LWVMM 2025 President's Report

LWVMM held its 2025 annual meeting on Wednesday, May 21.

The following President's Report was included in the program for the evening.

 

Greetings, fellow League members.

In normal times, I might begin this report by asking a simple question: 2025 is not a midterm or Presidential election year, so what shall the League’s priorities be for the next few months?

These are not normal times!

Waiting for the next election is no longer a tenable strategy.  Since at least January 20, 2025, I have been pleased every month to see our membership grow and members — new and old — participate in efforts to stem the growing tide of authoritarianism we face.  However, we all must do more.

But first, the elephant in the room:  Yes, we can fight back and remain nonpartisan.  That’s our priority and a necessity, for the League and its members.  How can that be?

  • Objecting to the Constitution being trampled and ignored is a nonpartisan act.
  • Participating in resistance to authoritarianism is a nonpartisan act.
  • Protecting our rights, privileges, and neighbors is a nonpartisan act.
  • Upholding the principles and positions of the League is a nonpartisan act.

We can follow the model being set by the League of Women Voters of the United States (LWVUS), which has traditionally been known for its radical moderation in political statements and involvement.  LWVUS — yes, that LWVUS — has shifted course in response to recent events.  The most recent guidance from LWVUS said:[1]

We are Nonpartisan, Not Neutral. 

Remaining nonpartisan does not mean staying silent.  When democracy itself is under threat, when voter access is restricted, or when misinformation spreads, we have a responsibility to speak out — clearly and forcefully.  Our nonpartisan commitment strengthens our voice, allowing us to advocate for fundamental rights and freedoms without being seen as beholden to any political agenda.

That came after April 17, 2025, when the LWVUS declared, with unusual boldness:

“It has now been 87 days since the start of the Trump administration. From the flagrant disregard for congressional authority and governmental checks and balances to defying Supreme Court orders to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back home, one thing is abundantly clear:  our country is in a constitutional crisis.

"We the people must fight back. …

"The foundational principles that have sustained our democracy — checks and balances, the rule of law, free and fair elections — are under direct and sustained threat.  In this extraordinary moment, we cannot proceed with business as usual.[2]  All Americans — no matter who you voted for in 2024 — need to come together, stand united, and fight back to save our democracy.  We cannot afford to fail the generations to come.”

Our organization must remain hopeful and even more active than usual.  We cannot accept that the adversaries of democracy will be victorious.  We cannot be silent.  We cannot surrender.

Once again, I call your attention to Timothy Snyder and his little book On Tyranny.[3]   In it, he provides 20 practical lessons to combat tyranny.  I refer to it often, as a manual for action.

  • The first lesson to combat tyranny is Do not obey in advance.

In other words, don’t give up without a fight.  This strategy is being ignored by many, even those who ostensibly could wield great clout by speaking up, pushing back.  In fact, we are surrounded by people — the rich, the powerful, those in high office — who exhibit some of the greatest cowardice we have ever seen.  We hear members of Congress whining publicly about being afraid.  Those are not examples to follow.  The easy path, the fearful path, is not guaranteed to be the safe path for any of us.  To surrender to fear is to surrender.  Period.

  • This relates, naturally, to the 20th lesson: Be as courageous as you can.

Recently, I heard some folks say they don’t recall ever having to protest for rights or resist government actions before.  Some of us recall quite well, from our own lifetimes.  We recall the 1960s and ‘70s.

We recall Black Americans and their allies protesting peacefully, yet being beaten and dying to gain the right to vote and other civil rights.  Some were murdered just for showing up and trying to register people to vote.

We also recall protests in the streets and on college campuses to stop an unjust war in Vietnam.  Change didn’t come easily then either.  Some gave their lives.  But more would have died without those protests.

I don’t often quote Thomas Jefferson, but his words seem apt here: 

A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.

And from our time, John Lewis:

Democracy is not a state.  It is an act.

Finally, let’s not fall into the cushy belief that the myriad of wanton acts we observe from this Administration are separate and independent.  Tariffs designed to sink a booming economy and turn allies into adversaries, renditions of citizens and immigrants to foreign prisons without due process, dismantling DEI, gutting Federal agencies and the Federal workforce, abandoning Ukraine and NATO, strong-arming giant law firms and universities older than the U.S. itself, defunding or crippling important public programs (USAID, Medicaid, Social Security, HeadStart, biomedical research, to name a few), and blatantly defying the Federal courts are not separate, they are not independent, and taken together, they may not be survivable.[4]  And this is only a partial list of the challenges we face from this Administration’s comprehensive assault on our democracy and freedoms.

This is not the President’s report I intended to write this year.  But it is the truth as I see it.

Thank you for choosing to be a member of the League of Women Voters of Morgantown- Monongalia County.  Thank you to every member, new and old, who stepped up this year and accomplished more than our numbers could have predicted.  Our work is not done; it has only begun.  We must act.  Identify your superpower; use it.  Please contact me or the board if you have any questions.  Just send an email to lwvmorgantown@gmail.com.


Judy K. Ball
President 

 

[1] Navigating Nonpartisanship in a Divisive Political Climate, Updated Apr 2025.

[2] Emphasis added.

[3] Timony Snyder, On Tyranny:  Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Duggan Books, 2017.

[4] David Brooks, What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal, NY Times, Apr. 17, 2025.