Stop Using Wildfire Victims as Political Pawns

Target: Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House

Goal: Provide needed aid to Californians displaced and harmed by onslaught of wildfires.

“They don’t deserve anything, to be honest with you, unless they show us they’re [going to] make some changes.” Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville made these remarks in response to potential federal aid for the regions of California ravaged by roughly a dozen wildfires. The remarks were given right after Tuberville insinuated that only the members of his own party who lived in California were “good people” and shortly before he leveled a veiled threat at transgender children. “I expect there will be strings attached,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso added of the wildfire aid.

After vowing to visit California and see the devastation for himself, President Donald Trump clarified what these “changes” and “strings” would entail. They did not involve improved forest management, as Tuberville and Barrasso had suggested in their previous remarks. Instead, the president honed in on one major factor that had nothing to do with the disasters themselves: voter ID laws. Trump said, “In California, I have a condition — We want them to have voter ID so people have a voice. Right now, the people don’t have a voice because you don’t know who is voting. It’s very corrupt.”

In the absence of the state overhauling its laws in response to unsubstantiated and disproven voter fraud allegations, the President of the Unites States is essentially threatening to hold relief hostage for thousands of displaced and in-crisis Americans. Sign the petition below to demand the house of the people actually begin standing up for the people.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Speaker Johnson,

Have we reached the point when helping the people of this country during their most desperate times comes with conditions and demanded political allegiance? Judging by the remarks of some of your Congressional colleagues, it would seem this day has arrived. Voter ID laws have no bearing on disaster relief. Neither do environmental policies, unless you want to count the utter abandonment of such policies at the legislative level and the subsequent climate consequences of said abandonment.

Stop weaponizing tragedies for political gain and start supporting the people this chamber of Congress is supposed to represent. Approve federal wildfire relief aid, no strings attached.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: CAL FIRE