#60: Motivate Republican Senators to Get Right with the Constitution

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If we aren’t careful, we could talk ourselves into the wrong points of view. That would leave us less powerful at a time that we need to gather and utilize our power.

For instance, we could hear that the unenthusiasm of Queens residents for Amazon’s 25,000 jobs is some sort of indicator for how liberals and progressives think about jobs and economic growth in their own communities. But the fact is that Amazon intended to replace that community, not just bring it new economic opportunity. And for Queens and New York to have demonstrated their appreciation for having their community change dramatically, they would have needed to accede to a huge corporate assistance tax package.

We could hear that the Green New Deal is a socialist dream that will eliminate the support of independent voters for a Democratic candidate. But what it represents is the very beginning of an aspirational discussion. Its ideas will be modified and dealt with separately, not as an omnibus bill. Nonetheless, it is one part of an overdue exploration of how we can together boldly change the way America addresses (or ignores) its environmental future.

Similarly, Medicare for All is the platform for big believers and big dreamers, trying to confront the continued malfunctions of the American health care system, improved but by no means fixed by the Affordable Care Act. It represents the start of a new conversation, not the end of one.

Figuring out which Democrat to nominate for president is a huge decision. We can’t get that done by determining who has the best slogans or even the most combative attitude toward Donald Trump. What we most need is this marketplace of ideas, including any number of ideas that have been hidden or besmirched since Republicans took over the Congress in 2010. We can’t pick a president without understanding some of the finer points of how they differ from the other people who want to be president. We have more than a year to figure this out.

Policy ideas also force us to understand the distinctions between show horses and work horses, between elected officials who are authentically seeking reform and those who are too fully aware of the camera. Happily, Thomas Perez and the Democratic Party leadership are crafting rules for genuine televised debates where ideas are exchanged. The New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucuses will be great testing ground for which candidates have ways of thinking that are especially compelling, since success in these states depends upon meeting at length with small groups whose members ask pointed questions.

Since several of the candidates are Senators, we need to be able to sort out legislative proposals offered by Democratic leadership or by candidates to understand whether they have any particular significance.

1. Some proposals are meant only to stake out a position. Elizabeth Warren has proposed a wealth tax of 2% on assets over $50 million. The revenue would be used to fund child care support. There will be other candidates weighing in on how to assign a greater tax burden for the rich. None of their specific proposals will be advanced in the House, but they are useful for determining where the candidates stand, and how their position varies from that of other candidates.
2. Some proposals are intentionally broad in scope and are intended to grow a movement. This is the significance of both Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. They are aspirational and designed to lead over time to monumental change in the way things are done. At this point, they should spur debate, not end it. That’s why several Democratic presidential candidates endorsing the Green New Deal is dismaying. These candidates should be contributing to its design, not pretending it should be passed tomorrow.
3. Of special interest at this juncture are proposals that are being crafted to pass the House and be sent to the Senate, partly as a strategy to hold the House and seize the Senate in 2020. These proposals will be important legislative approaches on issues like voting rights, prescription drugs, and better protection for those with pre-existing conditions. They are not expected to become law, because Trump can veto them. They are being designed to either win over the four or five Republican Senators needed for passage (prior to the Trump veto), or to elicit political damage for the 12 or 13 Republican Senators thought to be vulnerable in November, 2020. As versions of them are debated in the Senate, they will also provide a window on the passion and creativity of candidates/Senators Gillibrand, Klobuchar, Booker, Sanders, Brown and Harris.
4. In a few instances, the House version will represent a major element in a legislative compromise which is likely to become law. This is the case with the recent bill that Trump bitterly signed and could happen with prescription drugs where both parties are committed to passing legislation.

The current dispute over Trump’s declaration of a national emergency falls squarely into category three. We will need at least four Republican votes in the Senate to temporarily block the declaration but would have no way of getting the twenty Republican votes we would need to override a subsequent Trump veto. Even so, it is important that we get the Senate (as well as the House) to go on record against the emergency declaration. This is why. It is a made up emergency. The emergency powers that Congress granted were never intended to be used for an appropriations dispute. Even more critically (and ultimately of greatest interest to the Supreme Court) it would represent a massive usurpation of the powers of the purse reserved to Congress in the Constitution.

Trump is doing improv. Mexico will pay for it until they aren’t paying for it. It is already being built but we need to start building. He could have waited but he needed the emergency declaration to do it now. The truth is that if Trump had not turned on Rush Limbaugh on a certain night in December, none of this would have happened. It is not worthy of the country that we love and the democracy that we defend.

So, we need to do these three things now:

1) Put Pressure on Republican Senators to Get Right With the Constitution
	Nate Silver’s 538 has done an excellent job of charting where Republican Senators stand on Trump’s declaration. He counts six Republican Senators as opposed. These include Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who is retiring, and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has his own way of thinking about most everything and may not be persuadable through any pleas we can muster. That leaves six Senators who have already said they are opposed to the declaration and need to be helped to maintain their resolve. Let’s go in the side door by calling as many of the main district offices of these six as we can. Please tell these six that they are being called upon to protect the fundamentals of governing in America, and that you are proud that so far they have stood for what is right: Ben Sasse of Nebraska: 402 550 8040 Lisa Murkowski of Alaska: 907 271 3735 Susan Collins of Maine: 207 780 3575 Marco Rubio of Florida: 305 418 8553 Thom Tillis of Nebraska: 704 509 9087 Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania: 215 241 1090 Then, as we work through our calls, we will realize that we are getting good at this, and we will decide to call a Senator who has expressed concerns, who is on the fence, and who is very worried about getting re-elected a year from November: Cory Gardner of Colorado: 305 418 8553
2) Help with Recruitment to Take Back the Senate
	We already know the blueprint, since we used it to take back the House in 2018. Coming up, we have a much more favorable map, with 23 Republican Senators up for re-election, and with up to 13 seats worthy of being heavily contested. Last time, we made massive gains among younger voters, independents, and suburban voters. We did that by letting Trump be Trump, by recruiting excellent candidates and by making millions of small contributions. We have an excellent candidate to recruit. We almost got Stacey Abrams over the top in her effort to be Governor of Georgia, but we were stymied by voter suppression. Now she is seriously considering running for the Senate in 2020. She needs our encouragement. You can start by getting her mobile alerts.
3) Make Certain Legal Action is Relentlessly Pursued
	The first thing to accomplish on the legal front is for multiple parties to file actions in federal courts challenging the emergency declaration. Eventually the cases will be consolidated. This is the rare case where “all the way to the Supreme Court” will surely come to pass, because the Supreme Court justices will not permit such an unusual and important case to be resolved at the federal appellate level. Among the emerging litigants, the consortium of 16 states and the American Civil Liberties Union already loom large. The ACLU is litigating on behalf of the Southern Border Communities Coalition. This Coalition includes sixty organizations serving border communities from Texas to California. It’s worth following and boosting, because we all will be pursuing fair and just border policies for some time to come.

If it weren’t such a dismaying and even frightening time, you could say all of this is exciting, no? We don’t have to worry for even a minute about being able to find consequential work to do. It’s there before us. It wouldn’t be overstating to say a nation hangs in the balance.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#56: We Will Extricate a Country From a Morass

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 100 missives before the Presidential election of 2020, in which our country will select a whole new course.

This missive will be shorter than has been the custom. It isn’t just that it is the holiday season, but that we all need a little time to sort through the new crises. Budget politics and the wall are not the least of the issues, but they pale in the face of new deal between Donald Trump and Turkish premier Recip Tayyip Erdogran.

We knew Trump would try our souls, but this is the selling of a nation’s soul. Kurdish fighters have been in Syria successfully fighting ISIS with our help. That Trump would agree to abandon the Kurds in the face of Erdogan’s desire to kill them all is our nation’s new shame. Defense Secretary James Mattis proved he could bear a lot of things, but not this.

There have been plenty of other major challenges in the last two years as we together have sought to protect a nation from its president. We have had some considerable success:

• As Trump has sought to treat Putin as a special friend, Congress has resisted. Our policies and sanctions have remained in place and in some cases they have been strengthened. True, there is disarray in Europe, but the NATO alliance will hold, and we will remain an essential part of it. Angela Merkel has been replaced by her like-minded colleague Annagret Kramp-Karrenbauer. If Theresa May’s government falls over Brexit, her nation will turn to the center and left, not to the right.

• Robert Mueller has been protected sufficiently by Congress and is expected to issue his report by mid-February. If Trump had been able to devise a way to stop Mueller, he would have done so. It hasn’t just been Democrats who have been protecting Mueller, it is Republican Senate Intelligence Chair Richard Burr. Whether or not Trump is impeached, the multiple tracks of justice-seeking will continue. Notably, this is not just about Mueller’s powers, but those of various state and federal prosecutors. Talking to Mueller and prosecutors, Michael Flynn and Michael Cohen know things Donald Trump doesn’t want you to know, which soon will be revealed in detail.

• We took back the House by 40 seats, and generated the largest gap between Democratic and Republican votes in the history of midterm elections. We have filled our House with a new generation of younger, accomplished, principled, diverse Americans who are nicely distributed among the “wings” of Democrats. Over time, we will be as thrilled that we have them as we are overjoyed we have subpoena power. And, that’s saying a lot because the subpoenas will expose the con man at the highest level of his conniving.

It’s important to remind ourselves of these things daily because we need to be steady as this disgrace of a presidency exposes itself layer by layer, and the resultant wounds of the United States become even more apparent and in need of healing. The response of a nation to the Syria action and the Mueller report will reveal who Donald Trump is, and who we are. We are not having a minor dispute over small things. We have known for many months that these battles are about the very future of a country. It is a time that will demand something extra from us, and that’s what we will give. 

In less than two years, our resistance will win back the Senate and the presidency. We are unbowed.
Between now and when the new Congress convenes on January 3, let’s concentrate on one huge element which has been missing up to this point:

Motivating Republican Senators to Act on Behalf of Their Nation

During a constitutional crisis, a bi-partisan response is indispensable. Thus far the willingness of Republican Senators to step forward has been underwhelming. These days, there is no Arthur Vandenberg helping start the United Nations, no Jacob Javits fighting for civil rights, no Howard Baker standing up to Richard Nixon.

It’s good for us to understand that it is not a trivial matter for a sitting Republican Senator to face off against a vituperative and vengeful president who controls their party. It can easily keep you from being re-elected, and all of your life you have wanted to be a U.S. Senator. You have also convinced yourself and those who love you that even though you have not stood up to Trump in ways that have counted, you have been a quiet force protecting the nation. John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voting against the “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act is the nearly singular exception. 

We can understand these things, but we can no longer tolerate them. There are glimmers. Senate Republicans do not intend to help Trump issue a free pass to Kashoggi-killing Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Previously unable to walk in Howard Baker’s Tennessee footsteps, Lamar Alexander has put his foot down on Trump’s proposal to change Senate rules to have fifty votes build the wall. The incredulous opposition of Lindsay Graham and the straightforward rebuke of Mitch McConnell over the Syria move and the resignation of Mattis may represent the first straw for a dozen or more Senate Republicans.

These are Republicans who do not love Putin at all in any way. They believe in international alliances anchored by friendship with France, Britain, Germany and Canada. It will not be easy to motivate these people to act, because the political cost to them could be great. They need to know that the cost to the country of them not acting will be far greater.

Please pick one of these vulnerable Republican Senators to target for your year-end activity. They are among the 22 Republicans up for re-election in 2020, compared to only 12 Democrats, who are mostly in safe seats. They Republican Senators know 2020 is coming.

Intensify. Please use the links to call the Senator, and call one or more of her or his district offices - all if you can spare some time. Do some internet searching and see if their legislative director or chief of staff has revealed contact information, and call or email them too. Do some research to determine their likely opponents in case you will need to use that information sooner rather than later.

Tell them that it is your strong expectation that they will defend our country today:
Joni Ernst of Iowa
Thom Tillis of North Carolina
Cory Gardner of Colorado
David Perdue of Georgia
Steve Daines of Montana

These are difficult times. One can disempower oneself as one ruefully absorbs the news. Let’s allow anger and bewilderment and sorrow to cause the redoubling of efforts instead. We will not let this man do these things. In the not too distant future, we will have new leadership for the troubled country that we love.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#55: We Will Be Able to Dream About What America Can Become

When I started this series of missives in November of 2016, I was despairing. I felt even then that we could take back the House in 2018, and that we had a shot at protecting the Affordable Care Act. But I did not imagine that our resistance would reach its present capacity. The reason we had the largest mid-term election margin since World War II is because we all obsessed about taking back the House. Certainly we were fortunate to have some outstanding candidates, but the Person of the Year for 2018 should be the Trump resister, who made those campaigns rock.

Responding to my own despair and that of my dear family, I pledged to provide a missive every two weeks until 2020, when we will no longer have to use the word President and the word Trump in the same sentence. Just think of how elevating that will feel, to once again start to dream about what America can become. In each of my 54 blog entries, I have tried to chronicle what has been happening in a way that cuts through the overwhelming amount of information available and which identifies matters of special importance. I have sought to provide important context about how certain decisions are made and have avoided the temptation to dwell on snarky things that one could say about Donald Trump. I have offered three specific things that my blog readers can do about all of this. I have been pleased at the number of people who act on these three things most every time they receive the missive.

I started with a list of 250 people. Gratifyingly, I have received a steady stream of “enrollments”. Now, between the e-blast, the blog itself and the Facebook post I have 2200 “followers”. This does not account for the further “reach” gained when recipients share the blog with their friends. If you will, please help me add those friends to our list and think of others who can join in on this adventure. The strength of the resistance is that there are hundreds of groups like ours who are intent on changing the world, and that we all just proved that we can. Please help us do even better by 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. You can also catch up on current and past missives on my blog page, A Path Forward to November 3, 2020.

Donald Trump made a very bad bet. In his previous life first as a real estate developer, and later as a marketer, he developed these habits--- promote your own brand aggressively, exaggerate as much as you can get away with, never apologize, and counterpunch against anyone who criticizes you, regardless of who they are and the significance or aptness of the criticism. He did not reckon that the brand promotion would be recognized as giving thanks for himself on Thanksgiving. As a real estate operative, he did not have to deal with fact checkers who keep posting and proving his prevarications. Once you are president, an ability to admit error and change course is essential, or you could get caught pretending that Kim Jong Un is your special friend who is ridding his country of nuclear weapons. He is not and they are not. Finally, the counterpunching eventually just makes you the world’s biggest bully. 

Many Republicans say that Trump’s political error in November was not talking enough about economic gains. They should be so lucky. He hemorrhaged votes in the suburbs not because these voters didn’t know what he has done, but because they did know both what he has done and, importantly, who he is and how he has done it. From the time that Ike was their uncle, Americans have judged a President’s character and voted as though character mattered. Too bad for Republicans that they have cast their lot behind someone whose tweets remind us of absence of character every single day.

It’s fair that in dying George H.W. Bush was remembered for his dedication to public service, and why wouldn’t we contrast it to Donald Trump’s lack of such dedication? And, it is fair that we find a lesson for these times around Bush’s gentler, kinder personal sensibilities which were seen as uncommon and were thus appreciated by other elected officials.
Of course, that’s why it was so disappointing that the father’s coalition effort to liberate Kuwait from Iraq morphed into the son’s made up war that has destabilized the Middle East. The senior Bush, Colin Powell, and Condoleeza Rice got played by Dick Cheney, and the world has been paying for it ever since.

All of which provides lessons for us as we realize we need to evaluate both the character and the policy approaches of the score of Democratic presidential candidates that are emerging. This vetting will seem odd for a while. For two years all of us have been focused on making Donald Trump an un-president. We have not had to stand by our own candidate. When we start doing the sorting, we are going to rediscover some differences among us.

We can handle that, because there is not as much of a gap between Democratic “liberals” and “progressives” as media commentators would want us to believe. You would be hard pressed to place all our shiny new members of Congress and our presidential candidates on some kind of center to left continuum. We will be able to nominate a ticket that keeps most all of us fully engaged in this movement. This outcome will be even more likely because Democrat primaries award delegates proportionally to the votes received, which will mean delegate totals will grow slowly, and the winnowing process will be as orderly as any group of Democrats can produce.

Those of us who are themselves part of a generation that brought us Trump, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush will understand why Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren still would deeply love to be president. It might be the hardest dream of all to put away. As kindly and gently as we can, we should let that them know that we are turning to younger generations, who bring a freshness to our party that will serve us well in November of 2020---- These candidates are Obama’s generation! Barrack Obama is 57. We could definitely stand more of that, no? Cory Booker is 49, Kamala Harris is 54. Amy Klobuchar is 58, Deval Patrick 62, Joaquin Castro 45, Michelle Obama 54, and Beto O’Rourke 46. There are others. Let’s see what their policy approaches are, and what character they can demonstrate.

Right now, it seems that all we are doing is waiting for Robert Mueller. There is no doubt that what he will have to say will be hugely consequential, and it is possible that it will mean that Trump will be unable to serve out his term. Here is a good place to never get ahead of ourselves. The fact that Democrats now control the House means that there will be evidence backing up some of our darkest suspicions about Trump and the Russians. And it could be that the evidence will be so strong that the House will be duty bound to pass articles of impeachment.

However, impeachment talk is political candy for some House members and they could stand to reduce their daily helping. They need to remember successful impeachment would require the votes of 20 Republican Senators. Without those votes, what would we be hoping to achieve? Now that we control the House, we have plenty of ways to expose the truth and support the upcoming indictments outside of the impeachment process. The real prize is not just in taking back the Presidency, but in restoring the American institutions that Trump has weakened and the rights he has trampled. Let’s keep our goals in the appropriate order.

And, in the meantime,we know the lame duck Congress is still sitting there in Washington D.C., and (for the moment) even worse, the lame duck Wisconsin State Legislature is still in session. It would be awful if those bent on whatever mischief they can get away with fell out of the habit of hearing from us. Here are three things we can do right now.

1) Stop the Perversion of the Democratic Process in Wisconsin
	The reason why the Wisconsin State Legislature is trying to limit the powers of incoming Democratic Governor Tony Evers is they can, as long as outgoing Republican Governor Scott Walker doesn’t veto their cynical, anti-Democratic actions. Some of these late night measures now before the Governor have been vetoed by him before, back when he was feeling it wasn’t such a great idea for the legislature to limit his powers over mostly minor disagreements. Among the provisions under consideration are moving the state’s job creation agency out from under the Governor’s control, and changing how the state decides to participate in lawsuits against the federal government. Republican Scott Walker might veto some or all of this package, which passed the Wisconsin Senate by one vote. If he does, it will be because he suspects the package passing will put him and Wisconsin Republicans under a cloud for a decade. Call the Governor’s office at 608-266-1212 and tell them they are right about that. In addition, attend to the fact that the bill restricts early voting to the two weeks before the election, for no other reason than to suppress voters. The advocacy group One Wisconsin Now believes they have legal grounds for a challenge. You can hear their argument, and you may decide to help them out.
2) Pass Criminal Justice Reform in the United States Congress Right Now
	It is difficult to collect a lot of praise from resisters for Jared Kushner. But it is indisputable that he has been an advocate for federal criminal justice reform, including considerable improvements in drug sentencing and modest improvements in judicial discretion. His early understanding of these issues came from his own father being incarcerated. Though Democrats would have liked the existing bi-partisan bill to go much further, it is still a breakthrough, and it will still release thousands of people from prison who no longer belong there. Can you imagine how much that matters to them and to their families? Mitch McConnell has still not committed to bringing the bill to the floor so the Senate can pass it (which it will) and so the President can sign it. Write or call your own two Senators. If they are already supporting it, please ask them respectfully to not come home for the holidays until they get this done.
3) Members of Congress, Tear Down that Wall
	There will be a government shutdown battle over walling out Mexico that will culminate on December 21. The dispute is between the $5 billion the House provided for a section of the wall and border security and the $1.5 the Senate provided for border security. The Republican leadership is trying very hard to avoid even a partial governmental shutdown on this issue, because they have discerned that it will be blamed on their party. As of this point, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are not being helpful to the Republican leadership, because they agree with the Republicans that Trump shutting down the government will be blamed on Republicans. This wall issue will be with us until Trump returns to marketing hotel properties he does not own. So, it would be a good idea if organizations of which you are a member make their opposition formal. Here’s the list to which you can add your favorite organization.

One step at a time is the way that we need to go about all of this. Through the hardest of work, we won back the House. For our troubles, we saved our country from some but not even close to all of the worst things this highly unusual American presidency will bring us. Let’s keep on. Let’s see each of ourselves as a member of the first team that is carrying on this fight. And, let’s remember we will have some repairs to do even after we regain the Presidency less than two years from now.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#49: How Will We Attend to the Repairs?

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. 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 100 missives before the Presidential election of 2020, in which our country will select a whole new course.

After a pointed, obsessively researched take down of Donald Trump, Bob Woodward said Americans should "wake up", though he later said it would be helpful if some would "calm down".

Should we calm down? Yes, and no. Yes, we should remember that the republic for which we stand has been diminished but has not been dissolved. Yes, it is necessary for us to maintain some equilibrium. And, no we will never make light of what Donald Trump represents. 

Our nation was flawed before he began his nasty deeds. Wealth inequality was huge and growing before he grew it much further. We were slow on climate change and too comfortable with doing business with undemocratic foreign leaders. Our anti-poverty efforts were patchy and innsufficient.

In every area he has touched, he has made things worse. With gall, he's pulled up apart with profound disrespect for democratic institutions and monumental unearned personal self-regard.

Starting with November 6, we will win the country back one election, one plea bargain and one legislative victory at a time. Not only does Donald Trump not have a way out of the hole he has excavated, he can't help but keep on digging. What a foolish man.

As we usher him out, in what specific ways will we attend to repairs? Outside of how we address the great policy issues of our time, how will we answer what underlies all of them--- Who is going to play a part in doing the addressing? Who is welcomed into the political process, not just during elections, but in the whole democratic experiment? Who feels a part now? Who will be enabled to join us, and what are the rules that will keep their participation from being suppressed? Who can come here tomorrow, like we and our generations of families did yesterday?

This is the larger post-Trump restoration. It will be the re-invention or resurgence of how we do things with and for each other in this country. How can we guarantee that all of us together will take this on?

Donald Trump is 71, all the evidence that you need that age does not always bring wisdom. Either we ourselves are that age or older, or we have friends or family that are. Wouldn't it be delicious if Trump's age cohort was indispensable in rebuilding American political systems?

If these folks have individual retirement accounts or a 401k, they are obligated at age 70 1/2 to start to take an annual Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Many do not know that (if their finances permit) all or a portion of their RMD can be transferred to a qualified non-profit. This will keep the distribution from being a taxable event AND help in the long-term retooling of America, all at the same time.

Required minimum distributions can fight against white nationalism through the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

Morris Dees' splendid organization has been in the vanguard against intolerance for decades.

Long term investments including RMDs and other charitable contributions can underpin our push back against voter suppression. The eligible organization that stands out for the quality of its work and its rich understanding of the threats we case is the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University 

We must also make a long-term commitment to welcoming lovers of democracy from around the world. Will we really countenance the shutting of the door that most of our own families walked through? Here the RMD should go to your local or regional charitable organization that provides free legal assistance to immigrants facing deportation or other legal proceedings.

As we address these long term necessities, we aren't forgetting that November 6 must be depended on to give us a huge initial lift, There's a lot of work to be done between now and then. Let's start with these three things:

1) Make Certain Senator Debbie Stabenow Will Prevail
	In the Farm Bill now under consideration, the Republican leadership has implanted new work rules that would result in denying Food Stamps to as many as 1.5 million present participants. They are inventive enough to give a trillion dollars or so of tax breaks to the very wealthy, but they have not quite figured out how to give a loaf of bread to someone who otherwise would have none. Luckily, they need 60 votes in the Senate and Debbie Stabenow (the ranking Democrat on the Agriculture Committee) is standing in the way. Make sure the Democrats on the Agriculture Committee stay with her: Tina Smith of Minnesota (202) 224-5641 Sherrod Brown of Ohio (202) 224-2315 Bob Casey of Pennsylvania (202) 224-6324 Insist there be no Farm Bill if it includes the new draconian rules.
2) Boost Michelle Obama's New Project
	As this missive has previously emphasized, getting people registered so they can vote on November 6 is the current number one job of resisters. September 22nd through 29th will be the biggest week of the year in terms of meeting that goal as When We All Vote holds a series of events.  It's not too late to help Michelle Obama, Lin-Michael Miranda, Tom Hanks and others get us focused.
3) Bring Florida a Democratic Governor
	With all the talk of the Senate and House, we are at risk of forgetting to take back several governor-ships. We would (perish the thought) fail to take advantage of the gifts Donald Trump has made available by his support of the most right wing (and less electable) candidate in several races. He has put us ahead in Florida though his support of Jim Desantis. Take a chance on Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, who has an excellent chance of becoming the next Governor, and the first African-American Governor of that state.

This is not a mysterious thing. We know exactly what needs to be done by November 6, and we know exactly how to do it. Now that we've heard what's in Bob Woodward's book we know that a nation hangs in the balance.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#44: Any Flagging is Sending Donald Trump a Kiss

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. 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 100 missives before the Presidential election of 2020, in which our country will select a whole new course.

On some days, you are just worn down. You have been focused on being a part of the resistance for over 600 days, since November 2016. On the best days, you allow yourself some recognition of the progress we have made together. You permit yourself to talk with your friends about the excellent opportunity to take back the House of Representatives in November 2018, and that brightens you further. You even allow yourself to think about the much longer shot prospects of taking back the Senate. Jon Tester fights back! Beto O’Rourke gains momentum! 

Then there are the other days in which you cannot even believe this is happening. When this history is written over the next couple of decades, we will discover that things within the Trump presidency were even worse than we knew. Last week, we found out that Trump consulted with Latin American heads of state over how they would feel if we invaded Venezuela! Now he has tweeted “I have confidence Kim Jong Un will honor the contract we signed and even more importantly, our handshake. We agreed to the denuclearization of North Korea.”

Well, Donald Trump of course you didn’t. You agreed in a made for TV event to “work toward” denuclearization. Your faith in the honor behind a handshake with a murderous dictator is absurd, given he just accused you of “gangster-like diplomacy.” You swell with great pride over your show meetings with Kim and with Putin and save your invective for Justin Trudeau and NATO. You want more than anything to never be duped, but you are “played” on a regular basis.
Donald Trump, this is what making America greater than it is would look like if we had a president who was seeking such an outcome.

• We would be a beacon for the world in the exercise of individual freedoms. Rather than seeing a free press as an enemy, we would have a president who celebrates it as a key element of our strength.
• We would have a president that skips the “trust” of Putin and Kim and Duterte and remembers that they preserve power by jailing and killing dissidents.
• We would invoke “national security” in our trade dealings only when national security is at issue. We would be ashamed to utilize these presidential powers against the Canadians, who have died to defend our security.
• We would eagerly participate in international climate change efforts to prevent irreversible environmental harm.
• We would see NATO as a fundamental defense against countries who wish us ill.
• We would demonstrate global leadership. Who would have ever predicted that the number one foreign policy achievement of a Republican president would be to expand and accelerate the global leadership of China?

In the next two months, it will seem like the resistance is being swamped by tactical decisions. How will the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanagh influence the fall elections? Over time how can we protect choice, and gay marriage and countless other human rights now newly vulnerable? (Yes, we can and must). With the Supreme Court nomination under debate in the Senate drawing the interest of conservative voters, can we still expect an enthusiasm gap in our favor? (If we work hard enough to secure it). Will our own anti-Trump movement divide over issues like impeachment? (Sure, but we will stay together in all the most important ways). Will we remember to underscore health care as a central issue for the fall? (Yes, we will).

We don’t need to over-think this. First, we focus on what is before us--- putting a brake on the mindless destruction of the environment, human rights, equal opportunity and our position in the world by this president. We must increase our intolerance of distraction. It does not matter whether Alan Dershowitz is getting along with his neighbors. Or that Kelly Ann Conway had intemperate words with Anderson Cooper or anyone else that Kelly Ann Conway gets deployed to talk to.

Second, we work much, much harder than the other side, which we have been doing now since November of 2016. Any flagging is nothing more than blowing a kiss to Donald Trump, don’t you think?

And while we are attending to election year politics, Congress is in session. Here’s three things we need to do to try to keep them from having a weekly drawing on the House floor to determine which program to eviscerate:

1) Join the Fight to Save SNAP
	Well, you knew that eventually the House of Representatives would get around to doing something mean-spirited about the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) which is the United States Department of Agriculture program that provides food stamps. A reader of this missive urges us to respond to this effort by the House to establish a work requirement for 5-7 million food stamp recipients. She says “there is so much racial injustice in food and discrimination of the poor that we need to be vigilant and do our part to change our own attitudes." The work requirement is drafted in such a way that one wonders if the supportive House members ever met a food stamp recipient. There are already plenty of ways that USDA helps up-skill food stamp recipients and takes into account the multiple factors that drove them into poverty. There are already provisions that severely limit the issue of food stamps to able bodied persons. The new House approach seeks to change a hand up to a hand slap. Luckily, the Farm bill is subject to Senate rules and thus will require 60 votes to close debate. Democrat Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and the other Democrats who will serve on the Conference Committee will have a lot of leverage. Please call Debbie Stabenow’s office at 202-224-4822. Tell her how grateful you are that she stood up and tell her that you are counting on her to continue to do so.
2) Get the Senate Some Fortitude on Trade
	Donald Trump has been such a misinformation machine on trade that it would be easy to conclude that he is misrepresenting everything. It’s not the case, but we aren’t going to go back any time soon to quieter, more productive bilateral or multilateral talks to resolve specific, legitimate claims. So, in this period of escalation we need to remember that it isn’t true (as Trump has maintained) that it is easy to win a trade war. Mexico, Canada, China and the European Union each have their own political stake in not being seen to capitulate. Also, identifying modest trade deficits or trade surpluses with a particular country is an awful way to figure out whether unfair trade practices are occurring. Trump does not seem to be caught up to date on the ways in which global manufacturing investment has changed in the last two decades. When Harley Davidson announced it was going to shift some manufacturing to Thailand because of Trump’s steel tariffs, Trump said “Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country - never!” But Harley already has manufacturing plants in Brazil, India, and Australia, so never wasn’t going to be possible. And innumerable foreign companies have manufacturing plants in the United States. Of all the disputes, the Canada trade war is the oddest, because Trump went into the first discussion admitting he didn’t know which country had the trade surplus. Trump is clearly reacting to Justin Trudeau’s refusal to bow. His use of bogus “national security” grounds to impose tariffs on Canadian steel is what has Senator Bob Corker doing battle on the Senate floor. He was able to get an 88-11 vote for a non-binding resolution calling for Trump to have Senate review before using national security as grounds for imposing a tariff.  Senators are happy to have Corker be the one to feel Trump’s tweet-tirades. But ultimately other Republican Senators from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees will have to step up if we are to maintain any international standing at all. Call any or all of these for tell them our place in the world matters and then it falls to them to protect it: Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado (202) 224-5941 Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (202)224-5972 Senator Marco Rubio of Florida (202) 224-3041 Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska (202) 224-4224
3) Our Fellow Resisters Have Some Good Advice
	We are heartened to receive notes from recipients of these missives offering their own counsel on how to move forward in these times, including the above counsel on food stamps. One activist recommends this David Leonhardt column. It argues that our understandable opposition to Brett Kavanagh could cause us to forget the issues like health care which are most likely to generate a blue wave. I agree that we should always put health care in a dominant position, but I believe that any number of Supreme Court confirmation issues could generate an electoral boost, including choice and gay marriage. From Vermont we have heard a seconding of our recommendation that we all participate in projects where we customize and send postcards to voters in swing districts. This writer notes that there are several suppliers of names for postcards--- resisters should find one that works for them. Here’s another: Sister District Project. Two other notes of note, one commending a recent David Brooks speech at Davidson College for its thoughts on way forward. The other demonstrates that Donald Trump’s approval rating has declined in every state of the union since January of 2017. That isn’t so surprising, since January 2017 was the apex of his approval, but it is delicious information nonetheless.

One could weary of being urged in these missives to be focused and relentless in one’s contribution to the blue wave. If there was any other way (besides focus and relentlessness) to win back the House and (possibly) gain control of the Senate, this missive would recommend that action early and often. We are doing the only thing we can do, and the rewards will be reaped.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#41: Don't Let Them Hide the Statue's Torch

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. 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 100 missives before the Presidential election of 2020, in which our country will select a whole new course.

For all the talk about Trump’s approval ratings, the Mueller investigation, Stormy Daniels, and North Korea, the outcome of the off year elections in November is up to us. 

Between now and November, we know that Robert Mueller will announce findings and further charges. We will be unsurprised when Mueller contends that Roger Stone and others used Wikileaks and other conduits to coordinate Russian efforts with those of the campaign. That’s collusion, and the only remaining issue will be whether Mueller can prove that Trump was a party to it all. All that might happen or might not happen is explained nicely in this “interactive” presentation by the New York Times.

Because they fear things that could happen, Trump and Giuliani are pushing back every day against Rod Rosenstein and Mueller. That’s why they have enlisted an entire television network at their service. That’s why we were treated to the Trumped up “Spygate” allegation. The good news is that after the Congressional bi-partisan “Gang of Eight” heard their Trump-mandated classified briefing about an FBI informant within the Trump campaign, they had nothing to say. The tacit agreement among the Gang of Eight is that Schumer and Pelosi will not dwell on this bizarre incident while Ryan and McConnell would not hint at support of Trump’s allegations. 

There continues to be a cohort of Senate Republicans who are bent upon defending the rule of law. They are protecting Mueller and Rosenstein. To their discredit, they are not countering Trump’s daily preemptive assaults on the FBI. It is the shame of America that we have arrived at this place, where a president has free rein to eviscerate people at will. In past decades, leaders of this party have advanced civil rights, championed environmental initiatives, and promoted democracy. Who would have thought that the Republicans would leave that all behind in favor of becoming the party relentlessly attacking the Federal Bureau of Investigation?

We already know what to do about it--- win in November. Before then we need to attend to pending matters outlined below, having to do with how a caring and just society protects children. On the political front, between now and November, the gigantic issue is whether we will choose to do at a huge scale what we already know how to do. 

First, we know how to identify and battle voter suppression and increase participation. We know how to find voters to register, taking advantage of digital systems. As outlined in missive #39:

There are any number of online efforts to significantly increase voter registration, but none any more aggressive and expansive and relentless than Rock the Vote, which has helped to register millions of people. If you could magically get them into the heads of thousands of people, especially people who are new to the voting process that would be excellent. And collectively you can. Rock the Vote has any number of tools, including state by state analysis of what one needs to do to register and vote, a guide to overcome barriers that vote suppressing states have erected, and a link to the online registration sites of 38 states.

Second, we understand and take advantage of the fact that we are part of the biggest political movement since the 1960’s. As outlined in missive #35:

There were two ways that this movement was uncommon, both lessons for us now. First the peace movement reached way beyond the rolls of people who would have been expected to participate in it. Like the Women’s Marches of January 2017 and 2018 and the organization of Indivisible and other resistance cells. It activated into its ranks millions of people who had thought themselves to be non-political. In some cases, it caused people to change a political persuasion that had long been adhered to in their family. New questions were being asked around the kitchen table, and all of a sudden Ozzie and Harriet’s kids were in the streets. You knew you were not in ordinary times.

Third, we have embraced that this work must entangle us with specific campaigns. As underscored in missive #23:

Campaigns are won or lost from their inception, not on the day the results are posted… There will be 60 or so competitive Congressional races so you are going to find one nearby, even if you have to consider a neighboring state. Use the excellent online resources which are available to you to help sort things out. These include Indivisible and Swing Left, either of which can help you sort out targeted races… After you pick the race, go see the candidate or one of her or his aides if they are within traveling distance. If you don’t live in their district, join an Indivisible cell or other organizing group that will “adopt” the candidate. If such a group doesn’t already exist, you can organize it yourself.

So, there is no alternative but to get it and get it done, no? And while we are attending to these longer term matters with the near obsession that befits the times, let’s remember that there are children who need our help this week in America. In the earlier days, Donald Trump made it a point to indicate his regard for Dreamers, 800,000 young Americans brought here during their childhood by their parents. It was fashionable for him and others to say that Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) overstepped presidential powers, but that Congress should figure out a way to protect these young people.

Ever since, Trump’s approach (guided by the inexhaustibly malevolent aide Stephen Miller) has been to do everything he can do to keep Dreamer protection from happening. He has loaded his proposals with cuts to immigration and with advocacy for the wall, motivated by the gladness it brings to the closed heart of nativist Americans, all forgetting that their parents or grandparents came here from somewhere else. They are covering the Statue of Liberty, trying to hide the torch. No more “huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, for them. There are three things we can do.

1) Spur the Discharge Petition in the House
	The federal courts have ordered the Trump administration to continue to enforce DACA, but this is only a temporary defense. This week will provide the best opportunity to get DACA moving again. Moderate Republicans need two more signers from their own party on their “discharge position” to force a vote on the House floor, plus a little more negotiation with wall-opposing Texas Democrats. Whether or not the discharge position itself is successful, it could spur the long awaited House debate. Here’s John Kasich’s argument for the petition. Pick at least three Republicans from the Congressional delegation of your state and/or neighboring state. Start with those have seemed most moderate in the past. Call them and insist on bi-partisan consideration of ways to protect Dreamers in the House this week or next. Look up their direct number or call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask them to transfer you.
2) Get the Senate Moving Again
	The Senate fell apart in its previous floor debates on Dreamers and on broader immigration issues. They can’t be let off the hook. Some Senators are looking at Trump’s recent revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for various protected populations as a new way to start discussions. At minimum, they realize that they are going to take up the plight of the Dreamers ultimately, and would like to demonstrate that they are indeed Senators.  Let’s try to connect with a Senator who has indicated his impatience with a lack of action, but is not a boat-rocker, Republican James Lankford of Oklahoma. Call James Lankford’s DC office and say that you are one of countless Americans who are depending upon him for a fresh voice and new action. Thank him for his conscientiousness on this issue and say you are hoping for more. His number is 202-224-5744. His new legislative director is Sarah Seitz. Even though Senate emails have been problematic, you can take a run at connecting with her at Sarah_Seitz@lankford.senate.gov.
3) Bolster the Advocacy of Dreamers and Other Young Immigrants
	There are numerous ways we can lend our support to Dreamers. The best first step of all is to add ourselves to the 400,000 people who are part of United We Dream, which is youth led. With our help, they are not going to let these hopes be dashed.

For all of us, this is another day at the “office”. Collectively, we aim to correct a calamitous turn in American political life. We want desperately for that correction to emerge, beginning this fall. However, we understand that what we want is not the issue, it is what we choose to do between now and November.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington