It's 2023, and there's a US election in 2024 that will determine the future of climate change, war in Ukraine, the global economy, reproductive rights, and global fascism.
And folks still want to talk about Cambridge Analytica in 2015, instead of stuff like this:
The reason you can't make any progress on:
* Climate change
* Reproductive rights
* Trans rights
Is because too many Black folk are denied the right to vote. Focus on that instead of your pet issue.
I'm a climate doomer, because I know that no progress on the climate can happen unless Black voting rights in the US get sorted. And we aren't even paying attention to the Black voting problem, let alone close to solving it.
There is no path to making meaningful progress on climate change that doesn't go through Black people in the US getting to vote. None. The fact that we still can't accept this, is why I'm not optimistic about our chances to do anything meaningful about the climate.
@mekkaokereke Do you see any hope in this?
“The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is launching a super PAC to mobilize Black voters ahead of 2024 in an effort to give the House a Democratic majority and, in the process, elect the nation’s first Black Speaker of the House.”
The Rolling Sea Action Fund
The Congressional Black Caucus is launching a super PAC to mobilize Black voters ahead of 2024 in an effort to give the House a Democratic majority and, in the process, elect the nation’s first Black Speaker of the House. The Rolling Sea Action Fund will raise money as well as invest in different advertising and…
@mickeleh Absolutely not. I think campaigns like this are less than helpful. They turn Black voters off. Especially Black men.
My threads on here are all about racist voter suppression. But the media conversation is always around "getting out the vote" or "mobilising Black voters?" The solution is to yell at the victims to try harder?
The word "suppression" didn't appear in this article even once.
No one is more motivated than Black voters. They don't need to be mobilized. They need help.
Black people wait in line for 8 hours to vote, and take another day off work to register. GOP changes things to make it 9 hours, and requires 3 days off work. The Dem response to this is... to ask Black voters to suck it up because "democracy needs you!" and take the 3 days and 9 hour voting line?
And if Black voters don't take that 3 days off work and wait in line to vote for 9 hours, in sufficient numbers to win for the Dems, then we are blamed for losing the election?
The "mobilize Black voters" meme is insulting, and ignores the facts of what's really going on.
The CBC should take all of the money they raise, and focus it on pushing left by supporting the correct candidates, fighting disenfranchisement tactics, and implementing some of the "year round" "authentic" efforts to address what Black communities need, mentioned way down in the article.
Being registered to vote is not enough. That's the whole point of voter ID. If you are registered to vote, but don't have a current ID when you vote, then the ballot that you cast is provisional. It may or may not count, depending on what else you do. And you only have 72 hours to fix it.
1: Lose a day of work standing in line to vote.
2: Lose a day going to the DMV to request a replacement license
3: Lose a day going to the City clerk's office
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/voter-suppression-wisconsin-election-2016/
@EricFielding @CMDoran @mickeleh
Vote America has what I consider to be the most comprehensive, most accurate, most up to date information on navigating through voter suppression.
https://www.voteamerica.com/how-to-vote/wisconsin/
Debrah Cleaver is a national treasure. ♥️👍🏿
@Theneilcace @CMDoran @EricFielding @mekkaokereke @mickeleh in a neighborhood that hasn't been fucked over by cars (excessive parking, gutted transit, etc) it's faster.
I live downtown in a city of only 18k in the US.
My grocery store is 2 blocks away. I can walk to literally everything I need in less time then it takes anyone in a car.
@mekkaokereke @mickeleh as a white woman in a fairly prosperous suburb, I have never waited in line longer than 30 minutes (and that was exceptional). To cast my vote.
Registering to vote, early voting, absentee ballot? All trivially easy and convenient.
I was over 50 years old before I learned how different the experiences of Black, Latina, and poor friends were. (Thank you social media, for teaching me how not-universal my life experiences are.)
@Agora @mekkaokereke @mickeleh It ends when the majority of white people grasp that racism is a white people’s problem, begin to see how unequal is the playing field, begin to look for the evidence right in front of our eyes of structural racism and inequality, and commit to changing it.
Till then, that shit gets to hide in plain sight. 😡
@mekkaokereke @mickeleh And neither my ignorance nor the difficulties Black, brown, and poor people face in voting are a coincidence. It’s as engineered as the gerrymandered districts in Alabama… White liberals like me are kept quietly insulated from the awareness of how hard it can be for Black voters to vote precisely so we can complacently join the right wingers in blaming people for the suppression of their votes.
Of course, we white liberals also curate our ignorance.
@megmuttonhead @mekkaokereke @mickeleh
I like that phrase "curating ignorance" because it is so true.
Part of not wanting conflict is not wanting to hear about things that might make you feel bad. That is the very essence of the laws to restrict any learning in school that might make a student (read child of a white parent) feel bad. It is curated ignorance to make sure that they don't learn about the violent history of their ancestors and become rebellious when they grow up.
#raceInAmerica
@mekkaokereke @mickeleh Washington switched to mail-in ballots only before I turned 18. I've only ever voted by mail-in ballot.
My ignorance: I didn't realize Washington and Oregon (two of the whitest states) were the only two states that do this until the whole fracas about mail in ballots in 2020.
I still haven't gotten over realizing people have to wait multiple hours in line to vote. It's barbaric and backwards.
I fill out a form on my kitchen table weeks before the election. Takes 5 min
@mekkaokereke @mickeleh There is no possible rational argument against mail-in voting. It increases transparency and voter participation. Anything else is intentionally oppressive.
In Australia the whole country has mail-in voting and you're automatically registered to vote by virtue of being born in Australia or emigrating there. If you are a citizen, you're registered to vote. This isn't that complicated, America is fucking this up on purpose.
@sidereal @mekkaokereke @mickeleh
> There is no possible rational argument against mail-in voting.
Voting in person, alone, in secret, and not being allowed to photograph your voting slip protects against votes being coerced, stolen, sold, or many forms of manipulation of the voter. Mail-in voting is vulnerable to these issues.
Mail-in voting is a perfectly reasonable security tradeoff decision, but there are plenty of very rational arguments against it.
@robstyles @sidereal @mekkaokereke @mickeleh I mean, at home is also alone and secret?
At least here (we're in California), there are boxes you can drop off your vote at, you don't have to actually MAIL it.
@frost @sidereal @mekkaokereke @mickeleh
For many people home is neither alone or secret. People in abusive, controlling, relationships, for example. Or those who are threatened by other members of their community.
An vulnerable elderly person whose adult child decides to use their vote…
Voting in person, and having no way for another person to demand proof of how you voted is a key part of a ballot being free.
@sophieschmieg @sidereal @mekkaokereke @mickeleh
It’s not even more poll workers, it’s more (properly working) voting machines.
Voting machines in predominantly white neighborhoods almost never seem to break or malfunction.
@sidereal @mekkaokereke @mickeleh as an Australian I can confirm, we do have the option to do "mail in voting" if we want, usually referred to as a postal vote. I'd like to point out that most of us don't because it's easier to do in person voting for a large portion of the population.
I have a polling place that's always setup about 12 houses up the street from me. Most more urban locations will have a polling place no more than a couple of miles apart. If I go vote at a more off peak time, there is no line, takes me a few minutes only. Some polling places might have a sizable queue at peak times, but waiting in one for more than 30 minutes would not be typical.
There are other things that help such as employers being required to give time off to vote on election days (its a serious offence not to) and being able to vote at any polling place you choose (I.e. If you are unexpectedly out of town it's no problem, you just vote wherever you are).
Postal votes are frequently used by people who are either in remote locations (Australia does have plenty of that), people who are out of the country or state or have some sort of disability that makes postal voting easier. Anyone who wants to can though.
@sidereal @mekkaokereke @mickeleh I have voted in Florida, Texas, New York, and Washington, and Washington is by far the least stressful.
Texas and Florida are the worst. In Texas you have to stand in line while people on the edge of the property line where you're voting tell you to vote for their candidate. Only to go in and find that half the options have only one candidate who is, of course, republican.
In Florida, the voting place I was assigned was held in a church which just feels wrong. Also Florida might whine about voter registration lists being "fake" all while it took me ten damn years to get off their call to update your registration lists. I don't know how many times you have to tell Florida that "no, I don't live there anymore, I'm registered to vote in my new state. Stop harassing me. I'm not going back."
@matunos @EricFielding @CorvidCrone @sidereal @mickeleh
California is *consistently* Blue. Not *deeply* Blue. The margin of victory is not large, because despite what folks imagine, California has fewer Black folk as a percentage of population than states like Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, etc.
The only state with more Trump voters than California, is Texas. Trump won 47% of the white men vote in California in 2020.
Voter suppression in California flips it red easily.
@Wolleysegap @mickeleh @EricFielding @matunos @sidereal @CorvidCrone
Correct.
That's the reason for the push to take over local government positions in California. That's why right wing people are so "interested" in things like recalling SF DAs and governors, and winning senate seats.
If they get the suppression train rolling in CA they can't lose. But that's hard because in general, the 50% of white California men voters that don't support Trump don't take any mess from the 50% that do.
♥️👍🏿
@matunos @EricFielding @CorvidCrone @sidereal @mickeleh
There are more Black people as a percent of population in Paris France, than in California.🤷🏿♂️
If you want to see Black folk in California, go to a big city or an LA suburb like Rancho Cucamonga or Pomona. The rest of the state is very white (Trumpy).
Trump carried 50% of the white men vote in California in 2016. After seeing the mess he did during his 1st term, his support only dropped to 47% among white men California voters.🤡
@mekkaokereke @matunos @EricFielding @CorvidCrone @sidereal @mickeleh
California has more voters of all kinds than almost any other state, by virtue of being by far the most populous state. California has 30% more people than the next closest state Texas. It has almost double the population of #3 Florida and #4 New York.
California is hardly “very white”, being the only state where whites are not the majority.
@Gregnee @matunos @EricFielding @CorvidCrone @sidereal @mickeleh
Very fair.
Let me add some details.
~39% of California is Latinx. About 50% of these Latinx folk present as white, and self-identified as white on the 2020 census, rather than "Other." In 2020, less than 20% did. The demographics didn't change as much as the self-identification.
If you visit Downey or Huntington, you can confirm that from a voting standpoint, many white Latinx voters support Trump.
@nomdeb @EricFielding @CorvidCrone @sidereal @mekkaokereke @mickeleh Michigan is the same way. I moved there recently after having lived in Georgia for many years.
Moving to Michigan from the US South is like moving to a European country, in the different way they handle voting. It's incredible. Every election, things seem to get _easier_, not _harder_.
(The last change that had happened in Georgia was them *requiring* a *printed* request form to get an mail ballot. No e-form available.)
@sidereal @mekkaokereke @mickeleh I also lived in Washington when they switched to all mail voting and agree it’s the way to go (there are still options for in-person in case you need it for some reason)
When moving to NJ, I was able to opt-in for voting by mail and can’t imagine not having this option available. I have voted in every primary and election because it’s easy and convenient.
@sidereal @mekkaokereke @mickeleh
Washington state native, here. I was voting before we moved to all mail-in. It was annoying but not difficult. Because, yeah, privilege.
The day they allowed no-excuse permanent absentee ballots I signed up, and never looked back. I hated going to churches to vote - and yeah, I ended up going to a lot of churches to vote.
It's important to note that Washington still allows people to vote in person, if they prefer.
I wish every state did it our way.
@gorskon @realtegan @sidereal @mekkaokereke @mickeleh
I lived in Michigan for nearly all my voting life until we moved to Oregon a few years ago. Mail-in / drop-off voting is the only civilized way.
In Oregon, I get a text & email when the ballot is coming. The ballot arrives on my doorstep. I read the info packet and vote at my leisure in the kitchen. We drop the ballots off, we get email & text that it's been received.
At no point in that process do I stand in a line, not like I did back in Michigan. Everyone should get to do it this way
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