the resistance and me
Blog
November 5, 2022: It Is Up To Us
I was inspired to activism after Trump’s election in 2016. What kept me going after that was the community of women I joined, my fellow Sisters in Resistance. From the Women’s March to my huddle with East End Action Network, to my Democratic Committee meetings, the activists I met were ordinary women doing extraordinary things. Together we powered the Blue Wave of 2018, a feat so impressive that I chronicled our work in a book, The Resistance and Me. Then two years later, we helped to elect Joe Biden.
None of this has been easy. We are all tired and have, at times, felt terribly discouraged, particularly watching the attack on the Capitol on January 6 and then the ongoing perpetuation of the Big Lie by Trump and the GOP. We are all also battered by the pandemic, which seems to never end. Add the steady drumbeat of stories about inflation and crime, and you get an anxious electorate.
The truth about inflation? it is a global problem, stemming from the pandemic supply chain delays, the war in Ukraine and corporate greed. Biden did not cause inflation, but his policies have kept us in our jobs, and it is a heck a lot harder to cope with inflation if you lose your job. Luckily, our inflation rate is far lower than our allies. The truth about crime? The pandemic has pushed up crime rates, even more in the red states, in a way that is not yet clear. It is a nationwide problem we must address but blaming bail reform in states like New York is a red herring.
Understandably, rising prices and rising crime rates do not make for happy voters. So, despite low unemployment numbers, higher wages, vaccines, treatments and testing, historic legislation on infrastructure and prescription drugs – all thanks to the Democrats – the GOP fearmongering on both the economy and crime seems to be resonating with voters. This is particularly galling because the GOP have no polices to address either issue and have made it clear that if they are back in power, they will cut taxes for the rich, attack Social Security and Medicare and ban abortions. None of these plans have anything to do with inflation or crime.
If the polls are right, then the GOP are headed for a blockbuster night next week, taking the House, possibly the Senate, and state houses and governorships in multiple states. The very same people who gave us the war in Iraq, who crashed the economy in 2008, who tried to repeal the ACA, who blew up the deficit with tax cuts to the rich, who completely botched the pandemic response which led to over a million dead Americans, who fomented a coup and an insurrection, who refused to hold Trump accountable through two impeachments and who continue to deny the 2020 election, will be back in power. The party that calls January 6 nothing but a political protest and refers to the rioters as political prisoners, will have a grip on Congress. Think about that for just a moment. It will mean that the beating and death of police officers on January 6 meant nothing. A more fitting slogan for the GOP should be, “Back the Coup, Not the Blue.”
But this can only happen if Democratic voters, particularly the Democratic women who turned out in 2018 and 2020, either stay home or vote for Republicans. Could that even be possible? The MAGA danger isn’t gone. It has only grown. Is it possible that so many women could be either indifferent, complacent or are voting for election-denying, abortion-banning MAGA Republicans?
In Charles Dicken’s classic, A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge asks the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, “Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of the things that May be only?” We have the power to make these fearful shadows in the polls all wrong.
Is it exhausting that it is always up to us, to women, to save this country, to save our democracy? It is. And would you like to just tune it all out and move on? Of course, so would I. But then we lose. Democracy loses; our reproductive rights lose; the economy loses (because trust me, these Republicans haven’t one clue what to do with inflation); the planet loses; our children’s education loses; Social Security loses; Medicare loses; the Ukrainians lose and then all of Europe loses.
This, my Sisters in Resistance, is my closing argument to you. Remember. Remember how you felt when you marched in 2017. Remember where you were when you saw the banner headline flash across your television screen in 2018, “Democrats Take Back the House.” Remember the dancing in the streets that Saturday morning in November 2020 when Biden won the election. Remember and then cast your vote for hope.
And if you can, spend these last few days before Election Day helping to Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV). Contact the Democratic campaigns in your district or your state, and go knock on doors, make phone calls, post messages on social media, send text messages, contact your friends and family, encourage them to vote. We can do this. We have moved bigger mountains than this. But it will take all of us refusing to give into despair and voting for ourselves and our future, as we did in 2018, as we did in 2020. Because inflation will subside, and crime rates will come down; they always do. But once our rights are gone, history tells us that they are awfully hard, if not impossible, to get back. That is a truly fearful vision of the future.
May 16, 2022: Blue Wave 2022
When the leaked Supreme Court draft decision alerted us that the extreme right-wing members of the Court are about to gut our Constitutional right to abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, the reaction from women around the country was immediate.
The next day, on Tuesday, May 3rd, I joined my fellow members of East End Action Network (EEAN) at a protest in front of the courthouse in Riverhead. We hadn’t been together for a rally in a very long time.
EEAN was a co-sponsor of the protest. Our founder, Rebecca Dolber, seen in the photo holding her two children, is quoted in a local newspaper, The East Hampton Star, about the importance of standing up for reproductive rights. “ ‘We're going to keep showing up and giving people other opportunities to show up,’ Ms. Dolber said. Speaking out is ‘important right now if you believe in a woman's right to choose, families' right to choose, if you believe in personal autonomy. Even if you're not a political person, we need you right now.’ “ https://www.easthamptonstar.com/villages/2022512/rally-roe-riverhead-saturday?fbclid=IwAR3566a1CqkfoJoRECmBdeSqjvbr24lgnB9uSqyHxutLwEoIJ28nkzG-exo
On Saturday May 14th, the Women’s March in conjunction with Planned Parenthood and other grassroots groups, organized nationwide rallies under the banner, Bans Off Our Bodies. In Washington D.C., thousands gathered at the National Mall and in New York City, protesters marched across the Brooklyn Bridge.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/14/dc-bans-off-our-bodies-protest/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/14/us/abortion-rights-march.html
Satellite marches were held in hundreds of locations around the country, including here in Riverhead. Sadly, I was unable to attend, but EEAN was well represented. They said there was a great turnout. Here are just a few photos that our members took.
A local news website, Riverhead Local, posted this wonderful article about the rally with lots of photos, including the members of EEAN: https://riverheadlocal.com/2022/05/15/hundreds-rally-in-riverhead-for-abortion-rights-on-bans-off-our-bodies-national-day-of-action/
These rallies are only the beginning. There are more planned for the rest of the year. The Women’s March is even planning a Women’s Convention for later in the summer. Can this spark of activism power a Blue Wave in the midterm election this fall? Will a Resistance that has been quieted by Trump no longer being president and the challenges of the pandemic, roar back to life and elect Democrats all over the country, as it did in 2018? I think that is very likely.
I think Republicans think it is likely, too. In an article in The New York Times, entitled, “How Overturning Roe Could Backfire for Republicans,” a woman who has always voted Republican tells the Times that, “if Roe is overturned and Republicans attempt to ban abortion, she will consider crossing over to vote for Democrats. ‘I think a lot of women would,’ she said.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/13/us/roe-overturned-women-republican-voters.html
It has been hard to be an activist since 2021. On the same day we celebrated Democrats winning two Senate seats in Georgia, on the heels of Biden’s victory, a Trump-fueled right-wing mob stormed the Capitol. A pandemic that we thought might be under control thanks to the Biden administration getting vaccines into arms, drags on. Inflation dominates the news, obscuring the positive economic metrics of low unemployment and higher wages. There is a war in Ukraine due to violent Russian aggression. Gas prices are through the roof. All these pressures are pushing Biden’s poll numbers down and activists’ anxieties up.
Like many people, I have also had personal reasons for dialing back my activism this year. I am the editor for my father’s memoir, which will be published this fall. He just turned 98 years old and so his book is my number-one priority. I have had very little time for either activism or blog reporting and writing. But I had to carve out time since I heard the news about Roe. Maybe, if I am an example, this attack on Roe has changed everything. As tired as we are, as busy as we are, we will find the strength and find the time to get out the vote this fall, to elect pro-choice Democrats.
Overturning Roe is so egregious, so easy to understand, that it has the potential not only to reactivate the Resistance movement, but to wake America up to what they are at risk of losing with these extremists in power. If the Supreme Court strikes down Roe by claiming there is no inherent right to privacy in the Constitution, then all of our rights that are based on this right to privacy are at risk, from birth control to civil rights to marriage equality.
And privacy rights are not the only rights these GOP extremists are attacking. At the same time the radical Supreme Court is looking to strike down our inherent right to privacy, MAGA Republicans are working overtime to implement their radical views at every level of our society:
· passing laws that attack the LGBTQ community as a means to hold onto power by appealing to homophobia, like the “Don’t Say Gay” law in Florida.
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/28/1089221657/dont-say-gay-florida-desantis
· restricting voting access and electing “Stop the Steal” Trump acolytes to oversee the 2022 and 2024 elections.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/opinion/trump-democracy-decline-fall.html
· planning on throwing out Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while raising taxes on working families if they get back into power in Washington D.C. https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/2022/4/senator-rick-scott-s-plan-to-raise-taxes-on-working-families-and-slash-essential-programs-would-cost-job-sand-reduce-economic-growth
· stacking school boards with extremists who oppose diversity and equity in schools and are banning books.
Speaking of school boards, make sure you vote in your local school board election. Here on Long Island, that vote is Tuesday, May 17th. To understand the danger of these MAGA attacks on school boards, read my two blog posts from last year about the Smithtown school board race. Given how successful they were in that election, the dangerous MAGA extremists have branched out throughout Long Island, looking to take over ever more school boards. To find the names of the legitimate candidates you want to make sure to vote for on Tuesday, check out the listings on the Strong Schools LI website: https://strongschoolsli.org/.
For too long, Democrats and Independents have stayed on the sidelines and allowed the most extreme factions in the Republican Party to set the agenda. Civil rights attorney Andrea Klausner, Vice Chair of the Southampton Town Democratic Committee (SHDems), sums up the danger in a recent blog post. “If you are not a radical right anti-democratic extremist, you had better get off the sidelines because the Republicans and the Supreme Court may be coming for your Constitutional rights next.” https://shdems.org/2022/05/07/from-andi-klausner-first-they-came-for/
I know it is hard to stay this engaged. We marched in 2017, we powered the Blue Wave in 2018, we tossed out Trump in 2020. It would be nice to rest on our laurels but that is a luxury we don’t have. Think of all the women in red states who will lose their reproductive rights once Roe is overturned. Only the ballot box provides any hope of helping them while at the same time protecting all our rights.
January 11, 2022: Congressman Zeldin, have you no sense of decency?
Last week, on January 6th, Congressman Zeldin spent his time campaigning, rather than showing up to honor the police officers who put their lives on the line to protect him during the attack on the Capitol. In an editorial in Newsday, entitled, “A year later, Jan. 6 perceptions differ,” the editorial board noted that Long Island’s Democratic legislators participated in the memorial at the Capitol, but their Republican counterparts did not.
“On the feeds of Long Island’s Republican House members, Jan. 6 was just another day. Lee Zeldin’s online activity was mostly focused on his push for New York’s governor’s mansion, with entries like: ‘As Governor, I’ll END the draconian mask mandates on NY students. NO MORE 2-yr olds in masks! No COVID vaccine requirement for students. No more of this push of kids into remote education instead of IN-PERSON, FULL-TIME, IN THE CLASSROOM learning.’ “
https://www.newsday.com/opinion/capitol-riot-jan-6-anniversary-1.50469801
But, as they so often have when it comes to Lee Zeldin, Newsdayfell short. By describing it as just differing perceptions, they let Zeldin off the hook. The Southampton Pressdid a much better job. In an editorial entitled, “Under Attack,” they called Zeldin to account.
“The South Fork has a stake in this discussion more than some communities, because our U.S. representative, Lee Zeldin, played an outsize role in the insurrection. He was joined by well over 100 Republican colleagues in challenging the certification, but he was one of the few to rise on the House floor — just hours after violence spilled into the same space — to take up Donald Trump’s ‘Big Lie.’ His remarks that day weaved tales of election fraud that were never rooted in reality. Some, like the idea that the number of absentee ballots cast in Pennsylvania had exceeded the number of registered voters, had been debunked before he repeated the lie that day. The rest evaporated upon closer inspection. ‘I have a duty to speak out about confirmed, evidence-filled issues with the administration of the 2020 presidential election in certain battleground states,’ Zeldin said on the House floor one year ago, as broken glass littered and blood stained the Capitol. In the 12 months since, every court and every investigation found the ‘Big Lie’ to be just that. Lee Zeldin was wrong — and he should mark the anniversary by admitting it.” https://www.27east.com/southampton-press/under-attack-2-1852623/
Rather than admit it, he marked the day by spreading lies about COVID. Then a few days later, his January 6thFacebook post was missing. Maybe even he realized it was unseemly and had it removed.
This past weekend, the cover story in The New York Times Magazine, “The Scars of January 6th: For many officers of the U.S. Capitol Police, their bodies, minds and lives will never be the same,” is about the ongoing trauma that Capitol Police offers are struggling with. These officers cannot ignore the ramifications of what happened on January 6th. Lee Zeldin and the Republican Party should not be permitted to ignore their part in this tragedy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/magazine/jan-6-capitol-police-officers.html
Will Zeldin hypocritically campaign this year by cloaking himself in the mantle of supporting law enforcement, as he has in the past, even though he could not bring himself to give even one moment of silence for the fallen and traumatized Capitol Police officers? And will Newsday, Long Island’s largest newspaper, let him get away with that?
Across the country, Republican-led states are following up the Big Lie with new voter suppression laws. Not only are the GOP trying to ignore what happened on January 6th, but they are doubling down on the democracy-damaging lies that fueled the insurrection. Skipping the memorial last week is part of this overall plan to protect Trump and arrange his reformation in 2024.
Whether Lee Zeldin chooses to run for reelection or run for governor, the lines are drawn for the 2022 elections. No matter what your views are on tax policy or social programs, right now there is only one issue that matters, the survival of our democracy. That begins with telling the truth about January 6th. Right now, there is only one political party who cares, about the truth and about preserving our right to vote. The Democratic Party.
At this time, I am reminded of the words spoken to another Republican legislator. It was the 1950s, and Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy spent years upending our democracy in his hunt for communists, ruining countless lives and careers. It finally began to unravel during the Army-McCarthy hearings. McCarthy had claimed the army was corrupted by communist subversives. When McCarthy attempted to smear an attorney who was on the staff of lawyer Joseph Welch, the lawyer representing the army, Welch fought back.
“At a session on June 9, 1954, McCarthy charged that one of Welch's attorneys had ties to a Communist organization. As an amazed television audience looked on, Welch responded with the immortal lines that ultimately ended McCarthy's career: ‘Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.’ When McCarthy tried to continue his attack, Welch angrily interrupted, ‘Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?’ Overnight, McCarthy's immense national popularity evaporated.” https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/mccarthy-hearings/have-you-no-sense-of-decency.htm
And so, we should all be asking: Congressman Zeldin, have you no sense of decency?