After the 2016 election, Nick Bromell helped found Democrats Without Borders. The aim of the organization is to link Democrats in relatively “safe” districts and states with Democrats in “red” districts who are in constant struggle against the very well-funded Republican Party. Per Bromell:
We do this for two reasons. First, we feel a strong ethical obligation to stand by Democrats and progressives wherever they are most embattled. Second, we know that a remarkable number of these Democrats are much closer to victory than many polls indicate – yet they receive little to no support from the Democratic National Committee.
Bromell has explained the back story and thinking behind Democrats Without Borders in this First post. To learn more, you may go directly to the website Democrats without Borders.
What follows are two September fundraising appeals. Bromell sent the second letter out yesterday….
Dear Friend, Colleague, Classmate, Ally:
I am writing to you again from Democrats without Borders. I am very happy to report that fifteen of you responded to my letter last week and donated nearly $1200 to the Cabarrus County (NC) Democrats. That was extraordinarily generous. Thank you!
This morning, with just 58 days left ‘til the election, I pose to you this simple question: why do lawn signs matter?
Honestly, I’ve always doubted that they do. But this past year, my community in Western Massachusetts – like many others – suddenly embraced Black Lives Matter signs. Overnight, they sprouted up everywhere. And I love them. They give white persons a way to publicly declare that they stand in solidarity with their Black fellow citizens.
The importance of this gesture recently came home to me in a personal way. Last winter, my department hired a new professor, a young Black scholar, and he and his family moved to Amherst last month. When I saw him a week ago, he mentioned how important these signs were to himself and his family. The signs made plain that home after home along the Amherst streets and in his neighborhood stands with Black Americans against racism. Without those signs, he and his family would not have known. They would have wondered.
In times of duress, neutrality is not enough. We have to announce where we stand and what we believe.
Which brings me to our allies in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. Even though registered voters there are evenly divided among Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, you would never know that from the visible indicators that you see displayed there: Confederate flags, MAGA hats, Trump lawn signs and bumper stickers dominate the landscape. It would be easy to conclude – mistakenly — that the county is 90% Republican.
This misperception has terrible effects. It discourages young progressives in Cabarrus from running for public office. It silences many Democrats because they see no allies. As Dawn Larma, a former chair of the local Democratic Party, once remarked to me: “Many Democrats here are literally in the closet, even though Democrats are almost as numerous as Republicans.”
So what’s the solution? More Democratic lawn signs! Not just for Biden and Harris, but for the Democratic candidates all the way down the ballot. For example: Sabrina Berry and Kevin G. Vinson, both of whom are running for seats on the Cabarrus County Commission.
Lawn signs have a double impact. They put candidates like Berry and Vinson in the public eye. Just as importantly, they tell the whole County that DEMOCRATS ARE HERE AND THERE ARE LOTS OF US!
But a lawn sign costs money. $1.50 each. An effective campaign would distribute at least 2000 of them. Do Berry and Vinson have $3000 to spend on lawn signs? No way. So they go to the Cabarrus County Democratic Party and ask for help. But do the Cabarrus Dems have $6000 to give them? No way. So the Cabarrus Dems go to the North Carolina Democratic Party for help. But can they spare much money for these local races? No way.
So there you have it: this is how a district with many Democrats starts to look like a district with no Democrats. This is how the rural areas of America start to look all red when in fact they are only part red.
But we can help change this. When we focus our combined forces on one small place, we can make a difference. Here is the link to the Cabarrus County Democratic Party. Please help them supply lawn signs to every Democratic candidate on the 2020 ballot. And please forward this letter to your friends.
Lawn signs do matter!
(In my next letter I’ll detail how the Republicans in Cabarrus got their money for lawn signs. Hint: brothers whose last name begins with “K”.)
Thanks,
Nick
For Democrats without Borders/Amherst
P.S. If you’re wondering why the Cabarrus County Commission matters, consider this: candidates at the top of the ballot usually start off at the bottom of it. After the 2016 election, we finally understood this, and literally thousands of young progressives ran for public office at the local level. One day they will run for office at the state or national level. Same with Sabrina Berry and Kevin Vinson. This is why we have to nurture these young people when they step forward and run for office – even an office as “lowly” as County Commission.
xxx
Dear Friends, Classmates, Colleagues, Allies:
I am writing to most of you again. and to some of you for the first time. This is my third letter from Democrats without Borders, and I write with the great news that since my last letter you have contributed another $712, bringing to over $1900 the support you have given to the Cabarrus County (NC) Democrats. This is extraordinarily generous, and it makes a huge difference to them. Thank you!
This afternoon, with just 40 days left ‘til the election, I want to give you a more vivid picture of who the Cabarrus Democrats are fighting against, and why what happens on November 3 in this remote, “red” county in North Carolina will matter enormously to all of us.
You know of course that the Cabarrus Dems are fighting against Donald Trump. You may know that they are also fighting against the incumbent Republican Senator, Thom Tillis, hoping to elect Cal Cunningham to replace him.
Tillis is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and in 2016 he helped block President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, declaring: “It is essential to the institution of the Senate and to the very health of our republic to not launch our nation into a partisan, divisive confirmation battle during the very same time the American people are casting their ballots to elect our next president.”
Now, however, he strongly favors forwarding Trump’s nominee to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s vacant seat: “The president has the responsibility and the authority to nominate a justice. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, I’ve seen the list of justices. He’s going to nominate one of those justices and I’m going to vote for their confirmation.”
What happened to “the health of our republic?”
Whichever party you might affiliate with, doesn’t this brazen flip-flop enrage and frighten you? Our democracy is in great peril when our elected Senators simply jettison their announced principles without acknowledgment or apology..
Right now, to defeat Tillis, the leadership of the Democratic Party is focusing on getting out the Democratic vote in the “blue” and the “swing” districts of North Carolina. I get that. But U.S. senators are elected in a single statewide vote. This means that every Democratic vote in North Carolina counts equally, even if it is cast in a very “red” area like Cabarrus County.
So, let’s step forward, dig a little deeper in our pockets, and give the embattled Cabarrus Dems the help they need and can’t get elsewhere. Let’s help them turn out the vote in Cabarrus – every single Democratic vote – to defeat Thom Tillis.
Thank you so much,
Nick (Bromell)
Democrats without Borders/Amherst