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 103 missives before the Presidential election of 2020, in which our country will select a whole new course.
Three quarters of Americans know the country is headed in the wrong direction. Donald Trump’s response is that Americans are wrong to feel that way, given the collection of made up stories that he has developed about himself, the virus, the economy, and race. In fact, Americans should be thanking him for all the calamities his courage and wisdom have averted.
However, if after hearing of such greatness we still do feel that America has grave challenges or is going down the wrong path, it is Barack Obama’s fault not his, until now, when it has become Joe Biden’s fault, not his. The number of days in his life in which he feels responsible or has been held responsible for his decisions and actions remains at zero. Until November 3.
New events, false claims and outrageous assertions overtake whatever sense of order we seek to develop. Donald Trump has put falsehoods on the throne, and led truth to the scaffold. And every one of the steps he has taken to create a false reality is intentional, malevolent, and self-serving.
“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into absence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into horny, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it. It required no brains at all. It merely required no character.” - Joseph Heller
In the face of this constant barrage, what are we to do? The only comfort in the fact that he and his supplicants will say anything and try to do anything, is that their diminished electoral chances have contributed to their desperation. Either way, Donald Trump is not going to discover a new way. After his aberrant and anomalous election we took back the House in 2018 has brought millions of independent voters to our side. It isn’t any demonstration, any city or even any violence that spurs Donald Trump’s 5am tweets. It is our voter registration efforts, millions of postcards, voting by mail, huge anticipated turnout, and our ticket itself.
We are all relentless. Millions of us are doing what we can every day. We know why it counts and we know what to do. Beyond our campaigning (directly for candidates or through activist organizations) even those of us who are not regular political donors have become so out of necessity. Money matters, so whatever we can give must be made to count by us exercising care on where we send it. If we are able, we should donate much more than planned, because this particular quest demands that we do not do just everything we want to, but everything we can. It’s difficult to fathom how our contributions are impactful individually, but it couldn’t be clearer how much they matter collectively.
These are the approaches that stretch and target our dollars:
The Best Time to Give Is Now
Now is the time that organizers are deployed, placements for advertising are secured, and millions of volunteers require coordination. If you are giving to a candidate, the dollar you can give to them now is considerably more valuable than the dollar you can give in October. It helps her or him set the table for our final sixty days of the campaign.
Start with Biden/Harris
There are many ways to provide your financial support, but it is smart to begin by giving money directly to the Presidential ticket Funds raised by the candidates directly (including smaller donations) are part of the campaign’s story, a regularly monitored signal of strength. Properly supported, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will not only free the nation on November 3, they will help carry along candidates in countless other races.
Select an Intermediary with the Right Plan
There is nothing wrong with picking an intermediary to distribute your donations as long as that intermediary has a sensible, transparent plan that you can get behind. That’s been the strength of Swing Left, which has become a major force since its inception in December of 2016. Among other things, they have done a good job of taking into account all that is in play in a targeted state. This includes House and Senate races and whether one or both houses of the State Legislature can be flipped. Their National Impact fund emphasizes Florida, Texas and the key Senate races in Iowa, Maine, Georgia and North Carolina. In addition to Swing Left, other intermediaries offer packages where they receive a single check and distribute it to multiple beneficiaries. Each should be carefully examined to see which candidates and organizations are being supported. Act Blue has provided indispensable infrastructure for campaign giving, but skip their requested “tip” for now and label all of your donation for direct use.
Be Discerning When You Select Senatorial Candidates
In addition to our very good prospects for winning the Presidency, we need to take back the Senate. We need a minimum of a net pick up of three seats. Accounting for the possible loss of Doug Jones in Alabama, we need to beat four incumbents. There is a lot of confidence in the leads put together by Mark Kelly in Arizona, Cal Cunningham in North Carolina and John Hickenlooper in Colorado. That gives us the opportunity to move beyond those contests and to push over the top some of these candidates who are running in very promising tight races:
- Theresa Greenfield over Joni Ernst in Iowa
- Steve Bullock over Steve Daines in Montana
- Sara Gideon over Susan Collins in Maine
- Jon Ossoff over David Perdue in Georgia
Fight Voter Suppression as an Important Way to Win the Election
Trump’s supporters are bent on getting as low a turnout as they can, because they know the last ten million votes are more likely to be Biden supporters than fans of Trump. Thus, a major investment in winning this election could be registering voters, working to get out the vote, helping to get people to the polls or to a ballot box, or guiding someone to use a mail in ballot. Here too, the earlier the financial investment the better. As this missive has previously stressed, one outstanding investment in registering voters and getting out the voter is Mi Familia Vota. They have expanded their work with Latino voters in Florida and Southwestern states to an all new effort in the Midwest, which could use some help. They deserve some of the credit for a huge voter turnout increase in the Arizona primaries.
Pick a State that Matters the Most
Finally, it would be a great way to invest in the outcome of November 3 if one were to pick a specific state and devote a considerable portion of one’s resources in that state. There is no better state than Florida, where positive returns could bring a paroxysm of joy on election night. The polling averages show Biden ahead. Winning Florida would dramatically reduce Trump’s opportunity to collect sufficient electoral votes. There are a number of ways to invest in Florida, including the spirited effort to register ex-offenders who have become eligible to vote through a recent Florida constitutional amendment.
Another way to engage is to advance intense on the ground organizing, making certain that our voters are registered, have their ballots, and are not going to get scared out of voting by Donald Trump. Forward Florida Action is on that agenda and can use a boost.
We all give in different ways. Postcard writing is a donation just as much as a check. But if one or more checks (or online donation clicks) are possible, today would be the time. With all that giving paramount in this week’s act, we can find time to do three more things to attend to the republic over the next sixty days. Each calls for us to thank a Republican Senator for paying some attention to the oversight role of Congress, though far less than we would have hoped.
| 1) Beseech Marco Rubio to Step Forward | |
 | The Intelligence community will no longer provide in person briefings to Congressional Intelligence committees on the subject of election security. This is an obvious attempt to hide that our nation still has not brought foreign election meddling under control. Acting Senate Intelligence chair Marco Rubio was not informed in advance of the switch and has said that it “creates a historic crisis” by weakening the ability of the Senate to carry out oversight. Please email Rubio and ask him to vigorously protect these briefings. |
2) Thank Richard Burr for Attending to the Truth | |
 | More than a year after Robert Mueller was sidetracked by the Attorney General, the Senate Intelligence Committee has issued a massive report documenting regular co-operation between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. Even though it is late for these truths to become evident, it is telling that this report received the approval of all but one of the Senate Republicans on the committee. Please email Chair Richard Burr to commend his tirelessness for shepherding this process and working across the aisle. |
3) Ask Charles Grassley to Redouble His Efforts | |
 | Republican Senator Charles Grassley wanted his legacy to feature the establishment of strong Inspectors General at each cabinet agency to be on the frontlines of rooting out corruption. The system which he was indispensable in creating has been smashed by Donald Trump. Write Charles Grassley and ask him not to give up and to work to put this system back together piece by piece. |
We haven’t won the election yet, but we plan to. We are doing the things we need to do to get it done. Our position is strong. Let’s walk away from the wall of worry and finish the job.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
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