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"I believe that humanity is meant to thrive and flourish, and that doesn't happen without context. And the arts and the humanities? They are our vessel for context." - LeVar Burton

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Did You Know?

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Together again 💔💔💔

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#VoteBlue http://dlvr.it/TBny01

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Why the 2024 elections won't be stolen

Things have certainly taken a turn for the positive lately in the political world. Democrats are casually raising nine figures of donations a week, over and over. Polls, for whatever they're worth, have gone from grim to great at the top of the ticket. Recent elections have shown Democratic priorities winning big in swing states, rejecting GOP-authored Constitutional amendments by 15 points in Wisconsin just last week. Everything is suddenly pointing to some major wins.

So, needless to say, we need a new reason to panic. And that's been "None of this matters, because Trump and his allies are going to just steal the election!"

Let's break this down, just as the title says:

Why the 2024 elections won't be stolen:

The short answer is that every tactic being floated was already tried in 2020 - when Trump was in office, when Republicans had more control over election certification in swing states, when the same six conservative Supreme Court Justices were on the Court, and when Trump had his people in the Department of Justice. They all failed.

Let's take a closer look at some of the more panic-inducing theories:

"Republicans will refuse to certify the election results!" If that happens, states have ways of forcing them to certify. Rogue officials can be ordered to certify by the courts, face fines or prison time for refusing to certify, and even be removed from office. Notice how in these stories, election deniers talk a good game about overturning results until they're staring down potential prison time.  See pg. 8-9 of this document for more examples - the whole document outlines effective legal remedies for refusals to certify quite well.

"Republicans will use the courts to overturn the election!" No, they won't.  Republicans filed 62 lawsuits challenging the results of the 2020 elections, and lost every last one. They got one temporary victory in Pennsylvania that was ultimately overturned by the State Supreme Court (and, fun fact, that judge was defeated when she ran for PA Supreme Court in 2023. Voters don't like this stuff). What's more, since 2020, Democrats have gained control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, the Michigan Supreme Court, the Pennsylvania Superior Court, the Arizona Secretary of State's and Attorney General's offices, and the Nevada Secretary of State's office. And that's before we get to the 205 (and counting!) federal judges appointed by Joe Biden. Trump's going to have to win these lawsuits with a much less friendly bunch of officials in charge.

"Trump's Supreme Court will just hand him the election!" See above. The same six conservative judges were on the Court in 2020, and they tossed every one of his lawsuits. Now Trump's not the incumbent and doesn't have the resources of the Department of Justice at his fingertips, either.

"Republicans will use Congress to overthrow the election results!"  I'd like to introduce you to the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022. This expedites any lawsuits around certifying the election in case local officials want to gum up the system, clarifies that courts have the power to overrule attempted steals by corrupt Governors, and limits the grounds that the House and Senate can use to throw out results. It's much harder than before - and if we can win the House and Senate, it'll be impossible.

"But I heard Georgia's elections board is going to ruin everything!" I'll leave aside the fact that Dems can win the House, Senate, and Presidency without Georgia for a moment, and point out that actually, they won't ruin everything. They might claim irregularities in the results and try to gum up the certification process - so we take them to court and make them certify. Using that expedited process in the Electoral Count Act of 2022, of course, and federal judges who are used to dealing with this nonsense from 2020. They might suppress the vote through closing polling places and purging voter registrations - well, they've done that for decades, and we still beat them in 2020 and 2022. The big theme of this is that when it comes to voter suppression, you can beat it by getting out the vote. We've got lawyers who are ready for nonsense.

Why your posts and comments about it are the real problem:

If people think their vote isn't going to count, why would they bother voting? They certainly won't canvass or phonebank, things we need to do if we're going to win. People won't take part, or give it their all, if they think it's all for nothing.  If enough of our voters get discouraged and don't vote, or don't encourage others, Trump won't have to steal anything - he'll just win. And that'll trickle down to other important races. I can already say I've had to talk people out of dropping phonebank shifts because of fears that races will just be stolen.

There's nothing average people can do. That doesn't mean there's no solution - Kamala Harris and the DNC have hired an enormous, seasoned legal team to fight attempts to steal the election. But if you're not one of those lawyers, you can't do much to help. And people know that. So it makes them feel hopeless and check out in general.

Dealing with misinformation takes time. I'll refrain from making cracks about the length of this post and simply say that I'd rather be sharing how to register to vote, or how to volunteer for candidates in swing districts. The only thing you can't get back in politics is time, and we'd all rather spend that time on making sure we win.

"Just sharing information" and "I feel anxious about this" aren't valid reasons to post this stuff. Period. Your 'information' does nothing except make people less likely to vote or volunteer, and you're not going to help your anxiety by posting - in fact, you're going to spin yourself up even more, and drag others down with you. The solution for political anxiety is a) talking to a mental health professional who's qualified to help you, and b) taking action. Political anxiety comes from a lack of agency over something important, like an election. But you do have agency and can help win. Not by posting, not by making snappy comments online, but by talking to voters and helping Democrats win. If you're worried that your vote will be stolen, read this post again. It won't. But if we lose, it won't matter.

Feel free to share this post anywhere. We can win - not just for President, but also the Senate, the House, state government, local offices, and ballot measures. We can build a better America together, and the GOP can't steal it from us. It's our effort, our hope, and our strength that can win any election, and bring about the world we want to live in. Shake off the lies, and use the next eleven weeks to work for democracy, together.

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Teachers with guns is not the answer

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❤️🤍💙❤️🤍💙

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(CNN) — Last month, Russell Vought sat in a five-star Washington, DC, hotel suite, bowing his head in prayer with two men he thought were relatives of a wealthy conservative donor.

Vought, one of the key authors of Project 2025, a right-wing blueprint for a second Trump term, expected the meeting would help his think tank secure a substantial contribution. For nearly two hours, he talked candidly about his behind-the-scenes work to prepare policy for former President Donald Trump, his expansive views on presidential power, his plans to restrict pornography and immigration, and his complaints that the GOP was too focused on “religious liberty” instead of “Christian nation-ism.”

But the men Vought was talking to actually worked for a British journalism nonprofit and were secretly recording him the entire time.

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Steve Brodner

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

July 24, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUL 25, 2024

Tonight, President Joe Biden explained to the American people why he decided to refuse the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination and hand the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Speaking from the Oval Office from his seat behind the Resolute Desk, a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880, Biden recalled the nation’s history. He invoked Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence; George Washington, who “showed us presidents are not kings”; Abraham Lincoln, who “implored us to reject malice”; and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who “inspired us to reject fear.”

And then he turned to himself. “I revere this office, but I love my country more,” he said. “It’s been the honor of my life to serve as your president.” But, he said, the defense of democracy is more important than any title, and democracy is “larger than any one of us.” We must unite to protect it. 

“In recent weeks, it has become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor,” he said. “I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition. So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation.”

There is “a time and a place for long years of experience in public life,” Biden said. “There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.”

Biden reminded listeners that he is not leaving the presidency and will be continuing to use its power for the American people. In outlining what that means, he summed up his presidency. 

For the next six months, he said, he will “continue to lower costs for hard-working families [and] grow our economy. I will keep defending our personal freedoms and civil rights, from the right to vote to the right to choose. I will keep calling out hate and extremism, making it clear there is…no place in America for political violence or any violence ever, period. I’m going to keep speaking out to protect our kids from gun violence [and] our planet from [the] climate crisis.”

Biden reiterated his support for his Cancer Moonshot to end cancer—a personal cause for him since the 2015 death of his son Beau from brain cancer—and says he will fight for it, (although House Republicans have recently slashed funding for the program). He said he will call for reforming the Supreme Court “because this is critical to our democracy.”

He promised to continue “working to ensure America remains strong, secure and the leader of the free world,” and pointed out that he is “the first president of this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world.” He promised to continue rallying a coalition of nations to stop Putin’s attempt to take over Ukraine, and vowed to continue to build the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He reminded listeners that when he took office, the conventional wisdom was that China would inevitably surpass the United States, but that is no longer the case, and he said he would continue to strengthen allies and partners in the Pacific. 

Biden promised to continue to work to “end the war in Gaza, bring home all the hostages and bring peace and security to the Middle East and end this war,” as well as “to bring home Americans being unjustly detained all around the world.”

The president reminded people how far the nation has come since he took office on January 20, 2021, a day when, although he didn’t mention it tonight, he went directly to work after taking the oath of office. “On that day,” he recalled, “we…stood in a winter of peril and winter of possibilities.” The United States was “in the grip of the worst pandemic in the century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.” But, Biden said, “We came together as Americans. We got through it. We emerged stronger, more prosperous and more secure.”

“Today we have the strongest economy in the world, creating nearly 16 million new jobs—a record. Wages are up, inflation continues to come down, the racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years. We are literally rebuilding our entire nation—urban, suburban and rural and tribal communities. Manufacturing has come back to America. We are leading the world again in chips and science and innovation. We finally beat Big Pharma after all these years to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors…. More people have health care today in America than ever before.” Biden noted that he signed the PACT Act to help millions of veterans and their families who were exposed to toxic materials, as well as the “most significant climate law…in the history of the world” and “the first major gun safety law in 30 years.”

The “violent crime rate is at a 50-year low,” he said, and “[b]order crossings are lower today than when the previous administration left office. I’ve kept my commitment to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court of the United States of America. I also kept my commitment to have an administration that looks like America and [to] be a president for all Americans.”

Then Biden turned from his own record to the larger meaning of America.

“I ran for president four years ago because I believed…that the soul of America was at stake,” he said. “America is an idea. An idea stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, more powerful than any dictator or tyrant. It’s the most powerful idea in the history of the world.” 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” he said. “We are all created equal, endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. We’ve never fully lived up to…this sacred idea—but we’ve never walked away from it either. And I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.

“In just a few months, the American people will choose the course of America’s future. I made my choice…. “[O]ur great vice president, Kamala Harris… is experienced, she is tough, she is capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country.

“Now the choice is up to you, the American people. When you make that choice, remember the words of Benjamin Franklin hanging on my wall here in the Oval Office, alongside the busts of Dr. [Martin Luther] King and Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez. When Ben Franklin was asked, as he emerged from the [constitutional] convention…, whether the founders [had] given America a monarchy or a republic, Franklin’s response was: ‘A republic, if you can keep it.’... Whether we keep our republic is now in your hands.” 

“My fellow Americans, it’s been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years,” President Biden told the American people. “Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and in Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as the president of the United States, but here I am.

“That’s what’s so special about America. We are a nation of promise and possibilities. Of dreamers and doers. Of ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things. I’ve given my heart and my soul to our nation, like so many others. And I’ve been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people. I hope you have some idea how grateful I am to all of you.

The great thing about America is, here kings and dictators do not rule—the people do. History is in your hands. The power’s in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. You just have to keep faith—keep the faith—and remember who we are. We are the United States of America, and there is simply nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together. So let’s act together, [and] preserve our democracy. God bless you all and may God protect our troops. 

“Thank you.”

And with that, President Joe Biden followed the example of the nation’s first president, George Washington, who declined to run for a third term to demonstrate that the United States of America would not have a king, and of its second president, John Adams, who handed the power of the presidency over to his rival Thomas Jefferson and thus established the nation’s tradition of the peaceful transition of power. Like them, Biden gave up the pursuit of power for himself in order to demonstrate the importance of democracy. 

After the speech, the White House served ice cream to the Bidens and hundreds of White House staffers in the Rose Garden.

And when the evening was over, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden posted an image of a handwritten note on social media. It read: “To those who never wavered, to those who refused to doubt, to those who always believed, my heart is full of gratitude. Thank you for the trust you put in Joe—now it’s time to put that trust in Kamala.” 

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON