Showing My Work
After a rough week, let's talk about how to fight back.
It’s been one of those weeks again, the kind that makes me want to turn the internet off, to toss my phone into the East River, to flee into the woods with a pile of books and a garden full of tomatoes and absolutely no way of receiving the news aside from carrier pigeon or message in a bottle.
This week was Independence Day, a holiday that often feels more fraught than it should, happening so soon after the Supreme Court decision season ends. SCOTUS gave us a doozy this year, gutting the power of experts in federal agencies to interpret laws and giving it over to a judiciary at best filled with experts on the law and little else. Oh, and there was that minor matter of turning Republican presidents into de facto kings by giving them full immunity for “official acts” while in office, severely limiting the evidence that can be used to prosecute them for unofficial acts, and suggesting the courts should be used to interpret the difference. This means, of course, that the conservative Supreme Court will be able to grant immunity at will to Republican presidents while denying it to Democratic presidents who want to, say, I don’t know, erase student loan debt or change cruel immigration restrictions.
This week also further inflamed discourse about whether or not Biden should stay in the presidential race. Unfortunately, in spite of my many wonderful subscribers, my newsletter from last week did not quite have the reach needed to change the conversation about Biden’s candidacy into one of good faith, with a foundation in care for our democracy and each other. And while Biden has been out speaking at rallies and has given a long televised interview, he hasn’t managed to change the conversation either.
But it turns out I wrote about the question of whether or not Biden should run again already, and I stand by what I said.
I still don’t know. But I do know that no matter who runs for president we’ll keep fighting. I do know that we’ve done more with less. I know that there are state laws to pass or kill, city councils deciding police budgets that need us to push them towards social services and away from more guns on the street. I know that Biden didn’t win in 2020 all on his own, and that whoever comes next, whether it’s in 2024 or 2028 will need us to show up, not just to volunteer, but to push them and this country in the direction that leads us all to be happier, healthier, and safer. I know that it feels sometimes like our destiny is in the hands of those with the most fame and the most power. But I also know that there are more of us, and when we show up we can do things never before seen.
For me, this has always been the point of Independence Day too. Not to celebrate the founding of a nation steeped in slavery and built on stolen land, but to celebrate the people of this country who, from the beginning, have never stopped fighting for a true democracy. In every era, at every moment, there have been people in this country fighting to keep its promise, to ensure that we are all truly equal, able to thrive, and make a home for ourselves. In that spirit, I’ve decided to show my work a little, and walk you through what I’ve been doing the past week to fight for democracy:
On Tuesday (July 2), I did a phone bank with Sister District from 8pm to 10pm ET. Sister District focuses on key state legislature candidates, and on Tuesday we were calling for Rep. Judy Schwiebert, a state representative in Arizona who is running for the state Senate. For folks who haven’t heard me rave about Sister District before, know that I love these phone banks because they have great trainings, great organizers who are incredibly helpful, and they foster a real sense of community. Electing good people to state legislatures is critical in making improvements in real people’s lives. And getting people to vote for state and local candidates improves the prospects of candidates at the top of the ticket! You can sign up for Sister District phone banks here.
I’ll be honest, I signed up for a second phone bank on Wednesday at 4pm, I didn’t get as much work done before 4 as I meant to, and it was one of the last truly nice days we’ll have in New York for at least a week, so I finished up work and went to check out a bar in our new neighborhood with my sister. Rest and rejuvenation helps democracy too!
All week I’ve been working on my 2024 Guide to Volunteering in the Election. I made one in 2020 too that you can check out here and that seemed to be quite useful to folks! I’m hoping to have this year’s edition done this month. You can see the in progress version here. Let me know if you have any thoughts!
I did a phone bank with Ohio Democrats for Sherrod Brown on Sunday (July 7). I didn’t actually get to talk to very many people - sometimes that happens and you get mostly voice mails and hang ups. I did clean the list a bit, by finding some wrong numbers and disconnected numbers, which is really helpful to campaigns as it makes the phone banks more efficient the closer you get to an election.
I also signed up to canvass! New York is going to be critical for taking back the House of Representatives this fall, as we were unfortunately critical in losing the House for Democrats in 2022. I’ve been waiting for a group trip to one of our key congressional districts to pop up on a weekend I’m actually free and one finally did! So I’ll be going canvassing in NY04 in August.
This isn’t an entirely normal week - sometimes I do less, and as we get closer to the election there will be weeks I do a lot more. Sometimes I’m on vacation or I’m moving or I’m sick or I’m busy with other stuff and I don’t do anything. But I try to get to at least one phone bank every week, and I’m going to try to go canvassing at least every other weekend starting in August.
No matter how anxiety-inducing or scary the news gets, no matter how fraught and absurd and unfair the discourse gets, nothing feels better than putting in the work. Truly - I promise I’m not just saying that. Even if you don’t have a great response rate, you get to talk to organizers and other volunteers who care so much, who are as passionate as you are and who are fighting the good fight. It is such a good reminder that we aren’t alone, that we have friends and family and partners and strangers in the fight with us. And that together, we can make a difference - in this election and all of the future ones we ensure when we fight together.
Tell me what you’re doing this week to fight for democracy? And if you don’t know where to start, let me know that too and I’ll help you figure it out!
Use Your Voice to Fight for People in Gaza
Please keep calling your Representative and Senators in Congress, contacting the White House, and talking to your friends about pushing for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. You can also donate to help in Gaza here. Our government is enabling a humanitarian catastrophe and we need to use our power and our voice to stop it.
Wow you love to see a well organized google doc let’s goooo!!