Democracy Out Loud #417.1: Alison Riggs, and more

This week we got a taste of Trump’s plans, which are exactly what we expected. We also saw the response of the opposition. This started with the Episcopal Bishop modeling how to speak truth to power. It continues here in North Carolina with a well-organized defiance of the GOP attempt to steal the election that NC Supreme Court Justice Alison Riggs clearly won.

Marc Elias of Democracy Docket calls this attempt a “five-alarm fire for democracy.” It is exactly like what Trump tried to do in the 2020 election, and if the Republican Party succeeds, they will do it again every single time Democrats win an important state or federal election.

Many of us worked extraordinarily hard to elect Justice Riggs. We made sure voters filled out their whole ballots, and we contributed to her campaign. Judge Griffin’s attempt to steal this election feels very personal, and it is important that we let people know what is going on and that we fight this as hard as we can.

Common Cause NC and Emancipate are leading a well-organized and determined campaign to make people in North Carolina aware of this fight, especially the 60,000 whose votes Judge Griffin wants to throw out. (Check this list if you haven’t already to see if you are one of those people.) Learn what you can do at this link, and learn how to take further action here.

(Skip the next two paragraphs if you already know the following, but everyone may not know.). Anita Earls and Justice Riggs are the only Democrats on the NC Supreme Court, and there are five Republicans. Justice Earls has been under attack by the Republican majority for years. She is the only Black person on the court.

When Republicans got the majority in the NCGA, they defunded public schools, cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations, and focused on voter suppression and attacking the LGBTQ community. Most devastating of all, with the help of the Republican majority in the NC Supreme Court, they drew maps and made laws which suppressed the votes of so many Democrats that we now have 11 Republicans and 3 Democrats representing us in the US Congress even though the breakdown in our state is 1/3 Republican, 1/2 Democrat, and 1/3 Independent.

Our only hope to return North Carolina to a democracy which serves its people is to get control of the NC Supreme Court before new maps are drawn in 2030.

Check out, “NC organizations mobilize against a judge’s efforts to throw out votes” in NC Newsline and “North Carolina’s Republican judges signal support for overturning Democratic Judge’s election” in Mother Jones.

You can track media coverage of Griffin’s attempt to steal the election at this link.

If you don’t plan to go to Richmond on Monday January 27 to pack the federal court when Justices Riggs and Griffin argue their case, you can listen to the proceedings at this link. (If you do go, Lady Liberty reminds us that we can’t bring cellphones into federal courtrooms.)

We need to be pressuring our NC legislators to speak out against this outrage (among many other things), and we are planning to show up to pack the gallery and visit our NC Representatives and Senators when the session starts on Wednesday January 29 at noon. Find out who represents you at this link and how to find their offices here.

The Fearrington Democratic Club is sponsoring a town hall with NCGA Minority Leader Representative Robert Reives and Representative Natalie Murdock on Tuesday January 28 at 7 pm. Sign up at this link before 5 pm on that day. (thanks, Amee)

This fight for Alison Riggs is arguably the most important one in North Carolina at this moment, but there are others. We are all worried about our undocumented neighbors. Gatherings by Siembra NC in Raleigh and Durham this weekend to build ICE watch programs each drew so many people that more than 100 were turned away in each place. You can get on Siembra’s email list, learn how to financially support this important organization, or get information about joining a community defense group at this link.

See “ICE watch programs can protect immigrants in your neighborhood - here’s what to know” from Teen Vogue.

Marc Elias and others have suggested that we need to talk about “the opposition” instead of “the resistance” because “resistance” suggests something temporary, and “opposition” implies that we are in this for the long haul. I tend to use both interchangeably, but I think it’s a good point.

Things will get really bad, no doubt about it. A house built on a rotten foundation (genocide and slavery) must fall, and this fall will continue to be ugly for a long time. Let’s keep paying attention to how every day we are building something on a very different foundation, centering very different values and acting in very different ways. We must put our attention and our resources into these communities of care and networks of communication. And let’s keep pulling back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz, a power empty of wisdom and empathy.

You can sign up for DemCast Democracy Briefings; there is one this Monday January 27 at 7:00 pm.

Indivisible is doing great work (we are an Indivisible group). Sign up for their national newsletter at this link.

There are so many Substacks that are valuable. I especially recommend Heather Cox Richardson, Robert Reich and Marc Elias. See also Bull City Indivisible and Marilyn Hartman’s Everyday Election Activism.

See “10 things we can do to protect democracy” by Marc Elias and “10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won” by Waging Nonviolence.

Democracy Out Loud is not an organization; it is a community of people who are action-oriented and understand that when we take action together, we become stronger and able to live with courage and resilience. Everyone is welcome to join our gatherings on zoom every Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 am and our guided meditation every Thursday at 10 am. If you need the zoom link, email Jewel at DemocracyOutLoud@gmail.com.

Whether we want to call ourselves the resistance or the opposition, we are growing stronger and more organized. We’re in for the fight of our lives, and we are ready.

love, Karen

“In our country, pressuring elite power is reaching its end point. Power will need to emerge from folks no longer obeying the current unjust system. This tipping point of mass noncooperation will be messy. It means convincing a lot of people to take huge personal risks for a better option.

“As a ‘Disrupt and Disobey’ person, we have to move deliberately to gain the trust of others, like the ‘Protecting People’ folks. Mass noncooperation does the opposite of their goal of protection — it exposes people to more risk, more repression. But with that comes the possibility that we could get the kind of liberatory government that we all truly deserve.” - Daniel Hunter, Waging Nonviolence, November 24, 2024, “10 Ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won: The key to taking effective action in a Trump world is to avoid perpetuating the autocrat’s goal of fear, isolation, exhaustion, and disorientation.”

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true. The other is to refuse to believe what is true.” —Soren Kierkegaard (thanks, Bessie!)