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We are doing this all together. None of our progress is by accident. We are in the best position to end this awful presidency no later than November 3, 2020 than at any time since this sorry chapter began. Certainly, we are fortunate to be able to honor the elected officials and the leaders and lawyers of the resistance. But, this movement is so strong and unrelenting not just because of them but due to the millions of people who have stood against Donald Trump from the beginning, making it a part of their life’s work.
Our candidates are strong. The Tuesday night debate again demonstrated their passions and their priorities. We have a few things for some of them to work on, but the fact that we are still a long way from deciding who it will be is a good thing, not a bad thing. Not a single primary vote has been cast. What unites us is far greater than what divides us, and we will narrow our differences.
There are those who understandably are so wounded by nearly three years of the Trump presidency that they can’t quite let themselves believe that we have arrived at this extremely promising point. Especially since we lost before, there is no spirited debate, no poll, no court decision, no new disclosure, and no impeachment inquiry that will bring them any peace.
To the extent that any of us thus afflicted can conquer it, we are more likely to attend to the work of resisting every day. What we are called upon to do will continue to change, because damning disclosures of Trump’s actions will continue, and the sordid will need to be sorted. The basics are there. We already know how to win this election, because it is exactly how we took back the House in 2018. Register voters, get support from such excellent organizations as Rock the Vote. Fight voter suppression, under the leadership of the Wagner Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and others. Persuade independents in every way we can, including sending them postcards through Tony the Democrat and let Swing Left and others support strong candidates and guide us to promising races.
For a long time, there was a debate over whether Donald Trump was crazy like a fox. Under this school of thought, his daily seizing of the news cycle was excellent tactically, since it easily distracted the media from the in-depth reporting that might illuminate mean spirited policies and misdeeds. Trump craves attention, and for the first two years of his presidency he could turn on Fox News at any time of the day and get his dopamine rush. It put us on defense, in a continuous response cycle on whatever he tweeted or executive order he announced.
The debate has been resolved. Donald Trump is not sly or cunning. We don’t need to figure out his daily or weekly strategy and respond accordingly. Instead, more simply, we need to understand what a winning hand includes, and continue to play that hand. Donald Trump has no compass, no beliefs, and (importantly) no strategy. He has no long term planned course of action. As he gets himself deeper in a hole, he has provided a shovel for Rudy Guiliani, who just keeps digging away.
The cheering has stopped. He no longer gets comfort from turning on the television. All there is for Donald Trump right now is unfavorable federal court decisions, escaped Isis prisoners, betrayal of the Kurds, and the looming reality that we will find out about his tax returns. John Bolton, Jim Mattis, Rex Tillerson, Nikki Haley, Colin Powell and Mitt Romney are all jabbing away, and some of those were the people who once had good things to say about him. Trump calls Mitch McConnell daily for the little solace that is available and frets about the loyalty of Senate Republicans, whom he has outraged over the Kurds.
The untruths of the past are catching up. No one with a pulse believes that Donald Trump was on a worldwide quest to end corruption when he called Kiev. In two weeks, the shift toward an impeachment inquiry by independent voters has been nearly twenty percent. 70% of independents and 40% of Republicans think it is wrong for a President to have called Ukranian leader Zelensky to talk about Biden. When polls catch up to events, the public’s disapproval of his betrayal of the Kurds will be even higher.
Each morning, Donald Trump sees that Nancy Pelosi has captured an advantage and is pressing forward. Pelosi understands the mechanics of governance, the demands of the Constitution and takes advantage of trump's lack of knowledge, his petulance, and his love for odd, debunked conspiracy theories. She knows that we have the upper hand and has figured out how to keep it. She fully understands what we have to say to independent voters outside of reminding them whom we would replace.
When we follow Pelosi’s guidance (as we did in taking back the House) voters know we are the people that make certain that Americans have health care and are not denied it because of pre-existing conditions. They know we recognize the enormous threat of climate change and will re-join the Paris Accords and become an international leader forging aggressive climate solutions. To help pay for government, we will include among the taxed the companies and people who have the most money. We will maintain strong global alliances and will never betray those who have stood in harms’ way on our behalf.
This is where some of our candidates need a little help. However far we expand upon these positions, we must treat these tenets as our fundamental deal with the American voter, who will stay with us as long as they and we remember that this is where we stand. This is the election where we take back America, where we redefine its promise, and where we bring people along with us who have not always been with us. Our current positions on health care, the environment, gun violence, reproductive freedom, discrimination and America’s global positions are majority positions right now, today.
Intellectual intensity and clarity are valuable, so Elizabeth Warren is being rewarded in polling for making additional distinct, bold proposals. There’s no automatic foul in advancing a Medicare for All proposal that Americans do not favor over the various dramatic moves toward universal coverage that voters do favor. But by a certain point it is a foul to lecture over and over again to Americans about what they should want without displaying any indication that one has listened or heard any of their thoughts on why they don’t agree. Even if we win 55 Senate seats, the votes for outlawing private health insurance are not close to materializing. What instead is in our grasp is a dramatic expansion of the public option that Barack Obama developed. Elizabeth Warren, if you want to be a leading candidate, tell us what you plan to say to voters who do not support Medicare for All, beyond your insistence that you are right and they are wrong.
After the debate, it seems likely that Pete Buttigieg will join Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the first tier of candidates. Of Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke, and Kamala Harris, perhaps one will find a way to climb out of the second tier. Anyone rooting for that outcome for any of the four should send assistance soon. It is hard to see that happening for Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer, and Julian Castro, who was in the unenviable position of answering Anderson Cooper’s final “Who is your unlikely friend?” question first and couldn’t immediately think of one. And what are we going to do with Steve Bullock and Michael Bennett?
While we are narrowing our field, we can take heart that in the first month of their presidency, one of these candidates will, by executive order, re-enter our country into the Paris Climate Accords and otherwise set about to restore the presidency. In the meantime, let’s do what we can to lessen Trump’s damage in each of these three instances:
| 1) Remembering the Kurds | |
 | It wasn’t just the morally forgetful Donald Trump who owed loyalty to the Kurds. It is the rest of us, and the obligation is ongoing. Unfortunately, what is ours to do now is make certain food, shelter and medical care is available as Kurds flee for their lives. Mercy Corps has an outstanding record of helping the Kurds in Syria and in Northern Iraq, where many driven out by Erdogan will seek shelter. We need to find ways to help Mercy Corps and make certain our friends do as well. |
2) Building on a Lands Protection Victory | |
 | As these missives have stressed in the past, Trump’s Interior Department has been seeking to decommission millions of acres of preserved public lands in Utah so that they can be accessed by mining companies. Interior moved to cut 85% of Bears’ Ears National Monument and 50% of Grand Staircase-Escalante. The litigation to block this action has been carried by Earth Justice. The Federal Judge has recently refused to dismiss the environmentalist’s claims. This gives new hope that we can win this case or stretch it out until we get a Democratic president. Help is on the way. In the meantime, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and its Rural Utah Project are fighting for and finding new friends across Southern Utah. Sign up for their regular reports and keep an eye on what is the single most critical public lands dispute between Trump and environmentalists. |
3) Thanking Republican Senators! | |
 | At long last, after three years of Republican denial regarding Russia’s election interference, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee have joined in assuring that the monumental evidence on this interference be released and confirmed. The new bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee report proves that Trump’s reactions to the Mueller findings are lies. Importantly, it shows that indispensable bi partisan work can be done even when the Senate is nearing total dysfunction. For this, we have to thank Committee chair Richard Burr, ranking Democrat Mark Warner and such Republicans as Missouri’s Roy Blunt, who helped protect Burr from criticism within the Senate Republican caucus. It’s time to spread the word on this under-publicized report and to personally thank Roy Blunt. Give his staff a quick call at 202-224-5721 and thank him for handling this report in a bi-partisan fashion. |
If all of this testimony about the Ukraine and the sorry stories about the Kurds are beating you down, you have to get back up now. Putting our country back together is a magnificent obsession, and there’s a tremendous amount of work to be done.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
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