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 where you can read and share these messages. 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.
Right after a debate is the perfect time to examine where we stand in staying together as resisters and together winnowing our field of candidates. We would want to keep tabs on this not least because it will be an election more consequential than any time since Abraham Lincoln beat slavery sympathizer Stephen Douglas in 1860.
The polls show that we are in excellent position with less than 14 months until the big day. Trump’s unfavorable rating has spiked even higher, and nearly 60% of voters think he should be denied a second term. Our top candidates poll well in head to head matchups, and Trump can be counted on to do something newly self-destructive any day now. The nightmares we have about November 2016 prevent many of us from having a single scintilla of complacency. We allow ourselves no comfort from polls or pundits who say we will very likely win.
We remain even more guarded because we remember times even outside 2016 that it seems like we pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory. Since we don’t want to do that again, we must maintain rules of engagement for our movement and for our candidates.
- Watching Our Language---- Elizabeth Warren doesn’t really think that her colleagues who want to modify her Medicare for All proposal are “spineless,” so she shouldn’t say they are. More critically, Julian Castro does not really believe that Joe Biden suffered from short term memory loss in a two-minute period in last Thursday’s debate, so he shouldn’t have made that accusation twice in a half a minute. We need to decide what to do about candidates showing such irresponsible judgement. One attractive option would be to suffer memory loss on why Julian Castro should be provided support. We cannot end up together at the end unless we keep ourselves between the lines as debates continue.
- Circling Back to What We Have in Common---- The debate exchanges on the differences between Medicare for All and a very robust public option were more helpful and compelling than they have been in past debates. These vivid differences will continue to be sorted out. Three or four candidates underscored that all the Democratic candidates support universal coverage and stressed the stark difference between that approach and Trump’s attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. References such as these are important. Notably, the warrior Bernie Sanders seems not to acknowledge any common cause with the other Democratic candidates. There is a huge difference (which he seems not to recognize) between exhorting, persuading and guiding. It is said by her supporters that Elizabeth Warren has come to appreciate these distinctions. May we all help to make it so!
- Adding to the Top Tier---- It is not too late to add another name or two at the top. If Andrew Yang’s lottery giveaway proposal disqualified his candidacy and Julian Castro weakened his own chances, that leaves five other debaters who could join Biden, Warren and Sanders in the lead. These are Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Beto O’Rourke. These are a strong group of public servants, a couple of whom you wouldn’t object to hanging around for a while. If you feel that way, now is the time to donate. And keep Michael Bennett and Steve Bullock in mind, just in case either finds a way to get some traction. Don’t keep Tom Steyer in mind at all.
- Ending the Criticism of the Debate Selection Process----There is nothing activists like to do more than get angry with the Democratic National Committee, which has been known to earn that enmity. However, the recent debate shows that we benefited from the DNC process to limit the number of candidates on the stage. Why would the number of donors and performance in respectable polls be seen as an “arbitrary” standard to narrow the field?
- Trusting the Speaker on Impeachment---- Perhaps what is soon to be discovered in Trump’s tax returns will be new grist. Barring that, Nancy Pelosi is right to slow walk impeachment proceedings in the House, because she is mortally certain that a trial in the Senate would not attract the necessary 67 votes. Thus, she rightly believes that handing Mitch McConnell and his friends a microphone for a couple of months in an election year is as self-defeating a strategy as resisters could devise. Losing in the Senate does not demonstrate courage nor does it advance justice. It is just losing. We all know how to get rid of Trump and we even know the date--- November 3, 2020. Register voters. Fight voter suppression. Persuade independents. Support strong candidates.
Due entirely to Mitch McConnell and the Republicans who hide behind him, legislation is stalled on every front. However, there will be a budget deal, and there will be a vote on background checks for gun owners because Republican Senators up for re-election will insist upon it. McConnell is leaving substance up to Trump, who is in a bind. He wants to please both the NRA and the 80% of Americans who want stronger background checks.
Elsewhere, there is a new furor over a whistleblower filing in the intelligence agencies that should be followed carefully. There is also a new front in the legal battle to get Trump’s tax returns. Meanwhile, with Congress not moving forward, there are still multiple ways to respond to the mean-spiritedness that embodies the Trump presidency. Let’s do these three things:
| 1) Appeal to General Mattis’ Patriotism | |
 | Former Defense Secretary Mattis has a new book “Call Sign Chaos”. In it, he says that he will not criticize a sitting president. But he says this much: “I did as well as I could for as long as I could. When my concrete solutions and strategic advice, especially keeping faithful allies, no longer resonated, it was time to resign, despite the limitless joy I felt alongside our troops in defense of our Constitution.” In trying to do an honorable thing, General Mattis is doing a dishonorable thing. Our alliances with France, Canada, Germany and Great Britain are an indispensable element in maintaining a fragile world order. Rather than having an obligation to not say what he knows, Mattis has an obligation to sound the alarm about Trump’s siding with Putin against our friends. This is exactly how Constitutions get defended. Mattis is on a national book tour. Follow this site to see if he is coming to your area. When he comes, show up in the hall or outside, aiming to get him to speak up for our global friends, whose soldiers have shed blood at our behest. Or write a letter to the editor or post on Facebook. Mattis is personally unreachable. The most enterprising can try to send this message through his speaking agent, the Washington Speaker’s Bureau. |
2) Make Sure Pat Toomey Does the Right Thing on Gun Control | |
 | Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is up for re-election in 2022. Not only does he personally believe that stronger background checks are an important part of gun reform, his own re-election depends upon it. That is why he has been the leader among Senate Republicans in trying to find bi-partisan support for closing some of the holes in the easy to evade background check system. His primary tool is an inadequate bill co-sponsored with Democratic West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. This bill has been in play as Mitch McConnell lets Donald Trump decide what Senate Republicans are going to do. It’s a great time to check in with Pat Toomey. One way or another, he will be a key player in whatever transpires. Beseech your Pennsylvania friends to get directly involved. Let’s generate as much phone activity as we can to three of Toomey’s offices. Tell them that he needs to do something, now. Washington DC- 202 224-4252 Allentown- 610 4434-1444 Johnstown- 814 222-5974 |
3) Protect Animals from Trophy Hunters | |
 | In individual cases, the Trump administration has waived the ban on importing African lions as trophies even as Donald Trump described such killings as horrific. Write your own member of Congress and make certain she or her has signed onto the bill passed by the House Natural Resources Committee. If we attend to this legislation, we can make certain the ban is absolute. And, sign the Humane Society’s pledge and help guarantee they keep up the pressure. |
We are trying not to get ahead of ourselves. Donald Trump already has proven that being unsuited does not automatically disqualify someone for the presidency. Nonetheless, our efforts are going well. It would be good to remember that the word “optimist” should not be used as a pejorative term by those who hear others describing our impressive progress.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
