Save the Date: Member Appreciation Party, Saturday, December 7th, afternoon
Dear Community,
The results of this election have been a gut punch to most of us. The Mango Menace and his billionaire buddies have seized control of the White House and the Senate, possibly the House of Representatives, too. With the Supreme Court firmly in their control, the fascists have succeeded in capturing every national base of power.
Let’s take a moment to review what happened on Election Day and share a few thoughts on what’s next for us.
NATIONAL TURNOUT
The GOP was able to win because, despite the clear warnings of an impending dictatorship rule, 72.5 million American citizens voted for Trump and the Republicans, nearly identical numbers to the 2020 election totals.
The difference in this election was that only 68 million of us voted to preserve our democracy, compared to the 81 million of us who cast votes for Biden in 2020 - a steep loss of 13 million votes.
PHILLY TURNOUT
The City Commissioners said Wednesday that turnout had only reached 62.9%, with a small number of votes still to be tallied. About 703,000 of the city’s 1.12 million registered voters went to the polls or sent in a mail ballot.
That’s 46,000 fewer than voted in 2020, during the pandemic, when 66% of registered Philadelphians voted.
Kamala Harris has received 552,000 votes in Philly, compared to the 604,000 Joe Biden got four years ago; while Trump received 141,000 votes besting his 2020 number by 8,000.
WHAT ALL OF THIS MEANS
We’ve probably already all seen more than enough pundits than we can stand explaining these disappointing results. We don’t claim to have a singular answer. But we know this.
The local Democratic Party was not up to the task of getting the vote out here. Without the extraordinary work of organizations like Philly Neighborhood Networks and our allies, turnout in Philly would have been even worse. Here’s the Harris campaign’s own evaluation of the Party’s “work" as quoted in yesterday’s Inquirer:
"Brendan McPhillips, a senior adviser to the Harris campaign in Pennsylvania, said in a statement that their team 'knocked more than two million doors in the weekend leading up to Election Day, which is two million more doors than Bob Brady’s organization can claim to have knocked during his entire tenure as party chairman.’ ”
As we regroup, we will have to contend with the reality (that we have known for some time) that the local Party will not save us from what lies ahead.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HARD WORK
All that said, we want to thank you all so much for making a mighty roar in this election. It obviously didn’t turn out the way we wanted, but not because any of us held back.
With your help, Philly Neighborhood Networks left it all on the field this election – making 70,000 attempts at the doors, including an Election Day “Get on the Bus” knock and drag operation that reached 3,600 doors in Ward 17 to provide free rides to the polls. [Click Here]
Additionally, we hand-wrote nearly 9,000 post cards to neighbors in the city who lived in big apartment buildings and couldn’t be reached at the doors. [Click Here]
We texted 12,000 high school students who were eligible to vote to encourage them to get registered; we held voter registration events at our local universities and elsewhere in the city and registered 350 people; and we used auto-dial to connect with 23,000 Philly voters. [Click Here]
We even spent a month projecting positive messaging about the importance of voting in this election all across the city. [Click Here]
Collectively, all this work far exceeds anything we have done in our 20 years of existence. We were all in.
We had a great organizing team in the field this year.
Special thanks to:
Jayme Walker, our Community Engagement Specialist who led many events, ran a paid canvass campaign and anchored our “Project the Vote” effort;
Nate Holt, our Volunteer Outreach Coordinator who ran canvasses, phone banks, and postcards;
Natalie Ramos-Castillo, Rah Noonan-Ngwane and Dave Pashley, who unleashed The Sauce on our student engagement work;
Margaret Lenzi who led our postcard effort.
And, of course, we could not have done it without you. Thank you!
WHAT’S NEXT
At the end of the day, this one hurts …a lot. We are all going to be sad and even despondent for a while; let’s face that despair and deal with it as best we can. Family, friends, a good book or movie, music that touches our soul, and maybe an occasional walk in the Wissahickon, will help us cope.
And then there is one more crucial thing: we must double down on our commitment to the shared values that bring PNN’s community together to seek justice, peace, and the pursuit of the common good.
We will resist, with our allies and partners, the draconian programs and policies that will be rolled out on a national level by an authoritarian. Already, people like us are coming together across the nation to plan the resistance and we will keep you advised of developments.
On a practical level, our to-do list is yet to be fully written. But our focus remains primarily local, taking up the fight to make a better Philadelphia that in turn, can model a better state, country and world. And that local focus is exactly the right one to turn to when our power everywhere else has been so diminished – at least for now.
So here are first thoughts on a local agenda that is doable, can inspire, and that can light the way. Let’s work to:
Save Chinatown from the ravages of corporate indifference and greed;
Divest the City pension fund from Wall Street control and re-invest it, in small increments to begin with, in projects that advance a sustainable local economy and helps solve the housing crisis;
Inspired by Weavers’ Way and the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance, build out the cooperative economy;
Save the City tax base, and City services, from the same corporate tax-cutting agenda that animated the billionaire class to throw in with Trump.
Likely many of us have other things we want to accomplish. That’s fine. Our agenda will evolve, as it should and must, to be quick on our feet.
ORGANIZE FOR THE FUTURE
Though difficult, we can win these fights. This requires that we expand our organizing capacity. On that, two points.
First, we must build Philly Neighborhood Networks. You may have received a dozen emails in the last two days from national organizations who do good work, asking for new support. We don’t denigrate any of them. But they don’t know Philadelphia. We do.
Second, we must build bigger and better local coalitions that unite working class people of all races, religions, genders, and preferences, bringing in people from every section of the city.
We cannot let organizational ambitions get in the way of moving an agenda that Trump cannot stop. We may have different organization names, but we all roll together.
You will hear more from us in coming days and weeks about what we plan to do. In the meanwhile, our cause is still right. And the arc of the moral universe can and will move toward justice if we give it a little brotherly and sisterly shove.
Mourn. It does feel like a death in the family. But it’s not. We all still live, for another and better day. And so, we will mourn and then, all together, we will organize.
And yes, moving forward with this agenda will cost money. Please click the “Contribute” button below. And, if you can, sign up to be a sustainer. When we know what resources we can expect, we can plan better.
Achieving justice is a long-term struggle. We knew that when we created Philly Neighborhood Networks twenty years ago. We are no less committed now.
Thank you for your activism!
Tim Brown, Organizing Director
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