Thread by @LauraRoslin2017

For my fellow midwestern white college educated women friends. Grab a cup and let’s chat.
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There’s a lot going on and most of it sounds horrid. It’s completely understandable to just want to turn away because you have other things to do. Between kids, work, the garden, church, and aging parents, who has time for anything else?
You need to make the time and here’s why.

A focused effort is underway to break down the structures, policies, and norms that protect families and women. Education cuts. Environmental protections rolled back. Tax cuts that haven’t trickled into our wallets. Healthcare costs rising and coverage at risk.

You know prices are going up at the grocery, gas pump, health insurance, utilities, school fees for the kids, and elder care. Wages aren’t keeping up. You know there is a proliferation in school shootings, bullying, racial/ethnic tensions, and denying women’s reproductive rights.

This is happening because conservative Republicans hold most of the elected offices in our country and they have turned their backs on American families. They are more concerned about their donors than their constituents. More concerned with their ideology than with the facts.

With talk of more tax cuts for the rich, less government spending on healthcare, new tariffs, a trade war underway, and a vacancy on the Supreme Court, it’s only going to get worse.

We want our kids to go to well funded schools with teachers who are paid a decent wage. We don’t want to get a text from our kids that there is a gunman with an assault rifle in their school and they’re afraid they are going to die.

We want our parents to get the medical care they need and live their senior years with dignity. They shouldn’t go without nursing care because congress cut the Medicare budget. They shouldn’t need to make choices between food and medicine.

Our daughters and sons shouldn’t be denied contraception access and burdened with raising a family before they can finish their education and start their careers. Our sisters should never have to put their lives at risk because they cannot access reproductive health services.

We can’t go back to insurance companies charging women higher premiums and denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, which kept so many of us in dead end jobs.

We are concerned the government is reversing policies that keep our waterways and air clean, our food inspected for contamination, and our national parks free from industrial development. We know the importance of facts, data, and science to solve problems even though they don’t.

Our neighbors shouldn’t lose their jobs and we shouldn’t pay more at the store because of misguided policies on trade and tariffs. Farmers and other small businesses shouldn’t have to go bankrupt because they can’t export their goods.

We raise our kids to be kind and respectful. We teach them to value others regardless of their skin color, ethnicity, gender, disability, or where they came from. We tell them character counts. We teach them to be helpful, tell the truth, and work together.

All of this leads us to what we can do to make sure the things we value are protected and a part of the structures, policies, norms, and laws of our country.
We call our elected officials.
We protest.
But most importantly...
We vote.

You know the Republican Party has lost its way.
The Democratic Party champions the things we value.
This year, make sure you get out to vote and #VoteBlue
Get your friends and family to join you.
When we vote, we win.
And we can win a victory for the future of our families.

Good chat. ☕️