The presidential election has been called for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I speak with Constitutional lawyer and activist Shahid Buttar about what that means for our work on issues of social justice, his campaign to challenge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her congressional seat, and critical issues of the day such as the media, democracy, militarization and mass surveillance. Buttar points out that the crises we face are more than political. The United States is in a Constitutional crisis and legislators such as California’s Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein are at the helm.
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Shahid Buttar: Since graduating from Stanford Law School in 2003, Shahid has worked in both San Francisco and Washington as a legal advocate, a non-profit leader, a grassroots organizer, and a poet & musician.
His wide-ranging work reflects a commitment to intersectional feminism, democratic socialism, and international human rights. His passions have long aligned around a common purpose: building the movement to put human rights and human needs before corporate profits.
An early advocate for marriage equality for same-sex couples and a prolific organizer in the movement to end warrantless government surveillance, Shahid most recently built a national grassroots network for the Electronic Frontier Foundation as the organization’s Director of Grassroots Advocacy.
In addition to LGBTQ rights, privacy, and the right to encryption, Shahid’s work has also advanced immigrant rights, campaign finance reform, government transparency, international human rights, and police accountability. His writing has explored issues from the right-wing attack on reproductive freedom to the erosion of voting rights, and from effective counter-terrorism strategies to examples of counter-cultural activism promoting progressive politics at the intersection of art and organizing. Read more about Shahid Buttar here.