By Kathy Bradford —
Yes, the national election is over, but that doesn’t mean we can sit back and congratulate ourselves. The Republicans and other right leaning organizations are working hard to make even deeper inroads into local, state, and national government. We need to be vigilant and active. There are a lot of activism opportunities available in our community.
Volunteer to help Los Angeles County Democratic Party (LACDP) fight the Republican-led effort to recall Governor Gavin Newsom. Positions are available to do texting or phone banking from your computer, do data entry, host a party or meeting, or update social media. For further information, click on this link: https://stoptherepublicanrecall.com/
Our community needs to stand united against racism. Hate against Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities has risen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are a few ways you can support the AAPI community:
- Report incidents to Stop AAPI Hate (https://stopaapihate.org/) and follow them on social media @stopaapihate.
- Educate yourself and others about anti-racism and the Asian community’s struggles.
- Donate to AAPI organizations and shop at AAPI-owned small businesses.
- Work with your workplace, school, faith-based institution, union, or community organization to issue a statement denouncing anti-Asian racism and to encourage everyone to work towards racial justice.
- Support Ethnic Studies in your local school districts and educational institutions. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have experienced centuries of violence in the U.S. We need to address the perpetual foreigner stereotype that frames Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders as outsiders to this nation. Due to this Orientalist framing, Asians can be excluded, detained, deported, and attacked because they supposedly don’t belong here. Ethnic Studies helps teach students the sources of this racism and promotes racial empathy and solidarity.
House Resolution 1 (HR 1) is the For the People Act, a bill in the United States Congress to expand voting rights, change campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of money in politics, limit partisan gerrymandering, and create new ethics rules for federal officeholders. Leading Democrats fear that the bill will never pass in the Senate unless the filibuster is eliminated. Check out Connie Sullivan’s article in the newsletter about the filibuster. Let our senators know your views on this subject:
Senator Diane Feinstein, phone 310-914-7300, email https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.fm/e-mail-me
Senator Alex Padilla, phone 310-231-4494, email https://www.padilla.senate.gov/
Vice President Kamala Harris, phone 202–395–5084, 202-456-1111 (WH comment line), email vice.president@whitehouse.gov
We’ve seen in recent years that progressive victories are possible in purple and red states like Arizona, Georgia and Virginia, when we support local power-building organizations and the activists that lead them. Long-term community-based organizing, often led by people of color, lays the critical foundation of civic engagement all year long that leads to our collective ability to build progressive power in state legislatures come Election Day.
The State Bridges program creates a way for the Sister District community to fundraise for select partner organizations doing this work in our 2021 and 2022 target states. In 2021, it’s defending the Virginia House majority to prevent gerrymandering and preserve the majority in the House of Representatives. In 2022, efforts will expand to races in AZ, FL, GA, MI, NC, NH, PA, TX, WI, MN, CO, NV. For further information, click on this link: https://sisterdistrict.com/state-bridges
Field Team 6 is actively campaigning to turn red seats blue in Mayoral, Assembly, Governor, and House races, primarily through registering likely Democrats in key areas. One of those campaigns is to register likely Democrat voters in Mike Garcia’s House district. Join the team to support post card writing or phone banking, by clicking on this link: https://www.fieldteam6.org/volunteer-ops
Put a little of your free time into preventing the Republicans from regaining control of our government offices. Help fight the gubernatorial recall; end the senate filibuster and pass HR 1; work to stop anti-Asian hate; register new voters to regain CA-22 assembly district; or help in purple states upcoming elections to prevent further erosion of the House majority. As we can see from the last election, we can be effective in shaping the future.
Soon after our March 21 monthly PV Dems meeting about Reimagining Criminal Justice, the California Supreme Court ruled on March 25 that judges must consider suspects’ ability to pay when they set bail, essentially requiring that indigent defendants be freed unless they are deemed too dangerous to be released awaiting trial. This is a major step in the argument that cash bail discriminates against the poor.
Thanks, Kathy, for your excellent recap of the many current political issues we need to focus on and that call for us to take personal action if we want to achieve desirable outcomes. I want to offer special kudos to Roxi Zilmer, of the PV Dems, who helps keep a bunch of us informed about specific actions we can take in conjunction with the likes of Sister District and Field Team 6. Also, I’d like to give a nod to a progressive group in Arizona — Progress Arizona (progressarizona.org) — which appears to be doing an excellent job in continuing to push our neighboring state toward Blue (as opposed to Purple) status. We especially need the help of Arizonans like them to keep lobbying Senator Kyrsten Sinema to reconsider her stated opposition to serious filibuster reform. I gave Progress Arizona few bucks recently and encourage others to do the same.