Some of us may be happy, disappointed, or somewhere in between with the state of our current political situation. No matter where you are, one thing I truly hope that comes out of the next two years is that I see more people getting & staying involved with government. Run for office! Get involved with your community! School board! Committees! Subcommittees! Make calls! Write letters!
It is absolutely CLEAR that we cannot continue to only show up one day every two years. I truly, TRULY believe that we are all more alike than we all think. We all want the same basic things; however, may have different ways and ideas on how to get there. I find that more and more we bind ourselves to particular elected officials who will fight for us on our handful of personally important issues, but then these elected officials we get behind make us believe we are so much different than we actually are. I've seen a lot of division across my friends and family over the Facebook world lately. It's even worse on Twitter where people can hide behind a computer and speak to strangers in 140 characters or less. After a good conversation today with an old friend whom I've always had respectful discourse with, I've realized we all need to take responsibility for our own part in unifying and dividing ourselves on a micro level. I want to do whatever I can on my end to see more unity in my own community, and I am going to take responsibility for my own words and actions. That starts with just that: action. We all need to be more involved with our communities, as much or as often as we possibly can. We we all need to take more responsibility for what happens, and stop relying on our representatives to do everything for us. We cannot just show up on Election Day and then be shocked when things don't go our way. We also need to stop alienating those on the other side, as we could be doing more damage than we think. I know how emotional and passionate people are about the outcome of this election. I am in the same boat. However, we cannot use this as an excuse to treat our fellow humans as if they are anything less than. I've seen it on both sides: people calling each other names and people just being downright disgusting to each other. We are more divided now than we've ever been before. And we are never going to get past this until we start listening to each other. We may be Democrats, Republicans, Independents, etc. But I feel as if we have gotten so stuck behind these labels, we have forgotten the one label we all wear: Americans. I know for many of us, these seem like hopeless and difficult times. I know for many of us, we feel helpless and discouraged, and as if so much of the progress we've fought tooth & nail for has been demolished. However, we are not doing ourselves any favors by fighting against our fellow citizens. We aren't doing anyone any favors if we don't treat each other with the respect that we'd want them to treat us with. It's time for us to take a pause, take a step back, and listen to one another. Have a a conversation with someone on the other side: a REAL conversation. Not just one where you aren't actually listening, but just thinking about what you are going to say next. We need to start tearing down the walls we've built between ourselves and our fellow Americans. We need to start talking, listening, and being respectful. I will start with myself. I will call these actions out as I see them. I will get more involved with my community. I will encourage my peers to do the same. I will follow the advice of President Barack Obama, from his Farewell Address. "It falls to each of us to be those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy; to embrace the joyous task we’ve been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours. Because for all our outward differences, we all share the same proud title: Citizen. Ultimately, that’s what our democracy demands. It needs you. Not just when there’s an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime. If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the Internet, try to talk with one in real life. If something needs fixing, lace up your shoes and do some organizing. If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself. Show up. Dive in. Persevere. Sometimes you’ll win. Sometimes you’ll lose. Presuming a reservoir of goodness in others can be a risk, and there will be times when the process disappoints you. But for those of us fortunate enough to have been a part of this work, to see it up close, let me tell you, it can energize and inspire. And more often than not, your faith in America – and in Americans – will be confirmed." I know this might not seem like much - but even if a few of us here locally across party lines stop fighting, start working collaboratively, getting involved, & being active and engaged in our communities...we might be able to make an example for the rest of the country to follow. Maybe I'm being idealistic, who knows? At the very least, maybe we can start to understand each other better and remember how much we have in common instead of the things we don't.
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"Our democracy...needs you. Not just when there’s an election...but over the full span of a lifetime." - President Obama In October 2012, I got the call that every organizer dreams about. I was offered the chance to hop on a plane with my campaign team, fly to rural Colorado, and work on President Obama's re-election. It was a campaign, a candidate, and a message I believed in....YES WE CAN. I was a wide-eyed idealist, drunk on hopes and dreams of change and progress. We have made a lot of progress in the last eight years. I, for one, am proud of the policies President Obama put forward and the things we accomplished under his Presidency. While the last few months have been disheartening to say the least, I am still that wide eyed idealist deep inside. President Obama will be sorely missed, but his legacy, our progress, and his message will live on. I have to believe that we can still make change, and we can still come together as a country. I have to believe that deep down, we as citizens want many of the same things, and ultimately will decide to work together to have policies we are proud of as a country. Even though Obama's time as our President is coming to an end, our work as a country feels like it is just beginning. Our roles as citizens needs to be bigger, it HAS to be bigger. Like President Obama said, it is time to lace up our shoes and get to work. #FarewellObama "If something needs fixing, lace up your shoes and organize." - President Obama
Oh, Tomi Lahren, you're at it again. This time, I can't not respond to the ridiculous and utter hypocrisy in your message.
First things first; who is Tomi Lahren? She is a right-winged political commentator for The Blaze. She has her own segment, "Final Thoughts with Tomi" that you can see HERE. I'll save my general personal views on this individual for another day, but I've always had several "final thoughts" of my own when I've seen her videos. I've seen some pretty amazing response videos to hers, most notably my favorite of all time from the YouTube channel"I doubt it with Dollemore." So, Tomi Lahren is at it again? This time, she's going after Colin Kaepernick on not standing for the national anthem. Here's her video: I'll take some words from you, Tomi, and eviscerate your mouth diarrhea SENTENCE BY SENTENCE. I've got some final thoughts for you, "chick." 1. I find it so ironic that you say he has the right to freedom of speech, and then yet castrate him for pointing out CLEAR INJUSTICE that is happening in our country. How about your disrespect to our country, our President in 95% of your "rants"? 2. "If this country disgusts you so much, leave".....good advice for a guy who has taken one stand for something he believes in. Better advice for someone who has made a CAREER talking about her "final thoughts" in all the things about our country that disgust her. 3. "Colin: how dare you sit there and blame the problems of minority communities on white people?" Once again, Tomi, you only hear what you want to hear. Colin's EXACT QUOTE: "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder." PLEASE show me where he blames white people? Where? Oh right, it doesn't exist. But, please keep saying how he should be THANKFUL that he was raised by white parents and yet somehow this is mutually exclusive from him pointing out CLEAR injustices happening in our country. 4. "Colin, who's getting away with murder? That's a pretty strong claim." Hmmmmm....how many police officers who have wrongly shot or killed people of color in the last few years are on PAID ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE? Pretty sure there's a term for that...oh yeah, GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER. "I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."-James Baldwin Pointing out various injustices that happen in our country does not make you un-American, does not mean that you are anti-Police/servicemen/women, and does NOT mean that you are ungrateful to live in this great country. These things are not and should not be mutually exclusive. Do I think what Colin did was good, bad, or even enough? I don't know. I appreciate that he's using the voice he has to make a statement, but is it the right statement? I'm not sure. But at the end of the day, don't you do the EXACT SAME THING Tomi? On a DAILY basis, no less? How about instead of focusing so much about whether or not Colin is standing during the national anthem or if Tom Brady has deflated balls, we start punishing players who abuse their girlfriends, wives, children, animals, etc. Michael Vick is still on the field, being worshipped by his fans, as is Greg Hardy. Or better yet, why not focus on fixing the justice system and institutions that have created many of the issues he's taking a stand about? But no, no, you're right, Tomi. THIS is what we should be focused on. And those are my final thoughts. Some of my pals over at @Bros4Hillary and I did a thing. Check them out. Get involved. www.twitter.com/bros4hillary www.facebook.com/b4Hillary Dear Bernie Sanders,
Thank you for fueling my fire and boiling my blood tonight. Thank you for re-invigorating and re-energizing my love for this campaign & this candidate. I am going to keep calling, organizing, blogging, donating, canvassing, and whatever else I can do until the very end. Sincerely, A politically charged of the so-called "UNQUALIFIED" candidate you are running against. April 5th is the Wisconsin State's Primary. Here is everything you need to know! 1. Wisconsin is an OPEN PRIMARY. This means that you can vote for whomever you'd like, despite your political affiliation. Therefore, if you are a registered Republican, you can vote for a Democratic candidate. Basically this means everyone can vote for Hillary, no matter if you are a Republican, Libertarian, Independent, and everything in between! 😜 2. You MUST have your ID in order to participate in the primary. 3. Polling will take place between 7:00am - 8:00pm 4. Every vote counts. Wisconsin is a proportional primary state with 96 Democratic Delegates. This means that the pledged delegates are proportionally split based upon votes, it is not a winner-take-all situation for Democrats. Basically this means that each candidate can still go home with delegates at the end of the day. 5. For all information about polling locations, registration information etc., you can go here: https://myvote.wi.gov/ On a personal level, I am urging Wisconsin Democrats and Republicans alike to get out and vote for Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a progressive who will GET THINGS DONE. She is the only candidate who is ready to be president starting day one and has real, tangible policy plans on serious issues. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin agrees. Want to get involved? You can! Even if you do not live in Wisconsin, there are still several ways to get involved and help get out the vote for Hillary Clinton tomorrow. CLICK HERE to find out ways to get involved! Per usual, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to reach out by commenting or contacting me using my contact information. I've been trying really hard to find a way to verbalize my frustration for the #BernieOrBust folks out there. For those of you not on Twitter or for those who haven't heard of this hashtag before, these are people who are going to vote for Bernie Sanders in the primary and who do not, under ANY circumstances plan on voting for Hillary if she is the chosen candidate in the general election. Might I remind you that if Bernie Sanders doesn't win the primary, he is out of the election. He cannot run as an independent. He cannot be written in. This is one of the cons of running in the DNC. Pro: more media coverage than you'd ever get as an independent. Con: if you lose, that is the end of the road for you that election cycle. So this means that these Bernie or Bust people would rather see Trump or Cruz in the white house than Hillary Clinton. Trump is the clear frontrunner in the GOP with Cruz in second. Let me tell you, they are BOTH TERRIFYING. In fact it's scary that Trump is so bad, he makes us forget how DANGEROUS a Cruz presidency could be. Anyway. This isn't about them right now. This is about the #BernieOrBust camp. They tweet me all day long with all the reasons that Hillary Clinton and Trump are the same/HRC might be worse, how a vote for HRC is a vote for the GOP, and worse. These people call her names, these people degrade her, call her a liar, an "establishment whore" and much more. I've been DEMANDED to express in 140 characters or less WHY Hillary is a better choice than Trump (believe me, it takes more than that). I've been told that I "can't be a progressive" and vote for Hillary Clinton. Because somehow her PROGRESSION on issues means she's a liar (FYI, this says otherwise: http://www.dailynewsbin.com/news/fact-checkers-confirm-hillary-clinton-is-more-honest-than-any-of-her-2016-opponents/24196/) This has, until now, left me honestly speechless. I just don't understand HOW anyone could compare the two. I get it, you're anti-establishment and anti-Wall Street. But are you anti-WOMEN? Anti-immigration? Against minorities? Against LGBTQ equality? No, I don't think so. So HOW on earth can you allow that man to enter the White House? We need to do EVERYTHING WE CAN to keep him and Cruz OUT. Vote for whoever you want in the Primary. If Bernie Sanders wins, GREAT! I will be voting for him, calling for him, canvassing for him, doing WHATEVER I can to get him to win. Hillary Clinton will back him. But we don't know that yet. We don't know who is going to win. Right now, we have a WHOLE LOT of people who are boasting #BernieOrBust and frankly I'm done with it. On both sides! Now is NOT the time to continue to divide the progressives. It is the time to UNITE. I GUARANTEE You that Hillary will support Bernie if he wins the nomination and vise versa. There is a REASON he decided to run as part of the DNC. It has been HUGE for his campaign. And frankly, I think it's a little ridiculous that people are willing to then drop the DNC like a hat because they didn't get what they want. It's like saying "I want chocolate! But if I can't have chocolate, I'll settle for poop!" So, I'm going to begin my newest blog segment that will help me relay all the reasons that you cannot compare Trump to Hillary Clinton, starting now, with Trump's NEWEST AWFUL POLICY STANCE: Abortion. Today, Donald Trump took a stance that he believes in some form of punishment for women who get abortions: http://mic.com/articles/139404/donald-trump-endorses-some-form-of-punishment-for-women-who-get-abortions#.gofMRkSl2 To give you an idea of how crazy this is, please take a look at two former GOP candidates who were INHERENTLY Anti-Abortion, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum. Even these two crazy kids didn't believe in punishing a woman who received an abortion. Now, you may ask...what does Sir Donald Trump think should happen to the man who agrees to have an abortion? Well...let's see... (Credit: @AndrewNBCNews from Twitter for clips) There you have it, folks! Reason #1 out of 73289473289473289473289 that I would do whatever I could to keep Donald Trump out of the White House and YOU SHOULD TOO. Anyway, curious to know what others think. This topic gets me fired up, quite a bit. As always, feel free to contact me or comment if you agree or even if you don't!
Hello to my Washington friends! The Washington Caucus is TOMORROW! There are a few things that are important to know to ensure a great and easy caucus day! So I've put together some easy steps for you in case you're lost on any of the details of caucusing.
**DO NOT FORGET TO BRING YOUR ID! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!** For more information, check out this handy video from the Washington State Democrats. As usual, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me or comment! REMEMBER: Oregon is a CLOSED primary. This means that if you'd like to vote in the primary, you must be registered to the party for which the candidate who you want to vote for belongs.
So if you'd like to vote for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, you must register as a democrat. If you want to vote for Trump or Cruz, you must re-evaluate your life choices. 😜 You get the point. It takes two seconds to register!!!! To do so, go here: https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/vr/register.do?lang=eng&source=SOS Oregon's primary date is May 17. You must register 21 days before this date for your registration to count. There are 73 delegates at stake for the Democrats and Oregon is a Proportional state. This means that the delegates will be split to represent the popular vote. Hence, EVERY VOTE COUNTS. I know that Bernie has a majority here. I know that. But I will still be getting out and voting for Hillary because she can still leave with a handful of delegates as long as her supporters get to the polls!! I hope this information was useful! As usual, please comment or contact me if you have any questions! The primaries are up and running but there are still several left to go! I get asked a lot when people's primaries are, so I figured I'd just make a list here with important dates to know!
Date, State, Party, Delegates, Open/Closed: Sat, Mar 26 Alaska Caucus (D) 20 Closed Sat, Mar 26 Hawaii Caucus (D) 34 Closed Sat, Mar 26 Washington Caucus (D) 118 Closed Tue, Apr 5 Wisconsin 96 42 (WTA) Open Sat, Apr 9 Wyoming Caucus (D) 18 Closed Tue, Apr 19 New York 291 95 (P) Closed Tue, Apr 26 Connecticut 70 28 (P) Closed Tue, Apr 26 Delaware 31 16 (WTA) Closed Tue, Apr 26 Maryland 118 38 (WTA) Closed Tue, Apr 26 Pennsylvania 210 71 (P, WTA) Closed Tue, Apr 26 Rhode Island 33 19 (P) Mixed Tue, May 3 Indiana 92 57 (WTA) Open Sat, May 7 Guam (D) 12 Closed Tue, May 10 Nebraska (R) 36 Closed Tue, May 10 West Virginia 34 37 Mixed Tue, May 17 Kentucky (D) 61 Closed Tue, May 17 Oregon 73 28 (P) Closed Tue, May 24 Washington (R)* 44 (P) Closed Sat, Jun 4 Virgin Islands Caucus (D) 12 Open Sun, Jun 5 Puerto Rico Caucus (D) 67 Open Tue, Jun 7 California 546 172 (P) Mixed Tue, Jun 7 Montana 27 27 (WTA) Open Tue, Jun 7 New Jersey 142 51 (WTA) Closed Tue, Jun 7 New Mexico 43 24 (P) Closed Tue, Jun 7 North Dakota Caucus (D) 23 Closed Tue, Jun 7 South Dakota 25 29 (WTA) Closed Tue, Jun 14 District of Columbia (D) 46 Closed WTA: Winner Take All WTM: Winner Take Most P: Proportional U: Unbound (Delegates can support whomever they choose) D: Democrat R: Republican Type Open– Voters may vote in either party primary but can choose only one Closed – Only voters registered in their respective party may vote in the party primary Mixed – A semi-open or semi-closed environment, unaffiliated voters can choose to vote in either primary or can switch registration the day of voting From: http://www.uspresidentialelectionnews.com/2016-presidential-primary-schedule-calendar/#oIrjleEtMCS2zQTh.99 CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINE!!! Please comment or contact me if you have any questions! |
ABOUT MEMPA Grad Student. UO Graduate. Local Government Junkie. Life Enthusiast. A real-life Leslie Knope.
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