#24: In No Way is Donald Trump a Populist

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.

As this bizarre Presidency unfolds and unravels, the media has grown accustomed to labeling Donald Trump’s beliefs. The most accurate such description is “Trumpism”, which one imagines means the collective policy and political positions of Donald Trump. Of course that doesn’t get us very far in predicting behavior or establishing coherence.

Two other terms have come into vogue, both false and both affording Trump greater credence than he has earned. The first, “economic nationalism”, implies that much of Trump’s primary platform is to put the economic interests of the United States and its people far ahead of any economic interests of other countries and people.

This “truth” is not self-evident. Its genesis comes from Trump’s re-negotiation of some elements of NAFTA and his current trade battles with China, Canada and others. But putting our economic interests first requires us to have economic success over time, which we can’t achieve without having robust markets for our products. Being in constant conflict with other countries weakens us as a trading partner, recasts us as the bully in the marketplace, and risks serious trade wars that will cost us.

The even more problematic untruth is calling Trump a populist. The word populist is conveyed on someone “seeking to represent the interests of ordinary people.” Even the venerated New York Times cannot keep itself from calling Trump and his supporters “the populist wing” of the Republican Party as opposed to the “establishment wing.” So, the word populist conveys authenticity, pretending that the ultimate self-dealing, self-aggrandizing President is “of the people”. The real situation is that he is attending to the pretense of being of the people. With his approval levels declining significantly, the people are not so sure about it.

If Donald Trump is all about advancing the lives of ordinary people, see if he can pass this test:

• A populist wouldn’t propose “tax reform” that would personally save him a billion dollars by eliminating estate taxes on the wealthy.
• A populist would never spend each weekend using taxpayer dollars provided by ordinary people to fly to his various properties so that has can promote them.
• A populist wouldn’t think of filling his cabinet with billionaires who could not be more removed from America’s neighborhoods and communities.
• A populist would not use his presidency to regularly attack any woman who dares to stand up to him.
• An authentic populist would not ignore and leave us vulnerable to the enormous impacts of climate change, which will have the greatest impact on people with fewer resources.

This fall will be all about tax reform. It begins with the fiction as well that huge tax reductions for the very wealthy and for corporations will produce economic growth and tax revenue so great that it will wipe out the $1.5 trillion shortfall that the tax cuts create. This is being said with a straight face by Republicans who cut taxes six times in the days of George W. Bush and never saw such revenues appear. Reagan budget director David Stockman calls Trump’s tax proposals an “aspirational air ball”. That is being kind.

It’s the new battle, and one worth fighting with everything we’ve got. The fundamental question is whether we want the awful wealth maldistribution in America to get even worse, because everything Ryan and Trump have thrown out so far would make it so. The present Trump sketch would give 50% of the tax relief to people making over $700,000 a year. From the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities comes this succinct review of what would be wrought. 

Let’s accelerate. Republicans have already set in motion a reconciliation process which means they will only need to get 50 votes in the Senate. This will be hard to do, because John McCain is a likely no, and a number of other Republican Senators including Rand Paul are worried about increasing the deficit. Much like the successful battle that lead to the survival of the Affordable Care Act, we will need to start with “moderate” Republicans in the Senate as we insist on a fair and equitable tax reform bill. Because 20 or so Republican House members are upset with spending cuts insisted upon by the Freedom Caucus, there may some insisting that we can do in the House as well.

Here are three things that we can do today:

1) Spread the Truth About the Estate Tax
	There is no federal taxation on estates of less than $5.5 million for an individual and $11 million for a couple, and the marginal tax rate has been lowered over the years. Donald Trump just told a very big lie. He said that “millions” of farmers and small businesses would be freed from having to sell their holdings to pay the tax if we only eliminate the tax. The number of farmers and farms that would be subject to the estate tax next year will be around 80. These are huge multi-million dollar farm operations, and even those are afforded an extended payment schedule so that they can keep their farms within their families. The bulk of the benefits from estate tax elimination would instead go to people who have assets like Donald Trump, not the farmer with some plentiful acreage and row crops near you. As noted, Trump himself would save an estimated billion dollars. Nice work if you can get it. It is critical that we set the record straight, and this analysis can help you do that. You could write a letter to your local newspaper, which is still out there. You could advance the politifact.com posting through social media, or email the link to your friends. Either way, this misinformation cannot be allowed to stand, and the wealthiest Americans should not be allowed to hide behind the American farmer.
2) Focus on Key Moderate Republicans
	The vote of Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee may determine whether a Trump-like proposal makes it through the Senate Finance Committee and is sent to the floor. That’s because politically proportionate representation on that key committee yields only a one vote edge, with 10 Republicans and 9 Democrats. Corker has already expressed concerns about the tax proposal but he has also agreed to let the budget process go forward at least temporarily. It includes a predicted tax reform related $1.5 trillion revenue loss over the next ten years. Famously, he has called into question Trump’s “stability” and “competence”, and he has already announced he is not running for re-election. He is against adding to the deficit. He is as free to do the right thing as he is ever going to be. You can help him think about what the right thing is. Since he has already argued against increasing the deficit, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell will try to make certain he is fine with the proposition that $1.5 trillion in revenue losses will be offset by revenue gains from a boosted economy. It has never been so. Please write and call to tell Bob Corker that. Senator Bob Corker Email Phone: 202-224-3344 In the House, Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania is leader of the Tuesday group. These are “moderates” but not at all in the way that moderation used to be in the heart of the Republican party. Charlie Dent and some of his colleagues are feeling badly that some of them were driven by Republican leadership to “walk the plank”. They voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which turned out to be all pain and no gain since repeal didn’t pass the Senate. To make things worse, Donald Trump called the House Republican version “mean” after he got their votes. All this means that these Republicans are feeling wronged, and they are being asked to accept social welfare and other spending cuts that Senate Republicans will never ratify. Charlie Dent is already used to being criticized by Trump, and he is not running for re-election. Please write and call him and say that it is time for him to be counted and to lead the Tuesday group Republicans down a new path. Representative Charlie Dent Email Phone: 202-225-6411
3) Support Tax Justice Advocates
	Some battles need relentless advocacy, and that is what Citizens for Tax Justice has been providing for years. This would be an outstanding time to click and donate. They won’t necessarily be in the room when final decisions are made, or when the 50th Senate vote is gained by one side of the other. But they will have fueled the arguments for tax equity. The case for tax reform that doesn’t upend the American people would be far less powerful were it not for their efforts.

Certainly, this has become a slog. The good news about Donald Trump’s day to day behavior is it never creates self-doubt in all of us on whether we should resist! Let’s all keep doing what we are doing. Don’t forget to choose a Congressional campaign or two. This is no time to let up.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#6: Powerful Movements Don’t Lose Their Energy

Powerful movements don’t lose their energy. Our following continues to grow. Please help share the word by having your friends email me to be added to our e-blast list, or enroll to receive the same ideas in my Path Forward Blog, or connect with me through Facebook.

The underlying question for any movement is its staying power, its ability to gather strength and maintain focus long enough to accomplish a meaningful portion of its goals. I have roots in the 1960s movements for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. I learned powerful movements can and must have multiple leaders and strategies, but they can’t lose their energy and they can’t derail themselves.

The extra ability to organize through the internet and social media can be a huge advantage, but all of us will need to remember what counts. Our interconnection has just made it possible for three million people to assemble worldwide on one amazing day. This demonstrates emphatically that this situation will not stand, that we will renew and even expand our nation’s quest for equality and justice. The marches bolstered the movement hugely, and there will be more such opportunities to come.

We must continue to hold ourselves to the highest standard in making certain that social media activity counts. Online discourses on Trump can gather people, provide important information, debunk misleading information from untrustworthy sources (including, as it turns out, the President!), help sort out strategies and organize, organize, organize. All these uses are worthy.

Online exchanges must ultimately generate action. Less than 1% of the million people who allied themselves through Facebook with Save Darfur in 2014 ended up donating, and their collective total was only $100,000. Similarly, other than fueling ourselves, a “like” responding to some clever anti-Trump trope is just a “like”, unless steps are taken.

And steps are being taken. Let’s choose relentlessness and let’s ally ourselves to the several efforts that are gaining traction. Notably, half the nation’s Republicans and nearly three quarters of all voters think that Donald Trump should release his tax returns. This is not going to go away. It will come to a new head with marches and heavy media attention on April 15, as the rest of us pay our taxes. The “We the People” website maintained by the White House is still up, and here is the chance to tell them exactly what Donald Trump should do. Over 346,000 people have signed this tax disclosure petition since inauguration.

And here are three other things we can all do right now:

1) Keep Focusing on Health Care Coverage
	Happily, the question of the extent of coverage under the replaced Affordable Care Act is in play. Republicans will either protect the ACA’s primary elements or suffer political damage in their home states if they do not so. In addition to the health care lobbying recommendations I made in missive #5, this would a good week to leave a message on the phone of Republican Senators who don’t know which way to turn. Start with any or all of five Republicans who have already pushed for alternative plans to be moved along before repeal:      Bob Corker of Tennessee - phone: 202 224 3344      Susan Collins of Maine - phone: 207-622-8414      Rob Portman of Ohio - phone: 216-522-7095      Bill Cassidy of Louisiana - phone: 337-261-1400      Lisa Murkowski of Alaska - phone: 907-225-6880 Don’t get misled by the language of the Republican leadership. When they talk about everyone having access to health care, they are not talking about everyone having coverage. Access means sending a bill (or providing much more limited help) to people who don’t have enough money to pay the bill. If you let them do it, coverage for as many as 20 million people could vanish. Democrats in the Senate (spurred by President Obama) are setting the stage nicely for the upcoming release of the replacement bill by Trump and Congressional Republicans. Will it maintain coverage, or won’t it? Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan want to change that subject and they won’t be able to do so. As noted by my friend Anita Rockefeller, Organizing for Action is a terrific source on the ins and outs of health care politics and provides excellent ways in which you can engage.
2) Help People Understand That This Isn’t Populism
	Populist is fast becoming the most misused word in the English language. Please accept the challenge of combating the media’s incorrect application of this term to Donald Trump.First, although the term can be used as advancing the concerns of the common people, it is often used to refer to the concerns of the common people in the face of an ingrained establishment. As you know, this context is meant to underscore the rightness of the cause. Thus, any politician will be happy to be called a populist. When the media is latched onto Brexit as populism the flaws in the usage are quickly revealed, because a lot of "common people" opposed Brexit. There are plenty of political movements in which both sides argue that they are driven by populism and the media is not exempt from sorting this out. However you define the “common people” (itself a challenge), they or we don’t want Donald Trump to make false claims about elections and they or we want him to release his taxes. Using the term to describe an elected official does feel like a bestowing a label of goodness, even though it is entirely possible that this or that “populist” movement could be homophobic or xenophobic, which has happened in this country. The other issue beyond that is it should not be bestowed at the request of the politician. When Trump was running, President Obama said that there was no evidence from Trump's record that he had ever cared about the common people at all. To me, that is the biggest of the problems. It is in General Motors’ interest to allow Trump to claim a role in a manufacturing decision, even though they made that decision a year ago. Trump’s true manner is anti-populist, since his specific tax and regulatory proposals comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted. Please take it as a personal task to generate emails to media sources or reporters or letters to the editor saying that the term should be used only after review of the elected official’s actual positions.
3) Follow Up on Your Previous Political Adventures
	Those of us who are dedicated to four years of intensive political action will always face the challenge of trying to attend to a lot of things at once. It’s good to revisit some matters: I have stressed that it is possible for Democrats to win the 24 seats necessary to take back the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018. I have noted that there are 21 seats in which Republicans were elected in districts that gave Hillary Clinton more votes than Donald Trump. I have pointed to the analysis by the Daily Kos on how to sort out which seats can be won. And, I have been concerned about how absent this possibility has been from the daily discourse of politically dismayed people. Now comes a new organization focusing entirely on this challenge. Swing Left needs to improve its analytics about which seats are vulnerable, and the Daily Kos is wary of their political knowledge and skills, but this is a start.  In previous missives, I have talked about gerrymandering and voter suppression and the various organizations that are fighting back against these misbehaviors. Now, Democrats are getting more serious about these matters, especially in the context of 2020 state legislative elections. It is those legislators who will approve redistricting plans after the completion of the 2020 census. The new effort is being run by former Attorney General Eric Holder and is called the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. And, after reveling in a touching note written by a certain 12 year old I know about her “inalienable right” to march last weekend, I am including two remembrances of that day. From my friend, photographer John Snell, glorious pictures of marching in Montlelier, Vermont from his Still Learning to See blog. And, from my friend Barry Peters, a spreadsheet on who went where, from Friday Harbor, Washington to Antarctica.

Not only can we do this, we are doing it, but we have to be as unrelenting and as wise in our choices a year from now as we are now. Please help me find additional people who would be interesting in hearing this message.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington