#28 The More Intense the Resistance, the Shorter the Nightmare

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There are all sorts of adjectives to use to describe this bizarre presidency. It would be disappointing enough to have a President who all the time is bragging about things that he has done, but it is monumentally disappointing to have a president who also makes up virtually all the things he brags about.

Well, at least Donald Trump is resolving the argument about American exceptionalism! For all of our country’s flaws, one otherwise might have been inclined to take some special pride from our freedoms and protections under the Bill of Rights, or our orderly transfer of power after elections. And there are other ways that our country is a world leader - just fewer with each month. Ironically, it is Syria signing the climate change agreement that leaves us alone among nations.

If Congress passes a tax bill, it is already guaranteed that it will be an awful piece of legislation. Either version will benefit the rich at the hands of the middle class, and wound people with lower incomes. Either will unnecessarily and dangerously expand the deficit. Given these findings are well documented the reason why the bill’s passage is still likely is the calculation that virtually all Republicans in Congress have made. They know the bill will be unpopular with the public, but they believe that their cause (and their re-election chances) will suffer even greater or more certain or more lasting damage if they pass nothing at all.

It’s hard to be delighted at the dilemma they are in, since they are diminishing our economic future at the same time that they are endangering their political future. Their story seems even more unseemly when you realize that they have bought into the same Republican tax orthodoxy that has failed in the past, most recently in the fiscal near collapse of Kansas. To make the bad story worse, they have done it all at the urging of their donors, who will benefit the most.

The gift just keeps on not giving. The House version wipes out education benefits for students, teachers and institutions. The Senate seeks to do whatever they can to wreck the Affordable Care Act by eliminating the individual mandate. The House version eliminates the estate tax.

The odds are high that the Senate will pass a version of the bill by early next week, feeling that they must. Mitch McConnell will bestow extra blessings to get votes. Lisa Murkowski will receive drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Ron Johnson will get more favorable treatment for small business. James Lankford will get future promises of debt reduction. The beleaguered Susan Collins (not quite ready to flee her party, unfortunately) will be pushed by Republican leadership to decide which of her colleague’s injustices to redress, and will seek to save the estate tax, at least for estates above $20 million. That leaves three retiring deficit hawks - Bob Corker, Jeff Flake and John McCain.

As contemptuous as they have been of Trump, this is a battle the three would like to avoid. If they duck it, they will join their Republican colleagues in arguing that (overoptimistic) projected growth in the gross national product will wipe out the increases in the deficit. They are still Republicans. Other than McCain’s opposition to the “skinny” version of health care repeal, their votes against Trump have been selected or timed to be inconsequential.

There is a glimmer of hope for our opposition. It is one thing for McConnell to get votes in the Senate for the Senate bill, and yet another to get the votes in the Senate for a conference committee report or other vehicle containing additional compromises with the House. This leaves us with two reasons to generate all the activity we can.

First, we can try to create the opportunity for three Senators to do the right thing on the tax bill (or on a subsequent conference report or compromise with the House) like Murkowski, Collins and McCain did in opposing the Affordable Care Act. If this happens, the primary issue for the possible dissenting Senators (in this case Corker, McCain, Flake, Murkowski and Collins) will be that the bill hugely expands the budget deficit. Second, if we try and fail, we will still be generating strong support for our position from the general public, which will help us build for November 6, 2018, which we can make a great day in our nation’s history.

Let’s do these three things right away:

1) Make a Final Run at the Senate
	Write or call any or all of these Senators, emphasizing the argument that is most likely to sway them, if they are to be swayed at all, or which could strengthen their resolve in a dispute with the House. Bob Corker of Tennessee - He said all along he wasn’t willing to increase the deficit by a dollar. Tell him that the country’s leading economists are united that the Republican expectations of growth that will be generated by the tax bill are fanciful. He was right all along about not increasing the deficit, and they have failed to meet his test. (202) 224-3344 John McCain - Emphasize that this is a backdoor attempt to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, using the same lack of “regular order” he already deplored. David Bennett, Legislative Aide david_bennett@mccain.senate.gov (202) 224-2235 Jeff Flake - Say that the country needs him to stand behind his courageous and eloquent address about Donald Trump. (202) 224-4521 Susan Collins - Thank her for efforts on the estate tax and tell her the bill as a whole rejects the principles of fairness and equity that she stands for. Steve Abbott, Chief of Staff steve_abbott@collins.senate.gov (202) 224-2523 Lisa Murkowski - Tell her that in allowing the repeal of the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act she will be aiding in the eventual elimination of health care protection for millions of women who she has fought so hard to defend. (202) 224-6665
2) Defend American Education
	The most inexplicable part of the bill that passed the House is its assault on students, teachers and colleges. Teachers would lose the Educational Expense Deduction of $250, though the House has been quick to save any number of business expense deductions for corporations. Students would no longer be able to deduct interest paid on student loans. Graduate students would no longer find their research assistantships tax deductible, reducing their net income by 20% or more in a generation beset by student debt. A number of private colleges and universities would have their endowments taxed, even though these funds underpin student scholarships. Write the Republican Congressmen who lives closest to you and say how disappointed you are that they have singled out education for cuts while finding multiple ways to give extra advantage to high income taxpayers. At the best, the groundswell on this issue may soften the House in its negotiation with the Senate, whose education provisions are less draconian. Even without that outcome, the response to you might help underscore the vulnerability of that member of Congress come next November.
3) Get Our Country Some Better Members of the House and Senate
	The biggest problem with the Senate and the House of Representatives is that a not inconsiderable number of people who have been elected should not be there in the first place. Some are there because Democrats let down their guard, failing to generate the enthusiasm in off year elections that is a must when you are seeking to maintain a majority. Doug Jones’s effort to beat Roy Moore is huge. On December 12, we could gain a 49th Democratic vote in the Senate. At minimum, it will significantly increase the ability of Susan Collins and others to block Trump excesses. The Alabama race is flooded with money, but it will end up being very close, since leading Republicans have abandoned Moore. Here’s where you would send a check.  There is also a way to stand right now against the House tax bill and for taking back the House next year. Among the organizations bent upon taking back the house are Indivisible, which now has 6,000 local groups. Flippable has joined the fray and is focusing in part on taking back state legislatures. Sister Districts is also focused on “down ballot” races and matches up groups of people in safe districts with a targeted race in another part of the country. With the help of the donation system Act Blue, Swing Left has become an important pipeline to support emerging candidates in the sixty Congressional districts we have the best chance of taking back. You can now split your donation equally among opponents to House members who voted for the tax bill, thus letting your electoral displeasure be direct and immediate.

And on it goes. Some people have intentionally separated themselves from Trump’s daily assault on humanity. They aren’t prepared to tell you about wildly inappropriate remarks to Navajo codebreakers, bizarre self-aggrandizing exchanges with the father of a UCLA basketball player, or even a verbal assault on Jeff Flake. That’s an understandable defense mechanism, since in the world outside Trump there is love to be sought and given, dreams to be nurtured, the environment to be stewarded, and people in need to be served.

Whatever choice is made about the distance from the battle, we must not wait too long to re-engage. The more people we have in this country who in the course of every week show that they are resisting, the shorter our country’s nightmare will be.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#27: Virginia Results Reveal How We Will Take Back the House

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Unfortunately, it isn’t just the same thing week after week. The damage is considerable, cumulative and growing. What seemed at one time to be strong examples of Donald Trump’s unfitness for the presidency (hanging up on the Australian prime minister, giving a political speech at the Boy Scout Jamboree) are now tame.

The new offenses against all senses are much worse. Putin is believed and admired, and the central elements of our democracy thus are actively besmirched. John McCain couldn’t have been more pointed: “There’s nothing America First: about taking the word of a KGB colonel over that of the American intelligence community. Vladimir Putin does not have America’s interests at heart. To believe otherwise is not only naïve but places our national security at risk.”

Our country is living a nightmare. And unbelievably, right now the most helpful recent rescuer is the very white knight himself, Steve Bannon, who actively seeks to tear the Republican Party in two. Bannon’s war on Republicanism strengthens our already excellent opportunity to take back the House of Representatives and provides a new small, but growing chance for an even greater prize -- the United States Senate.

We must not get ahead of ourselves. What is before us is a year of relentless focus on the elections that will take place on November 6, 2018, taking full advantage of the blueprint that just emerged in Virginia. As we proceed, let’s incorporate a measure of caution. So far, we are riding on Trump’s weaknesses and not on our own strengths. We can be reactive now, but we must ultimately gain greater clarity, cohesion and leadership. This will emerge. In the meantime, as we defend against the worst actions of a bizarre presidency, we will remember one thing more. Consuming our friends’ undeniably clever snarky posts and bits about Trump may be energizing, but they are no substitute for acting on issues and engaging in specific campaigns. We already know likes and re-tweets in and of themselves do not represent political action.

The very good news is that the story of next year is already partly written. Especially with Bannon out there trashing Republican Senators, it is going to be very difficult for Trump to reverse the dominant narrative where his unpopularity grows, and his prevarications pile up. The Virginia election results demonstrated the deterioration of his support from suburban women. Notably, it also revealed an enthusiasm boost borne out of the resistance. 450,000 more Virginians came to the polls to elect Northam over Gillespie than voted in the 2013 gubernatorial election.

The Virginia results have everything to do with how we can most certainly take back the House in 2018 and how we may even put the Senate into play. Off-year elections like the one next November almost always result in a push back against the party in power. When that same party is also fighting among themselves, their enthusiasm and participation wanes. In this context, changing the minds of voters is splendid, but even greater success lies in motivating and energizing those who already are disturbed about Trump. If they can feel our momentum and vote in droves, taking back 45 seats in the House is not out of the question. The House will then stand as a huge barrier to the diminishment of our democracy.

The reason why Republicans in both the House and Senate are fully committed to passing any tax bill is that they are searching for anything that could even partially inoculate them against a Democratic takeover of the House. The provisions in the House and Senate versions of the tax bill reveal what they want most now, so they can celebrate the holidays later: significant reductions in corporate taxes; special provisions that reduce tax exposure of those with very considerable assets; and tax cuts that provide a meaningful income tax reduction for most middle income and upper income taxpayers. In all three cases these proposals further exacerbate wealth maldistribution in America. It is a foregone conclusion that as much as 80% of the benefits to individuals will go to the top 5% of taxpayers.

The reduction in the corporate tax rate is intended to create comparable rates with our foreign economic competitors, but there is no guiding provision that will incentivize creation of family wage jobs. Special provisions include eliminating the estate tax in the House or sharply reducing it in the Senate, with leadership using the tax exposure of 50 farms a year to provide cover for a tax break for those with hundreds of millions of dollars of assets. Finally, even the rate reductions themselves have disproportionate value to high income taxpayers. If you provide a 7% reduction to a middle-income family which pays $10,000 a year, you are sending them an additional $700. If you provide a lower reduction of 5% to an upper income family which pays $200,000 a year, you are sending them $10,000.

What to do? How does one sort out individual actions? Let’s choose actions that push back against the unfortunate Republican tendency to select for special gilding things that are already gilded.

1) Say No on the Elimination of Estate Taxes
	For married couples, the federal estate tax comes into play when their assets upon passing are more than $11 million. Estate planning involves numerous legal ways to decrease this exposure, including making annual gifts to one’s children and grandchildren. Even though by far the greatest amount of these taxes are paid by those with assets over $200 million, its repeal is always on the Republican wish list. The current Senate proposal lifts the size of taxable estates to $22 million rather than eliminating the tax, an effort to retain the vote of Maine Senator Susan Collins on the overall bill. This battle has seen the surprising emergence of another Republican Senator, not at all known for taking on such disputes. This is Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota. He may start to bend under pressure, but see what you can do to reinforce his better sensibilities. He is unused to hearing from people across America. Call and tell his staff at 202- 224-5842 that he should stand his ground on estate taxes. Write legislative director Gregg Rickman at Gregg_Rickman@rounds.senate.gov. Or if you have a Republican Senator, write him or her and extend your thinking on this matter.
2) Protect the Affordable Care Act One More Time
	In a late breaking element, Mitch McConnell is signaling his interest in including in the tax bill a repeal of the individual coverage requirement mandate of the Affordable Care Act. Republicans need more “revenue” which they say could be used to shore up the tax cuts for the middle class! Apparently they couldn’t find the resources in the $1.5 trillion hole they have already created in budget over the next ten years, or the $300 billion estate tax break they have devised. The elimination of the individual mandate would kill the ACA, depriving it of, among other things, a pool of healthy insured people. The Congressional Budget Office believes that the number of insured would drop by 13 million people. Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and John McCain have stood up for health care for Americans. Could you write and call to ask them to do it one more time? Morgan Griffin, Legislative Aide for Lisa Murkowski, Alaska  Steve Abbott, Chief of Staff for Susan Collins, Maine  David Bennett, Legislative Aide for John McCain, Arizona
3) Congressman, Step Away From Our Teacher’s Desk
	Both the House and the Senate versions of the tax bill allow corporations to deduct all sorts of expenses, but they take that opportunity away from your town’s elementary and primary school teachers. Really? We know you tax writers are bent on decreasing tax deductions, but could you leave Ms. McGillicuddy’s $250 deduction for things she buys for her classroom alone? Isn’t that behavior you want to encourage? Here’s the chance to write any Republican Senator or member of Congress from your state. Tell them that now is a perfect time to show our teachers that the sacrifices they have been making to help equip their classrooms count with you, and should count with them.

The Mueller investigation continues, and there will be more indictments. It will be reemphasized that another nation which in no way wishes us well tried to tear apart the fabric of our democracy. Whether or not the collusion that is proved will reach the President, we will see very clearly the picture of a values-deficient Trump campaign, which demonstrated that they would do anything and say anything to win. Now, in just a year we can take the first of two steps at the ballot box to make it right.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#26: Make Steve Bannon a Sordid Historical Footnote

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It is familiar in fiction - the delusional ruler, alone in his castle, raging. Jesters and flatterers are summoned, but the anger is unabated. There is much scurrying about. Knights and members of the ruler’s court are summoned. Ultimately, the ruler slumbers fitfully, and…

… Donald Trump is at peace, until the tweeting begins.

This is not a good non-fictional situation, it is fair to say. As a real estate developer, Donald Trump was in a business in which certain unscrupulous practitioners use exaggeration and misrepresentation as a business practice. His world tolerated and even encouraged ritualistic adversarial exchanges as deals were considered. Before he was sworn in, none of the virtues of the best presidents had ever found any home with him, certainly not Barrack Obama’s eloquence or intellectual grounding, or FDR’s ability to lead nations through tenacity and the strength of his ideas.

So, we are left with an unsuited and thus unsuitable president, and an ongoing governmental crisis. We must remind ourselves that we will prevail and regain a new equilibrium because we have to, and because:

• We have a constitutional system for which the checks and balances on the Presidency are very real, in which the courts and Congress can and do step in. It is the Congress that is doing too little but still is protecting Robert Mueller and sanctioning Russia, and the courts that are impeding some of the worst of the executive orders.

• We have an election in just a year in which we will take back the House and gain an extra set of brakes. This will be especially helpful in fighting back against the Trump/Pruitt decimation of environmental protection. If the election were held today, we would win 40-50 seats, exceeding the 24 we need. Donald Trump’s support has deteriorated to its lowest level.

• We have Senators McCain, Flake, Collins, Murkowski, and Corker who have openly broken ranks on specific issues. Others like Lamar Alexander of Tennessee have forged bi-partisan approaches. Even though these tales of forthrightness and occasional personal political sacrifice are far too few, they are not insignificant.

The Congress will pass a tax bill this fall, because they must. Both they and Donald Trump need to say that they did this, or they will be portrayed as having had a lost year. They just got their votes to increase the deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, which is an unusual thing to be saying about a party that has trumpeted the need for balanced budget. Unfortunately for them, Trump has made tax cut promises requiring at least three times as much deficit spending as that $1.5 trillion. In his world, he doesn’t have to recognize that these numbers don’t add up. It’s a con.

What should we be most focused on as we do our resistance work?

We must be ever-obsessed with wealth distribution in America. Since the 1982 tax bill, tax policy has reduced the progressivity of the tax code and thus contributed to the growing concentration of wealth in the top 10%. The White House has been using mathematical gymnastics to argue that it is self-evident that any tax bill will disproportionately benefit the very rich, because they pay more taxes. That contention is false. Adding insult to injury, their draft proposals would eliminate both the estate tax, the alternative minimum tax, and lower taxes on pass through profits from limited liability companies - three taxes paid only by exceedingly wealthy people.

From this point on, it is all about evaluating the various proposals on their distributional impact. We must make certain that every tax proposal that is floated is subject to this test, and tailor our notes to Congress accordingly. There are three things we can do today:

1) Let the Ways and Means Committee Know You’re Out There
	There are 40 members of the House Ways and Means Committee, which will start the action by reviewing the proposal of their chair, Kevin Brady, which he has prepared in conjunction with Paul Ryan. The proposal is already being opposed by the Republican-leaning National Association of Home Builders. It’s complicated, but they are worried that the proposed increase in the standard deduction would decrease itemizers and thus the impact of the existing mortgage deduction, and consequently destabilize the housing market. They wanted a fix through a new tax credit, and were turned down. This back and forth is relevant because it creates a more receptive climate for your letter. The Republicans on the committee will come together to pass a bill, but many will be influenced by their mail and calls, as they pick and choose their pain and gain. The 40 members of the committee are spread across the country, so chances are good there will be one or more from your state for you to send a note or make a call. That’s good thing because it will be easier for you to deal with the defenses members are setting up to decrease their out of state email. See the committee member list here. The best argument to emphasize is the need for the bill to attend to middle class taxpayers. Please note for them that you as a voter are watching their actions on this specific issue.
2) Figure Out What is Happening on SALT, and Act Accordingly
	Republicans in higher tax states are very worried that their taxpayers will be disproportionately impacted as the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) is pared back or eliminated. This is complex, too, because the relative impact on the middle class and the very wealthy of rolling back this tax break depends on each state’s tax structure. It is certainly the case that decreasing this deduction in order to raise revenue to make it possible to eliminate the alternative minimum tax and the estate tax is a bad deal for the middle class and everyone else who doesn’t pay these two taxes. Thus, it is a good idea to go all the way back to your own state legislators from your own district. You can send them an email and make sure they are focused on what’s happening on this issue on the federal level. You can ask them to examine the impact on middle income taxpayers and be in contact with members of Congress.
3) Celebrate That Life Isn’t Just About Money
	In the midst of all the legislative focus on the making and keeping of money, a federal district court judge has blocked enforcement Trump’s awful ban on transgendered people in the military. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was first appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan. She has ruled the plaintiffs are likely to ultimately win on the merits. In addition to a victory for justice and fairness, this story is about what smaller organizations can do. The organizations bringing suit were GLBQT Legal Advocates and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Write and thank one or both of them, and if you possibly can, click and send a celebratory contribution that will help them pay for legal costs going forward. GLBQT Legal Advocates National Center for Lesbian Rights

Steve Bannon is out there somewhere, doing his venal thing. He is hoping the intensity of your effort will wane. He and his followers are kindly called “economic nationalists” by the media. He is banking on them prevailing, and so is Donald Trump. It is up to all of us to make such an outcome not just inconceivable, but impossible. You can make Steve Bannon a sordid historical footnote.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#25: Republican Senators Say a Prayer for Mattis, Tillerson and Kelly Every Day

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It has been almost a year. If this was a merely a presidency without grace, we would bear up under it with aplomb. But it is a bullying, incurious, relentlessly dishonest, scary presidency. Hence, our resistance.

For most of this year, the number one thing we need to do has been clear. We need to and plan to take back the House of Representatives on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. It is now just over a year away and the races are emerging. Our chances of getting the 24 seats we need are excellent. A new poll shows Democrats significantly leading the “generic” Congressional vote. We have more than a year to go, but our prospects are the best they have been. Of course, our prospects are good because of the awful damage that has been wrought upon our nation. That makes it a bit more difficult to celebrate.

Recently, Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said the greatest danger of this presidency is that its disdain for diplomacy and resultant reliance on “binary” options could lead us in the direction of World War III. This is the most serious of business, forcing us to BOTH take back the House and adopt a new number one project. That project must increase the number of Republican leaders who are actively speaking out to check the President’s excesses. As outlined most recently in missive #18 this is no easy thing.

One might think that Donald Trump’s unpopularity would give any Republican leader some “cover” under which to criticize him. After all, the narrative that Donald Trump has a solid, unquestioning and unflinching base is false. Somewhere around 20% of the Republicans who voted for him are not with him anymore, and he has hemorrhaged support from independents.

However, the remaining Trump supporters are of sufficient number to punish Republican officeholders not only for real slights, but for imagined slights. All of the recent Steve Bannon adventures recruiting candidates to oppose the Republican “establishment” are a Trump-blessed demonstration that there will be retribution for those that stray. Note that none of the primary Republican Senate critics of Trump (Murkowski, Corker, McCain, Collins, Sasse, Paul) are up for re-election in 2018. And, all have given him important support at critical junctures, though not on health care.

Corker maintains that there are a lot of Republican Senators who share his worries about global conflict, which is hard to doubt. But they are also glad that it is Corker who is talking, not them. Senators like Jeff Flake of Arizona toed the line on the health care votes, but all he has earned is an alt-right opponent in the primary and a strong Democratic candidate in the general election.

How do we increase the number of Republican dissenters? First, we develop a richer understanding of why they don’t want to do what we want them to do. Officeholders vary widely in how they seek to establish justice and promote the general welfare, but all of them think that’s what they are doing, and none of them want voters to tell them they can’t do it anymore. They vote with Trump for reasons of self-preservation, so that they can continue to serve, so that they will be able to do the good that they are doing, or (in some cases) that they think they are doing.

It gets complicated for them when their interest in self-preservation pulls them in two distinct directions. In an increasing number of states, Senators fear that the retribution from independent voters if they vote with Trump will outweigh retribution from the Trump “base” if they vote against Trump. Loud, intense, well-resourced, concerted opposition from all of us changes the equation. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska wanted to do the right thing on health care, but you can bet that she was also weighing who she was going to make the maddest and how long they are going to stay mad.

Even with all of this weighing, it is important to remember that a Senator can always step forward out of pure principle. Ben Sasse of Nebraska is an example of this. He would be better off politically if he hadn’t asked if Trump was “recanting his oath of office” when he said NBC should have its broadcasting license (which it doesn’t hold in the first place) challenged.

Certainly, Senators are worried that Trump will start a war and that a lot of people will die. They say a prayer for Mattis, Tillerson and Kelly every day. Because they have these worries, you can ask them (or a Representative) to oppose Trump on foreign policy so that the republic will stand. But it never hurts to also be able to say that if they do not oppose Trump on foreign policy, there will be political consequences. Just be sure to follow up and help make it so.

There will be time to take on tax “reform” efforts and with them the re-kindling of the novel Republican notion that decreasing revenue by $2 trillion in tax cuts will not increase the deficit. For now, let’s do three things that will reinforce the signal to Republican Senators and Representatives that it is time for them to be counted:

1) Start Counting On Nebraska Senators
	Ben Sasse of Nebraska followed up with his criticism of Trump with this response to Sean Hannity of Fox News, who had taken him on for criticizing Trump: "Some of us still believe in the constitution".   Sasse has potential that all of us need to help him realize. Let’s thank him for standing up for the First Amendment and thus give him some positive reinforcement. Let’s make sure we get through my leaving a phone message, sending an email to him, and trying to get a personal message through. First, call the main line at: 202-224-4224 Then, email the Senator Finally, to make sure you get a human, call his Lincoln office at 402-476-1400 After that, take an interest in the other Nebraska Senator, Deb Fischer. She has supported Trump almost without exception, though she was somewhat troubled by his order regarding transgendered persons in the Armed Services. For all of her unyielding support, she has been attacked by Steve Bannon for failing to criticize Bob Corker when he criticized Donald Trump.  We aren’t going to turn Deb Fischer in our direction, but it would be good to show her she has been noticed. If you have extra energy on the Nebraska front, send her an email telling her that it will be a political test that America is watching for her to stand up to Bannon.
2) Thank Senator Bob Corker Profusely and Follow Him Closely
	Senator Bob Corker has a year left as the chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He can do an enormous amount of good for America if he doesn’t start getting worn down by the attacks he is receiving.  Reinforce the good. Be a part of the “count” by emailing the Senator himself.   Then try to find your way around the curtain by writing a note to his foreign affairs counsel John Rader and tell him how important it is that the Senator attend to these matters on a daily basis: John Rader, Counsel Senate Foreign Relations Committee 423 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington D.C 20510-6225
3) Make Sure Our Side of the Story is Well Articulated
	A year after Donald Trump was elected, the main voices of the opposition remain Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. These two people were elected by their fellow Democrats as managers of their caucuses. They are imperfect national spokespeople to be the lead respondents to Trump. Email Michael Tyler, spokesperson for Democratic Party chair Thomas Perez and the Democratic National Committee. Tell him you are sitting out there hoping that they are working aggressively to groom and advance other elected officials to comment on the daily happenings in Washington D.C. Ask him what the DNC is doing on this front.

The rest of the fall will be all about the budget bill, keeping the government open, and tax “reform”. The central tax issue must remain the enormous and growing disparities in wealth distribution in America. The best thing you can say about the tax debate and related media coverage so far is that almost every story refers to the distributional impact by income level of various tax proposals.

On the global front, we need to persuade some Senators to imagine themselves as a part of Profiles in Courage. Or, in the alternative, let’s continue to show the political intensity that will make the principled stand of any Republic senator less courageous and more practical. Let’s make them more worried about our reaction than they are about Donald Trump’s reaction.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#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

#23: We Have Never Had Any Choice But to Take Back the House

EMERGENCY ALERT: We interrupt this post that is focused on other dangers and threats. There is an emerging threat that the Graham-Cassidy effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act will be brought to the Senate floor this week. Please email these Senators and beseech them not to play along on this all new scheme to take health care away from the Americans who most need it: 

• Morgan Griffin, Legislative Aide for Lisa Murkowski, Alaska 
  Steve Abbott, Chief of Staff for Susan Collins, Maine 
  David Bennett, Legislative Aide for John McCain, Arizona 
  Rachel Green, Legislative Aide for Dean Heller, Nevada

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.

It’s time to collect ourselves as we (and so many others) continue this largely successful effort to curb the countless excesses of Donald Trump, and thus protect our nation. It is also the time to make certain our fervor does not dissipate.

We all have done better in the past 10 months than we might have expected. The Affordable Care Act is wounded but it stands. The wall is unbuilt, proposed State Department cuts have been pushed back, Russia has been sanctioned and Planned Parenthood is funded. On the other end of the ledger, a new Supreme Court Justice has been confirmed, executive orders have diminished the environment, and the President has regularly contributed to international instability. Ahead of us is a major battle over taxation, and the extent to which tax “reform” exacerbates or alleviates huge wealth disparities in our country.

We never have had any choice but to take back the House in November of 2018, and the chances are very good that we will accomplish that goal. More moderate Republican members of Congress like Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania and Dave Reichert of Washington have announced they are not seeking reelection, making their swing districts far more vulnerable for Democratic takeover. We need 24 seats to take back control of the House, and could get more than 40.

The key word is could. First, there is no danger that Donald Trump is going to significantly increase his voter approval. The John Kelly molded man seeking to look presidential will return to the true mold each time Kelly looks the other way. The unfettered, uninformed and unprincipled Trump is the essence of the man.

So that may mean that the biggest impediment to taking back the House is us. Pogo said “We have met the enemy and they are us.” We must defend against three ways we could take ourselves down. We could pull defeat out of the jaws of victory in the fall of 2018 with no cohesion, or no leaders, or no ideas.

The first test is how people who previously Sanders and Clinton work together. So far, the signs are encouraging. Neither Sanders nor Clinton is going to be the 2020 nominee, and their strongest supporters know that already, which is freeing. There will be meaningful Democratic policy/political differences in scores of Congressional primaries, but those can strengthen us. Additionally, the fears that “identity politics” will make us less than our collective sum are not founded. Passion fuels us. By November of 2018, we need to display unity, not uniformity.

Who will lead us is the bigger question. Did we not realize during the reign of Harry Reid that having the Senate Minority Leader as our spokesperson on the evening news will inevitably become a problem? Good minority leaders are tacticians. They relentlessly attend to the key concerns of each Democratic Senator. They automatically illuminate their political sides. The clear articulation of our aspirations and agenda is not the prime gift of either Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi. Hopefully, this need will start to get filled when various presidential aspirants start to appear. The New York Times has given its sought after attention to eight candidates.  

And, of course, we must and will become sharper about the why, the reasons why Americans should select our candidates rather than those allied to Trump. Some of these more refined positions will come out of Democratic primary races. These will be especially pointed in their disputes over international trade, within a party that houses both protectionists and free traders. The policy focus which will not emerge naturally is the interwoven series of initiatives that will respond anew to uneven economic opportunity in America’s regions. Actually, Democrats have been addressing these for some time, but it is not clear the public has been aware of that. It is broken and must be fixed.

All together, we give the resistance to Trump unbounded energy. That energy will drive and improve the responses to the three above challenges of cohesion, leadership and ideas.

If our indispensable weekly attention to these matters is waning, a little, then we will be less likely to gain the outcome we seek. Here are three things we personally can do to sharpen our engagement:

1) Please, please, please pick your Congressional campaign
	Campaigns are won or lost from their inception, not on the day the results are posted. We all felt Trump-generated despair from the moment he got the sufficient Comey-boost to gain election. We looked for every opportunity to fully and genuinely resist. Even if you have never picked a campaign in the past, it is time to pick one now. Read the newspaper to decide which, if any, Congressional races near you are going to be heavily contested. There will be 60 or so at least somewhat competitive races so you are going to find one, even if you have to consider a neighboring state. Use the excellent online resources which are available to help you sort things out. These include Indivisible and Swing Left either of which can help you sort out targeted races. Even though they have been excruciatingly absent from the organizing side of the picture, get on the e-mailing list of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Also make it a point to keep tabs on your state Democratic party. After you pick your race, go see the candidate or one of her or his aides if they are within driving distance. If you don’t live in their district, join an Indivisible cell or other organizing group that will “adopt” the candidate. If such a group doesn’t already exist, organize it yourself. Do not be discouraged if there already five or six candidates indicating their interest. Pick the one who you find compelling. Even if your candidate isn’t the one moving forward, you will be adding to our collective strength.
2) Where you have special skills, advance them.
	Take an inventory of your skills. Start by making yourself good at door-to-door work. Eventually every campaign finds these resources essential, not just as a tool for swaying voters but even more as a tool to make certain we identify who is with us so we can get them to the polls. In 2016 we did not get the voter turnout we hoped for in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. That should provide some motivation. What other skills do you have? Can you raise money? Could you give money, even in the form of a monthly pledge? Organize events? Could you participate in or lead a letter writing campaign, or organize social media? Intermediaries are cropping up to make certain people with high-demand skills get found. Tech for Campaigns is an organization that is recruiting and deploying all manner of technology-savvy people.
3) Start your own voter registration campaign
	Even if you live in an enclave where people are red hot about their politics, you are surrounded by people who aren’t registered to vote. Or you know some people in other places who haven’t registered. They are young and haven’t got into the voting habit, or they have moved, or maybe they are disenchanted with the present situation. (How could that possibly be the case?) How about figuring out how to do a voter registration drive this winter and spring among high school seniors who are just turning 18.  Or, emphasize the 35 states who offer online voter registration. Scroll down on this site, find the link to online registration in your target state, and send the link to people you suspect have yet to register.

There will always be countless issues on which we must engage, and new Trumpian horrors to confront. Trump says that in all of his bullying, his disregard for even the most basic of truths, and his relentless promotion of himself and his properties, he is being “presidential” in a “modern” way. Could you imagine anything further from the truth than that? Or anything more motivating for all of us.

We continue to seek the day that we can say that it is a former President that said such a thing. It is a good time to re-assess how each of us is doing, and to determine and do what is necessary.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#22: We Must Prevent Him From Afflicting the Afflicted and Comforting the Comfortable

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.

This fall will bring a whole new set of issues which must be engaged by those who are worried about how our country will move forward. The summer recess by Congress removed the sporadically achieved "regular order" that John McCain sought.

In its place, we got Donald Trump even more unmoored, lurching through Charlottesville and Steve Bannon's departure, throwing out random Korea threats, seeking approval from Fox News and from late night calls with cronies. He has the most tortured nights at the White House since Abraham Lincoln walked at midnight. How awful it must feel to have only tweets and calling Roger Stone as your solace.

There will be a broader set of crises this fall - North Korea, Robert Mueller's progress, the Hurricane Harvey aftermath and with it the realization that Donald Trump has no capacity to lead the response. Notably, there will be an effort this fall by a bipartisan group of senators to shore up the health insurance markets that Donald Trump has roiled.

However, the best opportunities this fall for the millions of us who are dedicated to resistance will come in the areas of budget, finance and tax. Congress will determine whether and how the debt ceiling will be raised, how the government will be funded for the next several months, and how our taxes will be "reformed".

These are not just numbers on the page. Regarding the extension of government spending into December or January, we either will have a funded and functioning State Department and Foreign Service or we will not. Huge budget cuts for the EPA can be prevented. The modest Federal support of Planned Parenthood can be maintained. And, we can remove Donald Trump's thumb from the eye of the Mexican people by not building the wall.

Two forces will converge in assisting us in meeting these goals. First, Republicans are not unmindful that Donald Trump's criticisms of them can damage them politically, but they are still more worried about him and less scared of him than at any time since he was elected.

Secondly, and as important, the rules of the Senate will strengthen the hands of the Democrats by requiring 60 votes to close off debate on both the budget resolution and the increase in the debt ceiling. This will give Charles Schumer and his Senate Democrat colleagues plenty of leverage.

In the House, the Freedom Caucus will want significant Medicaid cuts as a part of a deal to increase the debt ceiling. Paul Ryan may have to make a deal with Democrats to keep the government open, which in turn could imperil his speakership. To him and to Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump is no help on any of this.

Tax reform will test the resistance, because Democratic members of Congress have some interest in adjusting the levels of corporate taxation, seeking to boost companies to higher levels of international competitiveness. Here's where the devil will be there with the details. Past tax reform efforts have exacerbated the growing wealth maldistribution that plagues America. Corporate tax reductions of the recent past have not resulted in levels of corporate investment in people, plants, and equipment that policymakers have projected.

Donald Trump, in the face of all these challenges, will want to afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable. These three actions can make certain we go in the right direction:

1) Senator Schumer, Tear Down That Wall
	Donald Trump still wants to build the wall. As he told Mexican President Peña Nieto in January he needs to do so because he promised his base he would. To the rest of us this is not a compelling reason to proceed. Certainly, there is political significance for him winning or losing this battle, but this proposal is about a greater crime - treating another nation as Trump lackeys and living a lie about Mexico. The good news is that the Senate rules and Trump's unpopularity are giving Democrats more traction on budget items. However, with that traction comes the promising but delicate opportunity to trade with Republican leadership, securing a gain on one front while making a sacrifice on another. Write minority leader Schumer's key staff member and tell her that for millions of us any building of the wall is not acceptable. Meghan Taira Legislative Director (202) 224-6542 meghan_taira@schumer.senate.gov
2) Confront Tax Reform as a Wealth Disparity Issue
	It's easy to get lost in the technical complexity of tax reform. It's that complexity that could make it possible for there to be some bipartisan support for a reduction in corporate tax rates without anyone sufficiently addressing ways to address wealth disparities and the continued gilding of the very rich. Corporate tax reform is a new opportunity for Mitch McConnell to pick off Democratic senators from states which Donald Trump won, including Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakota, Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Claire McCaskill from Missouri. Email these three legislative directors and tell the Senator for whom they work to demand tax fairness as an indispensable element of any bill they support: janelle_mcclure@mccaskill.senate.gov tracee_sutton@heitkamp.senate.gov wesley_kunge@manchin.senate.gov Check Americans for Tax Fairness for any underlying information you need.
3) Re-gear for Planned Parenthood
	The defeat of the "skinny" health care bill with John McCain's dramatic thumbs-down saved Planned Parenthood funding for now. This battle will remain pitched until we take back the House in 2018. As outlined in missive #19, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is our leader and deserves our thanks. Attention must now be paid to strengthen an already strong reproductive freedom movement. Planned Parenthood has an all new initiative built around the defense and advocacy for 600 clinics around the country and they are looking for more help from you today.

It just keeps on. Donald Trump says he loves dreamers except when he kicks them out of the country. He loves Harvey victims except when he treats the whole disaster like his own reality tv show.

He sees South Korea and China as major partners fighting the dangers of Kim Jong-un except for when he tweet-trashes them.

As a movement, we continue to grow. We are parrying everywhere we can and we are having great success. This demands our concentration every week as new offenses emerge, but there is no question that all of us together are up to this job.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington