by Freeda Cathcart, Founder of Indivisible Virginia
A reminder of the moment we’re in and why there’s no time for confusion and division. There is a powerful and coordinated authoritarian regime trying to take over our democracy. Our top priority must be to stop the take over. In order to do so we must be united, especially in Virginia.
Why is Virginia so important? Because we’re across the bridge from DC. It was our national guard who went across the bridge on January 6 to support the Capitol Police. It’s obvious to anyone paying attention that The Don is preparing to buy the same violent mob who attacked the Capitol with his coveted $1.8 billion slush fund. Instead of the Republicans saying “Hell NO!” they literally left town.
We’ve made amazing progress from a year ago, when it looked like the regime was moving too fast to stop. We flipped all statewide seats and 13 House seats! Thousands of progressive bills passed this past General Assembly including the required three constitutional amendments (Voting Restoration, Reproductive Freedom and Remove Constitutional Same-Sex Marriage Ban), Paid Family & Medical Leave (first in the South) and a ban on assault weapons.
So why are people trash talking our Governor? Because the Republicans can’t fix The Don, but they can try to lower our Governor’s ratings to suppress our vote. During the Yes campaign, there was a drastic increase of negative social media directed at our Governor. One of the benefits of the Yes campaign was watching the Republicans show how down and dirty they’re willing to go to win the midterms, including the Virginia Supreme Court overturning a fair election.
Where did the “surprise” and accusations of “betrayal” come from? Part of it is the right wing using psychological operations (PSYOPs) that convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their motives and objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and large foreign powers. The mainstream media (MSM), unfortunately, uncritically amplifies the PSYOPS to the masses, and many people are susceptible to being influenced by them, including people on our “side.”
In fact, the recent vetoes of important legislation shouldn’t have surprised anyone paying attention. There was plenty of news coverage about the Governor’s concerns with some legislation, and her sending back suggested amendments to the General Assembly. There was also plenty of coverage of the General Assembly rejecting the amendments.
The Governor was clear in her veto memos that she was supportive of the issues the legislation addressed but had concerns about how they would be implemented. She expressed willingness to continue to work with the General Assembly to get the legislation right. The Governor is the one responsible for executing the legislation. The General Assembly and supporters of the bills need to take her reservations seriously and figure out how to solve the issues with the legislation.
The MSM covered the story as if nothing could be done about the legislation until the 2027 General Assembly. That’s misleading. The Governor and the General Assembly can call a special session to pass important legislation. They’re doing it in June to deal with the budget. They could also call a special session for the ICE judicial warrants, Collective Bargaining, the Cannabis Market..
Instead of the supporters of the vetoed legislation getting to work to urge the Governor and General Assembly to fix the legislation now in order to pass it ASAP, many organizations issued statements condemning the Governor. The social media trash talking amplified the false narrative that people can’t trust the Governor or Dems. Some even said they had lost faith in the Dems and there wasn’t any point in voting. Recent polls show the Democratic brand at only 27%.
Here in Virginia, Trump’s Republican allies are trying to distract from the righteous anger due to the injustice of the Virginia Supreme Court overturning the redistricting election and all the progressive legislation that has been signed into law. But it’s not too late to turn it around; this all happened right before Memorial Day weekend, and in the midst of prom and graduation season, when most “normal” people aren’t paying much attention to political infighting.
Now, with Juneteenth on the horizon, also with people fired up about the Callais SCOTUS decision and the return of Jim Crow 2.0, we can refocus our messaging to build on our momentum to be able to flip several congressional seats in November.
Also, there are going to be many opportunities in the coming weeks for us to do the work to convince the Governor and the General Assembly that some of the vetoed legislation needs to be implemented as soon as possible. It’s up to us to do the work to make that happen and defeat the regime in the midterms.
There will be times when we’re disappointed and disagree with each other. That’s normal. What’s not normal are the circumstances of this moment. We must find a way to be aware of our differences while doing the best we can to find solutions. This is the time to lift each other up when we stumble. Too much is at stake for us to fail.
