A Google Doc I created. Pro-Democracy Mass Movement.The real conversation: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HJy-0cUXa9MU9B45rUtpF-T5qWUYF8XPR0DfQK4Uz24/edit?fbclid=IwAR2O97e1qiKSglK38XOiALuKGe6UKV3_ZDoYYzNglIj6L-5TAQBug0SEwyk . Liberty and justice for all. Unite America.Andrew Yang .The making of a mass pro-democracy movement. Have a voice. Liberty and justice for all. Our Pledge of Alliance.

Melvin Mackey — Vashon, WA — Sqababsh Land

Coastal Salish, Duwamish, Stillaguamish

Alpana——WA

If you don’t know the indigenous land where you live, you can look it up here: https://native-land.ca/

Louisville, KY. Iroquois hunting ground. My tribe was in the Cleveland, OH area.

Thanks Cindy! www.PayDuwamishRent.org

Umatilla, Cayuse, Palouse, Walla Walla

Norm Conrad, Mount Vernon, Upper Skagit Tribes

I'm in Port Townsend the land of the Chimakum and the S'Klallam

Thank God! How was it even close?!?!

That is indeed the question....

Those Georgians love their football above all else. I lived there, so I know.

good to have that football perspective....still.....

piddly!!!!

piddly fine..

Football has a culturally destructive side … might and violence is virtue...

Yes, indeed, great point.

And (toxic) masculinity...

Robert Brown, he/him, Tacoma area (actually Fircrest), Puyallup tribal land

Manchin is trying to put in a poison pill in the omnibus bill to protect fossil fuels.

I read Manchin was trying to put that in the defense bill. Anywhere it can be weaseled?

Imagine how many people could be housed and children fed if all the campaign money was spent more wisely.

Yvonne, so true!

what is campaign spending mainly spent on? media?

Yes, media. The rich just keep getting richer.

Media, yes, but also on employing canvassers as well.

thanks, Robert

But we need public funding of elections to make up for banning PACs

I think Nancy Pelosi was against the idea of limiting or restricting stock buying by members of Congress.

Campaign consultants

I think to get any campaign reform, we need to get rid of the supreme court. They will just keep making any restrictions unconstitutional.

We need to add members to the Supreme Court. We cannot get rid of it.

Not taking Corp PAC money is meaningless. PACs will give it to individuals and the individuals will give to the candidate

I've heard arguments that, with some rare exceptions, the supreme court has always been a regressive force in US history

He (Tim Eyman) will lose at the Washington Supreme cCourt level as well.

Tim Eyman is like Trump. He abuses the courts.

Beg to differ about Manchin's bill. This is his bill to streamline energy permitting that he was promised as part of his support for the Inflation Reduction Act, which he's now trying to attach to the NDAA. And while it may have benefited some fossil fuels development (including greenlighting one gas pipeline), IMHO (as a full-time climate advocate), it would have done MUCH more to accelerate clean energy than fossils. It will be very difficult to meet our climate targets, or fulfill the promise of the IRA, without this, so I'm disappointed that this effort appears to have failed again.

It's a lot less expensive than a whole new election

GA should get rid of their 50+1 Jim Crow era law, forcing runoffs.

We really need permitting reform, especially for long distance electricity transmission to enable clean energy deployment, and it's now going to be much more difficult to get anything that isn't much worse than Manchin's proposal with Rs in control of the House. :-(

How do you mean Yvonne? I kind of like the 50% plus 1. The runoffs are an issue. Ranked choice voting handles that.

The LWVWA action workshop is sliding fee scale - donate what you feel comfortable.

@Daniel - I'm a southerner. That rule was put in place during reconstruction when suddenly African Americans were winning local elections.

Fix Democracy First 2022 End-of-Year Fundraiser – Gifts available at various donation levels - https://www.fixdemocracyfirst.org/donate

o Local Actions/Links: LWV of WA – Action Workshop – Dec 10th @ 9:30-3 pm – https://secure.everyaction.com/v13Mdgp09UixE2OjAPqUMg2 WA State - Save the Date! Democracy Lobby Week 2023 - https://lwvwa.org/page-18629/12967035o National Actions/Links: ACTION ALERT: Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA) Senate Bill S.4573 –• Call your Senators & Senator Schumer - FACT SHEET - https://bit.ly/3XNznAi• Congress Must Pass Electoral Count Reform Act - https://publiccitizen.salsalabs.org/congress-must-pass-electoral-count-reform-act/index.html Citizen Connect - https://citizenconnect.us/ Walking to Fix Our Democracy - https://www.fixourdemocracy.us/

Showerring with C-Span is devotion for you!

What about — One person - One vote?

@Yvonne. I'm not a southerner, but I could see how 50+1 could be abused. But what I see is that we have had too many times where a third party in today's world takes away from the party the third party is most allied with (i.e. Greens and Ralph Nader in Florida in 2000).

To me, that's the allure of Ranked Choice Voting. One can vote for Ralph Nader without jeopardizing Al Gore and give us George Bush.

@Daniel - The purpose was to force a runoff when an African American was poised to win.

I like the 50+ 1 , but having a runoff election seems too expensive and time consuming. It also gives your candidates more time to mess up. Having an instant runoff with RCV seems much better to me. Then again there are some media organizations who got a whole extra month to sell advertising.

And that all becomes part of our national GDP.

I think this is more relate to checks and balances re: courts. If this goes the conservative way, the elector issues would be heard in a later case.

CAP Center for American Progress?

It is so sad Congress has not passed the voting rights acts.

I'm with Kathryn lewandowski on having the instant run-off with RCV>

Very good point!

One long term goal might be to give each State the number of electors equal to their number of congressional representatives in congress — No electors for senators. This would reduce the number of total electors from 538 to 438. Small states would have less clout, more in line with their population. It would be more proportional.

I'm with David Gordon on that and of course the clarity about the role of money in elections adds to the problem.

that's why open primaries really can make a difference.

That is the reason we need Ranked Choice Voting to increase the number of candidates who can run.

Or are we neither

The relevant part's at the 27 minute-mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpFjbYJJOOc

Also, the press is being more free about reporting the crazy and anti-democratic garbage Trump has been spewing for a long time.

Thanks Yvonne - I like your optimism ☺️

I have exciting news. Yesterday the Seattle City Council passed their resolution 32074 supporting the Whole Washington State Universal Healthcare Initiative!

Try can look at the whole resolution here. http://seattle.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5937954&GUID=8AA8B7A5-B805-42E7-AE31-145BC31E8B6C&FullText=1

Feel free to call it a pro-union spin or what have you: but it's especially relevant given the way the whole rail strike went out.

Ds didn't run candidates here in Virginia for years. Look what happens when they do!

It was introduced by Theresa Mosqueda

Putting up an opponent may motivate the opposition to spend on those elections and dilute their funds.

Occupy Democrats!

We need to get rid of Citizens United!

amen

Among reported funds, the Georgia dems spent more money than the Georgia republicans

Please consider donating to our Fix Democracy First 2022 End-of-Year Fundraiser – Gifts available at various donation levels - https://www.fixdemocracyfirst.org/donate

there is public funding for presidential elections which comes with limits. But no candidate ever accepts this funding anymore because they can get/spend far more money by not accepting public funding. So there needs to be the ability to force a candidate to accept limits. Again: get rid of the supreme court or we can't have campaign limits.

Melville well stated and totally agree with your hopeful methods of ways to force better campaigns! Thank you.

Trump tried to bypass campaign spending problems by a much cheaper scheme, a coupl

A friend who was also a WA state legislator said that the #1 rule of winning an election is to get more money than your opponent. I think he was right. Not foolproof, but it is the most important thing to do.

@Dwight...how true!

@,Dwight - or saying outrageous things to get free coverage by the media.

Also, the his a "big money" effect via big businesses buying up the media, for valuable biased reporting

GE bought the New York Times?????

GE did not buy the NY Times, they bought all the advertising space for a single day, Dec. 6.

Submitted for the consideration of all: despite the GIGANTIC SPENDING for the Warnock campaign in GA, VOTER TURNOUT in GA was STILL ONLY ~30%! Voter apathy/disengagement is THE pivotal issue to be addressed. More than TWO-THIRDS of GA voters couldn’t even be bothered to PARTICIPATE in their democracy. A huge (and perennial) problem, no…?

In California, we are trying to pass Disclose Acts. https://fppc.ca.gov/content/dam/fppc/NS-Documents/AgendaDocuments/Task-Force/dttf-2021/january-2021/FPPC%20CA%20DISCLOSE%20Act%20Clarity%20Proposals%20-%20CA%20Clean%20Money.pdf

How much of the lack of Georgia turnout voter suppression in many different ways?

Not their first foray into media, GE used to own NBC. I remember Tim Robbins calling them out while hosting Saturday Night Live in the 90s

good question Daniel

Mass media advertising has more effect on the low information voters. Informed voters are more likely to ignore the ads.

But Marcus Usaurelius, the low participation in elections can not be separated from the role of money in politics and elections and the resultant cynicism and despair.

@Marc-voter supression is a problem. Long lines. Purging voter rolls. Lack of civic education. I made calls to some very confused GA voters.

Dr. Maya Carey, researcher with the Southern Poverty Law Center - Presentation on threats in our schools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6mLkauiJzM

.. and we keep defunding schools! yes we need school librarians - certificated!

Libby Kelleher Carr's book: How Do the Reindeer Fly? at www.howdothereindeerfly.com.

Republicans have opposed funding for the Public Broadcasting system, which is an example of publicly financed media. Need more local PBS in the hinterlands?

Good meeting. I have another one to attend. See you as soon as I can.

DR, yes, we need PBS everywhere! And internet access also! We still have place that do not have internet access

A very important fact. Limits would change everything

How Do the Reindeers Fly? https://howdothereindeerfly.com/

Wow! Generous. I will buy that book!

Dr. Maya Carey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvPQqiv5lsk