#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

#54: We Are Just Getting Started

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.

It was all there in seventh grade if we were paying attention. Our noble Democratic experiment was built upon separation of powers, including a system of checks and balances. Some would have made George Washington king, but he showed clear disinterest and the Constitution made it impossible. The President would be the chief executive and commander in chief. She or he would carry out the laws enacted by Congress. The President could sign or veto laws passed by Congress, and Congress could override a veto with a 2/3 vote of both the Senate and the House. The President would appoint and the Senate approve members of the Supreme Court, who would settle statutory disputes and, (bolstered by the Marbury vs Madison case in 1803) determine the constitutionality of acts of Congress.

Even the enormous powers exercised during wartime by Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln left mostly unscathed this intentional, carefully-crafted system. It even has survived the worst judicial wrongheadedness, including the Dred Scott decision upholding slavery, and in our time, the tortured resolution of an election (Bush v. Gore) and the establishment of corporations as persons in Citizen’s United.

So, too, the Supreme Court and the 9th Circuit will survive Donald Trump, whose contemptuousness toward government institutions has been clear from the outset. Even so, one would not want to pass over the exchange between Trump and Chief Justice John Roberts too quickly. Some pundits seem to think it was just a bit of political theatre, but the labeling of judges by Trump as Trump judges and Obama judges and Bush judges was one of the greatest affronts to Trump’s oath of office. If there had not previously been scores of other Trumpian epithets hurled at Democratic institutions, more attention might have been paid. 

No one is proposing that John Roberts be elevated in the pantheon, but it is to his credit that he paid attention. The resistance should be more pleased than is presently apparent. John Roberts knows more than anyone that over half of Supreme Court decisions are made unanimously. He also knows that in just over 20% of Supreme Court rulings, five justices outvote the other four. Most importantly, he knows that it is a very dangerous thing for the independence of the courts to be tweet-defined, especially when the tweeter-in-chief may end up having some personal matters before the court.

Especially delicious is that two of the judicial actions Trump criticized (protection of Acosta’s press pass and defense of Muelller’s legitimacy) were taken by Trump appointees. Bush judicial appointees have ruled against Trump positions as well. It is one thing to concede that politics influences everything, certainly the judiciary. But it is foolish to ignore that the facts of the case and the nature of the underlying law are huge factors in the practices of the courts and thus in the decisions impeding Trump. If he stops affronting the Constitution, the courts will stop admonishing him.

The media wants to leave it that each executive action was “ruled unconstitutional”, obscuring that each of these cases has different claims and different merits. The recent case blocking Trump’s reduction of places where asylum can be sought was simple --- the statutory language on asylum-seeking does not in any way provide the President this discretion, so he is unconstitutionally claiming powers he does not possess. The legal arguments over the press pass of Jim Acosta is all about whether a property right (Jim Acosta’s ability to do his job) can be constitutionally extinguished by Trump without “due process of law” guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Adherence by Trump and Sarah Sanders to due process would be establishment of legitimate standards for accreditation. The court didn’t need to address this issue, but any such standards would have to be consistent with freedom of speech and of the press as guaranteed in the 1st amendment. Finally, the initial Trump travel ban was blocked by the courts over its denial of “equal protection of the laws” under the 14th amendment. Trump was faulted for a baseless division of Muslims and non-Muslims.

With the Mueller report coming out soon, and more indictments certain to emerge, we need to retain a sophistication regarding the role of the courts and each of the constitutional protections that block many Trumpian excesses. The Brennan Center, Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union (82 separate cases against Trump actions) have all been well funded by resisters to make certain we use every tool afforded to us in a country that has an independent judiciary. We will all make certain that they and our environmental litigators continue to have the support they need.

In the meantime, the lame duck Congress is coming to town, a month ahead of the best freshman class of new members of Congress to ever hit Washington. The goal for all of us is constant oversight, as vigilance is the price of liberty. We certainly don’t want to lose our edge during a lame duck session. The worst sort of mischief can be avoided by taking these three steps:

1) Knock Down the Wall
	Yes, there is going to be another wall show down. The House has passed $5 billion for the wall, and the Senate provided $1.5 billion for multiple border security efforts. The good news is that any appropriations compromise requires 60 votes in the Senate. Get used to this. The 50-vote budget reconciliation process was anomalous, and with the House going with the Democrats, it is a forgotten relic, mercifully. Trump’s selective interest in caravans (and the entirely bogus number of 500 criminals in the caravan) is designed to put pressure on the Senate in order to get 60 voters, as is his pledge to close down the government if his wall isn’t supported. Of course, Trump threatening to close down the government to get his way on the wall is a “go ahead, make my day” moment. But it remains the case that Charles Schumer would cut a $5 billion deal in a second if he could get some relief for Dreamers. You wouldn’t want Schumer or your own Senator of whichever party to get too careless on all of this. It is a good time to email your own two Senators, letting yourself get swept up by their email systems that favor people from their own states. They suspect what you think, but tell them anyway. The wall is un-American. It sends a signal to the world that we aren’t who we always said we were. Tell them that you want policies that provide a clear path forward for immigrants, asylum seekers and Dreamers. You might want to underscore your feelings on this matter. Peace Supplies has “No Wall” t-shirts, yard signs and bumper stickers.   Also, although it is a dismal picture, there is no time like the present to think about those in your region who might be considering sponsoring the few refugees (30,000 or so per year) who are being allowed into the country.
2) Don’t Forget Stacey Abrams
	It is one thing to campaign hard in a contested election in which a state has huge ideological splits. It is another thing to be Stacey Abrams and have to do it when your opponent is in charge of the election process, is bent on voter suppression and will not recuse himself. Please don’t forget that Stacey Abrams’ story is not even close to over. Get on the mailing list of her new organization Fair Fight Georgia and give her a little money if you can. If we can get an election in Georgia where people are encouraged to vote rather than being frightened, she will win.
3) Get Ready for All New Action of Climate Change
	It’s all there in the Fourth National Climate Assessment, which was legislatively mandated twenty years ago. The Trump administration would have done away with it if they could have found a way to do so.   This assessment was prepared by 13 federal agencies and is blunt and dramatic about the projected costs, which it says could be hundreds of billions of dollars. It notes that warming will continue to make weather events and fires more calamitous. Trump’s simple answer: “I don’t believe it.”  This will not be the status quo for long. Next year the Democratic House will pass a climate change bill to increase our national efforts and Charles Schumer will look for Republican votes in the Senate. There are several Republican up for re-election in 2020 in states that have turned blue or are turning blue. These Senators will either put the battle against climate change on their plate or be held politically accountable for not doing so. With the House in Democratic control we have all new ways to up the pressure. This is going to be an intensive effort. A good start would be to place yourself on the mailing list of the U.S. Climate Action Network, which includes the major environmental organizations and hundreds of local action groups.

It’s a new day, but not one that brings even a momentary thought of complacency. We are not tired, we are energized. The blue wave of November 6 is not signaling to us that we can walk away. It is telling us that we must not. We just created the biggest Congressional vote margin of victory since 1974. The Presidency is at stake in 2020, and with it our democracy’s essence. We’re just getting started.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#30: How Could the World Not Be Watching Us With Trepidation?

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.

Well, at least you can appreciate Donald Trump’s sense of history, since his tax bill has revived the medieval practice of selling indulgences to the rich. It is an awful new law, revealing the emptiness of past Republican protests about deficits. Its underlying philosophy boils down to this - get while the getting is good. If you are Paul Ryan, it is an additional bonus that you have created new pressures on Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare spending.

Did any of us even need this new motivation? Our resistance was continuing to grow either way, spurred by the excellent results first in Virginia and now in Alabama. The electoral lessons in November and then in December couldn’t have been clearer. In those states, our enthusiasm and commitment and relentlessness increased registrations and promoted turnout. We swept away Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate for Governor in Virginia even though he got 300,000 votes more than the Republican candidate from four years before. Because of the focus on getting people energized and getting them to the polls, the Democrat Ralph Northam got 600,000 more votes than the Democrat from four years before and won by a wide margin.

We could get used to this. What we are doing is working. The level of our own personal motivation matters, hugely. Certainly, one great force inspiring the resistance is Trump himself. He has insisted that a massive transfer of riches to the wealthy from funds we must borrow (for our children and grandchildren to pay back) is a middle-class tax cut. So, now that we know that he will say anything and do anything, we don’t have to worry about being distracted by some positive action Trump might take. But with or without Trump’s tweets and Trump’s headlines, we will grow our resistance every week and every month until November 6, 2018. There are scores of ways to accelerate. If we haven’t found local friends or associates to work with, groups linked to Indivisible, Swing Left, and several other national organizing efforts are everywhere.

There are years in American history that are critical to understanding who we are as a people. In 1776, ragtag revolutionaries declared our independence. In 1865, we ended a war amongst ourselves and the institution of slavery that begat that war. In 1963 we passed the Civil Rights Act, an indispensable but insufficient tool to fight discrimination, and in 1968 we lost Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy and almost unraveled as a nation.

Do we now understand that 2018 could be a year of that level of consequence? Don’t we know that we are a part of a great resurgence, an effort to restore the never fully realized promise of a great democratic experiment? Do we realize that we are on the verge of doing something unprecedented, something that will send a signal to the people of an entire planet?

How could those people of the world not be watching us now with trepidation, as our own United Nations Ambassador steps forth and insults the world? She says their country’s vote in the World’s General Assembly should be for sale to us? She says that the $26 billion we provide in foreign aid to make sure the hungry are fed and disease is eradicated is less important than this anti-democratic stance of a country that purports to be the greatest democracy of all?

And our own elected officials and our own news media fell silent. Either they were distracted by the tax bill or numbed by other daily offenses. It’s time for each of us to attend to these matters of our place in the world by doing these three things.

1) Become an Advocate for Nations Working Together
	The management of the United Nations has been fraught with problems for decades now. Paraphrasing the adage about democracy, the United Nations is the worst way for nations across the world to get together, except for all others. The U.N.’s Millennial Development Goals established by the world community in 2000 provided the grounding for extraordinary progress in poverty alleviation and disease eradication. The U.N. has provided the underlying structure that lead to the Paris Climate Accords. However limited its success has been in preventing conflict, it’s a place that the quest for peace finds a home. All nations use the United Nations to advance national self-interest and well as identify and pursue collective global interest. Unfortunately, the President of the United States has stressed the former all out of proportion to the latter. Since the United Nations was founded in 1948, there has been an organization for Americans to go to provide active support for the United Nations, sending a signal to the world that we intend to be a part of the world community. That’s the United Nations Association of the United States. You can utilize it as a way to support advocacy that can protect the U.N., educate yourself about what is happening in the world community, and learn ways to involve yourself in the international health and welfare agenda. UNA-US is a vigorous opponent of the U.N. budget cuts that Donald Trump and Nikki Haley have proposed.
2) Get Behind the Bi-Partisan Consensus on Foreign Aid
	During the debate in the U.N. General Assembly over the United States action recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, Nikki Haley said that she was “taking names” of nations who would “disrespect” the United States and that this vote would be remembered when the United States allocates foreign aid. If another nation had said anything of the sort, the United States would be outraged. Embarrassingly, we were lectured to by the far less democratic Turkey about our “blackmailing” behavior, and only nine countries voted with us --- Israel, Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo.   In February, Republican Senators Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona successfully defended foreign aid as the exercise of “soft power” essential to America’s role in the world. Perhaps the bipartisan consensus in Congress that is against direct ties between the granting of aid and General Assembly votes will hold. We must help make it so. In the House, the relevant appropriations subcommittee is State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. Their views on the Haley threats will become much clearer by mid-January. Please call subcommittee chair Hal Rogers of Kentucky (Republican) and ranking minority member Nita Lowey of New York (Democrat) and indicate how much it matters to you that the Congress send a bi-partisan signal that aid will be protected from the administration’s disorderly conduct. Call the office of Representative Hal Rogers at 202-225-4601 Call the office of Representative Nita Lowey at 202-225-6506
3) Don’t Forget to Show Your Lack of Love For the Wall
	Democrats and some Republicans have hopes of re-enacting DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) in some form as a part of a mid-January bi-partisan budget deal. Because of this excellent prospect we have a fresh risk that someone will think it is a good idea to give Donald Trump his wall as a part of the complex give and take of negotiations. This cannot be allowed. Donald Trump wants the wall because it sends a global signal, with levels of meaning going way beyond the significance of the structure itself. For exactly the same reason, we cannot accept the building of the wall. The wall would be an emblem for the world of the failing of America. If you haven’t communicated with your own members of Congress on this, you should do so in the next week. And, you should boost an unlikely player. The more high-quality advocacy organizations battling the wall, the better. The Sierra Club’s borderlands project is concentrating the environmental arguments against the wall, opening up an all new political front. This is the rationale: “Walls and barriers have already been constructed across more than 650 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. These barriers block wildlife migration, cause flooding, and damage pristine wild lands, including wildlife refuges, wilderness areas and national forests." Here is where to learn about and donate to the borderlands project.

The New Year awaits. In Congress, the Senate has nearly exhausted the ways that they can use the rules of budget reconciliation to pass measures with 50 votes. Instead, the need for Trump and McConnell to get 60 votes will put Charles Schumer and Democratic leadership in play in all new ways. It will also provide some new chances for fresh, would-be presidential candidates who also happen to be Democratic Senators to put themselves forward, such as Cory Booker, Kamela Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, and Chris Murphy. It’s a good discussion to start having. Let’s see who among these and others have the dreams, the staying power and the strength of character to help rebuild a democracy.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#22: We Must Prevent Him From Afflicting the Afflicted and Comforting the Comfortable

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.

This fall will bring a whole new set of issues which must be engaged by those who are worried about how our country will move forward. The summer recess by Congress removed the sporadically achieved "regular order" that John McCain sought.

In its place, we got Donald Trump even more unmoored, lurching through Charlottesville and Steve Bannon's departure, throwing out random Korea threats, seeking approval from Fox News and from late night calls with cronies. He has the most tortured nights at the White House since Abraham Lincoln walked at midnight. How awful it must feel to have only tweets and calling Roger Stone as your solace.

There will be a broader set of crises this fall - North Korea, Robert Mueller's progress, the Hurricane Harvey aftermath and with it the realization that Donald Trump has no capacity to lead the response. Notably, there will be an effort this fall by a bipartisan group of senators to shore up the health insurance markets that Donald Trump has roiled.

However, the best opportunities this fall for the millions of us who are dedicated to resistance will come in the areas of budget, finance and tax. Congress will determine whether and how the debt ceiling will be raised, how the government will be funded for the next several months, and how our taxes will be "reformed".

These are not just numbers on the page. Regarding the extension of government spending into December or January, we either will have a funded and functioning State Department and Foreign Service or we will not. Huge budget cuts for the EPA can be prevented. The modest Federal support of Planned Parenthood can be maintained. And, we can remove Donald Trump's thumb from the eye of the Mexican people by not building the wall.

Two forces will converge in assisting us in meeting these goals. First, Republicans are not unmindful that Donald Trump's criticisms of them can damage them politically, but they are still more worried about him and less scared of him than at any time since he was elected.

Secondly, and as important, the rules of the Senate will strengthen the hands of the Democrats by requiring 60 votes to close off debate on both the budget resolution and the increase in the debt ceiling. This will give Charles Schumer and his Senate Democrat colleagues plenty of leverage.

In the House, the Freedom Caucus will want significant Medicaid cuts as a part of a deal to increase the debt ceiling. Paul Ryan may have to make a deal with Democrats to keep the government open, which in turn could imperil his speakership. To him and to Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump is no help on any of this.

Tax reform will test the resistance, because Democratic members of Congress have some interest in adjusting the levels of corporate taxation, seeking to boost companies to higher levels of international competitiveness. Here's where the devil will be there with the details. Past tax reform efforts have exacerbated the growing wealth maldistribution that plagues America. Corporate tax reductions of the recent past have not resulted in levels of corporate investment in people, plants, and equipment that policymakers have projected.

Donald Trump, in the face of all these challenges, will want to afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable. These three actions can make certain we go in the right direction:

1) Senator Schumer, Tear Down That Wall
	Donald Trump still wants to build the wall. As he told Mexican President Peña Nieto in January he needs to do so because he promised his base he would. To the rest of us this is not a compelling reason to proceed. Certainly, there is political significance for him winning or losing this battle, but this proposal is about a greater crime - treating another nation as Trump lackeys and living a lie about Mexico. The good news is that the Senate rules and Trump's unpopularity are giving Democrats more traction on budget items. However, with that traction comes the promising but delicate opportunity to trade with Republican leadership, securing a gain on one front while making a sacrifice on another. Write minority leader Schumer's key staff member and tell her that for millions of us any building of the wall is not acceptable. Meghan Taira Legislative Director (202) 224-6542 meghan_taira@schumer.senate.gov
2) Confront Tax Reform as a Wealth Disparity Issue
	It's easy to get lost in the technical complexity of tax reform. It's that complexity that could make it possible for there to be some bipartisan support for a reduction in corporate tax rates without anyone sufficiently addressing ways to address wealth disparities and the continued gilding of the very rich. Corporate tax reform is a new opportunity for Mitch McConnell to pick off Democratic senators from states which Donald Trump won, including Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakota, Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Claire McCaskill from Missouri. Email these three legislative directors and tell the Senator for whom they work to demand tax fairness as an indispensable element of any bill they support: janelle_mcclure@mccaskill.senate.gov tracee_sutton@heitkamp.senate.gov wesley_kunge@manchin.senate.gov Check Americans for Tax Fairness for any underlying information you need.
3) Re-gear for Planned Parenthood
	The defeat of the "skinny" health care bill with John McCain's dramatic thumbs-down saved Planned Parenthood funding for now. This battle will remain pitched until we take back the House in 2018. As outlined in missive #19, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is our leader and deserves our thanks. Attention must now be paid to strengthen an already strong reproductive freedom movement. Planned Parenthood has an all new initiative built around the defense and advocacy for 600 clinics around the country and they are looking for more help from you today.

It just keeps on. Donald Trump says he loves dreamers except when he kicks them out of the country. He loves Harvey victims except when he treats the whole disaster like his own reality tv show.

He sees South Korea and China as major partners fighting the dangers of Kim Jong-un except for when he tweet-trashes them.

As a movement, we continue to grow. We are parrying everywhere we can and we are having great success. This demands our concentration every week as new offenses emerge, but there is no question that all of us together are up to this job.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#9: If All We Do is Watch This Unfold, The Joke Will Be On Us

The first thing we did in our house after the election was turn off the news and listen to classical music for a week. We felt profound sorrow for our country. Now we are in the midst of 100 consecutive missives (one every two weeks) leading up to the next Presidential election and describing in detail specific steps we can take to help the republic for which we stand. Those wishing to receive this series can ask to receive the e-mail blast, sign up for the blog, or follow me on Facebook. You can also read and share past missives on the blog page. We started with a list of less than 300 friends, and now have well over double that number, with many others sharing these thoughts through social media. Please continue to help spread the word!

It seems like forever since Donald Trump became President. It’s difficult not to have our sole response be to just watching, or exchanging “he said what?” jokes, or spending an inordinate amount of time viewing the various comedic bits that have been developed in response to the worst or most bizarre actions of the president.

If that is all we do, the joke is on us. This situation is not going to normalize. It demands that we sustain an every week activism that was probably not our previous pattern. If we sort our actions wisely, if our movement continues to grow, the republic will withstand the blows it is receiving. We will block and parry and resist and propose and advance. You can take a health-restoring break from this now and again, but please don’t stay away for very long.

The flood of calls and emails and letters to Congressional offices matter, as do the big crowds at town hall meetings. The House “replacement bill” for the Affordable Care Act is totally unacceptable, since it will Make America Sick Again. But, even that proposal begins with an opening position on coverage that House Republicans would have found unthinkable before they started getting very worried about angry voters. For instance, it maintains until 2020 the expanded Medicaid coverage that brought 11 million people health insurance. Obviously, that is not acceptable, because this coverage of low income Americans should be expanded to the states who did not initially select the option, and it should be made permanent. However, before this movement started, there was zero chance even this provision would have been included. That’s real evidence that the national movement counts, and we will make it count even more.

This replacement bill and whatever alternative the Senate leadership proposes must be fought on every level, because even outside of the Medicaid coverage issue the refundable tax credit it is built around is ethically bankrupt and will jettison millions from coverage. Paul Ryan already knows it is far more likely to work for families with steady employment (so the credit can be reflected in withholding taxes and the net paycheck) and strong cash flow. With this provision and no long term Medicaid guarantee, the bill turns its back on millions of the people who desperately needed the Affordable Care Act.

It won’t be long before tax reform will be back on the table, requiring us to display the same intensity of effort we have displayed on health care. What can we do beyond keeping unprecedented pressure up, issue by issue? As has been underscored in previous missives, we must embrace other essential elements of resistance to a president who is devoid of principle. We must continue to strengthen the political organizations that fight against Trump excesses, such as Indivisible, with its many thousands of new chapters. Now that Tom Perez and Keith Ellison have formed a partnership to lead the Democratic National Committee, let’s celebrate the notion that the DNC will become a stronger and more productive force.

Let’s keep it up with supporting the immigrant and refugee and assistance programs that have been buffeted, the organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union that are fighting unconstitutional Presidential orders, the organizations like Mi Familia Vota who are registering Latino voters, and the organizations like Eric Holder’s National Democratic Redistricting Committee that are starting to work on battling gerrymandering in 2020.

And, let’s target these three actions right away:

1) Stand Up for Mexico
	Of all the positions taken by candidate Trump and President Trump, the assault on Mexico may be the most preposterous and galling. In two weeks just spent in Mexico, I personally witnessed the hurt and bewilderment from citizens of a country which has long ties to ours and which has benefited (as has the United States) from an important, mutually productive trade agreement. It is painful to travel in Mexico when you know our own President has been a bully. What do you say? My friends and I apologized for Donald Trump. However, we heard Mexican experts in international relations predict that our countries will not estrange and that the State Department, international companies and reason itself will carry the day. May it be so, and may we all help to make it so. Senator Lindsey Graham has indicated that Senate Republicans who value this friendship and trade relationship will not accept the 10% import tax on Mexican goods that is being bandied about in the House and advanced by Trump. Let’s start by calling Lindsey Graham’s office at 202-224-3808 and thank him for being a leader on this. Then, try to reach someone who isn’t flooded by mail. Write a personal appeal on behalf of sanity in Mexico-United States relations to Christopher Tuttle, Policy Director, U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 423 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington D.C. 20510. Finally, start getting ready for May 5, Cinco de Mayo is the celebration of the unlikely defeat of French forces by a smaller less experienced Mexican army of liberation in 1862. Let’s make it the day when those of us north of the border throw a party to celebrate Mexico’s exported products, its ties to the United States, and to publicly reject the mean-spirited Trump attacks.
2) Focus on Each Off-Year Election
	There are two off-year gubernatorial elections in 2017. Chances are great that Democrats will take back New Jersey, where Chris Christie is both unpopular and term-limited. Democrats will seek to hold the governorship in Virginia, where Terry McCaullife is term-limited. Here’s an initial handicapping of 2018 races, which will soon come into greater focus. Remember that states can be laboratories of democracy and are strong tools in fighting Trump excesses, especially in social welfare and environmental protection. There will also be six special elections to fill Congressional vacancies in 2017, including the Montana election to replace newly named Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on May 25. The special election that has attracted the most attention so far is in Georgia’s 6th district, vacated by new HHS Secretary Tom Price. Even though this is a Republican district, Trump beat Hillary Clinton by less than two percentage points. Support is building behind Jon Ossoff, who has been endorsed by John Lewis. Here’s where you go to donate. Any seat we can pick up now decreases the 24 we need to take back the House on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, which already looms as a critical day in the history of our country.
3) Make Some Choices in Supporting Environmental Organizations
	In missive #4, I emphasized that the President’s overall executive powers and the ability to issue executive orders are especially problematic in the area of environmental policy. This is because Trump is a climate change denier and because many environmental statutes intentionally left room for executive discretion to improve enforcement and keep pace with advances in scientific knowledge. There is hardly an area of governmental action where Trump can do more damage more quickly. He added multiple additional insults to injury by naming long time EPA opponent Scott Pruitt to be the agency’s administrator. The fox has a room in the hen house. For the time being, the underlying pillars of environmental protection in the United States (including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Resource Conservation Recovery Act) will retain their huge value because major changes are only possible through Congressional reauthorization processes. But under Pruitt’s leadership, each will be under-enforced or subject to creative misinterpretation. Thus, the case is strong for lending immediate personal and financial support for two kinds of environmental organizations, above all others. First, we can select organizations which are doing the best work in our state capitals, where new efforts must be advanced to counter reduced federal enforcement. The types of environmental organizations that lead in state capitals vary by state, but often they are a state environmental council bringing together several disparate environmental nonprofits. On the national level, it is time to emphasize environmental litigiousness. Where an unacceptable Presidential action or EPA decision can be vigorously challenged, it should be. Two litigation focused national nonprofits come immediately to mind, EarthJustice (“Because the Earth Needs a Good Lawyer”) and the even larger and very highly respected Natural Resources Defense Council.

It is not time for our energies to wane. Nor is it time to become so interested in the variety of ways we can express our horror to each other over day to day events that we set aside the arduous work of day to day activism. We all get it, so now we have to get it done.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington