THREAD - a reality check, for current/future public servants:

No matter what you do, the GOP is going to call you communist (child care?), socialist, radical.

They’re going to run ads featuring you and the most high-profile left-leaning figure of the day.

No matter…

1/
…what your real record is, they’re going to lie about it. (You’re actually doing well if that’s what they even focus on.)

These days, they’ll falsely call you a criminal and leave voters w the impression that you may go to jail. (One of their favs.)

2/
Even if you vote with them 75% of the time, they’ll take the 25% and use THAT to call you a communist, or socialist, or radical.

If you’re Black, they’ll definitely darken your photo to scare people.

They’ll also accuse you of doing things that THEY do. For example, in..

3/
..Ohio, they’ve been crushing police budgets for a decade as part of raiding local government funding in order to pay for tax cuts most in those towns will never see.

But they will say YOU are the one “defunding the police” when you aren’t

Or they will claim carving out…

4/
exceptions to the filibuster is “radical,” except when they do it, or make up other rules that serve their agenda that they instantly oppose when the same rule would serve your’s.

And they’ll laugh when you call them hypocrites, as if they care in their quest for power.

5/
They will make up issues that someone far away found tested well & bring it to your election even if it’s wholly inapplicable.

Like saying Critical Race Theory is taught in Ohio high schools or below, when THEY control the state board of education that sets the curriculum,

6/
and not a single school district in Ohio has CRT in its curriculum.

But somehow, they are going to stop it.

And when confronted on the facts that it’s not taught in Ohio schools, they’ll simply lie about it.

6/
And the sitting Governor will spend years in court—on a strange personal quest—to ensure that the “right to lie” in campaign ads is protected speech and the law of Ohio and the country.

And when he succeeds, you can’t stop any of these false attacks…

7/
…except through costly lawsuits that will be heard months or years after the campaign has ended.

So, knowing that whatever you do, none of it matters because they’re gonna lie anyway, what do you do?

Simple….

8/
One, be ready to fight.

Two, and far more importantly, do what you know is RIGHT.

Like pass voting rights, despite the illegitimate claim that the filibuster should stand in the way of the Constitutional guarantee that democracy be protected in states.

That way…

9/
when they come with all those attacks against you, full of lies and nonsense, no matter what you do, you have something you can tell your voters that you actually did for THEM!

Get it done!

END
Epilogue:

And, in your brief time on this earth, in your brief window of public service, you will have actually made a difference.

And that will be your legacy.

• • •

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More from @DavidPepper

31 Dec 21
A THREAD as we end ‘21

Sometime in late April/early May, aghast at attacks on democracy happening in OH & statehouses across the US, I drafted a tweet that said something about how statehouses were behaving not as Laboratories of Democracy, but as Laboratories of Autocracy

1/
But I never pressed “tweet”.

As soon as I typed the words on my phone, it occurred to me that what’s happening in this country—what people in Ohio and others are going through—is so disturbing, it merited more than just a tweet.

Maybe an op-Ed.

So I started writing more.

2/
Which became a chapter. Then another. Then another.

As I wrote, I grew more disturbed by three things.

First, how things kept getting worse over the course of the year.

Second, how similar what’s happening now is to the darkest moments in our nation’s history.

And…

3/
Read 20 tweets
27 Dec 21
THREAD

Wanna know why Ohio’s Secretary of State LaRose is so mad about the Freedom to Vote Act?

Because it would stop him from doing this:

1/
And this:

2/
And this…

3/
Read 5 tweets
15 Dec 21
NEW THREAD/VIDEO:

Look! A traffic jam…intentionally created for voters…who are disproportionately Black

It happened because OHs Sec-State required that the only drop box location of a county be at the ONLY in-person vote location of that county

Impressed, other states..

1/
…are passing laws that would add the same inevitable traffic jams to their early vote locations

Georgia, for example, had many drop boxes in 2020. They were used by countless voters; but…far more by Black voters who voted for Biden.

So Georgia passed a law to not only…

2/
…reduce them, but to co-locate them with early vote centers.

Why? Traffic jams.

Intentional traffic jams. For disproportionately voters of color.

Iowa and Florida passed the same limitation.

A Wisconsin bill would do the same.

Texas banned drop boxes entirely.

3/
Read 8 tweets
14 Dec 21
Wow.

Reading the brief challenging the Ohio GOP Congressional maps.

Proves that they used 2 sets of books—an internal (real) one to show members their districts were being rigged; then an external one to falsely make those districts appear competitive: supremecourt.ohio.gov/pdf_viewer/pdf…
If the GOP enacted map had been in place for the 2020 election, Republicans would’ve won 13 out of 15 US House seats.
There were 5,000 simulated plans created using the new criteria in the Ohio Constitution….the map enacted by the GOP created more GOP districts than any of those 5,000 simulations!!
Read 5 tweets
9 Dec 21
THREAD

New WHITEBOARD/VIDEO

The top 10 things those attacking democracy are MOST excited about.

(Hint: it shows us exactly what we need to do to fight FOR democracy)

Part 1: The Top 10-6

1/4
Top 10 Countdown (Part 2):

The Top 5 Things those attacking democracy are most excited about

Keep going…

2/4
Top 10 Countdown (Part 3):

Why it Matters!

It helps shape the gameplan of what we must do.

Watch and share.

3/4
Read 4 tweets
11 Nov 21
🚨🚨🚨

THREAD/VIDEO: anatomy of grotesque lies by Ohio’s Secretary of State

After losing in every court in which he made a sham legal argument, LaRose is still lying about it.

He’s also lying about how it all happened.

Here’s the video. Listen to every word. Carefully:

1/
This is master class stuff by LaRose. He’s so comfortable & casual lying about something over such a long period of time. So publicly. So provably false.

It’s disturbing.

But it’s also important to call out dishonesty. This thread will point out every lie. W receipts.

2/
Re drop boxes, LaRose starts by saying “this is something where the legislature has to weigh in on this”

🚨 Bald-faced lie

We took him to court over this lie; every court ruled that this assertion is false. That he has the power to add drop boxes in multiple locations.

3/
Read 24 tweets

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