May 15, 2023

Get neo-Nazis off Capitol Hill, protect our libraries, stand with our Ukrainian allies, 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:

• usa.gov/federal-agencies

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• AN EXTREMIST STAFFER ON PAUL GOSAR’S PAYROLL
  Last night, Talking Points Memo published an article revealing that Rep. Paul Gosar’s digital director, Ward Searle, is a prominent follower of Nick Fuentes and the Groyper movement. Rep. Gosar’s ties to Fuentes and to right-wing extremists are well-documented, and now we know they extend to putting a neo-Nazi on the federal payroll. Let’s contact our members of Congress and ask them a) to publicly condemn Gosar’s continued employment of an activist in a white supremacist, Holocaust-denying movement and demand Searle be fired; b) support a censure of Gosar for his continued support of these extremists and c) push for Gosar to removed from his committee assignments, in particular the Oversight Committee, where he serves on the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border and Foreign Affairs. 

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• SUPPORT AID TO UKRAINE
  With Tucker Carlson, one of the loudest voices on the right against Ukraine, temporarily sidelined, Kevin McCarthy has shown renewed signs of backing their efforts to stop the Russian invasion. This is an opportunity to make clear once again that most Americans across the political spectrum support our friends and allies in Ukraine, and politicians should ignore the noisy minority. Let’s contact our members of Congress and ask them to back the bipartisan House and Senate resolutions reaffirming that we stand with Ukraine, and to resist any attempts to cut aid in the upcoming appropriations process. We can also chip in personally to support Ukrainians in the counter-offensive here.

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• PROTECT THE RIGHT TO READ
  "The Right to Read Act will provide more resources so that every child has access to an effective school library staffed by a certified school librarian. It will ensure that teachers and librarians are legally protected for doing their jobs. We need your member of Congress to co-sponsor this important school libraries bill!" We can read more about the bill here, and ask our members of Congress to support the bill using an easy form here. We can also learn more about the work activists are doing to stop defunding of libraries and book bans at the state level here and encourage our state legislators to follow Illinois’ example.

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• BE MORE ETHICAL CONSUMERS

  In his latest book Poverty, By America, sociologist and poverty abolitionist Matthew Desmond discusses, among many, many other things, how we can direct our purchasing power to support unions, environmental justice, and sustainability. He mentions the platform DoneGood. DoneGood vets companies that manufacture products under conditions that support workers (living wages, safe working conditions, no excessive mandatory overtime, no trafficked or child labor) and are good for the planet (use renewable energy, smaller carbon footprint, non-toxic materials). Let’s read DoneGood’s FAQs, and the next time we want to buy something online, let’s look there first.

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• CLIMATE CHANGE FACTS
  How can we effectively counter false claims and misinformation about climate change? We can take this free course sponsored by AFP News Agency. In the course, we'll "learn how to verify content and claims about climate change, we'll talk about "greenwashing", see what content is not verifiable, identify some types of misinformation and which sources to use." It only takes 45 minutes! Let’s check it out here.

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STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS

• OH/ALL – BALLOT INITIATIVES FOR DEMOCRACY, CHOICE
  The wave of GOP efforts to restrict ballot initiatives has hit Ohio, with Republicans in the legislature pushing through a special August election to raise the threshold needed for voters to change the state constitution from 50% to 60% and making it tougher to get measures on the ballot. This is specifically aimed at an effort to secure abortion rights through the initiative process, which activists had been hoping to pass in November. While there are legal challenges against the timing of this initiative, however they are resolved we are likely to see two huge votes for Ohio’s future this calendar year. Let’s check out the leading organizations in this fight like Pro-Choice Ohio, Ohioans for Reproduction Freedom, Protect Choice Ohio and the Vote No in August campaign for updates and to find out how we can help.

• NC – PROTECT REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
  Over the weekend North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper publicly vetoed a 12-week abortion ban and burdensome new requirements on clinics and medication abortion. In doing so, he spoke for a broad majority of his state: 57% of North Carolinians want the current 20—week limit preserved or relaxed even further. A party line vote in the Republican supermajority would override his veto, but one GOP vote in either the House or the Senate to stop them – and several of them have pledged to protect reproductive rights in the past. Let’s reach out to Rep. John Bradford (919-733-5828 and john.bradford@ncleg.gov), Rep. Tricia Cotham (919-733-5749 and tricia.cotham@ncleg.gov), Rep. Ted Davis (919-733-5786 and ted.davis@ncleg.gov), and Senator Michael Lee (919-715-2525 and Michael.lee.@ncleg.gov), and tell them to keep their word to the voters and sustain the vote. We can also contact our own House and Senate members.

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