Our Time Is Now
Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America
by Stacey Abrams


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

Stacy Abrams is credited with winning the Senate majority for the Democratic Party in 2021. Here's how: Abrams was the Democratic Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, from 2011 to 2017, and a State Rep since 2007. She resigned from her position to run for Governor in the November 2018 election, winning the Democratic primary in May 2018. Her Republican opponent for governor was Secretary of State Brian Kemp; that position oversees the gubernatorial election, but Kemp stayed in his position because he saw no conflict of interest. As Secretary of State, Kemp "purged the voter rolls" -- which means he cancelled the voter registration -- of 700,000 citizens in the run-up to the 2018 election, and also placed an additional 53,000 voter registration applications "on hold" in 2018. In other words, Kemp used his office to cheat people off the voter rolls. Kemp won the election in November 2020 -- by 50,000 votes -- and is now the Governor of Georgia. Court rulings followed, finding that the Secretary of State's office violated federal voting law, but not overturning the election. Abrams founded "Fair Fight Action" right after the election, to address voter suppression. That group is credited with record voter turnout in the 2020 election, winning Georgia's electoral votes for Biden after a Trump victory in 2016. And then new record turnout that won the 2021 Senate runoffs (Georgia has a "jungle primary" system which required a runoff in January 2021 for two Senate races). The two Democratic Senators elected in 2021, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, resulting in a partisan split in the United States Senate of 50 Democrats to 50 Republicans, with the deciding vote by Vice President Kamala Harris. The majority party sets the Senate agenda and decides which bills reach a vote at all. Hence the two January 2021 Georgia victories ensure that President Biden's agenda can make it through the Senate until the next election, in November 2022. If either Georgia Democrat had lost, the Republicans would have held the Senate majority, and would have blocked much of Biden's agenda. Abrams' model of voter organizing is now the standard for how to overcome a corrupt voter suppression system by massively overwhelming suppression with thousands or millions of newly-registered and newly-empowered voters. Her previous work, Stacey Abrams' 2018 book is a practical guide for outsider action. This book, in contrast, details her own actions in Georgia which resulted in the victory described above (written in June 2020, before she knew she would be victorious!) -- her chapter titles: Intro: Who is Stealing America's Future? Everything Old is New Again A License to Be Heard (Voter Registration) Getting Beyond the Gates (Access to the Ballot) When the Numbers Lie (Ballot Counting) Taking Our Power Back We Can See You and So Should They How the Census Shapes America The Playbook Populism and the Death of Democracy The Next Best Version of America Abrams was a lead prospect for vice president in the summer of 2020. She will certainly run for governor of Georgia in 2022. The Georgia legislature (majority-Republican white males) is aware of the risk, and in spring 2021, they passed harsh voter suppression laws -- so harsh that Major League Baseball moved the summer 2021 All-Star game out of Atlanta in protest, among numerous other protests. Georgia has become the most "purple" of states -- unpredictable for statewide elections, and a bellwether for presidential elections. -- Jesse Gordon, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, April. 2021

OnTheIssues.org excerpts:  (click on issues for details)

Abortion     Brian Kemp: Fetal heartbeat bill: sonogram echoes at six weeks gestation.     Stacey Abrams: Women protested "fetal heartbeat bill" written by white men.

Civil Rights     Stacey Abrams: Add race, gender, and class to "Founding Fathers".     Stacey Abrams: LGBTQ+ played identity politics for 150 years.     Stacey Abrams: Remove evil Confederate monuments, but not top priority.

Corporations     Donald Trump: OpEd: replaced scientific fact with profit-driven opinion.     Republican Party: OpEd:GOP replaces scientific fact with profit-driven opinion.

Crime     Stacey Abrams: Prison gerrymandering: vote where they lived before prison.     Terry McAuliffe: Overruled State Supreme Court to restore felon voting rights.

Education     Stacey Abrams: Lower-income neighborhoods have lower-ranked schools.

Foreign Policy     Stacey Abrams: Understand global issues for intersectionality of policies.

Free Trade     Donald Trump: Trade battles with China, Germany, Britain, France, & Canada.     Stacey Abrams: Trade wars have real effect on everyday consumers.

Government Reform     Brian Kemp: Removed 107,000 voters via "use-it-or-lose-it" law.     Brian Kemp: 2010: Overturned local election by arresting black winners.     Republican Party: NC 2008: Slashed early voting to fight "souls to the polls".     Stacey Abrams: We don't lose gun rights by non-use; why voting rights?     Stacey Abrams: Incumbents abuse system to keep out black election winners.     Stacey Abrams: Voter impersonation found 31 cases out of a billion.     Stacey Abrams: Souls to the polls: Sunday early voting.     Stacey Abrams: Holiday for Election Day, or paid time off to vote.     Stacey Abrams: Electoral College protected slaveholders, not small states.     Stacey Abrams: Restore our public administration infrastructure.

Health Care     Ayanna Pressley: Healthy MOMMIES Act: expand Medicaid.     Donald Trump: Dismantled global health security system before coronavirus.     Nathan Deal: Objected to ObamaCare navigators, due to additional cost.     Stacey Abrams: ObamaCare navigators explain new health insurance systems.     Stacey Abrams: Disaster preparedness includes global pandemic preparation.

Immigration     Brian Kemp: 2012: Challenged voter status of newly-sworn-in citizens.     Donald Trump: Citizenship question on census for many decades; use in 2020.     Stacey Abrams: States' refugee resettlement refusal is emulated globally.     Xavier Becerra: Sued government for adding "citizenship question" to census.

Principles & Values     Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Defeated ten-term incumbent via shifting demographics.

Technology     Alex Padilla: Census "citizenship question" affects CA's voice in congress.     Stacey Abrams: 1/4 of rural residents lack broadband; no online census.

Click for quotations from other sources by: Alex Padilla Democratic Appointee California Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Democrat U.S. Rep New York- 14 Ayanna Pressley Democrat U.S. Rep Massachusetts- 7 Brian Kemp Georgia Republican candidate for Governor Donald Trump Republican Presidential incumbent Nathan Deal Georgia Republican Governor Republican Party Stacey Abrams Georgia Democratic nominee for Georgia Governor Terry McAuliffe Virginia Democratic Challenger Xavier Becerra California HHS Secretary