#69: Let This Be One Time Trump’s Telling the Truth

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It’s not a bad thing to be intent a nominating a Democratic presidential candidate who has an excellent chance of winning. Even better, there is no thought of nominating a sports star or tv personality to heighten our chances, and every likely nominee has something to say about herself or himself, though in some cases (Bill di Blasio, Tulsi Gabbard, Eric Swallwell, Kirsten Gillibrand) they do not have as much to say for themselves as we would like.

All 24 fall within the political range of “liberal” Joe Biden and “progressive” Elizabeth Warren. There is not nearly as much distance between all the main candidates as political commentators would like, as evidenced by their announced positions. Thus there seems a good chance that we can take this week’s 21 candidate fish fry picture from South Carolina and replicate it on the convention stage at the Democratic Convention in Milwaukee on July 16, 2020.



That coming together was way too slow in 2016. It was just fine that Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton had some policy positions to reconcile. It seemed obvious that Bernie thought that a Trump victory was unthinkable and that he could thus take as much time as he wanted to provide his full support of Hillary. Too bad he wasn’t right about that. The dance went on and on and dissipated campaign momentum. 

We’re the donors and supporters for all of these people, so we can have considerable influence how they come together during this election cycle. We can be the enforcers, keeping the candidate’s eyes on the prize, making sure their criticism of each other stays within bounds. Joe Biden was fighting for civil rights when other candidates were riding tricycles, so he is due some deference. Nonetheless, talking about James Eastland and Herman Talmadge should not carry even the faintest whiff of nostalgia. It was fine for Cory Booker to call Biden on that, as long as he remembers that it is Trump with the racist bones.

A good way to guarantee our candidates will be together at the end is to make certain they daily embrace our collective agenda on the challenges our country faces. It never happens that the American voter is resolutely opposed to all of the viewpoints of an American president, except for right now! So, why not have the number one thing we do between now and November be showing how wrong Trump is in what he wants for America, and what we want instead?

This means defining our differences with Trump on health care and the coverage of pre-existing conditions so often that candidates can barely muster the strength to say it one more time. Our debate over Medicare for All and expansions of the Affordable Care Act will be highly consequential, eventually. In the shorter run, the dominant health care issue is Donald Trump’s assaults on Barack Obama’s steps forward, famously thwarted by John McCain.

The voters are with us, not him. 68% of voters want secure coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. 66% believe global warming is caused by humans. 67% want Roe v Wade kept as is. 67% say separation of children at the border is unacceptable. 77% support the NATO alliance, and only 34% support the President’s tax “reform” law.

In the face of the views of voters and the action of the House, Donald Trump says we will focus on the core of his voters, rather than upon independents. Please please please let him be telling the truth just this once! That would hand over the Senate as well as the Presidency.

Through every Trump-stained day, the Congress remains a separate branch of government. On many of those days, Mitch McConnell grudgingly calls the Senate into session. He goes through Kabuki like gestures of feigned independence, fully aware that his soul has been claimed by another. Because now again a spirited Republican makes a run for it, and could use some cover, we need to attend to what is happening in the Senate. We need to identify the cases where bi-partisan action can do some good for our country, and do what we can to make that action more robust.

First, far more important than the daily coverage of AOC’s tweets are the actual bills that Nancy Pelosi’s House has passed and which Mitch McConnell has sent to his legislative graveyard. These include bills to block dark money in campaigns, protect net neutrality, establish universal background checks for firearms, defend Dreamers, establish paycheck fairness, and protect women against violence. In some cases, we can detect and drive new action from a hint of Republican shame that they haven’t taken up these bills.

Second, there are the bills in the Senate that have offended the conscience of Republicans who don’t think the Saudis should be able to bomb civilian populations in Yemen or dismember journalists. We can tend to the idea that we can stand for something worldwide outside of love letters to dictators, and we can make certain that Senators are held accountable if they turn their heads away.

Third, there is the budget legislation that is necessary to keep the government open and the required lifting of the debt ceiling. This is the hardest one for McConnell, because it can’t be evaded and because he has to deal with the hydra that is developing budget policy for the executive branch--- Trump himself, who regularly makes agreements with Senate leadership and then pretends he hasn’t, and Sean Hannity, who is his tv advisor, and who has shown some considerable distance from the approach of Walter Cronkite. The only way McConnell will get the necessary votes from Democrats is to attend to social welfare spending, which Trump can’t abide. Look for Trump to threaten to shut down the government, and to “own” any such shutdown this time too.

We must continue to intervene, which now and again has either brought success or prevented the worst President from doing the worst thing. There are a dozen Senators who are trying to have it both ways. They don’t dare to try to resurrect bills from McConnell’s graveyard, but they want to respond to voters and get re-elected in 2020. Here’s three ways we can light their path:

1) Support Lindsey Graham’s Proposal!
	Once Lindsay Graham forgot his best friend John McCain and started carrying water daily for Donald Trump, redemption became an impossibility. Now, happily, despite no redemptive path, he has joined Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Mark Warner in introducing Senate Bill 1989, the Honest Ads Act. This measure would subject internet advertising to the same rules of disclosure as ads on television and in the newspaper. Thus it would defend against “dark money” advertising that infects social media. It has already passed the House as a part of a broader election reform bill. Mitch McConnell is predictably disinterested, but Graham will get the bill a hearing. It needs co-sponsors. Email your own two Senator and ask them both to co-sponsor this bill. Then call the DC offices of Susan Collins (202-224-2523) and Thom Tillis (202-224-6342) and ask them to join Lindsey Graham.
2) Weigh in On Emergency Border Funding
	It’s time for us all to get involved in the plan to provide emergency border funding. This too will end up being a bipartisan compromise. Democrats want funding to pay for the needs of those people housed in detention facilities, but don’t want to end up creating resources that can be transferred to ICE. At this point, the House bill is stronger than the Senate. Call Arizona Senator Martha McSally at 202-224-2235 and tell her that it is time for her to get focused on deplorable border conditions and that the world is watching. Sign up for emails from the National Immigration Law Center to monitor this situation.
3) Create an Entirely New Legislative World
	We can take back the Senate in the fall of 2020 with the same formula we used in taking back the House in 2018. 22 Republican Senate seats are up, at least a dozen Republican Senators are vulnerable, and we need a net gain of four seats. There are a lot of organizations playing a role in taking back the Senate, including Swing Left and their wonderfully reasoned Super State strategy. If you aren’t being focused enough right now, there are 59,000 resisters writing targeted postcards in targeted races through Tony the Democrat.

We can do this. From W.H. Auden in 1939:
     Defenseless under the night
     Our world in stupor lies;
     Yet, dotted everywhere
     Ironic points of light
     Flash out wherever the Just
     Exchange their messages:
     May I, composed like them
     Of Eros and dust
     Beleaguered by the same
     Negation and despair.
     Show an affirming flame.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#68: You Can Keep a Bad Man Down

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Until November 6, 2020, no expressions of joy or impromptu dances will be permitted. It is nice to have the most important election of our lifetimes shaping up. It certainly beats the alternative. But of course we are not close to done. We can drive ourselves through positive recognition of what we resistors have accomplished so far and will accomplish next year, and skip the head-shaking, energy draining despair part, which doesn’t do us any good.

It’s great to have Joe Biden poll four points ahead of Donald Trump in Texas, because putting Texas in play would be delicious, and it would signal the opening up of other states we haven’t won recently. The more states legitimately in play, the better for us. Trump’s disapproval ratings outstrip his approval ratings in lots of states he needs to win, like New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and Indiana. We won the Congressional popular vote by 8.6 million votes last November, and Trump is not showing signs of making inroads, or even knowing how to make inroads. Isn’t his act pretty clear by now?

The Texas poll is not even the best news. 57% of American voters have no plans to vote for Trump. A new Quinnipiac poll shows Biden ahead of Trump by 13 points in a head to head matchup, and Warren, Sanders, Harris, Booker and Buttigieg all significantly ahead as well. Analysts continue to stress Trump’s strength with his base, but he can’t win without a strong showing among independents, and they have walked away from him, many in a hurry. Among independents, Biden leads Trump by 30 percentage points! 

We can seek and achieve gains with each category of voter. Even diehard white male Trump voters can have their breaking point. An Iowa farmer might be less Trump-besotted after Trump destroys the Chinese market for his soybeans and then insists that it’s the Chinese who are suffering the economic losses from the tariffs.

It’s good to remember where we achieved significant gains in November 2018 that we need to sustain. We need to continue to be attentive to:

• suburban women, who put Trump over the top in 2016 and who have flown since, in many cases providing our winning margins in taking back House seats. It is clear that health care is a big issue for these voters, as is reproductive freedom, and Trump’s unabated misogyny.
• independents and Republicans who are lifelong free traders, and who are now in closer step with Democratic candidates, who seek trade protection and advantage but are not tariff-abusers.
• voters aged 18 to 30, who due to considerable registration and get out the vote efforts, cast ballots in their highest off-year election numbers in 40 years. They broke decisively away from Trump in 2018 and need to do it again. Trump’s favorability rating with this age cohort is under 30%.

Democratic leads among women, Hispanics, and African Americans are huge. Sure you can’t keep a good man down, but Trump is not a good man, so you can keep him down. 

The Congressional Research Service has established what we already knew, that the new tax law was a raiding of the treasury. Any growth it has generated has covered only 5% of the revenues lost. By far its greatest impact has been corporations repurchasing their own shares, benefiting their largest shareholders and thus comforting the comfortable. In response, our candidates will demonstrate their plans to get the middle class back in the nation’s field of vision. 

Our candidates are running on advancing health care, protecting those with pre-existing conditions, and once and for all, rejoining the community of nations in fighting climate change. They are running on restoring global alliances that have served our country well. They are seeking to decommission tariffs as an all-purpose weapon randomly applied against our friends. They are for advancing the rule of law, knowing how government works, and keeping dictators at a distance.

By October 1, there will need to be action on the federal budget and a lifting of the federal debt ceiling. Congress will face the latter decision earlier than otherwise because of the drastic reduction in federal revenues caused by tax “reform.” By the end of the summer, they will have another major issue depending on what position Fox TV commentators and Donald Trump develop. We will need a federal budget for the next fiscal year and an increase in the debt ceiling. Democrats will refuse to budge on wall construction. Both parties will try to avoid automatic budget cuts that reduce both defense and domestic spending, and will want to compromise by funding each other’s priority, thus increasing the deficit. Will Donald Trump seek to shut down the government, and own the resulting debacle all over again?

There will be a time this summer to try and push Mitch McConnell and his caucus away from the “legislative graveyard” they have created with House-passed bills. A few Republicans are inclined to push back against his intransigence. Perhaps more exciting, an even larger number of Republican Senators are battling Trump on his terms for selling arms to Saudi Arabia. Many members are interested in ways to rein in his out of control tariff-slapping escapades. Since mild disapproval of Trump’s course of action is seen by Republican Senators as eligible for inclusion in Profiles in Courage, we will need to defeat Trump before any kind of real Republican Party emerges. If then.

For now, with the Democratic debates coming up, let’s attend to our own candidates. At the presidential level, passion to fix the huge problems we face is the start, but not the end. Let’s find a presidential candidate and a vice presidential candidate who are leaders, who can unite their party, who can capture the imagination and support of the voters, who care about people, and who will soundly defeat Donald Trump. As we get them elected, let’s defend the House and give them the majorities in the Senate and in a growing number of state legislatures so they can get their job done.

Let’s do these three things now:

1) Pick a Presidential Candidate Who is Trailing
	It’s already become a game of inches for several of the declared Presidential candidates who are trailing. They dread being put on a media list of candidates who are surely going to fall by the wayside. In the near term, this list is very likely to include Bill de Blasio, Tulsi Gabbard, John Hickenlooper, Eric Swallwell, and Seth Moulton, among others. You can help other candidates escape this list and get a chance to increase their traction over the summer. You know that Biden, Warren, Sanders, Buttigieg, Harris and Booker are going to be around for a while. If you haven’t done it already, pick someone who may be trailing those six and donate to their campaign now or get on their mailing list, so you will get a chance to hear what they have to say and so they will have a chance to move up a tier, or perhaps become a vice presidential candidate. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar? Washington Governor Jay Inslee? Entrepreneur Andrew Yang?  Former HUD Secretary Julian Castro?
2) Guarantee that Strong Candidates Help Us Take Back the Senate
	There’s not a better plan out there to gain control of the Senate than Swing Left’s Super State Strategy. It’s important to understand that strategy, get on their list and watch that space. Let’s not stop there. Let’s help move people around a bit so we can get our best possible Senate candidates. Let’s write Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke and beseech him to run against Republican John Cornyn for the Texas Senate seat in 2020. Use the ‘other’ field in Beto’s form to try and nudge him and his staff in that direction.  As time goes on, we may want to try the same persuasion with Montana Democratic Governor Steve Bullock, who could unseat Republican Senator Steve Daines by taking on this race rather than running for President.
3) Concentrate Your State Legislative Efforts on Virginia
	There are a small number of states holding elections for the state legislature in 2019. Our best shot for a flip is Virginia, and a very good way to increase our chances is to sign up with Flippable. They have picked good candidates and need your help right now.

Why let Donald Trump guide your thoughts every day? Free yourself from Twitter torment by doing all the things we already know we need to do--- register voters, keep truth on the throne and off the scaffold, and boost good candidates who are intent on restoring our democracy.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#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

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.

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

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.

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