This is the next of a new series of missives on our unfinished work to restore the promise of our country and its government. Each will focus on a single element of the many opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Each will provide three steps we can all take to build upon our huge victories winning back the House in 2018 and the Presidency in 2020.
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It is obvious that every single one of us had been hoping for a spectacular un-nuanced Trump departure from the scene. After his unsuccessful coup attempt, leaving in disgrace was what he deserved. It was what we deserved too, ideally in an Oscar like presentation recognizing the notable, relentless achievements of our collective millions in defense of democracy. Though unprecedented historically, the available alternative of seven Republican Senators voting for conviction does not lift us to the level of comfort and exultation we seek. We are not close to sated by the current level of Trump-diminishing, but we still recognize that the slide of Trump is underway.
Call me a cockeyed activist, but it matters that the discredited Nikki Haley, Mitch McConnell and Rupert Murdock all did major Trump takedowns in the same week. There are many standing in line to accelerate Trump’s decline. 58% of Americans believe that Donald Trump should have been convicted by the Senate. The number of self-identified Republicans continues to decline. A huge percentage of independent voters seem permanently divorced from Trump and MAGA.
He will face criminal charges on several fronts, including the possibility of being charged with election tampering in Georgia. The possible civil actions are many, and his financial woes are considerable. A record of conniving will not always come crashing down on the con man, but it will this time.
Most damaging will be a relentless stream of disclosures. Some of the juiciest will come from Republican appointees and elected officials who do not fancy Trump as their future leader, or who are especially concerned about the primary challenges he might arrange under such “leadership.” It will be revelatory to hear about the sweetest notes he sent to Putin (or to Kim Jong-Un) or get new news on who he wanted to invade, or find out what he chose to ignore, foment, and misrepresent through his unique blend of malfeasance and malevolence.
Those Republicans whom Trump has identified as the enemy will not go quietly, and from them there will be no Kevin McCarthy style pilgrimage to Mar A Lago. It will be a long list of combatants, including Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney. Notable will be South Dakota Senator John Thune, much respected by Senate Republicans and much disrespected by Trump. Thune had the temerity to say in late December that Trump’s attempt to overturn the election by appealing to Congress would “go down like a shot dog” in the Senate. Thune, not being a Cruz/Hawley/Rubio like toady, angered Trump.
The schism between Republicans and Republicans is huge and growing. There is no elder statesperson who is going to emerge, now that the wounded Trump has viciously responded to McConnell’s hugely damning floor statement. It is not that McConnell sold his soul to the devil and is now getting his just rewards, since there was no evidence at the outset that Mitch had a soul.
Some resistors underplay the significance of McConnell’s attacks, or Nikki Haley’s new anti-Trumpian opportunism, or Rupert Murdock’s Wall Street Journal editorial emphasizing that Trump is not going to be our future president. Some see all three as shifty, self-serving, and unprincipled, because they ARE shifty, self-serving and unprincipled. However unlovable each is, the point for the Democrats and the resistance is not to let a good schism go to waste. There are going to be House, Senate, and Gubernatorial battles in 2022 between Trump recruited and endorsed candidates and McConnell recruited and endorsed candidates. This provides us all new opportunities to widen our narrow margins. Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio are all there for us if we make it so.
To prepare us for the fall of 2022, Joe Biden will not need to be an unbelievably good President. He is just required to be able, affable, principled, and focused. The extent to which he has already been able to reverse Trump-era policies is unbelievable. It is due in part to Trump’s dependence on executive orders used because he could not get 60 votes in the Senate in the face of Democratic filibuster threats. As some Democrats talk about doing away with the filibuster for short term gains, this should be remembered. We may need this tool again sometime in the future.
Biden will be the President who accelerated the vaccines, ended the COVID crisis, and thus started the restoration of the economy. He is going big with the American Rescue Plan because it will be the signature achievement of this term. 70% of Americans want to proceed with the Plan. Joe Manchin will provide the 50th vote so it can be passed through the budget reconciliation process. If Republican Senators vote against it as a bloc, Joe Biden should send them a thank you note.
There is some evidence that reform of the Affordable Care Act and multiple investments in carbon reduction are not on the list of Republican greatest fears. Have their traumas about the Green New Deal and Medicare for All softened them to less far-reaching but still significant reforms? The greatest battleground is bound to be immigration reform. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will have a difficult time getting anything done on this policy front besides protecting Dreamers.
The Biden/Harris responsibility is to do good things and do them well. Our responsibility that we have taken on since November 2016 is to attend to political matters every single week. With or without the schism, the biggest question for us is whether the not-on-the-ballot Trump will still function as our unofficial get-out-the-vote chair. Our worst enemy is lower turnout.
To make certain that we get on with our business, and take advantage of the wide, growing Republican split, let’s do these three things:
| 1) Keep Up the Fight Against Voter Suppression | |
| The Republican roadmap for 2022 includes persuading us not to vote, inhibiting us from voting, prohibiting us from voting, and redrawing district lines to make our vote less valuable. As efforts underway in state legislatures already demonstrate, voting from home is the number one Republican target. We should support the National Vote at Home Institute and its Vote Safe Coalition every chance we get. And we need to learn about opportunities and threats from the founder of the Institute, former Oregon Secretary of State Phil Keisling, who led the fight for Oregon at home voting in 1998. Phil Keisling will talk about the way forward in fighting voter suppression in a Zoom discussion sponsored by this missive. The hour-long session will begin at 4pm PST on Friday, February 26. Let us know that you are interested by emailing dsh347@gmail.com and we will send you the handy link. | |
2) Give Jaime Harrison a Boost | |
 | As many of us hoped, Jaime Harrison has been named chair of the Democratic Party. Perhaps it has now been forgotten, but that party was in no position to provide leadership after the November 2016 election. There has been a notable recovery since, with more work to do. Whether or not we normally are party-identifiers, we need to recognize Jaime Harrison’s leadership by joining in his honor. |
3) Call Out Lindsey Graham | |
 | It is no longer difficult to identify the most preposterous statement by Lindsey Graham, one that would sacrifice his last shred of dignity if he had that to sacrifice. Now comes his pronouncement that Lara Trump (spouse of Donald’s son Eric) “is the future of the Republican party.” Who even knew she was in the running and was qualified for such an assignment? Please email Lindsey Graham and ask him to return to the party of which John McCain was a member. |
You could watch the current Republican mud wrestling and conclude it is all an entertainment or a game. However, all it takes to focus us on what matters is remembering back to January 5 when we showed our political power in Georgia, and January 6, when we re-learned the extraordinary threats that our country faces.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
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