This is the next in our 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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Donald Trump makes it a point every day to punch Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who he calls “DeSanctus” or “DeSanctimonious”. It may seem odd since they are of the same ilk, but DeSantis is trying to climb up to the rock that Trump has occupied for seven years and strongly feels is his own personal rock.
Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis is a combative guy and would love to punch Donald Trump back. However, he is betting that Trump will fall under the multiple federal and state indictments he is about to face. He wants to be there just after it happens so that he can say right away that the Republican Party needs a candidate who is not “distracted”. At that time, he will want the love of Trump supporters, so he can’t attack Trump forcefully now. Casting around for alternatives, he has chosen to punish a nearby mouse.
This spectacle will please Democrats every day that it is the Republican main event. The selection of a squeaky little rodent is based upon labored reasoning. Because Disney opposed DeSantis’ antediluvian “Don’t Say Gay” law, DeSantis identifies them as representative of an intolerable nationwide “wokeness”. At least ten independent voters have been drawn to DeSantis’ quest. The fact is, Mickey is more beloved than DeSantis, which is not setting the bar high.
The genuine policy disagreements between Trump and DeSantis are few. At this point, they are arguing about who has been more eager to leave us all vulnerable to a communicable disease that has killed 1,124,063 of our neighbors, friends, and relatives. Both have registered their Putin-preferences, making the invasion of Ukraine a “regional dispute” rather than an attack on a sovereign, democratic nation. Both are standing between a woman and her doctor on the right to choose. Both are climate denialists and AK-47 protectors. All these are losing positions with independent voters.
Now that he is an official candidate (whether he ends up running for President or not) Joe Biden’s assignment is to act presidential, lead on the world stage, reduce immigration problems, and whip inflation not now, but by November of 2024. He can do all those things. With Kevin McCarthy as speaker, there will be no more sweeping legislation, but Joe Biden got it when he could. In the next month or so, he will be avoiding a government shutdown and possible default while the rest of us watch the law catch up with Donald Trump, which it will do in short order.
Donald Trump will face two federal and one state felony indictments between now and the end of the summer. Courts have swept aside all manner of appeals. More than once, Trump appointed judges have been part of a unanimous decision rejecting Trump petitions at the federal appellate level. They have disallowed multiple claims of executive privilege. Almost all of Trump’s major aides have appeared before grand juries by now. Now this is to come:
- First, the jury will come to its decision in E. Jean Carroll’s civil suit. This is the case where Donald Trump gave an illuminating deposition. He said that E. Jean Carroll is “not my type” and then misidentified a picture of her as his ex-wife Marla Maples, who presumably was his type.
- Second, by late spring, federal special prosecutor Jack Smith will charge Trump with allowing others access to highly classified government documents, and feloniously keeping those documents in his possession. This is the case where Trump’s attorney Evan Corcoran certified there were no documents at Mar-A-Lago when there is security camera footage on the same day showing staff members moving the documents within the building. Evan Corcoran has now testified before the federal grand jury. His attorney-client privilege claim was denied due to evidence that it was being used to shield criminal activity.
- Third, by early summer, Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis will charge Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani and several others with conspiracy to commit election fraud. This is the case where eight of the sixteen fraudulent electors have accepted immunity from charges in exchange for their testimony before the grand jury.
- Fourth, by later in the summer, Jack Smith’s other shoe will drop. The Department of Justice will charge Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States. As with Georgia, the focus will be on fraudulent electors and on related attempts to prevent states from reporting their results and the resultant electoral votes. This is the case in which former vice president Mike Pence spent a full day before the grand jury. Jack Smith has brought in several witnesses a second time and is thought to be wrapping up.
Both federal cases and the Georgia case will make it to trial unimpeded by appellate rulings. The trials may well all be held before spring of 2024. Two civil trials will also be held by then. The Stormy Daniels hush money case will likely be first. This is the case where the National Enquirer helped Trump win in 2016 by using their “catch and kill” method to keep Stormy Daniels’ story out of the news.
Around the same time will be the New York State Attorney General Letitia James $250 million business fraud suit. This is the case where Trump took the 5th amendment 400 times during the deposition, even though in such cases taking the 5th can permissibly give rise to an “adverse inference”.
The weight of the indictments and subsequent trials will take Donald Trump down. In the meantime, Republican state legislators are handing Democrats a political gift that keeps on giving. Not content with the Dobbs decision obliterating the right to choose, many are working mean-spiritedly across the country to remove exceptions permitting abortions in cases of rape, incest, and protecting the life of the mother. This delivers to Democrats the single most powerful tool in upcoming elections, as evidenced by the recent victory of Wisconsin State Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewics, who got a pro-choice electoral boost in the range of 10%. These three things come immediately to mind:
| 1) Yes, Virginia, There is an Election This Fall | |
 | As we all remember, Virginia and New Jersey have odd election cycles, with their State Legislatures being up for election this fall. Virginia is one of ten states where control of the two legislative bodies is split. Democrats have a 21-19 margin in the Senate, and Republicans control the House 52-48. Expanding the Senate lead and taking over the House is well within our reach. It is necessary to block Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s efforts to kill Virginia’s protection of a woman’s right to choose to terminate her pregnancy in the first 26 weeks. One can be informed about who is running and why you should support them through the by now well established Sister District Project The best way to get money early to the candidates that need that dough is the new choice focused PAC that has cropped up in Virginia, the imaginatively named Roe Your Vote Virginia. |
2) Use Initiatives and Referenda Wherever We Can | |
 | When you are dealing with protecting or advancing a woman’s right to choose, there is nothing like a statewide vote, as has already been shown in Kansas, Michigan, Kentucky, California, and Vermont. Such measures capture voters who don’t get engaged in partisan elections. There are 23 states which have adopted initiative or referenda processes, or both. Pro-choice advocates understand that in addition to protecting choice, ballot measures increase the vote for pro-choice candidates in close races. There are already signature gathering efforts in Colorado, Montana, Florida, Arizona and Nevada and there will be more. If you are in a state that has a petition drive underway, call the ACLU to find out where to get one and how to circulate it. If you are in another state that permits initiatives, find out what is happening. |
3) Next, Why Not Ohio | |
 | It’s complicated, but there is a good chance that Ohioans will protect their right to choose in a statewide ballot this fall. Click here to support the coalition Protect Choice Ohio or to stay in contact with them. They have two hurdles. First, they need to get 400,000 signatures by July. Then they will have to contend with a possible August ballot in which duplicitous opponents will try to get state law changed to require initiatives to gain a supermajority of 60 percent rather than the current 50%. |
You may not be one to watch the news, but there will be items of special interest this summer. Fulton County, Georgia and the United States Department of Justice are about to firmly establish that no one is above the law.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
