Finish the job in Wisconsin and Ohio
We’ve scored some impressive wins in 2023. After reducing last year’s predicted “red wave” to a puddle, we helped to elect Judge Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, by a huge margin, and to defeat the Republicans’ sneak attack on abortion rights in Ohio, by an even bigger margin.
So why do things seem so scary as we enter the 2024 election season?
Because the more we win, the more desperate and outrageous the Republicans get. As soon as Wisconsin voters expressed a clear preference for a liberal-leaning Supreme Court, the fringe right began promoting a scurrilous plan to nullify the vote by impeaching Justice Protasiewicz before she heard a single case. Similarly, after getting thumped in their attempt to keep Ohio’s abortions rights initiative off the November ballot, Republicans conspired to put it on the ballot in a deceptively worded and politically loaded summary.
It’s become a familiar pattern: Republican extremists overreach. Voters resoundingly reject them. Extremists reach further. Instead of trying to persuade their voters or propose policies that voters will support, they try to win by changing the rules.
Many of us were hoping for a respite this fall, a chance to relax and regroup before the 2024 shitstorm. Sorry, but the vacation is over. We may be seeing a party in its death throes, but while it thrashes around we have to be vigilant.
Here’s what we can do this week:
Phone bank with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. They’re asking voters to call their state reps and senators and warn them off the far right’s extreme impeachment scheme. Currently sessions are scheduled for Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays in September (in other words, right now!), with more possibly to come.
Donate to the WisDems Defend Justice Campaign. Help get the word out to Wisconsin pols: don’t you dare!
Phone bank with the Democratic Party of Ohio. We spent weeks asking Ohio voters to “Vote No on Issue 1.” Now we have to get them to vote yes! Tuesday and Thursday evenings 4:30-6:30 CT, Wednesday sessions possibly to come.
Donate to Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, a coalition of abortion-rights organizations fighting to protect abortion rights with a constitutional amendment.
Then, after you’ve worked a couple shifts and written a couple checks, relax with a beverage and some choice political gossip:
September 21 is Blue Thursday
Save the date and plan to join us at the Hideout, the coolest bar in town, for our monthly political mixer: the crowd will be smart, the bar will be open, and the talk will be loose. Our special guest this month is the former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. You’ve seen him on CNN and MSNBC. You’re read him in Politico Magazine. You’ve heard his podcast It’s Complicated. Come meet him and hear the latest on the legal entanglements of our Previous President and his cabal of accomplices and acolytes. Bar opens at 5, program starts at 6. Free and open to all, but please RSVP here.
