News & Updates
We’re shifting the focus from outrage to action, and building the blueprint for a democracy that truly works for the people it serves. |
Editor’s note: some of the page links from this newsletter may still show our previous name, project2029.me. We’re still updating some website details but that won't prevent you from reading further. Thank you. |
Mateusz Raczynski on Unsplash |
Fallacies and Strawmen Keep Popping Up, Uninvited |
Logical fallacies can be encountered in casual discussions, formal debates, and in political rhetoric. There’s more of them around lately because of the impending midterm elections, and you should recognize them when you hear them.
In brief, a logical fallacy is a leap of logic that leads to an unsupported conclusion.
A strawman argument is a form of a logical fallacy. A speaker using a strawman argument also moves the listener’s attention. In this case, the speaker creates confusion by bringing up the opposing position and then distorting it so much that the viewpoint comes across as weak or extreme. That’s how the “strawman” gets knocked down, because people are willing to discard the alternative viewpoint.
There’s been a lot of commentary lately from the federal level about the harms caused by illegal voting and attempts to commit election fraud. For people who believe in the prevalence of fraudsters, plans to have the federal government step in and appoint itself as the protector of accurate elections makes sense.
It’s worth turning to our Blog page to see actual statistics on the topic. It turns out a group can talk and write extensively about a supposed problem when its own numbers show a different reality.
This doesn’t mean that concerns about elections are not real or that we, as citizens of our respective states, need not build up voter confidence in our elections. We have to remember that it is our state governments that were assigned responsibility in our U.S. Constitution to administer elections.
In fact, a credible group of people, the Commission On The Future Of North Carolina Elections, worked with The Carter Center to pinpoint sources of concern among North Carolina voters about elections. The groups issued a report last year with detailed recommendations they hoped the voting public of North Carolina would consider. It’s a completely different approach to elections.
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What Should Constitute America’s Immigration System? Spoiler Alert: Not This. |
By Jo-Ann Johnston
When residents — whether U.S. citizens or not — are being shot in their vehicles or on public streets by federal agents who defend their actions with implausible-sounding narratives, it’s time to face up to the fact that we, the people, have allowed the creation of an all-new peril in our nation. It is our own Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, a part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
As if to underscore the point, yet another ICE agent shot and wounded a young immigrant trying to work a delivery job on Sunday, Sept. 20, in Austin, Texas, local authorities told the media.
It was not always this way. It’s hard to remember now, and impossible if you are younger than 30 years of age, but different means were once used to prevent, detect and punish the most common immigration violations.
It was before 9/11. But even the horror of deadly attacks committed inside our country by foreign terrorists doesn’t adequately explain why and how immigration enforcement has produced deaths, injuries, civil rights violations, economic damage, and community trauma since the start of the second Trump administration.
Of course we want dangerous and violent criminals to face legal consequences, whether those people were born here or came across a border to get to America. We should actually be looking more at why felony arrest rates are so much lower among undocumented immigrants than native-born citizens, it turns out. Researchers have useful information on that point.
Accountability and transparency are the key words often used by people wanting to know more about ICE and DHS operations from the agencies themselves. And by accountability, people also mean they want to hear exactly where the billions of dollars Congress provided the agencies is going. We need truthful information on how well or how poorly detention centers are run, as well as honest accounts of interactions with migrants, observers, and protestors.
We Are NEXT, as many supporters know, is creating new policies that can be put into place as soon as a new presidential administration is put in place in 2029. The team has already published an early-stage proposal on immigration policy reforms and welcomes feedback.
This month, We Are NEXT also published a series of blogs that put the latest news about the problematic standards for immigration enforcement and detention into context for voters — for readers who are not lawyers. The government’s case for its successes and methods is presented in its own words. Readers will also see what aspects of ICE operations are not so visible to us, the public, yet.
We don’t need to wait until 2029 to get the ball rolling on this issue. Get informed now, here.
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Here’s Your Chance to Do Two Helpful, Hopeful Things At Once |
By Jo-Ann Johnston
You’ve heard of Banned Books Week in the fall? In 2026, it will take place from Sunday, Oct. 4 – Saturday, Oct. 10, all across the country.
It’s a showcase event promoted by The American Library Association (ALA) and its member institutions, with help from like-minded reading groups, publishers, authors, bookstore employees and others, and festivals, posters, displays, and the like. Organizers highlight the right to read and the right to intellectual freedom, both core reflections of the First Amendment.
Those rights are compromised when right-wing culture warriors, who may become school board members or administrators, “challenge” titles held in public community and public school libraries. A successful challenge can result in a book being taken out of the library holdings, or put somewhere remote with limitations on access.
As culture wars have intensified, so have challenges. In 2025, according to the ALA’s records (which actually tend to understate the numbers) 40 percent of the individual titles challenged “represent the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ people and people of color.”
According to the ALA, the most frequently challenged titles in school and community libraries included “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky, a novel; “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe; and “Last Night at the Telegraph Club,” a novel by Malinda Lo. They are all described by the ALA as books written for young adults, which generally means from ages 12 or 13 to age 18.
It is unacceptable to people who believe in an inclusive democracy to find there are powerful forces who want library holdings to be predominated by stories only about straight white people —, to the point of excluding the lives of others.
Maybe there’s a savvy way this year to make books more available, thanks to a quirk in the calendar.
You see, the seven-day period for Banned Books Week can shift slightly from year to year. This year, it just so happens to overlap with a lead-up campaign that starts Monday, Oct. 5, to create more awareness for National Coming Out day, on Sunday, Oct. 11. The gay rights observance was started in 1988 by two psychologists to promote acceptance; it became part of the broader Human Rights Campaign in 1993.
Interested readers and booksellers will recognize, then, that there might be high demand for titles like “Gender Queer,” or other selections, and safe places to talk.
Here’s a concrete step human rights supporters can take in their communities: in the coming weeks, help cultivate safe book spaces in their areas for LGBTQ+ readers and their allies. |
Recommended news reading on a search for justice |
Check out the article, "Recent Black Deaths Ruled 'Suicide' Raise Questions," from the nonprofit newsroom, The Emancipator, republished with permission on our website.
https://www.project2029.me/blog/recent-black-deaths-ruled-suicide-raise-questions
The article pre-dates a recent arrest in one case yet is very informative. Find out more about the award-winning digital site at theemancipator.org |
Help Wanted!
Volunteer From Home!
Volunteers are critical to the success of our grassroots movement. We are NEXT is growing quickly, which is great news! That means we need you! All roles are remote.
We currently have some available positions we need to fill quickly with professionals interested in contributing their experience in areas including policy, HR, technology, communications, outreach, fundraising, governance, and program management.
Current openings include:
Some opportunities have specific U.S. residency, citizenship, experience, or time commitment requirements, so applicants should review the full posting for the position that interests them.
If the roles above are not a fit for you, that’s OK too! We have many more opportunities available and will talk with you about the right role.
Please visit our website to learn more and complete our volunteer application.
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