base was upset by being called “deplorable”?
I wish this was banner headline all over the country.