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ok you guys this is the only political thing i will be posting on here but re: the 2018 and 2020 elections -
YOU HAVE TO VOTE. AND DEMOCRATS HAVE TO WIN THEIR CAMPAIGNS FOR STATE LEGISLATURES. IT IS SO SO SO IMPORTANT.
why is it so important?
because in 2020 we will have a census, which means that in 2022 districts will be redrawn.
what does that have to do with anything?
GERRYMANDERING.
wtf is gerrymandering?
gerrymandering is the redrawing of districts to benefit a specific political party. basically, if the republican party is gerrymandering, they will split a heavily democratic area into different districts and lump them in with primarily republican areas in order to dilute the voting power of democrats. democrats will do the same to republicans. this practice has been deemed unconstitutional by the SCOTUS, but they’ve never agreed on a way to regulate it, so it still happens.
in most states, the state legislature creates a redistricting plan, so if you want elections for the next 10 years to swing democratic, you NEED to elect democrats to your state legislature. as of now, most states are districted to favor republicans, and in 2022 republicans would only gerrymander more, making it even harder for democrats to be elected.
BE READY TO MOBILIZE AND CAMPAIGN FOR DEMOCRATS AT THE LOCAL AND STATE LEVEL IN 2018 AND 2020, BECAUSE THE PEOPLE WE ELECT WILL HAVE A HUGE SAY IN THE NEXT TEN YEARS OF OUR GOVERNMENT.
Gerrymandering explained in the graphic above.
Fun fact #1: The word gerrymandering comes from the name of Elbridge Gerry, vice president under James Madison, who while governor of Massachusetts approved a salamander-shaped district that benefited his party. (Never trust a guy named Elbridge!)
Fyi everyone that Trans Law Help thing that’s been going around is actually a scam. It’s bring run by the same scammers who cheated loads of young lgbtq tumblr users out of thousands of dollars with a bogus video game called The Arkh Project a few years back.
NOTE: there are legit people using the #translawhelp hashtag, but do NOT give them any money until they’ve proved they’re a licensed and legitimate lawyer.
ALSO: TLDEF AKA THE TRANSGENDER LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUCATION FUND (TLDEF.ORG) is an actual nonprofit transgender law firm based in NYC and I have physically been there and they were able to help me afford my name change (free and donation based) a few years ago, and they also help connect people with attorneys for civil rights cases & anything they can handle and help you with, they’ve helped me immensely via email & you can call them too it’s a small organization and the people there are trans and LGBTQIA people and hopefully they can help you. You can donate to them every time you use amazon if you use the smile.amazon link:
Translawhelp is a hashtag to help people find Pro Bono kegal advice from volunteer lawyers and gather information and resource links into one place. There is at least one scammer using the tag, but people in the tag have been warning that might happen from the beginning, and have been trying to counteract it. Anyone using it should proceed with caution, and verify everything they read, but it’s a group effort, not a unified organization. Unless you are talking about the website only, in which case it’s better to be specific.
Last I checked, it seems that someone is also spamming the tag with fashion articles, but I don’t know what that’s about. It’s annoying though.
Your suggestions are sound, but it’s not helpful to scare people away entirely with partial information.
Some great advice from Facebook user Paul O’Connor who might make you think how to handle a potentially dangerous situation differently than a straight on confrontation or silently ignoring it. Good advice on what to do when you find yourself near a racist mouthy twat who is spouting out their crap at some unfortunate person. …
Good advice on what to do when you find yourself near a racist mouthy twat who is spouting out their crap at some unfortunate person.
NEVER engage the perpetrator. He (and it is usually he) is looking for confrontation. Instead speak to the person he is abusing. Say hello. Introduce yourself. Shake his or her hand. And just stand with them. Keep talking. About anything. Weather. Bus schedules. Football. This kind of bullying never works against a group of people having a conversation. Usually a single person travelling or a mom with a kid or maximum, two women are targeted.
Form a group of people with and around them if you can. Don’t tell them they are not alone. Just don’t let them be alone. I speak from experience. Once, I encountered a young girl wearing a hijab being abused as a terrorist by a drunk man on a train. I just went and sat beside her and started a conversation with her. After a while, the dude lost interest. I had a lovely chat with a young student from Qatar. She wanted to study literature while her dad was only prepared to pay for engineering or commerce as he wanted her to join the family business. It helped her feel safe and it expanded my horizons.
This is known in behavioral psychology as “non-complimentary behavior”; by not fueling the aggression of another person and you can flip the whole script of all their expectations, and without any footholds for their aggression (like direct provocation and confrontation/conflict) to launch into further tirades against, the aggressor can’t continue their angry scene-building. The more people who participate in script-flipping, the more successful it gets, as in this post you see with the advice to form a protective group between the bigot and their target for that very purpose.
There’s an NPR podcast called Invisibilia which goes into detail about how it works and what sort of people rely on it everyday professionally and for survival alike, in their Flipping the Script episode.
Ooohhhh
In light of the many posts I’ve already seen about people being attacked with racial and xenophobic slurs in our (ugh) president-elect’s name, it seems like a good time to reblog this post.
If you see someone being abused or attacked, and you feel you can SAFELY do so, ignore the perpetrator and speak to the person they’re abusing. Just go stand by them, say hello, tell them you like their shirt, ask what they have planned for the day, anything to let them know they’re not alone. Even better if you can get other people to do this with you.
Remember: talk to the person being abused; do NOT engage the bully. And stay safe, everyone. <3
Can someone give me practical steps on how I can use my privilege to actively advocate for those who are marginalized by this election?
Me too.
And me.
Be their voice.
Anytime you hear a friend or family member start to launch into his rhetoric, argue on their behalf. Be the Devil’s Advocate as far as they’re concerned.
And when you argue, argue with facts. Know all of your information beforehand. And don’t be the one to get angry.
And for those who are marginalized, be their friend. Be there for them. Listen to them with an open mind. Let them know that you are trustworthy and that they are not alone.
This is a good response for taking care of things on the personal level, but there are a lot of other levels to helping out. White straight cis people are the majority, if you get more politically active on the whole, your numbers can help push things, and that action starts with each individual. A lot of people support people individually or sign e-petitions and call it a day, but the former only does so much and the latter usually often does nothing. Even when e-petitions are given to the party the petition is meant for, they often ignore them and throw them in the trash. Only a few e-petitions translate to action.
Here are a few things that work better.
Write Letters
Write letters to your congresspeople. Those actually have staff reading them and the people of congress take them a little more seriously. Not because they actually care about these issues per se, but they assume if you’ve taken time to write an actual letter that you care enough about an issue that they might lose your vote if they take the wrong actions. An individual letter might not influence them to act but the more letters they get, the more they fear losing votes. These letters can influence the actions of the Congresspeople that actually care about their constituents, and for those that don’t, they sometimes follow popular opinion of their constituents to keep their office.
Vote
This seems like a no-brainer but part of the issue is people only vote in presidential elections. Remember to vote during primaries to pick candidates, elections of congress-people (which happen more often than the presidency), and even in local elections that might directly affect people where you live. Even with Trump being elected, his supporters may be more complacent (and his detractors may feel more pissed) in two years when the next Congressional elections happen. Trump’s more dangerous agendas will be significantly hampered if he’s working against a democratic majority in Congress. We have the power to possibly affect the legislative branch every two years, so people need to remember to take it by voting every time they can.
Become Politically Active
You can also take part in political parties to support certain candidates (sometimes you can help them get elected by volunteering). Nominating the right candidate can mean the difference between success and defeat, and between certain issues being helped or being hurt or ignored. No one can really say for sure that things would’ve been different if Bernie Sanders had been nominated but he definitely inspired a lot more hope and galvanized more young people to action. A lot of moderates (and even some Republicans) respected him for his consistency and principles and disliked Trump, enough that some might have voted for Bernie as the scandals about Trump had come to light.
A lot of people didn’t vote at all in this election or voted third-party because they disliked both candidates, something that might have been different with the right Democratic nominee. Personally speaking, I know at least ten people that voted third-party or didn’t vote that said they would’ve voted for Bernie. Helping good candidates by helping their campaigns can lead to a better shot at ousting Trump in four years.
Help The Charities That Do Work On the Ground
If you’re worried about immigration, donate to organizations that offer pro bono legal services to people trying to obtain US citizenship or keep their VISAs. This can help people the country is trying to deport. There are tons of orgs out there! You can just google for them and research a bit to see if one is good at what they’re doing. If one near you takes volunteers of some kind and you have the skill set to help, volunteer. If you don’t have much money, donating even a tiny bit here or there counts. These organizations are usually underfunded and barely keeping above water, so even something as small as 10 dollars every so often can make a difference.
If you’re worried about how Trump’s policies will hurt the poor, or hurt people based on race, sexuality, gender orientation, etc., there are similar pro bono legal and/or charity organizations that help people with the same issues. Again, you can donate when you can, or if they have positions you can volunteer in, you can volunteer.
Protest Or Support Protesters
If protests are arranged against some of the policies that hurt people, attend, don’t speak over the people protesting if it’s not your place, and make sure you comport yourselves with appropriate behavior (ie if the whole group is trying to be nonviolent so the press can’t claim they’re violent, be nonviolent too). Come prepared with what you need to survive being pepper sprayed or tear gassed, and have a plan for escaping to safety if you need to. If you don’t think you can handle getting pepper sprayed or have health issues that could be fucked with (for instance, I have asthma so inhaling that shit could kill me) you can be one of the people that brings food, water, and supplies for the protesters (like milk, water, and dawn soap to counter and wash away the pepper spray).
Sometimes when these protests go down, churches and other local groups need money to provide these supplies to protesters so if you live too far away to protest or help physically, you can sometimes donate money to them that they can use to buy supplies. During many of the Black Lives Matter protests, local churches and organizations provided food, pepper spray first aid supplies, and water to protesters and took donations to help cover the costs.
Protests can make politicians fear they won’t be re-elected. Even if they don’t scare Trump and Pence, they sometimes scare congressmen who have to go for re-election more frequently and fear losing their supporters. The fear can translate into action on their part.
To Sum Up
Being people’s friends and standing up for people is good on the personal level, but does next to nothing on the systemic level, and can only happen if the prejudice is done openly in front of you (which doesn’t always happen). If you really want to help, it will take actual action, money (if you can spare it), and/or your time. Which a lot of people don’t want to give, but if you really want to change things systemically instead of just on a personal basis, it’s the only way.
Reblogging to keep accessible. Thank you, everyone!!!
