CONGRATULATIONS!

Denying women the health care we need. Oh, my gosh. That is so disgusting.

It’s wrong. In fact, it’s morally outrageous, and it’s unAmerican.

Kansas voters made certain that ReTHUGliQans lost their attempt to drag every Kansas woman back to the Dark Ages. And why do these knuckle dragging, cave dwelling Neanderthals push to return us to the Dark Ages?

Well, ReTHUGliQans are political sadists who at this point in time are in too many positions of political power. Actually, one would be too many.

Whether in elected positions like the U.S. Senate or cloaked in black robes passing down judicial decisions like the six ReTHUGliQan justices currently on the U.S. Supreme Court, or closer to home, like in our state legislatures and in our governor’s mansions, when it comes to ReTHUGliQan cruelty, honey, cruelty is their point.

The audacity, the audacity of ReTHUGliQans to be just unAmerican, to betray us.

They even fist bumped each other on the Senate floor when they betrayed our nation’s vets, denying them the health care they need and deserve.

Thankfully, the public outrage and humiliating media coverage – thank you, Jon Stewart – had the ReTHUGliQans reverse course.

I’m very, very happy for all of the veterans and their families who have wrongfully had to endure this pain and suffering unnecessarily.

Clearly, we have  demonstrated to ourselves that channeling our rage and fury into effective political action can give us the results we seek. Yay!

Now, in this episode, I’m going to share with you another true story about a political victory that will also give you hope, inspire you, and let you know that even in the most difficult of places, when we fight using effective, pragmatic tools, we win.

This story comes from the women in the least likeliest of places: the state that brought the Dobbs case to the U.S. Supreme Court, through which the six ReTHUGliQan members decided to hand over to politicians authority over our personal reproductive decision making.

Yes, the women in Mississippi give us hope and roadmap. So stay with me and listen up!

Back in 2011, Mississippi had a proposed antiabortion measure on the ballot. Now, a few years prior, I had returned home to take care of my elderly mother after Hurricane Katrina, which had devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

I grew up in a bedroom community, a stone’s throw from the Louisiana border and an hour east of Bourbon street. My family is originally from New Orleans, and I grew up with all things in New Orleans: food, music, culture, and of course, my accent. It’s called a Yat accent.

You know, where y’at? Okay, back to the inspiring story.

In the last few weeks of the 2011 election, I was one of the volunteer spokespersons for Mississippians for Healthy Families – that was the organization opposing the antiabortion measure. A day or two before the election, our talking point was that the polls reflected the measure could go either way. Please get out and vote.

Does this sound familiar? It was the exact same thing in Kansas.

Imagine our surprise when we defeated the measure 2-to-1, just like Kansas did yesterday. Not squeaking by: 2-to-1!

And what that means is that when pollsters asked Mississippi women how they intended to vote, many kept their answer private. What’s obvious is that women decided to keep their intent private, just like their decisions regarding their own health care, private.

Think about this from the woman’s perspective.

A stranger on the other end of the phone – remember, this was eleven years ago. Polling was mostly by phone rather than texting, like it is today. The poster has your name, phone number, your address.

Really?! You expect me to tell you how I’m going to vote?

Someone could overhear me. I’m supposed to trust a total stranger with something that could do real harm to me in some way?

So, you have to remember, this is the south, and the fear is real when you go against the powers that be whether it’s in your own home, church, community, at work. For many, that abject fear of what could happen is more than real.

You see, a pollster is really unableto guarantee anonymity, much less protection.

But at the ballot box, privacy still remains. And with our vigilance – that’s you and me working together, it will remain private.

The point of this story is that when we do the essential, out of the limelight work inside  the electoral arena phone banking, neighborhood canvassing – that means going door to door, registering voters, bringing voters to the polls, we can win.

And we have Mississippi in 2011. Kansas yesterday. The elation from winning! It just feels so magnificent.

Here’s a quote from of an interview that I gave to WLOX-TV in Biloxi, Mississippi, on the night of the election in 2011.

I’m absolutely elated. Mississippians all across the state came forth, and they protected women and their families. Mississippians saw through the veneer and went to the heart of the matter. And the heart of the matter is that life’s personal choices, life, their decisions, it’s between us, our families, our doctors, and our faith.

The headlines the next day were phenomenal.

Now, some of you may say, yeah, but these are the same cave dwelling knuckle dragon Neanderthals that then hunkered down, focused and worked for years to bring the legal case that overturned Roe v. Wade.

And you, my friend, would be absolutely correct. So, we have a two pronged lesson from this.

What we know is that when we do the work – phone banking, neighborhood canvassing, donating money, voter registration, getting out the vote, we as women with the men who love and respect us, win. And that, my friends, is great news that gives us hope.

And that is lesson number one.

Lesson number two is that we must remain vigilant in every election, year after year.

Oh, okay. I hear a few of you saying, “Every election?! I’m so tired.”

Paleeze. I’ve been doing this since 1980. I mean, year in, year out, all over the nation as a volunteer and a professional political operative. How about you?

What’s that? Why should you have to do it all the time, every year? Can’t you just do it once and be done with it?

Okay, well, riddle me this. Why do you have to eat every day? Didn’t you eat a meal yesterday? Last week? Last year? Oh, you say your body needs nutrition. Okay. And that’s how you remain healthy and strong. I see.

Well, as citizens, we must be vigilant and participate so that our democracy gets the nutrition it needs to remain healthy and strong. Otherwise, guess what?

The knuckle draggin’ cave dwelling Neanderthals will drag us back to the Dark Ages any chance that you and I give them.

Have I made my point? Yes, I do believe I have. 😉

So, your assignment for today is to listen to these stories again and tell these inspirational stories of last night’s glorious victory in Kansas and the magnificent victory in Mississippi eleven years ago. Tell these stories to several people in your life who need to be inspired.

And when you do that, guess what? You also re-inspire yourself. You keep yourself pumped up. And remember, when we do the work, we can win. When we participate, democracy wins.

And then together, you with your friends and family, decide what activity suits your fancy: phone banking? I provide a how-to in episode three for doing just that. And in episode four, I give you a paint-by-number approach to turning into a fun person-to-person endeavor, smushing together — that’s an official phrase: smushing together – a campaign’s yard sign and social media program to create a highly effective person-to-person engagement program. It revs up the campaign’s momentum on the ground. Very critical to campaign’s victory.

Soon I’ll be doing an episode on how to participate in a neighborhood canvassing program: door knocking, going door to door. (See Episode 9.)

These are among the most effective ways to create our BIG BLUE WAVE this November.

You can channel your time, talent, and/or treasure with members of the U.S. House of Representatives who need our help to be reelected.

Another option is to help candidates that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has selected as part of its Red to blue program.

To volunteer, go to DCCC.org. Scroll a teeny weeny bit, and you’ll see three big buttons. (image below)