Three Wins Today: Sept 19, 2025

We DO have wins and fighters and we MUST celebrate them.

Today feels like a very good day to talk about why I praise Democrats when they do the right thing.

Everyone wants to be praised. Someone commented on one of my posts, as a gotcha “what are they, dogs?”

Well…yeah, that’s actually a great way to look at it. We are animals and we have animal instincts and that includes feeling good when praised and chasing that feeling.

So if you need to think of our Dems as house pets to understand why praise matters, so be it.

When all you hear is disappointment and anger when you do something wrong, but nothing when you do something right, does that make you more or less likely to want to do something right again in the future?

I know for me, if I can never please someone, I’m probably going to stop listening to them. Our Dems are only human, they feel that way too.

If you don’t praise and support your electeds when they do something right, you’re not gonna be the person they listen to when it comes to anything.

So I praise them, I praise the ones who mostly do the right thing and the ones who mostly don’t. I make sure they know that if they do the right thing they will get support and acknowledgement.

It also means, when I say I’m disappointed, it holds more water, because they know that’s not my baseline.

If all you do is say “Dems are useless,” “I’m never voting for Dems again,” “Why won’t you DO SOMETHING,” you lose the ability to be persuasive, they don’t care what you think cause you’re gonna feel that way regardless of what they do.

Be honest with yourself, you would do the same.

And no, most of you don’t have the same personal relationships I do, though some of you do, so I’m not just talking about you individually, but you are part of a larger entity, and if just one person called to thank them when they do the right thing, or wrote an op-ed thanking them for a certain decision, or a few people held a thank you rally outside their office, or whatever, you would change the morale and maybe even change how they’d vote on something else in the future.

Jared Golden is not my favorite member of congress, but I’m always on the lookout for him to do something worth putting in Daily Dems, because I want his team to know, THIS is what we want, more of this! Now I’m very frustrated with his vote in favor of the CR today, but it’s not about cumulatively doing the right thing, it’s about each individual action. It has to be, that’s the only way to have a real impact.

So I hope this made you think, and hopefully you reconsider the way you interact with Members of Congress/their offices, on social media, on the phone, via email and in person.

Onto the wins!

11 Dem NY officials demanding entry to the ICE holding area at 26 Federal Plaza (vid screenshot from The City)

New York City, NY

YESTERDAY - Three State Senators: Jabari Brisport, Gustavo Rivera and Julia Salazar. Seven Assemblymembers: Robert Carroll, Emily Gallagher, Jessica Gonzalez Rojas, Marcela Mitaynes, Steve Raga, Tony Simone and Claire Valdez, and City Comptroller, Brad Lander, were arrested yesterday after a, hour-long standoff with ICE at 26 Federal Plaza.

They refused to leave the hallway outside the holding cells and continued to bang on the door, and then they started chanting and singing. It’s also worth noting, what they were doing was not under their jurisdiction, it’s only congress that has oversight of ICE privileges. But that will not stop these 11.

Rep Mitaynes said, in Spanish:

I represent an immigrant community and they’re terrified. They’re not going out in the streets, they’re not taking their children to school, the businesses are realizing they can’t survive this. Our neighbors are disappearing. We cannot permit this to continue.

Bravo to these New York elected officials, for doing what they know is right regardless of anything else.

Oklahoma

Mon, Sep 15 - The OK Supreme Court, in a 5-2 Decision (with two others recusing themselves) issued a temporary stay against the implementation of State Superintendent Ryan Walter’s new curriculum requirements, which would teach disinformation about the 2020 election as well as the pandemic and require religious teachings in all public schools.

The order says plainly:

No further action shall be taken and no public funds shall be spent by Respondents the Oklahoma State Board of Education or the Oklahoma State Department of Education to enforce or implement the 2025 Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies pending further order of this Court. Respondents shall treat the 2019 Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies as the applicable academic standards pending further order of this Court.

Basically nothing about this new curriculum can go forward until the end of the litigation process. We don’t know how that will go, but with the new school year a month in, it’s nice that these students will not be getting this disinformation taught as if it’s fact, just yet and hopefully not at all.

Rachel Laser is the CEO at Americans United, one of the groups who filed the lawsuit and are fierce advocates for the separation of Church and state. Laser said:

“Today’s ruling will help ensure that Oklahoma families – not politicians – get to decide how and when their children engage with religion. These new social studies standards would violate students’ and families’ religious freedom by promoting one version of Christianity and advancing Christian Nationalist disinformation. Not on our watch. Public schools are not Sunday schools.

Rooting for Oklahoma and all the children who live there that this lawsuit is successful. In the meantime, very glad it’s paused for now.

Aurora, IL

Mon, Sept 15 - Aurora Mayor John Laesch defied Governor JB Pritzker when he refused to fly the city flags at half staff following 9/11 to honor CK. He said in a statement:

Our focus was on remembering the lives lost on September 11th. On Friday, our flags were raised again as we moved forward, carrying with us the spirit and memory of those who died. I recognize that some employees and community members may not agree with this decision, but lowering the flag is a solemn act that carries great weight. The choice to do so should not be made cavalierly. Doing so diminishes the importance of the remembrance of tragedies like September 11, 2001.

And if that wasn’t clear enough, The Daily Herald got a more direct quote:

If you lowered the flags at every shooting, they would be permanently flown at half (staff) in the United States.

He’s right. Maybe, to make a point, that’s exactly what should be done. Each city or state release a statement daily as to why the flag is half staff that day. Who knows maybe there will be one or two days where it’s not. One can only hope.

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So those are today’s wins. I hope they help remind you that there is still good in the world, still people who are fighting and still pushback against the bad things.

Our voices are our superpower, but only when we use them!