#KitchenTableIssues
54% of Virginians who voted in 2020 voted for Joe Biden. It matters that a Trump-inspired mob tried & may try again to nullify their votes. 20% of Virginians are Black. At the kitchen table Black families talk w/their kids abt how to survive police violence.
Young people are at the table trying to figure whether they will ever get out from the mountain if debt that comes from student loans.They talk abt whether they have a future in light of our inaction in the face of climate change.
Young women - especially you g Moms - are at the kitchen table & in the streets speaking angry about their right to control their own bodies and the whether & when to have children in light of the recent SCOTUS decision. You’ve proposed a new ban on abortions in Virginia.
There are many kitchens in a country as diverse as ours. It’s infuriating to hear politicians - Republican and Democrat - and the media converge on a definition of “kitchen table issues” that is so narrowly defined.
The ultimate kitchen-table issue is very real concern of parents for the safety of their children who must participate in active shooter drills b/c of the unfettered access to weapons of war. Not CRT (not taught in K-12) or banning books about trans people. Let’s get real.
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It’s happening again. We’re caught in the “every 4 years” election cycle. But there are elections THIS YEAR. If you want political power & to have your voice heard focus this yr on the school board, the D.As, sheriff elections, judges, Secys of State, Govs.Pls.
This year the House and Senate will decide what gets done on the economy, voting rights, abortion, immigration and climate change. I hear ppl saying “but we voted in 2020.” Yes, for President. It was awesome. But the House & Senate are even more impt at this moment. Why?
Think of the executive actions the SCOTUS has struck down recently - CDC COVID requirements, EPA climate change rules. Congress will need to act in critical areas - voting, abortion, climate change, child tax credit extension, immigration if there’s to be fundamental change.
I’m gonna say this before things get out of hand on legal SCOTUS. B/c it is true that many brilliant attys & profs, especially women, have been predicting this moment since 2018. The voices of the “calm down” folks (largely men) were given greater prominence and credibility.
#AppellateTwitter presented the Court and the cases that many of us were litigating as just part of the elaborate secret world of elite litigators. They assigned complex, tactical motives to the Court’s every decision & assumed good faith.
So let me make sure we’re clear that it was civil rights lawyers who have been ringing the alarm for DECADES. When many focused on Roberts’ brilliance & charm. When we took heat from our own community & opposed Justice Thomas BEFORE the Anita Hill allegations.
The reason you can’t think of a way out of this democratic free fall is b/c we need radical structural reform to the functioning of all 3 branches of govt in this country. Extremists have found the keys to gaming & hijacking the system - in Congress, the White House, & SCOTUS.
We have witnessed the vulnerability of the rules that govern each branch of govt. which have been weaponized to herd us toward minority rule. Do we have the boldness & courage to reset the rules of govt so that they serve democracy? Cause that’s the project. It begins w/power.
But if we hope to remain a democracy then we need to be prepared to fundamentally reset key aspects of how we’ve allowed our govt. to function (or malfunction)- Congress, the Presidency, SCOTUS. Healthy democracies learn & adjust.Can we? I don’t see how we make it any other way.
What can you do? 1. Mutual aid - donate to orgs that offer support for women seeking abortion esp those who need to travel to another state. 2. Make sure the ppl especially young ppl around you know that you are available to help confidentially if they need abortion care.
3. Attend peaceful protests happening across the country. Mobilizing empowers us & reminds us & them of our potential power. 4. Flood the offices of your state reps NOW (strategic visits, phone calls, texts, tweets) and tell them to oppose any state restrictions on abortion.
5. Organize at the local level with groups focused on strengthening the voice of progressive women and girls to advocate. 6. Make sure your D.A. knows that how you will vote in their next election if they participate in prosecuting women who seek abortion care or those who assist
THREAD: Barr chuckling & distancing himself from Trump’s post-election “detachment from reality,” is really quite chilling. B/c Barr encouraged & abetted Trump’s obsession w/nonexistent voter fraud for months before the election. Here’s Barr in Sept 2020. washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Here’s Barr in June 2020 saying that mail-in voting “opens the floodgates of fraud,” even though there is no credible evidence of substantial mail-in voter fraud. Barr voted by mail himself in 2012 & 2019. cbsnews.com/news/mail-in-v…
In July Barr attacked mail-in voting again, this time saying that foreign governments would themselves mail-in phony ballots. Again, mail-in voting has been used for decades w/o evidence or suggestion of this concern. cnn.com/2020/07/29/pol…
So tired of this fiction: “it was all so much better when we had “prayer in the schools.” Here we are in 1960. It’s 2 yrs before the Supreme Court strikes down public school-sponsored prayer. This is outside an elementary school in Rep. Scalise’s hometown of New Orleans.