#67: Stop Trump from Tugging on the Thread that Holds Us Together

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Two things can be true at the same time. On CBS Sunday Morning, former nightly news anchor Scott Pelley delivered an impassioned, eloquent plea for us all to attend to our democracy. He called us all out for “recklessly tugging at the thread that holds us together.” 

Then, unfortunately, he lost himself by straining for equivalence. It is virtually impossible to get airtime for such an essay unless you criticize both political parties equally. Thus, Pelley accused both parties of chasing “shiny new scandals” and failing to seek compromise on immigration reform. He neglected to mention that the United States Senate passed a monumental immigration bill in 2013, with yes votes from all Democrats and 14 Republican Senators, and that House Republicans walked away from it. If today’s Republican Party won’t talk about the Dreamers, where is the equivalence?

Is there an equivalence in “chasing shiny new scandals?” Or otherwise, might it not be the case that the current President of the United States is uncommonly and relentlessly contemptuous not only of the norms of public office but of the rule of law in the country he is sworn to govern? Let’s honor and remember Scott Pelley’s behest that we show great care in our political actions. Let’s reject outright the false narrative that we are all there tugging on that thread. The truth of it all is that millions of us are trying to preserve the tapestry.

Consider these altogether separate categories of what Trump has visited upon the people.

• Rejection of any boundaries to the behavior of a President (norms) by laughing and sharing a dictator’s pathetic criticism of a formed Vice President.
• Absolute obsession with self over country. Countless incidents of hijacking of events seemingly designed for focus on others (veterans, farmers, athletes) so he can return to the church of the “extremely stable genius.”
• Heretofore unimaginable levels of dishonesty about everything, including hugely consequential policy matters like the mythical $96 billion in aid that he has provided to Puerto Rico.
• Great susceptibility to dictator flattery. What dictator will next write him a “lovely letter” that will then blind him to the actions of that dictatorship?
• Failure to learn on the job or to prepare for hugely consequential meetings with foreign leaders, or with anyone else for that matter.
• Inability to secure and deploy a cabinet and White House staff that is stable, reliable, and able to manage the executive branch on a daily basis.
• Illegal personal financial transactions, including the self-dealing of the Trump Foundation, and the insurance and tax fraud outlined by Michael Cohen.
• Ten separate meticulously documented attempts to impede Mueller’s investigation and to hide or misrepresent critical evidence. Continued misrepresentation of the report’s findings and blocking of any fact-finding inquiries.
• Ignorance and disregard of the constitutional role of the other two branches of government. Regular issuance of executive orders assuming powers not delegated to the executive branch.

In all nine areas, he will stop at nothing and do most anything. So, Scott Pelley, we are with you in the effort to stop the unraveling, but the first step is to remove the person who is tugging at the thread every hour of the day.

It is tempting to think that our opportunities to combat each of these areas of Trump malfeasance has equal standing or opportunities for progress. It isn’t so. If we forget the distinctions between Trump’s abuses, we will lose our opportunities to combat him. For instance, whatever we do, he will be just as susceptible to dictator flattery on his last day of office as he was the first, and he is not going to recognize or accept presidential norms. Of course, both cost him votes from independents last November, and will again if his 2020 candidacy moves forward.

Importantly, in the last three of the nine, the courts are involved. We have achieved traction and will be able to continue to grow that traction if we remember who needs to do what in the hearing room and the courtroom. Painful as it is for many, this is a much more productive course of action than passing a bill of impeachment in the House, since that would only give Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans the world’s largest and loudest microphone. It is not our moral obligation to bring unsuccessful impeachment charges against the president. It is our moral obligation to be successful in ending his dismantling of our country.

With regard to personal financial matters, the courts will soon permit access by Congress of Deutsch Bank and Capital One records of Trump dealings. They will uphold the statutory and constitutional authority of Congress to examine all of these matters. They will also uphold Congress’ right to access Trump’s tax returns, whether or not they limit the public release of those returns. Either way, the disclosure of financial information that reveals Trump’s practices will include information that the general public will not like at all.

On the front of Congress’ investigation of Russia’s involvement in the presidential election and Trump’s multiple obstructions, two important hearings are impending. Robert Mueller will appear before the House Judiciary Committee in the not too distant future. Thanks to Republican Senator Richard Burr, Donald Trump Jr. will be called before the Senate Intelligence Committee to discuss his Cohen-disclosed misrepresentations to investigators on the proposed Trump Tower in Moscow. In both cases, the hearings will be closed, but both will fuel essential Congressional efforts, and both will influence the public’s unhappiness with the Trump moral code, or the absence thereof.

Finally, the efforts to use the federal courts to curb Trump’s over-reaching executive orders are also fruit-bearing. Working their way through the judicial system are federal district court orders limiting Trump’s emergency declaration which takes money from agencies for the wall; defending elements of the Affordable Care Act, protecting asylum seekers, and blocking drilling in Wyoming that had been advanced by the Department of the Interior. It is always possible that appellate courts will overturn such decisions, but at these legal challenges have stalled numerous policy abuses.

In all three of these aspirational litigational areas, important steps are taken by intention, not by accident. Here are three things we can do to make certain this indispensable, heartening traction continues to be gained:

1) Support the State Attorneys General
	In each of the 50 states, the attorney general is charged with protecting the state’s government and laws, including its constitutional position relative to the federal government. Attorneys general have become an important player in multiple federal court actions since Donald Trump was elected, beginning with their role in helping to block Trump’s initial Muslim ban. They are filing actions at a record pace. Other actions participated in by varying groups of attorneys general have focused on such diverse matters as Trump’s emergency declaration regarding the border wall, school lunch nutrition standards, and protection of transgender students. Notably, the Republican attorneys general of Montana and Ohio have joined 15 Democrats in seeking to protect the Affordable Care Act from the most recent Trump-Mick Mulvaney legal assault, to which even U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr objected. It could take a little work, but search devices are our friend. We need to each examine the role our own state’s Attorney General has played, and through an email or call we need to motivate her or him to stay focused on this important way to protect the rights of the states and of the people. If we live in Ohio or Montana, we need to thank the Republican Attorney General for standing up for the Affordable Care Act.
2) Support Richard Burr and the Senate Intelligence Committee
	As reviewed in a previous missive, Chair Richard Burr and the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena to Donald Trump Jr. They could not abide his previous testimony that he had only “peripheral” knowledge of the Moscow Trump Tower project, once Michael Cohen testified that he had briefed him a dozen times. Richard Burr has been under attack by Trump and some Senate Republicans for doing what is obviously the right thing. The Republican Senatorial voices defending him have been muted, to say the least, but they have notably included the conservative Missouri Republican Senator Roy Blunt. Please call him at 202-224-5721 and thank him for showing integrity and courage in this matter.
3) Strengthen the Nonprofit Organizations that Go to Court
	Because of the reaction of the resistance to the abuses of Donald Trump, litigating organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and several environmental advocacy organizations have considerable financial resources. Given the wholesale attack on a woman’s right to choose, let’s make certain that there are also plentiful resources for legal defense in the states that are under fire, which most recently are Alabama and Missouri. Here’s how to participate in their strength-building through Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood affiliates all use the same national/regional donation-sharing website. Be certain to click on “Specific Giving” to have your dollars go to the Planned Parenthood of the Southeast, or Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, or both.

So, it goes. There are less than 18 months to the election. We are acquitting ourselves nicely, and our prospects are excellent. But as we all know, it isn’t just about prospects, it is about what we do between now and November 3, 2020.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#66: It’s Time to Get the Truth Off of the Scaffold

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Joe Biden has been around for a long time. When he says Donald Trump’s presidency is an aberration, his judgement is based upon consideration of fifty years of American politics and governance. Trump’s candidacy might not even been successful if the election had been held on November 5 or 7, 2016 and certainly would not have been successful except for 1) Comey’s announcement; 2) multiple levels of Russian interference; 3) the cover-up of Trump payoffs by Michael Cohen; and 4) various levels of malfeasance which we will find out more about as time goes on.

So, Trump’s presidency is an aberration, in the sense that his election did not reflect any profound ongoing change in the views of the American voter. In fact, two years later, a lot of independent voters who had boosted Trump helped the resistance flip 40 house seats. We also added votes from millions of voters aged 18-30 who historically had been less likely to vote in midterm elections.

In one way, identifying something as aberrant behavior is a positive signal. It tells us that it is easier to reverse present awful conditions than it would be if there was some long term massive negative switch in voter preferences. It’s clear it isn’t long term, since we already shifted voter behavior two years later. On the other hand, feeling reassured because an election result is anomalous is a trap. We could end up waiting for the non-aberrant behavior to emerge, and be less focused on the business to which we must attend.

We aren’t going to lose focus. We’re going to continue treating this Presidential election with great confidence, but with caution. Given a choice between doing less and doing more to guarantee the right outcome, we will do more, and as the election approaches, we will do much, much more. Every day, we will refuse to accept this assault upon our country. The Constitution is threatened just as much as if enemy combatants just landed on the Florida panhandle, instead of Donald Trump having a rally there. 

Even though Donald Trump is not a trend setter, there is one bit of malfeasance and malfunction that threatens to be longer lasting. He did not invent prevarication in American politics, but he has put the truth on the scaffold so persistently and unabashedly that we’re going to have a difficult time removing it. As the protestant hymn reminds, if truth is on the scaffold, then wrong will be on the throne.

What to do? Luckily we have the Annenberg Center’s unparalleled and even-handed fact check capacity. They offer the suspecting and unsuspecting soul an equal chance to sign up for their weekly newsletter. Any person who has been thinking that Trump’s offenses against the truth are modest should read the Fact Check article outlining 17 Trump lies in 17 hours, a huge bolt of wool being pulled over our eyes. The broadcast media needs improvement on their own fact checking, but lately the national networks, CNN and (once a year) Fox have been including the correction of the Trump untruth in the same broadcast segment as the untruth, which is critical. The broadcasters look for cover where they can. They were relieved when Presidential adviser Larry Kudlow admitted that tariffs bring economic pain to producers and consumers. The media could thus quote Kudlow rather than correcting Trump on their own.

Of course, there are other ways to give truth a new ascendancy. We can all subscribe to a newspaper which takes its role seriously. (Digital subscriptions of the New York Times have increased sharply since Trump was elected.) We can politely refuse to let the false claims of others pass us by. We can make certain we are using reliable information ourselves. Newspaper op-eds which we often favor are discussion-starters, opinion pieces striving for attention, and rarely provide immutable truths. Rachel Maddow is indispensable, but nevertheless she and we are called upon to sort out which of her charges are meant for further investigation, and which are already surrounded by considerable evidence. Both categories are important, but the former requires a process where we continue to follow the issue as it unfolds. On a different front, Michael Moore does not have inside information on who is going to be elected in 2020, nor does billionaire Mark Cuban. As Trump has demonstrated over and over, having a Twitter account does not infuse the tweeter with wisdom.

Of all the places where Trump’s daily dance with the truth matters, the legislative process is most consequential, since lies can lead to people being unserved who desperately need help. Trump is not playing just some silly little game. A lie about tariffs can put a company out of business. A lie about protection from pre-existing conditions can lead to lack of health care coverage and a person’s death. Republican Senators have a bad habit of failing to correct Trump even when his statements are patently false. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley made an exception this week. He said that Trump does not understand tariffs and their impact on farmers. He stressed that telling him face to face doesn’t seem to help. Even after the pointed corrections of Grassley and others, Trump tweeted that it is the Chinese paying the tariffs, rather than US companies and the US consumer.

In the midst of the legislative process, Donald Trump makes up stories. This is not unintentional, and it is morally bankrupt. Here are three specific stories that he tells, how they foul the legislative process, and what we can do now to respond:

1) Make Certain Disaster Aid Meets the Needs of Puerto Ricans
	Donald Trump has created a smoke screen regarding Puerto Rico. He has insisted publicly and repeatedly that the United States has spent $96 billion to rebuild the devastated island, restoring electricity, rebuilding infrastructure, and responding to the needs of those left under-housed. The correct number as he knows is that the government has signed $22 billion in binding agreements, of which $14 billion has been spent. $96 billion turns out to be one estimate of what may be needed over the next two decades.  Trump has blocked recovery aid for Midwestern floods because the House included funding for Puerto Rico, including an emergency increase in food stamps, EPA help to fix water systems, housing funds, and a plan to rebuild public buildings. The House Democratic measure that included Puerto Rico aid passed nonetheless, gaining 50 votes from Republican members of Congress. Republican Senators are getting uneasy standing in the way of disaster relief and you can help them feel even more uncomfortable. Let’s go in the side door again, calling their district offices to insist these Senators reject Trump’s blatant untruths about Puerto Rico and approve a Senate bill that responds to Puerto Rican needs. We will go with six Senators who continue to contort themselves, trying to fulfill their oath of office and keep Trump from being angry with them.      Ben Sasse of Nebraska: (402) 550-8040      Lisa Murkowski of Alaska: (907) 271-3735      Susan Collins of Maine: (207) 780-3575      Marco Rubio of Florida: (305) 418-8553      Thom Tillis of Nebraska: (704) 509-9087      Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania: (215) 241-1090
2) Block the Untruths About Pre-Existing Conditions
	Donald Trump continues to say that Republican actions on health care protect people with pre-existing conditions. This is not true.  As was the case in the midterm elections, Republican perfidy on pre-existing conditions put them at political risk. Republicans in the House were especially annoyed when Nancy Pelosi gave them the opportunity to go on the record in favor of the Protecting Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions Act, H.R. 986. Only four (Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Smith of New Jersey and Katko of New York) voted yes. It’s time to email one or more of the Republicans in your state’s House delegation and say this---- Now that you passed up H.R. 986, how do you intend to demonstrate that you are protecting Americans with pre-existing conditions?
3) Stand Behind the Facts on Immigration Reform
	Donald Trump is about to announce his proposed immigration “reform” legislative package, put together by Jared Kushner. Its provisions are grouped around wall building and eliminating immigration preferences for family members of citizens, thus blocking the path that the Trumps and the Kushners (and millions of the rest of us) followed in order to come to America. In seeking a “merit” approach, Trump continues to ignore or misrepresent the role that immigrants have played in building our country.  There are no provisions in the package to protect Dreamers. This is a clear signal for every one of us to support the largest youth-led Dreamer-supporting immigration reform organization in the country, United We Dream.

The polls are looking good. We may be able to keep the field of Democratic presidential candidates to under 30 candidates! Then we can sort them out one by one and win back the presidency of the United States.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#65: Avoid All Self-Wounding Strategies as We Take Back the Presidency

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Millions of us have worked so hard to get us all into this present position. The Presidency is ours to win in 2020, if we will take it. Already, 55% of voters are indicating that they have no intention of voting for Donald Trump. The 2018 Congressional elections featured a massive upturn in young voters that we can replicate. In the aftermath of the Mueller report, able House Committee chairs are wielding subpoenas. Their investigations are public and unstoppable. Mueller made 14 separate referrals to U.S. attorneys, which will generate legal action from now to long after the end of Trump’s presidency.

We have fielded a good range of candidates, several of whom poll extremely well in head to head matchups with Trump. We are angry, resolute and eager to defend our country. Not only can we not wait until November 3, 2020, we aren’t waiting. We have formed a resistance of unprecedented scale. We are ashamed about what our country is enduring and we aim to make it right.

Just because we have become nimble and impressively sure-footed does not mean we should drop an anvil on our toes. We would be hard pressed to devise a more self-indulgent, self-wounding action than to bring impeachment charges against Donald Trump in the House so long as there is absolutely no chance of him being convicted in the Senate. 

Do the advocates for advancing articles of impeachment in the House truly believe it is our “obligation” to make this our dominant plan for 2019? The goal of such an action would be what, exactly? To provide Senate Republicans thousands of hours of unchecked air time? To take voters away from the health care message that we used to flip 40 seats just seven months ago? To turn us into America’s second Twitter party? To distract us from the far more real and valuable subpoena power already being wielded, which is superior to impeachment hearing processes? Subpoena power allows House committee chairs to painstakingly home in on specific acts of collusion and obstruction.

As was proven in the case of Bill Clinton, it is a sorry exercise to try a person for high crimes and misdemeanors when you know that you will not get the votes for conviction. The minimum of twenty Republican Senators must step forward. Barring colossal new revelations, these votes will not emerge. It is a false dichotomy, the choice between carrying forward articles of impeachment, and eschewing that course. Let’s get our daily work done. Let’s use the Mueller report as a critical truth telling blueprint, and let’s never stop seeking and telling the truth. Let’s skip the part where we turn on ourselves over strategy, with nothing ultimately gained.

Yes, we are affronted by him. Our beloved Constitution, surviving 230 years, has been torn by him. He has damaged vulnerable humans, often irrevocably. He is a bully, a con man, and a truth obliterator. As per Mueller’s report, whether or not indictments can be brought, he and some of his minions sought to collude and obstruct every chance they had. 

What to do? Beat him the old-fashioned way, on November 3, 2020, which is our present path. Beat him and win back the Senate, because we have the high ground and will keep it. Defeat him one registration, one vote, one diehard Democrat, resolute independent or dismayed Republican at a time. Defeat him as committee hearings and court actions publicly reveal that we have barely scratched the surface of his perfidy.

Beat him on behalf of tariff damaged farmers, frightened Ukranians and Estonians, and children who need treatment for pre-existing conditions that could kill them. Defeat him for shooting victims and those in danger of being shot, for those who need a hand up rather than a hand slapped, for sexually harassed and abused women and dreamers and desperate asylum-seekers, and for the middle class still wondering where the tax cut is. Beat him for all of us who wake up in the morning with a heavy heart over what he has done to this country.

Win soundly and emphatically on November 3, 2020 because we can, will and must. It is the best way to get the republic for which we stand to stand up straight. Soon, Congress will have to attend to some spending bills, the infrastructure discussions and other pending legislative matters which will be raised in the next missive. For now, let’s obsess about preventing the unthinkable misdirection that advancing formal House impeachment charges at this time would bring. Let’s do these three things:

1) Get Your Candidates to Take This One Step at a Time
	The three declared candidates who have urged the House to move forward on articles of impeachment are Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Julian Castro. Other candidates have been more restrained or have even (in the case of Bernie Sanders) described in detail the unnecessary political pitfalls of taking this route. Please choose your favorite candidate and write her or him about not buying into this false choice. After you do that, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Julian Castro in particular need to hear from you. Whatever votes they are chasing, they need to be advised to slow down and buy into the subpoena-driven investigative strategy that is already beginning to bear fruit. Here’s how to contact them without being called upon to donate.      Elizabeth Warren      Kamala Harris      Julian Castro
2) Make Our  2020 Victory Longer Lasting
	Already this year, there has been considerable attention paid to gerrymandering. In the past, both parties have been complicit in doing back flips in drawing district lines to limit the number of swing seats. It was Republican victories in state legislative races in 2010 that led to disempowerment of voters in a dozen states.  Now comes Swing Left, partnering with Arena and Run for Something in a new Grassroots Redistricting Project. They will work in nine problem states to make certain we take at least one of the two houses in 2020, before Census-driven redistricting begins. Now is when to get on the mailing list for this project and see what you can do to help. The nine states are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Texas.
3) Thank Nancy Pelosi
	There are all sorts of resisters who hadn’t intended to get behind Nancy Pelosi. But, the performance since she became Speaker of the House has been excellent. She gathers her power and exercises it. She is firm while attending to the political persuasions of a widely divergent caucus. She is an excellent strategist and knows how to handle her meetings with Trump. She turns out to be the number one person to make certain we minimize self-inflicted political wounds between now and November 2020. Let’s do the simple things and call her San Francisco district office at 415-556-4862. Let’s thank her and tell her to keep it up.

Despair and disbelief are difficult emotions. They can be disabling. Given how much progress we have made since our country got turned upside down, let’s quell those feelings and turn them into resolve.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#64: These are Things Presidents Do Not Do

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When you are trying to save your country, you can’t get anything done without your equilibrium. Reaching an unbalancing level of despair over the Trump presidency is understandable, given its daily wounds to the soul. Still, we understand that every single day we can shake off numbness, use anger to fuel new energy, and turn any personal floundering into a Trump-defeating relentlessness. We have been at this a very long time. But, since flagging has never been an option, let’s stand straight and tall and let’s get to it.

William Barr’s contortions will be paused briefly. Before he starts up again, let’s see where we are. Imagine if the president of the United States was thought by some to be hiding a highly destructive explosive device. When worries about the existence of such a device come up, the president says anyone who even suggests that such a device exists such be prosecuted, that no such device exists, and that it is all a hoax. From that point on, he attacks anyone, anywhere who even hints that such a device should be looked for.

Then he takes it further, going to heretofore unimaginable lengths. He takes ten specific actions to impede anyone and everyone who is either looking for the device or wondering whether he knows where it is. He rages and insults justice for two years. He lies openly and consistently. He makes up things, fires people and asks intelligence officials to break the law in service to him.

At the end, investigators find the device, and they detail the ten ways in which the president willfully obstructed the search for it. And then they say they cannot say for sure that notwithstanding every single lie and posterior-protecting, government-assaulting, evidence-obscuring step that this president ever knew where the device was in the first place! 

So, if that is the legal judgement, so be it, but in no way is it the judgement of the people as to what a president is permitted to do, or what he is excused for doing. Each of Trump’s ten obstructions are unthinkable. Each provides us the opportunity for a referendum on what this country is in danger of becoming, or, better yet, a referendum on how we can prevent such an outcome.
The ten extremely well documented steps of obstruction will be with us for the next 19 months. Hearings will be held, and further disclosures will emerge. While we and the candidates we support attend to an agenda for America’s future, we will not ever set aside these stains on our country. 

These are things that presidents do not do, not now, nor in the past, nor in the future. We will make certain the presentation of this evidence drives us further and harder. It will result in more of everything--- more voter registrations, more support of candidates, more personal involvement in the 2020 election, more voting, and the most gratifying celebration on November 3rd.

With the Mueller report release we will each pledge to do something special this week to signal where we are steering the country. Trump’s now well documented flaunting of the rule of law will grow the resistance.

The report and the situation can’t be summarized better than the effort put forward by the New York Times, first broadly explaining the report and its impact and then providing clear and compelling and mind-bending excerpts. Anyone wondering what it all adds up should treat the Times excerpts as a must read. In the simplest terms, following are the ten obstructions, several of which would even have raised Richard Nixon’s eyebrows. They are also articulated in greater detail by Politico. 

1. Asking FBI director James Comey to end the investigation of Michael Flynn, using the all-important “he’s a good guy” exoneration argument
2. Sitting on Air Force One and drafting a statement saying that Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with the Russians was primarily about adoptions. Would that it had been the case for the 400,000 or so children in Russian orphanages.
3. Firing James Comey. First Trump outrageously claimed that the firing had to do with Comey’s inappropriate announcement about Hilary Clinton a week before the 2016 election. Then he told NBC’s Lester Holt, “I decided to just do it. You know this Russia thing about Trump and Russia is a made up story.”
4. Demanding that White House Counsel Don McGahn fire Robert Mueller, causing McGahn to refuse to do so and to clean out his office. Telling McGahn to claim Mueller had a conflict of interest, which was false.
5. Asking Corey Lewandowski to tell Attorney General Jeff Sessions to announce that the special investigation was “very unfair” and that the president had done nothing wrong. Throughout Sessions’ service, Trump believed that the Attorney General should act as his personal attorney.
6. Demanding that Jeff Sessions “un-recuse” himself so that he could exert influence over Robert Mueller on Trump’s behalf.
7. Asking McGahn and other aides to disavow the account that he sought to fire Mueller, thus telling them to perjure themselves in front of federal investigators.
8. Maintaining publicly that there was no Russian role in the election while privately seeking more Wikileaks disclosures of emails hacked by the Russians.
9. Passing word to attorneys for Michael Flynn of the president’s “warm feelings” toward Flynn after Flynn had agreed to provide information to Mueller. Trump’s personal counsel asked Flynn’s attorney for a “heads up” if Flynn was giving the government incriminating information.
10. Changing from praising Michael Cohen’s conduct when he lied to Congress about a possible Trump Tower in Moscow, to his personal counsel discussing a pardon with Cohen, and finally to calling Cohen a “rat” when he provided testimony to Mueller.

It isn’t as though it is difficult to figure out what to do now. We won back the House of Representatives in part because it would enable us to go beyond Bill Barr would have us do and dig deeper than Donald Trump would have us dig. We know that Jerome Nadler, Adam Schiff and Elijah Cummings and their committees are accepting this obligation. Even though we have other business to attend to, we are not going to walk away from the details of a 400-page report that details a sitting president’s daily contempt for the law, or from the 14 separate prosecutorial referrals that are being acted upon. We will not forget today’s image of a foolish and immoral man (regrettably, our president) with crumbs on his face and his hand permanently stuck in the cookie jar.

So let’s do these three things, making them especially intensive in recognition of what we learned from Robert Mueller:

1) Put North Carolina Back in Play
	Republicans in North Carolina are more vulnerable than ever now that the Mueller report has been released. The unfortunate collateral damage is being suffered by Senator Richard Burr. Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Burr had previously been praised by Democrat Mark Warner for reaching across the aisle on the Russia investigation. Now Mueller’s report maintains that Burr passed on to the White House sensitive information from James Comey regarding which White House aides the FBI was investigating. The Raleigh News Observer has already indicated its displeasure. Burr is up for re-election in 2022.  Facing a strong Democratic challenge in 2020 is Republican Senator Thom Tillis. Tillis was very public about his opposition to Trump’s executive order on the wall, since it usurped Congressional power. He was scheduled to vote that way until the last minute, when the Republican Party threatened him with a challenge in the 2020 primary. He caved in. He is an apologist for Trump on Mueller matters.  We can pick up a Senate seat in 2020 (helping to take back the Senate) and again in 2022. Donations to a war chest for the winner of the 2020 Democratic primary are growing. Act Blue has a way you can donate to this fund now. One could decide to donate a dollar for each of Trump’s abuses of his office, but who has that kind of money?
2) Remember the Lawyers
	In fourteen separate instances, the legal action related to the findings of the Mueller investigation will be carried out by federal prosecutors who have received referrals from Robert Mueller. There remains a strong need for lawyers outside of government to step forward and make certain that the public’s interests are protected. The American Civil Liberties Union is an excellent investment in this regard. An uncommon litigator has emerged to expand those interests. The Electronic Privacy Information Center is normally focused on such issues as Facebook violations of consumer privacy. In this case, they have been a valuable proponent for the public release of the report with the fewest possible redactions.
3) Understanding What it May All Come Down To
	Right now, the likelihood is that resisters will emerge victorious on November 3, 2020. Trump’s disapproval rating is mired in the low 40's, and we achieved a great start last November. Further, the Mueller report shows a manic president pushing every obstruction button he could find, and more than a few collusion buttons. Ironically, he is thought to be in a better legal position because aides devised ways to ignore his orders. Even as he sought to collude and obstruct, he couldn’t always get the job done! One more knock on his leadership skills? Maybe the Democratic candidates will ding each other more than necessary and maybe by summer of 2020 the polls get a little closer than we want. We can invest in preventing that situation now. Signing up new voters (especially those in the age group 18-30) is not just a matter of sending a check to an organization. Forty states offer online registration. That means in effect that you can become your own personal registrar. You can make it a habit to ask people you know whether they registered. You can get them their online link and check on them to make sure they got it done.  A number of organizations provide the necessary links for online registration, including Ballotpedia. You can even go one step further, getting large civic minded organizations you know to partner with Rock the Vote to create a customized voter registration page on their websites.

If you are feeling the urge to put this all down for a little while, read the Mueller report excerpts in the New York Times, or read the whole report. We were never in need of a bit more motivation. But just in case we were wondering whether the threats to our country are so huge as to be worthy of our efforts, we just got the depressing but energizing answer.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#63: We are Going to Make It

Thank you for continuing to share these messages with your friends. If you are not already on our mailing list, please click here to be added to our list. You can also follow me on Facebook where you can read and share these messages. The more people we can reach, the more we contribute to this growing movement. We share these posts on our blog, A Path Forward to November 3, 2020, every two weeks, which means there will be a total of 100 missives before the Presidential election of 2020, in which our country will select a whole new course.

No, Donald Trump, you haven’t been the force behind spending $91 billion to respond to the hurricane’s destruction of Puerto Rico. So far, the U.S. government has spent $11 billion, and you still have a hard time remembering Puerto Ricans are citizens.

No, Donald Trump, you did not invent the Veteran’s Choice program, which expands health care choices for those who served. The law was passed in 2014, before you were president. It was advanced by John McCain and Bernie Sanders, among others.

No, Donald Trump, your father Fred was not born in Germany. He was born in New York City. You claimed that he was born in Germany as a part of a lame attempt to bond with Germans after you had clearly misrepresented their natural gas deal with the Russians. Are we wrong to suspect you always knew where your own father was born?

How to explain not just a dance with the truth, but this complete, intentional, perhaps pathological disregard for the truth? One possibility is that when a person is continually lying to seek political advantage he could either go big or go home. An obvious, provable lie stands out when an elected official pledges to earn and maintain your trust. A score of untruths a day, delivered with bluster establishes that the person doing the lying sees himself as having his own set of rules. 

We are in the process of disabusing Donald Trump of the notion that truth ultimately doesn’t matter if you ignore it every day. Why would a Republican Senator or a Trump supporter anywhere in America stand for this, having rejected chronic dishonesty in all other persons? Only 4 of 10 Republicans believe most of Trump’s claims are true. They don’t call him out because they don’t see the alternative. Or. If they do see the alternative, they fear it. They would rather have someone lie on multiple matters and oppose the Affordable Care Act than tell the truth of these same matters and support the Affordable Care Act.

It does help create our huge opening in November 2020, no? Issues that are hugely consequential to voters will turn on which candidate’s claim they believe. They are more apt to vote for the candidate who protects health care for those with preexisting conditions, which Trump hasn’t; to support the candidate who stands up to Russia, which Trump won’t; and to get behind the candidate who will advance the middle class when it comes to tax cuts, which Trump didn’t.

That’s a good start for our candidates, made even better by Trump’s decision to take another run at the Affordable Care Act. The last run helped us take back 40 seats in the House of Representatives. 

To build upon this excellent start, we need to apply some standards to our own candidates. We have lots of candidates, and lots of good candidates, so we can be choosy. Already, our efforts to sort them out are consequential. To qualify for one of twenty! positions in two rounds of summer debates, candidates have to register at least 1% in three polls or get help from 65,000 donors. These conditions are easy to meet, but they are only the first step in narrowing the field. 

What could our selection standards be?

1. Let’s start by preferring a new generation of candidates for both president and vice president. That doesn’t mean we couldn’t select Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren, but it would be less likely under this standard. It means that if we can find the right candidates, it would be an excellent time to depend on the next generation, which has already acquitted itself nicely through the presidency of Barrack Obama.
2. We must show our disapproval for any candidate who re-litigates the 2016 battle for the Democratic nomination. This habit of former Clinton or Sanders staffers disparaging each other can be stopped by us withholding support for whichever present day candidate abets that behavior..
3. As discussed in previous missives, let’s go with candidates that have a clear, imaginative, principled policy agenda that reflects Democratic values. One way to check this is by reading their books, already put forward by ten candidates. Even a book that doesn’t say anything compelling will tell you something, in its absence of a vision.
4. Let’s be on the alert for candidates fielding non-substantive criticisms against each other. Obviously Cory Booker is a strong and serious candidate (and Senator) but his criticism of Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders for “joking” about their pot use is strained. He says it shows they aren’t focused on past sentencing disparities, but he has to know that they are.
5. We can be discerning about the “take down” articles that appear in the media. As in the recent increase in interest in South Bend mayor Pete Buttifieg (and subsequent criticism of him) let’s see where he stands and what he has done.
6. Even though we aren’t going to insist that our candidates have extensive executive branch experience (as in Governors Hickenlooper and Inslee) let’s not forget that what candidates have done so far matters. That fact that Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker have longer and broader records of service (in both the legislative and executive branches) than Pete Buttifieg and Beto O’Rourke is not inconsequential.
7. Let’s ask candidates not to make broad, unqualified endorsements of sweeping proposals that are addressing critical issues in important ways, but still need work. This includes both the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, which several candidates have fully endorsed.
8. The rapid judgements of social media can cause an accusation to get way out in front of any means of determining whether the accusation is warranted. Let’s expect candidates to support due process. That’s what we all had the right to expect from Kirstin Gillibrand in her unacceptable race to judgement on Al Franken.

As we apply these standards, we could use our evaluations to inform making some donations or doing some early stage volunteer work. Allegiances can be shifted or strengthened as the field narrows. Our immediate efforts matter. We do not intend to pull defeat out of the jaws of victory in 2020. One way to keep that happening is to engage now. Here are three specific ways to do just that.

1) Reach Across the Chasm
	We can win in 2020 without converting a single existing Trump supporter. Nonetheless, it is in the long term interest of our democracy for us to devote more time to understanding the positions of those who disagree with us. This seems especially important on economic issues. As we painfully recall, the firewall did not hold in November of 2016 as we lost Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Certainly those losses were partly due to Russian interference and to James Comey’s momentum-reversing announcement regarding Hillary Clinton’s email. However, in these three states traditional Democratic voters were not fully convinced that Democrats were as focused on the economic security of the middle class as was Donald Trump. (This of course leaves aside the subsequent massive evidence that Trump’s voiced concern for the middle class was a ruse.) Our possible common interests in fighting economic insecurity is reason enough to start new discussions with people who feel differently than we feel. Certainly, many of us can find prospects for new conversations among our neighbors, friends, acquaintances and relatives. If we can’t there are a number of organizations that will help us. Time to look into participating in or hosting an exchange through Make America Dinner Again or Living Room Conversations, which has been promoting gap-closing discussions since before Donald Trump was visited upon us.
2) Pay New Attention to the Democratic Party
	Right after the November 2016 election, the Democratic party was lost. The licking of wounds was interminable. It took them months to formulate any strategy for taking back the House. In this period organizations like Indivisible and Swing Left stepped forward to organize the resistance. Now, Democratic party organizations in several states are on the upswing. Even for resisters who do not crave party ties, it is important to understand what this party is doing state-wide and in your local area. You can start by getting on the mailing list of your state Democratic party, or becoming a member.
3) Take Advantage of Swing Left’s New Tools
	In a timely fashion, Swing Left has devised several tools to make certain that all of us don’t wait too long to engage. These are mostly built around a “super-state” strategy that Swing Left believes will enable us to fight gerrymandering, keep our House majority, win back the Senate, and win the Presidency. These states are Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Maine, North Carolina, Florida and Georgia. There is plenty of work to do in other states of course, and work to do in super states in the comfort of your own home wherever you are located. It is definitely worth it to download the strategy and find a way to have Swing Left guide some of your efforts. You can even donate to a fund to provide post-nomination dollars to the Democratic presidential candidate. Of course, that would require you to have full confidence in the results on the nomination process. One of the sad truths is that any conceivable Democrat candidate would be superior to the President we ended up with last time we voted.

Yes, it seems like an eternity to November 2020, when we will be done with Donald Trump. It is comforting that it has been 29 months since he was elected, so we are on the down slope. We’re going to make it.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#62: There are Millions of Us Standing in His Way

Thank you for continuing to share these messages with your friends. If you are not already on our mailing list, please click here to be added to our list. You can also follow me on Facebook where you can read and share these messages. The more people we can reach, the more we contribute to this growing movement. We share these posts on our blog, A Path Forward to November 3, 2020, every two weeks, which means there will be a total of 100 missives before the Presidential election of 2020, in which our country will select a whole new course.

A couple of days in the Trump presidency can tell you a lot about every other day. Ever since John McCain cast the deciding vote in keeping the Affordable Care Act alive, resisters have been pining for more principled action from Republican Senators. As these missives have emphasized, these steps have been too few and too far between. The reasons are clear too--- these Senators would like to be the ones to decide how long they are going to serve. They are afraid that if they say too much or do too much that Donald Trump will poison their essential support among their state’s Republican voters. And they are right to worry about that. Of course the flip side of Trump’s strong party control is an outcome that also has a lot to do with Trump. He may have Republican party loyalty but due to him the percentage of people identifying as Republicans is falling.

Thus, we all glory when any Republican Senator says no to any aspect of this disastrous Presidency. Richard Burr has protected the Mueller investigation, Susan Collins kept the estate tax from being abolished, and several Senators have worked to sustain our commitment to Kurdish fighters battling Isis in Iraq.

Wednesday and Thursday the 13th and 14th were especially intense on these fronts. On Wednesday, 7 Republican Senators voted with the Democrats to temporarily block aid to Saudi Arabia for their war in Yemen. These Senators are upset with the Trump administration’s failure to confront the Saudi’s murder of Adnan Khashoggi. Then on Thursday, 12 Republicans voted with the Democrats to block Trump’s emergency declaration which unconstitutionally seizes appropriated funds for the wall. Trump will veto both actions, but nonetheless it’s momentarily comforting to see these Senators remember their oath of office. The temporary renegades included several nice surprises, including Jerry Moran of Kansas and Roger Wicker of Mississippi.

What happened in between those two votes shows how much further we need to go, and how essential it is to flip the Senate. On Wednesday night Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Ben Sasse decided to head over to the White House to hang out with the President and get him to agree to a deal that would avert the vote against the emergency declaration. Their proposal (which Trump rejected) was that the Senate would assent to this particular crisis-inventing emergency declaration if he would agree to work with them to subsequently narrow the uncommonly broad Emergency Powers Act. The moral bankruptcy of this approach is breathtaking---- “Mr. President, this specific abrogation of the powers of Congress is so repellent to us that we want you to stop doing things like this after we let you do it this time.”

This sorry story demonstrates how hard it is to move the Republican majority in the Senate even when they are profoundly distressed with this or that unknowing or wrongheaded or duplicitous thing that Trump has done. They have held Trump back in his dismantlement of global alliances, and have protected Mueller, but they have no sustained commitment to helping people in need.

Trump’s proposed budget is wantonly uninterested in the un-fed, unsheltered and uneducated. An administration which was obsessed with giving tax cuts to those with the highest incomes has walked away from the real-life circumstances of those with the lowest incomes. The federal government’s outstretched helping hand has been pulled away.

As difficult as it is to battle for global partnerships and against climate change, resisters face perhaps even greater adversity in fighting for economic opportunity and basic assistance for those with low or no incomes. This is partly because there is nothing even close to a policy consensus about what should be done over time. We need to attend to the absence of a strong, central, affirmative, poverty-battling agenda. New members of Congress tweeting all day long has yet to turn out to be meaningful contribution to this agenda. Hopefully everyone we elected last fall will get increasingly focused on specific steps. Here are three things we can help them do:

1) Fight for Food Security
	Last fall, we had a major victory when Democrats led by Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan blocked an onerous Trump administration proposal which could have thrown nearly a million people off of food stamps. This program is now called SNAP, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. The bulk of the Trump-targeted recipients have received waivers of work rules, which otherwise would limit SNAP assistance for those who have employment or are actively seeking it. The catch is that these of our brethren are the most unskilled, the most addicted, and the most unhoused of our population. The plan should be not to hide the food but to guarantee provision of food and shelter as the underpinning for any goals they have for themselves or the rest of us have for them. Defeated in the Farm Bill, the Trump forces have come forward with a proposed change in the waiver granting rules carried out by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  It is unclear whether the President and HHS have the executive powers to establish this rule without Congressional action. It’s time to engage on these matters in an ongoing way. Feeding America is an ideal agent for our increased attention. They are the association of America’s food banks. They will keep you informed, but they will also help you to file a public comment on the proposed rule!
2) Sharpen and Strengthen our Tools for Income Support
	Nearly all of the Democratic presidential candidates correctly see income supports as an important way to mitigate wealth maldistribution. As these efforts grow, it’s essential to be much more grounded in the options to improve this significant step in the pathway out of poverty. The most ambitious approach is Universal Basic Income (UBI), which provides guaranteed income to all. As is the case with many a bold proposal, this approach is very expensive and there is a worry of researchers that it would be a disincentive to work. However, UBI can energize the income support question. Where does income support fit within the world of poverty-battling strategies, including those focused on homelessness, education, food support and asset building? Who would qualify and at what level? How can we use income support to reduce our egregious wealth disparities? A previous missive underscored the usefulness of expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit as a first step down this longer path. This tax credit for low income working families is the most effective income support tool, and thus the best instrument for building broader and more generous support. Sherrod Brown and two House members--- Bo Khanna and Bonnie Watson Coleman are the strong advocates for strengthening the EITC. It would be good to get Presidential candidates to do more advanced work on these matters. Why not email one or more of these Senators at their Senatorial offices and see how they are handling income support issues? Make them get more specific by asking whether they are helping to expand and improve the Earned Income Tax Credit. Cory Booker Amy Klobuchar Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren Kamala Harris Kirsten Gillibrand
3) Get Started With Flipping Arizona
	Republican Martha McSally lost to Democrat Krysten Sinema in November, but then was appointed by the Governor to fill John McCain’s vacant seat. This is a prime seat for us to pick up next November, not least because Donald Trump pushed a reluctant but dependent McSally into supporting his executive order. Two strong candidates have already emerged to oppose McSally. These are former astronaut Mark Kelly and member of Congress Ruben Gallego. The way to get started is to keep up the relentless voter registration efforts that helped elect Synema, and which are emphasizing Latino Voters. There is an excellent coalition-driven organization that has taken this all on, called One Arizona. The more we can boost them financially, the more voters they will be able to register, and the better our chances in 2020.

Donald Trump knows all of us are out here. He can go to the campaign rallies of his most loyal believers all he wants and abuse the facts and soak up the cheers. But, we are working harder each and every week, there are many millions of us and we are standing in his way.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington