The Green Pill Secret: Voting

In the United States of America, on 5 November, 2024, you have your last chance, as a citizen, to vote for your next President. But, did you know there are also down-ballot elections? Do you know who your Congressperson is? Do you know your Governor? Do you know your state Senator and Representative or Delegate? Because, believe me, fixing the flaws in the system starts in the grass roots and all politics is local so please do read up on your county or parish ordinances up for vote, and be mindful of who’s running for School Board or Soil and Water or County Attorney General.

On this site, we won’t tell you how to vote—however, I did suggest you listen to Taylor Swift instead—but for your state and local elections, think about how we can make politics more responsive to the people. For instance, do you know where your state lies on the Swamp Index? If you’re like me, you may be surprised to learn that Virginia ranks 46th of 51 in the Index; my co-host Cat (who couldn’t make this episode) in New York is all the way up at 14th place, by comparison. This is why my special guest Nancy Morgan and I have been fighting to get money out of politics. After all, since Citizens United v. FEC, we’ve seen astronomical growth in dark money political spending under the guise of legitimate businesses. While you’d need a constitutional amendment to undo Citizens, many other reforms are best performed in your local state capitol, from Atlanta to Salt Lake City.

And you know I, personally, have been a big proponent of the Equal Rights Amendment and women’s bodily autonomy, for electric vehicle access and support, and for good governance of one person one vote and for every vote to be equal with a National Popular Vote bill. The National Popular Vote is a bill passed in states with a total of 209 electors—only 61 more electors are needed to have the voters choose our President. After all, the system we have now causes both large and small states, both deep red and deep blue states, both rich and poor states to be totally ignored because they aren’t a battleground. And if you are in a battleground, your days are numbered. After all, Ohio and Virginia used to be battlegrounds, but not anymore. That capriciousness just isn’t a good way to select the leader of world’s biggest military. Is your state part of the compact? Great, maybe you can help in some other states! If not, write your state legislators, and consider, if your governor is against it, add those 888 words as an amendment to your state constitution, like Nevada.

Of course, there’s also the issue of Opened Primaries to keep our candidates more centered and weed out the unstable ones. And of course First Past the Post voting is one reason we get such diametrically opposed and out of touch candidates and are so afraid of the Spoiler Effect. I’m glad that Ranked Choice Voting / Instant Runoff Voting is gaining traction, though I feel that it’s not as intuitive as Star Approval Voting, which is what you see in, for instance, your Amazon ratings, and has a much better chance of being Condorcet. And of course there’s the issue of Gerrymandering, which we tried to fix with OneVirginia2021 but failed miserably with obstructive politicians added at the eleventh hour to the “independent” redistricting panel. Gerrymandering allows the politicians to choose their voters, and not the natural other way around.

If any of these non-partisan issues matter to you and you’re in Virginia, please come to our Democracy Day on 21 January in Richmond, on the Quindecennial anniversary of Citizens!

ERA Town Hall, 13 May 2020

ERA Town Hall, 2020-05-13

Join the ERA Coalition on tonight for the first of a series of virtual ERA Town Halls, at 6:00 pm ET. Confirmed participants include: Actor/ERA Activist Alyssa Milano, Nevada Senator Pat Spearman, Linda Coberly, Chair, ERA Coalition Legal Task Force, Former Illinois State Representative Steve Andersson, Rosie Couture, Executive Director of Generation Ratify, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA), Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (by video), and our CEO and Co-President, Carol Jenkins will be moderating! 🌠The first 100 registrants will be provided a link the day of the event inviting them to join the Zoom Webinar and have the opportunity to interact directly with the panelists. You can register at the link in bio or https://bit.ly/3cgspvP we’ll also stream live right below thanks to the Facebook live stream! Spread the word and share this post!

As my readers know, the ERA is very important to me and has been since the time of growing under the ridiculous rhetoric of Phyllis Schlafly. Schlafly was famous making up Straw Man Arguments against the ERA. None of her arguments phased me. I lived in Europe with coed toilets, and the military is already considering requiring girls register for the Selective Service. What’s more, twenty-five states already have a state-wide Equal Rights Amendment of some form, and none of the fallacious arguments Schlafly claimed to come to pass ever manifested.

Since I was brought into the ERA fight in Virginia in 2017, soon after it was passed in Nevada, I have been going down to Richmond to fight for its passage, as well as lobbying my friends in Illinois to pass it there. Having been in the trenches, I was avoiding seeing the new Mrs. America series because I didn’t want to relive the horrors of Schlafly’s insanity. But I recently decided it was best to know thine enemy. So, I have been watching.

The truth is, much of the history of the ERA is actually centered in Illinois. Steve Andersson got it passed in Illinois to make Illinois Thirty-Seven, right behind Virginia’s Thirty-Eight. Illinois was also the home of Phyllis Schlafly, who was instrumental in preventing Illinois from passing it until 2018. What makes that passage all the more ironic though is that Schlafly, a conservative who’s ideas on international politics weren’t so absurd became such a champion of the No ERA movement. Yet it took a Republican, Rep. Andersson, to put things right in the Land of Lincoln, the first, great Republican.

But, what astounds me is, since Schlafly became a lawyer, was she not familiar with Bradwell v. The State? In that 1867 case, contemporaneous with the Fourteenth Amendment. On the docket, Myra Bradwell sued the state of Illinois, yes, Illinois, for the right, under the Fourteenth Amendment, to practice law in the state. The US Supreme Court denied her this right, more or less implying she was not a citizen and therefore not qualified for equal protection under the law.

While this case seems archaic, it should be pointed out that since that time a number of cases have refined the Supreme Court’s position on women to bring it more in line with our modern interpretation of women as equal citizens. However, we need only look at 2007’s Ledbetter v. Goodyear. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that protection from pay discrimination against women was not protected by the Constitution and therefore Lilly Ledbetter was not entitled to sue for lost wages. Congress finally stepped in to pass a Statute to protect women, but women remain unprotected by the stronger Constitutional authority to this day. Which is to say, there are some weak protections for women but there are no strong, constitutional protections like there are for race.

The biggest issue is with Legal Constructionism. Under that doctrine, jurors try to intuit the intention of the author of a Constitutional element and apply it to the modern day. They eschew any more recent interpretation of the Constitution. Thus, one need only consider Bradwell v. The State to see the authors of the Fourteenth Amendment never intended to include women under it, and therefore, a Constructionist juror will likely derive precedent based on the 1867 ruling rather than any more modern ruling. The danger, therefore, is that most of the Supreme Court is made up of Constructionists, meaning we need the ERA now more than ever.

I hope you’re convinced now why we need the ERA, and please watch below to see the next steps to how we shall make it the Twenty-Eighth Amendment to our Constitution.

Town Hall

Posted by ERA Coalition on Wednesday, May 13, 2020

I hope you enjoyed the live stream, ladies and gentlemen and let’s work together to get her equal rights and make sure that equal means equal.

Virtual Campus ERA Day

Although, yet again, I was not able to attend this wonderful conversation about how close we are passing the Equal Rights Amendment and what we can do to cross the threshold, I did think the video was inspiring and though there were too many wonderful folks for me to name all of them, I wanted to thank our next Governor, Jennifer Carroll Foy, for being a part of it.

As Alyssa Milano points out so eloquently, we’re all in this together and every voice counts. Alyssa is amazing and I grew up watching her on Who’s the Boss (as a fellow thespian I hope she knows I don’t pigeonhole her that one role given her expanse of other work) and am so delighted to see her working so hard to extend equal rights to women. I have been a supporter in my heart since before the show premiered, although I’ve only been actively lobbying in Richmond since Delegate Carroll Foy came to office.

Alas, we didn’t get the ERA in 2018 despite my friends and my lobbying. But when I heard the bill was passing through the Illinois General Assembly, I immediately started posting, messaging, and tweeting to my friends in Illinois to get the bill passed, even if it meant Virginia couldn’t be 37. No shame in 38. And no shame in 39 either, as I always tell my dear friend Triana Arnold James in Georgia. I’m just delighted Illinois has a wonderful Republican State Representative Steve Andersson was behind us there and made sure the Illinois made it to 37. I was so proud to shake his hand when HJ79 passed.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Nevada State Senator Pat Spearman. Without Spearman’s push in Nevada, I don’t think I’d have been aware that we still had hope for passage despite the arbitrary and unconstitutional deadline. Thank you Pat. You rock and I hope someday to shake your hand too!

There were so many wonderful people at the event, but most inspiring of all were the student organizers. They inspire me to see the next generation as passionate about this issue as I have been.

Learn about the Equal Rights Amendment

Posted by ERA Coalition on Monday, April 27, 2020

Thank you my lady and gentlemen friends for watching and soon we will have our Twenty-Eighth Amendment, with your help!