As a supporter of the Democratic party I want my vote to matter!
We have a Republican party that would allow our country to be turned into an autocracy than to allow me to have a voice. Don’t stand by and watch. Be a person that can bring this party together for the common good. Help us unite.
Your core beliefs do matter, make them matter with other democrats, and unify in removing the legacy of Trump.
Because if we can’t get the vote right, if our party can’t get the vote right, the existential risk to our very lives that is the Trump legacy will remain intact and threaten America’s existence, and that is unacceptable.
Help Unite The Blue
PROFILES IN COURAGE
Fannie Lou Hamer
She was shot at, extorted, threatened, harassed, and assaulted by White Supremacists and POLICE. Why? Because she was a powerful and courageous hero for civil rights who only tried to register and exercise her right to vote. There are those who are tired of hearing people fought for our right to vote. There are those who are tired of hearing people died for our right to vote. There are those who see no value in exercising a right that for people of color was finally codified by the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1870. They say this and feel this because they have no sense of history and are awash in the cold comfort of ignorance borne on the back of a lackadaisical mind. African-Americans have been fighting and dying for the right to vote for over one hundred and twenty years and over and over again we miss the fact that the very reason our ability to vote comes under attack is because the power to vote is the power to change. Fannie Lou Hamer famously said we are “Sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
In this era when people so easily forget or discount the contributions of those who came before and why what they did mattered it becomes requisite to mention Fannie Lou Hamer and her historical significance to the American political struggle in general and the Democratic party in particular. President Lyndon B. Johnson did not fear the words of Dr. Martin Luther King. He feared the words of Fannie Lou Hamer.
When Hamer first tried to register to vote she was fired from her job of two decades as a plantation worker. Her husband was required to stay on through harvest. She moved from house to house for protection and on September 10th was shot at 16 times in a drive-by shooting by White Supremacists. She persisted and continued the struggle for her right to vote until she was eventually successful.
She was a co-founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to stand in opposition to the all-white and all male regional democratic party and its attempts to shut down the black vote. Hamer and the MFDP were the official Mississippi delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. There she represented the struggles of black people to the entire world. President Johnson interrupted her televised testimony revealing just how much an impact Hamer and her movement were having on the party. Hamer and the efforts of the MFDP shifted the power in the party. In response the members of the Mississippi Democratic party who stood in opposition left to join the GOP. Today, Mississippi can trace its origins as a Republican state to Hamer and her efforts.
For putting her life at risk, for putting everything on the line in order to secure the right to vote, we must honor Fannie Lou Hamer, her history and all that she has sacrificed as an exemplary example of American courage
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House for the 116th United States Congress, the House of Representatives. As the highest elected woman official in United States history she is second in the line of Presidential Succession, behind Vice President Mike Pence. She is the only woman to ever hold the position of Speaker of the House. As she serves, she represents American courage, rising to the call and representing her party with tenacity and alacrity. Liked by many and quite possibly reviled by just as many given our times, she nevertheless serves with honor and distinction.
She was a major opponent of the Iraq War and has been instrumental in the passage of much of this era’s landmark legislation, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the Federal Stimulus, and the Affordable Care Act which is more commonly known as Obamacare.
In 2011 as the Democratic Party lost control of the House of Representatives, she lost the Speakership. However, in November of 2018 she was again elected Speaker of the House as the Democrats again took control of the House. Her road to the Speakership was not without challenges. There had been a large shift in the Democratic party over the intervening years with the rise of Bernie Sanders and his progressives. However, in a testimony to her intelligence, innate skill, and political acumen she rose to the top as the best choice to stand strong in the age of Trump. This challenge she has faced with vigor and none can deny her effectiveness and ability to hold her party together in the face of the existential crisis that is the Trump Presidency. She was patient and abiding of political will and wind as she worked through the challenges of her own party and its young and vibrant new members. She was patient and shrewd in her handling of the rush to impeachment, a successful achievement that will always carry the stamp of her leadership. She is indeed a powerful profile in courage and stands as a testament to Americans for all time.
Bernie Sanders
In April of 2015 something new stepped onto the American Presidential Political stage like a bolt out of the blue. This blue bolt carried the angst and frustration of generations and the power of a youthful generation that was hungry for a better, stronger, more inclusive America. That power and energy was represented by the independent senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders, a man who was born in 1941, but by the energy he brought to the stage you would not have thought it. Step for step, word for word, thought for thought he imbued the youth of this movement with his energy, not the other way around. He led with a power and passion that had not been seen for some time and with this passion he mounted what many considered a takeover of the Democratic Party. His stance as a self-proclaimed social democrat would see elements of the much-admired Nordic model implemented in the United States. He pulled the Democratic party to the left, much like the Tea Party pulled the Republican party to the right.
As this change was vigorously occurring it was well known that the Democratic establishment stood in opposition to this change and actively worked to stop the powerful momentum Senator Sanders was creating. However, his message of labor rights, universal single payer healthcare, climate change, and free college tuition was simply too strong and resonated with too many. For his stance, his ability to create change, his remaking of America through the Democratic Party he most certainly is a profile in courage, whether you support his perspective or not. He failed in his bid for the 2016 Democratic nomination for President and many said his commitment to his cause and his refusal to step down hurt the party and damaged Hilary Clinton’s bid for the presidency. Whether one believes the facts substantiate this claim or not, the fact remains that Senator Sanders has forever altered the American political landscape. There has been a generational stigma associated with the word Socialism and that stigma has risen and fallen throughout much of American history. Many have seen it as a panacea for what ills our nation and just as many have seen it is an ideological boogeyman that would destroy America. This is borne out of ignorance or difficulty in understanding what socialism is or how one might interpret it. Despite it all, Senator Sanders’s effort to bring intelligent discourse and understanding to what his brand of socialism would mean for the American people cannot be denied.
Hillary Clinton
Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton has served America her entire adult life. Her dedication to America has come with struggle, pain, and tragedy, a life of highs and lows and highs again. Hers is a life of firsts. And to be sure the challenges she has faced would break lesser people. Yet, she still stands. A highly polarizing figure, both loved and despised, it becomes quite clear that history will look upon her with grace and reverence for all her sacrifices and all her contributions. As an American, as a woman, as the first woman to run for President of the United States, she is without equivocation a profile in courage.
Hilary took up the century long fight for healthcare reform as the First Lady of the United States during the Clinton Administration. The very audacity of hope that she displayed in taking on this formidable task that had eluded Presidents since Theodore Roosevelt showcased her strength and commitment to better serving the American people. She was an advocate for children and families and played a leading role in the creation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program as well as other critical programs.
From First Lady to senator, she became the first female senator from New York in 2000. She served as senator until 2008, when she ran for President seeking the democratic nomination. After losing the election to Barack Obama she did not step back, but rather continued to step ever forward and served as Secretary of State in the Obama Administration from 2009 to 2013.
In 2015 she announced she would again seek the Presidency. She was the first First Lady to run for the office, and she became the first woman to be the nominee of a major party. With this glass ceiling shattered she proceeded to become the first woman in history to win the popular vote for presidency of the United States of America. However, the electoral college is what determines who wins the presidency, and in this Donald Trump was the winner. It was a shocking loss in an election that showcased the widening divide of American politics and the rise of ideologues and demagoguery. Still, she accepted the loss with grace and aplomb and wherever she has been seen thereafter she has maintained her positive demeanor and represents well her nation and her party as a stateswoman.
The Good People @ Etch The Edges Have The Answer
The Plan
1) Listen to the Etch The Edges podcast
2) Learn what it means to Unify The Blue
3) Lean into discomfort and share your truth about the Democratic Party and where we need to be.
The Call
SHARE THE WORD WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
The Action
SOMEONE HAS TO STEP UP! America is leading the world still, leading it in division, partisan politics, volatile ideologies and the rise of autocrats. Stem the tide and change direction. UNIFY THE BLUE!
TOGETHER, WE ETCH THE EDGES, WE UNITE THE BLUE, WE DO IT FOR AMERICA
The Plan
1) Listen to the Etch The Edges podcast
2) Learn what it means to Do It For America
3) Share the movement with you family and friends and save America
Together
SOMEONE HAS TO STEP UP! America is leading the world still, leading it in division, partisan politics, volatile ideologies and the rise of autocrats. Stem the tide and change direction. Do it for America.
Unite The Blue Cap
Ready to take the next step? Get your Unite The Blue cap..
TOGETHER WE ETCH THE EDGES, WE UNITE THE BLUE, WE DO IT FOR AMERICA
The Will
We answer the call of desperation. We step into the the change. We see what’s broken. What once went wrong and we make right … together.
The Change
I will not be taken for granted. This party will continue to earn my vote, and not assume it has my vote, only if it answers the call for all Americans, and that includes ME!
Kennedy
“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity.”
Carter
“You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.”
Obama
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change we seek.”