A blue state signs a new voting rights act into law; The DOJ is blocked from requesting trans healthcare data; A certain stop woke act can't go into effect.
We're NOT Doomed: Aug 3, 2026
“I think it’s absolutely imperative that Democrats hire a press secretary who holds daily briefings.” Said rodlinafelter on a 141k Threads post last week.
I think that’s a great idea.
Which is why, when they had the Daily Blueprint, I posted about it every single day.
The Daily Blueprint was a daily show from the DNC, 7 minutes of the top news stories from the Democrats. Half of it explained things Republicans were destroying that we needed to know about, and the other half made us aware of ways we were succeeding.
It included things like when and where you could watch a hearing and interviews with members of the Democratic party, both elected and not.
It was hosted by DNC Deputy Communications Director, Hannah Muldavin, and it ran for 104 days, the last day being November 12.
And then it stopped.
Why?
See the first sentence of this essay.
Even while this daily briefing was happening. Even as I posted it and analyzed it every single day, posts demanding a daily briefing were still going viral.
Could the DNC have posted it on more platforms? Yes. They absolutely could have.
But would that have mattered?
People say the same about Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries all the time, but his weekly briefings were not only live on YouTube, but also on IG.
Did that make a difference?
No, it didn’t.
Posts like that were STILL going viral.
This is why I can’t take anyone seriously who says Dems need to post more or better or differently.
What they’re already doing isn’t being acknowledged at all.
I have a weekly series called “You’re Being Lied To” where I highlight two Dems who posted something engaging about the work they’re doing, the fight their bringing to it and the noise their making.
These stories are things THEY posted. They are not things that were hidden or that I found by doing heavy amounts of research. I found them by scrolling my feed on IG.
There’s this expectation that if it doesn’t organically come to you, it’s not good enough, and doesn’t exist at all.
Okay, so how do you expect that to change?
How is a member of Congress or the DNC expected to get YOUR attention?
There is this pervading idea that it’s THEIR fault. That if it’s not handed directly to every single person on social media on a silver platter then the politician or organization is doing something wrong.
But it’s hard to make that a priority when it doesn’t seem to make a difference.
Would more people have watched The Daily Blueprint if it wasn’t just posted on YouTube and Substack?
If it had been clipped up on YouTube shorts, as well as IG and Tiktok?
Sure. Yeah, more people would have seen it.
But what would those comments have looked like?
I bet you anything, even on those videos themselves, they would have said that same sentence from the start of this essay. And I know this because they did, and those are the same comments I got when I posted about the Blueprint myself.
It’s hard to think people actually want better comms when they refuse to highlight the comms actually happening.
It’s hard to believe it would make any difference at all.
Look, could Democrats be doing better, yeah sure, always, there’s always room for improvement.
But the companies are mostly run by Republicans, and so are most publications, and the ones that aren’t are run by the consultant class who are really angry no one wants to listen to them anymore.
And remember, these stories are supposed to come from journalists and creators, that’s how we’ve always learned what’s happening.
So if they’re not posting it…
Literally everything is making it as easy as possible for you to give Democrats as little credit as possible every single step of the way.
Which means, it’s on you to put a little effort in. If a Dem posts something that impresses you, don’t wait for it to be picked up. YOU can be the person who spreads it and gives it the attention it deserves. You can’t wait till a journalist acknowledges it exists.
THIS is how we beat Republicans. Cause THIS is where they are making the most inroads. They know they can’t get your vote but they can stop you and others from voting all together and from believing in Democrats at all.
Take back that power. Instead of saying “why don’t I see X, obviously it’s not happening.” Assume it is, find an example for yourself, and spread it.
THAT is how we save and strengthen democracy.
New Jersey
Thu, July 2 - Governor Mikie Sherill signed the “John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act of New Jersey Act” into law.
This is the first voting rights law enacted since the Callais ruling. It will:
ensure that eligible voters who are members of protected classes, including racial, color, and language-minority groups shall have an equal opportunity to participate in the political processes of the State of New Jersey, and especially to exercise the elective franchise.
The law specifically focuses on voter suppression, intimidation and access.
When the bill passed the Assembly, sponsor, Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Hunterdon, Mercer) said:
When those individuals marched into Selma, they did so with the understanding that they were facing immense danger, but they moved forward anyway, determined to show the underrepresented voices in our country the power of their vote and the way it can shape a democracy.
And I think that’s a really important reminder. It’s never safe to fight for what’s right, but it’s powerful to do it anyway. This might not feel like a big risk, given that New Jersey is a blue state, but puts a target on their back, and they’re doing it anyway.
This shows the importance of electing Democrats at every level of government. And that’s a reminder we always need.
New York City, New York
Mon, July 6 - Back in June, Obama Appointee, Judge Katherine Failla issued a Temporary Restraining Order against the DOJ accessing and NYU hospitals providing healthcare data of patients undergoing gender affirming care who were minors between 2020 and this year.
On July 6 that TRO was extended into a preliminary injunction. While a TRO can only last for around 14 days, a preliminary injunction can remain in place for the length of the trial.
Though there was a lot of coverage when the TRO was granted, the only info about the preliminary injunction comes from the case updates drop own on Lambda Legal’s case timeline.
When the TRO was issued, Chase Strangio, Co-Director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project said:
Patients and families trust their doctors with their most intimate, private information and should trust in turn that this information will be protected from impermissible and harassing demands for disclosure from the federal government or anyone else…We will continue to fight on behalf of these families and the fundamental liberty of all transgender New Yorkers and those who come here to seek needed medical care.
We should have some sort of update on the case after Aug 10 when NYU must respond to the complaint. I will keep you posted as we know more.
Regardless, anything that happens that makes it harder for this administration to have access to trans patient data is a win in my book.
Florida
Tue, July 7 - In a 2-1 decision in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, a Trump Appointee, Judge Britt Grant, and a Clinton Appointee, Judge Charles Wilson ruled that Ron DeSantis’ WOKE Act cannot take affect in higher education.
Judge Grant wrote for the majority:
Florida’s salary-for-speech rule is a breathtaking assertion of power to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse in the very places the State’s own statutes recognize as centers of inquiry—classrooms where students are trusted to puzzle through ideas that are good and bad, easy and hard, ideally getting ever closer to the truth.
Banning “unpopular ideas” defeats the purpose of higher education in Grant and Wilson’s eyes.
And as Leah Watson, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program said in the press release about the decision, “This ruling sets a strong precedent that higher education cannot be limited to the whims of politicians,”
Even in Florida.
There is this assumption that because DeSantis is so evil and Republicans control all state branches that they can just do whatever they want. But that’s not the case. The state cannot restrict what conversations are allowed to take place in a higher education classroom.
And as a reminder, this bill became law in 2022, so just because a bill becomes law in one year, doesn’t mean that law will ever be able to go into effect. Our judiciary is still our most powerful force against the Republican destruction of Democracy.
And that is something that gives me hope every day.
So those are three stories that hopefully give you the strength to keep fighting today. Our courts are still pushing back, even Trump judges, and so are our blue states.
I am confident that the louder we are and the more we vote the sooner we will win.
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