John, tonight’s results in Virginia should be a major wake-up call for anyone who isn’t paying attention to the anti-voter attacks and the plague of disinformation that swept through the country this year.
You, more than most, have already taken action in response to the far-right’s declaration of all-out war on our democracy.
Suppressing votes ... drawing rigged, gerrymandered districts ... threatening to overturn election results ... flooding the airwaves with false and distorted information -- these are all threats that you and I must face.
Glenn Youngkin, who has been elected as Virginia’s governor according to CNN and NBC News, made Trump’s election conspiracy theories a key theme of his campaign. Throughout the campaign, he called for new restrictions on our freedom to vote, used racist dog-whistles to deepen our divides, and even refused to disavow the lies that fueled the January 6th attack on our Capitol. [1] [2] [3]
His intentions are clear: turn Virginia into the next Texas or Georgia. It’s the exact same strategy -- gin up paranoia and distrust by spreading utter lies about our democracy, then use them as a pretext for draconian attacks targeting Black and brown people in particular.
Unfortunately, far-right operatives will see this as a proven blueprint for 2022. I fear disenfranchising and misinforming voters will become a “purity test” for Republican primary candidates -- who’ll surely try to one-up each other in staking out the most extreme, anti-voter, anti-truth position.
That means voter suppression and distortion aren’t just major threats to next year’s midterms -- they’ll be a flagship campaign issue for anyone seeking Trump’s approval.
These shadowy, anti-democracy forces have already been working for months -- but so have we. First and foremost, that means taking bold, federal action -- and breaking Mitch McConnell’s filibuster to pass urgently needed voting protections.
Federal reform is our best -- and perhaps only -- recourse against the far-right’s state-by-state strategy to suppress our votes -- locking in permanent rule despite the wishes of voters through gerrymandering, voter suppression, disinformation, and even election sabotage.
Our two priority bills, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, would stop this dangerous effort in its tracks. Together, these bills would restore voter protections and block discriminatory voting laws from even taking effect -- setting clear, nationwide standards for fair elections that state politicians can’t overrule.
Both have enough votes to pass, but we still need to break through Mitch McConnell’s blockade. Thanks to your action all year, we’re in a better position than ever to demonstrate to the last remaining Senate holdouts that the only path forward is through fixing the filibuster.
And even with these laws in place, we’ll still need to build a Protect The Vote 2022 effort -- repeating our historic campaign last year to mobilize thousands of nonpartisan volunteers to help voters cast their ballots, know their rights, and avoid intimidation or disenfranchisement.
This is a difficult fight -- and tonight has once again raised both the stakes and the difficulty -- but it’s one we can’t afford to give up on. The twin threats of disinformation and voter suppression put the very principle underlying our democracy at grave risk: that each of us should have an equal say in our future.
We’re up against a determined group of political extremists who are willing to trample over that principle in their pursuit of power. It falls to our generation to take bold action, and I’m hoping I can count on you to step up right now.
John, I hope you can help ensure every American who cares about our democracy gets this urgently needed wake-up call. If you agree we need to act now, will you chip in $3 or more towards Common Cause’s Emergency Mobilization today?
Remember, if we give up now, Texas and Georgia’s restrictions and Virginia’s plague of disinformation and racist dog-whistling are just the tip of the iceberg for the coming damage to our democracy.
That’s why I need your help to seize this unprecedented chance to reform the filibuster -- and STOP Mitch McConnell’s Senate minority from blocking the urgent action that “We the People” demanded in last year’s election.
Thanks for stepping up at this critical moment for our democracy.
Karen Hobert Flynn, President
and the team at Common Cause
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/10/06/youngkin-election-audit-virginia-governor/
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/30/opinion/virginia-election-2021.html
[3] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-contesting-virginia-governor-election-youngkin-mcaullife-1251246/
