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PROP 50 - One test of a winning campaign in the Golden State is who feels inspired to hold a bake sale. By that standard, the push to pass Prop 50 is capturing the hearts and minds of many Angelenos in the week before ballots arrive.
This Sunday morning, Sept. 28, residents in and around Atwater Village in Northeast L.A. will be lining up on Glendale Blvd. to pick up homemade goodies at a stand set up by a team of grassroots bakers and volunteers. The treats are technically free. But recipients can chip in voluntary donations that will support local Yes on 50 efforts. Thus the reliance on a familiar title: bake sale.
The statewide ballot measure aims to allow Californians to elect more Members of Congress who promise to do their duty under the Constitution to hold the President accountable. The openly authoritarian Donald Trump is targeting and terrorizing immigrants, including U.S. citizens, and threatening television networks in order to silence comedians who mock him.
For a huge majority of Californians, real guardrails on a lawless and unpopular President, who violates the Constitution without curbs or consequences from a spineless, right-wing majority on the Supreme Court, have never felt more needful.
With support and coordination from East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), the Sept. 28 bake sale is one of 5 events the club is hosting in Eastside and Northeast L.A. neighborhoods to bring home the message of why voting Yes on 50 matters.
It’s about having someone who will pick up the phone at the Social Security office, not being stuck on hold or hung up on, when customer service can restore a lifeline to earned benefits.
A recent poll shows 51 percent of California voters ready to approve Prop 50, with 34 percent opposed. In an ominous signal to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the poll suggests his rising profile as an opponent of the measure may actually backfire. Twice as many voters indicate his presence nudges them to vote “yes” as to vote “no.” Such is the desperation and scarcity of leadership among Trump’s party in California.
The EAPD for Yes on 50 effort builds up to a big No Kings! rally to show strong, peaceful resistance to Trump’s creeping fascism. Fittingly, it will be held on the public plaza outside the Social Security Office in Glendale. To sign up for that free event, click here.
To plug into EAPD for Yes on 50, go to www.EAPD.LA or send an email to [email protected]
Volunteers with EAPD for Yes on 50 can send postcards to infrequent voters to urge them to vote YES. To do a packet of 25 or 30 voter postcards, send an email to [email protected] Please include your name, address, and phone number.
(Hans Johnson is a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, environmental justice, and public education. His columns have appeared in USA Today and leading newspapers across more than 20 states. Based in Eagle Rock, he serves as president of East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), California’s largest grassroots Democratic club with over 1,100 members. Hans brings decades of organizing and policy experience to his work, advancing equity and accountability in local and national politics.)
