Trump and the Giant (im)Peach: Dec. 1-Dec. 20, 2019
Hi Teen Resisters! It's been a minute. We hope you guys are hanging in amidst the last stretches of this semester and starting to gear up for a wonderful holiday season!
The news has been overwhelming, with the biggest piece of news being that President Trump was impeached on two counts by the House of Representatives. We're gonna jump into that and more.
What Went Down:
Impeachment in the House: Before we jump into this, we're going to link you to our previous impeachment updates in chronological order, just to cover all the background:
The Impeachment Explainer breaks down the process of impeachment, its definition, etc. It also covers how this all started with Trump.
Quid Pro What Now? from Nov. 12th explains Quid Pro Quo, the whistleblower, and all the pre-testimony stuff.
Pumpkins and Primaries from Dec. 1st covers some of the results of the testimonies.
So back to now: The House of Representatives has officially impeached President Trump on two articles of impeachment! The House Judiciary Committee voted last week to send the articles to a floor vote and the vote occurred this Wednesday, December 18th. It happened along party lines, with only a few Democrats voting against it and no Republicans voting for it.
The first article is abuse of power. Trump asked the government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations into Vice President Joe Biden, a political rival of Trump's. Trump threatened to withhold a White House meeting and $391 million of military aid from Ukraine if these investigations were not announced. The article claims that these interactions with Ukraine were detrimental to national security and formal U.S.-Ukraine policy. Since Trump put his own interests above those of the United States, he abused his power for personal and political gain.
The second article is obstruction of Congress. This means that Trump hindered the ability of Congress to exercise their Constitutional power of impeachment. Trump told executive agencies and officials to defy the subpoenas issued to them by House committees. Those that refused to comply with their subpoenas include the Department of State, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense, as well as nine executive bureaucrats including the White House Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney. According to the article, Trump's interference in the impeachment process was a violation of his Constitutional responsibilities to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, faithfully execute the office of President, and take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
The Senate will hold a trial in early 2020 to determine whether Trump should be removed from office. Two thirds of the present Senate members would have to vote to convict for him to be removed. Since the Senate is controlled by Republicans, Trump's political allies, it is more likely that Trump will be acquitted.
The articles of impeachment are available to read here.
If you support Trump's removal from office, call your senator and urge them to vote to convict. However, it's of note that the vote will likely happen along party lines again. While that outcome would be disappointing, it's still highly valuable to be investigating Trump in this way and laying out all of his wrongdoings, especially before an election.
Remember that, even if Trump is removed from office, it is still just as important to vote in the 2020 presidential election. ​
Image via Mother Jones
British Election: On December 12th, 2019 the British public re-elected conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson in one of the most pivotal elections in United Kingdom's modern history. Amidst three years of Brexit negotiations and key economic policy shifts, the Conservative party secured 365 out of 650 seats in the House of Parliament, whereas the Labour party-who only secured 203. The roughly 75 seat majority amassed by Conservatives is the most significant electoral gap since the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1987. So what happened?
Overwhelming public consensus seems to cite two main reasons as to the Labour party's significant collapse in the election, namely: the Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn's unpopularity amongst the public (most polls report his net popularity to have gone down 40% post election), and the uphill battle Labour faced to convince both Remainers and Leavers in the Brexit struggle to shift to a more leftist ideology while Johnson was only tasked with swaying the latter. The reality is a combination of both. Corbyn's unpopularity through his "wishy-washy" stance on Brexit that both endorsed a second referendum but refused to advocate for a side coupled with his neglecting to address concerns of antisemitism within the Labour were unsuccessful in winning over the usually left-leaning middle class band. However many of the economic policies he spearheaded did, surprisingly, resonate with most voters. Pollster YouGov found that two-thirds of respondents were in favor of raising the tax rate to 50% for citizens with an income above 123,000 pounds, and many of his other proposals also gained traction with voters.
So why did the Labour still fail to win over the blue-collar core it has relied on for so much of its modern history? History indicates that attracting voters to support leftist parties with progressive policies requires a persuasive leader in a favorable political climate. In the case of Brexit and the increasing global stigma surrounding immigration, the geopolitical current was very much stilted to lean conservatively which can partially be attributed to the matter of class. While traditionally educated urban-based professionals have leaned more right in British elections, modern history indicates that those with higher education in the wake of Brexit have shifted left while working classes have sympathized with more conservative ideology. These trends extend far beyond the British election and can be witnessed in the broader world stage.
So what does Johnson's re-election mean? While a fixture of Johnson's campaign has been the prospect of "getting Brexit done" by the end of 2020, this is highly unlikely. Not only are there feasible economic concerns regarding his commitment to refuse to extend the Brexit transition period after 2020 but also the matter that multiple trade negotiations with Brussels still need to be organized. The fact, also, the Corbyn has announced his resignation as Labour Party head does not bode well for the systemic strength of the leftist movement in the UK. Anti-immigration legislation is expected as Johnson has championed Islamaphobic and racist views and will most likely continue to proliferate similar legislation in office. However much of the UK's future is still incalculable as the ramifications of Brexit, both cultural and economical, are unquantifiable in the wake of Johnson's re-election.
There's not much to be done about this, especially from the US. That said, Trump and Johnson have unsurprisingly been in alliance with one another in the past, so it's just all the more reason to get Trump out of office in 2020 and have a president who will stand up to Johnson and his cronies.
Antisemitic Shooting in Jersey City: On Tuesday, December 10, 2019 six people in Jersey City, NJ were shot and killed by an assailant. The assailant first opened fire at Bay View Cemetery, where police officer Detective Joseph Seals was shot and killed. The shooting, according to officials, began when Detective Seals approached one of the gunmen at Bay View and asked about a separate homicide investigation, and was shot dead. From this point the gunmen escaped in their truck and then went to a nearby kosher market, where they then opened fire on both police officers and local residents. A firefight ensued and could be heard throughout the area for most of the next hour, and local schools were put on lockdown. At the kosher market, three bystanders were shot and killed: Mindy Ferencz, who was tending to the store when the assailants entered, Moshe Deutsch, and Miguel Rodriguez. One of the assailants, David N. Anderson, first approached the store and opened fire almost immediately, and was followed by Francine Graham. Both suspects were carrying rifles. A fourth person was shot inside the market but survived and is not being publicly identified. At first, officials thought that the choice to open fire at the kosher market was random, but after investigation, it became clear that the choice to go to a popular Jewish space was not accidental. Four guns were found inside the assailants' U-Haul, two of which were bought in Ohio. A live pipe bomb was also found inside the truck, along with a "brief and rambling" manifesto that tipped off authorities to the antisemitic motivation of the shooting. The shooters were found to have ties to the Black Hebrew Israelites fringe movement, which has been characterized by brash antisemitism but, until now, had not posed a violent threat.
Ask your Senator to cosponsor Chris Murphy's Background Check Expansion Act. You can check to see if your Senator is already cosponsoring it here (spoiler alert: a lot aren't!). If your Senator is already cosponsoring, ask them to prioritize it.
Script: Hi, my name is _____, I'm from _____, and I'm calling to ask you to cosponsor/prioritize/support S. 42, the Background Check Expansion Act. The recent shooting in New Jersey was only one example of the epidemic of gun violence in our nation. We need to ensure that guns are not getting into the hands of people who could use them for destruction. I urge you to use your conscience in making this decision. Thank you.
Number: 202-224-3121 and get connected to your Senator.
​Stand up against antisemitism. You can look in our Index by the Issue page for all of our work that has covered the topic and all the resources we have about fighting it. It's an ancient hatred that is all too capable of destruction and violence.
Four of the victims of the shooting in Jersey City
2020 Featured Issue: Immigration: President Trump's attacks on immigrants' livelihoods have been thorough and cruel. As the 2020 Democratic Primaries approach, we need to ask important questions about how each of the candidates plans to protect immigrants and their families. Which candidates are just promising to go back to the pre-Trump status quo? Which candidates want to take this opportunity to radically reshape our historically unjust and inhumane immigration system into one that recognizes the value and the rights of immigrants? And if so, how far will they go and how do they plan to get there?
All of the leading candidates support the rollback of Trump policies on immigration, such as his Muslim ban, his repeal of DACA, his limits on the number of refugees and asylum seekers will consider accepting, and his policy to make asylum seekers "wait in Mexico" as their cases are adjudicated. All of them also support a pathway to citizenship for each of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US.
However, certain issues divide the candidates:
Bernie Sanders is the only candidate to support a full moratorium on deportations.
Many of the candidates (Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigiege, and Julian Castro) want to decriminalize the act of crossing the border without papers, which has been used to justify cruel and excessive immigration enforcement, but Joe Biden does not. Biden also does not call for abolishing or significantly restructuring ICE and CBP, in contrast to his opponents on the left.
Another point of contention is whether aid and protection for immigrants should go alongside -- or be conditioned on -- increased border security or immigration enforcement.
Amy Klobuchar thinks so, but most of the candidates on her left -- Warren and Sanders, for instance -- disagree.
To learn more: Each of the candidates have comprehensive descriptions of their positions on immigration on their websites; check those out. Also look at Indivisible's Candidate Scorecard for quick evaluation of each of the candidates on immigration and the rest of the issues!
Phonebank for your preferred candidate, if you've landed on one! All of the candidates have phone banking tools easily accessible through a Google Search.
To support immigrant rights in general, check out our "Index by Issue" for ongoing actions you can take. Also visit United We Dream's website -- they're a great organization to dedicate your time and money to if you can. ​​
We hope you have an absolutely wonderful holiday break! And a happy new year! Lots of love,
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