As state after state locks down, and social life grinds to a screeching halt, COVID-19 has completely altered our social and political landscape. Businesses, and schools are shutting down, chronic shortages of key supplies and foodstuffs are as depressing as they are unsurprising. Several states have now implemented shelter in place ordinances, leaving those fortunate enough to have the resources to do so, hunkered down, in their homes. It's now clear that our government response has been completely inadequate, a terrifying thought when we look at the death and destruction caused by COVID-19 even in places with strong healthcare systems and semi-responsive governments. The American people wait with baited breath for the tsunami headed our way. During times of crisis like this, we are often scared, and feel impetus to look out for ourselves first, and let others worry about their own well being, but it is important to remember that no matter how alone we feel, we are in this together as a community. In fact, that sense of community and collective care is more important than ever to hold onto during these dark times.
As more and more of us are placed under quarantine in an attempt to "flatten the curve," we must remember that life and democracy don't stop during these moments. In fact, times of crisis are often when the biggest changes can be won, either by the pro-democracy movement, or the forces of oligarchy and repression. While we don't know what will happen with the upcoming elections, as we've discussed many times before, voting is not the end of our responsibility as citizens in a democracy, but the beginning! Talk to your friends, post online, and try to spend some of your time phonebanking!. If you're already involved, fantastic, and if you haven't gotten in off the sidelines yet, now's the moment to give it a shot! Trust us, getting involved feels great and empowering, and could just save your sanity!
No matter how the response to this pandemic evolves over the next few weeks/months, it will be as vitally important as ever to keep building our power and bending the resources of government towards support of the people. Terrifying estimates of unemployment, death and deprivation are forecast under our worst case scenarios, and people need help now. Unfortunately it appears that even during moments of crisis, the system of money and special interests corrupting our politics, is attempting to divert much needed relief from the people into their own coffers. To take on that powerful system, and make sure that our government mobilizes to work for the people, it will take a diverse, pro-democracy movement of commensurate size and economic power to counteract the forces of oligarchy with Trump at their head, both during the election, and the day after! Together, we can make sure history records this decade as the age when everyday people took back political power!
Below, we will continue to highlight unrepresentative decisions taken by our supposedly representative democracy.
As the world falls apart Congress is dithering, Trump is recklessly lying, and the apparent presumptive nominee of the opposition party has only been seen once, briefly, since this crisis began. Perhaps it is this utter, feckless incompetence on the part of the Democrats, that has allowed Trump and the Republicans to seize the initiative in the response, after botching all our prep time for weeks. The Fed is predicting 30% unemployment during Q2, and Nancy Pelosi is talking about means testing, while the Republicans are planning another corporate give-away. Just how disconnected can our political class be?
In this disaster we find ourselves in, we are stuck between incompetence, technocratic quibbling, and malicious gas-lighting. The conservative propaganda networks, like Fox News, which spread this dangerous misinformation reveal just how damaging the destruction of our 4th estate can be. While over 8 in 10 democrats trust the CDC over Trump and FOX, whereas only 28% of Republicans feel the same way! This failure to communicate will the cost lives of the very people whom these elected officials and "news networks" were entrusted with protecting and informing.
Actions like this are absurd from a medical perspective, and they are also wildly out of step with what the American people think the government and our news coverage should should be striving for. We need to be able to trust our government organizations to look after the well-being of our people, instead of exploiting crises to take away our liberties and give huge cash bail-outs to wealthy donors. The speed with which such funds were mobilized for the least needy among us, puts a lie to the claim that the popular programs advocated for by DSOT and the American people are too expensive, or can't be done! Rather, there is no interest from the political elite to pursue such policy when they, themselves aren't feeling the squeeze.
We must call out this despicable cruelty and apathy for what it is, and bring democratic representation back to America! To do that we will need to put pressure on all our representatives through a broad and enduring movement of people, demanding change. Don’t miss this chance to change our country for the better. Join us every Tuesday, in growing solidarity and power until we take back our democracy from amoral special interests, and greedy politicians: Don't Shop on Tuesdays!
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Let friends and families, let them know about this growing movement, and how they can help us take back our democracy if they Don't Shop on Tuesdays!
Send their email address to boycottforourdemocracy@gmail.com
Here are some other things you can do to help grow this movement:
1. Sign up on our Facebook group
2. Check out our new website: https://www.dontshopontuesdays.com/
It's still a work in progress, but we are adding more content all the time! Check out our full issues list to see just how poorly represented Americans really are!
3. We are asking boycotters to create a video to explain what brings them to the boycott. If you feel comfortable, please submit a 30 sec - 1 min clip to boycottforourdemocracy@gmail.com.
Thanks for helping to take back our democracy, one Tuesday at a time!
Let us know what you didn't buy today,
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