Good Voter Registration Day, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Coffee!
Voting is your superpower. Vote every time you get a chance to, from School Boards to President. Make sure your registration is correct and you know where to vote. Never miss a primary so you can choose who will be on the ballot then vote for the chosen candidate even if it’s not the ideal one - the opponent is far worse. And every time vote BLUE. Up and down the ballot.
Help others to vote. Everyone you know needs to vote. Make sure they know their superpower too. This is it. 49 days left. We got work to do.
We understand the assignment and know the consequences of defeat. We’re not going back!
That slogan is with us since day one of Kamala Harris campaign and it’s a reminder WE are the point of this election. We the people.
Women will in all probability decide this election so they can live without fear of becoming objects a step away from being denied ALL their rights in a world where men will decide everything for them but all of us, regardless of gender or age, will decide this election so we can have a better future. The abstractions are important to define our battle: love against hate; democracy against fascism; progress against stagnation. But it’s fundamental to point out what they represent.
How decisions come to be implemented in our democracy is the key. It’s not as complicated as it seems. Our three branches of government are all involved in the process and each is equally important but one of them is key and derives from how well the other two work: the Judiciary.
Locally you MUST vote for judges who uphold the rule of law fairly and without prejudice. You have a say in it so don’t waste it. It starts there.
One of those judges you get to choose may one day be chosen for higher offices and that choice is also yours to make as you vote for the person who nominates them and those who approve it. In the end, you have the superpower to choose every single federal judge and Supreme Court justice. We must reform the judicial system from the bottom up and to do that we don’t just need a president. We need a Congress. All the laws we need to improve and create depend on this.
Looking at the big picture you see how much trouble we’re in already. Take a look at what is happening in Florida with Judge Cannon. She’s on a fast track to replace Thomas or Alito in the Supreme Court if we lose this election and that is just one of the many judges like her waiting to be appointed to federal courts - especially appeals courts. The court system is the first thing any authoritarian seeks to subvert by turning it into the enabler of his/her authority.
That process started a long time ago and it has been exposed in all its ugliness since 2016. While we were all distracted by gas prices and other infamous “kitchen table” issues the GOP put in place the foundation for a complete take over of the Judiciary branch, that thing no one cared about but them. Well we sure care about it now. Is it too late? The fact I am writing about it tells you it’s not. It will be too late when we can’t talk about it anymore.
Behind every decision that affects our lives is a judge and behind every judge there is a political process. Judges are not Gods that just show up one day like they dropped from Olympus; they are the result of our decisions when we vote. By all means consider the issues you discuss around your kitchen table, if you have one, just make sure to include our Judiciary during brunch. We all depend on it.
Every democracy worthy of its name depends on the rule of law to exist and is as advanced as the rule of law permits it to be. It is supposed to help us progress without excess. It’s the one check without which all balance is lost. For many years we took it for granted and expected it to function without our engagement, as if it wasn’t up to us to determine how it works and who is in it. Now we see how much guilt we share in its undoing. And it’s not too late to fix it.
We are on the ballot this November. The reason we call it Roevember is because we must fix the rule of law in this country. So we can have one worth living in. Let’s give Harris the means she needs to fix it: a House majority AND a Senate majority. And don’t rest after that; make sure those we elect understand what they were elected for. We have a lot of work ahead and it doesn’t stop on November 5. It just starts there.
We’re not going back!
