Fed Up New Yorkers: About Us
The first thing to know about Fed Up New Yorkers is that we’re not all in New York. This grass-roots venture started as a city-level political project, but our attention has always been focused on national politics. We are concerned about lawless politicians led by Donald Trump and William Barr systematically dismantling every constitutional safeguard and the normal governing behavior that most of us have taken for granted.
In its first incarnation, Fed Up New Yorkers was an 8-page print newspaper distributed around New York City, opposing the then-mayor’s policies that favored the rich at the expense of working people, the middle class, and people of color.
Then in 2016, we made a brief effort at influencing state government, putting out a 24-page paper and creating our first website. That didn’t work out very well, because print newspapers need deep pockets, and that’s not us.
But for the 2018 midterm elections, our founder Neil Fabricant and the cartoonist Keith Seidel wanted to post at least one cartoon and statement in opposition to Donald Trump and the Republican congressmen who enable him. That first venture into social-media politicking seems to have borne some fruit. The two New York State congressional districts we targeted both elected Democrats to the U.S. House. They were part of the gratifying anti-Trump surge that broke the GOP’s lock on both houses of congress. Our 2018 campaign first used this motto to urge people to vote: “Every Vote Counts — They Can’t Rig a Landslide.”
That’s still our motto this year. We know Trump and his party are doing everything they can to suppress voting, and are already laying the groundwork to cast doubt on the results of this year’s presidential and congressional elections. So we reiterate: “Every Vote Counts – They Can’t Rig a Landslide.”
For 2020, rather than go through a pointless process of rebranding ourselves (“Fed Up Americans”?) we’re sticking with our old name and web domain, and expanding our successful social-media campaigns from 2018. This is why voters in swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan are seeing our posts and ads on social media such as Facebook. Our purpose is to provide insights to voters who can either be persuaded to change their votes from 2016, or motivated to turn out and encourage their friends to do so, too. We resurrected Fed Up New Yorkers for that purpose.
Who We Are:
Neil Fabricant
Neil Fabricant, founder and principal writer, says, “I’m still very much a Fed Up New Yorker.” He is a veteran of the political world, having served lawmakers of both parties in the New York Legislature. He is the retired president of George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, which he founded in 1987.
John Meyer
John Meyer, our editor and sometime copy writer, is a long-time journalist, a former managing editor of the Wilmington, NC, “Morning Star” and now a free-lance book editor.
Kathleen "Kate" Beall Meyer
Kathleen “Kate” Beall Meyer is a graphic artist and designer, also a former newspaper professional. Her focus is on the collateral merchandise we offer and on other ways we present our messages visually.
Keith Seidel
Keith Seidel is a nationally known illustrator whose work has appeared in publications as diverse as “Mad” Magazine and “Washington Monthly.” He has created cartoons for Fed Up New Yorkers since 2016.
A number of other friends and silent partners are doing invaluable work in managing this site and our social-media presence, designing products to sell to raise funds, or simply supporting this project financially. If you would like to help, please consider:
Donating to our cause. Buying a T-shirt or other merchandise. Sharing and liking our posts on social media. Voting (if possible, early or by mail) and encouraging others to vote.
What we're fed up about
To cite just a few examples of an out-of-control government:
1) the placement of radical right-wing ideologues into the bloodstream of our judicial system
2) the president’s boldly corrupt and almost certainly illegal financial dealings
3) the call on foreign governments to help the president gain and hold the presidency
4) the refusal to take any action to protect American troops from bounties placed on their heads by a foreign government
5) the rule by presidential decree rather than legislation
6) the use of unidentified, armed men deputized by the attorney general firing tear gas and so-called non-lethal weapons against peaceful protesters, taking them away in unmarked vehicles
7) the caging of infants at the border, separating them from their parents perhaps forever
8) the very idea that our Department of Justice claims in federal court that an American president is above the law and can neither be prosecuted or even investigated . . . and much, much more.
We have never seen anything like this in our lifetimes, not even in wartime. Americans are now barred from traveling outside our borders; our beloved country is pitied by some and held in contempt by others, a pariah among nations.
Ironically, Ronald Reagan was right all along: government isn’t the solution; government is the problem. At least this government!
We’re fed up and we’re frightened for the future of our kids. We can’t rely on other people to pull us out of this deep ditch. And we certainly can’t rely on this government, which keeps digging us deeper. Whatever political differences we may have, they are insignificant when it comes to getting rid of this regime and the Republican politicians who enable it.
We hope you’ll help us turn our country back toward real law and order, real justice, and a future that begins to pry loose the iron grip of radical right big money and sociopathic corporations and a president and a Republican Party that’s helping them. We’re fully committed, but we need help.
Click here for some ideas about how you can help us.
Contact us
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