In this edition:

• It is good to be back. We are on track and energized for 2025.

• Threat of Mass Deportation Mobilizes Yakima County Groups

• MAGA Mind: Yakima City Council Put in Their Place by Yakima Citizens for Civic Engagement

• Where Does Truth Reside: Moving Forward in a Post-Fact World

It is good to be back

Rural Americans United took some time away from our regular writing to recover from the end-of-year politics and to focus on some internal matters that would ensure our ongoing success.

Rural Americans United is quickly approaching its second anniversary. This is quite a milestone, and it could not have been achieved without the generous support from you. We have accomplished much in our short tenure and have found our niche.

Rural Americans United is, firstly, a team player. Our support for other people and organizations in our communities that do so much to improve our lives and those of our neighbors is paramount. Secondly, Rural Americans United takes pride in focusing on actions that reach marginalized persons and encourage them to participate in the democratic process.

Our recent and future endeavors focus on reaching those who might otherwise be excluded from participation in the democratic process, whether due to geography, program limitations, or budget constraints. These include rural communities and individuals without an established voting record, who are often overlooked by programs designed to encourage and rally democratic participation.

We could not be more proud of the foundation we have created. With your continued support, we will persevere in bringing a voice to those in rural communities and encouraging full participation in the democratic process.

David Morales of the Northwest Justice Project Farmworker Unit and Michelle Besso of the Yakima Immigrant Response Network spoke at the Wapato Filipino Community Hall on January 11, 2025. The event was a listening session addressing the threat of mass deportation.

One in ten people in Yakima County are vulnerable to deportation, and three million people nationwide have already received deportation orders. Our community is actively planning how to protect our own against the worst.

Thank you to the Latino Community Fund, We Are Ella, Poder Latinx, and the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition - Yakima for their support.

Yakima Citizens for Civic Engagement Wins Court Case Against Yakima City Council! Community champions Natalie McClendon, Coleen Anderson, Dori Peralta Baker, and Spencer and Leslie Hatton took on city hall—and won. In a move straight out of Project 2025, the Yakima City Council attempted to circumvent citizen participation in government by overreaching their authority and then denying the facts. Read the Yakima Herald article here.

Where Does Truth Reside?

Today is a very troubling day. TikTok has been forced offline by the United States government. Many will brush it off as the loss of a frivolous app, and some may even think, "Good riddance." After all, it was—and is—largely an app for the young, which was its greatest strength. In a time when it seems that younger generations are detached from the reality and truth of our nation, engaging them is of the utmost importance. They are our future.

One hundred seventy million Americans were on TikTok (CNN)—that’s half of our nation’s population. For many, TikTok became the first place to receive news and information. It was fast, concise, and always ahead of more traditional news services. Could it be trusted? The app itself is neither good nor bad; it is merely a vehicle. Those who published on it, like any other news source, must be vetted by the individual to determine whether the content was accurate. In that respect, it was no different from most other news outlets today.

Rupert Murdoch owns the Fox News empire (why do they call it an empire?), Elon Musk owns X, Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, Mark Zuckerberg owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and most major news outlets have bent a knee to Donald Trump. Younger generations have developed a significant distrust of the accuracy of news sources—an issue that Trump and MAGA have successfully exploited. They proved this distrust valid by securing ownership or loyalty from many news outlets, ensuring that "truth" is no longer based on facts but on what can be sold to the public.

After a recent visit to Mar-a-Lago, Mark Zuckerberg made significant policy changes at Facebook, stating (and I paraphrase): Facebook is removing fact-checking because facts are politically biased, and the last election proved that the American people support this idea. A statement like that could only have come from the mouth of MAGA.

According to Statista, there are 253 million Facebook users in America. Facebook, more than any other information source, influences what we think. This is because it is driven by an algorithm that prioritizes family and friends—our most trusted sources—and reinforces our beliefs by sending refined content to our newsfeeds. This substantiates what we already believe, stroking our egos and creating an echo chamber.

What do Democrats do in a post-truth era of Orwellian doublespeak, where using facts implies bias and, therefore, cannot be trusted? How do we make truth as enticing as juicy gossip, conspiracy theories, or lazy logic? I don’t know. We’ve been on this slippery slope for a very long time. The decline in our education system, the retirement of Walter Cronkite, the rise of social media, the unbridled power of American oligarchs, and the impressive education Roy Cohn gave Donald Trump on how to obscure, intimidate, and flaunt the law and social norms through blatant and unrelenting lies—all have contributed to the normalization of falsehood over fact, as confirmed by a voting majority of the American population.

I do not despair. Our access to news and information has been far more corrupt in the past, and we had far less ability to participate in and vet it. At the turn of the century, media empires were run by a handful of wealthy men who controlled what we knew about the world. Since individuals had no power to spread their own voices, it was our only truth.

Today, we have a chance to find the truth, validate it, and share it. This is how Democrats will triumph: by using the tools of our oppressors for our benefit.