When reality becomes so absurd...
It's really hard to sound an alarm because you sound like a nutjob! We seem to be at this place with the nefarious and dangerous, democracy-killing Project 2025. We at RAD try to keep our focus on local politics, things we can actually influence. But this 900-page treatise on creating a fascist state, where the President has outsized power (step one accomplished just last week with the bequeathing of immunity for "official acts" of the President) and is surrounded by loyalists, is too dangerous to risk any of our readers being uninformed. In the last week or so, since Taraji P Hensonwarned the audience at the BET Awards, mainstream media is starting to talk about it. A couple of days ago, the Dallas Morning News ran an article (sorry for the paywall!) and night before last, PBS News Hour ran a segment that plainly lays out some of the dangers. And all of this really circles back around to our focus this month...
The news continues to be rough. We continue to be bombarded by headlines and pundits weighing in on the fitness of the President to run again, with so much focus being given to this that the elephant in the room has been ridiculously ignored. The question continues to be asked - why is all the attention going to the fitness of the Democratic nominee and none is being given to the obvious neurological (as well as CRIMINAL, etc.) shortcomings of the Republican nominee. Here's why - Democrats actually CARE if our President is truly qualified and able to lead, so we are fascinated by this subject. (That means we tune in and click on these articles, which means the media keeps churning them out.) Republicans are so inured to the myriad ways that their candidate has fallen short of every norm that we've established over the last 250 years, that they are not interested in that as news. As a matter of fact, they are much more likely to tune in to the news about Biden than they are to look for stories about Trump. Sadly, it seems the press, which is tasked uniquely in the Constitution with defending democracy, is selling us down the river for the almighty dollar.
We are in it to win it. This is now on US... the voters. We must show up in every way we can to defend our democracy. We're reading Heather Cox Richardson's Democracy Awakening for our book club this month (tonight!). Part three leans into the "awakening", with the first two parts educating and reminding us how we got to where we are. She reminds us in the last part of the book what led the founders to declare independence from England, as well as the risk they took in writing the Declaration. As Beto reminded us in his book (another recent book club selection!), We've Got To Try. Freedom and the democracy have never been easy.
This Saturday, we've been invited to spend some time block walking in the morning with Sam Eppler's team here in Richardson. Sam is running for Congressional District 24. He has raised an amazing amount of money and has a good chance of flipping this red district and dethroning Beth Van Dyne, a true MAGA Republican. Sam is working so hard, has a talented, dedicated team and deserves our help. He will represent this district with integrity. Please sign up for details!
Thursday, the 18th, we'll be back at Four Bullets Brewery! In honor of Independence Day, we are focusing on the right to vote and we have some great speakers lined up! Justin Moore, civil rights attorney, will be joining us to talk about the importance of Voting Rights. Jenna Royal, former Voter Protection director at Texas Democratic Party, will talk with us about the work needed to protect the right to vote. And Jess Lugo, who has devoted her career to voter registration, will talk to us about her work! We need to sign people up for working the election in October / November, so think about how you can pitch in. Would you like to be a poll worker? Poll Watcher? We need to have a strong Democratic presence this fall. Join us by registering for the event!
SEE YOU SOON~
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