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In my #DemsDoGood thread #4, let's look at House Bill 1, the very first thing house dems did. Introduced on Jan 4. Immediately assigned to relevant committees. IT'S AWESOME. https://legiscan.com/US/bill/HB1/2021
How's this for priorities "To expand Americans' access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and implement other anti-corruption measures for the purpose of fortifying our democracy, and for other purposes."
The voting priorities are in the "Voter Empowerment Act of 2021" - everyone should vote, and the voting process must protected and enhanced.
Voter Empowerment does three things to increase voter registration - requires all states to: 1) allow for INTERNET registration of voters; 2) provide AUTOMATIC registration of all voters; 3) allow for SAME DAY registration. This will be huuuge for younger voter participation
It goes on to hit a lot of smaller priorities: no "interstate cross-checks"; funding to encourage younger voters; reports required from states to feds; and makes "hindering, interfering with or preventing" registration to vote a felony.
OK there's too much good stuff on voting, so one more note - they directly go after the disenfranchisement of Black and Brown voters from convictions - and they aren't having it.
It's worth noting that big chunks of this bill were passed in 2020 and 2019 as well, so the provisions have been heavily vetted, and we can all be certain that they go to the heart of the trumpist malfeasance of the past few years.
So I just skipped over 240 pages of good, hard nosed legislation which will help the public's right to vote. It is some good stuff. But let's move to Election Integrity - look at this first section!
Dems are going after gerrymandering:
I am thrilled to see Dems working to restore the Voting Rights Act - that will help a lot. I am even more excited to see them go after gerrymandering -- that will change things nationwide, especially in the makeup of the House of Representatives. Let's look.
All states must either appoint an independent redistricting commission, or have districts drawn up by a three judge panel, both under rules drawn up in this bill. Commissions must be BIPARTISAN and POLITICAL GERRYMANDERING is banned.
I cannot even express how much damage has been done to the republic through bad faith gerrymandering. It - along with disinfo - is a primary source of the breakdown of Congress https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-secret-files-of-the-master-of-modern-republican-gerrymandering
I am again skipping 100s of pages of smart legislation, but this jumped out: election infrastructure is given special federal protections, and election officials can be given expedited security clearance so they can be given threat assistance and info.
Now onto the 3rd major branch of this #DemsDoGood voting legislation. DEMS GO AFTER CAMPAIGN FINANCE AND TRUMP. (And knowing SCOTUS hostility, they specifically make this severable so everything else survives even if reviewed).
The nitty gritty of campaign finance law is pretty boring, so let me focus for a minute on the problems dems are trying to address. They are just the right things. Like anonymous LLCs that hide their true owners.
And the clusterF that has been the Citizen's United Decision
And corruption
There are again tons of pages of good ideas - here's another that jumps out: They are expanding the Federal Election Commissions powers over political advertising, to include on line platforms (instead of print, TV and radio) and advertising to include FAKE NEWS/paid commentary.
AND LOOK AT THIS Corporations would be required to get permission from their shareholders to take political positions. Glorious. #DemsDoGood
Melania's greatest scam gets it's own section.
WOW. There's a new publicly financed election provision. If candidate commits to only small dollar (individual) contributions, they can receive up to 600 percent of the small dollar contributions from public fund.
And they're going to allow campaign contributions to cover food, child care and medical coverage so non-billionaires can run. That seems like a good idea.
Man I had no idea there was so much good stuff in here. If they can get this passed, it will wildly change our political landscape for the better. I am barely scratching the surface and F Trump.
I'll cap it out there. #DemsDoGood. The parties aren't the same, and these Dems in particular understand we have to do everything RIGHT NOW. I can't wait to see the progress.
If you dig this kind of thing, I always appreciate a follow. If you missed some of the earlier threads: https://twitter.com/DirkSchwenk/status/1355358538814676992?s=20
Well - I buried #DemsDoGood #2 somewhere and I'll be damned if I know where. If anyone finds it - drop it here.
