5-2-2022 Newsletter

 

DEFEND DEMOCRACY:  BE A VOTER Ballots have been mailed. If you haven't received your ballot by May 4, contact Clatsop County Elections at 503-325-8605. Non-affiliated voters do not get to vote in Democratic, Republican, or other political party primaries, only in non-partisan races. CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR OPB interviewed candidates for governor, asking each of them the same questions.  Read the interviews with the two leading Democratic candidates, Tobias Read and Tina Kotek. The other interviews can be found in this list:  https://www.opb.org/politics/.  There's more gubernatorial candidate info these videos, in "In Their Own Words." CANDIDATES FORUMS On the May 17 ballot: candidates for governor, Clatsop County Commissioners, State Senate District 16, State House District 32. Check out candidates in this virtual forum recently hosted by Clatsop County Democrats, or in this video of the AAUW candidates forum.   PAM WEV FOR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS INCO endorsed Pam Wev for re-election as Clatsop County Commissioner, District 3. Get more info at www.wevforcommissioner.com and on Facebook at Re-elect Pamela Wev. To display a yard sign to re-elect Pam, sign up here. Donate or volunteer at her website.    Make a plan to vote.

OREGON'S NEW CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS Each Congressional District (CD) is apportioned by population, so Districts 2 and 3 have about the same population. Because of an increase in population, Oregon gained a new seat and now has 6 Congressional districts. This year's most contested elections for the US House of Representatives appear to be in Districts 5 and 6.

VOTERS: "IDENTITY TRUMPS POLICY" "If you want to try to predict the way people vote, people always want to go to material incentives. They always want to go to who’s going to give them the most money. Pundits do. And that does not describe it. That does not describe the way people vote. They vote based on who they are and who they want to be seen as in the world. And they vote based on who they think is going to raise up people like them. And we’ve tested this 100 different ways in many, many countries, and it is always true. Identity trumps policy." -- Ezra Klein, New York Times, April 26, 2022

"Being good is hard if you live under an authoritarian regime" "Authoritarianism corrupts society. Because punishment and reward are made into arbitrary instruments of the state, citizens have little incentive to pool resources, cooperate, or trust others. Survival is paramount, and survival requires putting one’s own interests above everything else, including traditional morality.... In short, authoritarianism twists the soul and distorts natural moral intuitions. In so doing, it renders its citizens—or, more precisely, its subjects—less morally culpable. To be fully morally culpable is to be free to choose between right and wrong. But that choice becomes much more difficult under conditions of dictatorship. Not everyone can be courageous and sacrifice life and livelihood to do the right thing.…" -- Shadi Hamid, The Atlantic, April, 2022

Tiananmen Square protests. Photo from History.com.

YOUR STEPS TO SAVE DEMOCRACY Write To Voters - Elections and issue campaigns need you year-round. INCO encourages you to sign up to write to voters at www.postcardstovoters.org. For general Get Out the Vote letter campaigns, sign up at Vote Forward. For prepped postcards, stamps, or information, contact incoregon@gmail.com. Write a Letter to the Editor (LTE) - LTEs in the Astorian can inform voters and promote voting. You don't have to be an expert, just someone who cares about an issue. Write a few sentences or more, up to 250 words. Send to editor@dailyastorian.com, along with your name, address, and phone. Your primary election ballot is due May 17.  Be a voter! Encourage others to vote, too!

MATCHING DOLLARS THROUGH MAY We're sooo close! Thanks to INCO supporters, we've raised $428! Only $72 will bring us to our goal of $500 during this Indivisible fundraiser. Donate to INCO this month to get a matching donation from Indivisible national, for a total of of $1000 to INCO. Your contribution to INCO will promote informed voting and support a vigorous campaign and election season to elect progressives to office in 2022.    Only donations given through this ActBlue site will be doubled by Indivisible.  Thank you for supporting INCO.

HAPPENINGS  Tuesday, May 10 - INCO South County Community Group Zoom meeting, 6:30 pm - 8 pm. Please RSVP to Kathleenannmacdonald@yahoo.com thru Monday, May 9 for your Zoom link. Saturday, May 21 - INCO Astoria-North County Community Group Zoom meeting, 11 am - noon. If you are new to this group, contact incoregon@gmail.com by May 20 to get the Zoom link. INCO Warrenton Community Group Zoom meeting. TBA. Contact incoregon@gmail.com for more information. Every Friday - INCO Write to Voters (WTV), via Zoom, 3-4 pm. Informal chat while we write letters and postcards to voters. If you are new to this event, contact incoregon@gmail.com to get the Zoom link.

INSIGHTS  "It is quite normal to refuse to believe that you are about to be engulfed by a cataclysm.” - - Tim Judah, British writer, reporter and political analyst for The Economist

Comments, news, and photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com.  Resources and other information at www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org. Encourage others to sign up for the INCO newsletter at our website or here. Look for the INCO column in Hipfish Monthly. We're on Facebook, too. INCO Weekly Newsletter May 2, 2022