Don't let another Democratic state government fall. Help DE now.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > Don't let another Democratic state government fall. Help DE now.

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

February 25th 2017 Update:
SHE WON.

And she outperformed Hall-Long who ran as a Democratic incumbent for the same seat in 2014. Thank you so much for donating to Hansen and helping keep Delaware MAGA free. I'm truly grateful.

This is admittedly a small victory against the Republicans, but it's an important one. Hopefully it's the start of many more. I firmly believe we should continue to work together in small and big ways to help causes like this in the future.

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/friends-for-hansen-1

https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/757637611775229952

If you don't want to read all this, just skip to the bottom

Since 2009, Democrats have sat idly by as state legislatures and governor offices have fallen, one after another, to the much better organized Republicans. Democrats seem to just not care about this ongoing issue, and as a result, the party hemorrhaged 910 state legislature seats in eight years. Today, just twelve states have a Democratic controlled legislature, and of those states, only five have a Democratic governor as well. Up until just a few days ago, Delaware was one of those select five. Now however, that's in jeopardy as a special election is about to be held to replace the resigning senator from our 10th district.

Why You Should Care
If the Democrats lose the special election (scheduled for Saturday, February 25th) for our 10th Senate District, our 21 member senate will flip over to the Republicans for the first time in 44 years (and with an odd number of seats, the tie breaking vote of our Democratic Lieutenant Governor is effectively useless). Since 2008, Republican membership in our state senate has increased by 66% (from six seats to ten). The nationwide crisis in effective left messaging has made this a common phenomenon, and Republicans know all too well just how important it is that they capitalize on the Democratic party's failings at the local level. That is why they're flying Vice President Pence out to campaign here for the Republican challenger in the special election, and are said to be having Donald Trump record robocalls on the candidate's behalf. Republicans don't loving mess around. They see an opportunity for yet another state senate, and throw everything at it. This is a MAGA uprising in a state that hasn't voted for a Republican president since 1988. It's happening where I live, and if it isn't stopped in its tracks, it could very well come to your "safe" state next.

(Pictured: Vice President Pence [left] en route to Delaware, as a LGBT youth looks upwards in quiet horror)

Delaware's Democratic controlled government accomplished quite a bit with our previous governor, Jack Markell. A few highlights were marijuana being decriminalized with a system put in place for medical usage of it, our minimum wage increased, protective legislation against LGBT discrimination was passed, curbside recycling was implemented, and various measures were adopted to promote green energy. Things weren't perfect, but we should all know by now that with Republicans in charge (or simply obstructing the will of the people as they are wont to do), poo poo will get worse rapidly, and in ways previously never thought possible.

Who's Running
The Republicans have chosen John Marino. At first glance, he may seem inoffensive, but dig a little deeper and you'll find things like "A parent has the natural right to remove their child from any test or school activity -- anytime, anywhere," (a great policy if you want even more students who have zero sex education, believe the Earth is 6,000 years old, and think grabbing pussy is totally copacetic) and his outrage that Democrats in the state have "restor[ed] voting rights to felons" (felons being unable to vote is just one of many ways the Republicans are going about systematically disenfranchising large swathes of our population).

The Democrats, in contrast have picked environmental attorney and single mother, Stephanie Hansen. I know many of you are wary of settling for the traditional type of Democrat in the wake of Trump, but Hansen seems to get what issues are most salient. In this twenty minute interview with her, Hansen discusses a variety of topics, but what really sums up the interview for me is this quote from her:

quote:

If you�ve ever thought about getting involved in a political election, now is the time. If you�ve got progressive ideas � if you are for pay equity, you are for pro-environmental positions, you are for gender equality, now is the time. Because those values are under attack.

Perhaps what is most terrifying in that interview is it seems Republicans have started to use misinformation and lies to dissuade Democrats from turning out for her. In this segment of the interview, Hansen says that in order to bring the "Republican agenda into our living room", they have begun calling likely Democratic voters and lying to them saying that she is not pro-choice. It's the typical Republican playbook of deceit, cons, and MAGA bullshit happening at a micro level.

How You Can Help
If you're still with me after all of that, it's pretty simple how you can help. Go to her website, click "CONTRIBUTE", and donate whatever you can. If you're nearby (even if out of state), volunteer to go door to door or call for her. Out of inspiration from the RAINN fundraiser, I asked the ever talented Al! if he would design gang tags for people who donate to this. This being Delaware, however, he was kind of at a loss of ideas of what the gang tags could be, so if anyone has any suggestions for that, that's a way to help as well. The special election for our tenth senate district is Saturday, February 25th, so there's plenty of time to donate or volunteer.

If you do donate, please post in this thread with a screenshot of confirmation that you did, as well as stating the amount, so I have an idea of how well this works, and so if gang tags are made, they can be distributed.

It Doesn't Have to Stop Here
Donate or not, you might be thinking "Yeah, but that's Delaware, who cares? No one even lives there." That's why I am completely on board for this RAINN styled drive to be replicated again for your own local issues. If you can think of any that need help, please, post about them. Tell everyone. Change things.

IF YOU IGNORED LITERALLY EVERYTHING ELSE, READ THIS
Senator Sanders and Representative Ellison both agree that poo poo doesn't get done unless you work at it from the bottom up. Delaware is about to lose its state senate to the Republicans for the first time in 44 years, in a special election (Saturday, February 25th). The Republicans want it so much that they are sending Pence, as well as having MechaTrump make robocalls, so that they can enact their awful agenda in yet another state. If you are at all inspired by Sanders and Ellison, donate whatever you can to the Democratic state senate campaign of Stephanie Hansen and maybe get a gang tag out of it eventually. If you donate, please post proof and the amount in this thread.

January 22nd, 2017 Update:

Nichael posted:

Thanks to everyone who donated so far. We're at $145 for anyone who's keeping track. I'm going to donate some more soon, and I plan on contacting the campaign to just give a heads up at some point that people here helped. As far as I can tell, there's still not an actual date for the election, but I'm pretty sure it legally can't be past past the first week of March or so. I'll update the original post when there's an actual date.

January 24th 2017 Update:
Still no actual date as far as I can tell. If anyone is nearby this weekend, the campaign will be doing a lot of door to door volunteering after this event. I'm pretty sure I'll be there if you want to see what a C-SPAM jerk looks like in real life.

The total is at $375 mostly thanks to Dad Jokes who is going to be highlighted in the original post now for being a generally cool dude.

Dad Jokes posted:

gently caress it why not

January 24th 2017 Update 2:
We're at $475 now, and the election has an actual date, February 25th.

January 25th 2017 Update:
$535 and a gangtag from Al:

If you've donated and want the tag, just say so somewhere in the thread.

Also, keep bad posting for more money!

Zikan posted:

donated mostly because of the bad posting itt

rabble rabble posted:

A+ op a thread well done 🇺🇸

February 16th Update:
First, I want to point out a huge donation from ElegantFugue:

ElegantFugue posted:

My family definitely sounded like they were planning to vote, but I don't think I talked any of them into doing more than putting up yard signs. So I did this because screw Republicans.

I live here and would be very happy if my state government could not turn red, both to work against stupidity from the national level and to just plain prevent them from rendering our state government non-functional.

Second, there's only nine days until the election. Get last minute donations in now before another MAGA-geddon occurs.

Another objectively cool and/or good person made donation:

Office Pig posted:

Not as much as I'd like, but better this than nothing.

Total So Far: $1,423

Nichael has issued a correction as of 03:32 on Feb 26, 2017

# ¿ Jan 20, 2017 11:25

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 10, 2024 08:25

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

I donated $10 as well as went door to door.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2017 11:26

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

I'm not a huge fan of Delaware's politics as they are, but on this, the day of the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States, I am fully cognizant that things can get much worse (and almost certainly will). And after watching the interview with Hansen that I linked, she seems like a genuine woman, who's in general consensus with most people I see here, so I wouldn't consider this a "lesser of two evils" situation either.

Jose posted:

lol at how unbelievable poo poo the democrats have been at winning elections

Help fix it. Really, the donations are secondary to just being involved and doing things physically. If you're not near here, find something near you. I only bring up donating as much as I do in the original post because I obviously don't expect a ton of people to be willing to come here and volunteer.

Nichael has issued a correction as of 12:12 on Jan 20, 2017

# ¿ Jan 20, 2017 12:10

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

I'm not disagreeing with you. The only way people can hope to fix things is by participating however.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2017 12:14

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

That's the story of how everyone came to Delaware.

Delaware aside though, it's not about this state specifically. It's is a broad and incredibly pressing concern that the Democrats have been pushed out of nearly every conceivable metric of governance. This is one small way to fix that.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2017 12:16

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

get that OUT of my face posted:

i think republicans only need to win control of one more state before they can start changing the constitution, so put aside some cynicism for a second. i'm flat broke though so i can't give

That's a good point that I didn't address. I mean, it's fine to be cynical and point out the flaws of the Democratic establishment, but I know this can get so much worse than it currently is.

Donkwich posted:

Where the gently caress is Biden in all this

No idea. Pence is coming, Biden is somewhere? I heard he bought a house in DC so maybe he's forsaken Delaware.

Nichael has issued a correction as of 06:21 on Jan 21, 2017

# ¿ Jan 21, 2017 05:59

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Thanks to everyone who donated so far. We're at $145 for anyone who's keeping track. I'm going to donate some more soon, and I plan on contacting the campaign to just give a heads up at some point that people here helped. As far as I can tell, there's still not an actual date for the election, but I'm pretty sure it legally can't be past past the first week of March or so. I'll update the original post when there's an actual date.

tmesis posted:

Alright i put down money, god knows my state's unicameral isn't going democrat any decade soon

How much? I'd like to add it to the total.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2017 10:01

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Sorry, I didn't check on this thread in the past day and to my surprise I found this:

Dad Jokes posted:

gently caress it why not

Woah, thank you so much. That's amazing. As someone who you may have helped save from living under the rule of the MAGA thumb, I'm eternally grateful.

Asproigerosis posted:

wait hold on I am a US citizen of the sovereign republic of Delaware. How do I stop this madness?

The best way is actually not giving money, it's volunteering. I know the campaign is doing a lot of door to door stuff this weekend, especially after this morning fundraiser. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go to the end of that to help with door to door stuff again. Think you're interested in going?

Also, I donated another $15 tonight so the total is $375. That's way more than I thought I'd be able to get for her. Thanks to everyone so far.

Nichael has issued a correction as of 01:13 on Jan 25, 2017

# ¿ Jan 24, 2017 07:37

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

get that OUT of my face posted:

i'm glad that she's knocking on doors, it's the most effective thing you can do on a campaign. you'd be surprised how much face-to-face contact matters

The campaign's been pretty aggressive about going door to door. I've only gone once but I plan to help out again this weekend. Like I said, if anyone here is close by, it's probably better to volunteer than donate. Plus, it's kind of fun.