#10: Let’s Go With Relentless, Aggressive, Principled, Despair-Diminishing Positivism

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 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 is not within our collective powers to uncomplicate these troubled times, or to assuage all the fears we share. In the short term, we cannot magically create a responsive, justice seeking national government that will seek to boost and protect all of the people. But we can and we do stand together to make things far better than they otherwise would be, and to work to end this spell of governmental malfeasance as soon as possible.

Donald Trump’s awful 37% presidential approval rating in the Gallup Poll (down 7% in this past week) is good news of a sort, because more and more citizens are aware of what he has been sowing. And we all understand it is bad news of a sort, because he is rending democracy’s fabric. A college classmate of mine from 48! years ago wrote ruefully “hoping for dysfunction is not the world’s noblest goal” and I said “Yes, let’s go for---- it’s the noblest goal available to us under these circumstances.” It’s what’s we have fallen to out of necessity and we have no apologies.

Presidential approval ratings can fluctuate. President Barack Obama was at 40% in early 2014, even after years of steady economic growth, and his Gallup-measured approval had increased to 59% by the end of his presidency. What is difficult to see is how Donald Trump’s low following can increase significantly. The questions and disclosures about Russian hacking in the election and ties to Trump campaign officials are just beginning. And, in what could end up being more consequential, Trump’s own party is headed toward fracture.

That’s what happens when all that you really share is the fact that your party won. Republican leaders are staying with Trump (while contradicting his day to day statements) because he was supposed to be their path to repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, and because he was expected to be an indispensable force for the tax reform that they have advocated for years. They have been cleaning up for him daily because those two goals are so important to them.

For certain members of Congress, we can make this a self-defeating proposition. Because of Trump’s declining popularity and because of the bundle of intentional misrepresentations that is his health care proposal, his coalition is fraying. Rather than it being just Lindsey Graham or John McCain or Susan Collins questioning a Trump proposal in the Senate, now its Tom Cotton of Arkansas or Ike Blunt of Missouri or Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. The next two or three weeks will tell the tale on health care, and will shape almost everything that comes after. Can we be emphatic enough to Senate Republicans that they must not pass the Ryan-Trump decimation of health care coverage? As outlined below, there is much to be done.

Organized efforts to resist are growing in their quality and quantity. I think some are still too indiscriminate in sorting out what resistance actions are most critical and how chances of success can be enhanced. I am going with Cocteau: “When you smash a statue, you run the risk of becoming one yourself.” Rather than appealing but self-defeating snarkiness, let’s go with relentless, aggressive, principled, despair-diminishing positivism. Just in time is this good review of which national organizations are cropping up and what they hope to accomplish. 

Here’s three things that we can do, right now:

1) Lets Change Both Health Care and What Comes After
	Obviously, providing health care to Americans is a monumental issue onto itself. But it is also a first big test of whether Trump can pass legislation and whether all of us together can guard against the worst disassembly of Obama era progress. In the face of current turmoil, the idea that tax reform will be passed this year is now in doubt, and it is already being conceded that any major infrastructure bill will wait until 2018. Trump and Ryan need House passage of their American Health Care Act, and I predict they will achieve that. I also believe that to achieve that, they will accede to so many conservative demands that they will force Republicans in swing districts to “walk the plank” and vote for something that will ultimately be politically dangerous to them. It is important for us to understand where the debate will head if the Ryan-Trump amended proposal squeaks by in the House. As passed, it will contain certain guarantees regarding coverage of pre-existing conditions and allowing children under 25 to stay on their parent’s policies. In a terrible move, it will shift from the current subsidized coverage model to a system of refundable tax credits. It will try to adjust these credits to address the costs for people aged 50-65 (much higher than with the Affordable Care Act) because it can’t pass the House otherwise. But it will leave alive the pernicious fantasy that refundable tax credits are workable. Paul Ryan already knows these credits are far more responsive to the situation of families with steady employment and strong cash flow, so the credit can be reflected in withholding taxes and the net paycheck. As bad as that idea is, it will not be where we can get political leverage if this proposal heads to the Senate. That leverage can be secured because the plan will prey upon the 14 million people in 30 states who have received their coverage through Medicaid expansion their states elected after the ACA passed. Perversely, Republican Senators such as the very conservative Tom Cotton of Arkansas are not necessarily focused on the specter of people with sick kids suddenly not having access to a doctor. Instead, they are worried about new holes in their state’s health and social welfare funding, the plight of rural hospitals and the transfer to the states through capped block grants of what heretofore has primarily been a federal responsibility. There are eleven Republican Senators who are very worried. They are up for election in 2018 or 2020 and their states would lose their present Medicaid coverage by 2020 or earlier if the Ryan/Trump proposal passes. Dean Heller- of Nevada and Jeff Flake of Arizona are up in 2018. In 2020 it is: Shelley Moore Capito - West Virginia Cory Gardner - Colorado Tom Cotton - Arkansas Joni Ernst - Iowa Dan Sullivan - Alaska Steve Daines - Montana Bill Cassidy - Louisiana Mitch McConnell - Kentucky. If you live in one of these states you and your friends should be contacting your Senator right now and tomorrow and the day after. If not, keep the pressure up with your own Congressional delegation. Or take a flyer on a man respected on both sides of the aisle, chair of the relevant Senate committee, who once saw himself as a moderate Republican and still thinks that way now and again: Senator Lamar Alexander (of Tennessee) 455 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Phone 202-224-4944
2) Revisit Past Behests
	Sometimes, the ideas in these missives age nicely. If you haven’t acted on some of the previous ideas, three in particular should grab your attention this week. First, as I outlined in #9, we must Stand Up for Mexico. This is a country and a people that have counted on our country and people as friends. Donald Trump has become a personal wrecking crew of that political, economic and cultural relationship. There are Mexican international experts who think this situation will reach an acceptable equilibrium. May it be so. See what you can do on Cinco de Mayo (May 5) to kick start your own personal campaign to reach across the border. Second, as I underscored in #6, we must Help People Understand That This Isn’t Populism. To this day, in the media, Donald Trump is referred to as a populist. This term is generally used to mean “standing up for the common people.” Since 24 million common people are scheduled to be removed from health care because of Donald Trump, could you make your personal mission to cry foul about labeling Trump a populist? Please be on alert for such usage in the media and write to correct. Third, at this point the single most important thing we can do together is to win back the House of Representatives in November of 2018 by taking back just 24 seats. It is time to Start The Congressional Campaign Efforts as discussed in #8. Groups within Indivisible and numerous other organizations are mounting district-specific efforts right now. Please join up.
3) Learn Where to Reach Out
	Even with the pre-election Comey announcement and the Russian hacking, the candidate I supported for President got more than 3 million votes more than the man who was elected President. Even that large margin could have been expanded with better campaigning and participation. I don’t subscribe to any notion that American progressive thought is in a decline or that we are some kind of new and persistent minority in the political system. We are a new, persistent, better organized majority. In that context, you may want to read Adam Gopnick’s strong but dense recent commentary in the New Yorker where he decries “presentism” and reminds that waiting and forever are actually different things.  As a persistent majority, we could go through our days of waiting and resisting in a bubble where we only connect with like-minded people, not just in the context of Republicans, independents and Democrats but all places on the political spectrum, and on the human spectrum. And that wouldn’t be such a good idea. So now comes a way to reach out, called Make America Dinner Again.

I hope you don’t feel tired. I hope you feel energized by our growing collective efforts and the possibilities those efforts offer. Even in this phase where we are thinking and responding to a single term president, we are going to be doing this for what could seem a very long time. We are strengthened by doing it together, and we know how much it matters in our country.

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

#8: We Have Been Feeling Our Growing Power

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It isn’t true that Donald Trump doesn’t know what he wants to do. He does know what he wants to do, he just doesn’t know how to do it, especially in the face of intense opposition.

Ironically, he could have accomplished 80% or so of his apparent goals thus far if he had listened in an all new and improved Trump-like approach, if he organized his administration with considerably more care, and if he reached out to certain concerned Republicans in an all new way. For those of us who have been worried that he might find a workable path forward, there isn’t a lot of chance that workable way will emerge, because he isn’t going to listen, organize or compromise better.

As the opposition of the rest of us intensifies, the breakdown between Trump and Congressional Republicans (especially in the Senate) will grow. That’s because public support matters to those Senators. Their deal was that they would support the Presidential agenda if Trump a) sanded off the edges of his most problematic proposals, and b) maintained sufficient political support to give them some cover.

Trump’s dilemma is that he remembers the crowds of base supporters from his campaign, and he knows what he promised them, and what he promised Steve Bannon. He also knows that it is something different than what he promised the broader set of Republican voters, and what he promised Mitch McConnell. It has become clear he can’t (or won’t?) reconcile those varying demands, especially with no idea how to manage a White House or government, and no one empowered to manage it on his behalf.

The resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn is not a misstep that will be easy to overcome. It will touch off new concerns from Trump’s own party and further embolden the rest of us, who were already feeling our growing power.

Three chairs of major Senate committees are standing in the way of strategies Trump holds dear. Armed Services chair John McCain can’t abide the Russia-United States relationship that Trump, Flynn and others have already implicitly or explicitly promised Vladimir Putin. Read John McCain's extraordinary rebuke of Trump's policies. Foreign Affairs committee chair Bob Corker has been spending his time talking to worried NATO allies and apologizing to Australia. Lamar Alexander, chair of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is going his own way on the issue of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.

Yes, I understand that each of the three is trying to couch their own opposition within the context of Republican orthodoxy. I understand that Republican led “investigations” of issues like the Russian interference in the elections will not necessarily be obsessed with the complete truth. But we are talking about our country here, and whatever line of defense members of Trump’s own party construct is a good thing.

But, of course, it isn’t and won’t be even close to good enough. Because it’s not good enough and won’t ever be, we will flood the town halls hosted by members of Congress this winter and spring. Here’s a first list of those which are scheduled. And, because it isn’t good enough, we will win the 24 seats we need to take back the House in the fall of 2018, which is not so far away.

Here are three things we can do now:

1) Start the Congressional Campaign Efforts Today
	A month ago, none of the major national organizations were comprehending that the House will be in play in 2018. That has changed. Unfortunately, the House Democratic Campaign Committee and some state Democratic Party structures have yet to figure this out, but local groups organized under the rubric of Indivisible are picking up the slack. You can search Indivisible for a group near you that you can join. Chances are a sub-group will already have identified Congressional races which can be put into play to win back the 24 seats and you can choose to put energy and resources in that direction. For my money, Indivisible is still too focused on the tea party approach. Didn’t we already have one too many of those? Still, Indivisible is the best thing going in most parts of the country in terms of local organizing. With the contribution of political scientist Larry Sabato’s center at the University of Virginia, the understanding of which races to target continues to grow. Also, there is some good new analysis about what needs to happen with Trump between now and November 2018 for taking back the House to be possible. Put simply, an improvement in Trump’s low approval ratings would hurt our chances. I don’t think that is going to happen.
2) Plan Ahead on Three Major Issues
	There are three policy debates that are coming up in the next six months which can turn a lot of independent voters away from Trump and away from many of the Republicans in Congress. Our task here is to do a better job of articulating with friends, acquaintances and in letters to the editor and call-in radio shows and town halls and letters to Congress not just what we are against, but what we are for. First, there is the Affordable Care Act. In missive #6 I argued that either way we will win. Either Congress will: • not repeal the law. • repeal it and replace it with provisions that do not diminish coverage in any way. This includes no one of 20 million newly covered people losing their coverage because of the new law, including the 14+ million who gained their coverage through Medicaid expansion in 31 states; and continued protection of people with pre-existing conditions. This (or non-repeal) is the position we must advance. • or, they can repeal it with a wholly inadequate substitute. A major bloc of nearly 50 Republican Congressman organized as the Freedom Caucus are advocating this approach. It would be an awful result which would remove coverage from many millions, but we would win in the long run because Republicans will pay the political price. If it comes to that, we must oppose Democrats providing votes to give Paul Ryan a victory over his party’s own Freedom Caucus. If he ever wants these votes, we can accept no diminishment of the protections of the ACA. Second, coming soon are major debates over the continued sanctions of Russia for their armed intervention in the Ukraine and for intervening in the presidential elections. Here too independent voters will be with us if we aggressively articulate our position of keeping NATO strong, protecting democracies in the Baltics and elsewhere, and advancing democracy over totalitarian rule. As uneven a record as we Americans have had in our democracy, we are still a beacon around the world for self-determination, peaceful transfer of power and advancement of individual rights. Given how much freedom matters, Trump’s implication of equivalence between the US and Russia may be the most outrageous thing that he has said to date. Third, to be covered in the upcoming missive #9 is the emerging debate over tax policy. Trump and Republican leadership are already at odds over taxes on exports. We must prepare for an issue that can dwarf that one- wealth disparity. Any Republican proposal that survives the House will re-distribute wealth from the middle class to the wealthy, and these lines must be drawn.
3) Continue to Boost Non-Profits That Count
	Groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood have done well as thinking people with access to resources contemplate how to defend against what Donald Trump could do to America. We all have budgets and we will likely all be pushed to donate by nonprofits every day through the entire period of the Trump dysfunction. How do we sort out the ones to favor with our checks and the money we can find under the sofa cushion? Here are some criteria: 1) In which area(s) do we feel that the republic is most threatened by Trump? 2) In which area(s) do we feel that nonprofit organizations are critical in responding to those threats? For instance, we may well feel that Trump's comments on NATO will threaten the Baltics, but our best defense against that is likely to be the Senate and they will do that one without requiring our money. That may also be true regarding the emoluments clause and Trump’s conflicts of interest. It could be this will all be decided in the courts and the litigation will proceed whether we all donate or not. On the other side of the ledger, there is no chance of fighting back against the anti-environment executive orders without effective, concerted efforts of environmental organizations, especially since environmental statutes give Trump more discretion than he has in other areas. 3) Within an area of threat, are we more interested in sustaining local services or supporting national advocacy? 4) What do we think about the tactics of the group that is asking for our money? Can we see how they may be more effective than another organizations? Are their requests for our help well structured? Is their case for getting more resources a good one? Have we read of their successes? Do they seem to be overstating their impact? Do they have any special niche, like Southern Poverty Law Center has with regard to hate groups? 5) Do we favor groups that have strong grassroots ties? Would we rather give to organizations that have representation or activity at the local level?

We are gaining in our knowledge and we now know that we can do this. As always, let’s value how we can share information and ideas with each other, and how we can strengthen each other. I would appreciate whatever you can do to add to the list for this blog/e-blast/Facebook post. Thanks for staying with me.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#7: The Opposition We Have Mounted is Huge

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Let’s consider the good news! Americans are getting a civics lesson each day. With regard to executive orders or announced plans, can Donald Trump do that? Who could possibly stop that? What does that court action mean? When a Republic Senator criticizes a specific Trump proposal, when is that significant?

If we want the republic to be strong after this is all over, we cannot look away. There is no option but to learn our civics and band together, and so far, banding together is yielding great value. Republican Congressman Dave Brat of Virginia said with regards to the Affordable Care Act, “wherever I go, women are in my grill.” Let me promise you, Representative Brat, that your grill will be occupied from this point forward.

The intent of this blog/email blast/Facebook post is to sort out challenges and opportunities so that we collectively can reach our highest possible of effectiveness. Vigilance is the price of liberty. Opposition matters, resistance matters. The reason why the Republican caucus is stumbling and bumping on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act is that they are about to own the issue of access to health care in America. Because of our collective focus and effort, they have two things they can do. They can do the right thing, which is to protect the level of universal access which we have been able to achieve. They can do the wrong thing and diminish that access, and pay a political price 21 months from now.

As opponents, we make choices every day. We decide what letter to send, what call to make (personalized notes and calls are most effective), who to donate to and when to go in the street. I understand and honor the people who say the Trump presidency is illegitimate and that opposition to all cabinet appointments is essential. But it is not the way I myself think. I know battle-picking is difficult, but I think sorting out the best opportunities for opposition is critical. I get that the excellent movement called Indivisible derives lessons for all of us from the Tea Party, and those are important lessons. But I also believe that having a second Tea Party is no way out of this morass.

Each of us decides for herself or himself. My own, yet to be proven, belief (which more than a few of my friends dismiss) is that selected Republicans read the same tweets and newspapers and, however meekly or carefully, sometimes look for ways to join the opposition to this assault on our nation by the president. Senators Bob Corker or Ben Sasse or Dean Heller or Jeff Flake or John McCain or Lamar Alexander or Susan Collins or Dean Heller or Lindsay Graham or Lisa Murkowski or even Mitch McConnell or Marco Rubio have expressed concerns on matters like the Muslim ban, and they can block the worst of the Trumpian excesses. They will do this regarding the Trump-Putin “bromance”, but they can’t do it regularly with political impunity. But I believe they will do it more and more. Even as a lifelong Democrat, I will celebrate each time they find the political or moral courage to do so. And I will fight for ways to show them the political consequences over time of not doing so.

That’s a huge issue going forward--- the extent to which Republicans will fight for the republic for which we stand.

Here are three things we can do:

1) Sort Out Executive Orders As We Fight Back
	Donald Trump’s executive orders issued thus far are a mishmash of things that are clearly within executive authority and announcements that showcase awful ideas but do nothing more than signal a battle to come. Here a first sort of some of the major orders, and which have the most traction. On executive orders the community of opposition must be careful to not be bamboozled. A great example of something where there is less than meets the eye in the short term is Trump’s threat to withdraw federal funding from “sanctuary” cities whose police are not always assisting federal efforts to apprehend undocumented persons. These threats of cutting off all federal funding are empty. Congress would have to pass specific sanctions and the Congressional action would have to overcome a filibuster by Democrats in the Senate. Moreover, the federal courts have found “cross-cutting” sanctions of state and local government to be an impermissible exercise of federal authority. Conservatives lawmakers and jurists have led that fight, seeing sanctions as a tool for an expansionist federal agenda they oppose. Permissible sanctions most often have been narrowed to withdrawal of funds in the area of the policy dispute, such as threatened cuts in transportation funds when the federal government mandated a national maximum speed limit during the Carter-era energy crisis. Thus, sanctions over the absence of police action in a sanctuary city would most likely be the reduction of federal assistance to that police department, an untenable position for Trump. Similarly, an executive order called for the elimination of the Dodd-Frank law regulating financial institutions, which Donald Trump made sound imminent. He can certainly weaken enforcement of the law but most of the action will be in Congress and the outcome (again, given the filibuster powers of 48 Senators) is not certain. Even with regard to the proposed walling off of the United States, Donald Trump has wall-building authority but some appropriations problems in finding the $15 billion he needs. Each opposing move must be tailored with a full sense of the powers the president has or lacks. That means on the Trump threats against sanctuary cities, opponents of Trump should determine whether they live in one of the 364 counties and/or 39 cities which he intends to target. The next step is to make certain the mayor, county executive, and city or county councilpersons are defending their position properly, and preparing for legislative battles in Congress and legal battles in the federal courts.
2) See What You Can Do About Republican Elected Officials
	Earlier in this missive, I talked about Republican Senators and their willingness or unwillingness to speak out against Trump’s abuse of our nation. The critical comments by Republican senators to date have been disappointing because they are never calculated to actually block an action. For instance, John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Marco Rubio and others used the hearings on the Rex Tillerson nomination to complain about the Trump-Putin relationship and the dangers in the Ukraine, but they could have blocked the nomination from being sent to the floor until they got meaningful reassurances, and they did not. Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski have taken courageous and important stands against Betsy DeVos, but unless and until they go look for and find a third Republican colleague those stands aren’t going to be as courageous and important as they might seem. At this point, Trump’s implication that Russia and the United States are equivalent when it comes to Putin-style killing of dissidents is causing some serious Republican heartburn. So now is a good time for us all to take on the project of writing a personal note to one of these Republican Senators who have much more oppositional promise than they have presently displayed. In fact, write to one of their senior aides, mark the envelope personal so it will get opened, put your heart into it and tell that person how much it matters to America if their boss intervenes. --- Dean Heller of Nevada, who is up for re-election in November, 2018. He is worried about losing Republican votes if he crosses Trump, and worried about losing independent voters if he does not. Write to his legislative assistant Emily Wilkinson, 324 Hart Office Building, DC 20510 --- Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who was a leader among Governors in supporting public schools and who in a long public career has shown a willingness to work across the aisle. Write to his national security assistant Erin Reif at 455 Dirksen Office Building, DC 20515 --- Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who has strong enough support in his home state to say what he wants, and who has thought Donald Trump to be unqualified from the beginning. Write to his legislative assistant Alyene Senger at 386A Russell Senate Office Building, DC 20515
3) Remember Who Needs Our Financial Support
	Now is a great time to support refugee assistance programs. Most often, they are nonprofits. Often different from immigrant advocacy and legal assistance programs (equally deserving of support), refugee assistance centers deliver indispensable direct services to arriving refugees, who need help gaining access to housing, education, employment and health care. The freezing of refugee movement into the United States has thrown the finances and the services of these organizations into turmoil.

This is no time to let our energies lag. At this point, the opposition we have collectively mounted is huge, and we are not going away. Doesn’t it seem like forever since we all started these efforts? We will prevail, and it matters hugely that we do. As always, please help me add to our own circle of conscience and action.

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

#5 We Will Not Walk Away From the Best Within All of Us

We will not walk away from the best within all of us as Americans. Please continue the inexplicable strong growth in the market for these missives (sent every two weeks) by getting your friends to add their names to our e-blast, or enroll to receive the same ideas in my Path Forward Blog, or connect with me through Facebook.

This situation is not going to normalize. I once hoped that the President-elect would allow the importance of the office to lift him, but that isn’t going to happen. An excellent explication by David Brooks describes what will instead emerge --- the shifting tweet-interpreting battle within and between senior White House staff, the Cabinet appointments, and House and Senate Republicans.

There is good news amid this awful news. The possibilities for our collective efforts are going to come earlier and be ongoing. As always, we must sort our priorities, and there is a huge opportunity on health care and on reproductive freedom.

Because the American Medical Association and others have insisted that the Affordable Care Act be replaced almost immediately after it is repealed, the chance that major elements of the Act can be preserved has grown. This has previously been the case with coverage of pre-existing conditions and young adults. The new news is that traction can be gained on maintaining coverage of 20 million health care recipients. The Pottery Barn rule -“ You broke it, you own it” will apply. As the Republicans remove mandated inclusion of healthy persons, they will face the need to find another way to finance the newly covered population, and they don’t have an answer, except for the tax increase they have already rejected. They will either save Obama provisions or damage themselves politically by rejecting them. Similarly, they will extend their own problems if they include banning funding of Planned Parenthood as a part of their repeal, as Speaker Ryan intends.

Right now, it is all about the Congress. We know that we have a powerful agenda to pursue at the local and state level and with Executive Branch agencies. But, we will be benefited from this point forward if Congress gets the early signal that Trump has generated an unprecedented, relentless movement with which they must deal. We are here. We are not going away. If you support the Trump agenda, whether or not you lose your specific seat, you will lose your majority. In the size and the principles of our efforts, we will make the Tea Party look like a tea party.

Here's what we can do:

1) Obsess about Congress
	Calling Congress over the next two weeks should come right after coffee. Missive #4 included a first meditation on why members of Congress care about calls, even if they live in safe districts and even (within some limitations) if you are not their constituent. There is nothing wrong with being a part of their tally, but you are trying to get beyond the tally if you can. a) Start with your own member of Congress, and your two Senators. Always tailor your message. Never send or read someone else’s script. Study their website to see who are the best points of personal contact. On the Affordable Care Act issue, see if somewhere on the website you can find the name of their legislative assistant who covers health care as one of her or his staff assignments. If you can find their number or email, use those in addition to calling their main number, or using the email comment function on the site. Whether or not you get a human or a tape, be positive and concise. If you don’t want 20 million people to lose their insurance, say so, firmly and compellingly. b) Turn around and do the same thing with one of the District offices of each of the Senators and the Congressperson. If you live anywhere near the office, stop by.  c) It is true that members of Congress are focused most on their constituents, but there are ways around that. Take advantage of every connection you have---- if you are a health care professional, or you used to live in their state, or visit it frequently. Don’t misrepresent your state if asked, but look for comment opportunities where you aren’t asked. d) Consider what groups or professional associations you can rally. If you have a circle of people who share your views on these matters, give them a name and ask the Member of Congress for a meeting next time she or he is in the district. e) Write letters to the editor to the newspapers that still exist, commend members who are doing the right things and ask people to contact members who are not.  f) Start learning more things that will be useful to your argument, this Washington Post article is a good resource. Always tailor your message.  Never send or read someone else’s script. How many people in your state will lose their insurance if Affordable Care Act markets and subsidies are going away?What are the dangers to insurance markets and consumers if the Republicans repeal and fail to replace? In which states that voted for Trump would replacement without repeal mean hundreds of thousands of people would be thrown off the roles? These Trump electing states who could lose the partial or fully expanded coverage they previously adopted include Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
2) Find National Leaders Who Can Get Us to 218
	We will be a quart low on sufficient national leadership for a little while, which is a little disquieting because we should be working right now on the elections of 2018, to add 3 Senators (difficult, because of which seats will be on the ballot) and 24 House members. This is not as far-fetched as you might have thought. To start, there are 14 Republicans holding seats in districts where Clinton beat Trump. Whomever leads the Democratic National Committee should quell the unhelpful back and forth between former Clinton and Sanders partisans. People who plan to work through the Democratic Party have a right to expect that this party will get better in every way and on all levels. However, casting the effort to make it better as a Sanders-Clinton second chapter is a splashy gift to Donald Trump and Paul Ryan. Even after the DNC there is a need to figure out which of any national political efforts you want to support, such as MoveOn.org. There are arguments to be made for each national organizing vehicle, and MoveOn is a good one. Just make certain to check where each organization is spending its energy, and make certain that their recommendations are current, well-formulated and not snarky. Also, remember that on such issues as voter registration, the best work may be being done at the local level. Missive #4 includes material from Daily Kos which is the best site for understanding which individual members of Congress are most vulnerable in 2018. Move beyond the map to the tables that provide the vote totals in specific races in states where you have interest. You are comparing the vote total and percentage for the Republican member of Congress in 2016 with the vote total and percentage within that district for Obama in 2012 and/or Clinton in 2016. What you are doing is finding districts with a lot of people who want to protect President Obama’s achievements but which have members of Congress that Speaker Ryan is deploying to unravel those achievements. Targeted races will develop.
3) On That Day
	It now seems clear that there will be enough people in the streets before and after the Inauguration to send the signal that Donald Trump’s present and future actions are not acceptable. Pointed public protest is an important tool going forward, as long as it does not substitute for the rest of the work. Thanks to Jon Bayley, we have a reminder that we need to attend to our own celebration on January 20. Some of his counsel: Don’t watch the inauguration and boost its ratings. Buy a good newspaper to support the free press. Do something good for your community. Give blood. Volunteer at a shelter or a food bank. Wear something to indicate your distress, like a black armband or the previously discussed safety pins that are worn across America. Participate in a local demonstration. Donate to organizations that are fighting the battle, like the Democratic Party, immigrant rights groups, Planned Parenthood, and voter registration efforts.

We can do this, together. We already remember that we can’t afford to lose focus. This situation that we are in is not a good thing, and the dangers to our country and world are significant. But, this situation also provides us the opportunity to again elevate the things that are important, and to successfully oppose those who would make our country small.

Best regards,

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#4: We Will Not Be Mere Observers

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We are all faced with the challenge of how not to be “just an observer” in this increasingly bizarre time. As always, the first step in being deliberate and effective in our engagement is sorting out what is going on and fully understanding the greatest threats to the republic for which we stand and the most compelling political opportunities. We need to seize upon those opportunities and not be distracted. For some, even in the midst of the manipulations and misrepresentations that are the daily fare of the Trump assumption of the Presidency, modest redemptive acts by the President-elect can be possible.

But for me, even if a single appointment or action emerges that seems sensible, my rejection of this man as president will be untouched. There is nothing he can or will do to be fit to be president. This is because to him the lie doesn’t matter at all. To all of us, whether you praise a dictator or dismiss a foreign nation’s interference in the election goes to the heart of our freedom as Americans. To him, it is a daily game in which the facts and even the aims are inconsequential, giving way always to what seems to be his unparalleled incuriosity and narcissism.

Through all of this we will prevail, together. What we have going for us is that we will not let ourselves be mere observers of the events of the next four years. The quality and intensity of our collective actions will carry the day.

The first enormous victory is less than two years away! As discussed later in this fourth missive, there is disagreement about whether we can get the 24 seats to take back the House in 2018. I think it is self-evident that we can, and of course we must. There are steps we can begin to take right now.

In the meantime, battlegrounds will be chosen. Almost all of the major Presidential cabinet appointments will be approved in the next couple of months, some only after the requisite set of warnings are issued to the nominee and assurances received by the Senate. Concentrated action will move to hearings about Russian hacking and the elections, which Senators McCain, Graham and others will use with some effectiveness to push back against Trump softness on Russia. Trump and the Congress will pass a showy repeal of the Affordable Care Act, granting themselves time to figure out how to preserve its most popular provisions, such as coverage of pre-existing conditions. It will become apparent early on that they have no way to reconcile the disputes among Republicans in the House. Ultimately, Speaker Ryan will appeal to Congressional Democrats for votes to get a new health care law passed that the Senate can agree to and that includes major provisions of the current law.

Here are three new steps we can all take now.

1) Learn What Indivisible Has to Say on How to Play Defense
	Fortunately, a group of former Congressional staff members has put together a 26-page primer on how to influence members of Congress. As someone who worked on Capitol Hill for several years, I can attest to this overall approach and to the clarity of their ideas and message. This is the best material so far on ways to help make certain that Congress prevents Trump from doing his worst. As you read the Indivisible report please pay special attention to their description of how the members of Congress are thinking about you, your views and their role in Congress. Even the member whose views are the furthest from your own is likely to be making an effort to show his or her district that he or she is responding to their needs and that of the country. To this day, with an awful partisan divide and with rational discourse on some issues not invited by the majority, one can find oneself appreciating the quality of a Congressional committee hearing, or a “markup” of a bill in committee. Your goal is to take advantage of the way the member of Congress thinks about her or his effectiveness as a public servant. As the creators of Indivisible point out, even members from safe seats are worried about primaries from within their own parties, or they have otherwise found a reason to pay some attention to the collective voice of concerned voters. The report emphasizes your connection with your representatives through their town halls, their other public meetings, through visits with them and their staff at their in-district offices, and through mass calling campaigns. It is astute on how to organize and deliver a message. It falls short a bit only in its aggressive use of the Tea Party and their activities in 2009 as a prime lesson. We need to remember and account for the antipathy of liberals and progressive to being herded! But, the intensity of effort will certainly be there, born out of the present unacceptable situation.
2) Develop an Obsession with Winning the House of Representatives on November 6, 2018
	Donald Trump’s favorability rating on the day of the election was 38%. There are any number of political analysts who believe he will never achieve a favorability rating as high as 40% during his period as President. A not inconsiderable number predict constant political warfare between him and Republican members of Congress, starting with disputes over the hacking and his coziness with Russia. Given these factors, why would we believe he will be a colossal political force two years from now, when the parties of even successful presidents almost always suffer a mid-term loss? It is true that the redistricting carried out by mostly Republican state legislatures after the 2010 census causes us extra problems. For instance, in 2014, Republicans captured 52% of the votes for members of Congress, but won 57% of the seats. In 2012, Democrats got more than half the votes and captured only 201 of the 435 seats. Of course, only some of this is due to modest or even egregious gerrymandering. Some of it is due to heavy Democratic concentrations in some urban areas, which no amount of creative map-drawing can spread out. Even with these obstacles, we can take back the House. We need to take back just 24 seats to go from the present 241-194 to a razor thin 218-217, which we have done twice in the post-war era. Why is this possible? Because Trump and Ryan will make the more vulnerable Republicans “walk the plank” to provide necessary votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act and support tax “reform” that comforts the comfortable. There are 14 congressional districts that Hillary Clinton carried that have Republican members of Congress and at least a score more that are trending in the Democratic direction because of changing demographics. We will say more in our next missive. You can learn more by using this Daily Kos article to see which nearby Republican member of Congress is sitting in a district that does not want President Obama’s accomplishments unraveled. Boosted by the Indivisible report, make it a point to follow that member’s actions from this point forward. It will not be too long before candidate recruitment begins and before the recognition that we can take back the House of Representatives gains greater momentum.
3) Remember Your Charitable Contributions
	At this point, under new leadership, our country is infirm. From previous missives, we remember that we are all trying to include charitable giving to advance its health, to shore up those organizations that are battling the Trump agenda or providing essential services that the United States may abandon. This could include such entities that are playing defense as the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Planned Parenthood. My favorite goes to the heart of the matter---- boosting registration of Latino voters in Texas, Colorado, Nevada, California, New Mexico and Arizona through the Mi Familia Voter Education Fund.

As has been the case since November 8, we could make the mistake of looking away. We told ourselves when we heard the news that this would not and will not stand. We recognize the need for focused, collective action, and we will not exempt ourselves from this challenge. And we will succeed.

Best regards,

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington