Roevember Is Coming
There is a colossal uprising underway right now and it doesn’t involve an armed mob storming the Capitol, or a mass shooting at a July 4th parade, or guys I went to high school with trying to kidnap the governor of Michigan.
Rather, it looks like this:
Kansas.
Last Tuesday, when nearly two-thirds of that state voted to keep abortion legal, the turnout was so huge it nearly doubled the number of voters who participated in the last off-year primary election in 2018 — and nearly TRIPLED the turnout from 2014.
In the six weeks between the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade in June and the Kansas election on August 2nd, new voter registration in Kansas skyrocketed. And here’s the number that most media seems afraid to report: 70% of those newly registered voters were women.
And then there was this: Of those who showed up to vote in Kansas on Tuesday, a whopping 20% of them ONLY voted on the abortion proposal — and left the rest of the entire ballot BLANK!
If the patriarchy of the Republican Party, along with their white Supremacist co-horts and Catholic Church funders, didn’t understand the raging fire they had ignited, well, they do now. I mean, how angry, how committed do you have to be to drive to the polls on a near 100-degree day, stand in line for an hour — and then just go in and mark a single “X” on the ballot?!
Add to that the most-watched reality TV show of the summer, the mind-blowing January 6th Hearings, where middle America saw a president literally organizing a coup to overthrow their Democracy. And add to THAT, thanks to the Supreme Court (again), the NRA and one gun massacre after another, the American public was now no longer feeling safe sending their children to school, shopping while Black at a supermarket, or watching a parade. The people simply have had it — and Kansas became the first (but not the last) state where the citizens are now in full revolt.
Roevember is coming.
The Republican Party chose to commit a mass suicide of epic proportions with its allegiance to Trump. They were so stupefyingly insane falling for a con man’s con, not realizing how much they now resembled a moronic cult, instead of a political party. Even tykes at the kids table could tell that the Grandpa they loved was now nuts. And while we have always had a lot of lunatics in our country, no sane person ever wants to be in a cult or to be seen acting like a mindless blubbering babbling idiot who has followed Dear Leader right off the cliff. There may be 64 million of them — and granted that’s a lot of lunatics running loose — but there is some comfort knowing that there are still 270 million of us who will never drink the Kool-Aid.
By 2020, Trump was booted out by a record turnout of voters. It was the seventh time in the last eight presidential elections — since 1988 — that the majority of the American people voted FOR the Democrat and AGAINST the Republican. That’s right. Only once in those 34 years has a Republican won the presidential popular vote (George W. in ‘04, and just by one state). Only gerrymandering and voter suppression have allowed them to still hold any significant power. Kansas is the shot across the bow that declares their days are now coming to an end.
Am I wrong to love the thought of Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy right now massively shitting themselves — so heavily it seems that they must be made mostly of dung — and now for the first time ever finding themselves choking on the odor of each other?
Or that Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas are, at this moment, bawling their eyes out, huddled in fear in their underground Opus Dei chapel, sick and shaking at the unexpected turn of events they created, never imagining it may soon lead to their own demise.
“KANSAS!!”, they cry out. “KANSAS!!! WHY GOD? PLEASE! NO!”
But how could they ever have known that their slaughter of the rights of an entire gender would come back to haunt them? What could possibly be wrong with nailing the genitals of 170 million American women to their Catholic/Christian Nationalist Cross? And then their Fascist State forcefully straps women down against their will for nine long months to bring a fertilized egg to term. And then said State reaches inside their bodies to yank that fetus out of them, dump it on their chests, and then, as they leave the room in a collective macho high-five, looks back at them and snarls: “HA! Good luck raising that! You won’t be getting a goddamn dime of help from any of us!”
Did not a single one of these right-wing judges and politicians realize women were now allowed to vote? That it’s been that way since 1920? The Supreme Court, while they were at it in June, should’ve taken that right away from them, too. History will note that fatal mistake of theirs became their undoing.
But not so fast, Mike. If there’s one thing we know it’s that the Beast cannot be dispensed with so easily. We also know the Democrats are pros at blowing it. Their own history is one of fear, caving in, shameless compromise and scared of their own shadow. They also take millions of dollars from the same oligarchs who fund the Republicans. So the fix isn’t in — yet.
As you’ve been reading this Substack, I’m guessing you’ve been thinking to yourself, “I don’t know. Republicans always seem to get away with it. We always seem to lose. If only…”
STOP IT! Quit your whining and pessimism and “woe is us” attitude. The time bomb is ticking. We have only 90 days to act! Snap out if it, throw some cold water on your face and tell me you’re with me. I’M with you! So, c’mon — let’s get busy. Nearly a million of you are reading this! Our work is this simple: We have just three goals!
1. Elect 4 New Democratic U.S. Senators!
2 to block Manchin and Sinema… and
2 for extra cushion.
The most likely States where we can elect Democratic Senators:
Pennsylvania
Wisconsin
Ohio
North Carolina
Florida
2. We Need to Hold the House and Add Another 10 Seats!
3. We Need a Democratic Takeover of At Least 10 State Legislatures!
Please join me in our #Roevember campaign! Here’s what you can personally do in August to make this happen:
1. Create Your Own FAMILY & FRIENDS ROEVEMBER GROUP!
Here’s how:
Email, text or call your parents, siblings, cousins, close friends and in-laws (the ones who are not lost to the Dark Side) and ask them to be part of your “Family Roevember Team” for the upcoming election. Together, as a family, for the next 12 weeks, we are going to register voters, make calls and do whatever else it takes to create a Blue Wave for this election. That’s it. And we’ll do it as a family! On Election Night we’ll then have one big Family and Friends Reunion on Zoom to celebrate the results!
2. Organize the Street You Live On (or Your Apartment Building)! Name yourself Block (or Building) Captain!
If you don’t do it, no one else will. Stop making excuses that you don’t have the time. Our Democracy doesn’t have the time! WE ARE OUT OF TIME! The final blow to our cherished values is at hand.
Your part is easy.
Just start introducing yourself to your neighbors on your street (or in your apartment building) and ask them to help you get out the vote in #Roevember! Tell them it will be fun! Every weekend we’ll do something cool with each other to make Roevember a success!
Let history remember that it was the Main Street block club that helped save our democracy!
“Remember, Remember, the 8th of Roevember!”
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Just sent this to my three college grandchildren. The young voters must carry this message across the country. Women are depending upon all of us to preserve their equality and their right to choose.
I'm on it! As a sufferer of GAD I have a choice: hide inside my four walls or gird my so-called loins and get out there! So I made a commitment with Kansans for Constitutional Freedom (a mouthful when you're introducing yourself!) and made calls into Kansas two weeks (five times) before their election. Yes, I was cursed twice but also spoke to some awesome people. Wish I could tell you about some of these conversations. So I'm really celebrating this success.
If I can do it, you can do it, right? The last time I phoned in was Sunday before their Tuesday election and there were 119 of us in that zoom room, from all over the US. You get a thorough training and then off you go, sitting comfortably at home. Looking forward to doing it again, in other states, after a tiny rest and back-pat!