#34: Republican Leaders Let the Sideshow Become the Show

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Dear Republican Member of Congress,

Undoubtedly, you are tired of getting pursued by citizens who are very worried about Donald Trump’s diminishment of our country and its democratic ideals. There are a lot of us out here. Maybe to you it is sounding like we are all speaking with one loud voice, but we have millions of distinct, individual voices and we are not going away. We are certain that Donald Trump represents a grave danger, and we remind you that the extent the Republican Party has claimed him and abetted him is now a huge part of the hazard our nation faces.

Internationally, his assault on global institutions is shameful. Our country’s previous worldwide leadership is in freefall. Worse, he could lead us into nuclear war. Your political party that once called for international strength backs a man who has yielded our international leadership position to the Chinese, and openly admires a Russian dictator. He openly taunts and disrespects nations whose soldiers have died for the ideals that our nation treasures.

His domestic policies are grounded in contempt for others. While you have quietly hoped that he would bring us together, he has split us apart, then lied about what he said, and then split us apart again, and then lied again.

At first, when he would tweet something that was untrue or bizarre, you would find yourself annoyed. You might say that it was “unhelpful,” or try to distract attention from it. Now, when he says something that eighteen months ago would have shocked you, you find yourself incapable of such shock. What you hoped would become the sideshow has since become the show.

Have you met a single member of the House or the Senate who is less knowledgeable about the workings of American government than is this man? Is there a single member of the House and the Senate who is less able to articulate the policy alternatives that are before him and the Congress on any major issue? Is there anyone who reads less, or who is less curious, or is less truthful?

Every day you look to yourself or your colleagues for reassurance. Even if you wish Lindsay Graham hadn’t confirmed that Trump referred to shithole countries, or if you thought Bob Corker’s comment about White House staff doing daycare was inappropriate, you are glad they are out there. Sometimes you allow yourself your own critical comment to a constituent or to a colleague though your practice is to be careful.

All of this makes you less of a Republican, in the context of how you have always defined Republicanism. In the context of how Donald Trump is leading you and “branding” your party to the country, you know that your party has been hijacked.

The issue for you and your party is what to do about that. You have thought about it a lot. You not only have talked to your political colleagues about it, you have talked to those you love and those you trust. You have decided that you can do more for your country and your party and your own political career by staying allied with Donald Trump than you can do by leaving him. It hasn’t escaped you that this is an enormous moral dilemma. So, you have carefully enumerated the issues where his position is not that distant from yours, and you have tried to ignore his offenses against the country and the Constitution. You have clung to moral relativism, telling yourself that other ideas and parties and proposals have no lock on goodness. To this point, you have decided not to walk away.

When you can’t sleep at night, don't you worry that you have made the wrong choice, that you have failed the ultimate test of leadership, that you haven’t done the right thing on the most critical challenge of the day when you always thought you would? That’s the case. For 228 years, the glorious, imperfect American experiment in self-government, this opportunity made from the sacrifice of patriots, has been a beacon for the freedom loving people of the world. If in February, 2018 you think it would be the hardest thing in the world for you to separate yourself from the terrible deal that you and your party have struck, it’s time for you to do the hardest thing.
Here are three things you can do right now to attend to the turning of the tide:

1) Communicate With Askew Republicans
	Polls demonstrate an increased number of disaffected Republicans and Independents and early retirements reveal angst-beset Republican lawmakers. It’s a great time to be a flame-fanner. You could look for places to share or send the above open letter, or write a similar one expressing your personal sentiments. Pick a Republican member of Congress and send it to her or him, or send to the Republican state legislator who lives closest to you. Post on Facebook or other social media, turn it into a letter to the editor, or otherwise extend this sentiment. Do whatever you can to get people talking more often about the unmet moral obligations of Republican elected officials.
2) See if We Can’t Sneak Away With a Seat
	The House Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has had an odd position on special elections. They have been reluctant to aggressively contest special elections in districts where Trump had a significant margin in 2016. Since none of these districts have been in the top 50 of those we are most likely to take back, they are afraid that contesting and losing will create a negative narrative for the November 2018 elections. That’s the wrong way to think about it. In the special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th District to be held on March 13, strong candidate and former prosecutor Conor Lamb will either win or come close enough to send a signal. It’s time to send the coffee money.
3) Become Fully Educated on the Russian Rending of Our Democracy
	To prepare for the swirl of indictments by Mueller and Congressional actions and political ramifications, we must make ourselves more fully informed. Let’s start by reading Thomas Friedman’s hugely important Code Red. Then, let’s compel our own selves to understand all of the specific Mueller charges against the Russians.

There’s a lot of good work to be doing right now. No falling away is permitted. Too bad we didn’t all make a tape of our dispirited selves that awful morning after the 2016 election, to provide the most vivid reminder of our pledge to never let this happen again. On the other hand, Donald Trump gives us daily reminders of what has befallen our country. It shouldn’t be difficult to summon our best.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#33: This Denigration of The Constitution Has Definitely Got to Stop

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.

By now you will have heard the arguments that the polls are narrowing, and that we should not be as sure of ourselves as we might have been a couple of weeks ago. Comfortingly, the Trump approval ratings are still awful. For all the talk about his loyal base, at least 20% of the people who voted for him (and maybe more) have deserted him. Even in the face of the Nunes-driven flurry, the employment gains of the Obama and now the Trump presidencies, if the fall Congressional elections were held today, we would win well more than the necessary 24 seats to take back the House.

But the election isn’t being held today, and the results of November 2016 are still fresh enough that we know that people will sometimes do things that we find incomprehensible. Given that what is at stake --- the future of the great democratic experiment --- is at risk, how can we not take our own personal political adventures to an all new level?

We are talking about each and every one of us here. There is no free pass related to “I don’t even know people who support the President” (You do!), and no free pass for “I am not happy with the organizing skill of Democrats” (Good for you!), and no free pass for “I find this all exhausting and I am so weary that I have to get on with my life and leave this aside for a bit” (But, we can’t!) and certainly, above all, absolutely no free pass for “I don’t know what I can do to support this effort.”

Because, we all do know that this is a major occupation for us this year. We know that, with all other Trump initiatives, the wholesale, cynical attacks on the FBI will be exposed in all of their tawdriness very soon. We know that Robert Mueller is out there methodically assembling evidence that will use Michael Flynn or Reince Priebus or Steve Bannon or Hope Hicks to expose Trump’s congenital aversion to truth. Obstruction of justice will be clear, since Trump contributes to those charges every week. Whether or not Donald Trump has a provable role in collusion between his campaign and the Russian government, all of this will not go well for him. Don’t despair in his tweets, eagerly await them. It is unlikely that he will ever escape the protection of his aides and lawyers to impeach himself, but he is so used to the lie that if he could, he would.

Because Mueller is out there, and very notably because Mueller is rightly being protected by Trey Gowdy and Lindsay Graham and Richard Burr and even the Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, who is by no means a renegade, 2018 will be a good year for Democrats. To make it an even greater year, a few million people in the resistance must keep doing what they already are doing, but just a bit more of it, and just a little bit better.

The elements are simple. First, we put the right races in play, including at least a few that are longer shots but offer candidates who are irresistible. Second, we occupy ourselves with doing the right thing in those specific races and we do not allow ourselves to be distracted. Third, we attend to the underlying conditions under which these elections will be held. Who is going to be registered to vote? Whose vote might be suppressed? And most importantly, how can we maintain the enthusiasm and get out the vote mechanisms that will assure that we vote in the necessary numbers, like we did in Virginia in November of 2017? If each of us isn’t doing each of these three things, now is the time to start:

1) If You Haven’t Narrowed Your Field, Do it Now
	Perhaps you live in a Congressional District where there is an incumbent whose performance you like, but they are in a safe seat. You want them to be in the majority much more often, so you decide to focus your attention on one or more potentially close races in other districts. Which to choose? There have been a startling number of Republican retirements in swing districts, where incumbents were not looking forward to this election year.  The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s first list of targeted races lists 59 seats. The Daily Kos has identified as many as 80. There are all sorts of resources to help with figuring this out, as described in previous missives. With 6000 local groups, Indivisible is helpfully focused on every district. Swing Left, which drew some suspicions from political veterans at the outset, is an excellent source for identifying districts in play and understanding why those districts are targeted. They are entirely focused on taking back the House. The heavily data-driven Flippable is doing good work, including focusing on state legislative races. All these organizations have more spark right now than the Democratic Party itself, which is not entirely a bad thing, because it makes this a much larger and more spirited movement. Go beyond all this help and teach yourself to understand a race. If a Republican member of Congress has retired, is there a Republican heir apparent, or are conservative and “moderate” forces clashing? These disputes make a district more attractive for Democrats, because the loss for one faction in the Republican primary can dampen turnout in the general election. If there are four or five Democratic candidates in a swing district, start by understanding their views, their motivation for running, and their background. Check to see who is already well organized and is raising money early. If someone is way ahead on all of those fronts, that will be a sign that they are getting strong support from traditional Democratic constituencies. Several states have their primaries this spring. If there are four or more candidates, fewer than 30% of the votes can select the candidate. Remember that the total received in the Democratic primary of all the Democratic candidates is a huge issue. If a single Republican gets 48% and four Democrats split 52%, we are in play for November, as long as we remember to come back together. We will remember that, no?
2) Be Strategic In How You Deploy Your Money
	Your favorite Senator or Congressperson will ask you for a donation whether she or he needs it. Eventually if they decide they have surplus funds they can send it to the Democratic party, but that is too circuitous for your donation to count. The best way to give money to a candidate is to do it directly. You can donate through their campaign website. The best time to give money is now, as your favorite candidates are getting their grounding. Inventively, Swing Left has pioneered “district funds”, in which you can give money to an account in a swing district before the Democrats select their nominee. District funds will help candidates who deplete their resources in the primary to get a good head start on their general election campaign. Now there are two terrific additional ideas. First, Swing Left has created the opportunity for activists to have their own personal fundraising page to gather resources in a selected swing district.  This allows you to personalize your activism, keep track of your success, and gather your friends around one candidate. Second, in case you are hankering to find special efforts to get millennials enthusiastic about this fall, Future Forum is a political action committee made up of 26 of the youngest Members of Congress that has already visited 30 cities.
3) Remember Increased Voter Registration Works to Our Advantage
	At this point, Rock the Vote is doing the best national work to increase the presently discouraging rate of registration and voting by those under 35. The range of their strategies is what most distinguishes them, including some corporate partnerships. New voters should get special emphasis nationwide. A great initiative would be evaluating your local four year college or community college to see what voter registration efforts are already planned, and to make certain campuses aren’t waiting until fall to get going on these matters. The Campus Voting Project has created a student voting registration guide for each state, with special attention to the way some states and localities discourage student registration. You can make certain this guide gets in the right hands, or even gather a circle of friends to take on student registration as a group project.

The early work of campaigns is happening now. Every call, meeting, project, donation, and rally carries extra significance, because it is right now when momentum is being built for the fall. Let’s not wait until spring and find ourselves wishing in October that we had started earlier. Let’s treat every self-aggrandizing, truth-challenging tweet as a personal signal that this denigration of the Constitution has definitely got to stop.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington