Dear MoveOn member,
The latest decision by the Supreme Court is an outrageous gift to Donald
Trump and a knife in the heart of our democracy.
A federal appeals court had already issued a unanimous and scathing
decision denying Trump's ridiculous claim of "absolute immunity" for his
crimes, and all the Supreme Court had to do was to not take the case,
allowing special counsel Jack Smith's case to move forward.^1
At least, that's what an ethical Supreme Court would have done—but we're
talking about a court with Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito on it. And the
court needed just four votes to take the case. So instead, the court
waited two weeks to announce its decision and then delayed oral arguments
until seven weeks from now.^2
While it is likely that the court did this to help Trump by attempting to
delay his trial until after the election, we cannot dismiss the
possibility that the MAGA-controlled court could find in his favor,
proclaiming that a president could assassinate political rivals without
consequences. Truly.
The bottom line is that Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court likely has
succeeded in locking down Smith's case against Trump until after voters go
to the polls this November. As Rachel Maddow said, "It's BS."^3
John, the Supreme Court isn't going to save us from Donald
Trump. Special counsel Jack Smith isn't going to save us, either. We are
going to have to save ourselves.
We are going to have to stand up for our democracy by mobilizing a wave of
millions of people to the polls. And that isn't going to be easy, because
as a recent New York Times analysis showed, this election is going to be
decided by turning out "surge" voters—those who voted in 2016 but are
leaning toward staying home this time.^4 This is what MoveOn was made for,
and what we've been able to do better than anyone else in our 25-year
history. Whether we can do it this time depends on what our members do
right now.
We've kicked off our $32 million plan to reach the millions of voters we
need to surge to the polls. Will you join our fight and donate
$5 a month to help save our democracy from the corrupt
Supreme Court and Donald Trump?
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll donate monthly.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
In case there is any question that this decision was tailor-made for
Trump's election, the Supreme Court had the opportunity to decide this
exact issue last year, but they refused.^5
Instead, the Supreme Court gave Trump exactly what he wanted: the ability
to use his absurd immunity claim as a ploy to delay his trial until after
the election.^6
An ethical Supreme Court would have forced Clarence Thomas to recuse
himself from Trump's issues long ago, as his wife is deeply mired in the
January 6 case.^7 But as we know, we aren't dealing with an ethical
Supreme Court.
That's why we can't rely on the Supreme Court to do what's right about
Trump in this moment. We have to make sure the result of this election is
so clear that the Supreme Court doesn't have the opportunity to interfere
again in November, either.
We are motivated by our outrage, John. Put your outrage to
work with MoveOn by donating $5 a month to power and
sustain our work from now through Election Day.
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in monthly.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
The airwaves are flooded right now with election ads, but most studies
show that these ads don't really move the needle at all on voter choices
and turnout at the polls.^8
If we're going to soundly defeat Trump, we need to lean hard into our vote
tripling, a tactic MoveOn pioneered at scale in 2020.
Vote tripling is based on relational organizing—the idea that people are
much more likely to listen to their friends and social networks than
anonymous ads and outreach. Relational organizing has been proven to be
the absolute best way, by orders of magnitude, to not only inform people
but turn them into likely voters who will show up on Election Day.^9
MoveOn has taken relational organizing and super-powered it by providing,
at scale, an easy way to reach out to friends and family, talk to them
about the issues they care about the most, and help them make a plan to
get to the polls. Not only did MoveOn's vote tripling result in 50,000
unlikely voters casting a ballot in 2020 in key states and districts, it's
been proven to be as much as five times more effective than other methods!
So here's the plan: Our analytics team has already identified the 11
million surge voters in key states who might not go to the polls without
motivation and encouragement. Now we're activating our political experts
and seasoned organizers to begin the outreach—helping educate these voters
who are less likely to be following politics and the news about all that
is at stake—through postcards sent by volunteers, targeted ads, texts and
phone-banking, and more, about the terrible policies that Trump plans to
implement and we know those voters disagree with. Then we will kick off
vote tripling and get them to the polls!
John, it's decision time. It's going to be Trump on that
ballot, and our legal system isn't going to stop him. We have to stop him
ourselves, and we need you with us.
Please, help us engage and motivate voters in battleground states from now
through November so we can turn them out on Election Day. Donate
$5 a month to power and sustain this democracy-saving work.
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in monthly.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Thanks for all you do.
–Alexis, Chloe, Sana, Corinne, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "The Supreme Court Just Gave Trump Exactly What He Wanted," Slate,
February 28, 2024
[link removed]
2. Ibid.
3. "Rachel Maddow Fries SCOTUS for Trump Immunity Hearing Date: 'It's BS'
and 'They Don't Care That We Know It' | Video," The Wrap, February 28,
2024
[link removed]
4. "Turnout Data Reveals the Core of Democrats' Success in Special
Elections," The New York Times, February 3, 2024
[link removed]
5. "The Supreme Court Just Gave Trump Exactly What He Wanted," Slate,
February 28, 2024
[link removed]
6. "Supreme court's decision to hear Trump's immunity claim sanctions his
delay strategy," The Guardian, February 29, 2024
[link removed]
7. "Ginni Thomas says she regrets post-election texts to Meadows," WHYY,
December 30, 2022
[link removed]
8. "How Much Do Campaign Ads Matter?" Kellogg Insight, November 1, 2021
[link removed]
9. "Largest-Ever Study on Relational Organizing Shows 8.3% Increase in
Turnout," Impactive, October 9, 2020
[link removed]
Want to support MoveOn's work? The MAGA movement's book bans have forced
teachers and librarians across the country to remove books from their
shelves and censor what young people can learn. MoveOn is fighting back,
including by filling a "Banned Bookmobile" with books that the far right
has banned and driving it to key cities and towns to raise the visibility
of book bans, hand out banned books for free, and bring people together to
stop censorship. To keep up the fight against book bans and the MAGA
politicians who support them, we need your help.
Will you start a monthly gift to power and sustain MoveOn's critical
work?
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in $5 a month.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
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