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.
Millions of us have worked so hard to get us all into this present position. The Presidency is ours to win in 2020, if we will take it. Already, 55% of voters are indicating that they have no intention of voting for Donald Trump. The 2018 Congressional elections featured a massive upturn in young voters that we can replicate. In the aftermath of the Mueller report, able House Committee chairs are wielding subpoenas. Their investigations are public and unstoppable. Mueller made 14 separate referrals to U.S. attorneys, which will generate legal action from now to long after the end of Trump’s presidency.
We have fielded a good range of candidates, several of whom poll extremely well in head to head matchups with Trump. We are angry, resolute and eager to defend our country. Not only can we not wait until November 3, 2020, we aren’t waiting. We have formed a resistance of unprecedented scale. We are ashamed about what our country is enduring and we aim to make it right.
Just because we have become nimble and impressively sure-footed does not mean we should drop an anvil on our toes. We would be hard pressed to devise a more self-indulgent, self-wounding action than to bring impeachment charges against Donald Trump in the House so long as there is absolutely no chance of him being convicted in the Senate.
Do the advocates for advancing articles of impeachment in the House truly believe it is our “obligation” to make this our dominant plan for 2019? The goal of such an action would be what, exactly? To provide Senate Republicans thousands of hours of unchecked air time? To take voters away from the health care message that we used to flip 40 seats just seven months ago? To turn us into America’s second Twitter party? To distract us from the far more real and valuable subpoena power already being wielded, which is superior to impeachment hearing processes? Subpoena power allows House committee chairs to painstakingly home in on specific acts of collusion and obstruction.
As was proven in the case of Bill Clinton, it is a sorry exercise to try a person for high crimes and misdemeanors when you know that you will not get the votes for conviction. The minimum of twenty Republican Senators must step forward. Barring colossal new revelations, these votes will not emerge. It is a false dichotomy, the choice between carrying forward articles of impeachment, and eschewing that course. Let’s get our daily work done. Let’s use the Mueller report as a critical truth telling blueprint, and let’s never stop seeking and telling the truth. Let’s skip the part where we turn on ourselves over strategy, with nothing ultimately gained.
Yes, we are affronted by him. Our beloved Constitution, surviving 230 years, has been torn by him. He has damaged vulnerable humans, often irrevocably. He is a bully, a con man, and a truth obliterator. As per Mueller’s report, whether or not indictments can be brought, he and some of his minions sought to collude and obstruct every chance they had.
What to do? Beat him the old-fashioned way, on November 3, 2020, which is our present path. Beat him and win back the Senate, because we have the high ground and will keep it. Defeat him one registration, one vote, one diehard Democrat, resolute independent or dismayed Republican at a time. Defeat him as committee hearings and court actions publicly reveal that we have barely scratched the surface of his perfidy.
Beat him on behalf of tariff damaged farmers, frightened Ukranians and Estonians, and children who need treatment for pre-existing conditions that could kill them. Defeat him for shooting victims and those in danger of being shot, for those who need a hand up rather than a hand slapped, for sexually harassed and abused women and dreamers and desperate asylum-seekers, and for the middle class still wondering where the tax cut is. Beat him for all of us who wake up in the morning with a heavy heart over what he has done to this country.
Win soundly and emphatically on November 3, 2020 because we can, will and must. It is the best way to get the republic for which we stand to stand up straight. Soon, Congress will have to attend to some spending bills, the infrastructure discussions and other pending legislative matters which will be raised in the next missive. For now, let’s obsess about preventing the unthinkable misdirection that advancing formal House impeachment charges at this time would bring. Let’s do these three things:
| 1) Get Your Candidates to Take This One Step at a Time | |
 | The three declared candidates who have urged the House to move forward on articles of impeachment are Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Julian Castro. Other candidates have been more restrained or have even (in the case of Bernie Sanders) described in detail the unnecessary political pitfalls of taking this route. Please choose your favorite candidate and write her or him about not buying into this false choice. After you do that, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Julian Castro in particular need to hear from you. Whatever votes they are chasing, they need to be advised to slow down and buy into the subpoena-driven investigative strategy that is already beginning to bear fruit. Here’s how to contact them without being called upon to donate. Elizabeth Warren Kamala Harris Julian Castro |
2) Make Our 2020 Victory Longer Lasting | |
 | Already this year, there has been considerable attention paid to gerrymandering. In the past, both parties have been complicit in doing back flips in drawing district lines to limit the number of swing seats. It was Republican victories in state legislative races in 2010 that led to disempowerment of voters in a dozen states. Now comes Swing Left, partnering with Arena and Run for Something in a new Grassroots Redistricting Project. They will work in nine problem states to make certain we take at least one of the two houses in 2020, before Census-driven redistricting begins. Now is when to get on the mailing list for this project and see what you can do to help. The nine states are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Texas. |
3) Thank Nancy Pelosi | |
 | There are all sorts of resisters who hadn’t intended to get behind Nancy Pelosi. But, the performance since she became Speaker of the House has been excellent. She gathers her power and exercises it. She is firm while attending to the political persuasions of a widely divergent caucus. She is an excellent strategist and knows how to handle her meetings with Trump. She turns out to be the number one person to make certain we minimize self-inflicted political wounds between now and November 2020. Let’s do the simple things and call her San Francisco district office at 415-556-4862. Let’s thank her and tell her to keep it up. |
Despair and disbelief are difficult emotions. They can be disabling. Given how much progress we have made since our country got turned upside down, let’s quell those feelings and turn them into resolve.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
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