#29 A Party Launches A Search For Its Soul

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Unbelievably, this is all going to get even more bizarre and even more complex. There are three separate swirls that are robbing the Capitol and White House of all equilibrium.

First, Donald Trump’s most abiding desire is to be seen as a legitimate President. Perhaps there will never be sufficient evidence that there was collusion to swing the election between Trump and the Russians, but Trump understands that the indictment of his aides and the allegations of collusion is de-legitimizing his presidency. This de-legitimization will have electoral consequences in November 2018. In addition, the future action special prosecutor Robert Mueller takes means it will be more difficult to get any legislative victories after this awful tax bill is completed, signed and trumpeted. Most important to Trump, successfully calling into question the way he won changes his place in history, and not at all in favorable ways. The stain is permanent.

Second, Trump’s henchman, Steve Bannon, has wanted to break down the Republican Party since long before he found Trump to front the effort. Where once Republican Senators like Jacob Javits, Charles Percy and Hugh Scott stood tall in the Senate and advanced civil rights and social welfare reform and shaped new environmental laws, leading Republican Senators Mitch McConnell, John Thune and John Cronyn stand less tall and advocate positions far to the right of their predecessors. Not far enough for Bannon. There were wars for the soul of that party when Reagan was president, and Reagan allies dumped the “moderates”, state after state. That was nothing compared to what will now ensue. The election of Doug Jones in Alabama signals an all-out war among Republicans, to be fought state by state. Bannon bet big in the most Republican state in the country, taking down Luther Strange just to see if he could. Even before the storm over Roy Moore and teenage girls, Bannon knew that Moore was hugely flawed as a public figure, and he didn’t care. The loss will put McConnell and others back on offense against Bannon, leaving one to ask, “This was once the party of Lincoln. What and where is the soul of the party they will be trying to defend?”

Third, after the passage of the tax bill, Republicans will be almost out of ways to use the budget reconciliation process to gain passage of bills with only 50 votes in the Senate. Return to the “regular order” that John McCain treasures will force McConnell and the White House to regularly engage with Charles Schumer and Senate Democratic leadership to get to the 60 votes that close debate. Because Republicans thus need Democratic votes to increase defense spending, and will need Democrats on several other issues going forward, the dreamers will end up being protected. Whether it happens as a part of a late December bi-partisan budget deal, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) ultimately will be reworked in a bipartisan deal, and Trump will pretend that he was working for that outcome all along.

The weeks going forward will make past abnormal weeks of 2017 seem normal in comparison. Trump’s tweets on media coverage regarding Mueller, Russia and collusion will become even more frequent and desperate, as he fears charges against Jared Kushner or one or both of his sons are imminent. In short order, he will blame Richard Shelby and other Republican Senators for Doug Jones’ victory, rather than blaming Roy Moore and Bannon.

How can our resistance take advantage of all this turmoil? We can continue do all of the early support for the elections in November of 2018 that we have been doing, and up that ante month by month. It should have reached obsession level for each of us when the campaigns are running full tilt. If at this point a Trump resister doesn’t know what targeted races interest her or him most, personal adjustments must be immediate.

In addition, we can and must expect more from Democrats in developing and delivering a coherent message than the little we have seen so far. On that score, we can take heart that Democratic factions are working together on adjustments to the Democratic presidential nominating process, including reducing the role of super-delegates.

We can energize ourselves with despair over the Trump induced decline in the vitality of our democracy at home, or our despair over the dimming of the beacons through which our nation sought (however problematically) to brighten the world. But the better way to propel ourselves is to see the lights ahead of us and to work our way toward them.

Today, we need to attend to the numerous and hugely consequential Congressional matters still in play between now and the end of the year:

1) Dealing With Democrats on the Budget
	In the Senate, Mitch McConnell needs 60 votes to pass the increases in the Defense budget. Democratic Minority Leader Charles Schumer is willing to provide those votes, depending on budgeted levels for such programs as CHIP (children’s health care), opioid treatment, funding for State Department positions and relief for Puerto Rico.   The complication is that no one wants to shut the government down if talks reach an impasse, and if there is even the hint of a shutdown, neither party wants to be assigned the blame. In the face of this, 44 Democratic Senators have said that they will not vote for a budget that fails to include domestic spending increases, which would deny McConnell the 60 votes he needs. This is a bad time to blink. Charles Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have done well when McConnell and Ryan have needed their votes, and we must expect that again. We all call and write Republicans Senators a lot. It is time to write Democratic Senators underscoring these views: no budget agreement without significant attention to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and other domestic needs no budget agreement without movement to continue Dreamer protection now provided by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) no wall, not now, not ever Write to all (1 or 2) of the Democratic Senators your state has. Because you are in-state, you will be able to use their on-line email form. Then, be sure to be counted by calling the main number at your Senator’s DC office. If there is no Democratic Senator in your state, pick one from nearby.
2) Focusing on Susan Collins
	Susan Collins is in a bind. She provided the key vote to deny Republicans their destruction of the Affordable Care Act. Then, trying to stay within her party, she provided Republicans their key vote to pass the Senate’s version of the tax bill. She continues to maintain that unless Mitch McConnell and President Trump follow through with various promises they made to her, that she will vote against final passage of the bill after the Conference Committee's reconciliation of the House and Senate version. Among other things, she wants Affordable Care Act insurance markets shored up, because the tax bill is likely to eliminate the individual mandate. It is okay to recognize Susan Collins for trying harder than every other Republican Senator to support health care for Americans in the face of dangerous political forces. She will have a little more leverage when the Democratic minority grows to 49 votes when Doug Jones is seated. It is also okay to let Susan Collins know that we are all a force too. Please write her aide Steve Abbott, Chief of Staff and tell him that Susan Collins must insist that health care be fully protected in the tax bill and the effort to eliminate the individual mandate be jettisoned. Tell her that only then will she be true to her past refusal to be a part of denying care to many millions of Americans. Then call Susan Collins’ office in Portland, Maine at 207-780-3575 and deliver the same message.
3) Fighting Over Bears Ears
	Donald Trump went to Salt Lake City recently to announce the slashing of Bears Ears National Monument from 1.5 million acres to 230,000 acres, an action strongly urged by the fossil fuel industry. This is a major first battle over the integrity of the national monument system and other preserved lands. This battle is not over. With regard to the Bears Ears action, there are five lawsuits pending. In a key lawsuit, the Hopi, Navajo, Ute Mountain, Zuni and Ute Tribes are arguing that Trump and Interior Secretary Zinke do not have the power under the Antiquities Act to decommission a National Monument. You can track this effort, add your name to an online petition and support this lawsuit today.

The Republican leadership of the House and Senate are fully aware of Donald Trump’s dysfunctions -- the bullying, incuriosity, falsehoods and lack of any kind of core values and compass. Certainly, it is a difficult choice for an elected official to walk away from her or his own party. However, when you signed up for the job and took your oath you said that you would put your country first.

These leaders also know that all of us are battling back. They know that we are out there in great numbers. The Virginia results in the November elections and the news from Alabama have already demonstrated to them that their turning a blind eye to Trump’s innumerable and daily dysfunctions is not working. We have within our power from now to next November to make that even more abundantly clear.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#15: We Are Seeking A Bit of Mercy for Our Country

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When you face truly bizarre circumstances, you seek as much equilibrium as you can maintain. That’s what we need to do right now with our country. At a benefit concert for the International Rescue Committee the other night, a performer asked that we sing about finding a bit of mercy for our country. The audience of a hundred quietly joined voices singing this plea. When can we get back to a world where we are just trying to make our flawed democracy better, rather than watching a President and his supplicants seek to unravel it? This present situation is just awful. Western European leaders openly speculate that we cannot be a trusted partner. Singled out by the President for praise instead are the autocratic leaders of Turkey, Egypt and the Philippines.

We are at risk, undeniably. Even in his increasingly neutralized position, Donald Trump can rend our relationships worldwide and endanger all of us. He can prove to be the absolute worst person to deal with Kim Jong Un, or with Vladimir Putin, or Bashar Al Assad. He can either walk away from the Paris Accords, or barring that, pretend they don’t exist. He can set the bar so low with his budget proposal, seeking to massacre food stamps and the EPA and Medicaid, that any Republican alternative that smites the poor and the environment, but with not quite as hard of a smite, will be greeted like it was written by Pope Francis.

Happily, the resistance is at its highest levels. At this point, all of the day-to-day opposition from the American people compares favorably in its intensity with the great social and political movements of the past century. Yet even with all of its thousands of chapters of Indivisible and other organizing groups, the January Women’s march, the successful legal actions and the town hall battles, the staying power of our resistance is still to be proven.

I am not worried that I don’t always agree with every sign or petition or post or chosen battle of the resistance. It is in the nature of opposition like ours for it to be sprawling and often undisciplined. Sure, as the 2018 Congressional elections near, more will need to be said about our alternative vision of where our country is heading. We will start wanting to coalesce around specific elected officials (and potential Presidential candidates) who are principled and authentic and compassionate and articulate.

But, right now it is not at all a bad thing to fashion ourselves as the anti-Trump insurgency. And it is working. Two analyses tell the story. Read the findings of Nate Silver in 538 using the data to illustrate that the support from Donald Trump’s electoral base is significantly eroding. 

We need to take back 24 Congressional seats on November 6, 2018. At this point the best way to analyze how that effort is working is the “generic” Congressional polls which ask who voters would support if the election were today. Quinnipiac is just one poll, but it is very encouraging. 

Right now, let’s use all this Trump disapproval to send members of Congress a signal on the people-destroying federal budget that Trump just proposed. Let’s remember that a score or more of Republican members of Congress have promised that this budget is dead on arrival. But let’s also remember that Trump and budget director Mick Mulvaney are seeking a steep decline for domestic social welfare programs in an attempt to win when they lose, to end up in a “compromise” position that still eviscerates programs that matter.

There is no end to the bad things to be said about the proposed budget. It exceeds all previous budgets in the extent it trades off meeting social needs for huge increases in military spending. Moreover, it is a cynical exercise because it is disconnected from any meaningful attempt to get American government to work better. It is meant to symbolically signal a change of priorities. What it instead signals is the approach to life of a circle of mean-spirited, wealthy, Trump associates who are divorced from the real lives of other humans. Shame on them.

There are big ticket budget items like the proposed Medicaid cuts, and 3/5 of the cuts come from programs serving low and moderate-income Americans.  

Let’s focus in this missive on three cuts of somewhat smaller scale and let’s fight back, now!

1) Make America Hungry Again?
	Just over 50 years ago, Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Joseph Clark visited the Mississippi Delta and exposed conditions of severe malnutrition among America’s poor. Their effort was spurred by Marion Wright Edelman, a 27-year-old attorney who would go on to found the Children’s Defense Fund. It would set in motion efforts that would expand food stamps by over 500% and significantly decrease hunger in America. Food insecurity is still with us. The nation’s network of food banks has grown. The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) replaced and expanded the Food Stamps program. The proposed Trump cuts to SNAP would reverse 40 years of bipartisan support for fighting hunger in America. It would transfer billions of dollars in costs to the states and, similar to the proposed approach to Medicaid, it would permit states to make cuts to the basic package of food assistance and skirt the fundamental dietary needs for human health.   A cut of $193 billion over ten years for a program that provides at least a bit of food to 44 million people? This, in America? We would fund the first stage of a wall and hugely increase funding for weapons system while taking bread away from someone who needs it? We would do that? Some Republicans say we wouldn’t. They and their Democrat counterparts need you to reinforce that belief this week. Check these appropriations subcommittee lists to see if there is a member from your state in either the Senate or the House. If there is, email that member and tell them the nation is watching. If not, or if you are in a calling mood, phone House subcommittee staff director Tom O’Brien at (202) 225-2771. Don’t be shy about these things.
2) Protect This Small, Successful Program
	The winner of the award for most nonsensical budget cut is the proposed elimination of the Energy Star program, which costs $50 million a year and influences billions of dollars in energy savings. You may be familiar with this program because it provides the energy efficiency rating of the household appliance you are considering purchasing. Thousands of companies voluntarily participate in this program that encourages energy efficient purchases by existing homeowners as well as new homeowners, and commercial and industrial properties. This is a wildly successful program which spurs our energy efficiency and helps improve our energy self-sufficiency and it’s voluntary and it has everything to do with saving the planet and, and, and…. The Alliance to Save Energy has persuaded 1,000 companies to fight back against destroying this program. You can help them fight back.
3) And, About the Wall Which “We Will Build and Mexico Will Pay For”
	It is beginning to look like we may be able to stop this international embarrassment. Of course, Mexico was never going to pay for the wall. Donald Trump is still looking for money for it and has asked Congress for $1.6 billion in this round, which would build 74 miles, mostly in Texas, at the cost of $13,000 per yard. The estimated total cost of the wall would be over $20 billion. This would snatch protein from a low income kid, or essential services for a Planned Parenthood Clinic, or eliminate jobs of EPA staff who are trying to enforce the law. Let’s insist that enough is enough. Unfortunately, House Republicans have already realized that eliminating the wall proposal altogether would be a telling political blow to Donald Trump. Because of that, they will continue to put in enough money in the budget for design or for early stages. The only way to do anything about that is to make them the House minority on November 6, 2018, which we can surely do. In the Senate, Republicans have the same worries. They wouldn’t have chosen the wall themselves but they aren’t eager to deal Trump such an obvious blow. There are 6 Republicans and 5 Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has already protected Planned Parenthood. How about sending her a supportive e-note saying that you hope that she will oppose the wall fully and forthrightly? It’s just an email form she provides, but she will be noting the mail she gets on this subject.

It may seem that the battle is being joined the same way every week. But that isn’t so. Way too slowly, but still in a meaningful way, individual Republican elected officials are aiding the resistance. And as voter approval for Trump declines, more Republicans will do more things that are useful. It won’t be enough. It won’t be what their consciences beg them to do, but it will be more help than we had in January.

And of course, there is one other thing that makes everything fundamentally different than it was at the outset, Robert Mueller isn’t going anywhere. 

Our audience has grown with each missive. Please help me expand some more.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington