December 8, 2023
Gift of voter registration, religious freedom, youth voter turnout, and more!
Contact all members of Congress:
By phone: (202) 224-3121
By email: democracy.io
By US mail: Representatives / Senators
By fax: Representatives / Senators
By Resistbot: Resist.bot
Contact White House or other federal agencies:
************ SUBMITTING YOUR ACTIONS TO ROGAN’S LIST *************
We’ve set up a “tip line” so Rogan’s List subscribers can send in their ideas or submissions for action items at roganslisttips@gmail.com. Please don’t hesitate to email and pass on your suggestions. We look forward to hearing from you!
CREATING THE GIFT OF VOTER REGISTRATION
According to Statista, in the US in 2022, ~50% of 18–24-year-olds and ~63% of 25-34 year-olds were registered to vote, compared with ~78% of 65-74 year-olds. Let’s invite the young people in our lives to lift up their voices! For very little cost, we can give them the gift of voter registration. Let’s create for them a thoughtful package containing a copy of the National Mail Voter Registration form (download here to print the form and a page of instructions from our state; we don’t need to print all 27 pages) along with a loving note explaining why voting means so much to us. We can also provide info on TurboVote.org in case our young giftees want to register on the spot. (If we want to jazz things up a bit, we can include a voting pin from Dissent Pins (50% of profits go to The New Georgia Project)).
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM SHOULD BE A SHIELD, NOT A SWORD
We just passed the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a well-intentioned bipartisan bill meant to protect individual religious freedom that has been misused as a cudgel to for conservatives to impose their religious values on others – denying access to birth control and allowing discrimination against LGBTQ people. A coalition including Americans United for Separation of Church and State has been pushing for the package of the Do No Harm Act (S. 1206/H.R. 2725) to restore the RFRA to its original intent by ensuring it is no longer applied to civil rights laws and critical health care and funding rules. Let’s use this tool from AU to encourage our members of Congress to co-sponsor this legislation.
TELL OUR STATE & LOCAL GOP: RENOUNCE TRUMP
By any measure, Trump is not fit to be president, and yet he continues to be the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 presidential nomination. Lists of his worst offenses while in office are numerous—here, here, and here are just three. His current campaign promises include politicizing the federal civil service workforce, conducting mass deportations, scapegoating trans Americans, reversing gains in clean energy, indoctrinating public school students with right-wing, Orwellian-named “patriotic education,” and more. His violent rhetoric—including labeling those who disagree with him “vermin”—echoes that of the 20th century’s most notorious fascists. Nevertheless, the Republican National Committee has refused to condemn him, and House Speaker Johnson has endorsed him. It’s important to remember that the Republican Party isn’t just some distant entity. It is close to us, in the form of state and local parties and committees. They’ve been silent, too. Let’s tell them that we expect them to publicly renounce Trump once and for all. We can find contact information by doing an internet search for our state’s Republican party.
YOUTH VOTER TURNOUT
According to the Fall 2023 Harvard Youth Poll, fewer Americans age 18-29 plan to vote in the 2024 election than had planned to vote relative to this time for the 2020 election. Though apathy is often, wrongly, cited as the reason for low turnout, young voters face numerous barriers that are specific to their age group. Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced the Youth Voting Rights Act (H.R.5293/S.2985), which would address many of these barriers, like pre-registration for minors, creating on-campus polling locations, offering grants to states that involve young people in election activities, and more. Let's contact our MoC and ask them to support the Youth Voting Rights Act. Rock the Vote has created a hub where we can easily email, call, or tweet our MoC and get the message out about the Youth Voting Rights Act. Then, let's continue advocating for and encouraging youth voters by volunteering with NextGen, an organization dedicated to mobilizing young voters to support progressive candidates and causes.
LEARN TO LEAD FAMILY FRIENDLY PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY WITH MOMSRISING
If we are looking to make a difference for moms, dads and caregivers and their families, MomsRising is here to help us make sure that politicians and voters focus on family friendly policies. We can join their national network and help lead their movement by applying to their volunteer New Beacons of Hope Community Leaders Fellowship program. This program is designed for all moms and caregivers, whether we are already community leaders or looking to enhance our advocacy and leadership skills. As part of the program, we will receive comprehensive leadership training, hands-on support, and guidance on various advocacy tactics such as organizing meetups, conducting voter engagement activities, advocating directly with lawmakers, speaking to the media, and much more! MomsRising is looking for Super Mom volunteer leaders who can bridge the gap between moms' voices on the ground and Washington, DC. They want to empower us to create change, especially in the lead-up to the 2024 elections. We can find out more about MomsRising’s New Beacons of Hope Community Leaders Fellowship program, and apply for it here.
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
NH – SAY NO TO A FUNCTIONAL ABORTION BAN AND TO THE PEOPLE SPONSORING IT
A group of Republican legislators have prefiled a bill (HB 1248-FN) that would ban abortion at 15 days gestational age – before the egg implants in the uterine wall, the actual beginning of pregnancy. This would as a result functionally ban abortion in New Hampshire, where care is currently legal through 24 weeks. While the legislation’s sponsors admit it is unlikely to pass, it is a warning sign of the dangers of allowing the Republican trifecta to remain in power. Let’s contact our state lawmakers and Governor Sununu to tell them we want more legal protection for reproductive rights, not these attacks, and let the bill sponsors Rep. Dave Testerman, Rep. John Sellers, and Senator Carrie Gendreau know they are opposing the will of the people of this state. And let’s go a step further and sign up to volunteer with the New Hampshire House Democrats Victory Committee and consider a donation to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which is targeting New Hampshire in 2024, to flip enough seats to stop the GOP threat to our rights.