#12: It Is A Privilege To Live In A Country Where We Can Fight Back

Thank you for continuing to share these messages with your friends, if you are not already on our mailing list, please click here to be added to our list. You can also follow me on Facebook. The more people we can reach, the more we contribute to this growing movement. We share these posts on our blog, A Path Forward to November 3, 2020, every two weeks, which means there will be a total of 100 missives before the Presidential election of 2020, in which our country will select a whole new course. 

Back when Donald Trump insisted that NATO is obsolete, that may well have been what he truly believed at that particular point in time. The fact that his belief and underlying values are subject to abrupt and dramatic change is not comforting, even if now and again he ends up doing something that temporarily makes more sense than what he initially intended.

We can't be anything but discomfited by a president who has nothing at his core. He should not be president. If a senior aide who is inaccurately labeled a "moderate" convinces him to do something less awful than what Steve Bannon and he initially fashioned, where is the satisfaction in that - that Donald Trump for 48 hours was not demonizing someone? What would you predict will happen after the 48 hours are up?

Please reject the media narrative that a moderate new breed is at Donald Trump's side. Let's remember the history of moderate Republicanism in America. Moderate Republicans like Jacob Javits and Charles Percy helped fashion the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act at their inception. Will Jared Kushner and Gary Cohn reverse the sought evisceration of the Environmental Protection Agency? Will they convince Trump to reverse his executive orders?

A week ago Donald Trump looked into the cameras with NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg by his side and repeated his fantasy that NATO had begun to fight terrorism at his insistence. Genuine moderates were a huge factor in building NATO. Will Kushner or Cohn or Ivanka Trump ask the President to stop making NATO-damaging claims?

How do these "moderate" aides feel about having several cabinet agencies whose secretaries were appointed not despite their contempt for the agency they will direct, but because of it? Authentic moderate Republicans provided key votes to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1963, Food Stamps and Medicaid. Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Cohn are not the new crusaders for justice. Continue your vigilance and activism at the highest level, please.

On November 9, 2016, it was difficult to determine the most effective path of the resistance. There are still always a hundred important things to do but, without a doubt, one approach must be elevated to an obsession. It is not inevitable that we will take back the House in November of 2018, but have you not seen and felt the possibility growing with every week?

If approval of Donald Trump's performance remains under 40% in the polls, we will take back at least 35 seats, and we need 24. We can render the "Freedom Caucus" inoperative. Special elections in Kansas last week and yesterday in Georgia show a massive shift of voter sentiment away from Republican candidates. In Georgia, Jon Ossoff did 15 percent better than the Democratic candidate last November and we have an excellent chance of winning the June run off.These are not swing districts! These are Republican safe seats! There are well over 60 Republican seats that will be easier to gain in November 2018 than these.

You can remember how you felt on November 9. If we all do the right thing now, these 2018 House races are going to make you feel a lot better. By now, you should have identified at least one Congressional race that is of special interest to you. You should have sent a check to enhance voter registration in several key states. You should fight back against Republican voter suppression techniques by donating to voter projects at the American Civil Liberties Union and its state affiliates. And, if you feel under-prepared for what lies ahead, there is a comprehensive, painful to read and very helpful "syllabus" on how this all happened.

Key environmental statutes were written with a lot of Presidential discretion because we learn more from science every day. Congress anticipated that the executive branch would use such environmental research and their rule making authority to improve a new law's impact! Times have changed on that, so here are three things you can do to protect the environment.

1) Advance Your Own Climate Change Agreement
	Donald Trump may decide not to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, which 143 nations have signed. Unfortunately, he and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt will do everything they can to impede our county's ability to meet the carbon reduction targets the Accord establishes. Even if Democrats take back the House in November of 2018, we will be facing three years of defense before our federal government again helps us to protect against this huge danger to our planet. Our own challenge is to make sure our states, our localities and we ourselves make up for the lack of federal action. See where your state and locality stand and understand how it could do better. Send a "we are counting on you" note to your state legislator. Call your city or county council member and see what they are doing on such issues as auto fleet management and supporting alternative fuels. The best action against the Trump approach on this issue is to do everything you can do to make certain his intransigence ultimately doesn't matter.
2) Help Save the Environmental Protection Agency
	The bad news is that Donald Trump has proposed to eviscerate the EPA, cutting $3.4 billion and 3500 jobs. The good news is that Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, chair of the relevant appropriations subcommittee of the Senate is not accepting his proposal, which would ravage multiple programs. There is enough outrage and leverage on this for you to put whatever time into it you can muster. First, thank Lisa Murkowski for standing up (so far):    Senator Lisa Murkowski    522 Hart Senate Office Building    Washington DC 20515    Phone: 202-224-6665 The Trump budget will not be approved by Congress in anywhere near its present form, but nonetheless EPA is in danger. Let's try something new. Every single Congressional office has a legislative assistant with the specific responsibility of helping her or his Congressperson or Senator influence the budget. Search the Member's website, find who that dutiful and fresh-faced staff member is, and email, write or call them. Ask them if they and their boss will do something to save our environment and the EPA.
3) Don't Forget the Lawsuits
	It turns out that Trump issuing an executive order to rescind an Obama executive order is not effortless. With some orders, each step can be challenged. As underscored in missive #9, you can fuel the litigators, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and EarthJustice.

It is a privilege to live in a country where we can fight back against the excesses that are abounding. There is not any choice but to make this fighting a big part of the regular course of our lives.

There are Republican members of Congress who say they are not worried about national polls and the declining support of Donald Trump by independents. That is not actually the case. The truth is that they are now living with those worries every day, and those worries are not going away. The level of caring and concerted opposition to this presidency is unprecedented. This is no time to let our energies flag.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#11: It Matters What Legislative Proposals Say and Seek to Do

Thank you for continuing to share these messages with your friends, if you are not already on our mailing list, please click here to be added to our list. You can also follow me on Facebook. The more people we can reach, the more we contribute to this growing movement. We share these posts every two weeks, which means there will be a total of 100 missives before the Presidential election of 2020, in which our country will select a whole new course. 

In all the back and forth on who’s voting for what, and who is being investigated and who is being criticized, it would be easy to forget that there is an underlying, deeply consequential debate that has stretched over the decades. What will we do with and for each other through our government? What problems will we recognize as appropriate for joint, intensive action? What policies will we select to confront them?

It might be even easier today to forget the idea that government has underlying policies because it isn’t how Donald Trump thinks about things. From the time he announced a month or so before the American Health Care Act failed that he and Congress would replace “Obamacare” with something better and cheaper that would cover just as many people or even more people, he never had a chance of fulfilling that pledge. He did not necessarily understand the interconnecting parts of the law which would guarantee that his promise was empty, and it is not so clear that he wants to understand such things. Winning is everything. What there is that should be won is a lesser consideration.

In the end, he lost the health care battle (at least for now) because he did not care very much about what Speaker Ryan’s proposal contained. Commentators seemed surprised that Trump didn’t end up seeking to attend to people he promised to help during his campaign rallies. This misses the point. He does not see his role as sorting out what a legislative proposal will or will not do, and seeking to improve it. He is an incurious person. If the American Health Care Act had ended up responding directly to the needs of an unemployed Pennsylvania factory worker, it would have happened by accident.

The new health care “compromise” now being floated by the White House takes indifference to a new, even more creative level. They want to be able to say they are lowering premiums in insurance offered on exchanges. They are angling to get there by allowing states to individually redefine necessary coverage, giving them the option of jettisoning maternity care, mental health, and emergency room services. Let’s be relentless on this, and make Congress and the White House go back to the fundamental needs of people who are in need. In two minutes on the House floor, Representative John Lewis said it all. 

From the Homestead Act to the New Deal to Medicare, Food Stamps and the Civil Rights Act of 1963, opportunity and justice in our nation have been shaped by the policy choices our representatives have made for our government. This cannot and will not change, and seeking to provide health care for all is just one more major step along the path. We are heartened not by the Freedom Caucus blocking the bill, but that the concessions to the Freedom Caucus resulted in “moderate Republicans” walking away because they could no longer live with the substance of the bill and the policies it espoused.

What legislative proposals actually say and seek to do matters. The 2018 Congressional elections are not so far away, Republicans will either vote against defective proposals, or they will vote for such proposals and be held accountable by voters. It is a stroke of good fortune for the resistance that the next major policy issue will be tax reform. It is being touted as a much simpler issue than repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, but it isn’t. Moreover, the fundamental question the American media will ask about each tax reform proposal is who it is geared to help. Donald Trump’s initial position on necessary tax law changes would result in an enormous transfer of wealth from the middle class to the rich. Let that battle be joined!

Here are three things we can all do, now:

1)Take on Tax Reform as a Major Obsession
	The concentration of wealth in the hands of a small percentage of Americans is one of the defining issues of our time. Why would we want “tax reform” to exacerbate this existing, already nearly intractable problem? The tax reform proposals put forth by Republican leaders (including Donald Trump during the campaign) are “reverse Robin Hood” proposals - they take from people with less money, and give to people with more money. Proposals that comfort the comfortable have become such a fundamental part of Republican orthodoxy that they are presented without embarrassment. For reasons having to do with Senate procedures and spending rules, Republicans are hampered in executing their broader version of tax reform by their failure to pass their health care bill, which would have eliminated nearly a trillion dollars of taxes over the next ten years. However, even a stripped down bill will include these provisions that will widen wealth disparities: A reduction in corporate income taxes, which is not such an outlandish idea, since it could bring billions in corporate capital back home from international banks. Though not outlandish, this could still turn out badly. The issue is how to do it in a way that stimulates investment and avoids an increase in the tax burden of the middle class. Elimination of the federal estate tax, which has been reduced markedly over the years. Repeal would enable the tax-free transfer of billion dollar estates. Elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax, which keeps high income taxpayers from wiping out their tax liability with deductions. $30 million in taxes that Trump paid in 2005 were due to the Alternative Minimum Tax. Its levels may need readjustment, but without it, the tax participation of America’s multi-millionaires and billionaires would fall precipitously. In addition, the Trump approach could well include a tax on imports which is part of his punitive approach toward Mexico. The first thing and paramount thing we all need to do is argue that distribution of taxes among income classes is the single most important tax reform issue. As proposals are developed and debated, the unacceptability of further nest-feathering for people who already have the greatest assets must be constantly underscored. As advocates, we must be relentless in our attention to the narrative of tax equity. Let’s give fresh attention to our own representatives on these matters. If you have a member of Congress who you think is already sympathetic, call or write anyway, because this situation will end up being more fluid than health care has been. That is, there may be some elements of a new proposal that House leadership will ultimately put together that are appealing to some Democrats. Make sure your member of Congress knows how you feel about the basics. Check out to see if someone from your state is a member of one of the two tax writing committees, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. We have been having some success in these missives in bypassing the elected official and contacting her or his legislative director. If you are game, go into their office directory and give that a try. And, to top it all off, do your part in supporting equity by backing a state minimum wage campaign.
2) Choose a Congressional Campaign if You Haven’t Already Done So
	Right after Donald Trump was elected, it didn’t seem likely that Democrats would take back the House of Representatives in 2018. Now, as independents desert Trump, the chances have significantly improved. Past missives #4 and #8 have identified especially attractive races as we seek to win 24 seats. As you identify a targeted race near you and choose where to put your energies, focus also on two special elections in 2017 where there is at least a chance of taking back a seat. Send our candidates a check! In Georgia’s 6th district, the candidate is Jon Ossoff, seeking to fill the seat of Tom Price, who was named HHS Secretary. This is very promising, with the first round of voting on April 18. A somewhat longer shot in Montana in May is Rob Quist, who is the Democratic candidate to replace Ryan Zinke, who became Interior Secretary.
3) Learn About New Directions for Workers Whose Jobs Aren’t There
	Dynamic economies create and lose jobs constantly, and there is no place that job loss is more predictable than in the mining of coal. Donald Trump’s executive order is built around a nest of untruths. News of the week revealed that the small mining companies themselves are turning to green energy, looking at the costs of coal mining relative to the return, and increasing their investment in natural gas because its lower prices are winning over markets. Nonetheless, the 70,000 jobs that remain are not just any jobs. They are concentrated in communities that have too few jobs in the first place. They pay enough money to support a family, and they are available to workers with a high school education. We would be very happy to have more “family wage” jobs at all educational levels in this country. There aren’t a lot of new paths for a 58 year old coal miner whose industry is faltering. But our country can do better at providing education and career and technical training to younger and middle aged workers, often carried about with excellence by Community and Technical Colleges. Check out the retraining systems in your state and see if under-employed or displaced workers are being provided new opportunities to participate in the changing economy.

What is around the corner that we can work toward? How can we maintain intensity of effort? When will there be a time that we can read and watch the news without daily dismay? It is a long time until the next Presidential election. But it is not a long time until November 6, 2018, the day we can take back the House of Representatives and put on the brakes.

With Trump’s approval rating under 40%, capturing the 24 seats we need is entirely doable. But it is now when we find good candidates, organize, coalesce, learn, raise money, and register voters. Act on the possibilities, and prepare to have a big smile on your face on Wednesday, November 7, 2018.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington