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.
From the first minute of the Trump presidency, we have resisted. It was not as though we wouldn’t have had some satisfaction if he had tacked toward the middle or showed the slightest interest in the obligations of the job or some desire to improve his skills. From the beginning, it was worse than we feared at least in one very notable respect- he has no commitment to democracy. All of the worst presidents from James Buchanan forward have at least recognized the nature and the wondrousness of the great democratic experiment, however they have tarnished it.
It doesn’t seem like a commitment to the self-governance of the American people is too much to ask, but it is now clear that it will not be forthcoming from this president. This is an unprecedented time, where aides fall by the wayside as soon as they aren’t fawning enough, or they vary in the slightest from his Fox-spawned world view. Donald Trump is not willing to be any kind of President, and he is proud and protective of that unwillingness.
It is extremely unlikely that he will be impeached but is not even a close question as to who would be a less dangerous president between him and the vice-president. Mike Pence would be the most politically conservative president of modern times, but nonetheless he would attend to the requirements of the job more fully in one day than Donald Trump has in any month that he has been elected. You could pick your poison, but if you did, why not reduce the danger to security and our democracy by choosing Pence, who at least recognizes there is someone in the world besides himself?
That choice is not likely to come before us. Donald Trump’s presidency will survive. We will not ever know all of his offenses, whether or not they are “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Those we know for sure will be discounted by a sufficient number of Republican Senators to protect him from being removed from office, however much they end up fleeing from him in every other way.
Even without much prospect for impeachment, the role of the courts in checking Trump’s abuses of power is growing. At least for now, the president is constrained by federal courts from walking away from DACA. The courts have forced the modification of his various travel bans, and they have slowed the Trump/Pruitt pillaging of environmental regulation.
On the personal culpability side, those who are seeking to hold Donald Trump legally responsible for doing the things he relishes doing are all making progress. What has emerged are several solid opportunities for the judicial system to be used as a check against the misuse of power.
First, Stormy Daniels, as much as she has captured the nation’s attention span, will not necessarily be a lasting problem, since evangelicals have already given Trump a get out of jail free card. Nor is he facing a big problem from former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, who is also seeking release from her non-disclosure agreement. Donald Trump has not subjected either woman to tweet-assault, and both have stressed that their relationships with him were consensual. However, Trump still has a groping issue before the courts. A New York Supreme Court Justice thus far has refused to throw out Summer Zervos’ defamation lawsuit. If Trump’s appeal of the Court’s denial of his stay is turned down, a deposition would be next.
Second, the resistance has been making the emoluments argument since Trump was elected, and that case is still alive in federal court. The Constitution prohibits officials from receiving “gifts, emoluments, offices or titles from foreign states.” Maryland and the District of Columbia have argued that Trump is receiving such gifts as foreign governments gravitate to the Trump International Hotel.
Of course, the biggest personal challenge for Donald Trump is the Mueller investigation itself. Given the methodical way that Robert Mueller has proceeded so far, it is surprising how much conjecture there is in the mainstream press that there was no collusion between Trump and Russia. Why would one conclude that Roger Stone and Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn never got Trump’s consent about Russia, since it is abundantly clear that Trump was otherwise involved in every aspect of his campaign? It would be wise to wait to draw these conclusions. And while we are waiting, it would be good for us to school ourselves on the obstruction of justice by Trump and his sycophants. This includes a dozen or so separate incidents including the timing of the Sally Yates and James Comey firings. It includes the memorable statement crafted by Trump and Hope Hicks that the meeting between Russians and Donald Trump Jr and others was about the adoption of Russian orphans. And it is all laid out in two stunning podcasts on collusion and obstruction on NPR’s Embedded program.
Any or all of these three legal actions could end up being a major barrier to Trump’s worst intentions. Happily, they all have their funding sources, and no bake sales or bike-a-thons are necessary. Thus, all of us could turn to other fronts to boost the legal challenges to Trumpism, including taking these three steps:
| 1) Keep Fighting to Protect Public Lands | |
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Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke decided to “go big” in his reduction of Bears Ears National Monument by 85% from its original 1.35 million acres. This decision was all about advancing the interests of oil companies. The battle to save Bears Ears is instead about listening to the Navajo, Hopi, Ute and other tribes who fought so hard to create the monument in the first place. Your participation in this effort will not only show solidarity with the tribes, but it will send Zinke and Trump a signal that you stand behind federal land conservation protections. The tribal coalition offers you the opportunity to sign up for regular updates, contact your member of Congress, and underwrite the legal action. |
2) Save the Modern Day Census |
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A lot of people are confused by the dust up over the Trumpian effort to add a citizenship question to the Census in 2020. Why not change the short form (which is designed for us to complete in ten minutes) to find out who is a citizen? This citizenship question has not been asked since the 1950s, since the Census is intended to establish our total population, regardless of our citizenship. The data is then used to allocate Congressional districts among the states, and it is used in numerous federal funding distributional formulas, so that the funding can be responsive to people and communities in need. Adding the citizenship question is intended to decrease the count (and thus the relative political influence) of areas of the country with heavier immigrant presence. We do not want or need to widen the growing gulf between the government and immigrant communities. The addition of this question will generate an undercount in the census. It’s time to see whether your city and/or state is among the several who have already joined the coalition to battle this new provision. |
3) Continue the Fight Against Voter Suppression |
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Previous missives have emphasized two major organizations fighting fiercely against voter suppression. It seems odd that election officials and some state legislatures would work to inhibit voters from voting, but that’s exactly what can and does happen. Both the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University and the American Civil Liberties Union have been instrumental in rooting out these practices. The efforts of another long-time player are growing. The League of Women Voters has the status, the experience and the local networks that are all essential to expanding voting in America. Find out what they are doing in general, and what they are doing near you. |
To stop the daily Trump assault on the American democracy, we will use every single legal tool that is at our disposal, so why not maximize the use of the legal system itself? Our fore-parents expected that it would be an inhibition to the misuse of power, and for that, there is no better time than the present, don’t you think?
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
