Tag: democrats

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Time to vote for politicians who support gun safety

By Karen Kirk:

“VOTE THEM OUT” was the rallying cry of speakers and protesters as more than 100 people gathered outside of the NRA Headquarters in Fairfax Saturday in support of gun safety.

“This nation breathes the oxygen that is the promise of liberty and right now, our people are suffocating,” said speaker Micaela Lattimer, a 17-year-old Latina from Maryland. “We’re not free when gunshots pierce classrooms. We’re not free when people are criminalized just for being black or brown. We’re not free when gun violence in Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore and Detroit goes ignored,” said Lattimer, speaking in English and Spanish.

“We point cameras to schools whose windows are shattered but muffle the voices who cry black lives matter. When black activists protested police brutality they were met with full riot gear and teargas,” said Lattimer, who helped organize the rally.

“To my fellow young people, it is now our job to actively urge those around us to vote and to lobby legislators and question authority,” she said. “Eternal vigilance is necessary to protect our freedom.”

“To elected officials, we the people are calling on you to develop and carry out policy that prevents a firearm from getting into the cold grip of a domestic abuser, policy that prevents the phone call telling a family their child was gunned down at age 16, policy that protects black youths from the shackles of criminalization and policy that keeps hateful people from committing a massacre. Most of all, policy that promotes humanization and education.”

“If you wish to stay in office, we demand that you actively protect our inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Lattimer said.

Read the rest at The Blue View

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Jennifer Wexton plans to repeal and replace Comstock

By Karen Kirk:

“Good afternoon. I’m Jennifer Wexton and I’m going to repeal and replace Barbara Comstock,” the Virginia State senator told the audience at The Good Ole Girls brunch on Sunday at the Tysons Corner Marriott.

Jennifer Wexton greets a guest at The Good Ole Girls brunch (Photos by Karen Kirk)

Wexton, who is running for the CD-10 seat, said that like many of us after the 2016 election, she just wanted to pull the covers up over her head. “But I think most of us realized that we can’t just stay under the covers for the next 4 years so we ultimately came out and seeing what the administration has been doing — the attacks on the institutions that are here to keep us safe, institutions like the free press, institutions like our intelligence community, and attacks on civility, the rule of law, immigrants, women, the environment, I knew I had to step up again and run for Congress.”

“So this is going to be an election about contrasts because Barbara Comstock and I are both women and that’s about where the similarity ends.”

  • On women’s health:“Barbara Comstock has said more than once that she wants Roe vs Wade overturned, and with Donald Trump making appointments to the Supreme Court, she may get her wish so it’s more important now than ever that we have members of Congress who are pro-choice and fight to do things like fully fund Planned Parenthood. I will do those things in Congress.”
  • On health care: “Barbara Comstock has voted 6 times to repeal Affordable Care Act and rip health care coverage away from millions of Americans. She voted to eliminate the individual mandate which has spiked insurance premiums for everybody and thrown the individual markets into chaos. I on the other hand along with (Loudon, VA Delegate) Karrie Delaneyand my friends in the General Assembly have expanded access to affordable healthcare to 400,000 Virginians.
  • On guns: “Barbara Comstock is the top recipient in money from the NRA — bought and paid for by the gun lobby. I have been fighting for years for common sense gun violence prevention and gun safety legislation. I will do the same thing in Congress.”

Wexton then outlined the contrasts on how each candidate deals with this president, saying “because while drafting our Constitution, our forefathers foresaw that we could have a president like Trump, but what they didn’t see was that we could have a Congress that enabled him.”

Read the rest at The Blue View

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College students need to apply for absentee ballot

The author’s son Ben, preparing to return to college

By Stephanie Witt Sedgwick, from The Blue View

If it’s August, it’s time to start getting ready to send your college student back to school.

The No. 1 item on the To Do List: Have them apply for an absentee ballot or register to vote ASAP and wait a week or two until they are registered and then have them apply.

It’s fast. It’s easy.

Go to: Register to Vote and Apply for Absentee Ballots

Documents: Your student will need their social security number and driver’s license number

Reason for applying to vote absentee: Student attending college or university outside of locality of residence.

Address: Your student can receive their ballot at their home address or college address.

Plans change. Don’t count on your student coming home to vote or voting in person absentee during fall break.

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Be ready for Comstock to use smear tactics in 10th district race against Wexton

By Rob Abbot:

As the race between Jennifer Wexton and Barbara Comstock to represent Virginia’s 10th district in Congress heats up, we need to be ready for Comstock to revert to her usual vicious and false campaign tactics.

To see her modus operandi clearly, you need look no farther than her last contest. Just last month, she faced a relative unknown, retired Air Force pilot Shak Hill, in the Republican primary for the seat. Apparently worried that her funding and name recognition advantages would not see her through, she unleashed a scurrilous attack on Hill two weeks before the election, using a puerile nickname (“Shady Shack”),  childish insults (“creepy”; “can’t win”) and insinuendos that her opponent was a pornographer.

This was business as usual for Comstock. In her five previous election contests –three for state delegate followed by two for Congress — she showed an aptitude for finding a small chink in her opponent’s armor and magnifying it to create a misleading, even slanderous narrative that portrays the opponent as personally dishonorable. Sadly, these reprehensible tactics have worked —  she has been successful in all these races.

Here are some examples:

— In her first campaign in 2009, for  Virginia House of Delegates, Comstock accused her opponent of abetting child molesters. In truth, the opponent had voted for an austerity budget that provided for early release of non-violent offenders.

— In 2011, running for re-election, she maintained that her opponent had supported raising taxes –even though the opponent had never held public office.

–In 2013, running for a third term in the Virginia house, she painted her opponent as a tax cheat. The reality is that the opponent’s spouse had been late paying a property tax bill.

Even before running for office herself, Comstock had become a veteran in using smear tactics against political enemies. As an investigator for a Republican Congress member  in the 1990s she spearheaded massive, coordinated efforts to bring down President Bill Clinton with fake “scandals” such as Filegate, Travelgate, and Whitewater.

Media accounts of her pulling all-nighters poring over thousands of pages of subpoenaed documents somehow paint this behavior as endearing. In truth, Comstock built her career and reputation by trying to tear down Democratic opponents, not on the basis of policy disagreements but by suggesting that the opponent is morally repugnant and unfit to serve.

Read the rest at The Blue View

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Kavanaugh will support Trump’s march toward autocracy

                      Judith Shamir

By Judith Shamir:

Donald Trump has always made it abundantly clear that his choice for the Supreme Court would be someone who, like him, is staunchly determined to overturn abortion rights as well as many other civil and human rights. In picking Brett Kavanaugh as his nominee, he is fulfilling that promise.

Kavanaugh’s pick is the most frightening of all the prolific steps toward autocracy that the Trump regime has taken so far. Seeing Trump’s cozy conversation, just concluded, with his Russian puppet master in Helsinki highlights the danger of picking a nominee with so little regard for rights and rule of law.

Whatever he might say about respecting precedent and giving due consideration to the facts of each case, Mr. Kavanaugh has demonstrated that he will not hesitate to bend the law to serve his views.  In a dissenting opinion on a recent DC Circuit Court decision, Kavanaugh argued against allowing a young undocumented woman to access abortion care, putting her health at risk by delaying the procedure. In another dissent, he argued that the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage requirement places a “substantial burden” on religious employers who seek exemption from this mandate.

Some might say that we dodged a bullet – that Kavanaugh is actually more “moderate” than other potential nominees. Should we feel relief then? Certainly not. Kavanaugh believes the President should not be subject to subpoena or charged with a crime while in office. His writings indicate that he would favor dismissing the independent counsel’s investigation as unconstitutional, making the prospect of his participation in Supreme Court rulings regarding the Mueller investigation yet another dramatic threat to American democracy.

Read the rest at The Blue View