Greetings, fellow Dem allies!
We had a grand time tabling at the Hogeye Festival in Elgin last Saturday, as you can see.
Here’s the thing about tabling: sometimes, events are organized by next-level Type A’s. They like to assign their vendors by type. All of the crafts together. All of the food more or less together. And, you guessed it, all of the political activists together. Which typically means the Democrats are often cheek by jowl with the Republicans (Hogeye peeps will see what we did there). Like, right next to them. Tent-poles-touching close (not a metaphor). Which means we were GOP-adjacent for ten hours.
Could’ve been worse. They could’ve put us next to the RFK Jr. tent.
It was fine. We helped each other put up our booths. We helped each other take them down. We made small talk. Some of us had to walk away when the diatribes got rolling. We’re happy to report we avoided coming to blows. We even learned which election-denying local legal representation to avoid.
In the process of listening to all this nonsense, we noticed a new hot topic for the other guys: mansplaining the difference between a democracy and a republic. Apparently ‘democracy’ is now lumped in with ‘woke’ and ‘educated’ as something to be rejected out of hand, like mayo on a hot dog. So we thought we would share a few talking points and responses if you find yourself trapped next to a bunch of rabid election-denying Trumpers for ten hours with no visible means of escape.
Thanks to @jamellebouie on tiktok, we can just summarize here. The current trend among the far right is denigrating democracy as ‘two wolves and a lamb deciding what’s for dinner’, in Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s words. Put less nonsensically, they want to re-brand democracy as something to be avoided or undesirable. Probably because in the truest sense of the word, democracy, republic, or bizarre wildlife analogy, any political system that supports allowing all citizens to vote, especially citizens who disagree with them, and therefore offering the very likely probability that their candidate will lose, is something they want to avoid.
And this doesn’t even address Speaker Johnson’s use of the bizarre phrase ‘biblical republic’, which in and of itself is a testament to Johnson’s astonishing ignorance of American History. The founders went out of their way to separate church and state, as anyone who paid attention in fifth grade history class for even twenty minutes will be able to tell you.
Bottom line: remember the R’s. Republic = Representative government. Voters vote, but their votes get filtered through a system of elected representatives and laws. Democracy initially was what this very enjoyable 4 minute video calls a ‘mobocracy’. In ancient Greece, the first democracy cut out the middle man (back then it was only men) and had no representatives, no constitutions, no electoral colleges. Just voters. Today however, the terms are often used interchangeably.
Have you also been cornered by a GOP nut job who wanted to lecture you on the evils of our current form of government? We want to hear all about it. Spill the tea in our comments below.
Before we move on from the Hogeye topic, we are happy to announce the winner of our jelly bean contest: Burke Willis from Manor. Congrats, Burke!
In other news:
Thanks to everyone who voted early! Election day is Tuesday November 7. We’re including our voting guide to the 14 proposed constitutional amendments one last time here (click to enlarge). If you’d like a paper copy, reply to this email or in the comments and we will try to see that you get one in time for Tuesday. Reminder: you cannot use your cell phone in the voting booth. You’ll need to bring our flyer, or your handwritten notes.
Thanks to all who have stepped forward to help us with our GOTV (Get Out The Vote) efforts. By the time you read this, our volunteers have emailed, texted, called, and personally delivered by hand, election info to thousands of voters in Bastrop County. Visit our Facebook Group next week for details on who these superstars are.
Last month we held our first Brain Trust Zoom, where we get to pick the brains of our under-40 like-minded folk, and vice versa. Keeps the geezer patrol from getting too full of ourselves. We had a good turnout with many excellent questions for our featured guest, candidate Theresa Ott Boisseau. We learned where Theresa stands on unions (for) and the environmental activism (for). We got some excellent feedback from our attendees, and hope to make this a regular event.
We logged another enjoyable First Friday last week. First Fridays are super casual. All are welcome to hang out and socialize. And if a little plotting and strategizing materializes, all the better. Such a delightful venue, and the food is outstanding. So outstanding, in fact, we are meeting there again next month. The December First Friday is Dec. 1, 11am at The Bearded Baking Co. on Main Street in Bastrop.
The CODA Halloween Costume Party was awesome! That skeleton charcuterie board was to die for.
Hot off the press: CODA now has an ActBlue account. If ActBlue is your preferred method of supporting your favorite political causes, click on our link below. Thanks in advance for helping CODA turn Texas blue!
Thanks for reading. Remember to like, comment, subscribe, and share. Until next time!