🧵1/ This #IndependenceDay, let’s talk about how to keep our democracy. This is not hyperbolic—right *NOW* the GOP is enacting an *ongoing* coup 50+ years in the making. #53PickUp#VoteBlue
2/ Odds are you don’t have a strong understanding of US civics because our government didn’t *WANT* you to understand it. The GOP’s most reliable voting block are uneducated whites. They want it easier to dupe voters with diversions & propaganda. 🧵:
3/ It’s also easier to fool people into thinking the Democrats are purposely or incompetently messing things up if your audience doesn’t know how civics works. The GOP & enemy countries have massive & effective propaganda networks to turn public opinion.
4/ Read on for how we fix this but the TL;DR is VOTE W/THE MAJORITY OF BLACK WOMEN. Look up polling statistics & contact county orgs for local races. BW are the most engaged & discerning voting block—they’ve met/vetted candidates for the best chess move:
5/ Which brings us to: EACH election is a chess move. Most voters pass up their turn (or are flailing off to the side wondering why their “rock, paper, scissors” hand gestures have 0 effect). GOP use mostly propaganda/cheating but if we organize we’ll still win.
6/ Chess is complex—like our government for 332,403,650 pluralistic citizens. Our Democratic Republic is flawed but the best idea anyone has come up with YET. It’s complicated but also a simple NUMBERS GAME. #CIVICS#VoteBlueDownBallot
7/ IT CAN WORK! The idea of “do nothing Dems” is mythical propaganda. Look at states with Dem majorities at the state level for models of what we need nationally. 🧵:
8/ The GOP is the minority & can only win by cheating. They’ve had decades to perfect their methods (voter suppression, propaganda, robot calls, look up ES&S voting machines, etc.) so chess move #1 is a #53PickUp to get voting rights secured.
9/ These are the “most flippable” national senate seats in 2022, including seats we already have but need to keep. Adopt at least 3 to get across the finish line for the #53PickUp:
10/ A #53PickUp to carve out the filibuster for voting rights *is doable* & it’s PLAN A because anything we do outside of our democratic laws opens more doors for GOP cheating. #DoSomething
11/ In addition to a #53PickUp, Plan A also includes #KeepTheHouse & flipping swing state legislatures/governors blue to block the corrupt SCOTUS from overriding the electorate.
12/ If we win these majorities in the 2022 midterms which let us win again in future elections, we’ll be poised to make the bold changes required to keep our democracy safe w/less chance of it ending in civil war.
13/ Let me reiterate that PLAN A might keep us out of civil war. PLAN B likely exists somewhere in the WH but we aren’t yet privy to it. The last “easy” way to protect SCOTUS from falling to extremists was voting blue in 2016. IT’S THAT SERIOUS, please believe the warnings. 🧵:
18/ Which brings us back to propaganda. Most of the negative things ppl believe about Hillary Clinton originate from the misogynist GOP when she had the gall to try to get M4A as a “lowly” 1st lady. Terms like “the establishment” have similar origins.
/19 Their tactics are well-documented & they have had time to infiltrate ALL the major news networks/newspapers. Be skeptical of all sources & especially cults of personality. Check facts w/trusted ppl & look at actual political accomplishments.🧵:
20/ YOUR vote is powerful. The GOP, enemy states, & the authoritarian left want you to throw it away. If anyone tells you they’re the only one you can trust, you better look at their ACTIONS instead of WORDS. 🧵:
21/ 👹🤖 farms & chaos agents descend on every controversial topic to try to depress the vote using psychological warfare. ANYONE who implies you throw away your next chess move 🗳 is sus.
22/ They’ll try to depress voter turnout by telling you it’s hopeless or the huge lie that “both sides are the same.” They’ll tell you Democrats intentionally don’t pass laws we need instead of admitting we didn’t have the numbers again. 🧵:
25/ They’ll tell you Democrats are ignoring options like building abortion clinics on federal lands/sovereign indigenous nations when that’s not a viable (or ethical) solution. 🧵:
26/ They’ll say @harrisonjaime & the @DNC are doing nothing/not taking things seriously but he’s working hard & when he delivers a strongly worded statement, he MEANS it.
27/ They’ll act like they don’t know that Democrats keep trying to pass campaign finance reform—the only way to do it is to elect enough Dems which REQUIRES 💰💰💰 to beat the GOP at their own game (+ check if the accusers are *also* fundraising off Roe).
28/ They’ll tell you that @POTUS is ignoring the problem or not taking it seriously enough. If you listen to his wording, you can tell multiple plans are privately on the table in addition to what he’s currently doing & that this is a top priority. 🧵:
31/ They will lie that President Biden has done nothing at all as president when his achievements under such a slimly tied & frankly hostile senate are unprecedented. 🧵:
32/ They will lie that Vice President Harris has done nothing when she is arguably the most accomplished VP we’ve ever had & the least fairly represented in the media. 🧵:
33/ The media will ignore, play down, “bothsides,” distract, & interview the wrong ppl on the issues. Tragically, we lost @EricBoehlert in April but voices like his calling out media inaccuracies are desperately needed. 🧵:
35/ All these things are techniques to depress the vote because they know if we show up, WE WIN. Watch out for people who say Democrats haven’t “earned” their vote against fascism. They need incentive to stop Nazis? Remember, EACH election is a chess move.
36/ Even though a functioning government for this many people is *seemingly* impossibly complicated, it’s also still a SIMPLE NUMBERS GAME of votes in congress that YOU are needed to help fix. 🧵:
37/ If you feel alone, GET INVOLVED. You’re not! From the epic @staceyabrams to the smallest county volunteer, we have power in numbers & the GOP is SCARED.
38/ If you’re panicking anyway, turn that energy into action!
a) register to vote/check your registration is still valid
b) help others register to vote
c) volunteer
d) fundraise
e) fight disinfo/apathy by talking to ppl IRL & online
39/ This ongoing situation will evolve & it’s very unlikely we’ve seen the worst of it. Understanding civics in a day is like trying to learn enough to be your own architect in 24 hrs—follow trustworthy ppl like the ones linked here ⬇️⬆️ to stay informed.
40/ We will not give up our democracy to people who want to rule like Putin. This is the United States of America. We invented freedom. #VOTE#GOTV#53PickUp 🧵:
/42 This is the new TL;DR, you can’t miss watching this brilliant & hilarious summary of why we need to #vote: tiktok.com/t/ZTRNd2fAw/?k…
/43 This entire 🧵 is 🎯 about the myth of, “I’m just offering healthy criticism of Democrats” from blue checks & media. It’s rarely based in honesty & absolutely voter suppression propaganda holding back the change we need. #53PickUp
/44 Be suspicious of anyone who spends their time bashing Democrats while democracy itself hangs in the balance instead of placing the heat where it belongs on no-platform, Christo-fascist, white supremacist wannabe dictators. #VoteBlueToSaveDemocracy#VoteBlue
/45 This analogy is 🎯🎯🎯. EVERY. ELECTION. IS. A. CHESS. MOVE. Every single one & we’ve been letting the GOP run the board when we just don’t show up. #Vote#VoteBlueToSaveDemocracy#53PickUp
1) #VOTE w/the majority of Black women. 2) If you don’t even follow gov social media accounts, pls STFU w/the *MYTH* that Dems need better messaging (they need honest messengers instead of propagandists). 3) @POTUS was prepared!!!!!
/48 It can’t be overstated how much the combo of removing extensive civics education from k-12 schools plus disinfo to make the electorate blame the wrong party for their woes is a GOP strategy. Here’s an excellent personal account of how this happens to the best of us. 🧵:
/49 Learn to teach yourself or others how to spot fake news with this media literacy resource. Includes the history of how our media eroded to this point in the first place: #FakeNews#Propaganda
/52 It is a myth when people claim President Obama had a supermajority he didn’t use (usually used as “proof” Democrats don’t actually care). The reality is these lies are used by the GOP to depress the vote so that we never have enough seats in congress. dailykos.com/story/2020/3/2…
/53 When I said at the beginning that we either enact the “Plan A” strategy or “Plan B” is likely to be civil war, this is what I mean. We are almost out of “legal” avenues to stop the coup & soon only force will be viable… against a gun-worshipping cult. Read all this 🧵:
Hurricane #Helene in pictures 🧵 bc everyone needs to understand how SHOCKINGLY anomalous & consequential it is to have a real #hurricane make landfall all the way to the Blue Ridge Mnts & foothills.
I’m from Greenville, here’s my son & his cousin with the now-submerged sign.
Okay… I’ve tried multiple times to post additional pics of my own but it seems the 2 bars of cell service if I sit right next to the front window is over so instead, here’s a series of other ppl’s images to make ppl aware of the devastation of #Helene /2
This is perhaps the worst images *so far* because the majority of us in the region still have no power/cell service. Reports of multiple small mountain towns like Chimney Rock, NC being entirely wiped out.
🧵
Let’s talk about why text banking is important & how to do it effectively as a volunteer.
In 2022, I sent 1000s of texts to 25 states for 9 senate candidates, 35 house candidates, 15 governor candidates, + dozens of ballot initiatives & state races. This is what I learned: 1/
Before I get into data & tips I want to address something I see a lot—ppl saying texting (or postcards) are useless so ppl should only be volunteering for door/phone canvassing—this is TOO REDUCTIVE.
We need BOTH… 2/
In case you didn’t see it, check out this clip of Glennon Doyle talking to WW for Harris on one of the recent Zoom calls. It’s my favorite of all the guest speeches except for her lack of nuance about postcards (or texting):
🧵Dear fellow clears, especially fellow WW, I have a few things to say to us. Note these are things I continuously have to remind myself, too. I’m saying it for me as well as you & am going to use myself as the example here:
Let Black ppl, especially Black women, be human. 1/
First & foremost, I ask you to please take just a moment to read this article in it’s entirety, it’s such an important skill for being human & letting others be human: psychcentral.com/health/circle-… /2
Second, please stick with me & watch this 2 minute video—I promise it’s worth it:
🧵My nearly 2 y/o likely has health issues that have resulted in recent rapid weight loss. Our pediatrician just tried to admit him to the hospital for tube feeding (I’m terrified) & there’s no beds because of Covid. The nurse practitioner started crying. We’re on a waiting list.
I’m sitting in a nearby parking lot because my son is so lethargic he fell asleep as soon as we left trying not to just hate antivaxxers. I’m supposed to just wait near the phone in case a bed opens up. But...
Even if he gets a bed I now have the fear of my vulnerable little son getting Covid on top of his current problems. I’m so frustrated & scared. PLEASE if you are vaccine hesitant, go get vaccinated so innocent people like my baby son aren’t put in this position.