After a wave of progressive victories at the polls in Virginia this past November, the Virginia Senate voted to expand Medicaid to an additional 400,000 low-income Virginians, clearing the way for Governor Ralph Northam’s signature.
While there is a plan to impose work requirements and premiums on those living above the federal poverty level, this is a positive step in an era of relentless attacks on health care.
Today, we’re hearing a common theme: Elections have consequences.
Progressives turned out to ensure health care access and reject hate at the polls in November. Now, just months after Northam’s election—made possible by women, particularly women of color—Virginia is poised to pass an historic Medicaid expansion. This is what happens when progressives take a stand.
Meanwhile, Trump and his cronies in Congress are rekindling their efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act—and in turn, leave tens of millions of Americans uninsured.
As we said: elections have consequences, and health care is the issue to watch heading into November.
ACTION OF THE DAY
Stand up for children. Tomorrow, we are joining the National Day of Action for Children to demand an end to the Trump Administration’s cruel and inhumane policy of family separation. Use the hashtag #FamiliesBelongTogether and find an event near you on June 1st.
THINKING CAP
TV stars are being held accountable for their racism. Why, then, is the American presidency a safe haven for racism and bigotry? Explore that hypocrisy on this week’s episode of Thinking Cap. Then, Maria Teresa Kumar, head of Voto Latino, discusses the Trump Administration’s monstrous family separation policy.
ICE IS TARGETING LGBT DETAINEES
Roxsana Hernandez, a transgender asylum seeker who came to the U.S. seeking safety as part of the caravan of Central American migrants, died in ICE custody last week. She isn’t the only LGBT immigrant to suffer under the Trump Administration’s practice of detaining vulnerable populations in inhumane conditions. ICE is also failing to protect them from appalling sexual abuse.
These are just a few of the disturbing facts found in a new report from CAP’s LGBT Team:
- LGBT immigrants in detention are 97 times more likely to report being the victim of sexual violence than non-LGBT detainees.
- 1 in 8 transgender people detained by ICE in 2017 were placed in solitary confinement at some point during their detention.
GRADUATION & REGISTRATION
Students at 1,000 schools in 46 states are using graduation ceremonies as a vehicle to undertake widespread voter registration ahead of the midterms.
Led by Parkland activist David Hogg, organizers are aiming to have 90% of U.S. high schools host voter registration drives before the classes of 2018 graduate in the coming weeks.
The post-Parkland gun violence prevention movement is maintaining steam, but its impacts will be measured in action—in this case by votes cast in the 2018 midterms.
PARDON MY CORRUPTION
This morning, Trump said he plans to pardon Dinesh D’Souza.
Remember D’Souza? He’s a conservative, racist conspiracy theorist who pleaded guilty to a felony charge for giving straw donors money to illegally donate to a 2012 Senate campaign.
D’Souza will avoid prison. At the same time, Matthew Charles, a black Tennessee man who served 21 years in prison on drug charges and had rebuilt his life back home, was sent back to prison for another 14 years after the U.S. Attorney’s office appealed his early release. The sentencing judge even praised Charles’ “exemplary rehabilitation” but said that “her hands were tied.”
In Trump’s America, crimes are overlooked or forgiven for racists and the privileged (like Trump’s previous pardon recipients, Joe Arpaio and Scooter Libby), while countless people continue to suffer from an unjust criminal justice system that needs to be reformed.