This is a very fine column for someone who is still under the weather. Overall, MAGA Republicans are revealing who and what they are. During the mid-terms, Democrats pushed back against an anticipated red tsunami and vastly outperformed expectations. Perhaps the ongoing MAGA performances will convince even more voters to shut them down.
Jessica Craven's latest post in "Chop Wood, Carry Water," celebrates many recent victories. She also writes that the two Tennessee lawmakers who were expelled can run in the special elections for their seats, and if they win, they cannot be expelled again. As for the other ugly instances cited here, I can sympathize with the anguished plea, "what does it take?" that most of us uttered during the long years of the Trump regime. Read Jessica Craven's post from today to understand that there are reasons for optimism.
We are being forged by fire to get as tough as our opponents and as clever. We already outnumber them. We are inspired by the courage of Ukrainians in their fight for their democracy and their lives. We are inspired by the heroes of our own Civil Rights movement that is ongoing. We are inspired by the turnout of the Israeli populace and even its military members that caused the Netanyahu regime to blink. We are being called upon to dig deep, stay tough and committed and resist even though we are tired.
Tomorrow is another day. Let's get on with the work.
Let's also add that another Federal Judge stayed this judges order banning the the abortion drug. The fight is on.
Next? Marginalize the fascists by voting them out of office. Millions of young people will be eligible to vote for the first time next year. Get them registered! They are disgusted by our lack of action on guns and the Climate Crisis. They are the answer to tipping the scales.
Agree but younger voters still are not motivated enough to vote. We are only getting about a 50% turnout. The key is getting the excited or outraged enough to vote.
Stephen, in case it helps, in the recent election for the Supreme Court in Wisconsin, the most expensive Supreme Court election in history, the Dems started early, stayed engaged, got tough on messaging and pushed back hard. Many national groups, like Indivisible and Field Team 6 ( there were many others; these are the two I worked in) helped with postcards, texts, phone calls and door knocking, to get Dems to the polls. Though just 40% of eligible voters turned out, Judge Janet was elected with an incredible 11 point margin. I don’t know what percentage of those that voted were Gen Z but Madison, the Capital of Wisconsin, is one big college town. Gotta believe, that in a very liberal town like Madison is, that Gen Z is awake enough to show up. WisDems, the statewide group, is working hard at every angle and have been very effective with their efforts.
We need to do the work to register voters, and motivate them to vote. We did it in 2018, 2020, 2022, and we are getting smarter about all the down ballot special elections. Tough daily work. Collectively, our individual and seemingly small efforts add up.
"Though just 40% of eligible voters turned out, Judge Janet was elected with an incredible 11 point margin." Only 40% - despite extensive national and probably statewide info, massive outreach to voters, and early voting since March 21. What's happening with the 60% of potential voters who chose not to vote? If 60% of voters don't care enough to vote in a relatively simple election, then how can our democracy survive?
Laurie, with all due respect, that was 10% more eligible voters than voted in the last Supreme Court election in Wisconsin. And the last election went for the Republican candidate. Credit where credit is due.
Your question is only answerable one day, one election at a time in my opinion. This time we won, mostly because, with a GIANT effort, terrific fundraising in advance of the need, and a deep understanding of the stakes nationally in terms of the next presidential election (specifically keeping an election-denying Republican judge, who worked the fake electors' program for WI in 2020, from being elected and overthrowing the will of the people) thousands of folks worked this election from all across the country. Maybe tens of thousands. My former boss, who lives in rural WI and just turned 75, worked 50-60 hours a week for months to get out the vote in his area. He hosted many, many volunteer dinners to cheer the efforts on, paid for printing for flyers, paid for burner phones for volunteers with limited minutes and so much more. Why? Democracy is at stake. Bob knows that, as do his neighbors, friends, and in my case, former employee. Was it fun? Occasionally, but it was also gut-wrenchingly anxious hard work. But I continue to do this voluntarily because democracy IS at stake.
We have to focus on the next big effort, whatever that is, (school board, board of the electric coop, municipal bonding, the 2024 national elections, whatever). With focus, utilizing well-proven tactics, including just plain 'ol elbow grease, we can and will work towards the goal of protecting this great democracy.
I have been an environmental activist since the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970. The wins in the intervening 53 years that I celebrated just this morning was outlawing almost all uses of DDT in this country. Why? While at the dog park, I saw formations of American White Pelicans and Trumpeter Swans fly overhead. A little later, I spotted an eagle happily dining on fresh fish from a nearby pond. All three of those species were critically endangered even just 25 years ago because of DDT use. When DDT was banned, it took many years before these birds appeared in the wild here, even though this is a major nesting area for all three. Why is that important? Rachel Carson lost everything because of her activism in raising the alarm over the dangers of pesticides and herbicides. She was hounded even by the CIA because of her persistence and what was perceived as an anti-business, even anti-American stance. She never gave up or retracted her stance on the dangers of pesticides. If she can give everything, I can give more.
The fruit of her work, 70 years on, is a much healthier Mississippi River system and flyway here in the heartland for 10s of millions of waterfowl, songbirds, raptors - and humans. Yet, right here in MN, they built a tar sands oil pipeline (!) across Native land in Northern Minnesota - and right over the Mississippi River. If it leaks, drinking water for millions is gone, as are tens of millions of gallons of water for agricultural use. Not to mention abrogating the Treaty rights of the While Earth Nation. And the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico so it will be the gift that keeps on killing. Don't get me started on what will happen to those magnificent birds I watched this morning - or the health of millions of humans nearby. So, despite massive, everyday efforts from thousands of people over many years, the riverway is still at terrible risk (Louisiana's stretch of the river, Cancer Alley, should be a lesson. But the EPA still struggles to enforce the law, particularly on the oil and gas industries.)
Will I give up? Sure. When they scatter my ashes. Then I'll just haunt their asses from the beyond. That's my plan. Hope you'll join me. And if you are already making such efforts - thank you!
"Half of Youth Voted in 2020, An 11-Point Increase from 2016. We estimate that 50% of young people, ages 18-29, voted in the 2020 presidential election, a remarkable 11-point increase from 2016 (39%) and likely one of the highest rates of youth electoral participation since the voting age was lowered to 18. Our new estimate is based on newly available voter file data in 41 states—AK, DC, HI, MD, MS, NH, ND, UT, WI, WY do not have reliable vote history data by age. This analysis replaces our earlier estimate, released immediately after Election Day, which estimated a 5 to 11 point increase in youth voter turnout compared to 2016 based on data available in that moment."
But Stephen, is it a. A fact that overall voter turnout has never gotten above roughly 60% and b. That young voters have shown an increased turnout in recent elections. And couldn’t I add that when we see protests young people are out there on the front lines?
Thanks for your comment, Gary. I really do feel I am being "forged by fire" these last several years. In spite of all the chaos we've been through, (and continue to experience),I feel stronger than I was when Trump was first elected. For that I am grateful. And of course, knowing there are folks like you and this community paying attention and doing what they can to preserve our democracy, helps tremendously. Having excellent communicators like Robert Hubbell to help us make sense of it all and stay focused on what we need to do, is beyond measure.
My only comment about 45 is like a bull in a china shop, he has already destroyed a LOT that was beautiful and valuable.
Just as war destroys.
And he is proclaiming more doom - even World War III. That was his Easter message.
Only in peace and cooperation can we preserve community.
It shocked and alarmed me how much of childhood literature became dystopian in the past couple of generations (Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and for the adults, The Handmaid's Tale). More shocking how prescient they are. Now if only we can rally to organize and fight back, defeat the evil and write a different, more inclusive future.
I refer you to Simon Rosenberg's work. He is on Substack with his blog Hominum.
"The Anti-MAGA Movement Is Gaining Steam/Get to 55 - From Tel Aviv to Nashville to Disney to Wisconsin, we are seeing something important happen - a growing willingness to say no to MAGA - “not obeying in advance” as I describe it in a new essay. I talked about this awakening on MSNBC with Joy Reid on Friday night, and in my paid subscribers briefing on Thursday.
This awareness that they have just gone too far, and it needs to stop, is part of what drove our remarkable victory in Wisconsin this past week. We got to 55% statewide, that magic number, something I think we need to shoot for nationally in 2024.
The premise of my “Get to 55” idea is that MAGA’s escalating extremism and awfulness is giving Democrats and pro-democracy forces an opportunity to go big, expand our coalition, grow demographically and geographically, and rout them next year .
Excellently written Gary but not quite right. Mr. Pearson and Mr. Jones can't be expelled from the TN House again for the same violation but could be on some other, possibly trumped up, charge. Your conclusion, as with Robert's, is spot on and it's time to go to work.
Unfortunately Republicans are not accepting the rage they are creating in part because they don’t care and in many legislatures they cannot be defeated because of gerrymandering.
This is also a very fine response. The early alchemists thought that those who were being forged by fire would turn the raw material,, in this case, our current situation, into gold. We must persevere. It will take time and patience. We cannot become like those who would turn democracy into chaos, as our opponents would like.
I am reluctant to suggest that the superb and highly nuanced mind of Robert Hubbell may have missed a critical aspect of the terrible descent into anti-democracy by one of our two major parties. Reluctant perhaps but willing to venture such a thought. There is indeed a litany of despicable actions taken in just the past week by the Republican Party since it fell under the suzerainty of one Donald J. Trump.
But we on the progressive side need to reflect on the damage the GOP has done and is doing to its electoral prospects by its radical attempts to thwart the will of the voters. We can and should take unalloyed joy in the huge margin achieved by the Judge Protasiewicz in Wisconsin this week. But we should also find it more comforting than alarming when the near-instantaneous response of Wisconsin Republicans is to suggest they can use their bloated and gerrymandered super-majorities in the state Legislature to immediately impeach a judge who was elected by a thumping majority, presumably over the veto of Gov. Evers, in the absence of even a hint of an impeachable action by the not-yet installed Judge. If they undertake such a ludicrously anti-democratic maneuver, they will suffer still more lopsided defeats come the next election.
Similarly, as shocking as the actions of a similar super-majority to expel two members of the Tennessee Legislature may be, that flagrantly undemocratic behavior will almost surely have negative consequences for the GOP even in deep Red Tennessee. And we can rightly decry the actions of a Trump-appointed Federal District Court Judge in Texas to impose his religion-based views on abortion on everyone in America, not just Texas. While his action may not survive judicial review, even by this ideologically unbalanced Supreme Court, we would see by November 2024 just how much damage GOP candidates all over the country will suffer from his attempts to impose on the entire nation a policy opposed by roughly 75% of voters. Yes, these actions are deeply disturbing. But the fact that these right-wing ideologues are driven to such extremes will prove the foundation for a strong and perhaps even permanent progressive majority in America.
I don’t believe the Republican radical actions will change the minds of MAGA supporters or the racists Republicans in southern states who are not true MAGA believers. We are facing a major demographic shift where white male voters are aging and are afraid of losing power to people,of color who will be in a majority.
True, but not all of us are fearful of a future with other people in power provided that there is a demonstration of responsibility and adherence to the rule of law. We need to keep in mind that not all of the Republican lunatic fringe are old, male, or white, and make sure that the message of government that is fair to all and treats everyone equally under the law is the principle under which we operate. Support for the younger cohort of Democratic and liberal leaning independent officials and voters is essential to both short term and long term success.
I believe the true demographic split is not between older white males vs. younger people of color. My guess is that the actual division is between decent reasonable people and vicious unreasonable people. Call me a cockeyed optimist, but I am fairly sure the first group is FAR larger--and growing.
Roger the point I was trying to make was two fold. First the age demographics are changing from older to younger as our population and the baby Boomers pass on. Secondly the population composition will be a majority non white within the next few years which is frightening for many people. Decent Republicans and reasonable people have not stood up to the domestic terrorists yet and still support Trump.
You did not miss my point, but perhaps I phrased it in a slightly convoluted way. I was being totally supportive of Robert while also suggesting that he might have overlooked the silver lining behind the dark cloud of various forms of bizarre Republican behavior. Their continual ratcheting up of right-wing extremism is only making more Democratic voters repelled by their actions.
Robert, I think I can speak for most if not all of your subscribers when I say that you and your managing editor are very well-loved by us. Thank you so much for consistently righting our ship of democracy. We are doing well under your guidance. The WI Court just flipped, there was no Red Wave--we kept the Senate and lost many fewer seats than was antipated
Indeed Robert Hubbell and Editor are beloved by this community.
Thank you, and I share your sentiment --the commitment to “. . . .keep our heads down, keep reading your letters [Today’s Edition]” as well as fellow compatriot writers who also encourage, interpret, and inspire us with the courage and determination to “stay the course.”
Beautiful.
Discouraged by Tennessee, by threats of impeachment for Judge Janet Protasiewicz and by just about everything else, browsed Victor E. Frankel’s Man’s Search For Meaning (Boston: 1992 edition) seeking guidance. The final sentence of the Afterword by William J. Winslade summarizes Frankel’s philosophy:
“The meaning of your life is to help others find the meaning of theirs.”
Staying positive, making the world a better place for others.
Tennessee is a good example of the importance of keeping our heads down. One of them will be reinstated. Yes, there is a chance MAGA will retaliate, but for now, thanks to Robert Hubbell's cool-headed take on the constant barrage of battering and the consequences each episode may or may not represent (I am working on adopting Robert's cool-headedness), I am going with one reinstatement and hoping for the second one.
Justin Jones is reinstated. The emotional joyful crowd celebrating sang “This Little Light of Mine.”
Dahlia I a Lithwick expressed her cobcern that after TN, many states with Reoublican majorities might simply expell duly elected Representstives they don’t like, and Democracy could be undone.
(It’s late--sorry!) anticipated by Democratic pundits, a progressive was just elected mayor of Chicago, and the list goes on. Let’s just keep our heads down, keep reading your letters as well as Jessica’s Chop Wood, Carry Water, Dan Pfeiffer’s substack, Mark Elias’ Democracy Docket, Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles, Michael Moore’s Blue Dots in a Red Sea, Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American and Heather McGee’s book the Sum of Us on racism, and stay the course.
We need to do more than just read those wonderful writers. We need to get engaged any way we can. Write letters, postcards and let people know we are not going to accept their attack on our democracy and laws.
I so agree with you, Stephen. It is these writers who have helped to keep me grounded and extremely hopeful in my activism. From what I understand, only 1% of all Democrats are taking action. Does anyone have data on the actual percent of liberal activists? I can't help but think if each one of us activists convinced just one person to join us, we could double our number. I just week convinced my 92 year old aunt to write Vote Forward letters when the next campaign starts! I do know from Vote Forward data that we had many fewer activists for the WI Supreme Court campaign, about 20,000 letter writers, contrasted with the 200,000 writers for the Presidential campaign of 2020. So, 10%. One thing is for sure. At this point in our history, it is no longer enough to just vote.
We have the chance in the 2024 election to get to Simon Rosenberg's suggested 55% wins across the board, especially with the assault we are seeing from MAGA on our democracy, which ironically is helping our side. Simon believes that a 55% win is a mandate and anything less just leaves us too vulnerable. To that end, and to respond to Stephen Berg's call for action, I invite you all to join Fridays at 4--Letter Writing and More!, and online group which my husband and I have hosted for the past three years. We are a community of passionate patriots who write postcards and letters to get out the vote. Some of us do ballot curing and phone banking and texting. It is up to you how you get involved. We have been meeting online on Fridays at 4 pm PST almost every Friday of the year since May of 2020. Our campaigns have put us on the winning side of the 2020 Presidential election, the 2021 GA Senate run-offs, the 2022 GA run-off, the 2022 mid-terms and most recently the WI State Supreme Court election. Winning feels great!
Robert, thank you for cranking out another positive newsletter to us while still trying to hold down the fort. Hopefully, whatever the doctor gave you and the managing editor to combat the nastiness will work. We will see ya tomorrow. Take care.
My first thoughts this morning in reading your newsletter, are that this started way before Trump. He merely stepped in at an opportune moment. Remember the Tea party? The religious right and the conservatives have been slowly and methodically invading the court systems, the legislature, and state governments. And there is no morality in dark money, but there’s plenty of it out there. They will get away with whatever they can as long as they can. The situations in Tennessee and Texas will fire up a movement in my opinion that will be like the civil rights movement in the 60s. This will not be an easy time but we cannot stand back and be silent. I for one I’ve been taking Simon Rosenberg and Jessica Craven’s advice and clearly using talking points. I believe it’s working because there’s no response when I defend the lies people are being fed. I hope that you and your Managing Editor heal quickly. Despite being sick, you wrote a hell of a newsletter this morning! Thank you Robert!
Abbott isn't establishing a new rule. He's resuscitating the old Southern rule that no white man can ever be found guilty of murdering a black man. It's all part of the creation of The New Confederacy.
These four events are all part of the Right's creation of The New Confederacy, the rule of which they intend to spread across the country to non-Confederate states though the aggressive use of the now thoroughly-corrupt "judiciary" as shown in the Religious edict masquerading as a "legal" decision issued by the Religious Nut Kacsmaryk in Texas.
AOC is right. It's time to tell these New Confederate Traitors," "your so-called court has ruled - let that scum-sucking traitor enforce his rule." Fuck you, traitors. We have no need of listening to the politicians' buttfuckers in black robes masquerading as "judges."
What the despicable Abbott did was further endorse vigilantism for some people. Both the murdered victim and the killer were white men with guns; his sympathy is for the one who fantasized on social media about killing protesters. This is Abbott’s permit-less and open carry wet dream. Kill who irritates you; call it self-defense.
Excellent read, Robert. Lately, when I get a "bug," it lasts for weeks, unlike my younger years when three days was the tops. Someone who seems to be as fit as you and Jill are should not despair. Get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids! AND if need be, refrain from providing a few days' worth of Today's Edition Newsletter. I would rather be without you for a short time than to have you both succumb to this nasty virus, as you call it.
Because, in my view, an abiding absolute is that means are as important as the end, that means, in fact, shape the end, one passage from Today’s Edition especially resonated: Robert wrote, “We must not give in to the temptation to adopt the GOP anti-democratic tactics. We must fight our battle of resistance from within the walls and ramparts of democracy if we have any hope of saving it.”
Restated not nearly as eloquently, to preserve democracy, one must employ democratic means; for the end and the beginning are one. If the means are un-democratic, how can we, in the end, save democracy? I raise this question, in part, because we see the crippling effects of degraded democracies going on around us: in moments of crisis, democratic nations have acted increasingly illiberal, wherein the individual has become more and more subject to authority, an instrument, if you will, of others.
Peaceful demonstrations in Israel against authoritarian actions brought results. Tennessee legislators are feeling the outrage for their actions and are are backpedaling and concern citizens are rallying against the behavior. Our responses needs to be immediate and legal and effective.
Stephen, Note that each action you cite is an example of employing democratic means to achieve an increasingly just and democratic outcome. Accordingly, I sense you not only are reinforcing Robert’s point but also that you and I are in full agreement.
I like History and how Heather Cox Richardson teaches us. Yesterday's newsletter was how, with a blistering migraine, Grant met Lee to accept the South's surrender. His migraine instantly stopped. He graciously told Lee the North would feed the starving Southern soldiers.
Robert I hope you, your wife and family will recover completely and soon!
When your mind is more rested please take a moment to look at this. It will likely fly under the radar nationally but I hope you and your readers will bring more attention to it because it does have implications down the line nationally.
“The evidence now strongly suggests that Cotham’s fraud was part of a deliberate plan by the Republican Party of North Carolina to steal a State House seat through fraud. No longer electable in Mecklenburg county by winning voter support on their own merits, Republicans resorted to backing a Trojan horse candidate in Tricia Cotham. What the precise terms were of the backroom deal Cotham struck with Republican leaders, both before and after the election, we can only speculate.”
This has a huge effect on the whole state, not just Mecklinberg Co.
Everyone needs to hang Abbott’s decision around the neck of every single Republican governor, especially Ron DeSantis who fired a duly elected state prosecutor who signed a letter saying he wouldn’t prosecute low level “crimes” including abortion. Never mind that that law wasn’t even on the books yet. We need to challenge them directly about whether they support the rule of law or Abbott.
“The Friday-night ruling by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk purporting to stay the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone for use in early abortions is a travesty — for women’s health care, principles of democracy, notions of judicial impartiality and the rule of law.
This case is wildly atypical for a number of reasons. Under well-settled legal principles, the plaintiffs in the case — a coalition of anti-abortion organizations and physicians — do not have the right to be in court asking for this remedy at all. As commentators from across the political spectrum have noted, the plaintiffs lack standing, a core requirement of any lawsuit in federal court.”
Judge shopping at its ugliest!
“The umbrella organization that is the lead party in this case, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, incorporated itself in Amarillo, Texas — where Judge Kacsmaryk sits — just weeks after Dobbs.”
This is a very fine column for someone who is still under the weather. Overall, MAGA Republicans are revealing who and what they are. During the mid-terms, Democrats pushed back against an anticipated red tsunami and vastly outperformed expectations. Perhaps the ongoing MAGA performances will convince even more voters to shut them down.
Jessica Craven's latest post in "Chop Wood, Carry Water," celebrates many recent victories. She also writes that the two Tennessee lawmakers who were expelled can run in the special elections for their seats, and if they win, they cannot be expelled again. As for the other ugly instances cited here, I can sympathize with the anguished plea, "what does it take?" that most of us uttered during the long years of the Trump regime. Read Jessica Craven's post from today to understand that there are reasons for optimism.
https://open.substack.com/pub/chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions/p/extra-extra-april-9th
We are being forged by fire to get as tough as our opponents and as clever. We already outnumber them. We are inspired by the courage of Ukrainians in their fight for their democracy and their lives. We are inspired by the heroes of our own Civil Rights movement that is ongoing. We are inspired by the turnout of the Israeli populace and even its military members that caused the Netanyahu regime to blink. We are being called upon to dig deep, stay tough and committed and resist even though we are tired.
Tomorrow is another day. Let's get on with the work.
Thank you Gary S. I concur.
Let's also add that another Federal Judge stayed this judges order banning the the abortion drug. The fight is on.
Next? Marginalize the fascists by voting them out of office. Millions of young people will be eligible to vote for the first time next year. Get them registered! They are disgusted by our lack of action on guns and the Climate Crisis. They are the answer to tipping the scales.
Agree but younger voters still are not motivated enough to vote. We are only getting about a 50% turnout. The key is getting the excited or outraged enough to vote.
Stephen, in case it helps, in the recent election for the Supreme Court in Wisconsin, the most expensive Supreme Court election in history, the Dems started early, stayed engaged, got tough on messaging and pushed back hard. Many national groups, like Indivisible and Field Team 6 ( there were many others; these are the two I worked in) helped with postcards, texts, phone calls and door knocking, to get Dems to the polls. Though just 40% of eligible voters turned out, Judge Janet was elected with an incredible 11 point margin. I don’t know what percentage of those that voted were Gen Z but Madison, the Capital of Wisconsin, is one big college town. Gotta believe, that in a very liberal town like Madison is, that Gen Z is awake enough to show up. WisDems, the statewide group, is working hard at every angle and have been very effective with their efforts.
We need to do the work to register voters, and motivate them to vote. We did it in 2018, 2020, 2022, and we are getting smarter about all the down ballot special elections. Tough daily work. Collectively, our individual and seemingly small efforts add up.
"Though just 40% of eligible voters turned out, Judge Janet was elected with an incredible 11 point margin." Only 40% - despite extensive national and probably statewide info, massive outreach to voters, and early voting since March 21. What's happening with the 60% of potential voters who chose not to vote? If 60% of voters don't care enough to vote in a relatively simple election, then how can our democracy survive?
Laurie, with all due respect, that was 10% more eligible voters than voted in the last Supreme Court election in Wisconsin. And the last election went for the Republican candidate. Credit where credit is due.
Your question is only answerable one day, one election at a time in my opinion. This time we won, mostly because, with a GIANT effort, terrific fundraising in advance of the need, and a deep understanding of the stakes nationally in terms of the next presidential election (specifically keeping an election-denying Republican judge, who worked the fake electors' program for WI in 2020, from being elected and overthrowing the will of the people) thousands of folks worked this election from all across the country. Maybe tens of thousands. My former boss, who lives in rural WI and just turned 75, worked 50-60 hours a week for months to get out the vote in his area. He hosted many, many volunteer dinners to cheer the efforts on, paid for printing for flyers, paid for burner phones for volunteers with limited minutes and so much more. Why? Democracy is at stake. Bob knows that, as do his neighbors, friends, and in my case, former employee. Was it fun? Occasionally, but it was also gut-wrenchingly anxious hard work. But I continue to do this voluntarily because democracy IS at stake.
We have to focus on the next big effort, whatever that is, (school board, board of the electric coop, municipal bonding, the 2024 national elections, whatever). With focus, utilizing well-proven tactics, including just plain 'ol elbow grease, we can and will work towards the goal of protecting this great democracy.
I have been an environmental activist since the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970. The wins in the intervening 53 years that I celebrated just this morning was outlawing almost all uses of DDT in this country. Why? While at the dog park, I saw formations of American White Pelicans and Trumpeter Swans fly overhead. A little later, I spotted an eagle happily dining on fresh fish from a nearby pond. All three of those species were critically endangered even just 25 years ago because of DDT use. When DDT was banned, it took many years before these birds appeared in the wild here, even though this is a major nesting area for all three. Why is that important? Rachel Carson lost everything because of her activism in raising the alarm over the dangers of pesticides and herbicides. She was hounded even by the CIA because of her persistence and what was perceived as an anti-business, even anti-American stance. She never gave up or retracted her stance on the dangers of pesticides. If she can give everything, I can give more.
The fruit of her work, 70 years on, is a much healthier Mississippi River system and flyway here in the heartland for 10s of millions of waterfowl, songbirds, raptors - and humans. Yet, right here in MN, they built a tar sands oil pipeline (!) across Native land in Northern Minnesota - and right over the Mississippi River. If it leaks, drinking water for millions is gone, as are tens of millions of gallons of water for agricultural use. Not to mention abrogating the Treaty rights of the While Earth Nation. And the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico so it will be the gift that keeps on killing. Don't get me started on what will happen to those magnificent birds I watched this morning - or the health of millions of humans nearby. So, despite massive, everyday efforts from thousands of people over many years, the riverway is still at terrible risk (Louisiana's stretch of the river, Cancer Alley, should be a lesson. But the EPA still struggles to enforce the law, particularly on the oil and gas industries.)
Will I give up? Sure. When they scatter my ashes. Then I'll just haunt their asses from the beyond. That's my plan. Hope you'll join me. And if you are already making such efforts - thank you!
Right on, Sheila!!
Things have changed.
"Half of Youth Voted in 2020, An 11-Point Increase from 2016. We estimate that 50% of young people, ages 18-29, voted in the 2020 presidential election, a remarkable 11-point increase from 2016 (39%) and likely one of the highest rates of youth electoral participation since the voting age was lowered to 18. Our new estimate is based on newly available voter file data in 41 states—AK, DC, HI, MD, MS, NH, ND, UT, WI, WY do not have reliable vote history data by age. This analysis replaces our earlier estimate, released immediately after Election Day, which estimated a 5 to 11 point increase in youth voter turnout compared to 2016 based on data available in that moment."
https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/half-youth-voted-2020-11-point-increase-2016#:~:text=Half%20of%20Youth%20Voted%20in%202020%2C%20An%2011%2DPoint%20Increase%20from%202016
Thank you, Barbara.
But Stephen, is it a. A fact that overall voter turnout has never gotten above roughly 60% and b. That young voters have shown an increased turnout in recent elections. And couldn’t I add that when we see protests young people are out there on the front lines?
Thanks, Gary. I just this instant got through reading Jessica's Extra! Extra! post. It was/is just the tonic for our collective ills this week.
Thanks for your comment, Gary. I really do feel I am being "forged by fire" these last several years. In spite of all the chaos we've been through, (and continue to experience),I feel stronger than I was when Trump was first elected. For that I am grateful. And of course, knowing there are folks like you and this community paying attention and doing what they can to preserve our democracy, helps tremendously. Having excellent communicators like Robert Hubbell to help us make sense of it all and stay focused on what we need to do, is beyond measure.
My only comment about 45 is like a bull in a china shop, he has already destroyed a LOT that was beautiful and valuable.
Just as war destroys.
And he is proclaiming more doom - even World War III. That was his Easter message.
Only in peace and cooperation can we preserve community.
It shocked and alarmed me how much of childhood literature became dystopian in the past couple of generations (Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and for the adults, The Handmaid's Tale). More shocking how prescient they are. Now if only we can rally to organize and fight back, defeat the evil and write a different, more inclusive future.
Excellent, Gary!
I refer you to Simon Rosenberg's work. He is on Substack with his blog Hominum.
"The Anti-MAGA Movement Is Gaining Steam/Get to 55 - From Tel Aviv to Nashville to Disney to Wisconsin, we are seeing something important happen - a growing willingness to say no to MAGA - “not obeying in advance” as I describe it in a new essay. I talked about this awakening on MSNBC with Joy Reid on Friday night, and in my paid subscribers briefing on Thursday.
This awareness that they have just gone too far, and it needs to stop, is part of what drove our remarkable victory in Wisconsin this past week. We got to 55% statewide, that magic number, something I think we need to shoot for nationally in 2024.
The premise of my “Get to 55” idea is that MAGA’s escalating extremism and awfulness is giving Democrats and pro-democracy forces an opportunity to go big, expand our coalition, grow demographically and geographically, and rout them next year .
Excellently written Gary but not quite right. Mr. Pearson and Mr. Jones can't be expelled from the TN House again for the same violation but could be on some other, possibly trumped up, charge. Your conclusion, as with Robert's, is spot on and it's time to go to work.
Thank You for this. I 100% agree. I knew that after trump's indictment the MAGAs would start throwing their weight around. It is their pattern.
Unfortunately Republicans are not accepting the rage they are creating in part because they don’t care and in many legislatures they cannot be defeated because of gerrymandering.
Fighting gerrymandering made a difference in the 2022 elections. I refer you to the NDRC.
We will become tougher and more clever. We can do this!
This is also a very fine response. The early alchemists thought that those who were being forged by fire would turn the raw material,, in this case, our current situation, into gold. We must persevere. It will take time and patience. We cannot become like those who would turn democracy into chaos, as our opponents would like.
Thanks for sharing this link. It really did boost my morale. Have a great day!
I am reluctant to suggest that the superb and highly nuanced mind of Robert Hubbell may have missed a critical aspect of the terrible descent into anti-democracy by one of our two major parties. Reluctant perhaps but willing to venture such a thought. There is indeed a litany of despicable actions taken in just the past week by the Republican Party since it fell under the suzerainty of one Donald J. Trump.
But we on the progressive side need to reflect on the damage the GOP has done and is doing to its electoral prospects by its radical attempts to thwart the will of the voters. We can and should take unalloyed joy in the huge margin achieved by the Judge Protasiewicz in Wisconsin this week. But we should also find it more comforting than alarming when the near-instantaneous response of Wisconsin Republicans is to suggest they can use their bloated and gerrymandered super-majorities in the state Legislature to immediately impeach a judge who was elected by a thumping majority, presumably over the veto of Gov. Evers, in the absence of even a hint of an impeachable action by the not-yet installed Judge. If they undertake such a ludicrously anti-democratic maneuver, they will suffer still more lopsided defeats come the next election.
Similarly, as shocking as the actions of a similar super-majority to expel two members of the Tennessee Legislature may be, that flagrantly undemocratic behavior will almost surely have negative consequences for the GOP even in deep Red Tennessee. And we can rightly decry the actions of a Trump-appointed Federal District Court Judge in Texas to impose his religion-based views on abortion on everyone in America, not just Texas. While his action may not survive judicial review, even by this ideologically unbalanced Supreme Court, we would see by November 2024 just how much damage GOP candidates all over the country will suffer from his attempts to impose on the entire nation a policy opposed by roughly 75% of voters. Yes, these actions are deeply disturbing. But the fact that these right-wing ideologues are driven to such extremes will prove the foundation for a strong and perhaps even permanent progressive majority in America.
Roger, I may have missed your point, but I read your post as a supportive addition to Robert's newsletter, not critical of it.
I don’t believe the Republican radical actions will change the minds of MAGA supporters or the racists Republicans in southern states who are not true MAGA believers. We are facing a major demographic shift where white male voters are aging and are afraid of losing power to people,of color who will be in a majority.
True, but not all of us are fearful of a future with other people in power provided that there is a demonstration of responsibility and adherence to the rule of law. We need to keep in mind that not all of the Republican lunatic fringe are old, male, or white, and make sure that the message of government that is fair to all and treats everyone equally under the law is the principle under which we operate. Support for the younger cohort of Democratic and liberal leaning independent officials and voters is essential to both short term and long term success.
Hear hear.
Mr. Berg,
I believe the true demographic split is not between older white males vs. younger people of color. My guess is that the actual division is between decent reasonable people and vicious unreasonable people. Call me a cockeyed optimist, but I am fairly sure the first group is FAR larger--and growing.
Roger the point I was trying to make was two fold. First the age demographics are changing from older to younger as our population and the baby Boomers pass on. Secondly the population composition will be a majority non white within the next few years which is frightening for many people. Decent Republicans and reasonable people have not stood up to the domestic terrorists yet and still support Trump.
Lynell,
You did not miss my point, but perhaps I phrased it in a slightly convoluted way. I was being totally supportive of Robert while also suggesting that he might have overlooked the silver lining behind the dark cloud of various forms of bizarre Republican behavior. Their continual ratcheting up of right-wing extremism is only making more Democratic voters repelled by their actions.
Robert, I think I can speak for most if not all of your subscribers when I say that you and your managing editor are very well-loved by us. Thank you so much for consistently righting our ship of democracy. We are doing well under your guidance. The WI Court just flipped, there was no Red Wave--we kept the Senate and lost many fewer seats than was antipated
Jennifer Adrian-Thiroux,
Indeed Robert Hubbell and Editor are beloved by this community.
Thank you, and I share your sentiment --the commitment to “. . . .keep our heads down, keep reading your letters [Today’s Edition]” as well as fellow compatriot writers who also encourage, interpret, and inspire us with the courage and determination to “stay the course.”
Beautiful.
Discouraged by Tennessee, by threats of impeachment for Judge Janet Protasiewicz and by just about everything else, browsed Victor E. Frankel’s Man’s Search For Meaning (Boston: 1992 edition) seeking guidance. The final sentence of the Afterword by William J. Winslade summarizes Frankel’s philosophy:
“The meaning of your life is to help others find the meaning of theirs.”
Staying positive, making the world a better place for others.
Purpose.
Keeping going.
Kind of helped.
Tennessee is a good example of the importance of keeping our heads down. One of them will be reinstated. Yes, there is a chance MAGA will retaliate, but for now, thanks to Robert Hubbell's cool-headed take on the constant barrage of battering and the consequences each episode may or may not represent (I am working on adopting Robert's cool-headedness), I am going with one reinstatement and hoping for the second one.
Justin Jones is reinstated. The emotional joyful crowd celebrating sang “This Little Light of Mine.”
Dahlia I a Lithwick expressed her cobcern that after TN, many states with Reoublican majorities might simply expell duly elected Representstives they don’t like, and Democracy could be undone.
Justin Jones reinstated this evening was described on msnbc as “A triumph of Democracy over a super majority.”
Then Representative Justin Jones reentered the Chamber.
A beautiful, historic moment.
(It’s late--sorry!) anticipated by Democratic pundits, a progressive was just elected mayor of Chicago, and the list goes on. Let’s just keep our heads down, keep reading your letters as well as Jessica’s Chop Wood, Carry Water, Dan Pfeiffer’s substack, Mark Elias’ Democracy Docket, Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles, Michael Moore’s Blue Dots in a Red Sea, Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American and Heather McGee’s book the Sum of Us on racism, and stay the course.
We need to do more than just read those wonderful writers. We need to get engaged any way we can. Write letters, postcards and let people know we are not going to accept their attack on our democracy and laws.
I so agree with you, Stephen. It is these writers who have helped to keep me grounded and extremely hopeful in my activism. From what I understand, only 1% of all Democrats are taking action. Does anyone have data on the actual percent of liberal activists? I can't help but think if each one of us activists convinced just one person to join us, we could double our number. I just week convinced my 92 year old aunt to write Vote Forward letters when the next campaign starts! I do know from Vote Forward data that we had many fewer activists for the WI Supreme Court campaign, about 20,000 letter writers, contrasted with the 200,000 writers for the Presidential campaign of 2020. So, 10%. One thing is for sure. At this point in our history, it is no longer enough to just vote.
We have the chance in the 2024 election to get to Simon Rosenberg's suggested 55% wins across the board, especially with the assault we are seeing from MAGA on our democracy, which ironically is helping our side. Simon believes that a 55% win is a mandate and anything less just leaves us too vulnerable. To that end, and to respond to Stephen Berg's call for action, I invite you all to join Fridays at 4--Letter Writing and More!, and online group which my husband and I have hosted for the past three years. We are a community of passionate patriots who write postcards and letters to get out the vote. Some of us do ballot curing and phone banking and texting. It is up to you how you get involved. We have been meeting online on Fridays at 4 pm PST almost every Friday of the year since May of 2020. Our campaigns have put us on the winning side of the 2020 Presidential election, the 2021 GA Senate run-offs, the 2022 GA run-off, the 2022 mid-terms and most recently the WI State Supreme Court election. Winning feels great!
Here is our link: https://www.mobilize.us/swingleft/event/274619/
My husband, Stephen Thiroux, and I hope to see you on Friday!
Jennifer
Thank you Jennifer for adding 2 more to my list.
Big smile here, Jennifer.
You, too, Nancy!
Robert, thank you for cranking out another positive newsletter to us while still trying to hold down the fort. Hopefully, whatever the doctor gave you and the managing editor to combat the nastiness will work. We will see ya tomorrow. Take care.
A most-excellent summary of the lawless (nice term for fascistic) activities of the modern-day Republican party.
The GOP is now a fascist party.
My first thoughts this morning in reading your newsletter, are that this started way before Trump. He merely stepped in at an opportune moment. Remember the Tea party? The religious right and the conservatives have been slowly and methodically invading the court systems, the legislature, and state governments. And there is no morality in dark money, but there’s plenty of it out there. They will get away with whatever they can as long as they can. The situations in Tennessee and Texas will fire up a movement in my opinion that will be like the civil rights movement in the 60s. This will not be an easy time but we cannot stand back and be silent. I for one I’ve been taking Simon Rosenberg and Jessica Craven’s advice and clearly using talking points. I believe it’s working because there’s no response when I defend the lies people are being fed. I hope that you and your Managing Editor heal quickly. Despite being sick, you wrote a hell of a newsletter this morning! Thank you Robert!
Abbott isn't establishing a new rule. He's resuscitating the old Southern rule that no white man can ever be found guilty of murdering a black man. It's all part of the creation of The New Confederacy.
These four events are all part of the Right's creation of The New Confederacy, the rule of which they intend to spread across the country to non-Confederate states though the aggressive use of the now thoroughly-corrupt "judiciary" as shown in the Religious edict masquerading as a "legal" decision issued by the Religious Nut Kacsmaryk in Texas.
AOC is right. It's time to tell these New Confederate Traitors," "your so-called court has ruled - let that scum-sucking traitor enforce his rule." Fuck you, traitors. We have no need of listening to the politicians' buttfuckers in black robes masquerading as "judges."
What the despicable Abbott did was further endorse vigilantism for some people. Both the murdered victim and the killer were white men with guns; his sympathy is for the one who fantasized on social media about killing protesters. This is Abbott’s permit-less and open carry wet dream. Kill who irritates you; call it self-defense.
Thanks for the update and correction. I hadn't been able to find the details.
The person he murdered was white, but protesting for BLM.
AOC. I’m not clear on this , is she saying: Sure your judge says (insert nonsense here) and now we ignore his so called ruling?
Excellent read, Robert. Lately, when I get a "bug," it lasts for weeks, unlike my younger years when three days was the tops. Someone who seems to be as fit as you and Jill are should not despair. Get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids! AND if need be, refrain from providing a few days' worth of Today's Edition Newsletter. I would rather be without you for a short time than to have you both succumb to this nasty virus, as you call it.
Democrats must not resort to the cowboy tactics of the GOP. If they do, they are dead.
Robert, I hope you and Jill feel better soon.
Because, in my view, an abiding absolute is that means are as important as the end, that means, in fact, shape the end, one passage from Today’s Edition especially resonated: Robert wrote, “We must not give in to the temptation to adopt the GOP anti-democratic tactics. We must fight our battle of resistance from within the walls and ramparts of democracy if we have any hope of saving it.”
Restated not nearly as eloquently, to preserve democracy, one must employ democratic means; for the end and the beginning are one. If the means are un-democratic, how can we, in the end, save democracy? I raise this question, in part, because we see the crippling effects of degraded democracies going on around us: in moments of crisis, democratic nations have acted increasingly illiberal, wherein the individual has become more and more subject to authority, an instrument, if you will, of others.
Peaceful demonstrations in Israel against authoritarian actions brought results. Tennessee legislators are feeling the outrage for their actions and are are backpedaling and concern citizens are rallying against the behavior. Our responses needs to be immediate and legal and effective.
Stephen, Note that each action you cite is an example of employing democratic means to achieve an increasingly just and democratic outcome. Accordingly, I sense you not only are reinforcing Robert’s point but also that you and I are in full agreement.
I like History and how Heather Cox Richardson teaches us. Yesterday's newsletter was how, with a blistering migraine, Grant met Lee to accept the South's surrender. His migraine instantly stopped. He graciously told Lee the North would feed the starving Southern soldiers.
Robert I hope you, your wife and family will recover completely and soon!
When your mind is more rested please take a moment to look at this. It will likely fly under the radar nationally but I hope you and your readers will bring more attention to it because it does have implications down the line nationally.
“The evidence now strongly suggests that Cotham’s fraud was part of a deliberate plan by the Republican Party of North Carolina to steal a State House seat through fraud. No longer electable in Mecklenburg county by winning voter support on their own merits, Republicans resorted to backing a Trojan horse candidate in Tricia Cotham. What the precise terms were of the backroom deal Cotham struck with Republican leaders, both before and after the election, we can only speculate.”
This has a huge effect on the whole state, not just Mecklinberg Co.
https://carolinaforward.org/blog/defrauding-voters-mecklenburg/
Everyone needs to hang Abbott’s decision around the neck of every single Republican governor, especially Ron DeSantis who fired a duly elected state prosecutor who signed a letter saying he wouldn’t prosecute low level “crimes” including abortion. Never mind that that law wasn’t even on the books yet. We need to challenge them directly about whether they support the rule of law or Abbott.
An excellent article on the demented so called judge’s decision on the next morning pills!
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/09/opinion/abortion-pill-case-decision.html
“The Friday-night ruling by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk purporting to stay the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone for use in early abortions is a travesty — for women’s health care, principles of democracy, notions of judicial impartiality and the rule of law.
This case is wildly atypical for a number of reasons. Under well-settled legal principles, the plaintiffs in the case — a coalition of anti-abortion organizations and physicians — do not have the right to be in court asking for this remedy at all. As commentators from across the political spectrum have noted, the plaintiffs lack standing, a core requirement of any lawsuit in federal court.”
Judge shopping at its ugliest!
“The umbrella organization that is the lead party in this case, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, incorporated itself in Amarillo, Texas — where Judge Kacsmaryk sits — just weeks after Dobbs.”