Friends, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t freaked out watching the recent Presidential Debate. The GOP contender smoothly and outrageously lied about everything, didn’t answer direct questions, and revealed his underlying, unhinged mania. Our president stumbled to articulate his very real accomplishments, and neglected to hit his felonious competitor hard on that man’s criminal record and documented attempts to corrode our democracy.
With no fact checking, no questions about MAGA’s 2025 plan or effective push-back from the debate moderators or Biden, my head was exploding on Thursday night. Corporate media treats the election like a horse race vs. prioritizing informing citizens, so voters don’t often hear the Biden administration’s accomplishments benefiting them. They aren’t aware of how most GOP policies make their lives harder. Regrettably, Biden's poor debate performance cost us a golden opportunity to tell this story.
But today is a fresh day and I’ve accepted our current reality: saving democracy is up to us. Not just our political leaders, not the Dem party, not the media, not the courts, and not an elder statesman who had fumbled delivering justified punches to his opponent on the debate stage.
We’re the Blue Wave - we channel our anxiety into action! Let’s talk about what we can do instead.
Action alert #1:
✴️ Support a Senate race in Nebraska where an independent candidate has a rare opportunity to defeat an extremely unpopular MAGA Republican incumbent. Given that Nebraska is such a small state (fewer than 2m in total population), a relatively small investment can make a big difference there.
Unhappy with our current SCOTUS? Want to avoid MAGA crazies running the next cabinet? Blue Wave is prioritizing the US Senate this cycle for good reasons, including confirming future Supreme Court and federal justices, confirming cabinet and other high-level appointments, passing budget bills, reforming Senate rules, passing important legislation, and, as always, protecting democracy!
Action alert #2:
✴️ Write Blue Wave postcards to reach voters in swing states! Do you have friends and family who are freaking out about November’s election? Invite them to take action and write with you!
You’d especially be doing us a solid by ordering a box (2,000 cards) to split during a postcard party, or for 10 - 20 people to write on their own time. Most people can write 100 cards in about an hour. Plus you’ll get a 33% discount on box orders (vs individual orders) and a better shipping rate!
Write more. Worry Less.
Action alert #3:
✴️ Persuade your social circles about the importance of voting pro-democracy this election, reminding folks just how unfit Trump is for the presidency.
Start by bringing up just one of the major GOP elephants in the room that wasn't fully addressed during the debate, an incident that should absolutely disqualify a candidate for the highest office in our country: the events related to January 6th, 2021
J. B. Stoddard of the Bulwark Podcast - an independent media outlet made up of ex-Republican, Never Trumpers (yes, we need all the allies we can get) - summed this up so well on their post-debate podcast, that I’m just going to quote her here:
“...most of the country believes that there is just a January 6th ‘day’...it’s been whitewashed and some people have been talked into believing that it’s just some freak organic riot that was mismanaged and got out of hand and that someone more responsible than Trump would have said ‘Dudes, go home’ earlier - but he’s just Trump and so he was busy watching TV with his thumb up his a** or whatever.
“There was a rolling coup that started months before the election - many, many people were involved. He literally broke the post office on purpose. It was all intentional and it went on all of November and all of December (2020) and it started publicly on election night when he said, ‘We were winning this election. We were going on to win this election!’
“And, the idea that the (CNN debate) moderators not only did not follow up on a question re: January 6th, but just wouldn’t say: ‘You literally attempted for the first time in US history, as the president, to turn back the results of an election. You were caught calling Governors or Secretaries of States, asking them to overturn the popular vote - the will of their states - and use fake electors and to find fake votes.’
“None of that!
“...most Americans only know about the riot…(but) January 6th was only a result of the fact that the coup failed. If the coup succeeded, we wouldn’t have gotten past certification on December 14th.
Yikes. Stodddar’s chilling summation brought me back - we came perilously close to losing democracy with Trump’s attempted coup. If he wins the oval office again, he and his loyalists are much better prepared to succeed.
Ask friends and family what they know about January 6th, 2020. Remind them that the conservative-majority Supreme Court (that Trump appointed three Justices to) is unconscionably delaying Trump’s trial from the American people. The public deserves to hear what really happened on and leading up to January 6th, 2021.
And ask: How is this fair to us voters?
Love you like democracy.
Lisa Gillespie
Marketing Director, Blue Wave Postcard Movement
This post is a part of the Advocate Project, where we discuss how to communicate the good policies that the Biden/Harris administration has accomplished for the American people that are oddly missing from the news. We also cover why the presumptive GOP nominee is totally unsuitable to lead our country. Check back for more talking points to share with your undecided friends, neighbors, and family.