Call to Action
Make a personal plan for your participation in the 2022 elections.
Volunteer for a campaign that is meaningful for you.
Engage friends and family on the issues that matter to them and help them to join a campaign or advocacy group that they can support.
Folks! The 2022 elections are in full swing. It is time to sit down and evaluate what is at risk for you and our country on November 8, 2022. Then make an action plan for how you are going to help determine who sits in the seats of power and how we can make them work for us.
What is at stake in November 2022?
A recent campaign document from the National Republican Senatorial Committee gives us worrisome insight into what Republicans have in mind if they win power in Washington. According to their own words, Republicans will raise taxes on more than one half of all Americans - the half that makes the least - while ending Medicare and Social Security in the next five years. Sounds crazy, right? Afraid not. When pressed, many Republicans downplayed these ideas, but also refused to say that they were opposed to them or give us their views on what they would do if they come to power. We can only assume the worst.
On their side of the Capitol, House Republicans have promised that they will end the investigation into the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot by the Trump-led mob. Several have indicated they will move to deny funding to the Department of Justice in order to end the criminal actions that so far have resulted in 266 guilty pleas and jury trial convictions. It’s clear that Congressional Republicans want to shield Donald Trump even as it becomes more clear each day that he, his staff and some Republican Senators and Representatives sought to illegally stop the certification of the 2020 election.
On the state level, Republicans are running hard on the notion that they can legislate a return to “traditional American values” by banning the discussion of race, gender and minority rights in schools, ending all police reforms, bringing back the full-scale war on drugs and the mass incarceration that goes with it, criminalizing transgender health care for youth and, of course, ending abortion and limiting reproductive rights. Any hope of reversing Trump’s assault on climate and pollution restrictions will end if a Republican Congress can overrule regulatory changes.
So what can we do?
Truth be told, after Trump, Covid and, now, Putin’s war, we are all more than a bit weary of the drama of current events. Unfortunately, we can’t stop the political merry-go-round. We have to act now on our values and commitments to do what it takes to win Democratic majorities at the Federal and state levels.
The party in power usually loses the midterm election, right? Yes, but not always.
Joe Biden isn’t perfect, but he deserves and we need a Congress that works with him for the next two years. If we are going to have any hope of continuing job growth, beating back inflation, protecting the rights of all, containing and reversing climate change and contributing to the defense of democracies like Ukraine, America needs a functional government.
While the newspaper and TV pundits are stuck in an endless loop of doomsaying about the coming wipeout for Democrats, the truth is that the majority of the electorate is in flux. Democrats have a lot of work to do but victory is possible. This is no time to step back, drop out or just wish it away.
As we said in our Call to Action, it is time to take stock of our personal situation, make a commitment and a plan to participate in the 2022 elections, join a campaign or advocacy group, start making contributions, and begin to talk it up with friends and family.
We’ll have a few specific suggestions for organizations you can support and work with in the coming newsletters. Begin today by setting aside your cynicism and disappointment in where things are right now. Commit to making a difference in 2022!