“Just because Roe was overturned doesn’t mean you can’t get an abortion – you just have to travel to a state where it’s legal.”

“You can’t decide to end a life just because you were too lazy to use protection.”

Traveling to a place where abortion is legal is impossible for many women in terms of money, time, and/or childcare. Also: MAGA Republicans want a national ban on abortion (including abortion drug Mifepristone), which would make the procedure unavailable in all 50 states.

In many cases abortion is a necessary healthcare procedure to save a woman’s life. When a woman miscarries (a natural event in roughly 20% of pregnancies), it is often medically imperative that she have a procedure to remove the dead embryo from her uterus, when the body doesn’t expel it naturally. Even though the fetus is already dead, that procedure is still referred to as an ‘abortion’ in the medical community – and blocking women from having it is horrific.

Source: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

“Biden is too old to be president for another term. He doesn’t have the energy or mental acuity needed for the job.”

The MAGA Distortion Machine consistently lies about Biden’s so-called “cognitive decline.” There is no evidence for this; in fact, Joe Biden is a shrewd and experienced leader who has accomplished more in his first term than any president in recent memory. Here are just a few of his victories:

• Made the biggest investment in climate change intervention in American history – $369 billion through the Inflation Reduction Act.
• Created more jobs in one year (6.6 million) than any other president in U.S. history.
• Secured over a trillion dollars for investment in our national network of bridges, roads, airports, public transport, national broadband internet, as well as waterways and energy systems (in a bipartisan bill!).
• Imposed a 15% minimumcorporate tax on some of the largest corporations in the country, ensuring that they pay their fair share.
• Capped prescription drug prices at $2,000/year for seniors on Medicare, and gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices; reduced healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act by $800/year as part of the American Rescue Plan.
• Holds the all-time record for the greatest numbers of women and minority judge appointments, including the first African-American woman on the Supreme Court.

Source: WhiteHouse.gov

“Biden stole the 2020 election from Trump.”

“There was massive voter fraud: millions of illegal immigrants voted, and Democrats working at polling places threw Trump ballots away. Voting machines were tampered with, giving Biden millions of votes.”

After Trump lost to Biden, his MAGA supporters went to court with so-called “evidence” of fraud. There were 62 court cases, every one of which was dismissed, often by judges that Trump had appointed!

Trump’s strategy is to completely overwhelm us with so many lies that we can’t center in on any one of them, and so we become “immune” to them, as well. Everything from denying climate change, to saying the windmills cause cancer, to bleach as a cure for Covid –  it’s all part of an overall scheme. Trump’s advisor Steve Bannon actually said it out loud: “The way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” And it works: over three-fourths of Republicans believe Trump beat Biden, despite absolutely no evidence.

Source: Protect Democracy

“Climate is ALWAYS changing.”

“The scientists don’t agree on global warming.”

“Green energy is unproven and expensive, and will destroy our economy.”

Humans have changed our atmosphere more in 150 years than natural evolution did in 10,000 years. The last time C02 concentration was this high there were palm trees at the North Pole.

95% of climate scientists around the world agree on the basic conclusions about our climate emergency. Debate about exactly how fast or how bad it will get does not change that fact, only the ways in which we might best address it.

According to a report from the World Resources Institute, the United States can add 4.5 million jobs per year for 10 years if it invests in clean energy and low-carbon growth strategies. Renewable energy is more likely to save individuals and nations money, because NON-RENEWABLE fossil fuels will become more and more expensive as they become more scarce. Also: green energy will create a healthier, safer planet for us to live on, saving our government billions in healthcare and natural disaster recovery costs.

Sources: NASA  Business.com

“Democrats are soft on crime, so of course crime is on the rise again under Biden.”

Data shows a historic drop in homicides and other crimes in the U.S. in 2023. AH Analytics reports murders are down 12.8% over the past year across more than 175 cities, and the FBI revealed that seven out of eight categories of violent crimes were down in cities of all sizes. (By contrast, the U.S. murder rate rose 30% between 2019 and 2020 – the largest single-year increase since at least 1905, or possibly ever.)

Sources: Forbes  Pew Research

“The Biden administration has totally mismanaged the economy – inflation is booming and the deficit is out of control!”

The U.S. economy is doing quite well under President Biden.

Inflation was an inevitable result of the COVID-19 lockdowns all over the world. But under Biden’s guidance, the U.S. had a much lower inflation rate than all other industrialized countries. In addition, inflation has now come down to pre-pandemic levels (ex: the fall in gas prices).

During the last few Democratic administrations, the deficit went down – while it was the last few Republican presidents who exploded the debt. When Obama finished his second term, the national debt was approximately $20 trillion; when Trump left office, it was almost $30 trillion.

According to the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in 2023, exceeding expectations – and in addition, the economy added 2.7 million jobs in 2023.

Sources: PolitiFact  U.S. Department of Commerce

“Any regulation Dems propose will lead to attempts to take away ALL guns from EVERYONE.”

“The problem isn’t guns, it’s mental health.”

“Our Second Amendment right to gun ownership is one of the most sacred liberties envisioned by the founding fathers.”

Recent Democratic proposal for gun regulation have all focused on expanded background checks, licensing requirements, and banning high-capacity magazines and weapons – none have advocated elimination of the right to own a gun.

The rate of depression in the U.S. is only 0.1% higher than that in Australia, where mass shootings have been virtually eliminated since common sense gun laws were implemented nearly 30 years ago. The U.S. gun homicide rate is 26 times higher than that of other high-income countries, most of which have comparable rates of mental health issues.

Constitutionalists have never resolved whether the Second Amendment was originally designed to protect an individual’s right to own a gun, or collective rights exercised by a “well-regulated militia.” And in 1791 when the amendment was codified, “arms” meant single-shot muskets – our founders could never have anticipated the high-caliber weaponry which exists today in the hands of the general public.

Source: Everytown for Gun Safety

“Obamacare is a huge failure.”

“Republicans have a better health plan.”

The Affordable Care Act has has been hugely successful: Nearly 10 million more Americans have health insurance since the implementation of Obamacare, and the percentage of uninsured has dropped from 18% to under 11%.

MAGA Republicans advocate replacing Obamacare with a free market system. In other words, they envision citizens paying for medical care from individual health savings accounts – without suggesting what would happen to the very poor or chronically ill who can’t work and fund a health savings plan. Many of them also support eliminating or drastically reducing Social Security and Medicare benefits, and reject government regulation of drug prices, leaving the poor and marginalized ever more vulnerable.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

“Democrats want to throw open our borders to anyone, including drug traffickers and other criminals.”

“Immigrants come here and take away our jobs.”

Democrats are trying to propose immigration solutions; Republicans are blocking all Democratic proposals in Congress so they can hang onto complaining about Democrats and immigration. Also, it’s a pet issue for Republicans because it’s a good way to stoke racial division.

A study released in 2023 by Stanford University revealed that immigrants are 30% less likely to be incarcerated than white, U.S.-born individuals – and these lower incarceration rates have been documented since 1960.

There is a mistaken notion that there are a fixed number of jobs in the U.S. economy — the “most persistent fallacy about immigration in popular thought,” as noted by a U.S. Department of Labor study.

Immigrants help the U.S. economy by creating new businesses and therefore new jobs, raising the productivity of existing businesses, and paying more than $90 billion in taxes every year (vs. receiving only $5 billion in welfare).

Sources: ACLU  Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

“If we have to have a dictator, I hope it’s Trump.”

Here are just a few of the horrors we can look forward to if Trump is elected again in 2024, in his own words:

• He’ll “only” be a dictator on “day one” of his second term.
• He’ll use the Justice Department to prosecute and jail his political opponents.
• He’ll purge expert and independent civil servants working in government agencies and replace them with loyalists bound to implement his policies without question.
• He’ll shut down, revoke or limit the licenses of TV news networks that criticize or report unfavorable news about him.
• He’ll withdraw us (AGAIN) from the Paris Climate Agreement and undo the many measures the Biden administration has taken to reduce greenhouse gasses, promote clean energy and protect public lands.
• He’ll never leave office, because any election that he loses is categorically rigged and he will not accept the results.

Source: CNN

“Trump is for the ‘little guy,’ and gave us the biggest tax cut in history.”

“The rich pay too much in taxes – if we give them tax cuts, it will stimulate the economy.”

The billionaire class is skilled at making us believe that what works best for them is good for us – and Trump is their man. The Trump tax cuts mainly favored huge corporations and the very wealthiest Americans, while devoting a tiny amount to the rest of us. It also added enormously to the federal deficit. Trump promised that it would stimulate the economy, but no such effect happened.

Taxes on the rich have been falling for decades. A 2021 study showed that billionaires paid an average federal tax rate of 8.2 percent, while other Americans that year paid 13 percent. The rich keep getting richer, while the middle class stagnates or loses.

The Republicans keep telling us that if we lower taxes on the wealthy, it will “trickle down” to the rest of us because the economy will improve. This has never been the case. Instead, when the government has less money to spend on things like healthcare and infrastructure, things get worse for the rest of us.

Source: WhiteHouse.gov

“Illegal immigrants are casting votes at an alarming rate.”

“Federal legislation on voting interferes with States’ rights.”

“Automatic registration of citizens, same-day registration and voting by mail are rife with irregularity and enable voting fraud.”

The right to vote is the heart of our democracy. Voter suppression – taking away someone’s right to vote – has always been a fundamental part of the MAGA/Republican bag of tricks they use when they know they can’t win on the issues. These techniques include:

• Explicit racism and massive disinformation campaigns;
• Purging, which means deleting thousands of names off the voter rolls (particularly in African-American districts, which tend to vote Democratic);
• Closing many voting stations in those neighborhoods of color, so that the lines are hours and hours long, which discourages many folks from voting.

Voter fraud is detectable, quantifiable, and verifiable. Every lawsuit alleging voter fraud in the 2020 election was ruled to be without merit (including by many Republican judges and/or Secretaries of State).

Source: Brennan Center for Justice

“I’m sick of voting for people I’m not excited about. Neither of the main party candidates really speak for me.”

“We need more than just two political parties in this country.”

“I’m not voting for X because I disagree with his stance on Y.”

One of life’s basic truths: If you don’t vote for someone you consider “the lesser of two evils,” you inevitably end up with “the greater of two evils.” The essential fact is this: either Trump or Biden will be elected, not any other candidate. If you don’t do everything you possibly can to help Biden win reelection, you’re helping Trump become president again.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost three key states, in which the number of votes that the third-party candidate Jill Stein received was MORE than Hillary lost by. This means that if those third-party voters had instead voted for Hillary, Trump would never have become president.

The Republicans want Democrats to vote third party (or simply not vote), and have been funding those efforts, since that works directly to their benefit.

Source: CNN

Propaganda is the deliberate spreading of misinformation, usually with the goal of gaining and maintaining political power. It uses particular techniques such as inciting fear, stereotyping certain groups of people, and the frequent repetition of lies until they start to feel familiar – and eventually, true. It is a favorite tactic of dictators and other leaders who are focused on their own self-interests, and don’t care about the well-being of their citizens (including their supporters). The use of these measures is a staple inside Russia, and has been deployed on the American public by both foreign and domestic forces.

A short film outlining some of the techniques used in propaganda would be an impactful way to alert/inform people and sensitize them to these unscrupulous practices.

Source: VeryWellMind

What have we overlooked? Submit a video on another topic you think is important, and that you feel will motivate people to vote for President Biden and down-ballot Democrats in 2024!