This is the next 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.
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The threat to America from Donald Trump has been huge since 2016. For getting your attention, there is nothing like having a malevolent, narcissistic, anti-constitutionalist on the scene. Though there are predictions that his forces will get a rebound in 2022, the formula for continuing to push him toward history’s dustbin is simple. However, it needs to be attended to with more intensity than we are presently mustering.
We need clear-headedness as well as tirelessness. Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan set Trump resisters on fire weeks ago by insisting that the constitutional crisis is no longer threatened, that instead it has arrived. Luckily, Kagan is overstated on all fronts as he details Trump’s various coup attempts, and the dramatic actions in Congress on January 6. Yes, Mike Pence ultimately did the right thing, but Kagan makes it sound like Pence stood alone in insisting upon the constitutional transfer of power. He was on the same page as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Mark Milley, Nancy Pelosi, Bill Barr, acting attorney Jeffrey Rosen, Chuck Schumer, Mitt Romney and yes, Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell. As Politico senior editor Jack Shafer notes, Trump’s current rages and lies which seem to impress Kagan could well be more a sign of weakness than of strength.
Surely, eternal vigilance is demanded, since it is the price of liberty. Rather than lamenting that the constitutional crisis has arrived, we should be recognizing that it has been averted (for now) and will be avoided for as long as Democrats remain in power, and perhaps even longer than that.
Kagan also details the discomfiting circumstances that have emerged after January 6. He emphasizes the attempts by Republican state legislators to “audit” the 2020 ballots, their assaults on voting rights in Texas, Arizona and Georgia, the continued existence of the big lie; the large cohort of anti-vaxxers, Trump’s continued dominance over his party, and the sinkhole that social media has become. But voting laws have been improved in 25 states, non-vaxxers are dwindling by the week, and none of the big lie “audits” have a chance of success.
Ross Douthat got it right in the New York Times. He tells liberals and progressives that they are in the process of securing the America they have sought. Of course that seems odd because there is so much more than must be done. But the American Rescue Plan (focusing on COVID, the economy, and child poverty), the bipartisan American Jobs Plan (centering on physical infrastructure), and the upcoming $2 trillion American Families Plan (addressing education and social welfare) will all be law by mid-November. This is an enormous set of legislative accomplishments. It was planned by Joe Biden from the outset. It has been made possible in part by the maligned Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema, and in part by Trump’s January 5 Georgia election nosedive.
Perhaps a celebration seems a bit premature since there is no guarantee that we will maintain control over the House and the Senate in November 2022. There is even less certainty that we will be able to get many more Democratic Senators, which would be beneficial because Manchin wouldn’t be able to hold us back on reducing carbon emissions.
There are simple strategies for expanding the House and Senate margins and getting ready for the November 2024 presidential election. We know exactly what to do. It would be an unbelievable if we didn’t do it at all, or at enough scale. Many of these matters have been discussed in previous missives. Here are the ten strategies that we should affix to our refrigerators and act upon each week:
| 1) Boost Latino/a Registration and Voting | |
 | Republicans are working hard at voter suppression because the 2020 Census has reconfirmed their demographic destiny. White males are now the sole major demographic group that supports Trump, and their share of the voting population is the smallest it has been in American history. Democrats must not take any ethnicity or population segment for granted, as they proved in 2020 when they lost Florida because Cuban-Americans voted for Trump. For an organization that will stay focused on Latino/a registration and voting from now until November 2022, you can’t beat Mi Familia Vota. |
2) Increase African-American Registration and Voting | |
| Not to revisit a wound, but a major reason the blue wall did not hold in 2016 is the lower than expected African-American turnout in Michigan and Pennsylvania, which was reversed in 2020. There are numerous local and statewide organizations attending to these matters, but it is never a bad idea to start with Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight. We would not have 50 United States Senators without her, and with our help she will be the next Governor of Georgia. | |
3) Increase Asian-American Registration and Voting | |
 | Democratic vote totals among Asian-American voters have not been as considerable, but Democratic candidates have still benefited from these margins in nearly every state. Asian and Pacific Islander-American Vote is the national go-to organization. |
| 4) Fight Ongoing Voter Suppression | |
 | There is hardly a political strategy more redolent of moral decrepitude than impeding another citizen’s intention to vote. Republicans have shamelessly invented voter fraud problems to suppress the vote. The unlikely strongest force standing in their way along with the American Civil Liberties Union is the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Subscribe to their Briefing and support them any other way you can. Keep in mind the ultimate goal is voting by mail. |
5) Target Seditionists | |
 | In the midst of an insurrection, there are those in Congress who voted to refuse to accept electoral vote reports from targeted states. These are members of the “Sedition Caucus”. There is hardly a better test of unsuitably to serve in the United States Congress. At least two Political Action Committees have been organized to unseat the most politically vulnerable of these members. These are Defeat the Sedition Caucus run by the Progress Action Fund and the Treason Caucus by the Voter Protection PAC. |
6) Convince Companies not to Support Seditionists | |
 | For a time after January 6, large American corporations steered clear of members of Congress who had tried to take down our country. Now their feet are starting to get cold, because they don’t want to lose influence with those members. Deserving of your participation and support is the number one monitor of those companies and advocate for steering them away from seditious elected officials. That is Citizens for Ethics in Government (CREW). |
| 7) Reform Republicanism | |
 | Whatever one can say about the Lincoln Project, its attack mode was not targeted to draw in whatever moderate Republicans are left in the land. The most effective organization on that track is Sarah Longwell’s Center Action Now. It is not for liberals and progressives, but for those who might once have been a Republican and who want to help Center Action Now expand a middle ground. If one is of that disposition and wants to use that frame to defeat Trump, “taking the pledge” is encouraged here. |
8) Fight Back Against Lies on Social Media | |
 | After you have seen the thousandth misinforming article on social media on vaccination or elections, you could resign yourself. Or you could be a part of the growing number that expects social media to develop and apply standards. Use stronger.org to report misinformation on COVID and vaccines. |
| 9) Target and Support Selected House and Senate Candidates | |
 | Between now and November of 2022, several organizations will promote lists of targeted candidates. They will focus upon races we can win to add to our fragile majorities in the House and Senate. The appeal of being guided by such lists or donating to all or some of their targeted candidates is to avoid wasting donation dollars by supporting candidates who have no choice to win or those who are sure to win by a wide margin. Among the very best of these lists (and funding portals) is that of Swing Left They are starting with six Senate races and will update every quarter. Postcard writing has also become a key strategy for those who are not doing in-person campaigning. Often the most aggressive postcard writing is through the cells of Indivisible. |
10) Pick Your Own Excellent Candidate | |
 | It’s important to give candidates who need money the resources they must have at the time when they can most benefit from those resources. At this moment, one could already identify candidates who are certain to do excellent work, are very likely to win any primaries they have, and are in important races to expand our lead in the House and the Senate. The wise thing is to do our research and not get swept away by an unwinnable race, such as Amy McGrath’s candidacy in 2020 trying to unseat Mitch McConnell. She lost by 19% of the vote. In 2022, a good race to start with is Rep. Tim Ryan’s very promising effort to fill the vacant Ohio Senate seat. |
It has been difficult to stay focused on defeating the cult of American mean-spiritedness and misdirection that Trump exemplifies. As the pandemic recedes, the temptation will be to ignore Trump, revel in life, and experience love, adventure, and compassion. Sometimes we need to share the time spent on those splendid activities with the most difficult thing. In this case, that thing is making certain every single week to do the work that will make Donald Trump fail.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
