Florida Georgia Line Kossacks came about from a need to encourage political activism and meet-ups in more regions in an attempt to expand on the successes achieved by other Daily Kos community groups. This group is unique in that spans state lines in two red states, but is by no means limited to this specific geographical region. We welcome and encourage all interested in achieving the group's bottom line of building a strong coalition dedicated to turning our states from red to blue.
Many thanks to navajo, Daily Kos Director of Community Building for her encouragement in forming this group and asterkitty for creating our group banner:
Florida and Georgia have much in common beginning with the shared misery of being states with a GOP held
trifecta. Like most of America we're involved in fighting the GOP's budget plans to cut food stamps for 11 million families, cutting 35,000 children from Head Start, denying 133,000 poor families in need of housing assistance, making $1.2 billion in cuts to education and replacing Medicare with coupons and vouchers. It is no surprise when we see by the election map that the majority of our poorest states are the ones voting republican. Sigh, those of us in red states have a monumental task ahead of us.
We need one another for encouragement, support, to formulate plans and share what does and what does not work.
Come on down, roll up your sleeves and let's get to work -- time's a wastin', my friends!
I have listed below a few issues facing our states and I've shared some action items where applicable. Read through and add your own in the comments, please, please, Please!
Medical Marijuana: Georgia's House and Senate approved late March House Bill 1, Haleigh's Hope Act which would provide the legalize Low-THC CBD oil for eight medical uses. Governor Deal however balked at signing the bill, instead issuing an executive order telling state agencies to prepare for the new law. Deal claimed the bill will be signed after the end of the session. Do we dare hold our breath? In the meanwhile if you are in the Atlanta area you may be interested in joining Peachtree NORML (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) for their monthly meetings and upcoming events . You can find contact information on other Georgia Chapters here.
Florida had Medical Marijuana as Amendment 2 on their November 2014 ballot, but the measure fell shy of the 60% needed for passage, bringing in 57 percent instead. United for Care has a petition going to put medical marijuana back on the ballot in 2016; if you are registered to vote you can sign the petition here (note: even if you filled out the petition in earlier years, you will need to sign this one again). 4/20 is right around the corner, wouldn't it be great if we could push our friends and family to sign the petition on that date? Here is a listing of the Florida NORML Chapters.
Voter Suppression: Georgia is one of seven states with the strictest photo ID laws and Florida has a strict non-photo ID law. There is no same day registration in either state, a registration deadline of 30 days prior to an election in Georgia and 29 days in Florida is required, both states allow absentee ballots and early voting, however in Georgia early voting days were cut in 2011 from 45 to 21 and in February of this year there were failed attempts to cut that back to 12 days. There is now House Bill 194 to be enacted for the 2016 presidential election which will limit early voting to 12 days. I haven't found any action items for this, but we need to get on top of it pronto!
Religious Freedom Restoration Act: The Georgia Senate passed a religious freedom bill authored by Republican Sen. Joshua McKoon. When it reached the House a week ago Monday, legislators cancelled a meeting to discuss the bill and have effectively tabled it. McKoon furiously attempted to push a vote on the bill "as is", but found no support. Presumably the legislature has been watching the national firestorm created over Indiana's newly enacted and barely disguised anti gay law. In Florida, presidential hopeful Jeb! Bush came out early in support of Indiana's law saying "I think Governor Pence has done the right thing".
Restoring Voting Rights: Florida, Iowa and Kentucky have the most stringent laws in the nation, in many cases employing a lifetime ban on voting. While Jeb Bush was Governor 72,080 individuals had their civil rights restored, under Charlie Crist's term there were 155,315 and since Rick Scott took office there have been 1,534 restorations issued. Currently more than 9% of the population - 1.6 million Floridians - cannot vote, serve on a jury or hold office. The national average is less than 2 percent. Floridians for a Fair Democracy, Inc. is collecting signatures from registered voters to ensure a Voting Restoration Amendment appears on the 2016 ballot. Almost 700,000 signatures are needed. At the link you can download the petition (pdf), print it, fill it out and mail it to their Clearwater office. If anyone is unable to print the petition please contact me via Kosmail with your address and the number of petitions you would like and I'll mail them to you. Lets get this done.
Turning Red to Blue: By way of simply beginning a discussion I am offering two very good articles highlighting new and more effective ways of reaching out to those who are not regularly voting or voting at all. If Everyone Voted, Progressives Would Win -
"If everybody in this country voted,” the economist John Kenneth Galbraith said, “the Democrats would be in for the next 100 years.” [...] Get-out-the-vote campaigns increase turnout only among individuals with already high propensity to vote. While these voters may still be liberal, electoral reform is needed to increase registration among nonvoters, particularly the poor. [...] Changing the composition of the electorate is the easiest way to shift policy to the left. [...] “When uninformed citizens receive political information, they systematically shift their political preferences away from the Republican Party and toward the Democrats,” the researchers said.
Lessons on Mobilizing the Rising American Electorate -- Here are five key lessons from the article:
1. Lead with uniting values to get the RAE to vote together.
2. Do Civics 101 because they need to know what they're voting for.
3. Invest in mobilizing communities long after the election is over.
4. Focus on irregular and new voters.
5. Generate materials that speak to them, literally.
ACLU: The
Florida ACLU Legislative Updates has a link to a petition aimed at stopping Florida's bill mandating 24 hour delay for women seeking an abortion; a petition to block a bill that would keep footage from police body cameras private from public view and finally there is information on the likelihood of a bill permitting adoption agencies to discriminate against gays, or anyone else who violates their religious or moral beliefs.
The Georgia ACLU is following the RFRA which seems to be a dead issue now; the barbaric prison conditions as highlighted by the release of an "Abu Ghraib-like" photo of an 18 year old inmate; and a number of efforts to reform the state's "for profit privatized probation industry" as well as grassroots resistance to immigration detention.
Moral Mondays: Moral Mondays Florida - Jacksonville Organizational Meeting. This is a facebook event invitation I received, it is scheduled for Friday, April 17th from 6-8 pm at the IBEW Local 177 on North Liberty Street.
Potential Action From one of our members: cherdoo, has shared a petition drive on behalf of the 35 women alleging that Bill Cosby drugged and raped or assaulted them. This petition calls to cancel or postpone the performance by Bill Cosby scheduled for May 2nd at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta. You can contact cherdoo through Kosmail for any further information.
Now, let's talk about a possible meetup. When, Where, Who and most important...What will we eat??!!?? I'm open to hosting one in Jacksonville in the latter part of May.
Thanks for reading, the floor's open so let's talk!
Florida Georgia Line Kossacks welcomes everyone to join our group; let us know in the comments if you are interested in joining or send a kosmail to either the group or to me, JaxDem. We appreciate any and all help in turning our states a more pleasing shade -- Blue! |