North Las Vegas Democratic ClubFor Information on our Next Meeting visit facebook.com/NorthLasVegasDemocraticClub Check us out on Instagram www.instagram.com/nlvdems/ Join Our Email List |
|
North Las Vegas Democratic Club Mission
To create a government FOR EVERYONE
that truly adheres to the preamble by establishing
justice, insuring domestic tranquility,
providing for our common defense, promoting
general welfare, and securing our liberties.
that truly adheres to the preamble by establishing
justice, insuring domestic tranquility,
providing for our common defense, promoting
general welfare, and securing our liberties.
North Las Vegas Democratic Club Vision
Create community awareness and involvement to promote
Democratic policies, causes, and candidates both locally and nationally.
Democratic policies, causes, and candidates both locally and nationally.
Click for the latest information from Whitehouse.gov
The Latest AP Political News - CLICK HERE
The Latest Politico Political News - CLICK HERE
For The 2024 Election, It Is Imperative To Be Educated About Project 2025 And Who Is Behind
The Push For Trump To Be President, In Order To Understand The Danger That We Are Facing. Please Share.
The Push For Trump To Be President, In Order To Understand The Danger That We Are Facing. Please Share.
Project 2025 Links and Information
|
Project 2025 Mandate For Leadership (from Internet Archive)
https://archive.org/details/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL/page/98/mode/1up |
The People's Guide to Project 2025 by Democracy Forward
https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-05_Peoples-Guide-Pro-2025.pdf |
Recommended Documentaries and Other Materials
|
BAD FAITH, a Documentary
https://www.badfaithdocumentary.com/ from the documentary site:
BAD FAITH is a feature-length documentary that explores the dangerous rise of Christian Nationalism in the United States. Part archival chronicle, part exposé, the film reveals the secretive political machinery that has relentlessly sought to weaken and destroy American democracy in order to promote its authoritarian vision. Our cast includes religious leaders, historians, investigative journalists, state senators, political activists, sociologists, and a former high-ranking member of the Trump administration. They will guide us on a revelatory journey into why our nation is so divided and how it got there. Several have dedicated their lives to challenging Christian Nationalism’s theocratic vision for America and the film chronicles their actions. |
God and Country, a Documentary/Movie
https://godandcountrythemovie.com/ from the documentary site:
Learn more about God & Country - https://godandcountrythemovie.com/ From director Dan Partland and producer Rob Reiner, GOD & COUNTRY looks at the implications of Christian Nationalism and how it distorts not only our constitutional republic, but Christianity itself. Featuring prominent Christian thought leaders, GOD & COUNTRY asks this question: What happens when a faith built on love, sacrifice, and forgiveness grows political tentacles, conflating power, money, and belief into hyper-nationalism? Directed by Dan Partland. Produced by Rob & Michele Reiner. Learn more about God & Country - https://godandcountrythemovie.com/ |
|
Is America a democracy or a republic?
Yes, it is September 10, 2022 5:00 AM ET ~ article by Ron Elving Article online at: www.npr.org/2022/09/10/1122089076/is-america-a-democracy-or-a-republic-yes-it-is |
8 Ways To Protect American Democracy
Safeguarding Elections in 2024 and Beyond Report Jan 4, 2024 To safeguard American democracy, it is important to both protect elections in 2024 and address systemic issues to protect those in the future. ~ article by Ron Elving |
|
Evan Vucci/AP
What do we call the system of government in the U.S.? Are we a democracy or a republic? The conundrum is, well, as the common expression goes, "as old as the republic itself." But it's not just a question for scholars and semanticists any more. Since the election of 2020, supporters of former President Donald Trump have become notably more willing to assert their belief that voting in America is suspect. That Trump won an election he lost. That "millions of ballots" were uncounted or miscounted. That voting by mail was fraught with abuse. Despite the lack of evidence, and the judgments of election officials from both parties and judges appointed by presidents from both parties, election denialism has become not only a thing, but a movement. And when critics call this an attack on democracy, some election deniers respond by saying the U.S. is not a democracy, it is a republic. Robert Draper of The New York Times published a piece on Republicans who say this in August. He cited a GOP candidate for the Arizona state legislature, Selina Bliss, saying: "We are not a democracy. Nowhere in the Constitution does it use the word 'democracy.' I think of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That's not us." But a democratic republic is us. Exactly. Throughout our history we have functioned as both. Put another way, we have utilized characteristics of both. The people decide, but they do so through elected representatives working in pre-established, rule-bound and intentionally balky institutions such as Congress and the courts. The government seated in Washington, D.C., represents a democratic republic, which governs a federated union of states, each of which in turn has its own democratic-republican government for its jurisdiction. The relationship between the democratic and republican elements of this equation has been a dynamic and essential part of our history. But it has not always been easy, and in our time the friction between them has become yet another flashpoint in our partisan wars. Going to war over weaponized words We regularly hear people on the left speak of conservatives destroying democracy, and just as regularly we hear conservatives say Democrats have no respect for the Constitution. To add to the confusion, the two camps often swap their lines of attack and defense. Republicans call Democrats enemies of democracy, Democrats rail against what they see as Republican disrespect for the Constitution. And that also makes sense, in a way, as both sides want to be the champions of both democracy and the Constitution, and to advertise themselves as such to the voters. Yes, as a polity, we think we are and can be both. We aspire to be both. But in practice that can prove difficult. And in our time, when so much of the public discourse happens on Twitter and cable TV news, the terms have become increasingly weaponized. "Equality and democracy are under assault," said President Biden on the steps of Independence Hall last week. "We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise." Biden at Independence Hall used the word democracy 31 times, including three times in one sentence. He used the word republic just twice. Biden attacks Trump, saying his wing of the Republican party is a threat to democracy Politics Biden attacks Trump, saying his wing of the Republican party is a threat to democracy Republicans, by contrast, have seemed of late to be stressing the role of the republic and its restraint on democracy. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, an outspoken Republican but hardly an outlier, got considerable attention for saying bluntly on Twitter in October 2020: "We are not a democracy." Lee then posted online an explanation of what he meant. It said, in part: "Our system is best described as a constitutional republic [where] power is not found in mere majorities, but in carefully balanced power." Lee went on to catalog how difficult it was for majorities in Congress to pass legislation, get it signed by a president and watch it undergo judicial review. Lee's point was that he was OK with all that. It was the intent of the founders. "In the absence of consensus," Lee wrote, "there isn't supposed to be federal law." Writing in 2020 in The Atlantic, George Thomas, the Wohlford Professor of American Political Institutions at Claremont McKenna College, found "some truth to this insistence" on calling the U.S. a republic but added: "It is mostly disingenuous. The Constitution was meant to foster a complex form of majority rule, not enable minority rule." This is not just a quibble over terms. It is a fundamental battle over what American government aspires to be. Are we a democracy where the voice of the people is, like it says in Latin on some of our official buildings (Vox Populi, Vox Dei), the voice of God? Or are we a republic? That is to say, a government of laws not of men, deriving its authority not by divine right of inheritance or strength of arms but by reason and by adherence to the mechanisms of the Constitution. Calling things by their proper names It's also not a coincidence that those names tend to suggest which end of the democratic-republican bargain they favor. Our current parties trace their roots to a common ancestor in a party begun by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early decades of nationhood. That party formed in opposition to the original party of George Washington and John Adams, known as the Federalists because they emphasized the central authority of the combined 13 states (the original 13 colonies that had rebelled against the crown of England). Jefferson and others who rose in opposition were called, naturally enough, anti-Federalists. Jefferson liked the word republican and used it a lot, in part for the anti-monarchist emphasis. Others thought the term had less meaning because so many different kinds of viewpoints claimed it. The party eventually took on the label of Democratic-Republicans. That moniker might have been too much of a mouthful to enunciate, and its coalition may have been too wide to sustain. At the time, there were also voters and candidates who preferred calling themselves National Republicans, especially in New England. That element morphed into the Whigs, while the Democratic-Republicans dominated in the South and eventually became simply Democrats — the preference of President Andrew Jackson. In the 1850s, exhausted by the North-South tensions that were leading to the Civil War, the Whigs gave way to a new party originating in the Great Lakes region. The new party's biggest issue was abolition, but they adopted (perhaps at the suggestion of journalist Horace Greeley) the previously orphaned half of the old Democratic-Republican Party name. They have since been known simply as Republicans. But both terms have far deeper origins in the ancient world The Athenian democracy in Greece around 500 BCE denoted the right of the people (demos) to personify power (kratos) and meant it to include an entire polity – or at least its males. Something like 5,000 citizens were enfranchised to participate, and when they chose to delegate some of the governing task to a smaller body they still had 500 members of that council (boule). Thomas says "the founding generation" in the U.S. never considered the Greek model workable beyond a limited area (idealized perhaps by the New England town hall). Thomas says that generation was "deeply skeptical of what it called 'pure democracy' and defended the American experiment as 'wholly republican." That is, it was a government of the people not of royalty. It also incorporated some of the inspiration referenced in the Latin word republic, a hearkening back to the Romans who established the first Senate around 750 BCE. Thomas says the American experiment has been about harmonizing democratic and republican models, two "popular forms of government," each of which "drew its legitimacy from the people and depended on rule by the people." The essential difference was the role of representatives to substitute for the gathering of all the people at one point in time and space. "To take this as a rejection of democracy misses how the idea of government by the people, including both a democracy and a republic, was understood when the Constitution was drafted and ratified," Thomas said. "It misses, too, how we understand the idea of democracy today." One way to understand that idea was articulated by Jefferson himself way back in 1816, when he wrote: "We may say with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican as they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their composition." [emphasis added] It is hard to imagine a better statement of the two concepts as they may be comingled and act in concert. It falls to our generation to renew that understanding in the context of our own time, two full centuries later. |
Introduction and summary
Election Day 2024 is now less than one year away, and the United States is facing a crisis of faith in democracy. On January 6, 2021, across the National Mall from President Abraham Lincoln’s watchful gaze, thousands of Americans sought to overthrow a democratically elected government1—the very government of, by, and for the people that President Lincoln promised would never perish from this earth.2 While they did not succeed that day, echoes of January 6 continue to reverberate across the country. These anti-democratic sentiments can be seen in rising threats of political violence,3 increases in the number of local election officials who refuse to certify accurate election results,4 and elected leaders who rely on unsubstantiated conspiracy theories to dictate election policy.5 Americans on the front lines of U.S. democracy are still recovering from the fallout of the 2020 presidential election. Now, with the 2024 election less than one year away, the country must not only continue to address these lingering issues but also deal with an onslaught of new challenges. America’s democratic institutions are only as strong as the faith that people have in them; the country cannot afford a repeat of January 6. Stay informed on Democracy PolicySign Up It is incumbent on all Americans to protect democracy during the 2024 presidential election cycle and begin to address the systemic problems with voting, elections, and representation that will continue to fester without meaningful reforms. It is past time Americans act to create the democracy they want future generations to inherit. It is past time Americans act to create the democracy they want future generations to inherit. This report provides a roadmap to help heal and strengthen American democracy. It explains some of the most pressing challenges that the 2024 U.S. elections will bring and how states, election officials, and the public must not only counter these challenges but also improve election safety, accessibility, and security. The report also looks beyond the horizon of the next election to the long-term challenges that lay at the very root of the crisis facing free and fair elections. Policies to prepare for the challenges of the 2024 elections
Policies to address systemic issues in U.S. elections
4 policies to prepare for the 2024 election cycle The 2024 presidential election cycle is quickly approaching, with voters casting the first ballots of the election season in February. Election officials have been preparing to administer the 2024 elections since the day the 2020 elections were certified,6 but even with all of their hard work, more must be done to ensure safe, secure, and accessible elections for Americans across the country. Despite the short window of time left ahead of the November 2024 general election, important steps can still be taken to: 1) enhance public communication campaigns and public messaging, 2) deter and counter violence, 3) guard against efforts to subvert elections, and 4) counter the spread of disinformation. Election officials and workers, lawmakers, the press, and the public will all have a critical role to play in ensuring the success of these policies over the next year. 1. Increase public communication campaigns and public messaging Public trust in elections is vital for a healthy democracy. In order to build this trust, election officials must run robust public communication and messaging campaigns that ensure voters understand their options for registering to vote and casting a ballot, as well as set voter expectations for election results. Navigating new restrictive and expansive voting and election-related laws Since the 2020 elections, approximately 20 states have enacted laws restricting the right to vote, while about one-quarter of states have enacted laws expanding it.7 This means that millions of voters will be faced with greater challenges in registering to vote and casting their ballots than was the case during the last presidential election cycle, while millions of others will have additional options to register and vote. While voter education is always a key part of election season, with the deluge of changes to voting laws and practices around the country, 2024 will be a critical year for ensuring voters have all the information they need to make the best choices for themselves on how to register and cast their vote. It is critical that both state and local election officials invest in large-scale public communication campaigns to inform voters about their options for registering and casting a ballot in 2024. In order to amplify their messaging campaigns, officials should also engage with and form partnerships with nonprofit, voting rights, and civil rights groups to effectively spread authoritative information. These campaigns should specifically focus on any significant changes to voting policies that have been enacted since the last presidential election cycle, and they should be disseminated through numerous media channels and online. In states that will not dedicate additional resources to such voter education campaigns—particularly states that have restricted voting rights—local election officials should undertake these efforts on their own if they have not already. This is especially pressing in large and urban election jurisdictions where education campaigns could improve hundreds of thousands, even millions, of Americans’ ability to vote. Ensuring voters know elections do not end on election nightAlthough the media begins reporting preliminary results on election day, those results are not final.8 The steps required to finalize results—such as ballot counting, signature verification, certification, auditing, and other necessary election administration tasks—can take days or weeks to complete.9 In 2020, many Americans who were unaware of these processes viewed the additional time needed to finalize election results as proof that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen.”10 In reality, however, it is normal for elections not to be called on election night; in fact, officials deemed the 2020 presidential election “the most secure in American history.”11To avoid such confusion about election results in the future, it is critical that both election officials and the media increase public communications about election processes and timelines. This would help bolster public confidence in future elections and prevent voters from turning to and spreading disinformation. Throughout the upcoming year, election officials should focus on public communication campaigns that can provide the public with information about state deadlines and election processes as well as expected timelines. Above all, it will be important to help voters understand that accuracy and proper procedure, rather than expediency, is the priority. Officials should emphasize that election results following election day are not a “delay” and that every legitimate vote must be counted for democracy to work. It will also be critical for journalists to underscore the fact that elections do not end on election night. Millions of Americans rely on news and media outlets as their primary source for information about election results.12 As such, journalists bear a tremendous ethical responsibility in helping ensure that election reporting is truthful and accurate. It is imperative that journalists shun sensationalism, rely on exemplary fact checking to avoid giving rise to misinformation, and emphasize the importance of accuracy rather than speed in their reporting over the next year. 2. Deter and counter violence The last presidential election saw unprecedented violence and threats against election workers and officials, which have persisted over the past few years.13 Officials across the country have worked hard to increase physical safety, improve the reporting of threats, and counter violence overall. But concerns over another influx of harassment and threats against workers and officials persist.14 Protecting election officials and workers Many election officials and workers have expressed hesitancy in the past to report threats and harassment because state and local law enforcement have not taken their claims seriously.15 However, it will be vital to report threats and harassment to ensure the scale and scope of the problem can be properly assessed and mitigated during the 2024 election cycle. ... continued... Finish this article at: www.americanprogress.org/article/8-ways-to-protect-american-democracy/ 
|
|
⚠️ KNOW WHAT MAGA REPUBLICANS ARE PLANNING ⚠️
An Article in Document Form Explains the Republican Motivation to Take Away Our Representation. https://www.heritage.org/american-founders/report/america-republic-not-democracy (Copied in case it was removed from the Internet) |
|
Our Nevada Politicians
|
|
The Democratic Party is fighting for a country where everyone,
from every walk of life, has a shot at the American dream.
from every walk of life, has a shot at the American dream.