passionate activist

The last time I went to an election victory party, I left early because I couldn’t bear to see the results. I went home to sleep if only to keep the bad news away for a few more hours. Of course the next day, there was no avoiding the news about the 2016 Presidential election. A lifelong activist, I went into hiding for a couple of months-hiding from activism, from the news, but mostly from the fear and sorrow I felt. I wondered if I could ever be an activist again.

Last night, I went to an election victory party fearful of what might turn out to be another devastation. I cried as the results were shown on the screen. Tears of joy, of relief and of renewed faith in the power of progressive action to right the wrongs in the world. My candidate won and so did I. Activism is in my bones and every once in a while, a sweet victory reminds me why.

ACTION: Oppose the GOP Budget Resolution
While we were busy protecting health care, House Budget Committee Republicans were busy crafting a Federal budget for fiscal 2018 that slashes needed basic services including steep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Women’s health programs, the Pell Grant Program (Federal loans for college for needy students, affordable housing and environmental programs. Those domestic spending cuts will be used to provide tax breaks for the wealthiest and to fund the border wall. The Republican run House budget committee passed this resolution just before the August recess. The House budget resolution puts in motion the procedural steps they need to pass massive tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations through the Senate with only 51 votes. Just like we stopped the repeal of the ACA, we will stop this abomination posing as a budget.
CALL:  Your congress person and your senators
SCRIPT: Hi. I’m from [ZIP]. The FY18 funding bills marked up by the  Appropriations Committees shortchange public education, affordable housing, environmental protection, and scientific research. Meanwhile, Republicans are trying to pass bills with huge increases in military spending.   If Democrats let that happen, they will give up all of their leverage to stop cuts to domestic programs. I urge (Senator or Congresswoman) not to support legislation that increases military spending, cuts taxes for the wealthy and for corporations or cuts needed domestic services until there is a bipartisan agreement to provide at least the same increase for domestic programs. [IF LEAVING A VOICEMAIL: please leave your full street address to ensure your call is tallied]

ACTION: Oppose new legislation that restricts access to abortion
H.R. 7 is a dangerous and misleading bill that has one goal – eliminating abortion coverage in all insurance markets. If H.R. 7 were to become law, all women could either lose insurance coverage that includes abortion or be stigmatized while seeking such comprehensive insurance. H.R. 7 would deny women and small businesses tax credits merely for choosing comprehensive health insurance that includes abortion coverage.
CALL:  Your senators
SCRIPT: I am calling from [ZIP] to express concern about two anti-abortion bills. H.R. 7 has just passed in the House and moves to the Senate to pull all funding for legal abortion in the US. Secondly, S. 231 would modify the 14th Amendment and define life as beginning at conception. I strongly oppose both of these bills and want [name] to do the same. [IF LEAVING A VOICEMAIL: please leave your full street address to ensure your call is tallied]

ACTION: Oppose Brian Benczkowski to Lead the DOJ Criminal Division
Brian Benczkowski has been nominated to lead the Department of Justice Criminal Division, which is responsible for enforcement of all federal criminal law. His nomination is highly concerning given his history with Alfa Bank, the Russian bank under investigation by the FBI for potential connections to the Trump organization. In March of this year, Benczkowski agreed to represent Alfa Bank during the investigation into ties between Alfa Bank servers and the Trump organization. A month later, the Trump administration asked him about his interest in leading the DOJ Criminal Division. Rather than immediately recuse himself from representing Alfa Bank, he continued working with them until June 6, the day he was officially nominated. Benczkowski’s decision to take on, and keep representing, a controversial client with a potential conflict of interest against the American people, casts serious doubt on his judgment. In addition, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee responsible for his approval, asked him if he would recuse himself from current / future cases involving Alfa Bank, as well as the related investigations underway by Special Counsel Mueller. He refused. Senators needs to hear from their constituents about their opposition to this highly problematic candidate.
CALL:  Your senators
SCRIPT: Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from ___________. I’m calling to express my concern about DOJ Criminal Division nominee Brian Benczkowski, who has a troubling association with Russian bank Alfa Bank. I ask that the Senator vote against his nomination. We need someone with a demonstrated history of good judgment and lack of conflicts of interests for  this crucial position. Thank you for your hard work answering the phones. [IF  LEAVING A VOICEMAIL: please leave your full street address to ensure          your call is tallied]

ACTION: Protect Public School Funding
The Trump administration, laid out their proposal for the 2018 Department of Education budget – a long list of program cuts and funding shifts that would leave public schools underfunded and vulnerable students unprotected. The $11 billion worth of budget cuts would completely dismantle teacher training programs, after school programs (that mostly serve poor children), class-size reduction efforts, the Special Olympics, and 20 other programs designed to address bullying prevention, mental health, gifted students, as well as arts, foreign language, history and STEM education. The Budget proposal also devastates the entirety of the public school system. $400 million would be spent on expanding charter and religious schools, and $1 billion dollars spent a new grant to promote voucher or ‘school choice’ programs in public schools, effectively diverting funds away from already struggling public schools and into private schools.
CALL:  Your congress person and your senators
 SCRIPT: Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from ______________. I’m calling to urge [REP/SENT NAME] to reject the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts to the education department. OPTIONAL: Share a personal story or reason why this matters to you. For example: — I (or someone close to you) am a product of the public school system, and I think more effort should be spent on improving it, not abandoning it.– It is important to me that my grandchildren (or young people close to you) have access to arts (or science, foreign language, etc.) education in their schools, and do not want to see those programs dismantled. Thank you for your time and attention. [IF LEAVING A VOICEMAIL: please leave your full street address to ensure your call is tallied]

ACTION: Advocate for bipartisan cooperation to improve the ACA
While trumpcare didn’t pass, the issue not dead. There are signals from the GOP in the Senate that their health care efforts are not done.   The “skinny” repeal bill failed, but the ACA can still be voted on in the senate. The failure of this bill represents an opportunity for Republicans to abandon their partisan obsession with dismantling the ACA and instead partner with Democrats to shore up the law.

Republicans should work with Democrats to implement a package of ACA fixes, from insurance market stabilization to negotiation of lower pharmaceutical costs, that would preserve (and even increase) access to affordable health insurance while still containing healthcare spending. Following the defeat of the ACA repeal on the Senate floor, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) welcomed Senators on the other side of the aisle into a bipartisan discussion, in regular legislative order, to improve the nation’s healthcare system. Let your Senators know that they need to return to a respectful and dignified path of bipartisan committee work with hearings and opportunity for comment if their goal is to improve health care in the United States.
CALL:  Your senators
SCRIPT: Hi. I’m from [ZIP] calling to express how relieved I am that the ACA was not repealed (say why). I would like to see [name] work collaboratively  with both parties to fix what’s broken in the ACA so that healthcare stays affordable without sacrificing coverage. Thank you for your work answering the phones. [IF LEAVING A VOICEMAIL: please leave your full street address to ensure your call is tallied]

ACTION: Stop Trump from Sabotaging the ACA
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plan to repeal the ACA (the “Skinny Repeal”) failed on the Senate floor. While he stated that it was time to “move on”, McConnell continued to denounce the ACA and its effectiveness, repeating myths of its instability. The threat of Republican sabotage of the law by undermining its enforcement is a real possibility. Trump has called on Republicans to “let Obamacare fail, it will be a lot easier,” stating, “We’re not going to own it. I’m not going to own it.” Trump and the Department of Health and Human Services, led by Tom Price, are taking steps to destabilize these markets. Trump is threatening to withhold insurance payments known as cost-sharing reductions (CSRs), which allow insurers to offer lower-cost individual market plans with lower out-of-pocket costs to low-income consumers. If these payments are discontinued, experts predict, it could collapse the individual insurance market and dissuade insurers from offering plans in the individual marketplace.

The administration could also stop the enforcement of the ACA individual mandate, a provision that ensures younger and healthier people buy insurance. Without this provision, insurance companies would be forced to consider major premium increases, affecting the affordability of insurance for the sick and elderly. Trump issued an executive order discouraging IRS enforcement of this mandate, and the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee has included a draft provision in a spending bill to defund the IRS’s mandate enforcement.

Insurance experts and the Congressional Budget Office have all stated that the ACA is stable and not in a so-called death spiral. However, the Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress now appear committed to creating instability for political gain, creating turmoil in the national insurance market and putting the lives of millions of Americans at risk.
CALL: Tom Price Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 202-  205-5445 and your senators
SCRIPT:  Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from  _____. [IF HHS]: I’m calling to express my serious concern about Trump’s intention to let Obamacare fail and put the lives of millions of Americans at risk. I urge Secretary Price to continue cost-sharing reduction payments and   enforcement of the individual mandate in order to maintain stability in our national insurance market. The American people want to see the insurance      market fixed, not sabotaged for political gain.[IF REP or SEN]: I’m calling to express my serious concern about Trump’s intention to let Obamacare fail and put the lives of millions of Americans at risk. I urge [REP/SEN NAME] to immediately pass legislation to stabilize the insurance market and ensure the    ACA’s cost-sharing subsidies are fully funded. The American people want to   see the insurance market fixed, not sabotaged for political gain. Thank you   for your hard work answering the phones. [IF LEAVING A VOICEMAIL:         please leave your full street address to ensure your call is tallied]

Advocate for retaining your right to hold banks accountable
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a new rule banning the use of mandatory arbitration clauses to block participation in class action lawsuits. According to the CFPB, this is a straightforward consumer protection providing a much-needed check on predatory and illegal banking activities that will “stop companies from sidestepping the courts and ensure that people who are harmed together can take action together.” Republicans denounced the new CFPB arbitration rule and introduced legislation (H.J. Res 111) to overturn it under the Congressional Review Act. This is a distressing case of legislators prioritizing Wall Street profits above the financial needs and consumer protection of all Americans. The House has passed H.J. Res 111. It is now in the Senate for consideration.
CALL: Your senators
SCRIPT: Hello, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from _______. I’m calling to urge the Senator to vote against H.J. Res 111, the repeal of the CFPB’s Arbitration Rule recently passed in the House.  Allowing consumers to take group action against financial      institutions is a consumer right and a necessary check against predatory and illegal          practices of financial institutions. Thank you for all your hard work answering  the phones. [IF LEAVING A VOICEMAIL: please leave your full street  address to ensure your call is tallied]   

ACTION: Preserve Funding for Consumer Banking Protections
After passing the widely criticized Financial Choice Act, a bill that would roll back the post-recession Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the House is now moving to enact similar provisions through the federal budget process. The Republican-led Financial Services Subcommittee’s 2018 spending bill would give Congress unprecedented control over the budget of federal financial regulators, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and several other agencies that oversee credit, mortgages, currency, etc. Currently, these agencies are funded by the Federal Reserve or other sources outside of the congressional appropriations process.

This shifting of budgetary control allows Congress to weaken these agencies’ regulatory and enforcement powers. Language in the spending bill blocks the implementation of the Volcker Rule (which bans banks from making risky investments), prevents the CFPB from regulating payday lenders, and stops the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from developing campaign finance rules for big corporations. While the Senate may decline to vote on the House’s Financial Choice Act, the 2018 spending bills are must-pass bills. By sneaking 88 pages of the Financial Choice Act into the Financial Services spending bill, the House is using a backdoor method to weaken and eliminate consumer protections. It is unacceptable for the House to undermine rules designed to protect customers from the risky investment and lending practices that led to the catastrophic 2008 recession. The congressional threat to banking regulation is especially dire given that Trump executive branch appointees like Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin are decidedly disinterested in reining in corporate greed to protect individual consumers. The House Appropriations Committee passed the 2018 Financial Services spending bill on July 13th. It now awaits a vote on the House floor.
CALL: Your congress person
SCRIPT: My name is and I am calling from ____________. I’m calling to express my opposition to the Financial Services       appropriations bill’s funding changes and new enforcement limitations on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other banking regulators. The Dodd-Frank was put into place to prevent another recession, and I urge Rep. _________ to oppose any spending bill that undermines implementation of this    necessary law. Thank you for your hard work answering the phones. [IF LEAVING A VOICEMAIL: please leave your full street address to ensure  your call is tallied]

There are 231,556,622 eligible voters in our country. Of those, an estimated 134,457,600 voted. Of those, only 61,864015 voted from Chump. That means less than 27% of the adults in our country support Chump enough to have bothered to vote for him.

I am heartened by the words and actions of many my fellow countrywomen (and men). Three of my current favorites are:

• Don’t call Clinton a weak candidate: it took decades of scheming to beat her | US news | The Guardian by Rebecca Solnit

• Women Of The World: It’s Time To March On Washington | The Huffington Post by Vivienne Mayer

• Media Matters

Rebecca Solnit’s and Vivienne Mayer’s words bear repeating:

Rebecca Solnit
“Sometimes I think I have never seen anything as strong as Hillary Clinton…I watched her plow through opposition and attacks the like of which no other candidate has ever faced and still win the popular vote. To defeat her it took an unholy cabal far beyond what Barack Obama faced when he was the campaign of change, swimming with the tide of disgust about the Bush administration. As the New York Times reported, “By the time all the ballots are counted, she seems likely to be ahead by more than 2 million votes and more than 1.5 percentage points. She will have won by a wider percentage margin than not only Al Gore in 2000 but also Richard Nixon in 1968 and John F Kennedy in 1960.”

“…It’s impossible to disconnect the seething, irrational emotionality from misogyny, and the misogyny continues. Since election night, I’ve been hearing too many men of the left go on and on about how Clinton was a weak candidate. I’ve wondered about that word weak, not only because it is so often associated with women, but because what they’re calling her weakness was their refusal to support her. It’s as if they’re saying, “They sent a pink lifeboat and we sent it back, because we wanted a blue lifeboat, and now we are very upset that people are drowning…”

I know that if Clinton had been elected there would not be terrified and weeping people of color all over the country, small children too afraid to go to school, a shocking spike in hate crimes, high-school students with smashed dreams marching in cities across the country… I recognize the profound differences between her and Trump on race, gender, immigration and climate, and her extraordinary strength, tenacity and courage in facing and nearly overcoming an astonishing array of obstacles to win the popular vote. Which reminds us that Trump has no mandate and sets before us some of the forces arrayed against us.”

Vivienne Mayer
“…Of course white racists voted for Donald Trump on Nov 8 but it was white misogynists who won it for him – male and female; Americans who would rather elect a white man with a flawed character and no experience than a white woman who is arguably the most qualified candidate ever to run for president…”

“…when 53 percent of the white female vote is for a man who calls women pigs and slobs and grabs them by “the pussy” when he feels like it, we must conclude there is a lot of denial or self-loathing out there, that misogyny is woven into the white fabric of that demographic.”

“When asked about Trump’s degrading sexist comments, one “Babes for Trump” supporter articulated it perfectly on the BBC documentary, Trump’s Unlikely Superfans: “I think all guys are kind of like that.” Misogyny is her normal. Women like her grew up with Trumps; they are her father, brothers, uncles, colleagues. Sexism is the wallpaper of her life…”

“So why, despite everything, am I optimistic? The good (and the bad) news is this: the genie is well and truly out of the bottle – the new President of the United States of America is the world’s poster boy for rape culture. Trump’s antipathy for political correctness has at least revealed, once and for all, the ugly underbelly of America, including the “alt-right” and the “manosphere”. But this petulant, bombastic troll isn’t just what 63 percent of white American male voters look like, he is a global beacon for neofascism. The fact that some of your friends and family are okay with that makes you feel sick. Good. Nobody can pretend any more. No more denials. No more excuses. No more nicey-nicey. There is a time and a place for tolerance and collegiality and this is NOT it. There is no “working together” with a despot.

“It is time to take a stand as never before: shout it from the rooftops of social media, protest in the streets, become politicized. It is time to think about who your friends are and whose side they are on. It is time to be brave, to defend our freedoms. It is time for women to march on Washington and it is time for men to stand with us…”