This is the next of our 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. .
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Will the last real Republican turn out the lights as you leave the Capitol? Donald Trump owns every single bit of your party.
It’s been hard on their party’s equilibrium. Donald Trump, working with a narrow majority, unchecked as he obliterates what Republican Senators have worked decades to achieve. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, remember the days when you were a leader in crafting and supporting the government’s vaccination efforts? Those were the days, the ones before you were allowed a show hearing to pretend you are curbing Bobby Kennedy’s destruction of the Centers for Disease Control. The whole world knows you aren’t stopping anything.
Charles Grassley of Iowa, at 91 will you stay in the Senate long enough to witness the President you support firing your last Inspector General? You worked so hard to create that system to guard against governmental excess. It turns out that grumbling about the firings doesn’t keep them from happening. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, weren’t you once (with your friend John McCain) the ultimate truthteller about the coldblooded killer Putin? How was it to hear the duped Trump tell Emmanuel Macron that “Putin wants to make a deal… as crazy as it sounds?” How is it to know that Putin’s drones kill Ukrainians almost every night while Trump blames the war on India? Wasn’t Trump going to bring peace in a day?
It doesn’t just seem like the time between now and the presidential election of November 2028 is interminable. It is. There will be modest moments of grace every month before then, like when the Supreme Court begrudges a victory or two for the Constitution on issues like birthright citizenship, or when a million or more people fill the streets on No Kings Day. We already know when the big day is, the Congressional elections of November 3, 2026. We will have a celebration then. Between now and then, it is up to us to decide how big a festival of democracy it will be.
Current polling shows that if the election were held today, we would make progress in the Senate and take back the House, winning a dozen or more seats. The answers to the FAQ’s show trending in our favor.
Will the current government shutdown be to our political disadvantage?
There isn’t a better issue for Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer to stand behind than American access to affordable health care. If the “Republicans” don’t agree to it, they will shoulder the blame for what most Americans already see as a festering problem. The Mike Johnson/John Thune position arguing for a “clean” bill has no meaning for the average voter. Since Trump always attacks Democrats for everything, his blame casting has achieved no resonance with independent voters, and it won’t.
How about Trump’s role as peacemaker?
Even the Nobel committee (or especially the Nobel committee) knows you can’t award the Peace Prize to anyone who threatens to invade Greenland and Panama and will threaten to invade one or more countries to be named later. Trump has no way to avoid the impasse in Ukraine. Zelenskyy and NATO are rightly opposed to giving back their sovereign territory. Putin won’t stop the war unless they do, and Trump does not have the leverage to change either position. Hence him blaming India and previously claiming that Ukraine started the war. In Israel and Gaza, there is promise now that the 20 remaining hostages have been returned, and Trump and his people did the necessary work to make that happen. For a while, it will be forgotten that Trump got Benjamin Netanyahu to this place by removing any Biden-era constraints on bombing of Gaza’s civilians. The hard part is already emerging, Hamas giving up their weapons and Gaza being governed.
Is Trump helping Republicans win over independents?
No. And a quarter of the Latinos who voted for Trump are expressing misgivings. Forbes reports that Trump’s second term approval rating is at a new low.
Will Trump be able to claim that his tariffs gained important trade concessions?
Between now and November of 2026, Trump’s tariff policies will strongly advantage the Democrats. 61% of voters disapprove of his actions. China knows elections are coming up, and that Trump doesn’t want the negative economic impact that 100 percent tariffs will generate. It is a hardball negotiating game that Trump is playing, but he is killing markets for our farm products and causing former trade partners like Brazil to head toward Beijing. Meanwhile he will have to scramble to repair whatever constraints the Supreme Court will place on his bizarre, dishonest use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Example: the false “emergency” of Canada being the source of fentanyl. Even the smallest inflation upturn will be attributed to Trump’s trade wars and will stall the Federal Reserve’s intent to lower interest rates.
So, prospects for November 3, 2026 election look good. How can we make them better by acting in October of 2025?
Let’s do this right now:
Support an Outstanding Team of Field Organizers
The 2020 Joe Biden/ Kamala Harris victory was largely due to extraordinary field work carried out by anti-Trump activists. This was perhaps the largest campaign effort in American history. It seems so long ago.
Perhaps the best recruiter, trainer and deployer of our forces is Common Power. From the beginning their hallmark has been having very strong local partners under the promise of “our boots, their ground”. Right now, Charles Douglas and David Domke of Common Power are executing their 2025 plan in a way that will give us momentum for 2026. It’s all about winning the Governor’s races in Virginia (Abigail Spanberger) and New Jersey (Mikie Sherrill) and passing Gavin Newsom’s initiative in California.
Common Power couldn’t be clearer about why, where and how they have deployed over a hundred organizers, stretching their resources:
And now we enter a crucial four-week window: the November 2025 elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and California. Winning in these three states gives the Dems a boost of hope and momentum heading into 2026, AND super important, gives the Dems a chance to hold their own in the current US House redistricting battles. In California, passage of Prop 50 would allow state Democrats to redraw their US House districts. In Virginia, a Democratic victory in the governor’s race and a holding by Dems of control of the state House would allow VA Democrats to redraw House maps to pick up a seat or two. In a fair democracy, these redistricting moves would not be needed, but Republicans have so distorted the political landscape.
This missive is all in. It has its own donation link and thus its own distinct role in raising the $600,000 that will put Common Power over the top as well as bolstering them for 2026. It is not too late to step in. Let’s click and send.
What a miserable, unacceptable, undemocratic political environment this anti-American president has created. Let’s change it.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
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