11-20-23 Newsletter

 

THANKSGIVING Thank you for everything you do to make our country better - possibly even more than you thought you could do. Thank you for speaking out and standing up for democratic values. Thank you for supporting INCO with your work, good cheer, and hope.    Our best wishes for your Thanksgiving holiday! INCO Leadership Team: Laurie Caplan, Cheryl Conway, Mary Beth Cottle, Eric Halperin, Carmen Hammersmith, Bebe Michel, Ken Potter  STAR VOTING Score Then Automatic Runoff We all know that every vote matters, but how much does how we vote matter? Thanks to the leadership and examples shared at a local INCO gathering several years ago, I began to write letters to encourage voting. I have written the sentence, “your vote, based on your personal values and ideals, matters!” many, many times. Voter participation IS critical, but I have learned that the way we currently vote, where we must “choose one” has discouraging and disenfranchising flaws.  The good news is that activists have come up with a plan that I like even more than ranked choice voting. STAR voting allows you to vote your conscience and express your full, honest degree of support, for each candidate without worrying about strategic voting, splitting the vote or having to vote for the “lesser evil”.  It was developed using the science of election reform, in part to address the limitations of an older model, ranked choice voting.  I believe that voting reform is critical to engaging more voters.  With STAR voting, every vote represents your personal values & ideals in more effective & transparent ways.   Thanks to INCO for sharing this recent podcast so you can learn more. Check out the website at Starvoting.us -- Lynn McConnell, INCO activist   WHAT BIDEN'S DONE    CREATING MORE JOBS:  14 million jobs added STRONGER ECONOMY:  Strongest economic recovery in the G7 since the pandemic U.S. MANUFACTURING:  Bringing semiconductor manufacturing back to the U.S. CANCELING STUDENT DEBT:  Canceled $127 billion in student loan debt for nearly 3.6 million Americans IMPROVING OUR INFRASTRUCTURE:  Passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law SUPPORTING VETERANS:  PACT Act for veterans and their survivors GUN SAFETY:  Most significant gun safety law in decades CLIMATE ACTION:  Passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which takes historic climate action REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS:  Executive orders protecting reproductive rights STRENGTHENED GLOBAL ALLIANCES: Strengthened U.S. alliances and partnerships around the world LOWERING COSTS: Lowered prescription drug and health care costs -- Mary Hardt, reader's comment, Letters from an American, November 14, 2023 GLORIFYING VIOLENCE "Historians such as Ruth Ben-Ghiat warn that the proud display and embrace of violence cannot be simply dismissed as bravado or, as Trump likes to say, “locker room talk.” The purpose behind the praise and encouragement of violence is to open the door to greater acts of political terror and ultimately the use of force to seize the levers of government. "The American public is already numb to shootings on a near daily basis, but the open glorification of weapons of mass murder by our leaders is something new to our politics. When congressional leaders post holiday photos of their families wielding rifles and guns, and when they wear AR-15 pins on their lapels in the halls of Congress, this is not simply to “own the libs” or even to reinforce some kind of tribalism. It is an express validation of achieving and maintaining political power through the use of force, with deadly weapons if necessary." -- Jay Kuo, Status Kuo newsletter, November 15, 2023 IGNORE THE BAIT  "Trump and his supporters might be inane in many ways, but they are deadly serious about their intentions to take power and destroy democracy. Their cavorting and capering is part of who they are, but it is also bait, a temptation to distraction and an invitation to sink to their level. "....But none of this should drag us into acting like children ourselves. Trump and his supporters might be inane in many ways, but they are deadly serious about their intentions to take power and destroy democracy. "....Saving democracy sometimes requires flags and marches and dramatic gestures. For most of us, however, democracy is preserved one day, and one conversation, at a time." -- Tom Nichols, The Atlantic newsletter, November 17, 2023 INCO INSIGHTS  "In a time of destruction, create something."   -- Maxine Hong Kingston, memoirist and novelist Indivisible defends democracy by opposing authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption. 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   November 20, 2023 Website Email Facebook Copyright © 2023 INDIVISIBLE North Coast Oregon, All rights reserved. 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