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.
To the extent that people in political mass movements are capable of collective wisdom, now would be a very good time to achieve some. As fascinating as is Fire and Fury, Michael Wulff's exposé of a petulant, distracted, uninformed, dishonorable president, we can't permit ourselves to dwell at the scene of that crime.
Steve Bannon's comments regarding treason, Trump Jr. and Manafort are delicious, of course. But, collusion in inviting the Russians into the presidential election, and/or obstruction of justice are matters before Robert Mueller, and thus are already in good hands. There aren't a lot of countries where the government can investigate a sitting president, but we are definitely one of them, as Richard Nixon was dismayed to learn.
Beyond being very concerned about Mueller, and he is, Trump is worried about the permanent de-legitimization of his presidency. He would, and has, lied regularly to try to avoid this outcome. It is this fear of Trump's that has put Jeff Sessions on the Tom Price-like slippery slope, even though Jeff Sessions was the first Senator to endorse Trump's candidacy, and for a long time the only one.
It also why Trump has recruited a motley collection of House Republicans who have forgotten they always loved the FBI and are now seeking to eviscerate the FBI. Most of all, it is why Steve Bannon must be made an outcast, even as he retracts and apologizes. If Donald Trump could get away with it, he would have Sean Hannity interview him and then insist that he never met Steve Bannon, except once in a large meeting of junior staff and interns.
In the midst of it all, we must keep our focus. Doing 2018 the right way (both in terms of the legislative process and the 2018 elections) will give us the opportunity to begin to reverse in 2019 what happened in 2017. As we tackle 2018 in our massive and growing movement, we must continue to adjust our efforts to take advantage of new conditions.
Paramount among these new conditions is that 60 is the new 50. Mitch McConnell is out of the actions that require only 50 votes in the Senate due to those actions being advanced under the budget reconciliation process. Getting to 60 will push him back to the center. That's why he and his colleagues wanted the awful tax bill so badly. It was their last night at the saloon before reporting for active duty.
Because of their influence on committees and their willingness to talk to Democrats, Susan Collins, Bob Corker, John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, and Jeff Flake will still be important. However, we will need a new tact - we will want to quickly improve our communication with selected Democratic Senators from states Trump won by a wide margin and who are up for re-election in 2018. There are several who were elected to their six-year terms in 2012, when Barack Obama was re-elected. These include Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Now that Doug Jones has been seated, we are at 49. Getting to 51 (requiring the re-election of these Senators) could generate innumerable rewards, including improved defense against future Trump Supreme Court nominees.
The trick will be to find an approach to the budget, DACA (Deferral of Childhood Arrivals), infrastructure investment and other legislative challenges that keep these vulnerable Senators comfortably within their own party.
This is more possible because fashioning a workable Democratic caucus position while attending to needs of individual Senators is Minority Leader Charles Schumer's specialty. And it's even more possible than that because Trump’s growing unpopularity has reached these states, making it far easier for these Senators to oppose him.
The resistance does not need to demand that every Democratic Senator think alike. It has never been so. Depending on the issue, the position and politics of centrist Democrats must be honored and even celebrated. It's a party with progressive goals but a big tent.
So, by all means let’s participate in compromises to keep the government going and people served. But remember always the standards --- no participation in international bullying, no blessing of planet poisoning executive orders, no pretending that Trump has ended airplane fatalities, no thinking for even a second that a wall is related to our security, no disregard of international institutions, no conflating growth in the stock market with giving a boost to those in need, no throwing people off their health care insurance, no denigrating the media, no comforting the comfortable while afflicting the afflicted, and no forgetting the strength and grace of Barrack Obama.
With those standards in mind here are three things we can do to help our bruised nation get off to a strong start in 2018.
| 1) Get Back the Senate Majority | |
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For most of this past year, the resistance to Donald Trump has concentrated on taking back the House of Representatives in 2018. The work of Indivisible and Swing Left has preceded and surpassed the work of the Democratic Party on this front, although the parties efforts have increased to date. With Doug Jones' victory in Alabama, the Senate is still a longer shot, but it is within reach. The formula would be to hold onto the vulnerable Democratic seats enumerated above, pick up the Republican seats held by Dean Heller of Nevada and the retiring apostate Jeff Flake of Arizona, and work for an upset with good candidates in such states as Tennessee and Texas, where a win by Representative Beto O'Rourke over Senator Ted Cruz would be delicious. It's time for activists to get to know a vulnerable Democratic Senator who is working hard and who is up for re-election in a state where every other major elected official is a Republican. Why not start with Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota? She is a stolid Democrat, served two terms as attorney general, and eschewed running for Governor to run again for the Senate. Whether or not you are ready to make a small contribution to her campaign, now is an excellent time to sign up to start learning about her. |
2) Standing with Patagonia to Protect Public Lands |
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It's time to notice that one company has put themselves forward to oppose the Trump/Zinke destruction of public lands. As previously discussed in Missive #29 the action cutting Bear's Ears National Monument by over 2 million acres is only the beginning of the administration's efforts to put conservation last. The outdoor gear company Patagonia has objected, brought other companies and conservation organizations to their side, and taken a leadership role in this effort. They have paid for some very effective television ads which have made interior secretary Ryan Zinke very angry. Click here to join and participate in their campaign to preserve public lands. |
3) Get to Work Fighting Gerrymandering |
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As we know, long before votes are cast in an election, initial critical steps are taken. Progressives battle against state legislative proposals that make registering to vote more difficult or otherwise seek to suppress voting. Activists register potential voters, seek to increase the intensity of their interest, and set up systems to convince people to vote and get them to the polls. For years, looming over all of these efforts has been the extra level of difficulty in winning gerrymandered districts, whose proponents use demographic analysis to create disproportionate advantage of one party over another, over and above what would be the likely or common political distribution within that geographical area. This turns swing districts (in which political choice is magnified) into safe districts (in which only one viewpoint is entertained). Both parties have been guilty of gerrymandering in the past. The federal courts have taken notice, and there have been important legal efforts to stop the most egregious practices, especially those that constitute racial discrimination. Every ten years, the completion of the census puts state legislatures into the position of needing to redraw the boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts to adjust to population shifts. In the fall of 2010, Republicans pulled off huge gains in state legislative races. Subsequently, they used their legislative majorities in several states (notably in Wisconsin and Virginia) to creatively re-draw district lines to gain significantly more seats than their overall vote total would have predicted. For instance, North Carolina has an almost even number of Democratic voters, but its Congressional delegation has 12 Republicans and 3 Democrats. Eric Holder, the Attorney General under Barrack Obama, has persuaded Democrats to take on this issue with all new energy and a fresh understanding about how the worst excesses of gerrymandering can be countered. His National Democratic Redistricting Committee is behind strategies to make certain Democrats don't make the same mistakes in 2020 as they did in 2010. |
There's nothing wrong with admitting to ourselves that political America has become wearying. The daily Trumpian approach to life, to our nation, and to the world is soul-sapping. As an antidote, you could look at the newspaper (remember those?) and see the evidence every single day that our resistance is growing. And there's some other evidence that can restore the soul as well. Nicholas Kristof says 2017 was the best year in human history. Last year, over 300 million people in this world got their first access to electricity and to clean water, and 250 million boosted themselves or were lifted from the worst levels of poverty.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
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