Equal rights and equal justice under law, not injustice under lawlessness

Good afternoon from Capitol Hill, where I’m putting the final touches on our Halloween decorations and the sounds of hammers ring in the fall air as the inauguration stands rise again on the west lawn.

Last night, my daughter and I joined restless multitudes of Americans in Washington to bear witness to Vice President Kamala Harris make her case “for the People,” to the People, on a night that will offer a glimpse of what could have been, or open a window into what will be.

I saw my fellow American stand unbound by precedent, unbent by hate, unfazed by the challenges ahead, unburdened by the history unfolding rapidly in front of our eyes, speak to the nation she would lead in front of the People’s House.

Regardless of our politics or how we vote, every American should take pride in seeing this daughter of immigrants rise to lead a major party in our union, cracking the glass ceiling that a Congresswoman from Brooklyn began breaking in 1968.

Harris’ ascent is a reminder that American democracy is still young. We are still working to grow beyond the myriad chains, burdens, and debts we have forged, inherited, and created over the past two and a half centuries.

Our progress towards breaking the bonds of slavery, enacting civil rights, and marching towards univeral suffrage built upon the big idea at our founding:

We fully emerged as of a government of, by, and for all of our people on July 2, 1964, when the passage of the Civil Rights Act enforced the constitutional rights to vote of every American citizen in our union and ended segregation in public places and businesses and banned discrimination in employment or services.

From that day of freedom onwards, all persons in the United States have been “entitled to be free, at any establishment or place, from discrimination or segregation of any kind on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin.”

But equal justice before the law, equal access to opportunity, equal protection against crime, and equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness remains the aspirational promise of a union, amending the operating document written in the 18th century to reflect who we are as a People today.

168 other nations declare in their Constitutions that that men and woman have equal rights and ban discrimination on the basis of sex. The United States of American should become one of them this century.

I don’t know what will happen next in our history. No one does, although everyone will look for signs and signals amidst the noise generated by the hurly burly of a great nation in the week before Election Day.

Early voting has now begun in many states. Millions of Americans have already cast our ballots. I hope you will do so, too, and share your act of civic responsibility with the rest of the world.

Free and fair elections are a recent marvel in the long sweep of world history. Don’t ever take them or the freedom, liberty, civil rights, or civil liberties you enjoy today for granted. Democracies can die. It can happen here, too. Voting rights and civil rights were once denied to our fellow Americans on the basis of race or sex.

The republics that long endure depend upon active citizens, a free press, the rule of law, and a social compact to participate in voting and then accept the results of elections. We must cast ballots, not bullets, in the days ahead.

Please be safe, brave, keep calm, and trust the election officials, poll workers, and courts across our great nation to uphold the integrity of our vote.

Transparency is tablestakes in a healthy democracy

TV & radio stations are required to publish records of political ads online. Telecom companies should be required to disclose online archives of campaign & PAC texts — like Meta & Snap Inc. do voluntarily.

Thanks to Jason Koebler for reporting on the explosion of dark texts in America:

An Elon Musk-funded super PAC has expanded an advertising campaign in which it is impersonating Democrats and targeting registered Republicans with policies unpopular with conservatives they say Kamala Harris will pass if she wins the election.

The campaign, called Progress 2028, is designed to look like it is the Democratic version of Project 2025 and lists a set of policies that the group says Harris would enact if elected president. In actuality, the entire scheme is being orchestrated and promoted by an Elon Musk-funded group called Building America’s Future, which registered to operate “Progress 2028” as a “fictitious name” under the PAC, according to documents uncovered by OpenSecrets, which investigates money in politics. Building America’s Future is the group we previously reported on, which is targeting Muslims in Michigan and Jewish people in Pennsylvania with opposing messages about Harris’s stance on Israel’s invasion of Palestine. 

Republicans in swing states have also been receiving text message ads with similar messaging, according to screenshots posted to Reddit, research shared with 404 Media, and registered Republicans who have shared screenshots of ads with 404 Media. The ads feature caricatured, exaggerated versions of Democratic policies that are widely unpopular with conservatives. 

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