Rogan's List for February 2, 2023

Actions we can take on gun violence, climate voters, pro-life, and more.

Contact all members of Congress:

Contact White House or other federal agencies:

GUN VIOLENCE
More than 100 organizations calling themselves The Time is Now Coalition, which includes the American Federation of Teachers, Brady, March For Our Lives, and the Newtown Action Alliance, have written to President Biden asking him to announce a comprehensive plan of action on guns at the State of the Union address on February 7. Let’s read the letter, and let’s tell President Biden that we support the executive actions requested by The Time is Now Coalition.

SUPPORT UKRAINE WITH ACTION AGAINST PRO-RUSSIA MERCENARIES
With pro-Putin voices in the Republican Party increasingly empowered, it’s going to be up to us to keep up the pressure to support Ukraine. One way we can do so is pushing for further action against the Wagner Group, private mercenaries whose owner has close ties to Putin and who Russia has relied on for assistance in their invasion and across the world. They’re responsible for atrocities in Ukraine and elsewhere, including the abduction of children, sexual violence, torture, and murdering journalists. A bipartisan group of members of Congress has re-introduced legislation designating the WagnerGroup a foreign terrorist organization, which could help us cut off their funding and criminalize providing them with support. Let’s contact Congress and let them know we’d like to see action on that legislation. The Biden Administration has also said they’re considering taking this step on their own. Let’s call the White House and encourage them to do so.

MEDIA COVERAGE OF ELECTION DENIERS
A Brennan Center analysis of governors races in the swing states of Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin found that their newspapers-of-record treated candidates fueling “stolen election” conspiracy theories as ordinary politicians, failing to consistently alert readers to their democracy-undermining extremism. The one exception was the Philadelphia Inquirer. We must not allow political coverage to normalize such candidates. Let’s tell political news journalists to consistently identify “stolen election” candidates as such in every article and broadcast. Here’s list to get started:
- Arizona Republic, Kathy Tulumello, News Director kathy.tulumello@arizonarepublic.com
- Detroit Free Press, Peter Bhatia, Editor & Vice President, pbhatia@freepress.com
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, George Stanley, Editor& Senior Vice President, gstanley@journalsentinel.com
- Our own newspapers of record. We can search for contact info on our own, or ask our local public libraries for help.

MAKE YOUR STATE PRO-LIFE, NOT PRO-FORCED BIRTH
Lawmakers in South Carolina and Georgia have now introduced legislation that would require the state to cover the costs of unwanted pregnancies that cannot be terminated due to their state abortion bans. These “pro-birth accountability acts” would see mothers everything from medical expenses during pregnancy to education and health insurance for their kids after they’re born. While unlikely to pass in Republican-controlled states, these bills highlight the gap between forced birther rhetoric about babies and their actual policies and have gotten noticeable media attention. If we live in a state where abortion rights are challenged, let’s encourage our legislators to follow their lead.

CLIMATE & THE VOTE
To get better climate and environmental laws, we need more pro-environment officials elected at the local, state, and national level. And that means we need more pro-environment voters showing up at the polls. The Environmental Voter Project specializes in galvanizing and growing a bloc of consistent pro-environment voters. Let’s take a look at EVP’s impact reports, and let’s get involved and help turn non-voting environmentalists into super-voters.

Rogan’s List for February 2, 2023