Phish Tank wrote:From a theoretical point of view, let's throw out - for one moment - all the ways to fight voter suppression:
1) Stay woke on all federal & state discussions around voter purges, voter ID restrictions, polling locations, etc.
2) Mobilize together and just publicize this on all possible platforms all day long (TV, live streams, targeted protests at city halls and residences of republican politicians). If violence is necessary (against republicans), use it.
3) Large scale registration efforts
4) Organized efforts to transport voters to polling locations and make sure they're well nourished while in line
Perhaps some of these voting rights groups have to come together and form like Voltron. Perhaps its national leadership that has to be more aggressive with their stance, but to be quite honest, the reporters are too soft when it comes to asking Schumer and Pelosi questions (call em out for being soft - be an attack dog). I want them to be attack dogs, but they won't because they want access.
Remi - add some more theoretical things and then we can reassess to see what's actually being done and what's not.
Dude THANK YOU for focusing on a discussion of solutions. I've got an 11:00 Zoom meeting so this is rushed and I'll add on but to hit a bit here:
1) Awareness is definitely step one and this one is the easiest to address locally.
2) Mobilization is on point here. I'm glad you mention violence because the Brooks Brothers Riot is a really slept on and interesting story amongst voter disenfranchisement stories where Republicans used violence and got their way in the end. I'd add in that everyone who ran and has an email list should be using it for both 1 and 2. Bernie certainly does but he has the infrastructure to do so, I haven't seen anyone else I donated to practice this unless it was their own election at issue.
3 and 4) These are two of the most underrated ones. Abrams really started to work on this but to get the big bucks for her operation she had to kiss Bloomberg's ring for a while (I don't mind that because I get it, just pointing out what it took). We need to increase funding toward these operations.
Now additions:
5) Legislative fights. I said it once but when COVID was being taken seriously by Republicans because their donors were worried; the Dems had a chance to include mail-in voting as part of the negotiation. They ceded that ground and really didn't extract much from those negotiations overall. I think the biggest issue I have right now is how often being the minority party has caused the Dems to play softball in negotiations (DACA was another example a couple years back where they balked during a funding fight).
6) Better targeting efforts. Latin outreach is pretty damned weak, yes there are efforts but it's weak. Bernie saw that opening and did really well in that realm; Biden's campaign has sounded reticent to bother. Brown folk face suppression and get less help to the polls and I think that (combined with Dems being pretty abysmal on immigration until recently) is why Latin polling isn't as extreme as black when we see the splits for Dems/Republican.
7) When the writing is on the wall, involve independent monitors. The ACLU comes to mind straight away. In general, less reacting and more proactive approaches. When funny business is happening; start to take steps EARLY. Line the lawyers up; make thinly veiled (and possibly even empty) threats about consequences; but make the voter suppression a story before it happens. That way they either stop and say we overreacted or they do it and we can literally say "told you this would happen, now we're fixing it."
