Americans for Democratic Action is a nationwide, multi-issue progressive/Left organization that was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1947. The  Southern California Chapter is the largest and most active. We are working on supporting and electing progressive candidates who will put the needs of their constituents ahead of corporate donors. We are committed to Single-Payer Healthcare (Medicare For All), staving off the Climate Catastrophe that is bearing down on us and fighting against the corruptive influence of Big Money on our Electoral System.

You can become a member of ADA SoCal here: DONATE and support the work we’re doing. Board meetings are usually the first Tuesday of the month and all are welcome to attend and participate. Let us strive to create a more just, equitable and sustainable community, state, society, nation and world!

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THE COCKTAILS AND CANDIDATES SALON
July 19th

The Cocktails and Candidates Salon Zoom

Tad Daley with his Hand up

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Americans for Democratic Action Southern California put on an  extraordinary  online event on Friday evening, July 19^th. It was one day after former President Donald Trump delivered his acceptance speech before the Republican National Convention, and (as it turned out) two days before President Biden chose to abandon his bid to seek re-election, after nearly a month of extraordinary ferment about that question.

Because of that ferment, we decided to convene an online gathering of Southern California Democrats – and anyone else – to talk about the extraordinary events of this unprecedented political summer. At our initiative, we partnered with both the Culver City Democratic Club and the West Los Angeles Democratic Club – two outfits with both large networks and stellar records of progressive activism.

The key to this get together was that WE HAD NO DESIGNATED SPEAKERS. Many of us spend much of our lives these days on ZOOMs which are either meetings with detailed agendas, or presentations on topics with expert talking heads, and then there's a Q&A, and you got 60 seconds, and please make sure it's in the form of a question. There is so rarely an opportunity for politically knowledgeable friends and colleagues just to TALK about everything going on in our communities and our world. 

So that’s why we arranged this “Unabridged Social Town Hall” about the 2024 presidential race. More than 50 people attended. So many people expressed admiration for President Joe Biden -- who is the current POTUS, who swept all the Democratic presidential primaries, and who has had a superb first presidential term from the progressive Democratic perspectives which many of the assembled shared. And yet so many others expressed concerns about both his apparent decline in capacity at age 81, and his stubbornly poor poll performances.

It was an open, informed, enriching, passionate, and VERY lightly moderated conversation. We’d like to believe it gave everyone a chance to participate, to have their say, to engage with kindred spirits, and to VENT.

And now that President Biden has stepped aside as a candidate, and Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have emerged as the likely Democratic Party’s nominee for president, we’ll be doing similar such freewheeling gatherings again!

To talk about the November election – up and down the ballot. And to talk about the progressive peace planetary patriot agenda.

Please make sure we have your email address so we can keep you in the loop on future such gatherings!  

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THE FULL STORY ON MILITARY RECRUITING

On June 6, 2024, the 80^th anniversary of DDay, the Americans for Democratic Action Foundation of Southern California put together a live, in-person event about the realities of service, today, in branches of the United States military. We partnered with a wonderful organization out in the Inland Empire called UNCOMMON GOOD.

Unlike ADAF SoCal, which endeavors to educate and enlighten about the progressive peace patriot agenda, UNCOMMON GOOD focuses on direct social services. One of their programs aims to guide and counsel low-income Latino youth, many of them children of the undocumented, to get them through school, dispatch them off to college, and break the intergenerational cycle of poverty.

But the good folks at UNCOMMON GOOD have a problem.  More and more of the high schoolers in their programs are falling for the siren call of military recruiters. They ain't going to college. They're joining the US Army, or the US Navy, or the US Air Force, or the US Space Force. (The latter, if you haven’t heard, is brand new. Because we can’t let any realm remain free, of course, from the inexorable pressures of military competition.) 

No one contends that military service is the wrong choice for everyone. But we want these young people to get the full picture.  

So UNCOMMON GOOD and ADAF SoCal partnered on this June 6th event. Several ADA members joined us online, and ADAF SoCal board members and physicians, Dr. Khin Khin Gyi and Dr. Nancy Niparko, made the long drive out from the westside to Claremont in order to join us in person.

Well more than 100 individuals filled the local church hall in Claremont. Teenage girls, and teenage boys, and their parents – most of whom spoke imperfect English. (That’s why we had Alejandra on hand, who made a valiant effort to translate most of what was said from English into Spanish.) They heard from both Nancy Mintie, the Executive Director of UNCOMMON GOOD, and Tad Daley, the President of ADAF SoCal. they heard from a couple of young recent military veterans. They heard from a young attorney who represents veterans before the labyrinthine Department of Veterans Affairs.

And most of all, they heard from the legendary Ron Kovic -- played by Tom Cruise in the feature film Born on the Fourth of July -- who was paralyzed for life in his early 20s in Viet Nam, who has a brand new 2024 book out called A Dangerous Country, and who is without question one of the greatest antiwar activists in American history.

It was a moving, powerful, and memorable evening for all concerned.  The students and their parents had a great many questions for all the panelists, including Ron Kovic, wheren they shared dtails both about their uncertain immigration situation, and their uncertainty about what they wer being told by U.S military recruiters.

The whole point of the evening was to guide these young people to figure out the optimal way for them to contribute to their local communities, to the American nation, and to our one common human community.  

We opened their minds to the idea that we ought to say to MANY people, not just military veterans, "Thank you for your service."  And, perhaps, we put these children on the pathway to keeping them from being devoured by the machines of war. 

So that someday, they can help all of us see what we can do to one day abolish war. 

Toward the end of the long evening the great Ron Kovic, wholly unprompted, in a thundering voice, said the following:

"You kids listen to these people who are counseling you at Uncommon Good! Those military recruiters are looking out for THEIR best interests. They’re not giving you genuine career guidance or life advice. THEIR job is to make a successful sales pitch for the U.S. military. But these good people at Uncommon Good? They are looking out for YOU!"

And when Alejandra began sharing his words in Spanish to the audience? Apparently she started to cry.

We hope that we put on an event on June 6^th, 2024 that carried on the long legacy of peace activism, among many other things, that Americans for Democratic Action has pursued since 1947.  And more importantly, we hope that JUST MAYBE, we may have altered the direction of several teenagers' lives.

The Highlights of the Ron Kovic Event

Ron Kovic, upper left, speaks on Zoom to the Students

ADA Foundation SoCal President  Tad Daley,J.D., Phd. Tad Daley, with ADA Foundation SoCal board members Dr.Khin Khin G,and Dr. Nancy Niparko

 

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Americans for Democratic Action, Southern California Chapter Urges Ceasefire, Solidarity Against Slaughter

 

•  Whereas the seeds of antisemitism and of Islamophobia linger just below the surface in America as in many countries, the escalation of Israeli-Arab conflict in the Middle East poses a threat to Jewish and Muslim Americans, a secondary but important reason for the U.S. government and all Americans to bend their utmost efforts toward a peaceful and just solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. 
  
  
  

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District 40: Pilar Schiavo
District 44: Nick Schultz
District 52: Genesis Coronado
District 55: Isaac Bryan
District 57: BabaAkili
District 62: María Estrada

• Los Angeles Board of Supervisors: 
Seat 2: Holly Mitchell
Seat 4: Janice Hahn
Seat 5: Konstantine Anthony

• Los Angeles District Attorney:
  George Gascón

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SoCal ADA Presents EARTH DAY 2023 2-4 PM Saturday, April 22, 2023 Zoom ID: 832 4651 0768 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83246510768 SPEAKERS  LORAINE LUNDQUIST P.H.D “Getting off Gas in the Shadow of Aliso Canyon.”LORAINE LUNDQUIST. MYLA RESON "Roadmap to Safe Energy Future MARCIA HANSCOM "Ballona Wetlands: Is the Coast Toast"? NANCY NIPARKO M.D. "Our Plastic World" KHIN KHIN GYI M.D., Ph.D The L.A. County Ordinance 2023 HARVEY WASSERMAN M.A. "The Problem with Diablo Canyon and Palo Verde Nuclear" DONATE Find us on Social Media

 

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ADEM ENDORSEMENTS

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LAST DAY TO REGISTER IS TODAY    Please take two minutes right now by clicking to register to vote in the January 2023 Delegate Elections. More below, and how to find out if you are in the new AD51 - or what district you are in. but my ask today is just to register to vote by mail ASAP.  TODAY IS THE LAST DAY REGISTER NOW! This is an internal Democratic Party election, so the County Registrar won’t send you a ballot. Instead, you must request a ballot by Dec. 31. PLEASE Do it now so it’s not hanging over your holiday dinner table! I NEED EVERY VOTE WHICH I CAN GET.  Here’s how: 1.     Go to ademelections.com/register/mail. 2.     Enter the info corresponding to your voter registration and press “Submit.” If you need to check your voter registration data, email me. 3.     Follow the usual 2-step verification process on the next page. When prompted, enter the code you’re emailed. This will get you the PIN you’ll need to put on your ballot for it to count. Keep your PIN safe, but you can find it here if you lose it.   Your ballot should arrive around Jan. 6; votes due back by Jan. 31.     Your vote will be for delegates who will represent your decision for who you want for the office of President etc. of the Democratic Party.

 

 

Cori Bush AND Nina Turner!!! A once in a lifetime opportunity to see two of the most progressive, outspoken and well-spoken legislators in the country -- together!!!!   This event is to raise funds for Cori's security.  She is receiving constant death threats and Congress does not provide security for "run of the mill" congress people -- so we need to step up to the plate to keep her safe. We have kept the entry donation affordable, but remember, this is a fundraiser so bring your checkbook or credit cards. This will also be a time to get together with our friends to celebrate some of our November wins at the polls (think Karen Bass, et al) - TOGETHER, for the first time in quite a while!  Let's Party! Holiday Party with a Purpose  for  Cori Bush (with Nina Turner) I Saturday   December 17 2:00 ~ 4:30pm in Santa Monica (Dress Warmly, and in Layers -- The Party will be Outdoors)  RSVP Hosted by Jan Goodman, Jerry Manpearl, Susie Shannon, Amy Vilela, Alan Minsky BOE Member Tony Vasquez, State Senator Ben Allen, Santa Monica Mayor Sue Himmelrich LA Councilmembers Hugh Soto Martinez & Mike Bonin Dorothy Reik, Carlos Marroquin, Howie Klein Progressive Democrats of America, and Feel the Bern San Fernando Valley lease mention who you were invited by when you RSVP for security purposes as we want to ensure the safety of our guests.  Address will be provided upon RSVP

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Support Raphael Warnock for US Senate

  

 

Help make calls to Georgia to provide frequent Black Voters with their early voting locations, among other details on how to vote in the December 6, 2022 Raphael Warnock vs. Hershel Walker Senate runoff election. Early voting starts on November 28^th!

Getting Senator Warnock re-elected and having a 51 to 49 advantage will make a significant difference in the balance of power.  

If Reverend Warnock wins the December 2^nd Senate run-off, Democrats will have a majority on all Senate committees – that majority is essential for judiciary appointments, cabinet appointments, and for discharging petitions out of Senate committees. 

Having that 51^st senator will also make Machin irrelevant. 

Your calls to frequent Black voters can make all the difference in what promises to be a close run-off election.

 

START MAKING CALLS TODAY

 

WATCH Harvey Wasserman's discussion about what you can do to help with Center for Common Ground Founder & CEO Andrea Miller, and Atlanta Georgia NAACP Political Director Ray McClendon 

 

Southern California Americans for Democratic Action is partnering with the Center for Common Ground, the Atlanta NAACP and the Grass Roots Election Protection Coalition to make sure that Senator Warnock returns to the U.S. Senate.

 

Click on YouTube Picture to View Video

 

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ADA SoCal Endorsements

Here is the list of endorsements for the November 8th, 2022 Election.
Please refer here to the Endorsements Link ,on it you'll find HOW WE MAKE OUR ENDORSEMENTS.

Click here for printable Endorsements Document

 

State Administrators

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony Thurmond

Board of Equalization Member District 3: Tony Vazquez

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U.S House of Representatives

District 27: Christy Smith

District 28: Judy Chu

District 29: Angelica Deuñas

District 33: Ted Lieu

District 34: David Kim

District 37: Sydney Kamlager

District 38: Linda Sanchez

District 40: Asif Mahmood

District 43: Maxine Waters

District 44: Nannette Barragan

District 45: Jay Chen

District 47: Katie Porter

District 49: Mike Levin

LAUSD

District 2: Rocio Rivas

District 6: Kelly Gonez

 

Los Angeles Community College District:

Seat 2:

Steve Veres

Seat 7:

Nancy Pearlman

 

Los Angeles City Mayor: Karen Bass

City Attorney: Faisal Gil