The Blue Bulletin | June 2024

This month: Presidential Debate • Project 2025 • Education and Voting • Pride Month

• Local Elections

Happy July 4th

Have a safe and happy celebration.

In these next few days of July 4th celebration, and in these months before the November elections for our state and for the nation, remember the fragility of our Democracy and the costs of preserving this democracy by those who have come before us. Let’s join them in the months ahead and do all in our power to preserve and foster “liberty and justice for all”.

(Claremont Democratic Committee)

“Democracy is not an on off switch, democracy is on a dimmer” - Seth Myers

ELECTIONS/VOTING RIGHTS

Presidential Debate

The 2024 presidential debate between incumbent president Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump was held on June 27 in Atlanta, Georgia. This was the first of two debates (the next proposed for September 10th) scheduled. The two men and their respective campaigns had agreed on the debate format and had agreed to circumvent the Commission on Presidential Debates in setting their own rules with the News Networks.

The debate was an unmitigated disaster for Biden, whose poor performance overshadowed Trump’s lies and attacks. The New York Times Editorial Board called for Biden to leave the race, joining a host of other calls for him to step down.

At this point Biden states he will not leave the race and he continues to have strong support to stay in the race from current and former leaders of the Democratic Party.

A pre and post-debate 538 / Ipsos poll, released June 28, (Who Won the First Biden-Trump Presidential Debate) shows only a slight movement away from Biden related to voting. This is in spite of the voters damning takes on his debate performance. If, in the coming days or weeks, the polls move significantly away from Biden, the chorus for him to leave the race will be louder and more convincing.

Project 2025: Republican Mandate for Governance

The Heritage Foundation is a right wing nonprofit foundation which is self-described to formulate ideals such as free enterprise, small government, traditional American values and a strong defense. Their beginnings go back to the 1970s and might be seen as a counterforce against the more liberal societal forces of the 1960s and 1970s. In recent times their policies have moved further to the right and after clashing with the more populist wings of the Republican Party have acquiesced to the right wing trends, and have combined with other ultra conservative organizations forming the policies of the new MAGA right. They have now combined efforts with other Republican think tanks to develop a plan for governing, expecting Donald Trump to win the presidential race for the White House in 2024 and begin his term in January 2025.

The transitional plan for Project 2025 is to dismantle the government and reconstruct it in mandates outlined by ultra-conservative groups. The power of the executive branch would be expanded.

The plan would first get rid of “deep state” bureaucracy by initially firing 50,000 federal workers and replacing them with loyalists. This part of the mandate has already begun by beginning to identify and recruit loyalist replacements for specific federal jobs.

The plan would eliminate the Department of Education, expand vouchers and private school funding, eliminate protections for LBGTQ students and establish sex at birth, as the only gender recognized; eliminate education on diversity, and civil rights history; turn federal funding for schools into block state grants to be used by the state, for any purpose.

2025 Mandate would further dismantle reproductive rights. The plan would dismantle Title 10 protections for reproductive health, enforce an elimination of surrogacy and establish that “all children have the right to be raised by the men and women who conceived them.” They would look to establish a nationwide band on all abortions and eliminate in vitro fertilization (IVF) as currently practiced in the United States.

Project 2025 would end the separation of church and state in favor of establishing a theocratic administration promoting a Nationalistic Christian emphasis on policy and governing.

Voting rights and civil rights would be scaled back under a Republican 2025 plan. Voting suppression would continue to expand across the United Stated.

We can see the Influence of the national right wing Republican Party’s agenda and Republican Project 25 on New Hampshire, coalescing to have a negative impact on key issues in our state. These are not just ideas this is a plan, not just proposals but a mandate and a blueprint.

A review of Republican proposed bills to negatively impact reproductive rights, public education, and access to voting reveals aspects of the Mandate for 2025 already in process.

EDUCATION

Public Education and Voting Rights

Last month we highlighted an impressive list of Republican bills defeated in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. These bills included efforts to expand the school voucher program. HB 1665 would have increased the income limit for families seeking to qualify for the education freedom accounts by further compromising public school funding. This bill was defeated in a bipartisan vote.

HB 1369 was defeated, which would have required towns to purge voter rolls every four years, instead of every 10 years, eliminating people who have not voted in the prior four years

Republicans had also targeted voting rights and attempted to make it harder to vote by requiring a birth certificate or passport in order to register to vote in New Hampshire. HB1569 was passed this week by 189 to 185 in the House and 13 to 11 in the Senate along party lines. If signed into law by Governor Sununu, Republicans will have succeeded in voter suppression, New Hampshire citizens right to vote would be compromised, including young voters registering for the first time and new residents to our state. Although Governor Sununu is not disapproving of the measure, he questions the negative impact of trying to implement the provisions in an election year.

If the passage of HB1569 is signed into law by Governor Sununu, New Hampshire would become one of the most restrictive voting identification states in the Union.

"If Republicans don’t challenge and change the United States election system, there will never be another Republican president elected again." - Senator Lindsey Graham (R)

CLAREMONT DEMS NEWS

Pride Month

The whole month of June was Pride Month across the world and the Claremont Democratic Committee supports and celebrates with LBGTQ+ people in our communities and everywhere. We are determined to take part in the continued building of a world that embraces diversity and dignity of all people.