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Opinion: Pima County Democrats are spreading the word on social media about a 'F--- the 4th' event. Do they just want to turn off voters?

While the rest of the country prepares to celebrate the nations birthday with hot dogs, apple pie and fireworks, the Pima County Democratic Party on Friday promoteda novel Independence Day … um … celebration?

F--- the 4th.

Tell me, do you people have to work at turning off voters, or does it just come naturally?

Tucson Womens March the group organizing the event in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade is asking people to bring comfortable shoes, water, lawn chairs, posters and your anger.

And the Pima County Democrats spreadthe word on social media on Friday, saying F---the 4th. See you at Reid Park.

Sorry, thats a hard pass for me.

Icalled the Pima County Democratic Party to make sure this wasnt some sort of hoax.

Itisnt.

A half-hour later the party took down the six-hour-old tweet and the attached flyer, which features the Statue of Liberty and says, Lets Mourn With F--- The 4th.

Bonnie Heidler, chairwoman of the Pima County Democratic Party, said she supports the protestbutnot the name or the flyer advertising the event. The party's tweet, she said, was a mistake.

We support women being able to protest when they feel wronged, she told me. They (Tucson Womens March) picked that name. Wedid not.

The party also posted a statement on Twitter, saying the graphic was "in poor taste".

"Make no mistake, however. We support the event which will be on July 4 at 7 pm at Reid Park. The event was organized to help women in our community grieve for the loss of their bodily autonomy, which we consider an elemental right."

I can appreciate the fact that Democrats, independents and even a few Republicans are full-out furious about the demise of Roe v. Wade and the look of Arizonas new future, rooted in a law passed during horse-and-buggy days.

The girls and women of this state woke up this week to learnthat our bodies are not our own but instead under the care and control of state of Arizona. Even a rape victim will be forced to bear her attackers babies.

So, yeah, anger. I get it.

But I also know that Democrats are facing an uphill battle in this years elections. Everything from control of Congress to control of the state Capitol is up for grabs. Meanwhile, historical voting patterns, the price of gas and groceries, and Joe Bidens low approval ratings are not the Democrats friends.

Now comes F--- the 4th?

Sorry, thats just not a good look for a party thats trying to convince independents and even moderate Republicans to look their way in November.

Republicans, meanwhile, jumped on the thing, tsk tsking in delight at the Democrats show of disrespect.

There it is the modern Democrat Party in a single tweet, Karrin Taylor Robson, Republican candidate for governor, responded. Arizona patriots will gather w/ friends/family on Independence Day to celebrate our nations birth & honor those who sacrificed for our freedom. But these Democrats will be doing something very different. Shameful.

"Clearly the Pima dems dont care about our country or those who fought and died for our freedoms," tweeted Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott.

This from the party that gave us Lets Go Brandon T-shirts and flags and sued to end the wildly popular early voting program used by up to 90% of Arizona voters.

Republicans disrespect a president. Now the Democrats disrespect one of our nations most importantholidays.

Theres no high ground here.

Fortunately, there are some Democrats who havent lost their ever living minds.

Adrian Fontes, who is running for secretary of state, was stunned by his partys promotion of the F---the 4th event.

Absolutely NOT how this Democrat feels. What the hell are you thinking @PimaDems?!? How does this help us WIN? Standby for an official statement condemning this tweet. Take this trash down!

Why celebrate freedom, you might ask, when we just lost a bit of it?

Because were free to win it back.

Celebrate by using that freedom to hold a voter registration drive on Monday. Orgo door-to-door and make sure that votersknow how to get early ballots. Theyll start arriving in mail boxes next week.

Give them information on who is running and how to vote and where to vote.

You want to change America? Then do it the old-fashioned way. At the polls.

And let us have this one day a year whenall Americans should be able to come together and celebrate.

This, Democrats, was a Yankee Doodle Don't.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

Support local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

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Hey, Pima County Democrats, F-bombing the 4th of July will not win you any votes - The Arizona Republic

Obama and his party combated it not with a norm violation of their own such as a temporary (and legally dicey) recess appointment of a justice but with reasonableness. Surely appointing a modest and moderate justice like Merrick Garland would lead public pressure to force McConnell to relent or would push voters to punish Republicans for their transgression. Neither happened. And the seat was filled by a Republican.

This is a pattern weve seen repeated ever since. Republicans attempt some unprecedented and shocking move; horrified Democrats respond by trying to be the adults in the room; and then the Democrats go unrewarded for it.

To be sure, a country is probably better off with one responsible party than with zero. But in important ways, this kind of asymmetry can be dangerous, making the government less and less representative of its people.

Now, time for some game theory.

In the game known as the prisoners dilemma, two players are competing against each other, and each has just two options cooperate or defect. If they both cooperate, they both get a nice reward. However, if Player 1 defects while Player 2 cooperates, Player 1 gets an even bigger reward while Player 2 pays a penalty. (The reverse happens if Player 1 cooperates while Player 2 defects.) If both players defect, neither gets a reward nor pays a penalty. Thus, each player wants the other to cooperate, and both prefer jointly cooperating to both defecting. But since neither can trust the other to cooperate, the usual outcome is for both to defect, leading to no payoff for either player. (The ferryboat scene in The Dark Knight (2008) remains my favorite, if imperfect, example of the prisoners dilemma.)

Playing this game many times can lead the players to develop norms of trust. Neither is happy with the low payoff, so reaching some sort of agreement about cooperation can be beneficial to both.

This hasnt been the pattern in national politics. On a range of issues and tactics, Republicans have defected while Democrats have cooperated. This includes how the GOP secured multiple Supreme Court justices, Donald Trump giving White House jobs to his daughter and son-in-law, Trump profiting from the presidency while refusing to release his tax returns, the Republican National Committee declaring the Jan. 6th riots to be legitimate political discourse, and many, many more. (I am not including Trumps efforts to steal the 2020 election or his instigation of the Capitol riot since those were, appropriately, met with impeachment and investigations.)

Were seeing this dynamic again in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. This ruling, while opposed by most Americans, was a longstanding goal of Republicans and particularly conservatives on the court. And Democratic leaders had, thanks to POLITICOs bombshell disclosure of the draft opinion, ample warning that it was coming. And in response, they have done virtually nothing.

As Jamelle Bouie notes, there are things the president or Congress can do to rein in an out-of-control Supreme Court. Lawmakers can impeach justices (perhaps the appointees that appear to have deceived senators or even lied under oath in their confirmation hearings). They can curtail the courts jurisdiction or constrain judicial review. They can add more justices. No, Democrats may not have the votes to do any of these things; such efforts would likely fall at least one or two votes short in the Senate amid opposition from people like Sen. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, though they may at least be open to discussion on some ideas. But its not clear that Democrats are even trying to broach the topic. Instead, they have read poems and sung patriotic tunes.

Even if Congress doesnt act, the Biden administration could push back on its own. One possible policy response would be to put abortion clinics on federal lands within states that have banned abortions; the administration has taken that off the table. Biden also could verbally attack the legitimacy of the court, as a previous Democratic president once did. He hasnt.

To be clear, most of these moves would be treated as significant norm violations in Washington. But thats the point. When a norm violation is met by another, that gives both parties an incentive to find a new equilibrium down the road, and suggests to the first violator that they may have gone too far. If the majoritys rulings to end the federal right to abortion and restrict the states ability to regulate guns were met with an attempt to add four justices to the court even if that attempt failed it would send a message that there is a price to be paid, and that a future Congress might finish the job.

A classic economics article by David Kreps et al. outlines a version of the prisoners dilemma that spans many iterations. In this game, it may make sense for one player to act irrationally in the short run, forgoing some payoffs, in order to give that player a reputation of unpredictability or craziness. This can improve that players negotiating position further down the road. It could make sense for Democrats to adopt a similar strategy, at least to the point that Republicans believe that Democrats are as willing to damage institutions as they are.

For now, though, the lack of any fulsome Democratic response simply sends the message that there will be no penalty for GOP transgressions. And the courts conservative majority is just getting started.

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Opinion | Why Are Democrats Letting Republicans Steamroll Them? - POLITICO

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PORTSMOUTH, N.H. Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan vows that she'll "fight and never back down" to protect legalized abortion in her latest TV ad running in her home state of New Hampshire.

Hassan was the first Democratic senator from a key battleground state who's facing a challenging reelection in November's midterms to go up with a commercial on abortion in wake of last week's monumental move by the Supreme Court's conservative majority to upend the landmark half century old Roe v. Wade ruling.

"This decision catapults us backwards, and there are politicians like Mitch McConnell, whove made it clear that their objective is to ban abortion nationwide," Hassan charges in her ad. "We will not be intimidated. I will fight and never back down. Im Maggie Hassan and I approve this message because protecting our personal freedoms isnt just whats right for New Hampshire, its what makes us New Hampshire."

Hassan ad is one of a slew of spots from Democratic incumbents and candidates running this year, as well as party committees and outside groups, to start running this week in Senate, House and gubernatorial races.

DEMOCRATIC, REPUBLICAN STRATEGISTS WEIGH IMPLICATION OF SUPREME COURT ABORTION RULING ON MIDTERM ELECTIONS

The political wing of Emily's List, a group that works to elect female Democratic candidates who support abortion, also went up with an ad praising Hassan for pushing "for a federal law to protect a woman's right to make her own personal decisions."

New Hampshire's Senate primary isn't until early September, so Hassan doesn't know which Republican challenger she'll be facing off with in November. But she's been heavily targeted by the GOP, which views her as vulnerable as she seeks a second term.

But in states where the GOP nominees have already been determined, Democrats are taking aim.

A commercial launched this week in the key swing state of Pennsylvania targets Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor and cardiac surgeon known as Dr. Oz, who last month won the GOP Senate nomination in the open seat race.

POLL: MAJORITY OF AMERICANS OPPOSE OVERTURNING ROE V. WADE

"I am pro-life. I have been very clear on my position," Mehmet Oz says in a clip in the ad, which was put up by the political wing of Planned Parenthood.

The narrator in spot charges that Oz "wants to make abortion a crime in Pennsylvania."

A separate political wing of Planned Parenthood took to the airwaves in battleground Wisconsin to take aim at GOP Sen. Ron Johnson over the issue. Democrats consider Johnson the most vulnerable Republican senator running for re-election this year.

The political wing of Emily's List is up with a spot in Nevada that highlights the anti-abortion stance of former state attorney general Adam Laxalt, who's this year's GOP Senate nominee.

And Washington State Democratic Sen. Patty Murray launched a commercial that uses a clip of Republican challenger Tiffany Smiley saying "I am 100% pro-life."

Democrats also took to the air to run abortion ads this week in House races and in gubernatorial battles including in Illinois, where Gov. J.B. Pritzker uses clips of GOP nominee and state Sen. Darren Bailey discussing his anti-abortion views.

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The national ad tracking firm AdImpact said that as of Thursday, they'd seen $4 million spent to run abortion commercials since last Friday's Supreme Court ruling.

Democrats aim to spotlight the issue between now and November, when the party will be defending their razor-thin House and Senate majorities as they face historical headwinds in an extremely difficult political climate fueled by skyrocketing gas prices, soaring inflation and President Bidens underwater approval ratings.

Party strategists see a silver lining in the seismic overturning of Roe v. Wade and the returning the issue of legalized abortion to state legislatures.

It may offer Democrats a chance to alter the campaign conversation, energize the left-leaning base, and win back key female and suburban voters who helped the Democrats win back the House in 2018 but appeared to cross party lines in some 2020 congressional contests and again in GOP victories in elections in Virginia and New Jersey last November.

Abortion-rights protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. ((AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana))

Democrats point to public opinion polls conducted in the wake of Supreme Court ruling that indicate a solid majority of Americans disagree with the opinion and that it may motivate more Democrats rather than Republicans to vote in the midterms. They aim to turn anger about the decision into support at the ballot box, even as Republicans aim to keep attention on rising prices and crime less than five months before the midterms.

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"There are going to be dozens and dozens of close races on Election Day and the abortion issue is going to swing it to the Democratic candidate in a lot of them,"veteran Democratic pollster John Anzalone told Fox News.

"Abortion is going to be illegal in a large swath of America on Election Day in places voters never thought it would be and there will be a reckoning by voters on GOP candidates who support a ban and often without exceptions for rape and incest.This puts GOP candidates on the defensive when just a month a go only Democrats were on the defensive," Anzalone, the chief pollster for President Biden's 2020 campaign, emphasized.

But longtime Republican consultant David Carney argued that "saying something works and knowing something works is not the same thing. Democrats use this issue like the boy who cried wolf. They do this every cycle when they have no agenda."

Carney, a veteran of numerous GOP presidential and statewide campaigns over the past couple of decades, acknowledged that "obviously people are concerned in some states" over the issue of abortion.

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But he said the midterms top issue is "going to be $5 dollar gas" as well as the skyrocketing prices for home heating oil, natural gas, and electricity.

And Republicans aim to counter the attacks over abortion by spotlighting what they describe as the Democrats' "radical position of supporting late-term abortions up until the moment of birth."

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.

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Democrats flood airwaves with abortion ads in the week since monumental Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling - Fox News

Ahead of the states August 9 primary, the Supreme Courts Roe decision supercharged competition among the leading Democratic contenders to take on Johnson. Their jostling illustrates the partys intense focus on picking the best candidate to capitalize on progressive energy over the high court ruling, which halted Planned Parenthoods abortion procedures in the state.

We need people who are willing to step up to get rid of the filibuster and to pass the laws in this country that we so desperately need, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). We need pro-choice fighters.

Warren, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) are backing Mandela Barnes, Wisconsins 35-year-old lieutenant governor whos led the polls for months. However, 34-year-old Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry is catching up down the stretch after spending millions of his own dollars.

Thats not all: Sarah Godlewski, the 40-year-old state treasurer, and Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, 46, fill out the top tier of candidates in a state with a history of surprising Democratic primaries.

All four candidates offer a generational contrast from the tempestuous Johnson, who at 67 is running for his third term after twice beating former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.). Each Democratic candidate wants to eliminate the filibuster to preserve Roe, and none believe in any abortion restrictions.

The biggest difference among them is on adding seats to the Supreme Court, a liberal goal that Nelson supports, Barnes is open to and Godlewski and Lasry oppose.

Progressive Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) agreed that little separates the quartet on abortion. But with the stakes so high for Democrats, all four are going full-tilt to present themselves as the primary fields biggest abortion rights advocates.

Barnes, whod be the states first Black senator if elected, says his record in Wisconsin politics is as a very dear friend to Planned Parenthood. Lasry says his wifes work for Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin allows him to see firsthand every day the fight for abortion rights. Godlewski says she can more effectively prosecute the case against Johnson as the Democratic primarys only woman, while Nelson touts his ratings with abortion rights groups.

The race has a decidedly Midwest-nice vibe, with the candidates generally staying publicly trained on Johnson rather than each other though theres plenty of trash-talking behind the scenes. And since Democrats need to beat Johnson to have any hope of executing their agenda next year, party leaders are trying to keep it that way.

If anyone does anything unfair, I call them first, personally. And if they dont stop doing it, Ill call them out publicly. I havent had to do that yet, the second part. Ive had to do the first part a couple of times, said Pocan, who is neutral in the Senate primary and described his role as just trying to keep peace.

That may become more difficult as national attention turns to the four-way swing-state skirmish. In an interview, Barnes sharply questioned nominating a wealthy candidate like Lasry or Godlewski to take on Johnson, himself a wealthy conservative businessman.

If our case to voters is that our multimillionaire is better than Republicans multimillionaire? I dont see that as a winning message. People are tired of the millionaires club. They want people in Washington to understand exactly what theyre going through, Barnes said.

Asked to respond, Lasry said he doesnt want to engage in a sideshow but took a subtle shot himself.

What voters are tired of is these career politicians with no record of accomplishment ... just always looking for the next thing to run for, Lasry said.

In this Oct. 24, 2020, file photo, Milwaukee Bucks senior vice president Alex Lasry, left, and then-Bucks guard George Hill walk through a Milwaukee neighborhood during a voter canvassing effort.|Steve Megargee/AP Photo

Godlewski said she launched her campaign with abortion-access messaging, adding a jab that when you look at other people in this race, they just decided to talk about it recently.

But if theres anyone truly testing Pocans peacemaker skills in the Senate primary, its Nelson, whos running as the purest progressive.

Its one thing to be a defender of womens reproductive rights in a blue part of the state, quite different in a red or purple part of the state, Nelson said of his time in the state legislature. Mandela was there for two terms, but he represented one of the most Democratic and pro-choice districts in the state. You know, whoop-dee-doo.

Barnes led the latest Marquette University poll with 25 percent of 369 Democratic primary voters, while Lasry had 21 percent, Godlewski 9 percent and Nelson 7 percent. Several Democrats recalled Feingold coming out of nowhere in 1992 to win the partys Senate nomination with iconic ads claiming an endorsement from Elvis and declaring he wouldnt stoop to his opponents mudslinging.

In other words, people in the state warn that a whole lot can change in six weeks, and all four candidates look competitive with Johnson. Moreover, more than a third of the primary electorate is undecided, a sign that Wisconsins primary is under-the-radar just five weeks before Election Day.

That race has been competitive all along. And not a lot of people have been talking about it, said Sen. Ben Ray Lujn (D-N.M.), who said the Senate Democrats campaign arm is smart to remain neutral.

According to the candidates, however, the Roe reversal as well as Johnsons anti-abortion position and confusing answers about his staff forwarding a false-electors note on Jan. 6 has brought the messy primary to the forefront of voters minds. Barnes said he had his best fundraising day ever the day of the Supreme Court decision, and Lasry said it crystallized the stakes of this election against Johnson.

It really shook up the race, Nelson said. The pro-choice side has been on defense for the last 50 years, and now theyre on offense.

Johnson praised the Supreme Court decision on abortion but said it will be up to the states to figure out specific abortion policies. Thats proven difficult in Wisconsin, which has a Democratic governor, a GOP-controlled legislature and an 1849 law restricting abortion. As Godlewski put it: Were not going to be able to get this done at the state level. So our only hope is to get this done at the federal level.

Thats going to require a straight flush from Democrats: keep the House, protect all of their Senate incumbents and pick up two seats, probably including Wisconsin. With anti-filibuster John Fetterman winning Pennsylvanias Democrat Senate nomination already, that makes the primary in Americas Dairyland among the most vital political dates left on the calendar this year for Democrats.

Unless we take out Ron Johnson, were never gonna have the majority in the Senate, Pocan said. Were trying to keep everyone focused on the prize.

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The Democratic primary that could determine the future of abortion rights - POLITICO

Hillary Scholten was walking down the street in Grand Rapids last Friday morning when the news alert popped onto her phone. She had known since early May, of course, that the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, thanks to the leak of a draft decision. But the reality still hit hard. Record scratch. The day changed, Scholten tells me. I was with my campaign manager, who is a young woman, and we just looked at each other with horror on our faces. My sister called. I felt like crying. And yet, we have no time for tears. What are we going to do?

What Scholten did was amp up her campaign schedule for the weekend. She is the Democratic nominee for a western Michigan congressional district that is currently represented by Republican Peter Meijer, and Scholtens race is emblematic of the challenge facing Democrats nationally: Can they convert anger about the Supreme Courts abortion decision into electoral momentum, and overcome what still shapes up as a very difficult midterms landscape? Polling right after the Roe ruling was encouraging, with Democrats pulling further ahead in a generic ballot. Yet John Anzalonewho is President Joe Bidens pollster and whose firm is advising Scholtens campaignremains cautious, if somewhat more optimistic.

The trifecta of whats dominating the newsthe Supreme Court opinions banning abortion and permitting guns, and the January 6 hearings, which have been pretty intensethe Republicans are on the wrong side of those in terms of public opinion, Anzalone says. In some ways it gives us hope that on the messaging side, we can really compete. Does it mean that were not going to lose the House? No, Im not saying that. But theres a big difference between losing seven or 10 seats and losing 35. This absolutely has an impact to swing races to a bunch of Democrats.

The marginand any chance of the Democrats holding on to their House majoritywill turn on races like Scholtens. Two years ago she lost to Meijer, the heir to a supermarket fortune, by six points. Redistricting, however, has made the playing field distinctly more favorable to Scholten. In 2020 Donald Trump carried Michigans old third district by three points; the new district would have gone to Biden by eight points. Trump has endorsed John Gibbs, Meijers Republican primary opponent, as payback for Meijers vote in favor of impeachment. If Gibbs wins the nomination in August, it would hand Scholten a stark contrast in the general election: Gibbs has backed Trumps election lies, and has said that striking down Roe is great news for women.

Scholten, 40, is a compelling, unusual Democratic candidate. She grew up in a Republican family, attending the evangelical Christian Reformed Church twice on Sundays and once on Wednesdays and remains proudly active in the faith. Scholten served as an immigration lawyer in the Obama administration Justice Department before returning home to Grand Rapids to work as a public interest lawyer. That kind of varied background should be a significant asset, because Democrats cant count on the heat of the Roe moment lasting from now through November. Theres a real divide between the D.C.-based consultants and people who are on the ground in these districts, a Democratic strategist says. The D.C. class says, Oh, yeah, were going to run on choice. Theyre missing [the fact] that public safety and inflation are the real motivators this cycle.

Democratic candidates everywhere are also fighting against disappointment that the party hasnt delivered more of substance after winning the White House and the House in 2020. We have more to do, says New York congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, who is the head of the Democrats congressional campaign arm, and who naturally tries to put a positive spin on a year of frustrating legislative setbacks for Democrats stemming from dissension in their own ranks. But I dont think the story here is that House moderates or progressives let anybody down. They stayed constructive and engaged. We did our work and passed the presidents agenda, and it came within one or two votes in the Senate.

Scholten believes the reaction to the Roe decision will be wide and deep, but shes careful not to become a one-issue candidate. Im a working mom of two young kids who feels the pain at the pump, she says. I look at my neighbor whos working two jobs, as a day-care provider and a waitress, and can barely make ends meet. People here know that big oil and big gas is taking its cut, and that our current congressman voted against a cap on the price of insulin. Thats something that deeply matters in this district.

She is artful about whether the leader of her party, whose public approval is currently 16 points underwater, will be an asset or a hindrance in the race. You know, President Biden isnt on the ballot this time around, Scholten says. Certainly folks are going to be voting on where we are in terms of this country. But we also have a major gubernatorial race here. Governor [Gretchen] Whitmers at the top of the ticket and her approval ratings are high right now.

Losing two years ago somehow didnt discourage Scholten from taking on a battle where shes likely to be the target of Trumps attacks. She even manages to laugh at the prospect. As a woman running for public office, you have to accept a lot of challenges, she says. Im ready for anything.

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We Have No Time for Tears: If Democrats Want to Hold the House They Need to Win Districts Like This One - Vanity Fair