#1 First Ways to Tackle Our Unfinished Work

This is the first of a new series of missives on our unfinished work to restore the promise of our country and its government. Each will focus on a single element of the many opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Each will provide three steps we can all take to build upon our huge victories winning back the House in 2018 and the Presidency in 2020. 

We will be sharing these messages every two weeks by eblast and on blog, Our Unfinished Work. Please click here to be added to our email list. You can also follow me on Facebook where you can also read and share these messages. The more people we can reach, the more we contribute to this growing movement.

Talking about, thinking about and celebrating the Biden-Harris victory is not even close to getting old. Joe Biden has handled the last three weeks of Trump’s slanders of America with grace. Each staff and cabinet appointment is a part of our national restoration. Each is just the first of a thousand steps Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will take. On the national security front, Joe Biden has already sent the signal that we are eager to renew global alliances. Somewhere out there Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau are smiling.

We’re smiling too, since it isn’t smart to move too quickly away from this celebration. We found Biden and Harris ten million more votes than have ever been cast for a presidential candidate. We won because our efforts were monumental. We need to remember that fact because it strengthens our resolve and confidence for our incomplete work, which will require the same relentlessness we just displayed. Because of all that is at stake, we will make it a bit of an obsession.

Of course, our list starts with the January 5 runoff elections of two United States Senators in Georgia. We have a solid chance and having the Senate majority is a big prize. Before we even think of what we can do in Georgia, we need to establish some rules for ourselves. Ten Commandments have proven to be a stretch for America, so let’s start with three.

First, there is hardly any political instinct more self-defeating than our ongoing dismay that a lot of people voted for Donald Trump. From the outset, Trump was grossly unsuited for the Presidency. We saw a man who was all about himself, indifferent to the needs of the people, incurious about how government works, and insulting most everyone when the mood struck, which was pretty much always. The fact that this is obvious to us, that this was all a con, increases our consternation that there were millions who bought in to supporting him. However, we can stop generalizing right now about who these voters are collectively (QAnon! Evangelicals!) because they aren’t a single thing collectively. We know we can win without them because we just did. But, if we don’t want Trumpism to be a danger in the future, and we do want narrower divides among Americans, we can do a more serious job of sorting out who’s not with us.

Second, we won’t win two and four years from now unless we maintain our big tent. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris understand that depending upon the issue, it is difficult to distinguish between progressives and liberals. Neither word involves the awarding of shiny badges for exceptional advocacy. Disagreeing passionately over the most desirable course of action should be seen as a central part of who we are. Let’s bring it on, and let’s stop worrying quite as much about incorrectly being called socialists. The people who call us names to seek political advantage are not fact checking every day. Let’s worry more about fixing the economy, stopping the virus, tackling climate change and expanding health care. If we do a good job of all these things, the labels will take care of themselves.

Third, let’s focus on our demographic destiny. Non-white voters will continue to increase as a percentage of all voters. All of the attention to the Cuban-American vote in Florida has masked the fact that over 2/3 of all Latino voters nationally supported Biden-Harris. Latino voters were instrumental in the victories In Arizona and Nevada, and the increase in voting by African-Americans more than explains our margins of victory in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

All three are pillars upon which we can build. We have resolved to get to work right away. Georgia is there as a prize, if we can go get it.

On the hard to get Georgia side, Democrats in Georgia have had a difficult time generating voter turnout in runoff elections. Of course, that was before Stacey Abrams made it her own personal job. Obviously there are a lot of people working by her side, but if you want a fair fight, there isn’t anything like her organization Fair Fight. 

Further, Republican Candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are trying to make the race about resisting the socialistic impulses of Joe Biden. The problem there is that it is hard for voters to see that he has any. Further, Loeffler and her primary opponent Doug Collins tacked even further to the right as November neared, emphasizing who would have the blindest loyalty to a re-elected Donald Trump. That left Loeffler and Purdue a little more vulnerable with centrist voters.

The biggest problem for the Republican ticket is the internecine war within the Georgia Republican party over the ethical election management behavior of their Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Loeffler and Perdue, undoubtedly drawing upon their deep moral reservoirs, have called for Raffensperger to resign, for his error in not finding a way for Trump to win the hand recount. Some Trumpists have called for their loyalists to sit out the election because Loeffler and Perdue have been insufficiently rabid about throwing out Raffensberger. In addition, Trump so far has shown little interest in the race. If he does get more involved, it will be all about him, which is not such a good thing for Loeffler and Perdue.

So, we have a solid chance here. We should do these three things forthwith:

1) Recognize a Profile in Courage
	The Republican Secretary of State just did something that is awesomely difficult today. Not only did he stand up for the integrity of the Georgia election he called out the unethical behavior of Senator Lindsay Graham when Graham phoned to intervene. Email your personal thank you to soscontact@sos.ga.gov.
2) Disburse Piggy Bank Balance
	Money is pouring into Georgia. It’s all about finding a good place to send the last of your 2020 campaign dollars. One important option is sending to Fair Fight, where Stacey Abrams will take 1/3 for her organizing efforts, and send 1/3 each to Democratic candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. There are other good options. The New Georgia Project is focused on younger voters. The activists at Mi Familia Vota who were so indispensable in Nevada and Arizona are all in on the effort to boost the Latino vote in Georgia, especially in the Atlanta area. Here's the link to the special fund to boost their Georgia mobilization.
3) Use Our Core Tools
	Many resistors have settled into regular involvement with organizations that do phone banking, send personalized postcards, and text targeted voters. For those unaffiliated volunteers who have time and a hankering to unseat Mitch McConnell as majority leader, Vote Forward comes highly recommended. They are all set to help you send handwritten letters to selected Georgians.

So there it is. If you think this is difficult, just think how hard it would be if we had lost on November 3. We can keep on doing this, and our world will be the better for it.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#104: Trump Won’t Be Living in Our House Anymore

The movement of which we are all a part will restore a wounded America's promise. Because our agenda has not been completely fulfilled, we will be continuing this blog under the rubric of “Our Unfinished Work". This new approach will be shorter and will deal every two weeks with a single issue or challenge. Each time it will include specific action steps we can carry out. Please stay with me as we protect and take advantage of our gains and build toward the fall of 2022. 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.

You can read analyses of when and how Donald Trump will ultimately acknowledge the impending presidency of Joe Biden. You can review Senate scenarios. You can check in on arguments between Democrats, thankfully focused for the most part on future public policies. Or, you could do the right thing, set all those things aside for a minute, and then let your heart nearly burst with gladness and relief. Let your wounded soul heal a bit. Celebrate. Do not permit yourself to move away from this moment of victory too quickly.

Refugees, we are saying goodbye to Stephen Miller, whose idea was to exact maximum pain upon you. Students, Betsy Devos is exiting, after not supporting public education in any way. Americans who don’t think the Justice Department should be a presidential law firm, say so long to Bill Barr. Jared Kushner, we are thrilled you are leaving but we will hear more about how you unsuccessfully deployed your college friends as the front line in the virus battle. Mike Pompeo, soon Trudeau, Merkel and Macron will not be obliged to return your calls. EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler, all of those executive orders you enforced will become unenforceable.

Most of all, Donald Trump, we have no illusions that your legendary mean-spiritedness will cease, or that you will develop new allegiance to the truth. You will continue your sullying and bullying. We know you will have to be watched, and opposed, and fact-checked, and we are definitely up to that task. We are your worst nightmare. We are not going to go away. We are happy that you aren’t going to be living in our House any more.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris emphasize that possibility is the word that guides us going forward. Week by week, we will need the same relentlessness that made us successful on November 3. And, to follow their leadership, we must fully understand what we won and what we must still secure.

What we have already won is huge. Soon after his inauguration, Joe Biden will reconnect to NATO, recommit to the Paris Accords, rejoin the World Health Organization and rescind current travel bans placed on Muslim countries. From that point on, he will be our leader in ending the virus and its grip on America, and the resultant rebuilding of the economy. He will be the appointer of judges, and the creator and sustainer of global alliances. He will be the manager of thousands of talented people who will return federal agencies to their mandates. Notably, he will take over the executive powers and fashion the executive orders which have been the province of Trump. On that front, in a few months he will undo virtually all that Trump has done.

With regard to the anticipated behavior of the Senate, it is way too early for pundits to grant Mitch McConnell superpowers. Regardless of who wins the two runoff races in Georgia, McConnell’s role in 2015 is an imperfect analogy to what will emerge in 2021. Biden will get tax policy leverage because current individual rates expire in 2025. The House speaker is Democrat Nancy Pelosi, not Republican Paul Ryan. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney are in a different position relative to their party. 

However, regardless of the Georgia results, the Senate makeup will make it impossible for Joe Biden to get anywhere near everything he wants from Congress. In these two years, he will be able to expand the Affordable Care Act and (with the help of executive orders), significantly address climate change. Neither of these two efforts will be as expansive as Biden had hoped. 

These battles will put immense pressure on the 2022 elections, where there will be 34 Senate races, including 22 Republican seats. Republicans Charles Grassley of Iowa and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania have already announced their retirement, and Republicans will also have to defend their seats in North Carolina (Richard Burr) and Wisconsin (Ron Johnson.) The map advantages the Democrats, though off year elections usually favor the party that doesn’t hold the presidency.

Buoyed by defeating Trump, and by the many things Biden and Harris can do whether or not Congress has an expansive agenda, resistors are ready to continue the fight. We can start by addressing our own understandable angst over how anyone (let alone 70 million people) could buy into Donald Trump’s con.

The problem with “This makes me feel awful about America” is that it doesn’t lead to any productive path. Trump has had his own personal television channel in a nation glued to screens. He surfaced racism, homophobia, misogyny and countless conspiracy theories to attract a scary amount of voters. Trump has also accessed voter fears in these four areas which are worth recognizing, however painfully. We are better off remembering these currents than ignoring them. We will win and hold the Senate sooner, and occupy the Presidency longer. 

• As pro-choicers we don’t have anything to do about it, but Trump had a number of voters whose support depends entirely upon the candidate being against the protections provided by Roe v. Wade. These voters are willing to ignore all other candidate characteristics, as they just proved.

• We want to dismiss the “socialism!” claims out of hand, especially in their bizarre application to Joe Biden. Liberals and progressive take to social media and mock the claims, wondering whether Republicans remember they embrace “socialist” programs like Medicare. This exchange is not going away, but we can improve our communication on the obvious and meaningful differences between American progressive social policy and taxation policy and the practices of Northern European countries. Many Democrats love Bernie and the party very much needs the progressive wing, but the fact that he has proclaimed himself a “democratic socialist”, is bound to make these discussions more complex.

• Trump has tapped into the decline in trust in government that has been an issue since Ronald Reagan ran against the government in his own presidential re-election campaign. Trump could not have been a worse manager of government. His mismanagement of the virus took him down, but it is still good to remember that Democrats rarely seize on stories of how they have made individual governmental programs more effective.

• Most subject to change than the three above issues is that many voters in industrial states are mourning the decline in family wage jobs for high school graduates. These jobs are sorely missed in many a community. Joe Biden is seen as responding to this problem, but other Democrats are not, which helps create an avenue for Trump’s fake populism. Even though Trump fleeced the same people in his tax “reform” this is still ground that must be taken.

As we navigate all of these matters, there is nothing sweeter than getting more votes than the other side, whatever the margin. That is what we can do on January 5 in Georgia. The two Republican candidates are spending their time attacking the election management of the Republican Secretary of State, who is being defended by the Republican attorney general. Meanwhile, their campaign themes up until now, have been working hard for President Trump. Such themes from the past will require revision. Besides, why would anyone want to bet against Stacey Abrams? Let’s stand with her by doing these three things:

1) Support Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight
	Ever since voter suppression cost her the Georgia governorship in 2018, Stacey Abrams has been delivering. There are countless other heroes that helped Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take Georgia, but none as indispensable as she was. She said we could do it when we hardly thought it possible. The Georgia Senatorial runoff elections are on January 5. Rev. Raphael Warnock can beat appointed incumbent Kelly Loeffler, who just survived a bitter primary. Jon Ossoff barely trailed incumbent David Perdue on November 3. Why not start this effort out right? Especially since the Georgia voter registration deadline is December 7, and especially if there is still money left in your donation jar, send a big socially distanced hug to Stacey Abrams by donating today.
2) Put Yourself on Raphael Warnock’s List
	Jon Ossoff has done a good job of getting the attention of supporters from around the country. We need to get strong support for Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior minister at Martin Luther King’s church, Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta. Rev. Warnock led the campaign for Georgia to participate in Medicaid expansion, thus delivering health care to several hundred thousand more Georgians. Unbelievably, one of the reasons why Republican Senators have not congratulated their old colleague Joe Biden is that they are afraid that it would cause Trump to be less enthusiastic in campaigning for their Georgia candidates. They think they might lose these two seats! One more reason to sign up to help Rev. Warnock today. Note his “Emergency Runoff Fund”.
3) Send a Signal to GSA Administrator Evelyn Murphy
	This is a big moment in the career of General Services Administration director Evelyn Murphy, who so far has been unwilling to sign the paperwork so the transition process can continue. She has a statutory duty to proceed but so far is unwilling to face the wrath of Donald Trump. Join Move On in petitioning her to do the right thing. And, email their media office at press@gsa.gov and ask when their agency is going to put their ethical requirements as public servants ahead of politics.

For four years we worked so hard to get Donald Trump out of our nation’s House. True to prediction, “The harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph.” If we put our shoulder back to the wheel right away, there will be more to come.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington