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“Young people had one of their highest turnout rates ever in a midterm and shaped results across the country.
DEMOCRACY DOCKET Marc Elias As the founder of Democracy Docket and Partner at Elias Law Group, Marc Elias is a nationally recognized authority in voting rights, redistricting and law. In 2020, Marc led the historic legal effort to protect voting rights, winning over 60 lawsuits against the GOP’s efforts to suppress the vote. As Republicans continue to mount aggressive challenges to voting, Marc continues to fight back in court and on Twitter.
LVW.ORG The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization working to protect and expand voting rights and ensure everyone is represented in our democracy. We empower voters and defend democracy through advocacy, education, and litigation, at the local, state, and national levels.
Founded in 1920, the League was a merger of the National Council of Women Voters and the National American Women’s Suffrage Association. Referred to as a “mighty political experiment,” it aimed to help newly enfranchised women exercise their right to vote.
ACLU.ORG American Civil Liberties Union mission statement: The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union — beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.
For decades the party that stood for conservatism – that was guided by The Constitution was the Republican Party. I don’t think I am the only one that agrees with Senator Mitt Romney that:
I voted for the Reagan/Bush ticket in the 1984 election. It was my first eligible election and I didn’t really know what I believed. Besides that, I had no understanding that a vote could have lasting impact that could last for decades. Knowing what I know today, forty years later, I would probably take that vote back and… I have a variety of rather pale excuses for that vote.
I grew up in California and attended a private university in Southern California that offered sorority housing points for joining The Young Republicans campus organization. (Just being honest).
As a Business Administration – Marketing major, I was a “Neoliberal in Training”.
I was not “adulting” yet so I had no life experiences to shine a light on living as a financially responsible citizen in the real world.
I was not an informed voter.
After working in the business world, I went back to school and earned a teaching credential. I married and we began to work toward the American Dream of owning a home and starting a family. The American message was to be a “rugged individual”and then show off your hard work as a consumer with name brand products. We had the privilege and support to start a small business that is flourishing thirty years later. I wrote about “Gaining Awareness of My Opportunities”.
In 1992, I began to educate myself about policy and I researched candidates as best I could (without the internet). At that time, I was a registered Independent. I didn’t vote party line. I voted on issues and the platform positions of those who were running for office. I followed my paternal grandfather’s advise about voting:
Read. Inform yourself. But in the end, sometimes you just have to go with your gut.
John Hillman
The 2016 election awakened me.
I was a Never Trumper even before he ran for President. His presence in the media through his various bankruptcies, divorces, and business practices made him unlikeable in my mind and not a serious person for any federal leadership position.
With his lack of any civil service experience and his misogyny and name calling during the primaries, I was surprised and shocked that the Republican Party made him the nominee. It did not matter who the Democrats put forth, I would be voting against Trump. As the campaign continued, it was becoming obvious that there was a support system that was moving away from the conservative values of the Grand Old Party (GOP). He was beginning to say things out loud that allowed others to change and morph away from civility. I saw a movement away from common sense and a slide toward accepting “alternative facts”.
I figured out early on that something was manipulating social media feeds and sending people down rabbit holes of disinformation. I deactivated my Facebook account because there were things I didn’t want to see on the feeds of my friends and families as they became more and more entrenched and angry.
When he won the electoral college count, I was disappointed, but not shocked. As I had done before when my candidate did not win, I accepted the outcome and hoped the winner would be successful because then it would benefit everyone. That didn’t last long. As I suspected about him, he showed his true colors at the inauguration. I suddenly feared for women’s issues – especially the right to make healthcare choices with their doctors.
I was called a hysterical alarmist. “Roe will never fall”. I wish I had been wrong.
All Americans have lived that presidency, COVID, and the January 6th Insurrection. I saw it all with my own eyes, live on TV. I cannot unsee. I have read extensively. I am informed.
I choose to “go with my gut”. I remain a Never Trumper.
In 2020, I moved to Arizona. I registered as a Democrat. With all of the women that had run during the Democratic Party primary race, I started the research for my first term paper after returning to grad school. Early in the campaign season, I was initially drawn to Senator Amy Klobuchar and met her at the first political event I ever attended. Once Harris was the VP nominee I began reading Kamala’s books, listening to her past campaign speeches, watching her Senate moments, and reviewing her hundreds of Senate Bill proposals and combed through her Congressional Record. When someone told me I was going to find myself on the wrong side of history I replied: “I will proudly wear the t-shirt”.
We are 100 days from Election Day, and I believe that:
Vice President Kamala Harris has more conservative policy positions than candidate Trump.
I respect Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney even if I do not agree with every one of their policy positions. I value what they say and share, because they put country over party and spoke truth to power.
In Adam’s Substack essay, “Trumpism Isn’t True Conservatism: Even He Says So”, I am reminded that I agree with many conservative positions and historical ideologies. Here are some of the points presented by Kinzinger:
Conservatives favor free markets.
Trump calls for sweeping tarriffs on imports. Trump is transactional for himself and has made promises to cut taxes for corporations and billionaires that support him.
Conservatives are for freedom.
Trump has promised troops to halt protests. Trump will not protect Reproductive Rights.
Conservatives support free speech and the freedom of the press.
He harasses reporters and in his past presidency wanted journalists prosecuted for leaking stories from his staff.He has attacked and diminished truth by calling it fake news.
Conservatives believe in the three branches of government and the balance of power.
Trump attacks the courts who do not support him and seeks to control Congress.
Conservatives believe in limited government.
Trump wants to expand his authority in a multitude of ways with the support of the authors and think tanks of Project2025.
Conservatives believe in “conservation”…of traditions and institutions.
“Trump has no respect for the wisdom of his forebears or the traditions that hold society together”. He seeks to make the DOJ his own “police force and law firm”. He has no respect for the rule of law and believes he should never be held accountable for any of his actions.
Conservatives believe in democracy and are anti-authoritarian.
Trump longs to be a dictator and he has said it out loud in a television interview.
MAGA followers call themselves conservatives but they do not know the history of the party or the policy programs of former GOP Presidents. Kinzinger reminds us that:
Abraham Lincoln fought to end slavery as well as protect and preserve democracy from Confederate oligarchs. He put into place a temporary income tax. He instituted the land grant program to give every state land for higher education and he opened federal lands to those who wanted to settle the West.
Theodore Roosevelt created the national parks to conserve our natural lands. He broke up monopolies to protect and conserve the free markets. He created the agencies to inspect food and drugs to keep citizens safe and healthy and he promoted irrigation and hydroelectricity to stimulate the economy.
Dwight Eisenhower expanded Social Security and when the Soviets launched Sputnik he proposed financial programs to support all scientific research efforts to match that program. He promoted high quality education and funded the interstate highway system.
Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conserve land, air, and water. He went to China to open up free trade relations and worked with other international leaders to negotiate and reduce nuclear war, as opposed to Trump who wants to isolate us from the rest of the world and abolish our NATO relationships.
Ronald Reagan saved Social Security from bankruptcy. He worked with Democrats across the aisle. Although he reduced regulations, he didn’t try to diminish the federal work force or take away experts in the fields to run the government.
The Presidents Bush in honor of Eisenhower and Reagan, promoted education and philanthropy. They were supporters of our allies in NATO. “Unlike Trump, they believed America should engage with the world through diplomacy, trade, and treaties”.
The MAGA movement has replaced the GOP. The Republican Party of just a decade ago is no longer. This was especially obvious with the multitude of missing participants at last month’s MAGA convention to nominate the 2024 POTUS ticket. Not a Bush, Cheney, or Romney in the crowd. Only a handful of former Cabinet Members. No former Speakers of the House. No Mike Pence, the former Vice President that he basically gave away to the rioters who wanted to hang him on January 6th. His choice for running mate this election is the most unqualified elected official – besides Trump himself the first time he ran for office.
“[Trump] has grievances , not governing philosophies or ideas”.
stuart stevens
In the conclusion of his Substack essay, Kinzinger notes an interview with CNBC that asked Trump about the upcoming four years if he was to win the presidency and Trump replied, “I’m not a conservative…”
Who is Trump running against?
Kamala supports breaking up monopolies that are elevating prices for record high corporate profits and not allowing free market competition and innovation. She believes in the freedom to make choices for your own body, to love who you want, and practice your religious faith in whatever way you choose. She supports freedom of the press and free speech and rejects book bans. As former prosecutor, she believes that no one is above the law and that this nation is based in the rule of law. She supports the balance of the three branches of government and has been outspoken about the need for ethics reform of SCOTUS. She is strongly outspoken against the Project2025 blueprint to expand the government into a form of authoritarianism that strips a great majority of Americans of their freedoms. This all sounds very rooted in conservative minded values.
In her first advertisement after becoming the presumptive nominee she stated:
We choose something else. We choose FREEDOM. The freedom not to just get by, but to get ahead. The freedom to be safe from gun violence. The freedom to make decisions about your own body. We choose a future where no child lives in poverty, where we can all afford healthcare, where no one is above the law.
We believe in the promise of America…
#We CHOOSE KAMALA
Kamala Harris will fight FOR THE PEOPLE to CONSERVE DEMOCRACY
I will vote for a future that gives every citizen Reproductive Freedom.
I have written about my experiences to exercise my Reproductive Freedom here and the long road to build our family of three kids through infertility treatments, failed IVF, adoption, and a live birth in my posts “Angelfish ONE, TWO and THREE“
Reproductive Healthcare supported me through multiple non-viable pregnancies in the 1990s. My eight miscarriages and ectopic pregnancy REQUIRED medical assistance – which is being denied to childbearing individuals and families today in multiple states across the USA. Without my “abortions”, I would have most likely lost my future fertility or my life – and would have unable to give birth in 2002 and/or parent my three children today.
The experiences lead me to declare this truth:
Forced pregnancy in not risk-free nor does it guarantee a healthy child after gestation.
I’ve met multiple women who have had long term chronic health issues as a consequence of becoming a mother. One eventually needed a kidney transplant and now the medication is shutting down her muscular system and she is trying to find support to parent that now 11 year old son. I know multiple women who now have the auto-immune issue of Hashimoto’s since giving birth. The maternal mortality rates continue to rise at an alarming rate in this country and especially in the state of Texas since the 2021 Abortion Ban enacted prior to the fall of Roe.
As of March 2024, there were no clinics providing abortion care in the 14 states with total abortion bans in effect at that time. These states had 63 clinics in 2020. Those missing clinics are no longer there to provide ANY healthcare. There is a rise in maternity care deserts across the country.
Abortion bans and other restrictions imposed or enforced after Roe was overturned have led to a surge in people traveling from states where abortion is banned or heavily restricted to seek care in states where abortion is available.The share of all abortion patients who traveled out of state for care increased from 9% in 2020 to 17% in 2023. No one should have to pay to travel away from their home or family to receive reproductive healthcare.
Some 55% of people who obtained an abortion had previously had at least one birth and Some 41% of people obtaining abortions had an income below the federal poverty level (FPL) and 30% had incomes between 100% and 199% of the FPL. This is an economic issue as well as a healthcare issue but it in my opinion it is a human rights issue. Every human body should have the right to make decisions about their own body and financial freedom.
There have been ripple affects as a result the Dobbs decision. The repercussions of non-abortion related reproductive healthcare as well as the lack of financial support from states that are basically mandating forced pregnancy are disturbing.
Fortunately a few states have rallied to put reproductive rights on the November 2024 ballots. Every eligible voter of every state should have the opportunity to have their voice heard about Reproductive Healthcare and freedom to make choices about their bodies.
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