Justice ∙ Respect ∙ Compassion ∙ Diversity
December 8, 2019


Notes from the Chair:

"The Economy, Stupid”

James Carville’s profound words to George H.W. Bush still ring true today. Climate Change, Healthcare, Immigration, Civil rights, LGBTQ rights, voter suppression, and many other issues are critically important to address. However, to replace Trump with a Democrat we must also demonstrate that the Democratic Party will make the economy work for all Americans not just the rich.  We must prove that we are the party of economic growth, full employment and wage growth for the American worker.

Republicans still lambaste Obama on the economy saying the economy stagnated near the end of his term. This is just another Republican alternate fact (lie). According to Forbes magazine, Obama actually created more jobs in each of the last four years of his Presidency than Trump created in his first two years. If you compare twenty years of Democratic presidents (Carter, Clinton, Obama) to 20 years of Republicans (Reagan, Bush, Bush) you find that Democrats created over twice the jobs than the Republicans (45 million versus 20 million). Also, according to Forbes, the stock market has historically been stronger with a Democrat in office. 

What we have is an economy that works great for the wealthy but not so good for working folks. Top corporate executives have seen their pay grow by more than 1,000% over the past 40 years, nearly 100 times the rate of average workers. Women continue to earn less than men. In 2018, women earned 82 cents for every dollar a man earned. Addressing these issues will be essential for the Democratic Party to reassert itself as the party of the American worker.
Too many Americans have been left behind, Democrats must convince the electorate we are committed to doing everything we can to build a full-employment economy, where everyone has a job that pays enough to raise a family and live in dignity with a sense of purpose.

What are your ideas to address the economy? Email me ( khenning@mac.com ) and I will accumulate a list of actions that we can share with party officials and candidates.

Kevin Henning
Kendall County Democratic Party Chair




Progressive Views: Infinite Pie and Scarcity
by Meredith Sterling
for the “Progressive Views” column, Boerne Star, December 5, 2019

Blue Marble 2012” 
by  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 
is licensed under CC-BY 2.0

Whenever a progressive policy is discussed or a new progressive piece of legislation is presented — the cry goes out: Socialism! They want to take everything away from the folks who worked for it and give it to the layabouts and the undeserving poor!
Socialism. And, Racism. Both are associated in hearts and minds with fear, scarcity, a lack of resources, and an undeserved austerity.

I’m going to liberally quote  Heather Cox Richardson , “a political historian who uses facts and history to make observations about contemporary American politics.” She is the author, most recently, of  To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party , and is a professor at Boston College.
Richardson explains  that what U.S. politicians mean today when they talk about socialism was born after the Civil War when Black American men got the right to vote.

Richardson reminds us that what the GOP messaging is calling socialism is “nothing
of the sort; it is actually regulated capitalism.”

Zero-sum vs. infinite pie
Now, to the pie. The concept of “Infinite Pie” is applied most often to situations where arbitrated solutions must be found to conflicts between bitter adversaries. We all know that our culture, our world, is based on the concept of competition and winners vs. losers. Winners win and get everything, the whole pie: losers lose and get nothing.
But, what if the Pie of Rewards is bigger/broader/deeper than we imagined initially? What if through discussion and thinking about the issues, we expand the pie so that there is more to go around and each participant will get enough? No one “wins” and no one “loses.”

Money, power, and expensive things are not the only prizes worth working for, worth sharing. If we as individuals hold faith and love to be powerful, then we can transition to a different way of seeing our opponents and our conflicts. It starts by recognizing our fears and then talking with each other about how to redistribute, rearrange, and re-create more of the rewards worth having.
Tasty indeed, and not a whiff of ‘socialism’ to spoil the flavor!

Above is excerpts from the article. To read the entire article go to our


What is the Electoral College?


T he Electoral College is a process, not a place. The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.
The Electoral College process consists of the  selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress.
The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Each state’s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators.

Each candidate running for President in Texas state has his or her own group of electors. Texas  voters will choose electors to represent them in the  Electoral College   via a popular vote. T he state of Texas has 38 electoral votes in the Electoral College.

The Republican Party is seeking to retain Texas' electoral votes for the eleventh consecutive election, having won Texas in each election since the  1980 United States presidential election . The Democratic Party is seeking to win Texas for the first time since  1976 . You help choose Texas’s electors when you vote for President because when you vote for your candidate you are actually voting for your candidate’s electors.
Texas have a “winner-take-all” system that awards all electors to the winning presidential candidate.

After the presidential election, the Texas governor prepares a “Certificate of Ascertainment” listing all of the candidates who ran for President in Texas along with the names of their respective electors. The Certificate of Ascertainment also declares the winning presidential candidate in Texas and shows which electors will represent Texas at the meeting of the electors in December of the election year. Texas's Certificates of Ascertainment are sent to the Congress and the National Archives as part of the official records of the presidential election.

The meeting of the electors takes place on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the presidential election. The electors meet in their respective states, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots. Texas’s electors’ votes are recorded on a “Certificate of Vote,” which is prepared at the meeting by the electors. The state’s Certificates of Votes are sent to the Congress and the National Archives as part of the official records of the presidential election.

Each state’s electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on the 6th of January in the year following the meeting of the electors. Members of the House and Senate meet in the House chamber to conduct the official tally of electoral votes. 

The Vice President, as President of the Senate, presides over the count and announces the results of the vote. The President of the Senate then declares which persons, if any, have been elected President and Vice President of the United States.

The President-Elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th in the year following the Presidential election.

 Announcing "Digital Office Hours" at the New Office!


 Laura Bray and Becky Strain are pleased to announce that we will hold “Digital Office Hours” every Wednesday morning from 9-11am at the new office, starting on December 4. (No session on Dec 25 or Jan 1.) Stop by with your questions on any of these tools:
 
  • VAN
  • MiniVAN
  • Virtual Phone Banks
  • Mobilize America (event scheduling)
  • Skedda (office space scheduling)
  • Hustle (texting tool; coming soon)
  • MapTheVote
  • Any other digital tool I may have missed
 
You can bring your laptop/device, or use Laura's or Becky’s laptop. Please sign up for date and time @ Mobilize.
 
A specific training session for MapTheVote is in the works for December; We’ll let you know as soon as it’s set.
 
We are happy to schedule some other time to work with you, if Wednesday mornings aren’t convenient; just let us know. (Becky also makes house calls!)
 
For our “non-techie” volunteers: we have experts on all of these tools who are happy to run VAN lists for you, schedule you for an event shift, book your office space, or whatever other assistance you require. No need to pull out your hair trying to learn a tool/app that you’d just rather not mess with.
 
We hope you’ll take advantage of our “office hours,” and please feel free to share with your key volunteers. We look forward to seeing you!


TO: County Executive Committee and BAD Board
 
By popular demand…..a training session on how to use MapTheVote is here!
 
MapTheVote is a cool and easy-to-use online tool (for use on computer, tablet, or phone) that identifies households that are not registered to vote. It takes the (publicly available) voter registration file and a (publicly available) site that maps houses (commercial addresses have been removed), compares the two, and shows, on your computer or phone screen, which houses are not yet registered. So you can go register them! And if there are multiple teams walking at the same time, the site keeps up with who’s doors have been knocked and who has received an application, so you’re not duplicating effort.
 
Sign up for the class here: Map To Vote Training
 
Precinct Chairs: this is a great session to invite your deputies/primary volunteers to attend!
 
The class will be led by me and by Luke and Julie Rosenberger, who have successfully used this tool on a block walk to register voters.
 
Seating is limited, so sign up soon.
 
If you’re not available that Saturday, please stop by our “techie office hours” on Wednesday mornings from 9-11, and we’ll be happy to show you the ropes. After the class, Laura will post the training guide to the “Training” folder on the shared Google Drive.  



 We're Democrats, y'all.


It is time to register if you plan to attend your County or Senate District Convention to be held on Saturday, March 21, 2020 . Saturday, March 21 from 1:00-4:00pm at the Kronkosky Center (17 Old San Antonio Rd, Boerne).

This convention is the first step to pass resolutions to inform the direction of our Party and its Platform and to be elected to attend the Texas State Democratic Convention to be held June 4th - 6th at the Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. This convention launches the Statewide Coordinated Campaign, writes our Party Platform, and selects delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
The link also provides a place for those wishing to run for National delegate, etc. and to get the basics and the timeline. More to be provided in next few weeks.




 County Office “Filing Day” Social
Monday, December 9, 4-6pm
KCDP/BAD Office (518 E. Blanco, same building as Mary’s Tacos, in the rear)
The KCDP Office must be open at this time so that Kevin (Party Chair) and Sandy (Party Secretary) can accept any last-minute filings for anyone wanting to run for county office in the Democratic Party next March. We aren’t exactly expecting a stampede, so it sounds like a good excuse for an informal social. We’ll have beer, wine, soft drinks, and light refreshments. Stop on by!


We hope you can join us!

Our Fundraiser Auction is over.

Thank you to all who participated!

Congratulations to those who won items.
Thank you to those who donated items for the auction.
We will be contacting you shortly to arrange drop off/pickup of those items .
All I want for Christmas is…

When you are filling out your Christmas wish list during this holiday season, be sure to let Santa know that you would love to have a donation made in your name to the Kendall County Democratic Party . Your gift will be used for the many Get Out the Vote activities planned for 2020.
Single or recurring donations may be made in any one of these ways:
Personal Checks
Personal checks may be mailed to KCDP, PO Box 2321, Boerne, TX 78006

ActBlue
A quick and easy way to donate on-line. Go to https://secure.ActBlue.com

Automatic Transfer or Automatic Bill Pay
Set up transfer payments to Kendall County Democratic Party at Broadway Bank
Acct. #4100012917/ Routing #114021933)

Check Drafts
Have bank send check drafts to KCDP, PO Box 2321, Boerne, TX 78006




Your entire  donation  goes directly to Kendall County Democratic Party, except for a 3.95% credit card processing fee. The money we raise supports the Democratic Operations for Kendall County. We need funds to operate an Office, Train volunteers, “Get out the vote” efforts; Mailings, Posters, Advertising, etc. 

Donate Online!
We encourage you to donate to the Party online with the secure online donation site ActBlue accessible from our home page.





There are more of us than you think!
We're still looking for local Dems! If you run into any “like minded people,” send their name and email address to Laura Bray so we can add them to our mailing list and into VAN as a “strong/lean Democrat.” We want to keep building that list into 2019 and beyond!
Kendall County Democratic Store
 Show your pride for the Kendall County, Texas Democratic Party! Apparel comes in a variety of colors and styles.

Check out the selections; KCDP logo t-shirts, sweatshirts, stickers, totes and more available  Purchase Here
" To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile but is morally treasonable to the American public."

Theodore Roosevelt
Invite your friends to "like" our Facebook Page
Feel free to forward to a friend!
Click here to be added to our mailing list!
Office 518 East Blanco, Boerne
( same building as Mary’s Tacos, enter through rear entrance) 
830-388-0109 bstrain947@aol.com