Let’s consider the good news! Americans are getting a civics lesson each day. With regard to executive orders or announced plans, can Donald Trump do that? Who could possibly stop that? What does that court action mean? When a Republic Senator criticizes a specific Trump proposal, when is that significant?
If we want the republic to be strong after this is all over, we cannot look away. There is no option but to learn our civics and band together, and so far, banding together is yielding great value. Republican Congressman Dave Brat of Virginia said with regards to the Affordable Care Act, “wherever I go, women are in my grill.” Let me promise you, Representative Brat, that your grill will be occupied from this point forward.
The intent of this blog/email blast/Facebook post is to sort out challenges and opportunities so that we collectively can reach our highest possible of effectiveness. Vigilance is the price of liberty. Opposition matters, resistance matters. The reason why the Republican caucus is stumbling and bumping on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act is that they are about to own the issue of access to health care in America. Because of our collective focus and effort, they have two things they can do. They can do the right thing, which is to protect the level of universal access which we have been able to achieve. They can do the wrong thing and diminish that access, and pay a political price 21 months from now.
As opponents, we make choices every day. We decide what letter to send, what call to make (personalized notes and calls are most effective), who to donate to and when to go in the street. I understand and honor the people who say the Trump presidency is illegitimate and that opposition to all cabinet appointments is essential. But it is not the way I myself think. I know battle-picking is difficult, but I think sorting out the best opportunities for opposition is critical. I get that the excellent movement called Indivisible derives lessons for all of us from the Tea Party, and those are important lessons. But I also believe that having a second Tea Party is no way out of this morass.
Each of us decides for herself or himself. My own, yet to be proven, belief (which more than a few of my friends dismiss) is that selected Republicans read the same tweets and newspapers and, however meekly or carefully, sometimes look for ways to join the opposition to this assault on our nation by the president. Senators Bob Corker or Ben Sasse or Dean Heller or Jeff Flake or John McCain or Lamar Alexander or Susan Collins or Dean Heller or Lindsay Graham or Lisa Murkowski or even Mitch McConnell or Marco Rubio have expressed concerns on matters like the Muslim ban, and they can block the worst of the Trumpian excesses. They will do this regarding the Trump-Putin “bromance”, but they can’t do it regularly with political impunity. But I believe they will do it more and more. Even as a lifelong Democrat, I will celebrate each time they find the political or moral courage to do so. And I will fight for ways to show them the political consequences over time of not doing so.
That’s a huge issue going forward--- the extent to which Republicans will fight for the republic for which we stand.
Here are three things we can do:
If we want the republic to be strong after this is all over, we cannot look away. There is no option but to learn our civics and band together, and so far, banding together is yielding great value. Republican Congressman Dave Brat of Virginia said with regards to the Affordable Care Act, “wherever I go, women are in my grill.” Let me promise you, Representative Brat, that your grill will be occupied from this point forward.
The intent of this blog/email blast/Facebook post is to sort out challenges and opportunities so that we collectively can reach our highest possible of effectiveness. Vigilance is the price of liberty. Opposition matters, resistance matters. The reason why the Republican caucus is stumbling and bumping on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act is that they are about to own the issue of access to health care in America. Because of our collective focus and effort, they have two things they can do. They can do the right thing, which is to protect the level of universal access which we have been able to achieve. They can do the wrong thing and diminish that access, and pay a political price 21 months from now.
As opponents, we make choices every day. We decide what letter to send, what call to make (personalized notes and calls are most effective), who to donate to and when to go in the street. I understand and honor the people who say the Trump presidency is illegitimate and that opposition to all cabinet appointments is essential. But it is not the way I myself think. I know battle-picking is difficult, but I think sorting out the best opportunities for opposition is critical. I get that the excellent movement called Indivisible derives lessons for all of us from the Tea Party, and those are important lessons. But I also believe that having a second Tea Party is no way out of this morass.
Each of us decides for herself or himself. My own, yet to be proven, belief (which more than a few of my friends dismiss) is that selected Republicans read the same tweets and newspapers and, however meekly or carefully, sometimes look for ways to join the opposition to this assault on our nation by the president. Senators Bob Corker or Ben Sasse or Dean Heller or Jeff Flake or John McCain or Lamar Alexander or Susan Collins or Dean Heller or Lindsay Graham or Lisa Murkowski or even Mitch McConnell or Marco Rubio have expressed concerns on matters like the Muslim ban, and they can block the worst of the Trumpian excesses. They will do this regarding the Trump-Putin “bromance”, but they can’t do it regularly with political impunity. But I believe they will do it more and more. Even as a lifelong Democrat, I will celebrate each time they find the political or moral courage to do so. And I will fight for ways to show them the political consequences over time of not doing so.
That’s a huge issue going forward--- the extent to which Republicans will fight for the republic for which we stand.
Here are three things we can do:
| 1) Sort Out Executive Orders As We Fight Back | |
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Donald Trump’s executive orders issued thus far are a mishmash of things that are clearly within executive authority and announcements that showcase awful ideas but do nothing more than signal a battle to come. Here a first sort of some of the major orders, and which have the most traction. On executive orders the community of opposition must be careful to not be bamboozled. A great example of something where there is less than meets the eye in the short term is Trump’s threat to withdraw federal funding from “sanctuary” cities whose police are not always assisting federal efforts to apprehend undocumented persons. These threats of cutting off all federal funding are empty. Congress would have to pass specific sanctions and the Congressional action would have to overcome a filibuster by Democrats in the Senate. Moreover, the federal courts have found “cross-cutting” sanctions of state and local government to be an impermissible exercise of federal authority. Conservatives lawmakers and jurists have led that fight, seeing sanctions as a tool for an expansionist federal agenda they oppose. Permissible sanctions most often have been narrowed to withdrawal of funds in the area of the policy dispute, such as threatened cuts in transportation funds when the federal government mandated a national maximum speed limit during the Carter-era energy crisis. Thus, sanctions over the absence of police action in a sanctuary city would most likely be the reduction of federal assistance to that police department, an untenable position for Trump. Similarly, an executive order called for the elimination of the Dodd-Frank law regulating financial institutions, which Donald Trump made sound imminent. He can certainly weaken enforcement of the law but most of the action will be in Congress and the outcome (again, given the filibuster powers of 48 Senators) is not certain. Even with regard to the proposed walling off of the United States, Donald Trump has wall-building authority but some appropriations problems in finding the $15 billion he needs. Each opposing move must be tailored with a full sense of the powers the president has or lacks. That means on the Trump threats against sanctuary cities, opponents of Trump should determine whether they live in one of the 364 counties and/or 39 cities which he intends to target. The next step is to make certain the mayor, county executive, and city or county councilpersons are defending their position properly, and preparing for legislative battles in Congress and legal battles in the federal courts. |
2) See What You Can Do About Republican Elected Officials |
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Earlier in this missive, I talked about Republican Senators and their willingness or unwillingness to speak out against Trump’s abuse of our nation. The critical comments by Republican senators to date have been disappointing because they are never calculated to actually block an action. For instance, John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Marco Rubio and others used the hearings on the Rex Tillerson nomination to complain about the Trump-Putin relationship and the dangers in the Ukraine, but they could have blocked the nomination from being sent to the floor until they got meaningful reassurances, and they did not. Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski have taken courageous and important stands against Betsy DeVos, but unless and until they go look for and find a third Republican colleague those stands aren’t going to be as courageous and important as they might seem. At this point, Trump’s implication that Russia and the United States are equivalent when it comes to Putin-style killing of dissidents is causing some serious Republican heartburn. So now is a good time for us all to take on the project of writing a personal note to one of these Republican Senators who have much more oppositional promise than they have presently displayed. In fact, write to one of their senior aides, mark the envelope personal so it will get opened, put your heart into it and tell that person how much it matters to America if their boss intervenes. --- Dean Heller of Nevada, who is up for re-election in November, 2018. He is worried about losing Republican votes if he crosses Trump, and worried about losing independent voters if he does not. Write to his legislative assistant Emily Wilkinson, 324 Hart Office Building, DC 20510 --- Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who was a leader among Governors in supporting public schools and who in a long public career has shown a willingness to work across the aisle. Write to his national security assistant Erin Reif at 455 Dirksen Office Building, DC 20515 --- Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who has strong enough support in his home state to say what he wants, and who has thought Donald Trump to be unqualified from the beginning. Write to his legislative assistant Alyene Senger at 386A Russell Senate Office Building, DC 20515 |
3) Remember Who Needs Our Financial Support |
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Now is a great time to support refugee assistance programs. Most often, they are nonprofits. Often different from immigrant advocacy and legal assistance programs (equally deserving of support), refugee assistance centers deliver indispensable direct services to arriving refugees, who need help gaining access to housing, education, employment and health care. The freezing of refugee movement into the United States has thrown the finances and the services of these organizations into turmoil. |
This is no time to let our energies lag. At this point, the opposition we have collectively mounted is huge, and we are not going away. Doesn’t it seem like forever since we all started these efforts? We will prevail, and it matters hugely that we do. As always, please help me add to our own circle of conscience and action.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
