A majority of voting Americans woke up the morning after the election with the political equivalent of a hangover. None worse than for Tom D’Angora (middle, top row), a New York theater producer (The Marvelous Wonderettes, NEWSical, Naked Boys Singing). For the past 19 months (576 days), Tom worked on a voluntary basis for Hillary for America as the LGBT Outreach National Grassroots Coordinator, pouring his heart in the campaign with 40 to 90 hours per week, traveling to nine key states. After spending nearly a week mourning the shocking loss, he’s back devising a post-election strategy and already thinking about the mid-term elections, not to mention 2020.
Here are Tom D’Angora’s ten things you can do right now about the election results…
1.Demand the vote be audited
When all is said and done, Hillary Clinton will have won the popular vote by over two million votes, an unprededented amount. We now know that there was a historic discrepancy between the exit polls in many states and the election night results. We know there are some numbers not adding up in key states. There is no reason why a limited audit of the closest states can’t be done. It is easy and should be the standard in any close election. There are things you can do right now that won’t take more than a minute.
How about we take this to the next level?
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- Call to the Department of Justice and leave a message respectfully demanding an audit of the vote in MI, WI, FL, PA, and NC. Call 212-514-2000 and when you here the recording, you press 4 and leave a message.
- Sign and share this petition: https://www.change.org/p/demand-an-audit-of-the-2016-presidential-election
- Keep the hashtag #AuditTheVote trending.2.
2. Hold the presumptive president elect responsible for every single thing
Here is the bottom line. Trump is masterful at manipulating the news cycle to divert attention. We refuse to fall for it. America is a personality obsessed nation and we liberals need to make sure we are policy obsessed. Just look at the past week. After Donald Trump settled his Trump University fraud case and then acknowledged wrong doing at the Trump Foundation, two things unprecedented for a President Elect, he launched a tweet storm, attacking the Broadway show Hamilton and SNL. We took the bait. All weekend the internet, including Twitter, obsessed over Mike Pence at Hamilton and Trump vs. Alec Baldwin. Trump’s most effective tool is the manipulation of the media and changing the narrative to suit his interests. Let’s take that tool from him.
3. Call Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and demand that his party maintain the Affordable Care Act
Call (202) 225-0600. There will be a period of silence before you hear a recorded voice. The press 2; you will hear an incredibly partisan message which discusses Paul Ryans plan to gut the ACA. Next, you will have a chance to share your opinion with the press of a button.
Press 1 if you support Obamacare, 2 if you oppose it. It’s easy breezy! 20 million Americans who did not have health coverage eight years ago have it now. It would be heartbreaking–let alone terribly unfair–to have coverage denied now.
4. Demand that the presumptive president elect remove Steve Bannon as chief strategist
Call your Senator or Representative, especially if you live in a GOP leaning state. Let them know you would like to be added to the tally of names that opposes Bannon and that they should refuse to work with anyone who has a history of treating minority groups differently.
5. Help Forest Campbell win the December 10th runoff for U.S. Senate in Louisiana
We have a glimmer of hope in Forest Campell. If Forest Campell wins on December 10th, we are in a better position to handle the curve balls of the next four years. If Forest Campell wins the senate seat, we will be 49 Dem vs. 51 GOP. That is a hell of a lot better than 48 Dem, 52 GOP. This could be our Hail Mary. Campell needs money and volunteers.
Please go to http://www.fostercampbell2016.com to learn more and to get involved.
6. Start prepping for the mid-term elections now
2018 is our next chance to make a difference. Donate your money and time making calls or canvassing. We need to do everything we can to win back the majority in the House and Senate in 2018. There are far too few Democratic state govs. We should also be jumping into our local elections. This means everything from county clerk to school board to city council. Every one of these is important. This is not the time to sit on the sidelines.
7. Speak out against any and all kinds of hate, bigotry and discrimination
It’s normal to feel demoralized after a loss like this one. We just saw our historic candidate win the popular vote by a record- breaking margin and still not take office. We just saw a man spend 17 months saying the kind of hateful things that would get us expelled from our schools, fired from our places of employment, thrown out of any civilized establishment. Instead, this awful man was rewarded with the most important job on earth. No matter the outcome of 2016, we have to always remember that Love does Trump Hate and we have to continue to scream it from the roof tops.
8. Allow yourself to mourn
I’m not exactly sure how the tens of millions of Hillary supporters in the country feel right now. I will confess, I am not alright. I can’t sleep, I am pretty much on an all carb diet and the passion and determination that has guided my whole life is lost. After Hillary called Donald Trump early on November 9th, I put my head down and slept for 48 hours straight. After those 48 hours, I still couldn’t find the strength to face the world, so I pretty much stayed in bed for a week. There were woman fighting for Hillary who were born before woman even had the right to vote. These women believed they were finally going to see a female President before they died. Instead, they got a man who does not respect women. The only thing I can say about this with absolute certainty, is that no one can tell you what Hillary’s candidacy meant to you and no one can tell you how to mourn. Turn away if someone tells you to “get over it” or calls you a “cry baby” or “sore loser.” You are allowed to mourn.
9. Request that the members of the Electoral College do something about this mess
This is a long shot and unprecedented. However, in an election year where nothing makes sense and everything is unprecedented, I say lets give it the old (electoral) college try. The Change.org petition already has more than 4.5 million signatures. Since November 9th, Donald Trump has already made unprecedented missteps. So in a year where everything is unprecedented, I suggest signing the petition and calling for an unprecedented Electoral College vote December 19th.
10. Stay Proud
As the rhetoric dies down and the fake scandals subside, we need to be proud that we supported one of the world’s most dedicated public servants. We supported the most qualified person for President in modern history. She was not a flawed candidate; she was a strong and noble candidate. She fought tirelessly for all Americans and never once let us down.
You never know what the future holds but I love this slogan: Hillary For President Because Hindsight Is 20/20.
Visit Tom @ https://www.facebook.com/tom.dangora.9?fref=ts & www.tomdangora.com
Mo Bro
Vent?
You mean “whine.”
ps – “When you HERE a recording”? Really?
(the lack of proofreading on this site is epic)
Hussain-TheCanadian
Support Bernie sanders and his revolution within the DNC- demand the removal of all corporatists and paid lobbyists away from the head of the DNC. Demand the removal of money from politics.
misterhollywood
@Mo Bro: People who blog are human. They don’t have proof readers and editorial teams hanging around to proof work. You should learn a little about blogging and getting out copy. The author misspelled a word. So what.
1EqualityUSA
Trump violates the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, so it is incumbent upon the electors to turn their electoral votes away from this President-elect, due to the conflict of interest. Besides this, Trump is an idiot and not fit to govern. His cabinet is a reflection of the man. The GOP has a slim chance to repair their reputation by upholding the decision of the electors not to have Trump as our President. Sign the petition to ask the electors to tell Trump, “You’re fired.” Hamilton built this safeguard into our system for just this kind of wad. Sign the petition. Our next goal is 6,000,000. Trump’s business dealings are wholly unconstitutional. The electors have a Constitutional responsibility to protect us from this tyrant on December 19th. Faithless electors, come through for us. This man cannot represent our country.
https://www.change.org/p/electoral-college-electors-electoral-college-make-hillary-clinton-president-on-december-19
Heywood Jablowme
@Mo Bro: I’m sure Putin pays you to be a perfect speller.
1EqualityUSA
Totally, Heywood!
andy_peters
I’m all about doing everything we can to take back Congress. But can we all just admit that Change.org petitions don’t do anything except allow people to think they’ve done something productive? Can anyone name three things that changed as a DIRECT result of a Change.org petition?
1EqualityUSA
Just type in change.org victories to answer the question above.
Herman75
.
.
8
Xzamilloh
I think I said how many times that people needed to start paying attention to the midterm elections? And now the Senate, House, and White House are Republican controlled, and we have the lowest Democrat number since the 1920’s. I’m about done with liberals, because a lot us don’t like to admit weakness. And frankly, I don’t see the Hillary supporters any different than the Trump supporters because I see a lot of them doing what they claimed Trump supporters would do if he lost.
ErikO
@Xzamilloh: Very true. The Democrats have not had an actual liberal candidate for decades.
everybodywinsyay
So really what you can do is nothing. The nation spoke, you lost and the more you fight, the more you will lose. Learn to stop screeching so much and that the best may already be past.
1EqualityUSA
Clinton’s positions on the issues were far better than Trump’s. The left would have been able to work with her to make changes. Now we are in a fight to save what we’ve gained; regressive. The Supreme Court will work against progressives. Trump’s Breithate connections do not bode well for the world. He is dangerous. He is without a compass. Weakness or not, we need to fight this man every step of the way. Do not roll over and give up.
Charlie in Charge
Absolutely all of these.
#2 Has me wondering just how well Trump will fare as leader. He skated by on his fish-out-of-water routine and his crazy promises but he got the job and that’s not going to be enough anymore.
captainburrito
#11 Start taking back state legislatures and running more moderate candidates in deep red states. Republicans are taking over alot of states and that gives them the House via gerrymandering.
#12 Advocate for your state to sign up to the national popular vote interstate compact. That way the winner of the popular vote wins the presidency. It doesn’t change this election nor does it necessarily benefit Democrats but it does make presidential elections more competitive in more states rather than just swing states. It would have the effect of pushing Republicans to the centre and then they have to deal with their right wingers.
flybyKnight
I only partially agree with #1. I think the faster an audit puts to rest Dems accusations that the voting process was not rigged by foreign powers, the better off we’ll all be. I really think this 2 million popular vote thing is also very misleading. Fact is that a majority of that 2million surplus in popular votes for HRC is coming from California. The actions of #1 are fueled partially by the prospect that the midwest’s votes for Trump should be invalidated by the nearly 2 million excess votes in a SINGLE, west coast state that voted Democrat for every presidential election since George HW Bush. Very, very dangerous IMHO.
If that’s not the very definition of the kind of leftist elitism that lost us the blue-collar vote that Obama won in 2 successive elections, I don’t know what is!
#9 IMHO is just blatantly foolhardy. So HRC didn’t win the electoral college milestone for the presidency, Dems are simply going to ignore the fact the electoral college was set up to provide EVERY state a voice in the election of the POTUS? I would feel sorry for anyone who won the Presidency through finagling of electors. If HRC accepts the Presidency under those circumstances, you’d better believe that the Republicans will go after her and Dems like the hammer of god and the standing of the Democrats in the eyes of people who didn’t vote for HRC and the electoral process will be shattered.
Tall Bald Guy
The correct number is 202-514-2000
Mo Bro
@misterhollywood:
A word? Try MANY words, every day. In my personal experience, those with common sense know the difference between “here” and “hear,” as well as the diff between “your” and “you’re” as well as “there,” “they’re” and “their.”