Southern Progressives

Moving to the left one post at a time

Bill Freeman
January 13, 2025

National News:

The People's Cabinet

Naming a Positive Form of Opposition

snyder.substack.com/p/an-alternative-cabinet

January 9, 2025

Family members, friends, and political leaders gathered today at the Washington National Cathedral to honor the life of former president Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29 at age 100.

open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/january-9-2025?r=2cuzj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Dear World, (An Apology From Decent Americans)

Dear World,

open.substack.com/pub/johnpavlovitz/p/dear-world-an-apology-from-decent?r=2cuzj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

State News:

Knoxville City Council expands police surveillance weeks after Nashville denied similar proposal • Tennessee Lookout

The Knoxville City Council approved a $27.6 million expansion of its police surveillance contract with a technology called Fusus.

tennesseelookout.com/2025/01/09/knoxville-city-council-expands-police-surveillance-weeks-after-nashville-denied-similar-proposal

Local News & Arts:

The Etowah Friendly Garden Club will meet on Tuesday, January 14 at the Etowah Community Center (155 Robinson St., Etowah) beginning at 7 p.m. The Guest Speaker will be Etowah Christmas For Kids President Sergeant Wes Atwell, who will report on the 2024 Toy Drive. Monthly meetings are held on the second Tuesday at the Etowah Community Center. For updates, visit their Facebook page or contact President Gene Keller at 423-263-1506.

Auditions: As She Likes It — Athens Area Council for the Arts

This anthology of short plays features characters from Shakespeare’s canon outside the patriarchal context of their original works - and sometimes in another time and place. McMinn County East Tennessee Foothills Smokey Mountains Arts council Athens Arts Center Athens TN Tennessee Social Athens Are

www.athensartscouncil.org/upcomingevents/auditions-as-she-likes-it-2025

Indivisible:

Over the next two years, staving off the fascists will require each of us to tap into our constituent power and identify where it can work. We’ll target Congress and our key state and local levers of power. We’ll try to block as much as we can. Where we can’t block, we’ll use what’s happening to break up Trump’s coalition and build ours. It will require playing defense in some places and going on offense in others. Think of it as a giant nationwide pro-democracy team, with each of us playing a specific position on the field.

Why are the 2026 midterms so crucial? If we win in 2026, we can achieve three things:

Puncture Trump’s aura of omnipotence. A big, resounding backlash to Trump 2.0 will dispel the (misguided) notion that he is all-powerful or has the consent of the governing public for his actions.
Create federal checks on MAGA’s power. This will also be our chance to flip the House (and, less likely but not impossible, the Senate), blocking further legislation and giving us crucial oversight powers.
Protect the democratic transfer of power in 2028. The winners of the 2026 swing state elections will administer the presidential election in 2028. If they are MAGA election deniers, we’re in very big trouble.

In short, the path to future democratic transitions of power runs through holding off harm now and building for a big win in 2026.