Memo to SC Progressive Network members, friends and allies:

Take a deep breath, step back, and let’s view Trump’s election as the last gasp of an obsolete system built on white supremacy, lies, and fear. Don’t get me wrong; this last gasp may take a while and be quite messy, but we never thought the revolution of social values would be easy.

The Network’s 20-year-old movement building strategy and “pre-party” organizing analysis is sound and substantiated by this election. The mechanisms of our democracy have been corrupted by money and corporate personhood. We are not yet strong enough to vote ourselves into the promised land.

The contradictions of millions of US citizens living in third world conditions will become more pronounced. It will become more apparent that “less government” and “lower taxes” means working people can’t get a decent education, health care, paved roads or other benefits enjoyed in civilized countries. Trump’s victory is going to make it easier to organize the shift from a thing oriented society to a people oriented society necessary for our survival as a democratic nation.

Too many in the white working class have been led to believe that poor people, minorities and immigrants have caused their problems. Now that their Republican champions hold all the power, they will soon find themselves in the same sorry state and perhaps understand who their real enemies are, as well as their real allies.

On Election Day, we spent 14 hours taking 921 calls from SC voters across the sate who called 866-OUR-VOTE with problems. That’s more than one call every minute. It will take us a while to analyze the calls, determine what problems were systemic or localized, and work to remedy the problems. One type of problem that stood out seemed to be rogue action on the part of poll workers, not election commission employees. The recurring problem of long lines caused by voting machines glitching or not working was anticipated. We’ve been working to get new machines since we bought the ones we’ve been using in 2004 and feel that we have turned the corner in convincing the legislature that our next voting machines should be publicly owned, low tech, and produce a voter verifiable paper ballot.

It is important to note that South Carolina’s voting system works relatively well. In most states, voting is run by a partisan, elected secretary of state. Here, we have an independent State Election Commission. Our 20 years of working with the state and county election boards has shown us that our voting is run reasonably well.

Our problems and our lack of democracy are a result of our state legislature. The majority Republican Party has, over the past 23 years, drawn political district maps to insure they remain the majority party. 78% of voters in SC had only one major party candidate to vote for Tuesday. Most of our legislators are chosen in the primary by fewer than 12% of the voting age population they represent. This is not what democracy looks like.

Across the nation people are pondering what to do in the face of this civic disaster. The Network will keep doing what it has been doing for 20 years. It’s a long, hard job – and we need your help.

What Modjeska Simkins said during the darkest days of the civil rights movement is important to repeat now that there’s little hope of salvation at the ballot box, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is no sitting down time.”

Yours for democracy,
Brett Bursey, SC Progressive Network Director