Don’t mourn, organize.
I know the posts are coming fast and furious tonight, but please use this thread to share any ideas and experiences about how to get involved this fall (and after that too). I know it’s funky with COVID so any and all ideas are welcome.
UPDATE 1 from Dave Anderson:
Be strategic in your donations. I just sent Cal Cunningham (D-NC) a good bit of cash. Target Democratic challengers against Republican incumbents who really want a golden ticket to vote no and hope yes. This will have more impact in the short term (this week) and medium term (next 45 days) then sending money to candidates who are down 15 even after spending millions.
RaflW
It may seem a little bit niche, but you don’t have to be Unitarian or Universalist to participate in UU the Vote phone banks.
These are targeted calls to help people get registered or make their plan to vote.
Shinobi
I recently signed up at Tech for Campaigns. They are supporting down ballot races with design, tech and other services.
Raoul Paste
I wonder if the R senators realize that if they enable Trump on this one, possibly letting him steal the election via the Supremes, that they will live under his thumb for the rest of Trump’s life. And keep in mind Trump can turn on you on a dime. Further, the American ruin Trump will bring will be the existence experienced by their children, grandchildren, etc.
In the meantime, I’m donating heavily tonight. RBG would FIGHT, God bless her.
guachi
That all it took was the death of one person shows how completely broken America is. Honestly, I got nothing. I see no way out that isn’t a series of rearguard actions.
Shrillhouse
Here’s three more little words: PACK THE COURT.
mali muso
Just donated more to the Biden campaign just on principle (I want to see a surge this weekend to make a point) and also to McGrath because fuck Yertle! Signing off now for my mental health.
Mousebumples
Lizzy (@mousebumples) tweeted at 9:35 PM on Fri, Sep 18, 2020:
#FlipTheSenateBlue #VoteForAllDems #RBGRIP #PostcardsToVoters @DemocratWit @CalforNC https://t.co/SLfB6Q0HHw
(https://twitter.com/mousebumples/status/1307146254707765250?s=03)
Finished 10 postcards for Cal tonight. I’m going to try to do at least 10 per day. Can be a challenge with a 1 year old in the house, but that’s my goal. Pic of the postcards above, in the tweet.
bbleh
Basically focusing on GOTV here. Phone-assisting with vote-by-mail. Volunteered to be poll worker. Also recommend postcards (personal, written analogue to door-knocking).
I’m in a very swing state, so ground game matters. If you’re not, support those who are, and their state party orgs. And second the point re strategic donations.
Omnes Omnibus
So fucking fight them.
feebog
It has been pointed out that the elections in Arizona an Georgia (one of the two) are special elections. Meaning the winners can be sworn in upon certification. Kelly is well positioned to take the Arizona seat, we should be supporting him big time. Would love to see a post on the GA race, which no one has covered due to the very late primary.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@guachi:
McConnell wants us to be discouraged and give up. Don’t give it to him
Renie
How does donating help if mc connell rams this thru before the election. Cuz I bet by will.
PsiFighter37
@feebog: Georgia is almost certainly going to a runoff – so forget about being seated meaningfully early.
opiejeanne
My dad died on this date in 2012, a few days after we came home from a trip to France. I had time to do my laundry, replace my broken iPhone, and hop on a plane. He died the day after I got there.
I still miss him, and losing RBG on the same date has hit me kind of hard. I am figuring out things that I can do to make sure Ds are elected and we flip the senate while I am mourning.
Someone said on Twitter: She wasn’t afraid, so we shouldn’t be.
Someone else on Twitter: If you’re only afraid now, why weren’t you before?
And a bunch of people on Twitter are saying it’s time to get busy.
Nicole
There’s a decent enough Twitter thread from someone with suggestions for where Senate contributions should go (he is of the opinion that McGrath is a waste, as she won’t win, and some other high-profile races already have plenty of money):
https://twitter.com/TylerDinucci/status/1307135581529550848
If you’re looking for races besides the obvious ones to donate to.
I’m so sad, and so scared for the nation tonight. But, I remind myself that some day it will be Mitch McConnell’s obituary online. The bell tolls for all of us eventually. I would prefer that he go out as Minority Leader, however. Or, better yet, that someone would decide to finally really dig into his abrupt discharge from the military during Vietnam and discover there’s there there. If it can happen to Jerry Falwell…
Because, I swear, a 78 year old frantically stuffing the judiciary with unqualified right wing nutjobs to create a future America he’s not likely to live to see-he’s like Trump, a hungry ghost.
Mousebumples
Omnes Omnibus
@Renie: Let’s say he rams this through, what do we do? Give up? Try for a landslide and a blue wave? One option seems better than the other.
Another Scott
After what was done to Obama with Merrick Garland, yes. Moscow Mitch should not get his way yet again.
Cheers,
Scott.
David Anderson
@Renie: It is a political question that very endangered GOP incumbents will be asking themselves:
“DO I WALK THE PLANK FOR A REVERSIBLE SCOTUS MAJORITY EXPANSION (not even a majority flip) THAT WILL INFURIATE AND GALVANIZE MY OPPOSITION or do I play for time and hope something changes?
Mcconnell has 2 goals: confirm reactionary judges and remain Senate Majority Leader.
Donations are designed to put those two goals in conflict.
Yutsano
@PsiFighter37: The Georgia Senate race will be a runoff if none of the candidates get to 50% on the election on November 3rd. If there is a runoff that election gets held January 5th. There are four main candidates, so the odds are high there will be a runoff. So this one doesn’t get settled quickly.
MP
@Yutsano: The other problem is that the two front-runners are both Republican. Dems are, unfortunately, splitting the vote (although Warnock, a Dem, is well ahead of the other two Dems). And I should add, only the top two go to runoff.
Mike in NC
Our governor Roy Cooper is cruising to reelection against a Trumpy turd named Dan Forrest. I think Cunningham will easily rid us of shitbird Thom Tillis, and Fat Bastard won’t prevail in purple North Carolina.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
holy god, a reporter told trump about RBG after his rally
do none of his staff have smart phones
Renie
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m just asking how it helps stop mc connell from grabbing the seat? I gave to 6 different campaigns today towards a blue wave
planetjanet
@Mike in NC: From your keyboard to God’s ears.
Benw
@Omnes Omnibus: did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor!?
HeleninEire
My three words.
I. Just. Can’t.
Steeplejack
Chetan Murthy
@Renie: Mere civilian I. One supposes that the fear of losing their re-election campaigns might give some of these GrOPer Senators pause. And of course, if they *do* lose, then in January we’re in a better position to redress the situation. Either way, we need to get our pols in positions of power.
Joseph A Miller
Here is a HUGE amount of information about registration, voting, and getting out the DEMOCRATIC vote. It really is very thorough:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/17/1978214/-Get-Out-the-DEMOCRATIC-Vote-Save-the-Constitution-and-Save-Our-Country
Splitting Image
I just want to second this. Many Republican Senators are not reachable by any means, and almost none of them can be reached by appeals to reason, honour, God or country, but how much money Jaime Harrison raises in the next few days will have a lot of effect on what Lindsey Graham decides to do after weighing his options. Whoever called him a pilot fish pegged him exactly right. And he’s not the only one in the Senate.
Morzer
https://thebulwark.com/ruth-bader-ginsburg-and-the-coming-political-crisis/
Amir Khalid
@Mousebumples:
Amen.
Nicole
@Morzer: Option 1, of course. I just don’t see why people keep trying to ascribe strategy or a sense of decency to Trump. He doesn’t understand the former and has none of the latter.
guachi
@Morzer: Yup. RBG’s death is a big clue we have a broken country. That the death of one person is so important is an indication of that.
Scalia and then RBG dying are definite indications we should have terms for SC justices of, say, 18 years.
Oh, well. Broken Supreme Court. Broken Senate. Broken electoral college. And broken House via gerrymandering.
Mike in NC
RIP Justice Ginsberg. Fat Bastard and Mike Dense will step on their own stupid dicks by promoting another rightwing extremist judge wanting to ban abortion in a country of 330 million. Please proceed, assholes.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@guachi:
This isn’t constructive
Steeplejack
Possible respite palate-cleanser: Albert Brooks cult classic Lost in America (1985) coming on TCM at midnight EDT.
Morzer
@Nicole: I think you are right. Trump’s best strategy would be to use a possible SCOTUS judge to get his voters to the polls, but I suspect McConnell thinks the election and Senate are both lost and wants to maximize his gains while he can. I am not absolutely sure that GOP Senators in close elections will agree with McConnell.
guachi
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Can’t fix a problem if you can’t identify the problem.
We’ll keep having problems if these problems don’t get addressed. Are any of them addressable in the near term? Gerrymandering is going to have to be done state by state. The Supreme Court won’t be of any help.
If you can somehow get rid of the filibuster and somehow make DC a state then two more Senators ameliorates the problems in the Senate but it’s really just papering over the root of the problem. It doesn’t fix it.
You could pack the Supreme Court but that’s not a fix.
The Electoral College isn’t fixable any time soon.
mdblanche
Is there a way to make several donations on ActBlue at once or do I have to click on each thermometer individually?
RaflW
@feebog: I have no idea how it happens, but there should be intense pressure* brought to bear on that Lieberman brat. He may totally screw Democrats chances for a runoff shot.
*Calls from top Dems to Matt to bow out and endorse. A flood of cash & grassroots hands for Raphael Warnoc. Etc.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
Three more words: Pack the fucking court. Okay, that’s four words. But still.
Chris Johnson
@Raoul Paste: Adam pointed out that the R Senators could be threatened by MAGA chuds. I pointed out that, as far as I knew, they WERE already being threatened by MAGA chuds.
That really is the thing, isn’t it? They’re fucked. You’re right, Trump is not trustworthy and has no use for Senators. Right now he wants them to appoint him a justice that will make him a King… at which point he will no longer need Senators.
I’m not sure how all this will unfold. I am sure about Trump’s angle here: once you acknowledge he’s a traitor installed by Russia, a lot becomes clear. There was never a game plan that really ended well for the Republican Party. This is end-game, for them. Do they willingly go from Senators to courtiers with no actual power, or do they go into the wilderness and watch a wave election sweep them from power? Either way they’re done.
In the wilderness, they’re still Americans. I think they need to think very carefully.
Mai Naem mobile
@RaflW: Joe Lieberprick endorsed Susan Collins this cycle. And he hadn’t decided about Trumpov because he apparently likes GOP Nazis. My guess is that his kid is like his daddy and wouldn’t give a crap about fucking the Dems’ chances.
Shakti
If I had more faith in Democratic leadership as strategic thinkers, I would assume they have a contingency plan in place ready to go.
They knew she was very frail and ill and that McConnell and his federalist society fucks have a list of people ready to confirm. He’s been focused on nothing else.
Spontaneous groups of mourners gathered on the Capitol. A pioneer and a trailblazer such as she deserves public organized mourning and a memorial of some sort. I know this is difficult with covid. That will take at least a week to effect?
[Her funeral, most likely be on Monday. She died right before a high holiday and is from the conservative denomination but otoh was nonobservant.]
https://twitter.com/alexisgoldstein/status/1307146108033019904
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@guachi:
Actually they are.
Eolirin
@Chris Johnson:A problem with that analysis. 40% of voting Americans are on the side of the Russians. And they’re disproportionately surrounded by them.
RaflW
@Yutsano: If the top two are Republicans, it’s functionally over as far as a vote against Mitch as 2021 Majority Leader.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
@Morzer: It always amazes me seeing allegedly sentient beings saying that Donald Trump should do the right thing. Or that, having heard Ginsburg’s last words, the wish that she shouldn’t have a successor named until the next president takes office, he’ll somehow find it within himself to do the right thing.
Have these people never seen this guy? Donald Trump couldn’t do the right thing if his life depended on it. This is one of the things that drive me fucking nuts. Donald Trump has never done, and will never do, the right thing. For anybody, anywhere, anytime for any reason. Not doing the right thing is as near to a guiding, binding principle that this guy has. When are people going to wake the fuck up and see what he is?
Mai Naem mobile
@Steeplejack: how the hell is Lost in America a palate cleanser? Lost in America is a nightmare scenario movie. We already have a nightmare scenario IRL. I don’t need to watch a movie to display that.
RaflW
@Mai Naem mobile: Of course. They’re horrible people. Seeing Joe bet on the Trump crime family is vile. I honestly think Matt is there to get the two R’s past the post to the runoff.
Fair Economist
@Eolirin: A lot of Republican voters are supporting the Russians, yes, but the Republican Senators are aware of what happen even to Putin’s supporters – falling out of windows, polonium tea, cushioning falling bathtub, novichok, etc. Fascist life sucks for everybody, even the people who put them in.
RaflW
BTW have folks noticed that Rick Wilson, a prolific tweeter, hasn’t said boo for 10 hours?
GT Conway is doing a dance of carefully curated RBG praise tweets (maybe he actually still follows the ‘not the day they die’ norm, but idunno.)
I just do not trust the Lincoln Project.
guachi
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
RaflW
In terms of helping with money, Sam Wang is recommending Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. They do the core grassroots work of voter registration and helping disenfranchised get their rights restored.
He feels that s is the long term answer rather than McGrath’s Hail Mary run. Ymmv.
https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/85051
Morzer
@RaflW: Rick Wilson hasn’t been tweeting as much as he used to for at least a month.
rikyrah
Organize
Vote
WaterGirl
@mdblanche: It depends. If you want to donate to the senate race in NC and another senate race in KY, you probably have to click twice.
If you want to donate to a bunch of state races to flip NC from red to blue in the statehouse, you can click on the Flip NC thermometer and donate to a bunch of campaigns at once.
You may know this, but if you go to All 2020 Fundraising (top right in the blue box and in the hamburger menu on mobile) you can browse the various thermometers and get a feel for what’s available.
dww44
@feebog: No post, but a comment here. Rev. Raphael Warnock has only just begun to run TV ads because he’s not heavily funded. He is, however, an appealing candidate. Comes across as decent, honorable, calm, and SANE.
The two Republicans are extremist on the verge of being insane and right now they are running against each other. They would be the lady who bought her seat (Loeffler) and profited off her inside information, and once upon a time an evangelical preacher, Doug Collins, of impeachment hearing and trial fame, who ran all over his Dem counterpart, Jerry Nadler, who was no match for a yelling preacher.
The thinking is that there will be a runoff in this jungle primary with like 15 candidates and those 2 Republicans will be in it. If Warnock had more money and was way more visible, he could make the runoff. He really truly is the best person and candidate.
dww44
@guachi: You really are a pessimist tonight. It really doesn’t help.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Remember, these are the people that took 3 weeks to figure out the light switches in the White House.
mdblanche
@WaterGirl: Thanks. I knew about the 2020 page. I was just wondering if there was an easier way than clicking each thermometer for, say, senate races in multiple states.
Armadillo
I don’t fully understand the point David makes above:
Be strategic in your donations. I just sent Cal Cunningham (D-NC) a good bit of cash. Target Democratic challengers against Republican incumbents who really want a golden ticket to vote no and hope yes. This will have more impact in the short term (this week) and medium term (next 45 days) then sending money to candidates who are down 15 even after spending millions.
Or put a different way, I don’t know which candidates this refers to, other than Cal Cunningham. Do we have a list of which candidates will be most affected this week?
More long term (e.g. through November) do we still trust Sam Wang‘s moneyball approach?
Sister Golden Bear
We women are good at multi-tasking and can do both at the same time, thank you very much.
BCHS Class of 1980
@Armadillo: Not to put words in his mouth but basically he is saying “not McGrath.” I’ve given some to her campaign but KY is a Dem slog and like WV will be for decades.
One tiny pony in this mountain of ? ?: Susan Collins is done. She has no good move here. In political terms she is in zugzwang: any move screws her. She cannot lose the QOP but to go along with this after Garland and Kavanaugh is the final nail in the “not like those other Republicans” coffin.
Librarian
For donating to several candidates at once with one click, there’s this: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/getmitch