Enough is Enough (5/7/23)
Another Saturday night in America means a mass shooting at a shopping mall in Texas with 8 confirmed fatalities, including children. As the young activist and commentator Victor Shi wrote "It says a lot about a country when you can't even look at a young person straight in the face and assure them that they'll be safe at school, a mall, a grocery store, a concert, or any other public setting. This is a uniquely American problem. This is not normal."
Enough is enough.
We expect that for the readers of this newsletter, enough is enough happened many years ago with the mass shooting at Columbine. And if not then with the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. And if not then, with the shooting at Parkland. And if not then, with the shooting at Tree of Life, Uvalde, Buffalo, Monterey Park, Nashville, or any of the other myriad mass shootings that have taken place in this gun-laden country.
But when will enough be enough for Republicans like Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, or any of their GOP colleagues who offered thoughts and prayers but not one common sense gun reform in the wake of Saturday's shooting? When will enough be enough for Governor Ron DeSantis who just signed a permitless carry law in Florida even though a recent poll showed that 77% of Floridians were opposed to this law? When will enough be enough for the Republican members of Congress who proudly paraded their AR-15 assault rifle pins including Rep. Andrew Clyde, Rep. George Santos, and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna? When will enough be enough for Republican politicians like Rep. Thomas Massie and Rep. Lauren Boebert who send out ghoulish holiday cards with their entire families holding assault weapons?
Of course, it's not just mass shootings in public places. In the past few weeks, we've seen several members of a family slaughtered in their home after they had the temerity to ask their neighbor to please stop shooting off his assault weapon in his front yard so their baby could sleep. We saw teenager Ralph Yarl shot when he went to the wrong house to pick up his younger brothers. We saw Kaylin Gillis killed when she drove into the wrong driveway.
It's clear that there will never be an "enough is enough" moment for the vast majority of Republican elected officials in this country. Republicans have shown that they are unwilling to do anything more than offer thoughts and prayers and insist that more people need guns. As Senator Reverend Warnock said from the floor of the Senate after yet another shooting this week (in Atlanta): "Thoughts and prayers are not enough. In fact, it is a contradiction to say you are thinking and praying and then do nothing. It is to make a mockery of prayer. It is to trivialize faith."
The only way that things will change is to elect Democrats up and down the ballot in as many races as possible. It is a matter of life or death.
That starts at the top with President Joe Biden who announced his reelection campaign last month and renewed his push for a federal ban on assault weapons ban in the aftermath of the Nashville school shooting. There are many other reasons to vote for President Biden, and we'll get into them in future newsletters, but this is a compelling one. We know that no Republican candidate will echo Biden's call. And we cannot afford to be distracted by the fringe candidates supposedly running as Democrats or any candidate backed by the nefarious No Labels. We're all in for Biden.
And we must elect more Democrats to the U.S. Senate. That means volunteering for and supporting vulnerable incumbents like Sen. Jon Tester, and supporting candidates like Rep. Ruben Gallego, running for U.S. Senate in Arizona; Rep. Colin Allred, running for U.S. Senate against the thoughtful and prayerful Ted Cruz in Texas; and Lucas Kunce, running for U.S. Senate against Josh Hawley in Missouri. (Lucas Kunce will be our guest on Friday, May 26th so please plan to join us that day.)
We must flip the House. As we know, New York and California are critical to the Democrats' chances of regaining the House majority. You can write postcards to voters in the California swing districts or register voters in one of the New York swing districts. One of those districts is NY-3 and if we want to send George Santos packing in 2024, we can start by supporting Democrats running for local races in Northeast Queens and Nassau County in 2023. You can join us on the evening of May 10th when we will be joined by Rep. Grace Meng, who is laser-focused on winning back NY-03 and other NY House seats, and two local candidates running for office in 2023. (Details and rsvp below).
We must hold the State Senate and flip the House of Delegates in Virginia. Between 2020 and 2021, when Democrats held majorities in the State House and Senate and Democrat Ralph Northam was governor, Virginia enacted multiple laws aimed at preventing gun violence. Those laws are at risk if Democrats lose their majority in the Senate and fail to regain a majority in the House. Moreover, the Republicans have indicated that if they have majorities in the House and Senate, they will follow Florida and pass permitless carry. We'll be hosting more candidates from Virginia, writing postcards for Virginia Senate candidate Lashrecse Aird, and raising money for our Markers For Democracy 2023 Giving Circle which will fund Democrats running for Virginia State Senate and House. Please join us and invite your friends.
The Democratic Party is the party of freedom. We are the party of reproductive freedom. We are the party of freedom to read and learn. We are also the party of freedom to go to school, synagogues, churches, mosques, malls, supermarkets, and movies without fearing for our lives.
Let's make sure that Democrats win up and down the ballot in 2023 and 2024. Enough is enough.