Democracy Happy Hour – November 16, 2022

Democracy Happy Hour, November 16, 2022 - Meeting Recordings & Chat File:

• Speaker View Recording: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/OJRmDJKV_t-SMmpTEsAyZwnwU7aYpcWaykbnOO3Pb7sLnXh2ca9IqX5kF0mEHUIYzZa6RXgwqg0RgY1Q.Ec6yT95_EZ_aXqjH

• Gallery View Recording:  https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/rVZ3t9ZRGweo7SC1SEO64VIjuhuQEWrGynYqqmqbZAhmsRQvLGM29Qg7hA9jzUPAirRdsNyJwTIvnJAQ.C5MMMa22PUb3uIdE

• Chat (Link will download a text file to your computer):  https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/sdownload/krpDqyIyiInr08ZgW2Ceb7vrT_JxK0ucpu2JNrUinOOVHzvCFF1lFN_t95xiU3xNrqktymn2lZyOfeyG.XNraLHa5rvYgA0Cl

Fix Democracy First links:

• Fix Democracy First 2022 FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN – Gifts available at various donation levels - https://www.fixdemocracyfirst.org/donate

Upcoming Topics:

• Nov 23 – NO Democracy Happy Hour this week - Holiday Break
• Nov 30 – Share your favorite democracy themed book or documentary
• Dec 7 – Moore v Harper: Opening Arguments
• Dec 14 – Is the US a Republic, Democracy or Both?
• Dec 21 – NO Democracy Happy Hour this week - Holiday Break
• Dec 28 – NO Democracy Happy Hour this week - Holiday Break

ACTIONS & EVENTS:

• WA State - Save the Date! Democracy Lobby Week 2023 - https://lwvwa.org/page-18629/12967035

National Actions:

• Georgia Actions:

• Make Calls to Voters Of Color with Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda - https://www.mobilize.us/voterempowerment/event/543478/
• Send Texts to Voters Of Color with Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda - https://www.mobilize.us/voterempowerment/event/543481/

• Citizen Connect - https://citizenconnect.us/

• Walking to Fix Our Democracy - https://www.fixourdemocracy.us/

Creating an Inter-Movement "Generative Change" Community to Save & Strengthen Our Democratic Republic Links:

Creating an Inter-Movement "Generative Change" Community to Save & Strengthen Our Democratic Republic with Walter Roberts & Caleb Christen

Walt, Caleb and others are hosting a monthly Inter-Movement Community Forum intended to help the Cross-Partisan / Multi-Movement "strengthening democracy" ecosystem embrace, constitute and express itself as a generative change community for the long term work of co-creating the Democracy 3.0 / We the People 4.0 future we seek while also doing our respective parts to stave off the ongoing threats to the core pillars of our democratic/republic.

Caleb Christen is a lawyer, a senior officer in the Navy Reserve JAG Corps, a seminarian, and a member of an independent Critical Connections team catalyzing inter-movement community and capacity building among democracy and civic health-promoting organizations to achieve collective impact. Caleb is also currently authoring an "Organizing for Collective Impact" article series in The Fulcrum.

Walt Roberts is a "volunteer" independent actor and co-creator of the "Critical Connection Forum" that offers diverse leaders and stakeholders in the Cross-Partisan Reform / Bridge / Solutions (Healthy Democracy) Ecosystem the opportunity to explore and develop inter-movement "key lever endeavors" that include strategies, communication campaigns, conferences, infrastructure, coordinated actions and programs.

Fix Democracy First / Inter-Movement Community Forum - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mNIh48LppixS0KTei7WeRokPlPUXG9EYAXwDSuZcDOM/edit?pli=1#heading=h.no1nuz22yjx

“REQUIRED READING” for the INTER-MOVEMENT COMMUNITY FORUM

• Caleb Christen is a lawyer, a senior officer in the Navy Reserve JAG Corps, a seminarian, and a member of an independent Critical Connections team catalyzing inter-movement community and capacity building among democracy and civic health-promoting organizations to achieve collective impact.  This is the first 3  in a series of articles analyzing how the ecosystem / community of democracy-promoting organizations and movements can prepare to support and facilitate a mass movement.
• 1) Organizing for collective impact: The making of a mass pro-democracy movement
• 2) Organizing for collective impact: Transforming American democracy together
• 3) Organizing for collective impact: It takes an (inter-movement) community
• Related) Growing a movement: The return of in-person convenings
• Building A United Front The Horizons Project

Rachel Kleinfeld's Five Strategies to Support US Democracy

• This working paper is/will be important  to those who are working to build (or be ready for) a pro-democracy mass-movement.
• As Rachel Kleinfeld points out,  "The community supporting U.S. democracy needs a better strategy.
• Strategy #4 “Build a broad-based, multi-stranded, pro-democracy movement around a positive vision concretized in locally rooted action”
• The Inter-Movement Community Forum is about helping the "community supporting US democracy" to:

1) experience and express Itself as a community and

2) to help democracy community organizers develop synergistic strategies, projects, actions and infrastructures more effectively and efficiently.  

Democracy in the News Links:

A bill to ensure federal recognition of same-sex marriage rights passes a crucial test in the Senate. - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/16/us/elections/same-sex-marriage-bill-senate.html

Trump Announces 2024 Run, Repeating Lies and Exaggerating Record - https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/11/15/us/election-news-results

Trump’s 2024 candidacy won’t stop Justice Dept. criminal probes - https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/15/trump-doj-2024-special-master/

Jan. 6 panel weighs ‘next steps’ after Trump fails to show for deposition - https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/3735386-jan-6-panel-weighs-next-steps-after-trump-fails-to-show-for-deposition/

The Constitution’s Disqualification Clause Can Be Enforced Today - https://www.pogo.org/report/2022/11/the-constitutions-disqualification-clause-can-be-enforced-today

TRUMP IS DISQUALIFIED FROM THE BALLOT - https://freespeechforpeople.org/trump-is-disqualified-from-the-ballot/

Fulton County, Georgia’s Trump Investigation - https://www.brookings.edu/research/second-edition-fulton-county-georgias-trump-investigation/

Documents detail lavish foreign government spending at Trump Hotel - https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/documents-detail-lavish-foreign-government-spending-at-trump-hotel/

Future of American democracy loomed large in voters’ minds - https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-democracy-c3425635e40dd60c1ec7c1adba9fcc3a

How election officials staved off chaos at polling places Tuesday - https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/09/politics/election-voting-problems-deniers/index.html

Fact check: 2022 midterm election was secure, contrary to claim of mail-in ballot fraud - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/11/14/fact-check-mail-balloting-secure-not-tied-fraud-midterms/10695723002/

Most Republicans Believe Midterms Were ‘Free And Fair,’ Poll Finds As Fraud Fears Fall Flat - https://www.forbes.com/video/6315629028112/most-republicans-believe-midterms-were-free-and-fair-poll-finds-as-fraud-fears-fall-flat/?sh=59b1aa3d3d8e

Election Denial Didn’t Play as Well as Republicans Hoped - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/us/politics/trump-election-candidates-voting.html

Election Day saw few major problems, despite new voting laws - https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-voting-rights-georgia-race-and-ethnicity-d4c2eaec9cbf69791c0ca8daf8b71188

2022 Election: Young Voters Have High Midterm Turnout, Influence Critical Races - https://circle.tufts.edu/2022-election-center

Election deniers lose races for key state offices in every 2020 battleground - https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/11/13/election-deniers-defeated-state-races/

Voters Reject Election Deniers Running to Take Over Elections - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/12/us/politics/jim-marchant-nevada.html

Trump’s election conspiracy boosters largely accept their own defeats - https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/13/trump-election-deniers-accept-2022-results-00066626

Trump Under Fire From Within G.O.P. After Midterms - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/us/politics/trump-republicans-midterms.html

Democrats Hold the Senate, as Cortez Masto Ekes Out a Victory in Nevada - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/12/us/elections/senate-control.html

Raphael Warnock sues Georgia over early voting restrictions for runoff - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/15/raphael-warnock-sues-georgia-early-voting-restrictions

Republicans Gain Control of House - https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/11/16/us/election-news-results

Top Republicans Face Dissent as McCarthy Wins G.O.P. Nod for Speaker - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/us/politics/mccarthy-speaker-mcconnell-republican-challenges.html

Alaska Senate race headed to ranked-choice runoff - https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/alaska-senate-race-headed-ranked-choice-runoff-rcna54939

Arizona voters back ballot measure taking aim at ‘dark money’ - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/09/arizona-dark-money-ballot-measure/

Oakland just passed a bill to give residents $100 to donate to local campaigns. Here’s why it matters - https://www.fastcompany.com/90809021/oakland-just-passed-a-bill-to-give-residents-100-to-donate-to-local-campaigns-heres-why-it-matters

Nevada voters back big changes to their election system - https://www.npr.org/2022/11/13/1136342255/nevada-election-open-primary-ranked-choice-voting

Ranked choice voting approved in Multnomah County - https://www.koin.com/news/elections/ranked-choice-voting-approved-in-multnomah-county-portland-oregon/

Portland voters approve charter reform, city launches transition - https://www.portland.gov/transition/news/2022/11/9/portland-voters-approve-charter-reform-city-launches-transition

Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez defeats Republican Joe Kent in WA House race - https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/democrat-marie-gluesenkamp-perez-defeats-republican-joe-kent-in-wa-house-race/

Seattle initiative to implement ranked choice voting narrowly winning - https://mynorthwest.com/3706159/initiative-to-change-to-seattle-election-system-too-close-to-call/

Seattle RCV Numbers - https://results.vote.wa.gov/results/20221108/king/

Washington 2022 local ballot measures - https://ballotpedia.org/Washington_2022_local_ballot_measures

WA State Voter Turnout - https://results.vote.wa.gov/results/20221108/turnout.html

A Democracy Crisis Was Averted. But Gerrymandering Could Still Save the GOP. - https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/11/election-day-results-gerrymandering-democracy-voting-rights/

How the Supreme Court Likely Handed Control of the House to Republicans - https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/11/supreme-court-republican-control-house-alito-mccarthy-gift.html

With the state Supreme Court flipped, North Carolina likely to redraw maps to help national GOP in 2024 - https://greensboro.com/with-the-state-supreme-court-flipped-north-carolina-likely-to-redraw-maps-to-help-national/article_0333a31c-6380-11ed-a016-df10d6e7c74d.html

Triumphs and Setbacks in Efforts to Reshape State Supreme Courts - https://www.governing.com/now/triumphs-and-setbacks-in-efforts-to-reshape-state-supreme-courts

Millions Poured into State High Court Races Gain Parties Little - https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/state-high-court-races-mostly-status-quo-despite-big-spending

State Supreme Court wins shaped by abortion, redistricting - https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-abortion-us-supreme-court-redistricting-94cb06f685ea1f150f512a16a9f89b13

A Senate in Democratic hands clears the path for Biden to keep remaking the courts - https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-democratic-hands-clears-path-biden-keep-remaking-courts-rcna56753

Schumer Said to Prioritize Judges When Lame Duck Begins - https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/democrats-poised-to-move-more-judges-as-senate-control-in-limbo

What Is the Federalist Society and Its Connection to Supreme Court Judges? - https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-is-federalist-society

Negative outside spending accounts for 69% of the $2.1 billion spent in federal 2022 midterms - https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/11/negative-outside-spending-accounts-for-69-of-the-2-1-billion-spent-on-federal-2022-midterms/

Some of 2022’s most expensive U.S. Senate races too close to call after Election Day - https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/11/some-of-2022s-most-expensive-u-s-senate-races-too-close-to-call-after-election-day

How a surprising Democratic strategy may have staved off the midterm red wave - https://www.vox.com/2022/11/12/23454725/democrat-republican-maga-strategy-midterm-red-wave

Questions about Donald Trump’s campaign money, answered - https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/16/politics/donald-trump-war-chest-presidential-campaign/index.html

Advocates fear super PAC spending could undermine public financing of campaigns - https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/rochester/ny-state-of-politics/2022/11/10/advocates-fear-super-pac-spending-could-undermine-public-financing-of-campaigns

ALEC Eyes Sweeping Government Blacklists - https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2022/11/10/alec-eyes-sweeping-government-blacklists/

ELIMINATE POLITICAL BOYCOTTS ACT - https://alec.org/model-policy/eliminate-political-boycotts-act/

FEC targets digital ad disclosure - https://www.axios.com/2022/11/11/fec-targets-political-digital-ad-disclosure