Your Straight Ticket Vote for Democrats is a Vote to Get Our Country Back
If you live in Illinois, Vote for Kwame Raoul and Tell Everyone You Know to Vote for Him- This is Not a Drill!
There are just a few days until the midterm election. The most important election of our lifetimes. If you had any doubt about what is at stake, the events of the past two weeks are proof that this election matters more than any other midterm in recent history. We have to put a check on this president, this administration and Trump’s Republican Party.
Our country’s future will be decided this Tuesday. Do we want a more united country? Do we want a more sane country? Do we want to send a message to Trump and the Republicans?
If there is no check on Trump this midterm, we will have at least two more years of the kind of destruction to our norms, our democracy, and our country’s unity that we have experienced since Trump was elected.
Trump is the Great Divider, a wrecking ball president. Even if he could have pivoted early in his presidency to be more inclusive, he has shown himself to be incapable of being a unifier.
Many moderate Republicans have left the party or are disillusioned with Trump and what he stands for. Those candidates who have stayed in the Republican Party and claim they can be independent of Trump are not telling you the truth. The Trump/Republican Party has become the Trumpublican party. He owns it. It’s his dog now. If Republicans do not obey him, they are tweeted at, insulted and embarrassed by the micro-manager in chief and they are denied opportunities within the party to get ahead. Even worse, the Trumpublican Party can keep winning only if they get us to hate each other and fight with each other. Divisiveness is their last best chance to maintain control of Congress and state legislatures.
Why?
The midterms are all about who is eager to vote. Usually more Republicans come out to vote in the midterms compared to Democrats. But this time, many more Democrats are fired up mostly out of their intense dislike of Trump himself. If moderate Republicans are slinking out the back door or do not feel energized, then most Trumpublicans have nothing left in their bag of tricks other than their ability to rile up literally the scum of the earth: that group of white supremacists, fearful, misogynist, anti-immigrant, anti-black, anti-Jewish Americans who apparently make up about 35 to 40% of the electorate. They have to stir that pot of boiling hatred that has resulted in the MAGABomber, the Synagogue Massacre and other hate crimes. It seems to be the ONLY effective way they have left to get people engaged enough to get out the vote for Republicans this midterm. For that reason, Trump, Fox News and all the other Trump enablers must fan the flames of the uncivil culture war trash fire that Trump has ignited and keeps hot and burning in order to maintain his control over our country.
When our country is divided the GOP wins. United they lose.
If we unite and vote in large numbers, they lose. Do not think that your vote does not really matter. It does. It really really matters! Some of the key races across the country might show Democrats or Republicans leading but many races have razor thin margins of error. Some races will be decided by a few hundred votes. The sheer number of Democrats who turn out to vote will make all the difference in who wins and what happens next in our country.
One of those incredibly important razor thin competitive races is the race for the Illinois Attorney General. Kwame Raoul is running against Erika Harold. That race is a total nail-biter.
Erika Harold might look good to some voters especially since she is an attractive articulate woman. She also has some African American heritage which gives her that card to play whenever it is convenient to do so (not downstate in Illinois- downstate she is suddenly a white woman). But she is misleading voters by saying that Roe v Wade is “settled law” when she is in fact deeply opposed to reproductive choice and HB-40.
The State Attorney General represents the people of the state he or she is in and is tasked with making sure that state laws are implemented. You are most likely to interface with the AG’s Office if you have a consumer protection problem of some kind. You are most likely to interface with the State’s Attorney’s Office if you are the victim or perpetrator of a street crime. The US Attorney’s Office has a criminal and civil division and you would generally only interface with that office if you committed or were a witness to a federal offense.
If she is elected, Erika Harold will work night and day to destroy HB-40 and hollow out the protections we have built in our state for reproductive rights for women. Her win would be a disaster for the women of Illinois. Since the job of the Attorney General is to make sure Illinois laws are followed, and since HB-40 is an Illinois law, Harold will be in a position to seriously damage and hollow out the protections we just gained with HB-40 if she wins.
Kwame Raoul is fully committed to protecting women’s rights as well as the rights of other minorities and the LGBTQ community. He will work night and day to keep the women of Illinois safe even if Roe v Wade is overturned. We need Kwame Raoul to Win!!
Here is a portion of a letter to the editor from Terry Cosgrove CEO of Personal PAC explaining what is at stake in this race.
Laura Washington’s 10/29/18 column on the race for attorney general did a great disservice to Sun-Times readers. Washington’s main argument for Erika Harold is that she is Republican in what is believed to be a Democratic election year and fails to mention the extent of Harold’s far-right views on a host of important issues. Harold wants a law to outlaw abortion with no exceptions for victims of rape and incest, supports a constitutional amendment to prohibit marriage equality for LGBTQ people, is a proponent of dangerous and disproven “abstinence only” sexuality education, believes that condoms do not reduce the incidence of STDs, claims young women who are sexually harassed and abused are more promiscuous, and wants the affordable care act with its protection of people with pre-existing conditions repealed. In short, Erika Harold is Jeanne Ives on steroids. Kwame Raoul is 100% pro-choice, defends the civil rights of everyone and will protect the ACA from people like Erika Harold. There is no doubt that as Attorney General Erika Harold would be a disaster for Illinois.
Here is more information about how to vote for an Illinois that protects a woman’s right to choose.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/FMfcgxvzLNgWWPcsNnlBZqwsvjZrQxGZ
Please please please tell everyone you know how much it matters that they vote for Kwame Raoul. Get involved. Talk to everyone you interact with in the next few days. Call or text people especially your friends and family to be sure they make a plan to vote and get help getting to the polls if they need that.