#with you and Black and Jewish voters!

[cyarskj1899]

Black voters for the next 4 years

[anghraine]

Oh, btw, if you feel like you absolutely must blame entire demographics for the election results, I'd advise at least checking the exit poll breakdowns before jumping to a hot take.

PS. Fellow white progressives, feel free to shut up about Black Trump voters forever.

[Image ID: a screenshot of CNN's exit poll breakdown, showing Trump winning white men 60-37 and white women 45-53, while losing Black men 21-77 and Black women 7-91. /end ID]

[whycantwegivellove]

everyone ragging on latino voters (and understandably so) but WHENN are we gonna talk about right wing asians… you are not white!! the whites are not gonna pick you!! stop this fucking nonsense!!!

[tenmyoujump]

[image description: a reddit post titled, "Tonight is the death of my Empathy". the rest of the post reads,

"As a white male fighting oppression my whole adult life I think this is the death of my empathy. How can I care about school shootings when the youth show up to vote against gun control? How can I care about cops killing black people when black people showed up to vote for the cops? How can I care about young girls denied healthcare for a pregnancy gone wrong when her own mother voted against her rights? How can I care about immigrants in cages when Hispanics voted for mass deportations? How can I care about genocide when Muslims voted for Zionists? How can I care about Jewish people when they vote for Fascists? No one is coming for me, they never were. I was fighting for you, but fuck, I guess I won't bother anymore."

end i.d.]

democrats having a normal one

[anamericangirl]

It’s really amazing to see Trump win this election when you think about it. This man had the media, the establishment, corporate America and the celebrities all against him and all persecuting him non-stop for eight years. They threw him in jail, tried to kick him off the ballot, even tried to kill him and the American people saw through all of it.

After all their efforts to get rid of Trump and convince voters that he hates us and is the second coming of Hitler himself it was phenomenal to see black Americans, Hispanic Americans, women, immigrant Americans, Jewish Americans, gay Americans and young Americans turn out in droves to give him their vote.

I will love watching the media and Hollywood meltdown as they realize they aren’t as influential and important as they imagine themselves to be and that even when they team up and throw everything they have they can’t beat the American people.

I’m just really proud of us right now.

[robertreich]

The Case Against RFK Jr.

RFK Junior is not who you think he is.

It pains me to say it, but he is a dangerous nutcase.

He claims to want to heal America, but his vision for our future is tainted by his endorsements of hateful conspiracy theories – and the fact that he is being funded in large part by donors aligned with Donald Trump.

It’s time to lift the curtain on a campaign based on false, irresponsible, and self-contradictory claims.

RFK Junior repeatedly promoted a right-wing conspiracy theory that chemicals in the water are turning people gay or transgender.

He suggested COVID-19 was a bioweapon, mysteriously designed to spare Jewish people.

[RFK Jr.: “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”]

He’s spent years spreading anti-vaxx lies.

And in his 2021 book, RFK Junior alleged, with no plausible evidence, that Dr. Fauci performed genocidal experiments, sabotaged treatments for AIDS, and conspired with Bill Gates to suppress information about COVID-19.

These are not the words of someone who is serious about leading – let alone healing – this country.

As someone who once worked for his father, RFK, and admired his uncle, JFK, I’m disturbed to see RFK Junior speak this way.

RFK Senior would never have suggested that a deadly virus was targeted at certain races. And as president, JFK signed the Vaccination Assistance Act in order to, “achieve as quickly as possible the protection of the population, especially of all preschool children.”

If not for his illustrious name – and role as a potential spoiler – RFK Junior would be just another crackpot in the growing pool of fringe politicians.

It’s no coincidence that he shares top backers with the likes of Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene — or that Trump allies Roger Stone and Steve Bannon encouraged him to run in the first place.

But the Kennedy brand is political gold, and it could pull away just enough sympathetic voters to tip the race toward Trump.

Democracy won by a whisker in 2020. Just 44,000 votes in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin decided the outcome. If RFK Junior — or any third-party candidate — peels off just a fraction of the vote from Biden, while Trump’s base stays with him, they will deliver a victory to Trump.

If Junior had any respect for the principles his father fought and ultimately died for, he would withdraw his candidacy. Immediately.

[cyarsk5230]

To the 92 percent of Black Women, I say thank you. ❤️

To the 79 percent of Black Men, thank you. ❤️

To the 80 percent of Jewish voters, thank you. ❤️

To the 85 percent of LGBTQ voters, thank you ❤️.

To the 61 percent of Latinas, thank you. ❤️

To the 44 percent of Latinos, thank you. ❤️

To the 43 to 47 percent of White Women, thank you. ❤️

To the 38 percent of White Men, thank you. ❤️

To the Asians that did not align with White Supremacy, thank you. ❤️

Everyone else can choke on a bag of dicks, pound sand, fall in a ditch, get sucked up by a twister, go to hell, have an accident, or whatever. Just fuck all the way off. 🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾 I hope you all suffer from the choice you made.

[mariacallous]

The overriding consensus I keep hearing is that Trump didn't gain any voters, but Kamala Harris lost 11 million votes compared to Joe Biden. Would you think this is due to the Democrats alienating their base by supporting the border wall, fervent support of Israel, dedication to fracking despite the effects on the environment, and the refusal to differentiate herself from Joe Biden who (despite a lot of great changes he made) could not shake the higher cost of living that stained his tenure as President?

I think the higher cost of living and people doing what they did in 2016 is the problem. Improving border security was something 80% of Harris supporters said they wanted. Democratic candidates who won in primaries this year were by and large pro-Israel and candidates who expressed anti-Israel stances lost, in addition to the broader populace which leans more pro-Israel anyway. "Dedication to fracking" is an inaccurate framing.

The base showed up - black women, jewish-americans, and lgbtq americans.

[arizonaconservativegal]

as someone who hasn't been paying a ton of attention to politics this go-around (been busy lol), why do you think Trump attracted more Hispanic, Jewish, and Black voters this time? Do you think it was fiscal appeal or what?

I think Jewish voters moved largely due to the left's complete failure to condemn and tamp down antisemitism within their ranks, while we welcomed them with surprisingly open arms.

I think Hispanics have been a long time coming and I wouldn't attribute that to just Trump, though he helped. That is a demographic that is very well aligned with us in terms of their beliefs and values but hasn't voted for us - partly because we have ceded them to the Dems for decades, just assuming they wouldn't be with us. We've finally started to put some effort into reaching out to them a few years ago and that's beginning to pay off. The economy is a big factor for them - they're a very entrepreneurial demographic and they value opportunity. Education goes with that but was less of a factor this year, I think. They don't mind us talking about border security - they tend to be supportive of that, actually - but I am surprised they didn't have a bigger problem with Trump's deportation talk. And some of these crazy social policies from the Dems are really offensive to a heavily conservative Catholic demographic like Hispanics.

Black voters are interesting here. I imagine that's mainly the economy again but probably a bit Trump's criminal justice reform and a general aversion to the way Kamala and her team talk down to them. I'd guess also that some folks are reaching a "what do we have to lose" point. I'm not confident about those guesses though - we don't have a lot of black voters here so I don't spend a lot of time digging into what drives them as a group. All I could really say with confidence is what my individual black friends think but I wouldn't say that's a representative sample and not large enough to really extrapolate from lol.

(also blanket apology for talking about millions of people like they're a monolith, that always feels gross to me but for the sake of a quick tumblr post and not an in-depth white paper or personal conversation, here we are)

[fandomtrumpshate]

FTH 2024: Supported Nonprofit Organizations

Here are the nonprofit organizations that will be supported by this year's FTH auction. Many of these orgs will be familiar from last year's list, but we've cycled in some new groups as well. In particular, because it's a major election year in the US, we've brought in (or brought back) organations focusing on voter enfranchisement.

If you are a FTH creator and you want to ask your bidders to support an organization that’s not on the list, please read our policy on outside organizations here.

Bellingcat *

Bellingcat is an independent investigative collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists brought together by a passion for open source research in the public interest.

Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center *

The Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC) is a nonprofit legal organization that fights for liberation and equity through the lens of intersectional disability justice.

In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda *

A national-state partnership focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals, NBWRJA delivers proactive advocacy and policy solutions to address issues at the intersections of race, gender, class, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Life After Hate

LAH provides support to people leaving hate groups, and providing pluralism education and training to vulnerable young people.

Middle East Children's Alliance *

MECA is a nonprofit organization working for the rights and the well-being of children in the Middle East. They collect funds in order to provide direct aid, financial support for community projects, water purification systems, and university scholarships, and also create educational and cultural programs in the US and internationally to increase cultural understanding.

National Network to End Domestic Violence *

NNEDV offers a range of programs and initiatives to address the complex causes and far-reaching consequences of domestic violence.

Never Again Action *

A Jewish-led mobilization against the persecution, detention, and deportation of immigrants in the United States, NAA takes on campaigns against detention centers and ICE training programs, and organizes mutual aid and deportation defense.

Razom *

Razom initiates short and long-term projects, or collaborates on existing projects with partner organizations, which help Ukraine stay on the path of fostering democracy and prosperity

Sherlock’s Homes Foundation *

SHF provides housing, employment opportunities, and a loving support system for homeless LGBTQ+ young adults so that they can live fearlessly as their authentic selves. Within these homes, young adults learn about responsibility, accountability, financial independence, life skills, and how to love themselves

Spread the Vote

STV helps eligible voters make their voices heard through voter education, supporting voters through the process of getting necessary ID, and advocating against voter suppression laws.

Violence Policy Center *

VPC works to stop gun death and injury through research, education, advocacy, and collaboration; exposes the profit-driven marketing and lobbying activities of the firearms industry and gun lobby, and offers unique technical expertise to policymakers, organizations, and advocates.

VoteRiders

VR works to help all citizens exercise their right to vote. It informs and helps citizens to secure their voter ID as well as inspires and supports organizations, local volunteers, and communities to sustain voter ID education and assistance efforts.

Umbrella: Environmental orgs

For the past four years, FTH has supported one “umbrella” cause: we invite participants to donate to their own local grassroots organization, while also suggesting a handful of exemplary organizations working in communities where the need is especially acute. This year our umbrella category is environmental organizations.

Pollinator Partnership *

Deploy/Us *

Together Bay Area

Wildlands Restoration Volunteers

Coral Restoration Foundation *

++

Organizations marked with an asterisk (*) allow for international donations directly through their websites. The orgs without asterisks may take international donations through a paypal or venmo account. If you are a non-US-based bidder/donor and you are having trouble finding an organization to which you can donate, please email us directly at fandomtrumpshate @ gmail . com.

[jewish-sideblog]

“Not voting” is apparently the funny way that US Americans show their support for Black and Muslim and Jewish and Gay and Trans and Immigrant and Poor and Homeless people in the States. “Doing nothing” is also apparently the best way to support the children dying in Palestine, and pay no mind to the children dying in Ukraine or anywhere else. “Letting the Republicans win”, because I assure you, they aren’t losing any voters at this point, is somehow the best strategy for all marginalized people the world over.

It’s definitely not an excuse to feel like a justified and morally pure activist without actually having to do the bare fucking minimum. Certainly it won’t show Republicans, who already have a ravenous hunger for bloodshed in the holy land, that they can get their spiritual rocks off and win elections for as long as there’s conflict in the Levant. Certainly there won’t be worse war if we let the political party being funded by the military industrial complex take power. Certainly not

[camoftarakas]

Gonna be super for real, here is my masterpost of why its important for me that you take advantage of your right to vote to choose Kamala Harris.

Section 1: Personal Issues

I am a transgender person. I live where i'm pretty sure it will be safe to do so for the next 4 years, but not only should i not risk it, i shouldn't be willing to send my trans family into danger, especially the young ones. Republicans are making a big point out of removing the Trans agenda from schools. what the fuck does this mean? right now the target is that teachers, counselors, school faculty who hear a child is trans will be obliged to report it to their home. this is a direct danger to the next generation. If you do not hide who you are, it may be ripped out of you. Children will feel they are better dead than being out. and adults who abuse queer kids will not be held accountable.

I am an autistic and disabled person. Donald Trump and his cronies think vaccines cause autism. this is absurdly hateful, but beyond that they call for pullbacks and regulation for vaccines. For an incredibly safe, incredibly guarded piece of protection against disease, regulation means less access to medicine. More epidemics, more sick people, shorter lives for the disabled.

Section 2: Domestic Issues

the full access to abortion and childcare must be restored. the two are forever linked, and both are essential healthcare. people in my life benefit from this, your neighbors benefit from this, human beings benefit from this.

whoever is in charge has the sole ability to appoint supreme court judges for 4 years. The court can not become further packed against us, whoever you are, because they are not shy about infringing the rights of your neighbors or your family on party lines.

the ability for people to only just get by under a Republican presidency will be gutted. tax cuts for the wealthy are not just immoral, but the government can not operate on less income. The burden comes down on those who deserve it least. Hunger, homelessness, freezing, overheating, death.

voting rights are the target of Republicans, especially for the most reliable opposition: Black and Latino Americans. this is happening now in states desperate to suppress minority voices, or to assimilate them into a regressive white culture of last century. If that isn't bad enough, voter suppression is sure to expand to any dissident population. The future is on the line.

Section 3: Global Issues

Donald Trump uses dog whistles to express israeli support. He calls democrats "Hamas", claims they are "Destroying Israel", calls jewish people delusional for supporting them. There isn't a perfect palestinian candidate. that is all but explicitly banned in politics. Vice president Harris will be clipped out of context saying that she vaguely supports Israel's right to self defense, because that is the most she can say without causing panic and confusion. If elected, Kamala Harris would be the most pro-Palestinian president ever, and it's not any amount of praise to say that. But she seeks solution, the end of Israel's control of them, the acknowledgement that what is happening there is unconscionable. MAGA has trained us to think that a vote to a candidate is a total endorsement of all their actions and word-of-mouth values, but it is the NORMAL and DECENT thing to do to demand better from the person you elect. Donald Trump is in Netanyahu's pocket, you won't get anywhere asking him not to rain terror on Palestine.

Ukraine has a right to self-governance as well. Republicans would pull support, and hold more conferences with Putin than with our allies across the world.

Republicans will refuse investment into clean energy. Trump's last presidency saw a resurgence in Coal, and ramblings about dead birds. Republican control will hold back any responses to the climate disaster another 4 years.

Section 4: Closing Thoughts

A US president can not fix the world. A US president can't even fix their own country. But god damn it don't give in to assured worsening. don't vote for third party; they're not gonna win, they're not gonna win next time, the point you want to make will fall on deaf ears; the time and place is not now or here. don't skip voting, 1/3 of americans don't vote because they don't think their voice makes a difference. vote in every category, there are important issues left to you. You may not turn your state, but you can turn a policy, or your city, or your county, or your representative, or make sure people in your district get a fair trail with a good judge, or that a good person is in charge of your schools. vote like your neighbors life depends on it; it does. vote like the world depends on it; it does. vote like it's the least you can do; it is. You have to participate in this one simple task, flawed as it may be, to not be a hypocrite when you ask for change, when you ask for progress, when you ask for justice. You can elect people who serve you, not who demand you serve them. You can choose to take a step forward, instead of standing still while you're dragged backwards with the rest of us. you can save lives, real lives! you fucking matter, every time, but please for the love of god, do the bare minimum at least this time. And after we're done, we'll go out, and ask for more, ask for better, because government is for us and they need to listen to us, forever, whoever.

[tikkunolamresistance]

One of the greatest cons was Arab Americans pretending they're reliable Democratic voters. They're the second most reliable Republican voting bloc after white people. Muslims are just as conservative as their Evangelical counterparts.

They elected George W. Bush (because they didn't like that Al Gore chose a Jewish vice president). Recently in Michigan, they voted for Governor Whitmer's far-right challenger. So they can miss me with their "I'm not voting for Kamala Harris because Gaza/her Jewish husband/she might choose a Jewish VP."

Black voters will win us Michigan. Black and Jewish voters will win us Pennsylvania. Arabs will vote Republican like they always do.

i find this ask to be very inappropriate for a number of reasons.

first, while i am american, i have no interest in debating politics with you. largely because this is sourceless and disrespectful.

second, it is incredibly presumptuous and quite racist that you are generalizing a population of only ~4million people and grouping them with evangelicals to judge their voting patterns based on alleged faith.

third, people don’t owe you an explanation for why they voted the way they did nor should you expect one. they’re going to vote whichever way regardless of your assumptions or what you think they should do.

this ask seems to be three lines away from dropping a “you people.”

just go and vote and advocate for the candidate you want to see in office.

bottom line: this ask is stinky.

[kcyars99]

The truth about Tim Miller:

A gay man whose world view led him to become a lifelong Republican has the political acumen of a Jewish man who becomes a Nazi.

But it's even worse than that: it's like a Jewish man who helped build the Nazi party. That type of person can never be one of the faces of the Democratic party because he'll never understand it. And honestly, how could he?

To be part of a persecuted minority but find your identity in an alliance with the persecutors? You're unable to grasp any kind of reality that exists outside of whiteness. Whiteness is going to always come first.

And after you spent a decade being Frankenstein, your Republican monster inevitably chased you to the only other game in town: the Democratic party.

Because the GOP never really stood for anything but racism, sexism, and chasing power, and because there's no culture, no values, and no soul, a totally insane lying lunatic was able to swoop in and demagogue his way into ruling the party with an iron fist.

And I get it, you're gay, and now your allies wants to destroy the lives of everyone like you while being happy to use you to further those ends. It's untenable. But instead of putting up a fight and trying to save your party, you go to where the grass is bluer.

One problem: the Democratic party has a soul and it's name is the BLACK VOTER.

Where you wouldn't fight for your party? We will. Where you wouldn't guard your party from demagouges? We do. We don't have the caucasity to assume that we'll be alright. We're not white. It's always existential for us. We can never take our political power for granted.

That's why when you were grooming your party to fall victim to Trump, Bernie Sanders was over here falling flat on his face. Hillary built with us. Biden spent his whole life with us. They have equity. If you want anything over here in Dem land? You need us. Being a former Republican, you have no idea how we work because YOUVE NEVER HAD TO LISTEN TO US.

I'll get to how I know YOU, Tim Miller, have never listened to us in just a second.

That's also why we kill off culture vultures. We're so sensitive to anyone who wants anyone who wants to use us for their gain when we know they'll never get in the trenches with us. And we see it coming a mile away.

That's why we never fall for Trump scams in trying to astroturf black support. Not only does our life depend on us seeing through it, we're disgusted by it.

Now you've abandoned your party. Despite all the money you've made grifting off the party, you have one bad day in your new Democratic life, and now you're trying to rally us to abandon our decades long investment in Joe Biden because he needed a nap, a Joe Biden who beat Trump when you losers couldnt, and you are flumoxed as to why we won't give up like you.

It's because you don't belong here. You have no equity. You haven't built anything with us. You've never been in the trenches. You're not in touch with us. You don't know the community. And more than anything, you don't have the first clue about Black culture.

And in the past 3 days, with endless Black people, specifically Black women, telling you you're wrong, you have no idea what you're talking about, and that you need to LISTEN to Black people, your every response has been the white privileged casually racist response of "I know the Black community better than you."

You don't.

Hell, the idea of representation never even occurred to you until you adopted a Black kid and you're walking through the toy aisle and couldn't find any black dolls. If you couldn't grasp that until it was forced upon you, what makes you think you know us better than we know ourselves? We've been black our whole lives.

And how do I know you'll NEVER have a place in our party?

759.8K

You adopted a little Black girl and still don't even bother to listen to Black women, let one Black people.

In the words of Kendrick Lamar: You're not a colleague. You're a fucking colonizer.

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

I think people believe that those who likely won't vote for Biden despite opposing Trump in November are just doing so out of political purity demands are failing to internalize something really important.

People only have so many resources to spare beyond survival. And they will make reasonable assessments based on what an action demands of them versus what it will do to benefit them/improve overall quality of life whether or not to do a thing. Anything.

I've noticed this thing where people are like "voting is the LEAST you can do, it's just one thing, and it barely takes up any valued resources (e.g. time, money, energy, skill, learning/adjustment periods, etc), how can you NOT do it?"

And. Well. Maybe because that equation isn't the same for everyone?

Let me go ahead and lay out for you the process that would all have to take place BEFORE I was able to "just go vote" if that was an action I felt would be valuable.

1) identify/confirm my state's voter identification policies for the coming election to confirm that I fully understand them and that they haven't been altered since my last complete understanding of it

2) save the money (in cash) for the fees involved in attending an id appt at a state office to get the necessary documents which I may or may not have (I have moved about every other year for a long time now, and have not been able to consistently maintain useable paperwork across my residential transitions because many were across state lines)

3) schedule the state office appt for id paperwork. Keep cash fees and necessary evidentiary paperwork on hand (or add an additional set of steps to obtain/reobtain them such as when the move damaged my court paperwork for my name change). Then wait for the appt to arrive, and hope I have enough time in my day and gas in my car to keep it.

4) once I have my appropriate id, register as a regional voter and identify my nearest polling station (by the way, the ONLY available polling stations in my literal entire county are Baptist or Methodist churches. If those spaces are - for some reason, maybe I don't know being actively mid-medical transition of gender, visibly queer, and fucking Jewish - are not accessible to me well then I guess I'm shit out of luck)

5) obtain time off on election day to go vote. You might think this is easy. And maybe for you it is. But the vast majority of election voting lines I have waited in since going with my mom as a kid to waiting to place my own vote as an adult, have been at minimum of 4 hours waiting in line outside the building let alone getting thru identity confirmation with the polling station volunteers once inside. I work on Tuesdays. So taking unpaid time off for a 4+ hour errand is a big deal. And yeah, my supervisor does actively encourage us to and support us in doing it, but given how we are paid (by the completed appt hour) there is a huge financial barrier to taking a day off to vote. The owner of my practice does her best to help, including offering us our paid documentation hours if it helps, but like. That's not going to be enough for a lot of people's checkbooks, and there are not outside resources she can call on to support her in supporting us. We may make the choice to do it when we feel financially able to, but we may not always be in that position.

6) actually vote. Hey remember those 4hr lines? I'm physically disabled and mobility limited. So if I need to anticipate more than a maximum of 15min of standing or walking, I may need to consider going in my wheelchair. How many of those churches serving as polling stations in my poor, 60% black county are able to be wheelchair accessible? My state voter polling station map supposedly offers a listing of accessible polling stations! But when I click it, it actually just takes me to a webpage describing my legal right to accommodation. Did you know that the only caregiver I could have help accommodate me is my wife or a professional one? I can't (for example) have a friend take me while my wife is working or otherwise unavailable. Or, you know, if a polling station volunteer decides to get up in arms about my marriage for being queer/interracial (this has happened, yes I know it's illegal what the actual fuck do you think that means for the reality of enforcing that though???? Something being a crime doesn't stop it from happening, and being able to "hold someone accountable" won't necessarily mean getting my fucking vote back.)

7) monitor my vote for rejection and supply any necessary corrective measures to confirm my vote (I realize this may be something lots of people go a lifetime never running into, but it has and does and will happen)

8) monitor my voter registration to ensure I stay on the roles up through the next merry go round through these steps (i once had to re-register 3 times in one year without having changed addresses or documentation in any way. Just getting flat out bumped from the roles. When I did voter canvassing in 2020 I took a peek at my own name in the registry and I had a HALF DOZEN different registrations that had been done in the 4 years I'd been living in my house at the time.)

It is REALLY highly likely that none of these things, or AT MOST 1-2 of them are also your (general) concerns/priorities/needs around voting. Mine are like this through a combination of circumstances, location, chaotic lifestyle, and a general inability to stay organized. But that is nonetheless the reality of my effort ro vote every election.

Increasingly, this has simply not been worth my time and money. My vote's presence or absence simply is not impactful enough in the systems and levers of power to justify putting myself through that process and it's impact on my quality of life. My energy is more effectively used in ways that can A) not cost me financial resources I simply do not have, B) do not require me to prove who I am in order to interact with it, thus removing the burden and expense of maintaining paperwork for that purpose beyond what I already posess (passport card without any documentation of residence but with documentation of citizenship), and C) can be performed using only or mostly physical actions that are not inherently medically dangerous for me.

So that's what I've started redirecting my energy towards. There are truly so many options, and I keep myself busy with many different little pieces of that puzzle.

I could not do those things if I also tried to maintain consistent access to voting. I simply couldn't. But those things are so much more immediately impactful, not just on my quality of life, but on the QoL of the rest of my community. I value the ability to spend my resources there more than I value my ability to brute force my way through in interaction with a system that throws up increasingly harmful barriers at every step.

If that math ever changes for me, I probably will try to vote more. It's not like I think voting is bad. But I simply do not see it as more valuable for me and my community given my combination of needs, resources, and capacities.

I really need people to understand that yelling at someone and trivializing their reasons for making the choice that they are making will not increase your voter turnout. Because it means you are inherently rejecting their valid concerns as worth addressing. And yeah! A lot of people are right now specifically talking about this as if their decision is at least in part because of the concern that the Trump years and Biden years have not been different enough or have been different in ways that are harmful to them, because a lot of us made a point of saying in 2020 "damn the consequences, we'll just do it"

But then there wasn't enough change to justify how much we harmed ourselves or invited harm into our lives by doing so. Or at least there is little enough that we are asking ourselves the question of its worth. So now we must also ask "can we make that sacrific again, knowing what we know now?"

For some of us, unless interventions to lower the barrier to entry of voting or to raise the motivation to trust Biden will improve our qualities of life are employed, it is very likely that the answer may be (or may be becoming) no. We can't make the sacrifice again. It took too much and returned too little and we may LITERALLY not have enough to give this time around.

We'll see I guess.

It doesn't escape me that I'm not hearing anything about voter accessability this year. It can sometimes start to feel a little like hedging yalls bets to me, as someone on whom those barriers are deeply impactful and restrictive.

Because if you (general) can point to how we (the vote-alienated) were blocked from the polls after, you can combine that with complaints of "leftists" abstaining for "political purity/perfectionism" to justify to yourselves (general) why Biden lost without reconciling just how much of a void his campaign has in terms of what it's offering people. If they were at least returning to their roots and using the Democratic party base to establish voter support resources and access alternatives, that would probably increase turnout by an order of 10 or so entirely on its own.

But that's being left to communities themselves, despite the gamechanger that would be facilitating such programs with the resources of a multi-billion dollar national political party. Overnight, millions might suddenly see voting as a real possibility, and it's not like the party is spending that money elsewhere in the campaign either. I'm not seeing his ads very often on tv/radio, i haven't seen hardly any online, no one is calling or canvassing, and only Bernie Sanders' team still texts or emails me anything other than requests for money even tho I've been signed up to party and candidate mailing list sets for decades at this point.

I don't know how to help you understand that I was actively EMPLOYED as campaign staff for a democratic presidential primary candidate in 2020 running volunteer events, canvassing shifts, GOTV events, etc. I personally canvassed half of the district I lived in and spoke to so many voters.

Do you want to take a wild guess how many candidates reached out to my community (besides the one I was on staff with) during primary season? One. Out of that entire stage of candidates, only 2 even had campaign staff on the ground in my district. And we were a battleground district in our state. We had the power to swing the entire state. But only like 15% of the candidates gave a fuck.

That hasn't gotten better, it's gotten worse, because now the only one of those two left with any access to an on-site campaign crew is Bernie Sanders, and while he is valiently trying to wrangle it into a GOTV program, he simply cannot do that by himself, especially as alienated as he is from the rest of the dominant wing of the party.

I need people to understand that the work on the ground looks so much different than online political ontological discussion and debate. It MATTERS how you interact with these systems and community needs. We're all doing what we can. What makes sense for us to do. It is REALLY easy to sink into the feeling of "everyone is just too stupid/uninformed to see things my way, or they're voting against they're best interests for some malicious reason" but I promise you that is simply not the reality of how politics happens in communities. Yes, even when someone is 100% objectively being a bigot. People have reasons for what they do, and those reasons mattered to act on to them, even if you don't understand why. If you want to get someone's buy in to change their behavior/beliefs on something, you need to first treat their reasons as a consistent internal logic, even if that means looking past what specific words someone is using towards the underlying values or needs they reflect.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Peters

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 23, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 23, 2024

“There’s nothing sadder than an aging salesman trying to close one last deal,” MSNBC’s Ryan Teague Beckwith wrote on September 21. Beckwith went on to list seven of Trump’s most recent campaign promises, most delivered off the cuff at rallies, that are transparent attempts to close the deal with different groups of voters.

Trump is also threatening voters. On September 19, he told two Jewish audiences that he had not been “treated properly by voters who happen to be Jewish,” and that if he doesn't win the 2024 election, “the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss,” adding in that case, “Israel, in my opinion, will cease to exist within two years.” Opponents were quick to point out that these threats echo old antisemitic tropes scapegoating Jews. When Jake Tapper asked Arkansas senator Tom Cotton to comment on Trump’s statement on Sunday, Cotton’s answer brought small comfort: “Well, Jake, Donald Trump has been saying things like this for at least 11 months.”

Trump’s social media posts about women sounded both desperate and delusional. Trump has boasted of overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the constitutional right to abortion, but that loss is enormously unpopular. So he is caught between the reality that his white extremist evangelical base continues to support banning abortion while voters in a general election are just as adamant that they want abortion rights protected.

Trump insists that there was a driving popular demand for returning decisions about abortion to the states, but this is a lie; there was no such popular demand. And now a two-year lag in the commissions that study maternal death means that stories of women who died because the new laws deprived them of medical care are beginning to hit the news.

On Friday, news broke that maternal deaths in Texas skyrocketed after the state’s 2021 abortion ban, rising by 56% compared to an 11% increase across the rest of the nation. Just before midnight, Trump posted a rant that included his usual lie about after-birth executions:

“WOMEN ARE POORER THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS HEALTHY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS SAFE ON THE STREETS THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE MORE DEPRESSED AND UNHAPPY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, AND ARE LESS OPTIMISTIC AND CONFIDENT IN THE FUTURE THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO! I WILL FIX ALL OF THAT, AND FAST, AND AT LONG LAST THIS NATIONAL NIGHTMARE WILL BE OVER. WOMEN WILL BE HAPPY, HEALTHY, CONFIDENT AND FREE! YOU WILL NO LONGER BE THINKING ABOUT ABORTION, BECAUSE IT IS NOW WHERE IT ALWAYS HAD TO BE, WITH THE STATES, AND A VOTE OF THE PEOPLE - AND WITH POWERFUL EXCEPTIONS, LIKE THOSE THAT RONALD REAGAN INSISTED ON, FOR RAPE, INCEST, AND THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER - BUT NOT ALLOWING FOR DEMOCRAT DEMANDED LATE TERM ABORTION IN THE 7TH, 8TH, OR 9TH MONTH, OR EVEN EXECUTION OF A BABY AFTER BIRTH. I WILL PROTECT WOMEN AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE. THEY WILL FINALLY BE HEALTHY, HOPEFUL, SAFE, AND SECURE. THEIR LIVES WILL BE HAPPY, BEAUTIFUL, AND GREAT AGAIN!”

In North Carolina the core members of Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson’s campaign staff resigned yesterday along with all but three members of the campaign staff—two spokespeople and a bodyguard—after the CNN report about Robinson’s offensive writings on a pornography website, including his declaration that he considers himself a “black NAZI,” and that he would like to own slaves. And yet the North Carolina Republican Party is openly defending Robinson. Today the Republican Governors Association announced it was not going to buy any more ad time in North Carolina, a potential disaster for Trump as well as Robinson. 

Trump’s ability to command the Republicans appears to be waning. House Republican leadership has apparently accepted a deal to fund the government through December 20 without the addition of the voter suppression bill Trump wanted, and today Nebraska Republican state senator Mike McDonnell said he would not vote to change the way Nebraska allots its electoral votes so close to the election despite great pressure from Trump loyalists to do so.

Meanwhile, MyPillow executive Mike Lindell, a Trump loyalist, is using a neo-Nazi code to advertise his pillows for $14.88, a reference to the fourteen words “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children,” and, since “H” is the eighth letter of the alphabet, a reference to “Heil Hitler.” 

When the Trump campaign released a photo of the candidate with his grandchildren near him on a plane, Ron Filipkowski of MeidasTouch noted: “When he lets the grandkids near him on the plane for a photo op, that’s when you know he’s really panicking.” Today, Trump had an event stop at a grocery store in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, where he chatted with supporters. He handed a $100 bill to a customer and promised that “we’ll do that for you from the White House, all right?”

The election is not the only reason Trump might be worried. Shares of Trump media continue to fall, and his new crypto platform does not appear to be taking off. On Sunday he announced “the launch of our Official Trump Coins! The ONLY OFFICIAL coin designed by me—and proudly minted here in the U.S.A.,” but his other meme coins have lately aroused little interest in what seems to be an oversaturated market. Technology reporter Brian Krassenstein noted that the new coins cost $100, while the 1 ounce of silver in one costs $30. Veterans’ advocate Travis Akers pointed out on social media that less than 24 hours after Trump’s advertisement, the Jacksonville FBI office warned against collectible coin scams.

Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, is also looking for cash. On Wednesday, September 18, she released a video to advertise her forthcoming book. In the video, she said she stands “proudly behind my nude modeling work.” Since her nude photos were 100% not in the public conversation, her statement seemed designed to pump sales by suggesting there are nude photos of her in the book. 

Today, Pamela Brown, Jeremy Herb, and Shoshana Dubnow of CNN reported that Trump’s most recent financial form reveals that Melania was paid $237,000 to appear at a campaign event in April, although it is not clear who cut the check for that appearance. The reporters say that such six-figure payments for her campaign appearances are not unusual, although payment for a spouse’s campaign appearances at all is highly unusual.

On Saturday, Trump said he would not debate Vice President Harris again, saying it was “too late” for another debate, although he then suggested he would be interested in doing one if the Fox News Channel broadcast it. 

The Trump campaign is openly vowing to use federal forces against political opponents, but it is not clear the news is coming from Trump himself, so much as from those surrounding him. Vice presidential candidate Ohio senator J.D. Vance has doubled down on his insistence that a Trump administration will deport legal as well as undocumented immigrants. 

His stand has earned him a rebuke from the editorial board of the Dayton [Ohio] Daily News, which expressed alarm at Vance’s lies about immigration and his evident belief that the ends justify the means. “History, of course, offers no shortage of atrocities committed when the truth is viewed as an inconvenient obstacle in your way,” the board wrote. It called Vance “an embarrassment not only to himself, but to Ohio.” 

On Sunday, the “Trump Team” posted on social media that “As soon as I take office, we will immediately surge law enforcement to every city that is failing to turn over criminal aliens” and “bring down the full weight of the federal government on any jurisdiction that refuses to cooperate with ICE and Border Patrol.” 

This threat is in keeping with Michael Schmidt’s report in the New York Times yesterday outlining how Trump used the criminal justice system to retaliate against those he saw as his enemies. 

Bipartisan endorsements for Democratic candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz continue to pile up. Today, three former chairs of the Maine Republican Party “enthusiastically” endorsed Harris.

After Teamsters president Sean O’Brien said the 1.3-million-member organization would not endorse either candidate in 2024, making the Teamsters the only one of the nation’s ten major unions not to endorse Harris, joint councils of the Teamsters have endorsed Harris and Walz on their own. These endorsements matter not only for votes, but also for get-out-the-vote efforts in crucial Midwestern states. Also crucial to Pennsylvania is today’s endorsement of Harris by members of the state’s Polish American community, who expressed concern that Trump would enable Russian president Vladimir Putin to invade Poland. There are 800,000 people of Polish descent in Pennsylvania.

On Sunday, a bipartisan group of 741 national security leaders—some of the biggest names in the field—endorsed Harris. “To the American People,” they wrote. “We are former public servants who swore an oath to the Constitution. Many of us risked our lives for it. We are retired generals, admirals, senior noncommissioned officers, ambassadors, and senior civilian national security leaders. We are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. We are loyal to the ideals of our nation—like freedom, democracy, and the rule of law—not to any one individual or party.

“We do not agree on everything, but we all adhere to two fundamental principles. First, we believe America’s national security requires a serious and capable Commander-in-Chief. Second, we believe American democracy is invaluable. Each generation has a responsibility to defend it. That is why we, the undersigned, proudly endorse Kamala Harris to be the next President of the United States.

“This election is a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness. It is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism. Vice President Harris defends America’s democratic ideals, while former President Donald Trump endangers them.

“We do not make such an assessment lightly. We are trained to make sober, rational decisions. That is how we know Vice President Harris would make an excellent Commander-in-Chief, while Mr. Trump has proven he is not up to the job.” 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON