If you’re experiencing campaign fatigue, you’re not alone, but we can’t afford to let our motivation falter, so I offer you this little pep talk about the recent past, the present, and the potential future we can set in motion in just 67 days. (1/x)
The past 4 years have been a grind. It’s easy to forget just how close we came to enormous, tangible leaps forward. By Nov 2016, we had voter suppression on the ropes. Courts all over were striking down Photo ID laws. GOP legislatures were beginning to give up. (2/x)
We were within sight of keeping the White House and taking the Senate, which would have resulted in a pro-voter, pro-democracy majority on the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, as we all know, that didn’t happen. (3/x)
but as President @BarackObama reminded us in his first public remarks after leaving the White House, “elections are commas, not periods.” (4/x)
While there have certainly been low times and plenty of frustration, our movement as a whole has never let being out of power disempower us. From the women’s march in January 2017 to taking the House in 2018, this movement has refused to quit. In fact, it’s still building. (5/x)
Just months ago, “black lives matter” was still so provocative a statement that less than 1 in 3 viewed it favorably. Today, every brand is desperate to at least appear to embrace BLM. BLM is currently twice as popular as the President who built his career on birtherism. (6/x)
If you doubt progressives have moved the mindset of America forward in the past 4 years, I’d remind you that when an African-American female from California was added to the ticket, it was considered the smart, safe, and least surprising possible outcome of the Veepstakes. (7/x)
Yes, in this present reality, Trump and nearly all of the electeds in his party have done enormous damage to America. That is a fact. But we are coming to the potential conclusion of the present. We are once again on the precipice of a future that changes everything. (8/x)
While we do not have voter suppression on the ropes as we did in 2016, we have catapulted issues once thought about only by law and policy nerds into the mainstream of American political life. (9/x)
We have changed the game on voter suppression. Four years ago, even your relatives who always voted Democratic had no problem with Photo ID laws. Today, those same relatives are outraged by attacks on vote-by-mail and make small donations every month to @LetAmericaVote. (10/x)
Once again, we have a chance to take the Senate, and once again, there will be changes to the Supreme Court in the next four years. But this time, we have the House, and we have a chance to grow that majority. (11/x)
We know America might not survive another term under this band of thieves and insecure bullies, but the reason you should keep dialing, texting, and talking to every friend or acquaintance you have about this election is not just that we can’t take four more years of this. (12/x)
No, the reason we’re going to sprint through the finish line and win this thing in the biggest possible way we can is that if we do, we have the chance to remake America for the better. I know it’s a slogan, but @JoeBiden is right. We could #BuildBackBetter. (13/x)
We’re talking about the future now, so let’s do a little visualization. With the White House, the Senate, and the House, we could make the impossible possible. (14/x)
Competent leadership out of this pandemic. Passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act as an appetizer, with an entrée to follow that could include everything from DC Statehood to making election day a national holiday. Real campaign reform. We could actually @StopBigMoney. (15/x)
Gun safety laws. Real ones, like an assault weapons ban or a repeal of legal immunity for gun makers, just to name two. (16/x)
Criminal justice reform! A bipartisan consensus on was forming in Congress before Trump took office, and now it could be reactivated, and if not, it could be passed into law anyway. (17/x)
Housing laws focused on racial justice. Heck, housing laws that make housing more AFFORDABLE and just no matter who you are.
We could have - in so many different respects - SERIOUS economic stimulus for actual humans, not just corporations. (18/x)
We could have - in so many different respects - SERIOUS economic stimulus for actual humans, not just corporations. (18/x)
Investments in clean energy. Environmental standards that actually fight climate change. Not just slow it down, but actually fight it. (19/x)
Empowering organized labor again instead of trying to drive them into extinction. Breaking up massive companies like Amazon that have no business being so big under our anti-trust laws. (20/x)
If we win it all, we can finally debate what kind of universal healthcare we want without that debate feeling academic or about as consequential as a student congress tournament. The outcome of that debate will become law. And then we can fight about how to make it better! (21/x)
Police reform with teeth and a justice department charged with diligently enforcing it. We can end private prisons, legalize marijuana, reform bail, and completely change life for our previously incarcerated citizens. (22/x)
Meaningful investment in communities of color, to include incentives for private industry that go waaaaay beyond checking the box. We could do things that make the great society look like amateur hour, and we could focus them like a laser on closing the racial wealth gap. (23/x)
If we win the White House and the Senate, we can end private prisons, legalize marijuana, reform bail, and completely change life for returning citizens. We could make America a place where people get second chances. (24/x)
We could change tax laws and banking regulations so that it’s no longer so much easier for the rich to make money than it is for everyone else. We could rebuild the financial system from the ground up and create something that makes some damn sense. (25/x)
We could, as one fictional presidential candidate once said, “make schools feel like cathedrals,” and as every politician ever has said, “pay teachers like the professionals they are.” (26/x)
We can build bridges and roads and we can do it while paying a good wage. We can expand national service so that Americans know one another again. We can cure cancer. In fact, if we elect @JoeBiden, I believe that’s exactly what we’ll do. (27/x)
We can end the student debt crisis. We can give farmers the power again over massive corporations, beginning with once again labeling where the hell our food actually comes from. (28/x)
We can have a President that WANTS to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and fights for it, that protects a woman’s right to choose and appoints judges who feel the same. (29/x)
We can get serious about caring for our veterans – all our veterans, no matter their discharge status or time in service. And by the way, for veterans and everyone else, we can end the distinction between mental and physical health when it comes to health benefits. (30/x)
We can have immigration policy meant to do more than just stoke hatred and incite fear to win elections. We can treat people humanely no matter what they look like or in which country they were born. (31/x)
This is just a fraction of what we CAN and WILL do if we keep putting in the work for 67 more days. This is not symbolism we’re fighting for, and it’s not just about preventing more damage. This is an opportunity.
So let’s go win this whole damn thang. 67 days. Leave no doubt.
So let’s go win this whole damn thang. 67 days. Leave no doubt.
