Every ballot initiative that matters, in one place

A new project, designed to enhance democracy

Welcome to a Monday night edition of Progress Report.

The President of the United States is a one-sided social media beef with the Pope. And that’s not even the dumbest or most disgusting thing he did today.

Seeking to shore up the worst approval ratings for any president since the advent of modern polling, Trump held a little photo op at the White House to remind people that his reconciliation bill eliminated taxes on tips. But just as he’s finding that he cannot bend reality to his will in the Middle East, the event underscored the catastrophic consequences of American decline and late capitalist corporate plunder.

It was a surreal and stupid setup: a DoorDash delivery worker shuffled up to the backdoor of the White House, rang the doorbell, and handed a bag of McDonald’s to a smirking Trump. Later, the president handed her a $100 tip as she stood in front of reporters, dodging questions while Trump doubled down on his attacks on the pope.

Yet nothing about the exchange was inspirational or an endorsement of Trump’s economic policies: the delivery worker, Sharon Simmons, is an older woman from Arkansas — she wore a shirt that said “DoorDash Grandma” — who was forced to participate in the gig economy to help pay for her husband’s outrageously expensive cancer treatment.

"In the process of the treatment, even with insurance and stuff like that, I mean, let's face it, we've run through our savings," Simmons said.

Simmons said that not having to pay taxes on that money provided some much-needed relief in an otherwise devastating year. What went unsaid was that Simmons’s total tip income, $11K, was low enough that she wouldn’t have had to pay taxes on it anyway. Not that Trump would know or care.

Tonight I’m unveiling a new project, with much more to come in the days ahead.

Note: The far-right’s fascist takeover of this country is being aided by the media’s total capitulation to Trump’s extortion. It’s never been more critical to have a bold independent media willing to speak up against the powerful. That’s what I’m trying to do here at Progress Report.

You can help keep Progress Report afloat and build that network for just $5 a month — every subscription helps!

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Doing this work requires three things: time, patience, and spreadsheets. The sheer number of states, elections, and policies demand constant tracking and organizing, and there just aren’t resources freely available to the public with that kind of specific information in an easy-to-digest format.

Until now.

Last month, I launched FlipSeats.org, a website devoted to the most competitive state legislative races in the chambers that Democrats have a real chance of flipping blue — or at least breaking a veto-proof GOP supermajority. I’ve been told that the site, which I continue to update, has proven useful to people, so I’ve spent the last week or so building out a new and even more exhaustive site, this one dedicated to direct democracy.

Introducing OnTheBallot.news, a new online resource dedicated to tracking state and local ballot initiatives, referendums, and constitutional amendments. It focuses on a wide range of topics, from economic justice, the environment, and housing to voting rights, reproductive rights, and even the growing movement against data centers.

In an era of an evil federal government and state governments that are usually gerrymandered, dominated by conservatives, or just unwilling to take big swings, ballot initiatives and amendments have given people the opportunity to take democracy into their own hands and pass progressive policies in places where that would otherwise be impossible. And now conservatives are trying to use them in the same way, especially in blue states, making this year’s crop more important than ever.

The site is now online and fully functional, and I’ll continue to update it as initiatives move through the qualifying process, new referenda emerge, and I drill down into extremely local contests all around the country. Expect much more to come.

Tomorrow night, I’ll be back with a reported breakdown of the trends around these policies and proposals. For now, bookmark OnTheBallot.news and find a cause worth backing with your time or money.

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