Posts

Posted on

Prize-winning author to present radical right’s plan to steal democracy on Oct 3

By Brad Swanson:

Prize-winning author Nancy MacLean visits northern Virginia Oct. 3

Celebrated author Nancy MacLean visits our region on Wed. Oct. 3 for a free presentation on her prize-winning book “Democracy in Chains:The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America ” .

MacLean’s book has won prestigious awards and she has earned national prominence — including this recent appearance with Bill Maher —  for exposing an organized campaign by radical libertarians to seize the agendas of the nation’s universities, political institutions and judicial system, aided by the open wallets of the Koch brothers.

The presentation is 7:30 – 9 pm on Wednesday October 3rd at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax at 2709 Hunter Mill Road in Oakton, VA 22124. (Directions here).

Sign up to reserve a seat here.

The radical right seeks to destroy public faith in institutions in order to protect the power of the 1%. They work assiduously to promote a national agenda that undercuts our democracy. And the evidence of their success is everywhere, from the White House to classrooms, courtrooms and state assemblies.

More in The Blue View

Posted on

Make plans to attend the FCDC meeting on September 25

At the August Hunter Mill Democrats monthly meeting, the Hunter Mill Democrats voted unanimously to affirm our support for the Dranesville Democrats and their candidate endorsement process for Herndon Town Council. If you are a member of the Hunter Mill Democrats (dues paid or dues waiver signed), please make plans to attend the next FCDC General Membership Meeting on September 25 at James Madison High School in Vienna at 7:30pm.

2500 James Madison Dr,
Vienna, VA 22181

It’s important for us to be present at this meeting so that the full Fairfax Democrats membership can reach the quorum requirement and consider the Dranesville District Democratic Committee’s endorsement recommendation for Herndon Town Council. As a Hunter Mill Democrat, you have a vote at this meeting, but you must be present! If you have any questions, please email the Hunter Mill Co-Chairs at huntermilldems@gmail.com

Posted on

Weekend of Action!

The November election is only two months away, and every single vote counts in building our blue wave. To make sure we do everything we can to elect Tim Kaine, Jennifer Wexton, and Gerry Connolly in 2018, we’re asking everyone who can to join our elected officials and participate in a weekend of action this weekend, September 8 and 9, 2018.

On Saturday, we will be having a canvassing and phone banking event from the home of Sue Langley:

2435 Flint Hill Road
Vienna, VA 22181

Gerry Connolly will join us at noon, and Ken Plum and Pat Hynes will also participate. More information is available here.

On Sunday at 9am, Delegate Jennifer Boysko will join us for canvassing and phone banking in Fox Mill:

2982 Franklin Oaks Drive
Herndon, VA 20171

More information is available here.

There are opportunities on both Saturday and Sunday throughout the day, so come meet your elected officials and join us in fighting to restore sanity to our government.

Posted on

Virginia could be the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment

Virginia’s vote could be the last state vote needed to allow the United States Congress to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would become the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.

Alice Paul / Historical Photo

VAratifyERA Sunday — Women’s Equality Day — kicked off a campaign to press Virginia lawmakers to approve the amendment in January by holding screenings around Virginia of “Iron Jawed Angels.” The film stars Hilary Swank as Alice Paul, the suffragist who first drafted the ERA.

Women’s Equality Day, Aug. 26, commemorates passing the 19th Amendment in 1920, prohibiting state and federal governments from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex after a fight for women’s rights that began in the mid-1800’s.

The proposed ERA seeks to further expand equal legal rights guarantees for all American citizens regardless of sex.

Voting rights were a significant victory for women in 1918. Suffragists endured unthinkable treatment during the quest. Drawing little public interest when picketing began in January 1917; by April, as World War I started, the public became outraged at suffragists’ criticism of President Woodrow Wilson’s “hypocrisy” in calling for Democracy in Europe.

Suffragists suffered multiple incarcerations, increasing fines; even the torture of force feeding following hunger strikes, and eventually beatings, choking, and kicking by prison guards during the infamous “Night of Terror” on Nov. 14, 1917, at the Occoquan Workhouse.

Finally, public sympathy and shock over such treatment, for merely picketing, led to their release two weeks later. In January 1918, President Wilson came out in favor of the 19thamendment.

It had taken 72 years for women to get the vote, but women have yet to be recognized as having equal rights, beyond voting, under law in the United States Constitution.

From The Blue View

Posted on

Fairfax Democrats prepare to challenge themselves on race

By Sean Perryman:

Following the election of Donald Trump, the Democratic Party at both the local and national level continues to grapple with race and the role it should or shouldn’t play in its platform and organizing.

In that vein, on September 12th, the Fairfax County Democratic Committee (FCDC) will hold a Racial Equity Workshop for its membership. The workshop is designed to give members a greater understanding of structural racism and its impact on day-to-day interactions.

Essential to any understanding of race is an examination of racism. The construct of race after all was conceived to justify maltreatment of people of color. But it does not end there.

So, what is racism?

With Nazis, Klansman, and white supremacists running for office, taking center stage in our media, and organizing marches on the nation’s capital in a sequel to their violent gathering in Charlottesville, it’s easy to point and say “that’s racism.”

This overly simplistic definition of racism absolves us of deeper self-reflection because “at least, we’re not them,” but it fails to capture the insidious and pervasive nature of systemic racism. To point to examples of explicit racism as the only form of racism make us accountable for only our intentions and not the consequences of our actions or inactions. This simplified understanding that racism is explicit, intentional, and stems from ignorance, however, fits within the popular conception of the term.

Let me offer a more thoughtful definition: In his award-winning book, “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America,” scholar Ibram X. Kendi flips that ahistorical definition on its head.  “[S]elf-serving efforts by powerful factions to define their racist rhetoric as nonracist has left Americans thoroughly divided over, and ignorant of, what racist ideas truly are,” he writes.

Instead, Kendi posits that racism is better understood this way:

“Racial discrimination -> racist ideas  ->  ignorance/hate”

That is, we discriminate based on self-interest, we create racist ideas to justify that discrimination, and people internalize those racist ideas. In this understanding of racism, it is critical that we tackle how we all have internalized racist ideas, even people from traditionally marginalized communities.

If we want to be serious about being anti-racist, we cannot pat ourselves on the back for merely not ascribing to the ideology or not adopting the language of the lowest among us. We should strive for better in both policy and practice.

Can we say we have done that?

From The Blue View

Posted on

Election Alerts help Democrats win by defeating voter drop-off

By Todd Thurwachter:

When Democrats vote, we win. And in Virginia, we vote every year! That’s why Fairfax County Democrats have put into place tools like Voting: What you Need to Know and Elections Alerts. They can make a huge difference in fighting the biggest impediment to Democratic victories: Democratic drop-off in non-Presidential elections.

Voting: What you Need to Know is a handy gripcard with essential voting information on managing one’s voter registration, voting early, finding one’s polling place – just about everything one needs to know to register and vote successfully. Election Alerts emails voters before each election with updated information, including the Voting: What you Need to Know gripcard, harnessing the power of social media to maximize reach to even more voters.

This year, Fairfax Democrats are taking aim at the 40% of our voters who often don’t show up to vote in non-Presidential years. We stress the dire consequences of not voting with powerful stories that motivate our voters to take action:

* In 2010, 26 million of Barack Obama’s 69 million 2008 voters didn’t vote and Dems lost control of Congress, effectively killing Obama’s program of Hope & Change.

* That same 2010 Democratic drop-off enabled Republicans to sweep state houses and pull off the worst nationwide gerrymandering in history. That hit home– in 2012, Democrats won only 3 of Virginia’s 11 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives even though Tim Kaine won his Senate race by 6%!

* Last year, a single vote in VA’s 94th District assured continued Republican control of VA’s House of Delegates, allowing Republicans to keep blocking even debate of Democratic bills.

If those three dire consequences can’t get Democrats motivated to vote, what can?  But convincing voters to vote in every election is just half the battle — we need to make sure they actually cast their votes, successfully. And that’s where Voting: What you Need to Know is so critical. After all, voting in Virginia isn’t always easy. Most voters don’t know they can register to vote or update their voter registration record online at www.vote.virginia.gov. No need to waste time at the DMV.

From The Blue View

Posted on

Hunter Mill Meeting on Wednesday, September 12, 2018

The September meeting of the Hunter Mill Democrats will take place on Wednesday, September 12, 2018 at 7:30pm at the North County Governmental Center, 1801 Cameron Glen Dr, Reston, VA 20190.

Delegate Ken Plum will be a special guest speaker.

All are welcome to arrive at 7pm to meet one another and members of the executive board before the meeting begins at 7:30pm.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Posted on

Come Canvass Saturday with Anne Holton!

This Saturday, August 18 starting at 1pm, the Virginia Coordinated Campaign will be launching Hunter Mill door-knocking efforts from the new coordinated campaign office at

150 Elden St., Suite 244, Herndon, VA

We anticipate that Anne Holton, former Virginia Education Secretary, will join us in our efforts to reach voters.

The Coordinated Campaign has been hosting canvass events every Saturday, so if you’ve been participating in those, note the change in time and location. If you haven’t had the chance to get out there yet, this is a great time to join up and help us elect Tim Kaine to the Senate, Jennifer Wexton to the 10th House District, and Gerry Connolly to the 11th House District.

For more information, contact

Maddy White, at maddy.white@virginiavictory.org or 571.299.9490

Posted on

Sign-Up for Back to School Night

Summer is quickly coming to an end and Hunter Mill is gearing up for Back to School Nights at 21 schools from August 23 to September 26.  BTSN is a great opportunity for us to reach parents of school age children in our community to let them know about the November elections and the candidates.

Please consider signing up for one (or more) of our Back to School Nights through our Sign-up Genius link BTSN Hunter Mill 2018.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Christine Rohrer at christinefrohrer@gmail.com or 703.598.4918

Posted on

Comstock stays mum during congressional committee attack on integrity of FBI

By Julie Galdo:

Two of northern Virginia’s Congress members defended our federal intelligence agencies against vicious insinuations of corruption last month during the aggressive questioning of FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok. But our region’s third member of Congress was nowhere to be seen.

Gerry Connolly called the hearing “a new low” for Congress

Strzok came across as a dedicated Federal employee who made a dumb mistake by expressing his personal feelings about politics in his official email account. But his Republican inquisitors tried to build that into a wholesale indictment of the integrity and professionalism of our most trusted institutions.

Strzok pointed out that that sabotaging an investigation would require everyone above him to sign off on his effort to subvert the investigation all the way to the director of the FBI. “Multiple layers…section chiefs, unit chiefs, case agents and analysts–all of whom were involved in these decisions.

Don Beyer also defended the integrity of the FBI

But several of the Republican House and Judiciary Oversight Committee members were undaunted by reason and continued their assault on Strzok. Their logic can only lead to the conclusion that you can’t trust anyone in the intelligence and national security communities — that they are all motivated by politics and not love of country.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-11) was having none of it. At the hearing he called the Republican questioning an attempt at “destruction of the reputation of the FBI” and “a new low for the United States Congress.” Don Beyer called it a hearing that “had no purpose other than to give Fox News coverage of Republicans attacking the FBI and DOJ.”

Meanwhile, Barbara Comstock was notable for her absence

But their colleague Barbara Comstock (R-10) did not have the courage or decency to stand up for the intelligence community. Does Comstock truly believe that many of the men and women who serve in intelligence and national security are not to be trusted? Or is she simply not be trusted to stand for what she knows is right?

 

From The Blue View