People For the American Way
April 2020
The American Way


Spotlight

Falsehoods and Failures: Highlighting the Worst of Trump's Lies During the Pandemic

We here at PFAW, along with many of you, have watched with growing disbelief the ballooning volume of lies, misdirection, and disinformation flowing from the White House during this worldwide health crisis. While some days it can be hard to discern what to believe, the need for accurate and accessible information is critically important.

PFAW is working hard to make sure our members have as complete a picture of the pandemic’s effects as possible. Our new weekly round-up tracks Trump’s troubling failures of leadership during the worst social and financial crisis this country has experienced since World War II.

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Republicans Continue Their Attacks on the American Way... Even During the Crisis

If one thing has been made clear during the coronavirus pandemic, it's that Republicans are willing to exploit this crisis to advance their extreme agenda.

Through their opposition to expanded access to voting during the primaries and November election, to providing their corporate donors with a windfall in relief funding, their efforts are a brazen attack on the American Way and with it, the livelihood and rights of millions of people across the country.

Trump and Congressional Republicans aren't stopping there, either. Mitch McConnell has made it clear he will resist any meaningful efforts to provide federal relief to state and local governments suffering from the pandemic, as well as any investments in our nation's infrastructure, all while he rushes back to Washington, DC in order to confirm more of Trump's far-right and extremely unqualified judicial nominees.

The current crisis underscores the importance of the election this November. The work to hold Trump and his cronies accountable is already well underway, but we are running dangerously low on resources. We need our best supporters, like you, to rush a donation today. Now is not the time to scale back our efforts!

Can you help us raise the $29,284 needed to hit our April goal and renew for 2020 with a donation right now?>>

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This Month

As the coronavirus pandemic magnifies the need for a strong national safety net to protect the health and well-being of the public, PFAW and the Alliance for Justice released a joint report, “Shredding the Social Safety Net: The Republican Plot to Use the Federal Courts to Destroy Public Health, Safety and Other Protections.”

The report details a key strategy in the right wing’s long-running mission to turn back the clock on social safety net programs that began with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal and include such vital supports as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act — as well as protections for workers, consumers, and the environment.

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Voting rights, which should be sacred in a democratic society, took another devastating hit on April 6, with the U.S. Supreme Court’s right-wing justices denying thousands of Wisconsin voters the ability to cast a ballot, and forcing millions of others to decide whether to brave massive lines and risk their lives in order to be counted.

The story in Wisconsin began with Republican state lawmakers refusing to push back Election Day or expand absentee voting so voters could cast their ballots remotely, and they did it to suppress the vote – especially in the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee – so they could retain a state Supreme Court seat that would, in turn, help them with their voter suppression efforts this November! When the Democratic governor of Wisconsin tried to provide some relief for voters by extending absentee voting, he was shut down – first, by the right-wing majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, then by the right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision written by Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh.

Thank you to the amazing PFAW members across the country who helped phone bank Wisconsin voters to make sure thousands of outstanding absentee ballots got turned in on time. At the end of the day, voter turnout was high enough that Republicans LOST the very race they were trying to rig, showing that motivation on our side to hold Trump Republicans accountable is high … but protecting the right to vote will be crucial. We’ll meet that challenge together.

Please read PFAW President Michael Keegan’s recent piece on Trumpublicans’ assault on voting rights.

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During this extremely challenging time, when the spread of the coronavirus threatens people’s lives and the nation’s well-being, Americans should be able to count on their leaders for honest and accurate information.

But Americans who trust right-wing media, political, and religious leaders have too often gotten the opposite.

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Please click on each headline to read the full article...



During this unprecedented emergency, PFAW has continued to work to safeguard vulnerable communities. We are pushing lawmakers for solutions to address the structural inequities that underlie the impacts these communities are experiencing. To help our members stay aware and up-to-date, we are sharing emerging news and data on the blog every week, highlighting how those most vulnerable are suffering and how our members and activists can get involved in our work to protect them.

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