Stacey Abrams in Our Time Is Now: Power
On Abortion:
Women protested "fetal heartbeat bill" written by white men
In 2019, women ringed the state capitol, dressed in crimson and white, to mimic outfits worn from 'The Handmaid's Tale", the acclaimed novel turned television show about forced pregnancy in a dystopian future. Beyond the reach of their silent protest,
lawmakers--mostly white, mostly men--argued over HB481, the proposed bill that would add Georgia to a growing list of states passing anti choice legislation. I had spent the previous few days on the phone, nudging former colleagues who wavered on their
opposition to the bill and urging action from business leaders afraid of the consequences. The authors had smartly tagged the law as a "fetal heartbeat" bill, alleging falsely that the echoes heard in a sonogram at six weeks amounted to proof of life.
Under the new provisions, both the women and her doctor could face criminal penalties for any abortions--even if a woman did not learn about her pregnancy until after the plan had been invoked or if a medical procedure led to a spontaneous abortion.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.120-1
Jun 9, 2020
On Civil Rights:
Add race, gender, and class to "Founding Fathers"
In the early history of the United States, political players pretty much looked alike. The moniker we use pretty much says it all: the Founding Fathers. If we add the modifier "white", then the description would be accurate. The US Constitution
reveals this original identity as the one to be protected at all costs. Social movements anchored by the identity began nearly as soon as the country did, between the abolitionists opposing slavery, women demanding suffrage and equality, and the poor
of every race being exploited for their labor. The fight over slavery lead inexorably to the civil War, Reconstruction and Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Movement. Women's suffrage became a multigenerational movement that culminated in the
Equal Rights movement. Juxtaposed beside these fights over race and gender, Americans have long waged a political fight to use class and centrifugal force, and in several ways, class identity has had more success and a nearly parallel history.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.150-1
Jun 9, 2020
On Civil Rights:
LGBTQ+ played identity politics for 150 years
The development of identity politics for the LGBTQ+ community has stretched over nearly150 years in America. Forced for most of American history into the shadows of daily life, the emergence of a social movement got it's initial start during
World War 2, the first interrogation of "don't ask don't tell" led to members of LGBTQ+ community enlisting in armed forces, and a relaxation of social restraints permitted more open behaviors. The public demand for equality for the
LGBTQ+ community coincided and intersected with the rise of the civil rights movement. The stonewall movement, which began with a raid of a gay club in 1969, launched a more sustained effort to gain equality in mental health treatment, healthcare,
housing, employment, marriage, and adoption. What remains a tension in the LGTBQ+ movements are the conflicts that race ,class and gender expose when wrapped in the national debate on sexual orientation.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.157
Jun 9, 2020
On Civil Rights:
Remove evil Confederate monuments, but not top priority
[At a press conference, a woman] asked about my position on Stone Mountain, the massive bas-relief of Confederate generals commissioned by the same men who restarted the KKK in Georgia. Specifically, she wanted me to justify my comments a year earlier
about removing the carvings.Patiently, I explained my deep animosity toward the Confederate generals' carvings. The men glorified in the etchings had fought to keep blacks as slaves, and they had been willing to terrorize a nation to achieve their
ends. I had grown up in a town where visiting the last home of the president of the confederacy was a right of passage for someone, even though it meant tourist tromping around shacks where enslaved black men and
women had lived in squalor and horror. Still, I explained, while I despised the monument to their evil, it's removal wasn't top of my to do list.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.194-5
Jun 9, 2020
On Crime:
Prison gerrymandering: vote where they lived before prison
In almost every state in the country, a perverse mismatch between the population and the voting power occurs when incarcerated are counted in a process known as prison gerrymandering. In all but six states, the incarcerated residents are counted not in
their home neighborhoods but in the penal system. This means their communities have no access to the fiscal windfalls that could come from including them. As the argument goes, prisoners should be counted in the prison beds where they sleep, not in
the houses where they lived before imprisonment. The consequence of that decision, however, is that the often struggling, under-resourced, and desperate communities where many of these men and women start never benefit from the investments
that could help deter crime and poverty. America's mass incarceration has led to the jailing of thousands of black and Latino bodies from Democrat-led communities that are typically Republican, where most of the penal facilities are located.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.178-9
Jun 9, 2020
On Education:
Lower-income neighborhoods have lower-ranked schools
As a young black working class couple raising kids in Mississippi, my parents had one clear path to ensuring us a quality education: carefully picking the street on which we would live. The choice defined the school we would attend, the level of
violence and poverty we would endure, and the social exposure we would have. Economic policy dictated that they would be renters, as saving for a down payment was well beyond our reach. School zoning laws determined the kind of housing available in the
neighborhoods available to them, as well as the trappings of the communities. To live in the zone with the best rated schools, my parents would have faced exorbitant rental prices. The most affordable cost meant living in the poorest part of town.
In a city school district with three elementary schools, that meant a Goldilocks choice. Lower income neighborhoods traditionally have lower ranked schools, less green space, fewer parks, and limited access to cultural programs.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.147-8
Jun 9, 2020
On Foreign Policy:
Understand global issues for intersectionality of policies
I worked with the British American Project, the Council of Italy, the American Council of Young Political Leaders program, and the Council on Foreign Relations, among others.
In 2004, I travelled to Bulgaria as part of the German Marshall Fund Program.
While foreign policy seemed to stray beyond my focus as a state legislative leader and a voting rights advocate, I intentionally worked to build a robust understanding of international complexities.
Any leadership in America must understand the international approach to global questions as well as the intersectionality of our policies. Plainly said, we have to understand the effect we are having on the world, and vice versa.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.223
Jun 9, 2020
On Free Trade:
Trade wars have real effect on everyday consumers
During most of 2018-2019, the US president launched the largest trade war in a generation. Though played out through goods and services rather than bullets, a trade war has a real effect on everyday lives. The US consumer bears the majority of costs
passed along to businesses and hidden in the prices we pay. Economically struggling Americans feel the results in daily life, especially those who face stagnant wages that have not grown despite having the lowest unemployment we've ever had.
The average American cannot recover from a trade war with the same resilience that a corporation can. The only solution will be to actually engage in a trade policy that is not based on populist brinksmanship, which is what we've seen played
out for the last few years. As Trump positions China front and center, our country is also embroiled in trade battles with historic allies such as Germany, Britain, France, and Canada.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.226
Jun 9, 2020
On Government Reform:
We don't lose gun rights by non-use; why voting rights?
The "use it or lose it" [voter policy] presumes that a failure to execute a right justifies taking it away. In 44 states, voters who failed to respond to a notice will be removed from the registration list if they do not vote, update their registration,
or take some other action specified by law from the time of the notice through two general federal election. No other right specified by our constitution permits the loss of a vote for failure to use it, to wit-- I do not lose my Second Amendment
right if I choose not to go hunting and I still have freedom of religion if I skip church now and then. Georgia secretary of state Brian Kemp strongly favored the "use it or lose it" power in Georgia, where he removed over 1.4 million voters in a
state with 6 million registered users. In July 2017, he removed more than half a million voters in a single day, reducing the number of registered voters in Georgia by 8%. An estimated 107,000 of these voters were removed through "use it or lose it".
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p. 66
Jun 9, 2020
On Government Reform:
Incumbents abuse system to keep out black election winners
Dr. Nancy Dennard was an African American speech pathologist who had run twice for the school board in Quitman, Georgia. But when a special election came up in 2009, Dr. Dennard studied the rules and put them to use to increase absentee voters for the
black voters, and it worked Dr. Dennard won a special election to the board. For the 2010 primary for other available schoolboard seats, she recruited more black women to run, and she trained them and a committed group of organizers on the laws of
absentee ballots. Once again, the strategy succeeded. A handful of black women got elected to The Brooks County School Board, and control of the board flipped.
Angered by the unexpected wins, a vanquished school board banded together to challenge
the legitimacy of the new states electoral wins . They simply tried to undo the election [by pressing charges]
Years passed before their criminal trials commenced, and in the end, no voter fraud had occurred [and Dr. Dennard ended up as Mayor].
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p. 70-72
Jun 9, 2020
On Government Reform:
Voter impersonation found 31 cases out of a billion
Voter fraud has been debunked as exceptionally rare by multiple reputable organizations. Voter fraud refers typically to:- impersonating another voter or
- a non resident or ineligible voter effectively casting a vote.
The former almost never
happens; in fact, an American is more likely to be struck by lightning than to impersonate a voter. To be more specific, out of 1 billion votes cast between 2000 and 2014, only 31 instances of voter impersonation occurred. As to non-resident voting, the
most reasonable explanation is voter confusion. In the US, we have 51 different democracies in operation between individual state laws and federal laws. For example, if a person moves from Maine to Oklahoma, the rules change dramatically with regard to
registration timing, eligibility, and remedies. National experts barely understand the complexity of local voting laws-how would the average person? Fraud is a crime of intent. Most accusations of voter fraud are best described as misunderstandings.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p. 74-5
Jun 9, 2020
On Government Reform:
Souls to the polls: Sunday early voting
Republicans have targeted early voting operations that have helped increase voter participation, to their apparent dismay. In North Carolina, following Barack Obama's successful 2008 campaign, Republicans slashed early voting from 17 to 10 days and
curbed or eliminated Sunday voting due to popularity of "souls to the polls" campaigns that encouraged black voters to turn out en masse after church. Florida Republicans responded to the wide use of early voting by cutting from 14 to 8 days after the
2012 election. Wisconsin eliminated early voting hours at night and on the weekends: the precise times used by low income and minority voters. For Ohio's GOP majority, the cuts to access included chopping off six days of in-person early voting,
jettisoning Sundays and evenings, and eliminating early voting the day before the election.Policy makers who propose these cuts have a standard playbook. First, point to the costs of early voting and then appeal to the fear of voter fraud.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p. 88-89
Jun 9, 2020
On Government Reform:
Holiday for Election Day, or paid time off to vote
One option is to make election day a national holiday. Of the 36 nations in the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, a consortium of democratic countries from around the globe, the US is one of only 7 nations that hold national
elections on a day when most of the country is at work; 27 of those countries hold national elections on the weekend, and both Israel and South Korea designate election day as a national holiday. Only 22 American states offer paid leave for voting.
Low income voters could lose pay on that day if they are not otherwise compensated for holidays. Likewise, disabled voters may have difficulty securing support to get them to the polls. Another option is guaranteed paid time off on election day, with
employees having the option to choose when they cast their vote, including during early voting periods. A minimum of five hours of paid time off for voting purposes would guarantee compensation for travel time and long lines at polling sites.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.134-5
Jun 9, 2020
On Government Reform:
Electoral College protected slaveholders, not small states
The Electoral College was never meant to protect the small states against the tyranny of larger ones--not at its inception and not today. Instead, it served to protect slaveholders from a loss of power then and to advantage a small coterie
of states deemed competitive today.[In 2016], I cosponsored a bill to include the state of Georgia in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Under the system, each state agrees that all its electoral votes will be allocated to the winner of
the popular vote, but the compact only takes effect after a certain number of states--comprising the majority of the electoral votes--agrees. As Georgia is one of the states long ignored by presidential contests, my Republican cosponsor and
I moved the bill successfully through the statehouse on a bipartisan vote, but the bill died in the state senate. Later that year, Donald Trump won the electoral college vote while losing the popular vote by more than three million ballots cast.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.184-5
Jun 9, 2020
On Government Reform:
Restore our public administration infrastructure
Convincing Americans not to trust the government was the first step. For decades, Congressional Republicans have executed the second step by stripping crucial bureaucracies of funding. The third step has been replacing scientific fact with profit-
driven opinion. [For example, with] climate change deniers, modern conservative ideology has rejected research as a necessary ingredient for decision making. The weakening of our public administration infrastructure has reached its pinnacle in the
Trump administration. Trump and his cabinet have consistently derided the very institutions they lead. Americans have become inured to the churn of cabinet officials and staff officials and staff departures. Trump's steady stream lies has half
of the country turning a deaf ear and the other half ingesting false information. Trump's actions have built on the GOP's intentional destruction of institutions, and has left America weakened in a time of international crisis.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.256-7
Jun 9, 2020
On Health Care:
ObamaCare navigators explain new health insurance systems
As a part of the [ObamaCare] rollout, states received generous allocations of dollars to fund the navigators, trained personnel deployed to neighborhoods to explain how to traverse the complex systems of health insurance that would now require
mandatory compliance. In Georgia, the issue was particularly acute: the state had one of the highest uninsured rates in the nation. Every state participates in Medicaid, the low income health program that shares costs between the states and the
federal government. Because the program is mainly run by the states, qualification differs depending on where you live. In Georgia, Medicaid does not cover childless, low income adults, regardless of their poverty level, and it only covers working
parents who make less than 50% of the federal poverty level or approximately 9765 a year for a family of three in 2013. We cheered when the Affordable Care Act plans included coverage for the working poor through the Medicaid expansion program.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p. 46-7
Jun 9, 2020
On Health Care:
Disaster preparedness includes global pandemic preparation
We should press candidates on their commitment to the urgent issue of true disaster preparedness. That requires a plan to strengthen public health systems in every state and vulnerable community. To do so requires a consistent, appropriate funding
stream that is not subject to ideological whims or propaganda. Our international obligations should be central to this renaissance.In 2018, Trump effectively dismantled the Obama-era global health insurance system. The objective--to understand how
viruses move beyond borders and to prepare a communications and response strategy for transitional health crises--had its genesis in the nation's multilateral engagement in the Ebola virus. Swift, worldwide action had not only accelerated treatments
to countries facing infection, it slowed transmission to other nations, including the United States.
COVID-19 demands immediate response to defeat an intercontinental enemy to our health, our economies and our futures.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.259-60
Jun 9, 2020
On Immigration:
States' refugee resettlement refusal is emulated globally
Nations watch what we do, and they emulate to our behavior, even now. America's authority to question Russian president Vladimir Putin's treatment of dissidents weakened when
President Trump refused to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the murder of an American resident and journalist.
International calls to accept refugees from Yemen, Syria, and elsewhere go unanswered when the Trump administration offers individual states the right to refuse resettlement.
To the extent that they are emulating the behavior of America and the erosion of democracy is not a permanent good.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.240-1
Jun 9, 2020
On Technology:
1/4 of rural residents lack broadband; no online census
In the conduct of the 2020 census as a high risk government operation do to complexity of the progress, the US Census Bureau plans to implement several innovations, including new IT programs.
For the first time in history, up to 80% of respondents will be expected to complete the census online.
According to the Federal Communications Commission report on broad band progress, "In rural areas, nearly one fourth of the population-14.5 million people-lack access to broadband service.
In tribal areas, nearly one third of the population lacks access. Even in areas where broadband is available, approximately 100 million Americans still do not subscribe. " This issue has raised red flags for a number of organizations.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.173-4
Jun 9, 2020
Page last updated: Oct 09, 2021