#78: We Can Shape the Way the Senate Approaches Impeachment

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A sideshow is a diverting event of incident. It is not necessarily trivial- it can be hugely consequential in itself, and you can be drawn to it daily. Trump’s visits to Dayton and El Paso after the mass shootings and the criticisms of his visits were a sideshow, as Americans confront gun violence. The show is when and whether Congress is going to pass universal background checks and ban assault weapons.

The ultimate passage of a resolution in the Pelosi led House to impeach Donald Trump is inevitable. Is it justifiable? Certainly. Those who doubt it should read Ambassador Bill Taylor’s public statement about Trump’s quid pro quo in Ukraine. However necessary, righteous, and possibly politically advantageous, forcing an impeachment trial in the Senate is still a sideshow. The Senate will neither summon the two-thirds vote to convict Trump nor convince him to resign. When the sideshow it is all over the greatest show on earth will still be ahead of us, the presidential election of November 3, 2020.

This is a good thing to remember, else the constitutionally necessary impeachment sideshow will overwhelm, and leave us insufficiently attendant to the election twelve months away. What have you got if you can enumerate sixteen awful Trump actions in a week, rather than twelve, unless you find out who is fighting each of them and how you can help? Worse, how funny does a parody of Trump have to be to be worth taking you away from the work of supporting candidates and finding votes? If you traffic in the new round of foul taunts of Trump, what kind of country are you aiming to make? If you shout “lock him up” at a baseball game, your fury is justified. But that doesn’t classify the crowd chants as effective political action. The point is, we are distractible.

The evidence against Trump has been further strengthened by the testimony of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. Lieutenant Colonel Vindman was on the Trump call, and concluded immediately that it was wrong for the President of the United States to ask another country to investigate his political opponent.

What can we do to make certain that all of the Trump disclosures are not an election distraction but an election attraction? Under this scenario, impeachment and a Senate trial that does not lead to conviction will make Trump’s malfeasance clear, thus motivating independent voters to make the right choice in November. With this approach, our election and impeachment strategies are integrated.

First, as Speaker Pelosi is setting out to do, we can respond to the bogus due process claims of House Republicans. Steve Scalise and 23 other Republicans stormed the hearing room where closed door depositions were being conducted. They failed to helpfully mention that 45 of their Republican colleagues are on the three relevant committees and are full participants in the information gathering process. Pelosi’s next set of actions will further formalize the inquiry and outline its processes. 

The Senate has already shown signs of being more measured in the face of the frenetic responses of McCarthy, Scalise and the House Republicans. Senators from both sides have long treasured their six-year terms. They have maintained that longer terms make it easier to deliberate carefully, communicate civilly and not get swept away by the news cycle. Hardly any of them is eager to draw a Trump tweet, but unless they are up for election in 2020 (as are Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, and Cory Gardner) they have some insulation from retribution.

If eight or so Republican Senators can help maintain the Senate’s equilibrium, the trial will be about the substance of the claims against Trump, and all process issues and useless claims of witch hunts will be behind it. It is this climate we depend upon in order to have the trial set the frame for the November elections.

We need to depend upon eight Senate Republicans to defend the institution and the Constitution, whether or not each of them votes to find Trump guilty.

Richard Burr of North Carolina has been highlighted in recent missives. He is the force behind the Senate Intelligence Committee issuing a respected bipartisan report documenting the Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

As some Senate Republicans grumble about Richard Burr, Roy Blunt of Missouri has backed him up every step of the way. If you aren’t doing something exactly the way Donald Trump would want you to do it is good to have support.

Susan Collins of Maine is an awful position. Even though she cast a key vote to save the Affordable Care Act, Maine voters were looking for a lot more distance from Trump than she has delivered. Being up for election in November, 2020 means all of her actions during any trial will be under huge scrutiny, and voters in Maine will be expecting her to demonstrate her openness to the evidence.

Similarly, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is expected by resisters to be open to conviction. However, since we aren’t going to get to 23 Republican votes, it is nearly as important that she makes it a healthy process where not just Democrats are asking the hard questions.

Mitt Romney of Utah is in the enviable position of not having to genuflect to Trump ever. After getting as far as he could from his roots as he could when he ran for President, he’s now emulating his dad George Romney, who was the moderate Republican governor of Michigan. George Romney was steely and would have had Trump’s con figured out in a second. Mitt Romney’s refusal to downplay Trump’s actions in the Ukraine is very helpful to other Senators.

Twice recently, John Thune of South Dakota has stepped up. He called the evidence from the Ukraine testimony “not a good picture” and then called Lieutenant Colonel Vindman a patriot. As #2 in the elected leadership behind Mitch McConnell, Thune is key to setting a tone.

Ben Sasse of Nebraska has been a pointed and even eloquent critic of the President, most recently on the betrayal of the Kurds and on Trump’s musings about China investigating Joe Biden.

There are at least two Senators who may end up being a voice for fair-minded review of Trump. Of all people, Marco Rubio is one. He has never gotten over Trump’s abuse of him during the campaign. He has not given up on the idea of being president and would not mind coming across as principled, as long as that doesn’t make Trump very, very angry.

Another Senator who doesn’t mind taking a contrary position in order to protect the institution is John Kennedy of Louisiana, who likes the microphone and has blocked Trump nominees for the federal bench.

Obviously, the motivations of the eight vary, depending on the depth of their concerns about their own elections, and the extent to which they feel the president is endangering the country. Our objective is to make them even more motivated. We know that our sought outcome in November 2020 will be influenced by the nature of the Senate trial, so let’s do these three things now:

1) Make John Thune a Project
	Senator John Thune of South Dakota has rarely received our attention. Since he is a leader of the Republican caucus, he is unlikely to get out in front of Mitch McConnell. However, he called Ambassador William Taylor’s testimony “not a good picture.” That was an intentional signal that at least some Republican Senators intend to review the evidence after Lindsay Graham gets done with spit wads. At this point, Senator Thune’s email system will accept comments from those of us who are not South-Dakotans. You could tell Senator Thune that as you are watching how the country is doing in the face of political battles it was refreshing to see him to speak about the evidence. If emailing doesn’t work for you, call his office at 202-224-3121.
2) Finally Find Warm Words for Mitt Romney
	There are resisters who have never found much good to think or say about Mitt Romney. But it is time to recognize and respond to what happened these past weeks. Mitt Romney has just cast himself as the number one Senate Republican critic of the Trump-Guiliani Ukraine adventure. Romney is not muting his words, and he is not going away. He is willing to put himself in an uncomfortable position with some of his colleagues from now to the end of the impeachment process. Please call Mitt Romney’s office in Salt Lake City at 801-524-4380. Tell his staff to tell Mitt that he is right about the Ukrainian quid pro quo being wrong, and that you are grateful for him standing up.
3) Secure the Democratic Majority
	Writing and calling Republican Senators is important. It’s proven that they are influenced by national public sentiment, so why not make that sentiment known, again and again? Susan Collins is a hardworking Senator, but she has been insufficiently influenced by our collective suasions. She has had all too few instances of differing with her colleagues in the moments that matter most. Early on in Trump’s term, she had to make a tough decision on whether to more openly oppose the unacceptable positions of an awful man on issues of human and social welfare to which she has been deeply committed. It is fair for us to now to say that she took the wrong path, and to send an early check to her very promising opponent, Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon. Here’s where and how to help her, since we know that early money is like yeast.

Just over a year from today we will see this person who is an enormous burden on our country fall away from power. What an unsurpassed joy that will bring. Then, together and with new leaders we will get down to the business of restoring our democracy.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#77: We Know Exactly What to Do to Win

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We are doing this all together. None of our progress is by accident. We are in the best position to end this awful presidency no later than November 3, 2020 than at any time since this sorry chapter began. Certainly, we are fortunate to be able to honor the elected officials and the leaders and lawyers of the resistance. But, this movement is so strong and unrelenting not just because of them but due to the millions of people who have stood against Donald Trump from the beginning, making it a part of their life’s work.

Our candidates are strong. The Tuesday night debate again demonstrated their passions and their priorities. We have a few things for some of them to work on, but the fact that we are still a long way from deciding who it will be is a good thing, not a bad thing. Not a single primary vote has been cast. What unites us is far greater than what divides us, and we will narrow our differences.

There are those who understandably are so wounded by nearly three years of the Trump presidency that they can’t quite let themselves believe that we have arrived at this extremely promising point. Especially since we lost before, there is no spirited debate, no poll, no court decision, no new disclosure, and no impeachment inquiry that will bring them any peace.

To the extent that any of us thus afflicted can conquer it, we are more likely to attend to the work of resisting every day. What we are called upon to do will continue to change, because damning disclosures of Trump’s actions will continue, and the sordid will need to be sorted. The basics are there. We already know how to win this election, because it is exactly how we took back the House in 2018. Register voters, get support from such excellent organizations as Rock the Vote. Fight voter suppression, under the leadership of the Wagner Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and others. Persuade independents in every way we can, including sending them postcards through Tony the Democrat and let Swing Left and others support strong candidates and guide us to promising races.

For a long time, there was a debate over whether Donald Trump was crazy like a fox. Under this school of thought, his daily seizing of the news cycle was excellent tactically, since it easily distracted the media from the in-depth reporting that might illuminate mean spirited policies and misdeeds. Trump craves attention, and for the first two years of his presidency he could turn on Fox News at any time of the day and get his dopamine rush. It put us on defense, in a continuous response cycle on whatever he tweeted or executive order he announced.

The debate has been resolved. Donald Trump is not sly or cunning. We don’t need to figure out his daily or weekly strategy and respond accordingly. Instead, more simply, we need to understand what a winning hand includes, and continue to play that hand. Donald Trump has no compass, no beliefs, and (importantly) no strategy. He has no long term planned course of action. As he gets himself deeper in a hole, he has provided a shovel for Rudy Guiliani, who just keeps digging away.

The cheering has stopped. He no longer gets comfort from turning on the television. All there is for Donald Trump right now is unfavorable federal court decisions, escaped Isis prisoners, betrayal of the Kurds, and the looming reality that we will find out about his tax returns. John Bolton, Jim Mattis, Rex Tillerson, Nikki Haley, Colin Powell and Mitt Romney are all jabbing away, and some of those were the people who once had good things to say about him. Trump calls Mitch McConnell daily for the little solace that is available and frets about the loyalty of Senate Republicans, whom he has outraged over the Kurds.

The untruths of the past are catching up. No one with a pulse believes that Donald Trump was on a worldwide quest to end corruption when he called Kiev. In two weeks, the shift toward an impeachment inquiry by independent voters has been nearly twenty percent. 70% of independents and 40% of Republicans think it is wrong for a President to have called Ukranian leader Zelensky to talk about Biden. When polls catch up to events, the public’s disapproval of his betrayal of the Kurds will be even higher.

Each morning, Donald Trump sees that Nancy Pelosi has captured an advantage and is pressing forward. Pelosi understands the mechanics of governance, the demands of the Constitution and takes advantage of trump's lack of knowledge, his petulance, and his love for odd, debunked conspiracy theories. She knows that we have the upper hand and has figured out how to keep it.  She fully understands what we have to say to independent voters outside of reminding them whom we would replace.

When we follow Pelosi’s guidance (as we did in taking back the House) voters know we are the people that make certain that Americans have health care and are not denied it because of pre-existing conditions. They know we recognize the enormous threat of climate change and will re-join the Paris Accords and become an international leader forging aggressive climate solutions. To help pay for government, we will include among the taxed the companies and people who have the most money. We will maintain strong global alliances and will never betray those who have stood in harms’ way on our behalf. 

This is where some of our candidates need a little help. However far we expand upon these positions, we must treat these tenets as our fundamental deal with the American voter, who will stay with us as long as they and we remember that this is where we stand. This is the election where we take back America, where we redefine its promise, and where we bring people along with us who have not always been with us. Our current positions on health care, the environment, gun violence, reproductive freedom, discrimination and America’s global positions are majority positions right now, today. 

Intellectual intensity and clarity are valuable, so Elizabeth Warren is being rewarded in polling for making additional distinct, bold proposals. There’s no automatic foul in advancing a Medicare for All proposal that Americans do not favor over the various dramatic moves toward universal coverage that voters do favor. But by a certain point it is a foul to lecture over and over again to Americans about what they should want without displaying any indication that one has listened or heard any of their thoughts on why they don’t agree. Even if we win 55 Senate seats, the votes for outlawing private health insurance are not close to materializing. What instead is in our grasp is a dramatic expansion of the public option that Barack Obama developed. Elizabeth Warren, if you want to be a leading candidate, tell us what you plan to say to voters who do not support Medicare for All, beyond your insistence that you are right and they are wrong.

After the debate, it seems likely that Pete Buttigieg will join Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the first tier of candidates. Of Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke, and Kamala Harris, perhaps one will find a way to climb out of the second tier. Anyone rooting for that outcome for any of the four should send assistance soon. It is hard to see that happening for Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer, and Julian Castro, who was in the unenviable position of answering Anderson Cooper’s final “Who is your unlikely friend?” question first and couldn’t immediately think of one. And what are we going to do with Steve Bullock and Michael Bennett?

While we are narrowing our field, we can take heart that in the first month of their presidency, one of these candidates will, by executive order, re-enter our country into the Paris Climate Accords and otherwise set about to restore the presidency. In the meantime, let’s do what we can to lessen Trump’s damage in each of these three instances:

1) Remembering the Kurds
	It wasn’t just the morally forgetful Donald Trump who owed loyalty to the Kurds. It is the rest of us, and the obligation is ongoing. Unfortunately, what is ours to do now is make certain food, shelter and medical care is available as Kurds flee for their lives. Mercy Corps has an outstanding record of helping the Kurds in Syria and in Northern Iraq, where many driven out by Erdogan will seek shelter. We need to find ways to help Mercy Corps and make certain our friends do as well.
2) Building on a Lands Protection Victory
	As these missives have stressed in the past, Trump’s Interior Department has been seeking to decommission millions of acres of preserved public lands in Utah so that they can be accessed by mining companies. Interior moved to cut 85% of Bears’ Ears National Monument and 50% of Grand Staircase-Escalante. The litigation to block this action has been carried by Earth Justice. The Federal Judge has recently refused to dismiss the environmentalist’s claims. This gives new hope that we can win this case or stretch it out until we get a Democratic president. Help is on the way. In the meantime, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and its Rural Utah Project are fighting for and finding new friends across Southern Utah. Sign up for their regular reports and keep an eye on what is the single most critical public lands dispute between Trump and environmentalists.
3) Thanking Republican Senators!
	At long last, after three years of Republican denial regarding Russia’s election interference, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee have joined in assuring that the monumental evidence on this interference be released and confirmed. The new bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee report proves that Trump’s reactions to the Mueller findings are lies.  Importantly, it shows that indispensable bi partisan work can be done even when the Senate is nearing total dysfunction. For this, we have to thank Committee chair Richard Burr, ranking Democrat Mark Warner and such Republicans as Missouri’s Roy Blunt, who helped protect Burr from criticism within the Senate Republican caucus. It’s time to spread the word on this under-publicized report and to personally thank Roy Blunt. Give his staff a quick call at 202-224-5721 and thank him for handling this report in a bi-partisan fashion.

If all of this testimony about the Ukraine and the sorry stories about the Kurds are beating you down, you have to get back up now. Putting our country back together is a magnificent obsession, and there’s a tremendous amount of work to be done.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#76: Make Certain Doing the Right Thing Turns Out the Right Way

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Even two weeks is a very long time when Donald Trump is president. So, by mid-September you may have let your senses dull. As much as there were separate promising fronts in slowing and ultimately ending Trump’s abuse of America, the resistance may have seemed a bit stalled. The committee investigations underway since the release of the Mueller report were impeded by Trump preventing Don McGahn and others from testifying. The multiple efforts to get Trump’s tax returns were still out there and still very promising, but with uncertain timing. There was nothing to do but register voters, fight voter suppression, persuade independents and support strong candidates. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Then came the whistleblower’s complaint and with it a level of previously unreached clarity. In no way is this huge revelation about a single “perfect” telephone call. An American president, his personal lawyer, and his State Department used multiple tactics overall several months to induce a small, extremely vulnerable foreign nation to do Donald Trump’s personal political bidding. This included not only the freezing of critical military aid but the recall of the American ambassador. It is an array of impeachable acts that disgrace the Presidency. These acts would outrage Lindsay Graham if Lindsay Graham still existed in his previous human form.

The whistleblower complaint itself should be required reading for every American. There are multiple excellent analyses off what is unacceptable and why it is unacceptable. Importantly, for most of us these disclosures resolve an impassioned, hugely consequential and well-articulated debate between those of us who had not been ready to move forward with an impeachment inquiry and those of us who insisted upon it.

This missive was resolutely in the first camp, viewing moving toward impeachment as a blind alley, with the Senate virtually certain to acquit and with Mitch McConnell being handed a megaphone. Until now, this missive found unpersuasive the argument that justice demands impeachment, since justice is not clearly and automatically served by acquittal. Moreover, since as many as 65% of voters had indicated that they didn’t want impeachment, moving forward seemed like Democrats would be sustaining a self-inflicted wound that might be unhealed on November 3, 2020.

There are those that still feel that way and express those cautions, most notably David Brooks, who is wrong on this matter but undeserving of the resultant enmity. But everything has changed with the Ukraine disclosures. The argument that we must pursue the impeachment inquiry is the winner for two reasons. First, these particular non-Presidential acts are so out of bounds that to ignore them would cause poor James Madison to spin in his grave. One cannot be blind to the Constitution and then count on it to remain the unsurpassed guide to our 230-year experiment in self-governance. It was Trump and Giuliani who removed our alternative, not us.

Second, since we are most likely by far to settle this once and for all on November 3, 2020, it is still fair to ask what additional risk we are taking on in our obsession with beating Trump at the ballot box. The amount of risk depends in large measure on how the inquiry and any subsequent steps are handled. Thus far, we have benefited because Nancy Pelosi has demonstrated a reluctance to impeach. In part because of her cautious approach, a new CBS news poll shows that 55% of voters (including 23% of Republicans and 49% of Independents) approve of the inquiry. 

It wouldn’t be overly optimistic to expect another bit of news. Actually, there may be several bits. With such huge changes in the last two weeks, why assume the gathering of information regarding Trump misdeeds is complete? It is not out of the question that someone will reveal additional damaging charges about the Ukraine, or tax fraud, or conversations with Putin, or Kim Jong Un, or Mohammed Bin Salman, or any other people that Trump happens to call.

In pursuing the impeachment inquiry, we have done the right thing. However, let’s remember the right thing doesn’t automatically turn out the right way, and it’s up to us to make certain it does. Our most likely outcome in going down this path is that impeachment processes will cause an additional Trump slide which would lessen his chances of re-election still further. Our biggest danger is that we will go about the process so carelessly that independent voters will become more tired or angry with us than they are with Trump. An advantage in securing the right outcome is that the American people rightly think that Trump is an unreformed teller of untruths. It makes it difficult for him to provide even the slightest shred of exculpatory information about the “perfect call.”

Doing the right thing does not mean getting caught in social media fantasies. Barring some huge additional disclosure that stomps on the Constitution, there is no chance that 20 Republicans will vote for conviction, and Democrats Doug Jones of Alabama and Joe Manchin of West Virginia may not either. Former Senator Jeff Flake’s comment that 35 Republican Senators would vote for conviction if there was a secret ballot is worth nothing, because there is zero chance the Senate would change its rules to provide for a secret ballot. 

For Republican Senators, the fact that 2020 is an election year is hugely consequential. Nixon was impeached during the second year of his second term. This time around, there would be no time for Republicans to recover from a conviction vote. Thus, Trump aligned voters would walk away in November, and elections even in red states would be carnage for Republicans. 

Absent major new disclosures, we won’t get the votes in the Senate. If we don’t, we can take our resultant free time to underscore the Democratic agenda that was so successful in the Congressional elections of 2018. This includes universal health care, with full protection for those with pre-existing conditions; recognition of climate change and development of robust actions to decrease its threats; and, restoration of global alliances that have kept our country strong. 

Now is still the time to be sorting out our candidates. We should be expecting them to refrain from inappropriately drawing blood from each other, while still demonstrating their differences. We should expect them to act like they are all in the same party. We should want her or him to appear on the electoral horizon as someone who is president of the whole country and who will restore American promise one step at a time.

And, taking advantage of our increased momentum, we should do these three things: 

1) Keep Richard Burr and Mark Warner Heading in the Right Direction
	Having Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr work closely with Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Committee is an under-recognized advantage for justice seekers. Burr is not error-free, and he is not showy, but he is definitely on the varsity compared to his House Republican counterpart Devin Nunes. To almost no attention, Burr and Warner have already held a closed hearing about the whistleblower process with Joseph Maguire, Acting Director of National Intelligence. If the impeachment issue gets to the Senate, the Burr/Warner relationship will be key to forging a deliberative process.  It’s time to call Richard Burr at 202-224-3154 and thank him for his evenhanded approach to the whistleblower complaint.
2) Remember That Smaller Advocacy Organizations Go to Court
	A federal judge has permanently rejected a Trump administration policy seeking to ignore the long time “Flores” protections which requires detained families to be released in twenty days. Though this ruling will be appealed, it is a major step in protecting families of undocumented detainees. This was one of three favorable immigration rulings on the same day.  Notable in the Flores case is the involvement of the National Center for Youth Law, which for years has been a smaller, stalwart organization working on foster care and youth homelessness, among other challenges. Their increased involvement in the rights of kids under immigration law is a valuable step and should be supported.
3) Boost Stacey Abrams’ Schemes
	Stacey Abrams is tired of voter suppression, which is a big problem in at least a dozen states, and which notably cost her the governorship of Georgia. There are a lot of Democrats who would like Stacey to run for one of the two open Georgia Senate seats, but now she is fully focused on Fair Fight, the best new entrant battling the suppression that has gone on far too long. Financial support would be terrific. If you aren’t able to do that right now, sign up for Stacey’s suppression alerts and 50-state campaign so you will know what you and all of us can do to help.

Our country has massive imperfections. Some have been fielding the theory that the change that has besmirched us during the last three years is our future writ large. It’s not. Not now, not ever. After we get this man out of office we will put ourselves and our country back together again one large and glorious step at a time.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#75: Making Sure We Win the Most Important Election Since Lincoln Beat Douglas

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Right after a debate is the perfect time to examine where we stand in staying together as resisters and together winnowing our field of candidates. We would want to keep tabs on this not least because it will be an election more consequential than any time since Abraham Lincoln beat slavery sympathizer Stephen Douglas in 1860.

The polls show that we are in excellent position with less than 14 months until the big day. Trump’s unfavorable rating has spiked even higher, and nearly 60% of voters think he should be denied a second term. Our top candidates poll well in head to head matchups, and Trump can be counted on to do something newly self-destructive any day now. The nightmares we have about November 2016 prevent many of us from having a single scintilla of complacency. We allow ourselves no comfort from polls or pundits who say we will very likely win. 

We remain even more guarded because we remember times even outside 2016 that it seems like we pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory. Since we don’t want to do that again, we must maintain rules of engagement for our movement and for our candidates.

• Watching Our Language---- Elizabeth Warren doesn’t really think that her colleagues who want to modify her Medicare for All proposal are “spineless,” so she shouldn’t say they are. More critically, Julian Castro does not really believe that Joe Biden suffered from short term memory loss in a two-minute period in last Thursday’s debate, so he shouldn’t have made that accusation twice in a half a minute. We need to decide what to do about candidates showing such irresponsible judgement. One attractive option would be to suffer memory loss on why Julian Castro should be provided support. We cannot end up together at the end unless we keep ourselves between the lines as debates continue.

• Circling Back to What We Have in Common---- The debate exchanges on the differences between Medicare for All and a very robust public option were more helpful and compelling than they have been in past debates. These vivid differences will continue to be sorted out. Three or four candidates underscored that all the Democratic candidates support universal coverage and stressed the stark difference between that approach and Trump’s attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. References such as these are important. Notably, the warrior Bernie Sanders seems not to acknowledge any common cause with the other Democratic candidates. There is a huge difference (which he seems not to recognize) between exhorting, persuading and guiding. It is said by her supporters that Elizabeth Warren has come to appreciate these distinctions. May we all help to make it so!

• Adding to the Top Tier---- It is not too late to add another name or two at the top. If Andrew Yang’s lottery giveaway proposal disqualified his candidacy and Julian Castro weakened his own chances, that leaves five other debaters who could join Biden, Warren and Sanders in the lead. These are Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Beto O’Rourke. These are a strong group of public servants, a couple of whom you wouldn’t object to hanging around for a while. If you feel that way, now is the time to donate. And keep Michael Bennett and Steve Bullock in mind, just in case either finds a way to get some traction. Don’t keep Tom Steyer in mind at all.

• Ending the Criticism of the Debate Selection Process----There is nothing activists like to do more than get angry with the Democratic National Committee, which has been known to earn that enmity. However, the recent debate shows that we benefited from the DNC process to limit the number of candidates on the stage. Why would the number of donors and performance in respectable polls be seen as an “arbitrary” standard to narrow the field?

• Trusting the Speaker on Impeachment---- Perhaps what is soon to be discovered in Trump’s tax returns will be new grist. Barring that, Nancy Pelosi is right to slow walk impeachment proceedings in the House, because she is mortally certain that a trial in the Senate would not attract the necessary 67 votes. Thus, she rightly believes that handing Mitch McConnell and his friends a microphone for a couple of months in an election year is as self-defeating a strategy as resisters could devise. Losing in the Senate does not demonstrate courage nor does it advance justice. It is just losing. We all know how to get rid of Trump and we even know the date--- November 3, 2020. Register voters. Fight voter suppression. Persuade independents. Support strong candidates.

We can stay together now, as a way to guarantee being together at the end. In this movement, we can keep from unraveling by being truthful and passionate with each other and never turning on each other with righteousness, eschewing epithets. We can continue to recognize the centrality of our shared purpose. 

Due entirely to Mitch McConnell and the Republicans who hide behind him, legislation is stalled on every front. However, there will be a budget deal, and there will be a vote on background checks for gun owners because Republican Senators up for re-election will insist upon it. McConnell is leaving substance up to Trump, who is in a bind. He wants to please both the NRA and the 80% of Americans who want stronger background checks.

Elsewhere, there is a new furor over a whistleblower filing in the intelligence agencies that should be followed carefully. There is also a new front in the legal battle to get Trump’s tax returns. Meanwhile, with Congress not moving forward, there are still multiple ways to respond to the mean-spiritedness that embodies the Trump presidency. Let’s do these three things:

1) Appeal to General Mattis’ Patriotism
	Former Defense Secretary Mattis has a new book “Call Sign Chaos”. In it, he says that he will not criticize a sitting president. But he says this much: “I did as well as I could for as long as I could. When my concrete solutions and strategic advice, especially keeping faithful allies, no longer resonated, it was time to resign, despite the limitless joy I felt alongside our troops in defense of our Constitution.” In trying to do an honorable thing, General Mattis is doing a dishonorable thing. Our alliances with France, Canada, Germany and Great Britain are an indispensable element in maintaining a fragile world order. Rather than having an obligation to not say what he knows, Mattis has an obligation to sound the alarm about Trump’s siding with Putin against our friends. This is exactly how Constitutions get defended. Mattis is on a national book tour. Follow this site to see if he is coming to your area. When he comes, show up in the hall or outside, aiming to get him to speak up for our global friends, whose soldiers have shed blood at our behest. Or write a letter to the editor or post on Facebook. Mattis is personally unreachable. The most enterprising can try to send this message through his speaking agent, the Washington Speaker’s Bureau.
2) Make Sure Pat Toomey Does the Right Thing on Gun Control
	Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is up for re-election in 2022. Not only does he personally believe that stronger background checks are an important part of gun reform, his own re-election depends upon it. That is why he has been the leader among Senate Republicans in trying to find bi-partisan support for closing some of the holes in the easy to evade background check system. His primary tool is an inadequate bill co-sponsored with Democratic West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. This bill has been in play as Mitch McConnell lets Donald Trump decide what Senate Republicans are going to do. It’s a great time to check in with Pat Toomey. One way or another, he will be a key player in whatever transpires. Beseech your Pennsylvania friends to get directly involved. Let’s generate as much phone activity as we can to three of Toomey’s offices. Tell them that he needs to do something, now.      Washington DC- 202 224-4252      Allentown- 610 4434-1444      Johnstown- 814 222-5974
3) Protect Animals from Trophy Hunters
	In individual cases, the Trump administration has waived the ban on importing African lions as trophies even as Donald Trump described such killings as horrific. Write your own member of Congress and make certain she or her has signed onto the bill passed by the House Natural Resources Committee. If we attend to this legislation, we can make certain the ban is absolute. And, sign the Humane Society’s pledge and help guarantee they keep up the pressure.

We are trying not to get ahead of ourselves. Donald Trump already has proven that being unsuited does not automatically disqualify someone for the presidency. Nonetheless, our efforts are going well. It would be good to remember that the word “optimist” should not be used as a pejorative term by those who hear others describing our impressive progress.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#74: Economic Growth Means More Than Comforting the Comfortable

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He has borrowed from future generations to give money to the Americans who already have money. He has told corporations he will ignore the cost of their pollution. He has denied the cataclysmic economic and environmental impact of climate change. He has destabilized trade 
worldwide, destroyed foreign markets for our crops, and treated our friends like enemies. 

The common narrative is that any of Donald Trump's economic "successes" might well fade by November 2020, removing for him might otherwise be an argument for votes. The truth is sharper-even though more Americans are working, for the most part these were not economic successes in the first place.

It has been a far more productive economy for stockholders than it has been for wage earners. Real wages adjusted for inflation have only started to pick up and some metropolitan areas experience labor shortages. The economic growth that we have experienced has been gained through unsustainable practices. It has exacerbated the wealth divide in America. 

Donald Trump's tax cuts were designed to comfort the comfortable. Reductions in corporate tax rates were sold as a means of stimulating investment in workers, plant and equipment. But a very significant portion of the revenue created has been used for corporate stock buybacks that drive up stock prices. The same tax cut skyrocketed the deficit which will make it more difficult to find stimulus funds if the economy ends up needing a boost.

The tariffs levied have lifted more money from middle-class taxpayer pockets than the tax cuts put there in the first place. This is contrary to Donald Trump's claims (lies) about tariff revenues being a net gain for the Treasury. The in-artfulness of Trump's dealings is based upon his refusal to recognize that Xi Xing Ping needs to walk away from the table showing the Chinese that he got something too. Trump's announcement that we must and will win is geopolitically nonsensical. Decades of work building markets for agricultural products has been jettisoned.

Always scapegoat searching, Trump has selected for attack his own appointee, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell. Powell refuses to use monetary policy (meant to control inflation and underpin job growth) as Trump's secret weapon on trade disputes. Powell is uncertain where Trump is heading, which makes two since Trump is uncertain of where Trump is heading.

There is considerable evidence that Trump propped up markets last week by inventing calls he had received from the Chinese. The things he is willing to do or say are no longer surprising to us. What is surprising is how many of us are willing to just let it pass if Trump's actions are related to the economy.

We can't let pass the implication that the debt increasing, middle-class ignoring, food stamp and health insurance depriving Trump has an argument to make for any steps on the economy. He doesn't have any such argument. That conclusion can be drawn even before we see the results it in the future of missteps he is presently taking.

Instead let's go for an economy where we not only raise the minimum wage but we fully attend to securing living wages that sustain families. Let's go for narrowing the huge wealth disparities that have grown in America. Let's establish a tax code that recognizes the 80% of the population that tax law now treats as an afterthought, if it if gives any thought at all to low-income and middle-income taxpayers.

Let's immediately take two steps to fight for economic justice. Then let's return to the upcoming Senate debate about the awful carnage that has overtaken America.

1) Keeping from Adding Insult to Injury
	Unbelievably a gang of Senate Republicans is seriously proposing that the president issue an executive order to index the capital gains tax to inflation. This would significantly reduce the tax paid on gains on stocks whose price has doubled or tripled since the Great Recession.  There has been no positive indexing of the minimum wage. Republicans have even opposed increasing the present federal minimum wage from the miniscule $7.25 an hour. Yet there seems to be no shame on lowering the capital gains tax even as recent tax cuts have blown up the deficit.  It's not clear whether Trump can legally index capital gains by executive order or who would have the legal standing to challenge it. This action would cost the treasury an additional hundred billion dollars realized almost entirely by the wealthiest of Americans.  At this point the center of the battle against indexing capital gains is Democratic senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Call him at 202-224-2315 to tell him this would be an awful step and encourage him to keep working to find Republican allies to oppose any such move. The best means to monitor the insults of the present and future is to follow the work of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
2) Advancing the Minimum Wage
	Increasing the minimum wage is only one part all of the agenda for advancing the economic interests of low-income Americans. This is because even at the higher-level imposed by some states the minimum wage in no way represents a living wage. Still, it's an important step in concert with increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit and broader tax reform. Progress has been made in a score of states so there are two fronts for getting this done. The US Senate needs to take up the minimum wage bill already passed by the house which increases the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 over several years. At this point the Senate committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions has refused to take it up. Chair Lamar Alexander knows better than that and you can remind him that he knows better than that by calling his office at 202-224-4944. Self-evidently, in the long-term both the federal and state efforts to increase the minimum wage go better in bed as Democrats take over the US Senate and increase and win majorities in state legislatures. Second, the best guide to which states need intervention from resisters is the National Employment Law Project. You can sign up to get progress reports. If you are so inclined can give them financial support as well.
3) Moving Forward on Gun Legislation Now
	At long last there is going to be a meaningful debate in the United States centered on gun control. As much as key Republicans would like to have the debate be just about "red flag" laws where people of interest can be overseen, the debate that will be held will go to the much more significant issues of universal background checks and assault rifle bans.  This is an extraordinary opportunity to do something important to respond to the massacres that have emerged across our country. The NRA and Donald Trump will be doing whatever they can to do as close to nothing as possible. It falls to us to make certain Republican Senators who have shown some interest in gun reform will step forward rather than step backwards.  As with the calls we made weeks ago these five Republicans Senators must be reached because they are more interested than Trump in responding to the crisis that is before us. Please call as many of them as you can. Susan Collins of Maine 202-224-2523 Lamar Alexander of Tennessee 202-224-4944 Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania 202-224-4254 Mike Braun of Indiana 202-224-4854 Rob Portman of Ohio 202-224-3353

Reputable polls put us in the best shape that we have been since Donald Trump was elected. It falls to us to keep it that way.  As we know there's only one thing that we need to do--- exhibit relentless, intensive, democracy-serving vigilance and action.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#73: From Today Forward, We Must Do Even More

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.

There is another threat to our country besides Donald Trump. Looking beyond Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence, Lindsay Graham and Sean Hannity (who are just flunkies) we find the danger coming from our own angry and despairing selves. We never expected to live for nearly three years under such a government or such a president. Thus, we can be wounded each day by whatever maniacal or narcissistic action Trump comes up with.

The threat we represent comes from the tendency of wounded people to not always act wisely when they seek to distract themselves from those wounds, or try to heal them. We understand intellectually that it is a political movement that will remove the source of the wounds (and that of our nation) by November of 2020. Even in the face of that understanding, on some days we don’t make such great decisions on the total time we spend on the public or political sides of our lives, and what do we do with the time allocated. Day to day, are our actions specifically directed toward election results or do we get distracted or even swallowed within our own community of disapproval?

Several years ago, the Facebook campaign to Save Darfur got 1.2 million “likes”. From all that activity, it only generated $90,000 in contributions to fight hunger. Over 99% of the persons who “liked” the campaign found that single click sufficient to cover their commitment to fighting hunger in Darfur. The point is that enormous amount of social media activity that surrounds the resistance to Donald Trump does not itself represent political action that will bring about his longed for demise.

Yes, we can use social media to learn things that make us better advocates. We can use it to bolster us in our resolve. However, in terms of getting votes. Randy Rainbow songs, the newest cartoon, Epstein conspiracy theories and tweets of outrage are all sounds being made in an echo chamber, albeit a very big echo chamber.

On August 8, Donald Trump flashed a thumbs up while being photographed with a child whose parents had been killed in a massacre that he himself had helped precipitate. There has been no fuller measure of this man than his behavior in El Paso and Dayton. Understandably he has been called out on social media for this new extraordinary rejection of any conceivable way a president might act. However, the test for us is not the digital expression of disapproval that has since materialized but our specific actions since (and in the upcoming weeks) demanding that members of Congress enact universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons.

We are part of the largest political movement in decades. It won’t be the largest, most powerful political movement until the results are tallied on the evening of Tuesday, November 3, 2020. We are very, very likely to win on that day, because Donald Trump has lost the center, and we will make certain that it stays lost for him. We are winning almost 2/3 of newly registered voters, and he will continue to help us by adding to his list of offenses.

Why not turn our very, very likely victory into an inevitability? It is the most important election of our lifetime. The force that will make our victory inevitable is not the power of digital information or observation, it’s the power of action, using digital tools but going way beyond them.

We are not strangers to the powerful, satisfying, successful elements of meaningful political action. Whether we are fully ensconced in that world, have wandered from our place within it, or have never found that place, it’s time for an increase in our commitment and our concentration.

We can register younger voters, making certain that no one turns 18 without getting the chance to change the world. We can concentrate on registering Latino voters in swing states. We must make certain the vote is not suppressed, learning where the greatest threats are and how to respond. To guarantee that post-census redistricting is not itself a voter suppression tool, we must stay focused on state legislatures as well. 

If we are working on all of this alone, we needn’t be. We can join an Indivisible group, or create one of our own. Or, we could join a Swing Left group. We can link up with Tony the Democrats and do personal postcards to voters by ourselves, or in small groups. We can buy into the smartest, best articulated electoral vote winning approach courtesy of Swing Left and their Super State strategy, designed to win the Presidency and take back the Senate. We can start giving to the Democratic nominee right now, through Swing Left’s Unify or Die fund, which will be provided to our presidential candidate right after she or he is nominated.  We can adopt a Senate candidate who must win if Mitch McConnell is to be deposed, like Mark Kelly in Arizona. 

All of the above are things that fighters must do right now, as if lives depend upon it. And, all the while that we take such direct political action (rather than just observing the battle), we must contend with an awful series of injustices Donald Trump has advanced while Congress is in recess. The long-term solution to each is to have a different President. In the short term, we must do these three things.

1) Keep the Words of Emma Lazarus Alive
	Part of the pride of being an American is the resonance of the Emma Lazarus poem on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe fee, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these the homeless tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”  Donald Trump and his hench-people are working to decrease the opportunity of immigrants to become lawful permanent residents of our country if they have used food stamps and other government services. Immigration chief Ken Cuccinelli had previously shamefully called immigrants “invaders” so his “stand on your own two feet” standard is unsurprising. Is it really this easy to forget what so many of our own grandparents went through to build their lives in this country, and to build this country? Several states are seeking to block this new administrative rule, as is the National Immigration Law Center, whose important work you can follow and who would be happy to receive your support.
2) Work to Stop Trump from Endangering Other Species
	Donald Trump’s complex changes in the administration of the Endangered Species Act sum up to “let’s not try too hard” even though 99% of the species labeled endangered have been successfully protected. The new rules adopted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service represent the long arm of former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reaching back to punch the animals he was supposed to have been protecting. As with the immigration rules, the battle to block the Endangered Species Act changes will begin in the courts. Still, it would be good to start with the Sierra Club’s petition to the Fish and Wildlife Service to demonstrate how many of us are with the conservation organizations in the looming battle.
3) This Time, We Will Pass Universal Background Checks
	It’s predictable. Weeks after El Paso and Dayton, Donald Trump’s interest in strengthening background checks has vanished. Could it be that he and Wayne LaPierre of the NRA had a discussion? But, there remains an opportunity. Mitch McConnell promised a post-recess Senate review on gun issues, where he will try to limit the discussion to extreme risk protection orders, known as red flag laws. In that discussion, Republican Senators will have a chance to close the numerous loopholes in the background check “system”, such as gun show exemptions. Americans are for better background checks. Will any Republicans stand tall on this? Please call any or all of these five Republican Senators who have already said they are for such improvements, but who are susceptible to White House pressure.  Susan Collins of Maine 202-224-2523 Lamar Alexander of Tennessee 202-224-4944 Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania 202-224-4254 Mike Braun of Indiana 202-224-4854 Rob Portman of Ohio 202-224-3353

We have witnessed this unraveling of our country at the hands of a man who should not have been president for almost 3 years. From the beginning, we have been part of a monumental movement to put our country back together. Perhaps we are thinking that we are doing all that we can. Now we need to do even more.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington