Our Unfinished Work

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

#17: Donald Trump, Please Keep Doing What You Are Doing

This is the next of a new series of missives on our unfinished work to restore the promise of our country and its government. Each will focus on a single element of the many opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Each will provide three steps we can all take to build upon our huge victories winning back the House in 2018 and the Presidency in 2020.

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, Our Unfinished Work, every three weeks.

The idea that California regularly leads the nation down inventive or progressive new paths is a shibboleth. California has certainly been a leader in clean air regulation, but Minnesota has been ahead on fighting poverty. It was Washington’s cities that started things going on the $15 an hour minimum wage. Fighting the pandemic, both Washington’s Jay Inslee and Ohio’s Mike DeWine have stood out through firmness and consistency more than has California’s Gavin Newsom.

However, California just distinguished itself. It became the first to significantly test and improve the formula for beating the forces of Donald Trump in the fall of 2022.

This counts for a lot. Rarely are mid-term elections positive for the party that is in power. At this point. the “generic” Congressional ballot presently shows only a 2% lead for Democrats, putting Nancy Pelosi’s majority in peril. Even though there are several Republican Senatorial retirements and promising races redound, there is no comfort to be had with the elections just over a year ahead. Thus, any strategies that can be perfected today will bode well for keeping both the Senate and the House behind Joe Biden where they belong.

Political analysts think they have found something in the California recall that will provide a blueprint for Democratic campaigning in the next year. The recall race looked much closer six weeks before election day. In the final weeks, leading Republican candidate Larry Elder changed his mind after initially declaring that Joe Biden won the presidential election “fairly and squarely”. Beset by Trump and Trump’s supporters, he altered his course. He started talking about “shenanigans” and absent evidence of fraud refused to say whether he would accept the election’s outcome. It is widely believed that his Trump style election denialism cost him dearly in the polls. The “no on recall” ended up winning by nearly three million votes.

The Republican former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, who trailed Elder, had it right when he said that the unsubstantiated claims of election fraud depressed the Republican vote. Meanwhile the Democrats increased their turnout by effortlessly tying Elder to Trump’s now endless fraud claims. Since those claims became dominant only during and after the fall of 2020, their electoral impact is only now being tested. The California recall provides early and positive news that “stop the steal” is old news that appeals only to Trump’s core supporters, and not even all of them.

More than ever, and even among independent voters, Trump turns out voters who are against him more than he does those who are for him. In part, that is because he is incapable of taking himself out of the story, so it would be impossible for aides to convince him to step back if he is hurting a candidate. Plus, his cries that even the clearest election result is “rigged” makes Republican voters think their vote is worthless, so they are less likely to cast it.

As important, the Newsom forces made Elder the MAGA candidate on vaccine denialism and COVID non-management. Unluckily for the Trump backed candidate, the majority of independent voters favor vaccine mandates and related government efforts to defeat the pandemic. It wasn’t difficult for Newsom to make Larry Elder Trump’s political brother, since Trump insisted on it. And Trump will keep on making himself the issue across the country in 2022.

In California, COVID management became the second part of the “Name the villain, describe the stakes” Democratic strategy. If someone can be accurately labeled the MAGA candidate, it follows that they will be apologists for anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers. These MAGA candidates will be running against candidates who are treating the pandemic like the public health emergency that the public recognizes. For the majority of the besieged populace, these stakes are huge. They want the pandemic to come to an end. Trump long ago ceded the ground of recognizing the pandemic’s ravages and deploying government to conquer it. Through all of challenges of the Delta variant, Biden has seized this ground.

“Name the villain, describe the stakes” will not be a winning strategy in every Congressional district. However, the California approach suggests that the number of districts in which it will be a winner is growing. Now more than ever, the strategies that Trump uses to gain the allegiance of his core supporters are anathema to the very independents that Republican candidates need. He is unlikely to run for President in 2024, but we should want his lying, felonious, malevolent insurrectionist self around for November 2022.

Let’s continue to confront him by focusing on the seditionists he loves most of all, and otherwise joining the battle he has framed:

1) Virginia Hinges on Battling for the Right to Choose
	Virginia is one of two states (the other is New Jersey) that have gubernatorial elections this fall. Since Governor Ralph Northam is term limited, former Governor Terry McAuliffe is the Democratic Candidate. He is in a close race with businessperson Glenn Youngkin, endorsed by Trump. Democrats are using the widespread oppositition to the Texas abortion law (which allows neighbors to file civil suits against women getting an abortion) to increase the votes of independent suburban women. Candidate Youngkin was caught on tape saying that he was waiting to get elected to “go on the offense” against the right to choose. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia is fielding campaign teams in the DC suburbs to increase the turnout of independent voters. This is the right time to make an investment.
2) Yes, the Lincoln Project is Still Telling the Truth About Trump
	To some, the Lincoln Project has been a bit annoying, because they are staffed by former Republican operatives who cannot abide Trump or his brand, even though some of them helped pave the way for his arrival. However, this former inside position makes their political ads even more inventive and creative and relentless. You can share these ads with every list you have and everyone you know and help expand the Lincoln Project’s impact. Have a look at the Lincoln Project's site. Here is an example of a Lincoln video that could benefit from your distributional assistance.
3) Report COVID Misinformation Every Day
	On the human side, we can and must save lives. Every day, lies about the vaccine and even about masking prevent people from protecting themselves against severe illness or death. On the political side, we cannot maintain our majorities in the House and Senate unless we defeat the virus. Reporting misinformation should be our daily duty. Stronger.org provides this guide to reporting false information you receive through Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Do not count upon this social media companies to do the right thing on their own. They won’t.

You have already made a pledge to yourself to not take November 2022 for granted. You have promised yourself to start increasing your activity week to week. It is time to keep the promise.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

#16: What to Do About Donald Trump Loving Alabamans to Death

You could be around abnormal behavior so long that it starts to seem normal, or at least commonplace.

The surreal could begin to seem real. Your adjustments to abhorrent behavior could go from the short term to the longer term, or they could become permanent.

Is this our situation in 2021, in America? A billionaire who pays marginal wages to hundreds of thousands of people is hailed as a hero for using what he otherwise could have paid them so he could take a sub-orbital flight. Dogecoin was established to satirize cryptocurrency markets and the “coins” are now collectively $43 billion. As many as 15% of Americans believe a cult that says politicians are kidnapping children and drinking their blood. Up to 50% of the population gets at least some of their “news” from social media which in fact, has no news.

And that’s nothing up against our response to a deadly virus. Nearly 80 million adult Americans have yet to get vaccinated. The Delta variant is destroying the bodies or ending the lives of thousands of unvaccinated people. The South is a pandemic war zone. There is a run on the horse de-wormer Ivermectin, espoused as a COVID treatment by some right-wing media. Republican Governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott zealously weaken protections against the virus. With the lowest vaccination rate in the country, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (also a Republican) desperately moves to strengthen them.

All of them are bit players, compared to Donald Trump. He is the only person in the country who could singlehandedly, immediately and sharply decrease the number of anti-vaxxers. Seventeen of the eighteen states with the lowest vaccination rates voted for Trump. The most bizarre situation is starkly before us. A man who claims an important role in the development of life saving vaccines, and who himself was in danger of death by COVID, is unable to control the monster he created. At this point, he is causing the death of other human beings.

There has always been a choice. You could have an elected official who articulates her or his worries about the reach of governmental actions, or the ability of government to carry out this or that complex program. This is a loony hypothetical considering Trump, DeSantis and Abbott, but an elected critic of government could still retain the ability to identify extraordinary dangers to the public and make certain that government responds to them, saving their citizens from agonizing deaths.

Imagine having to deal with the knowledge that you have caused people to die because their ravaged lungs can’t give their body enough oxygen. Knowing that, and knowing Governor Kay Ivey’s pleas that “the unvaccinated people are letting us down”, Trump came up with this at his Alabama rally.

The lame attempt: "You know what? I believe totally in your freedoms. You got to do what you have to do, but I recommend: Take the vaccines. I did it – it's good," he said.

After some boos, the spineless retreat. "That's alright. You got your freedoms. But I happen to take the vaccine. If it doesn't work, you'll be the first to know. I'll call Alabama and say, 'Hey you know what?' but it is working. But you do have your freedoms."

The freedom to get a deadly communicable disease, and transmit it to others? As it turns out, they love Trump to death in Alabama.

Six months after we could have approached herd immunity, we will overcome this. With the new FDA full approval of the Pfizer vaccine (and soon the Moderna vaccine) companies, governments, schools and universities will issue vaccine mandates. These will cover many millions more people, further boosting the vaccine uptick of the last week. By October, hospitalization rates may well recede again, especially in the several states where over 80% of adults have already had at least one shot. The booster shots that have already started will reduce the number of breakthrough infections. And slowly but very surely, we will defeat the virus.

What will we be left with, after an awful two years, and with much of the world still beset by the virus? Besides relief when the virus again recedes and the deaths dwindle further, hopefully we will be left with anger, and not the kind that renders one non-functional. This is the kind of anger that propels us to reject through the November 2022 ballots this surreal argument that Fox foments and Trump abets--- that personal freedom has anything to do giving someone else a deadly communicable disease.

Our success in 2022 will depend in large measure on how Joe Biden and our government has done in defeating the virus, and whether the economy continues to be rebuilt. We can do these three things to keep people alive and move in the right direction.

1) Report Social Media Misinformation
	Google helped start a new coalition called Stronger.org to fight against rampant vaccine misinformation. It partners with health care advocacy organizations and spreads the truth about the COVID vaccine. You can get on their email list, figure out how to get involved, and donate. As important, the organization will guide you on how to monitor social media and report misinformation.
2) Remember the Old School Yell
	What if a college football coach were the highest paid employee in a state? What if he assumed the responsibility of guiding young men? What if he was a resolutely anti-vaccine, even in the face of a new state mandate? What if, thus far, the president of the university is at least thinking about standing tall about the obligations of the football coach, regardless of any positions of athletic boosters? It is all there at Washington State University with President Kirk Schulz and football coach Nick Rolovich. Write Schulz’ chief of staff Christine Hoyt at christine.hoyt@wsu.edu and express your feelings about university leadership.
3) Join the Campaign Against Virulent Lauren Boebert
	Eastern Colorado member of Congress Lauren Boebert is the perfect target for those of us seeking to beat an aggressive anti-vaxxer. She has called government officials who advocate for vaccination “Needle Nazis”. She won by six percent in 2020 and will face a strong opponent in the fall of 2022 in rancher and State Senator Kerry Donovan. Spend your coffee money today.

It is time to understand that the personal freedom Trump is talking about is the freedom to kill other people with a deadly, highly transmissible virus. Let’s act accordingly.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

Thursday, August 5, 2021

#15: Time To Take Advantage of a Growing Republican Schism

In earlier times, to call anything part of the “infrastructure” could get you cold shouldered at a Capitol Hill reception. It was thought to be the most wonky and un-astute of terms, to be carefully avoided any time someone wanted to pass or even talk about a bill about highways, transit or water supply.

Now it is a word that provides sanctuary. Those seeking protection are the 17 Republican Senators (including Mitch McConnell) who plan to complete this deal with Joe Biden over the protests of Donald Trump, who doesn’t want Biden to get a win. These Senators will continue to ignore Trump on this matter because:

They have known for as long as they have been in politics that our highways, bridges, and other public systems are troubled by under-investment.
The Senate compromise contains any number of projects from which their own states will benefit, a fact which can easily be made known to voters.
Trump himself promised an infrastructure bill which would have had some of the same elements, though it would have done far less for public transit, and nothing for community broadband, and electric vehicle recharging.
They have been looking for something they could get away with doing with Democrats, because they wanted to believe that could happen.

Even in the worst of years, Republican and Democrats cooperate on any number of uncontroversial matters, just to keep government going. However, the percentage of proposals that are seen only through a partisan lens has grown, and with it the enmity born of constant dispute. It hasn’t been as much fun to go to the office anymore.

Excepting the infrastructure bill, in the past few decades there hasn’t been a bigger distance between what Republican Senators want for the country and what they are willing to do. A majority of Senate Republicans would have always passed a bill to protect Dreamers, or declared the election decided by late November, or kept the United States closer to NATO. They would have done such things if the fear of retribution from Trump and his hench-people had not been so high.

They have not been inventing the danger of retribution, and it isn’t just in the House, where the early execution of Rep. Mark Sanford by Trump was watched with a shudder by any DC Republican with a soul and a pulse. In the Senate, Trump-inspired electoral vulnerability contributed to the retirement of Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee in 2018.

A huge bi-partisan infrastructure bill may signal the beginning of the end of an era. Consistent with his previous behavior, Trump has threatened to recruit primary opponents against the 17 Republican miscreants and thus throw them out as RINOS (Republicans in Name Only). Those threatened are privately celebrating that it is an empty threat. Only 3 of the 17 apostates are up for re-election in 2022. Six are retiring and are leaving openings in their states for good Democratic candidates. Lisa Murkowski is already being challenged because of multiple wonderful slights of Trump. That leaves John Hoeven of North Dakota and Todd Young of Indiana to be “primaried” by Trump, and both are untouchable.

We don’t have to like Mitch McConnell even the slightest bit (and we don’t), but we can still be pleased he is ignoring Trump completely on policy issues and battling it out with him over candidates to try to win back the Senate in 2022. In several states, retiring Senators, McConnell or the Republican Senate Campaign Committee are courting candidates in direct opposition to Trump’s pick. What Democrats have daydreamed about is emerging - a Republican schism that works to their advantage.

In the fall there will be a deal among Democrats for a second budget reconciliation bill. Joe Manchin and Kristin Sinema will eventually provide the necessary votes for significant new Biden-proposed expenditures on education and social welfare, which themselves were initially called “human infrastructure” because of the electoral magic of the term. There may be two more bipartisan compromises, focusing on competitiveness with China, and police practices.

And then we will be ready to see what the American people think about all of this. In part, the 2022 elections will be a referendum on Biden’s first year. The economy will remain strong due to the American Rescue Plan and the infrastructure package. The pandemic will finally have been quelled, so voters will show that they like what they see.

In the face of this good news Donald Trump’s plan is to make it all about Donald Trump, with continued exotic variations on the big lie, even though the Arizona Cyber Ninjas have not found any traces of bamboo. Mitch McConnell’s plan is to try to paint Democrats as out of control, though it is clear that his real grudge is that they are in control. Our collective plan is to keep the intensity of effort alive that took back the Senate, House and Presidency over a four-year period. We can move ourselves along nicely by doing these three things:

1) Combat the Sedition Caucus
	There needs to be consequences for the 137 House members and 7 Senators who voted to overturn the Pennsylvania election results on January 6. It is right to see them as the Sedition Caucus. It is fair and just to expect companies who make political contributions to move away from elected officials who are unwilling to uphold the Constitution. Pushed along by the Lincoln Project and the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Toyota has reversed its position and dried up its contributions to these members of Congress. It is time to expect Anheuser-Busch do the same. Write corporate vice president Daniel Keniry at Daniel.Keniry@anheuser-busch.com. Tell him that his company’s support for members of Congress who underpin the big lie is decreasing your taste for Michelob and Stella Artois.
2) Call Susan Collins Out of Order
	Susan Collins voted to convict Donald Trump for his role in making the insurrection. Subsequently, she fought in a losing cause to establish a bi-partisan commission to investigate all the events of January 6. One would think that the failure of her own caucus to step up would inhibit Senator Collins from attacking the Speaker of the House on her own efforts. It turns out Collins believes Pelosi was “partisan” in denying Representatives Jim Jordan and Jim Banks seats on the investigative panel the House has commissioned. Susan Collins knows Jim Jordan, and knows that he denies that January 6 happened. Susan Collins understands exactly what happened, and it is shameful that she is playing these games. Tell her that is what you don’t like by calling her at 202-224-2523.
3) Expand Our Senate Majority One Senator at a Time
	It is amazing how much better it is to have 50 votes in the Senate rather than 48. As we all remember that outcome was only secured when the once unthinkable happened and Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock were elected in the January 5 Georgia runoff elections. Both of those victories were built from the ground up by tireless candidates who started early and never stopped. That is the kind of candidate Rep. Val Demings is. Her role as one of the managers of the Trump insurrection impeachment was stellar. She is articulate and principled and with your help will be the next Senator from Florida. Donate today if you can. Or make this a project going forward.

Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has announced that Donald Trump is meeting with his “cabinet” and is “ready to move forward in a real way.” These people are not going to vanish from the political scene if we are not as focused as they are bizarre.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

Thursday, July 8, 2021

#14: When it Was 2021, It Was a Very Good Year

Please email me 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, Our Unfinished Work, every three weeks. If you would like to participate in a monthly working section of activists please email dsh347@gmail.com. The Cockeyed Activists meet the last Sundays of the month, the next meeting will be July 25 at 7pm PDT.

As Democrats skirmish with Democrats over the infrastructure bill and what comes after, it is good to remember three elements of the good news for our country that did not seem possible a year ago:

Joe Biden is off to an excellent start, getting the pandemic under control, restoring America worldwide, passing the American Rescue Plan using the 50-vote budget reconciliation process and utilizing executive orders to undo much of Trump’s damage.
The bi-partisan infrastructure bill called the American Jobs Plan is still slated to pass this fall. It authorizes an unprecedented level of investment in public transit, railroads, highways, bridges, broadband, electric vehicle charging stations, water supply systems, and the electricity grid. It is the biggest investment in public transit in our history.
Joe Biden never expected that the final infrastructure bill would include the “human infrastructure” elements in his original proposal. Several of these measures will be a part of a second budget reconciliation process which will likely emerge as the American Families Plan, focused on education and health care. Joe Manchin has already agreed to provide the 50th vote, depending on the scope of the plan.

Joe Biden was the man with the plan from the outset. Focused as he has been on ending the pandemic and restoring the economy, he has also intended not to waste a good crisis. That is, he has used the national public health emergency as a jumping off point for bolder, broader proposals to move America forward. His poll numbers are strong, and Republican efforts to paint him as a socialist are laughable.

Integrated with these country-changing policy efforts is a political plan for the off-year elections. Normally, the off-year races are unkind to sitting presidents. Biden aims to change that. Republican Senators are retiring in North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri and Pennsylvania. They are expected to retire in Wisconsin and Iowa, and we are expecting to be competitive against Marco Rubio in Florida.

The above administrative and legislative actions demonstrate Biden cares about middle class and blue-collar families, once the bulwark of the Democratic vote in the Midwest and the Northeast. In addition to attending to this part of his electorate. Biden hopes that Trump will provide the same assistance in these targeted races that he did in helping us get Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock elected in 2020.

In the first six months of his presidency, Joe Biden has gotten it and gotten it done. It has been a very good year, with these features:

Accomplished by Executive and Administrative Action

re-entered Paris Climate Accord and seeking its expansion.
re-established the NATO partnership and resumed leadership within the G-7.
vaccinated America, with 327 million doses administered so far.
overturned Trump executive orders on environmental regulation and in countless other areas.

Accomplished Through the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (using the reconciliation process, where only 50 votes are necessary), which:

funded a new round of stimulus payments
extended unemployment benefits
provided assistance to the states reeling from the economic downturn
provided a child tax credit which can reduce children in poverty by almost 50%
offered other pandemic related aid

Bipartisan Proposals likely to get the necessary 60 votes in the Senate and become law in some form after action by the House:

infrastructure bill including large increases for public transit, passenger railroads, electric vehicle charging stations; water system replacement of old pipes; electric grid broadband; and projects to decrease the impact of climate change
policing bill, the framework of which has been agreed to by Republican Senator Tim Scott, Democratic Senator Cory Booker, and Democratic Representative Karen Bass
new investment on technological competitiveness with China, emphasizing research and development

There are things missing from the list. The For the People Act will not pass. It was always a symbolic effort to underscore Republic perfidiousness in Georgia, Texas and elsewhere. It was mostly a good deal, although federalizing elections would have been a bit scary if we had it during the last four years. We will not get any legislative action protecting Dreamers, or accomplish even the slightest bit of immigration reform. There is new money to fight climate change, but very little regulatory improvement.

We are in immensely better shape that we were last year. We need to get ourselves some more House and Senate members on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. As a first step in that effort, let us keep working toward free and fair elections:

1) Hold Accountable Those Who Would Trash the Constitution
	Unbelievably, 141 House members voted on January 6 to de-certify the election results of one or more states. These House members have joined in Trump’s big lie every step of the way, and most continue to parrot fictions about state election processes, threatening permanent damage to election integrity. Several leading American corporations have taken note of this threat to democracy and have frozen their political contributions to these House members. Not Toyota, which announced that they support candidates “based on their position on issues that are important to the auto industry and the company” and would not make decisions based upon the certification votes. Call Toyota’s public affairs manager Carley Cesaretti at 469-292-8754 and tell her how much more you expect of Toyota.
2) Use Shareholder Actions to Monitor Corporate Political Actions
	There has been more success lately in shareholder efforts to cast more light on corporate political shenanigans. A good way to keep track of our progress on this front is following the efforts of the Center for Political Accountability, which attends to these matters on our behalf. Sign up here:
3) Stand with Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders
	During the worst of the pandemic, Donald Trump fueled racist attacks on Asian-Americans. According to a Pew survey, 1/3 of Asian-Americans are now afraid of being assaulted. We can stand up for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders as a political force by setting aside a portion of our political contributions budget for the AAPI Super Pac, which is working to increase political involvement. Success has been impressive. There was an 84% increase between 2016 and 2020 in the AAPI vote in Georgia. Nationally, 2/3 of the AAPI vote went to Joe Biden.

You can keep a bad man down. This summer is the time to accelerate our political efforts, setting the groundwork for 2022 success. Even with Joe Biden having a good year, we cannot take a single thing for granted.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

Friday, June 11, 2021

#13: Activists, Please Get Back Up Off the Couch

Donald Trump is finished, don’t you think? He is tired, focused only on his increasingly bizarre lies about election fraud, and bored with the actual challenges undertaken by government. He requires a higher level of sycophantic behavior from his staff than ever before, which is setting the bar very high. He actively socializes only with those who will kiss his ring. He is over-leveraged, facing a billion dollars of cash calls to protect his properties. A Manhattan grand jury has been empaneled and could return an indictment for tax fraud. He is done, no?

No, he is not, at least not necessarily. Overconfidence is our monstrous nemesis. Ages ago, we underestimated Trump when he came down the elevator and after the Access Hollywood tapes. Ever since, we have been trying to fathom how voters could support him, even though all this time he has had his own television network in FOX. But since 74 million voters did just last year, we are obligated to take him seriously.

As Salon says, Trump is not delusional. He is a shameless, manipulative, exploitative opportunist. And those are his good points! But he has been every one of those things for quite a while, perhaps since kindergarten. We must come to the painful recognition that under certain circumstances, this human (or a dedicated apostle) could win the Presidency in 2024. Through his efforts, we could lose the Senate and House in 2022.

The signs that this absolutely will not happen are many.

Joe Biden is the President for times like these. His empathy is genuine and comforting. He has been the man with the plan since his election. He knew he had to make his mark in his first 100 days, and his American Rescue Plan did exactly that. The boldness of his proposals stunted the predicted battles between progressives and liberals before they emerged. His approval rating is more than 10% better than any Trump had in his four years. The reasons why Republican leaders rarely attack him directly is because voters like Biden as a human being.

In a matter of months Biden will be fairly credited with ending the pandemic. He inherited and fixed a nonfunctional vaccination program which did not come close to meeting its pledge of 20 million administered vaccines by the end of 2020. It will be close, but Biden will meet his goal of 70% of adult Americans being vaccinated by July 4. Ironically, the man who was President when vaccine development was accelerated is so busy mocking Fauci and masks that he has taken himself out of the line to receive some credit.

Perhaps most importantly, Trump and his crowd have almost nowhere to go to find more voters, which is why they work so hard on voter deception and voter suppression. Women have fled Trump by the millions not just because of what he stands for but because of the person he is. Because he will remain that person, there will be no changing their minds. Much was made of Cuban-Americans in Miami voting for Trump, but Latino voters supplied the margin of victory for Biden in Arizona and New Mexico and across the country two-thirds voted for Biden and Harris. Besides, what is it that the Republican Party stands for nowadays, besides not taxing the richest Americans and not investigating the attack on the Capitol?

Well, then, where is our vulnerability in 2022 and 2024, beyond the fact that millions of activists must re-engage?

First, our 2020 victory margins in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin were modest. Even with Joe Biden being seen as the friend of the working man and woman, Trump still has some traction among workers in the manufacturing sector. Of course, much of this is based upon falsehoods, since faux-populist Trump’s tax bill ignored these workers in favor or their employers. Both the American Rescue Plan and what will end up in a bi-partisan infrastructure bill are intended to reach out to these voters, who had asked what the Democratic agenda could do for them, and who thus have received a robust answer. However, more than a few manufacturing workers wonder which Democrats beyond Biden are thinking about their place in the economy.

Second, voter suppression threatens our victories in Georgia and Arizona. As much as Trump is trying to litigate past outcomes in these states, his party is more focused on trying to influence future outcomes. Their impact on the total vote is small relative to the massive voting rights abuses of the past, including literacy tests and poll taxes. However, the intent of these laws is at the highest level of malevolence--- trying to sway an election by keeping minorities from casting their votes.

Third, we still participate in a language of exclusion. An egregious recent public discourse is the narrative fed by the media that most everyone in the country is deciding whether to return to their office or commute from home. More than half of American workers did not occupy an office in the first place. Those who do not have the option to work from home might be wondering whether the rest of us have noticed them building houses, making things, fixing the plumbing, repairing the car, preparing meals, stocking the grocery shelves, providing care for or educating our children, and countless other jobs.

The anti-Trump movement that took back the House, the Senate and Presidency remains unfinished. Its present sleepiness and overconfidence are unacceptable. It is time for activists to get off the couch to turn back to what we know how to do. Let’s do these three things:

1) Become a Cockeyed Activist
	Many of us are are out there, feeling positive about the future but still wary and unwilling to let up on our collective efforts of the past four years. In addition to the several Zoom presentations this missive has sponsored, we are instituting a monthly hour-long session for such active activists. Each will include new insights on what is transpiring, and recommendations from all participants on paths to take, organizations we must boost, and ways to be our most effective. We will do all of this on the last Sunday of each month at 7 pm Pacific time --- June 27, July 25, August 22. Send an email to dsh347@gmail.com if you plan to participate as often as you can.
2) Take Back This Senate Seat
	The off-year elections are not normally the time in which the party of the President expands its hold, but the fact that the Senate is tied 50-50 makes it an anomalous year. Offering more hope is the certainty that Republican Senators are retiring in Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and the likelihood that they will retire in Iowa and Wisconsin. These are all winnable states, and all have excellent Democratic candidates who are emerging. One such candidate will play a special role in making sure the needs of workers in manufacturing companies are articulated and advanced. This is Tim Ryan of Ohio, now a House member, whose candidacy will resonate far beyond his home state. On the House floor, Ryan told Republicans to “stop talking about Dr. Seuss” and start focusing on helping working men and women. Boost him, please.
3) Do Not Forget This November
	The best way to gain momentum for 2022 is to remember that our huge successes in Virginia in 2019 need to be replicated this November, just five months from now. To make certain we will maintain our majority in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, Swing Left is wisely and helpfully targeting ten races we can support. 100% of our donations go to these candidates.

Given that participating in the American political process can sap one’s energy, there is nothing wrong with taking a break once in a while. But let’s not overdo it and quit while we are ahead. Let’s all of us get back to work.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

Friday, May 21, 2021

# 12: Squelch Trump’s Big Lie

This is the next of a new series of missives on our unfinished work to restore the promise of our country and its government. Each will focus on a single element of the many opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Each will provide steps we can all take to build upon our huge victories winning back the House in 2018 and the Presidency in 2020.

Threats to democracy can be damnably complex, or even intractable. The Big Lie is neither. Donald Trump contends that the election he lost by 7 million votes was stolen. This very simple Big Lie puts democracy at risk in the United States, diminishes the integrity of future elections, and casts a shadow over the peaceful transfer of power that is our hallmark. Internationally, it extinguishes our beacon.

Even from this man, it is reprehensible and contemptible. A similar claim from any past presidential candidate of any party would have been immediately dismissed. We are at this point for two reasons. First the Big Lie has been monetized by Trump, Fox News commentators, and numerous Republican candidates. Second, the retribution visited upon Republicans who refuse to live the lie is swift and sure.

Most Republican elected officials have now gone way beyond ignoring Trump’s impeachable offenses. They know the lie will diminish us all. They know their complicit actions are craven, but they nonetheless consent to this dance with the devil, whose grimy embrace will never be unlocked.

Still, the defeat of the Big Lie will depend largely upon other Republicans who can not abide by it. Since the lie is fed daily and is too dangerous to be ignored, our response must be daily as well. Let’s do these seven things now to defend our country. Please share these steps with your friends so that they will take action too!

1) Yes, You Must Support Liz Cheney
	No one is asking you to select Liz Cheney as your favorite person, or to ignore innumerable past political sins. What is compelling is the answer to this question. What is in it for her politically in taking on Donald Trump over the election lie and the January 6 insurrection? The answer is NOTHING. There is no chance that she will ultimately be granted political rewards for her stand. Still, she is not going to blink. Her principles on this issue are the best thing we have going. There will be no viable Democratic candidate, so she has a chance to save her seat in Wyoming against a Trump-endorse candidate. If she is able to get herself reelected, it will be a huge victory over Trump and over the lie itself. Her ability to do that depends upon her having sufficient campaign resources give to a conservative Republican today.
2) Protect the Truth in Maricopa County
	At this point, the epicenter of the election integrity war is Maricopa County, Arizona. The Republican controlled State Senate is teaming with the “consulting firm” CyberNinjas to do a third recount of ballots sans procedures and with an eagle eye out for bamboo traces. This is to be sure that Southeast Asian operatives did not dump tens of thousands of ballots on unsuspecting Maricopan election officials, a QAnon theory. The Republican controlled Maricopa County Commission is fighting back against this madness, Republican board chair Jack Sellers says the Senate is “making an attempt at legitimatizing a grift disguised as an audit”. Call Jack Sellers’ office at 602-506-1776 and ask his staff to pass on your admiration for his integrity.
3) Keep Posted on the New Republican Movement
	Whether or not you have ever been a Republican, or ever hope to be one, it is useful to understand who is behind the Call for a New American Renewal. These are 150 Republicans including former Governors, members of Congress and Senators. They aren’t forming a third party and instead are trying to start a principled movement. We wish them all the best with that. Send them your email to keep track of them. If you are not thus sated, listen in on their huge June 16 Town Hall.

4) Maintain Your Election Law Grounding
	You can’t keep tabs on the Big Lie and all the associated smaller lies without a reliable source regarding the truth. Following the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University is the very best way of understanding all the ways in which we are pushing back against the voter suppression that the Big Lie is feeding. They provide state by state analysis and are an indispensable litigator. You can give them your financial support or just sign up for their reports.
5) Expect More from John Kasich
	John Kasich has completed his two terms as Governor of Ohio, and he is not ever going to the Republican candidate for President. From this point forward, he will either influence the American agenda with his credibility and his insights, or will fail to do so. It is Kasich who should be speaking out on behalf of Liz Cheney. It is Kasich who should be making it a daily point to call out the Big Lie. Time to email him at info@johnkasich.com and ask him what he is waiting for. Remind him his country is at risk and that he could be doing something about it. He cares about his legacy.
6) Energize the Corporate Community
	Even the modest actions that companies have taken to fight voter suppression laws in Georgia, Texas and Florida have terrified Republican operatives. Some companies have already pledged to withhold financial support from members of Congress who continued their support of the Big Lie on January 6 even as our Capitol was under attack. This movement needs greater traction. Find the email address of the CEO of the largest corporation in your state and write her or him a note asking how they intend to fight the Big Lie induced voter suppression. If a leader of this movement is going to emerge, it will be Kenneth Chenault, the former CEO at American Express. Chenault was behind the best and most important joint corporate letter so far. He is very difficult to reach. Call his venture capital firm General Catalyst in New York at 212-775-4000 and tell him this country needs his continued help.

7) Improvise and Promote Your Own Big Lie Combating Strategies

Share this post with your friends! Write to this missive on other things you plan to do to fight to Big Lie and we will pass on your ideas. Examine the Lincoln Project and see if they warrant your support, especially for ads that expose the Big Lie. Carefully consider that principled Congressperson Adam Kinzinger has started a PAC to support Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, always remembering that we would prefer to have those seats for Nancy Pelosi.

Also, keep an eye on the Dominion lawsuit, which will expose multiple elements of the lie and force Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell and others to pay damages. Watch the Fox News debacle and look for an opening. If it ever transpires that they are going to have to pay for the lie (even in advertising revenue) they will 1) flee from it, and 2) pretend they never said it.

1) There are Biden’s policies to be passed, and election campaigns to advance. Val Demings is running to unseat Marco Rubio in Florida! None of these adventures will go as well as we want them to if we let the Big Lie stand out there moldering, sapping our country’s strength.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

Thursday, April 29, 2021

#11: Time to Go Out and Win Ourselves Six Senate Seats

It has gone better than planned. After he was elected President of the United States, Joe Biden expected he was going to have to settle for 48 Senators on his side. Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossoff and Stacie Abrams and all of the rest of us got him to 50 on January 5. Of course, we had a little help from Donald Trump, but by then he owed us a lot more than two Senate seats.

At 48 Democrats, Biden would have needed two votes from Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney to pass the American Rescue Plan. Those votes would not have been secured without a huge reduction in necessary spending. The difference between needing to get those votes and instead getting an aye from Joe Manchin is a trillion dollars of expenditures for economic recovery, repairing the tattered Affordable Care Act, and sharply reducing child poverty.

At 50 votes, the narrative that Manchin is blocking all of the best that is within us is false. He is providing cover for 6 to 8 Senators in each party who want to preserve the filibuster to make the parties work together at least on the basics. He was there to get us to fifty on the American Rescue Plan, and he will be there to support much of Biden’s infrastructure wish list. He has provided the key fiftieth vote to confirm countless Biden nominees. Passing the monumental climate change law we deeply desire (and need) would take sixty votes, since it is not subject to the budget reconciliation process. Manchin would be a problem there if he could be, but we are not close to sixty. On this front the President is moving us along nicely, using executive orders, other administrative actions and diplomacy. It is not close to enough climate change action, but it reflects Biden’s commitment and tenacity. This movement is accelerating rapidly.

We are getting what we worked so hard for. On vaccinations, Biden has instituted the delivery systems, the reliable supply and the clear messaging that were nowhere to be seen in December. Biden is using three budget reconciliation bills, countless executive actions and able elected officials to turn the country in a new direction. This will serve the United States and the world well for the next two years.

In November 2022, we face the off-year elections that will stop us or enable us to move forward with even greater energy. Perish the thought that we would end up with fewer than 50 votes, giving Mitch McConnell back a gavel, used before almost entirely to comfort the comfortable. Even the fact that Donald Trump now hates Mitch McConnell is not redemptive.

Why would we return to this ugly world? Instead, we will get Joe Biden at least six more Democratic seats that will strengthen his hand, expand his agenda, and help us prepare for the 2024 presidential election.

The greatest grassroots political effort of our time has been lulled by the absence of tweets from the big liar about the big lie. We need to start paying more attention to these matters right now, as hugely consequential Senate campaigns get organized. We are buoyed by the movement of voters away from the “Republican Party,” a party that stands for what, actually? Republicans are warring internally, but as one pundit has said, most are circling Trump’s Death Star.

The Trump battle with Mitch McConnell over which Republican Senatorial candidates should emerge is encouraging news. It will result in some wacky, easier to beat candidates, like Missouri’s felonious and previously disgraced former governor, Eric Greitens. Moreover, there are already several announced retirements, creating open seats where Republican Senators would otherwise be running for re-election. We will need to defend Mark Kelley in Arizona and Raphael Warnock in Georgia, both of whom are now running for full six years terms. There are these very promising opportunities:

In Pennsylvania, the totally disgusted but insufficiently courageous Pat Toomey is retiring. Democratic Secretary of State John Fetterman, an important force in fighting against Republican election fraud lies, has entered the race and there will be a strong Democratic field.
Republican Senator Richard Burr is retiring in North Carolina after voting for impeachment and shepherding a fair report on Trump’s dalliances with Russia. Democrats hold the governorship. Former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley, an African American, just entered the Senate race. She is an extremely attractive candidate who has won twice statewide.
In Iowa, 87-year old Republican Senator Charles Grassley has yet to announce he is retiring, but he will do so.
In Missouri, Roy Blunt is retiring. Republicans are seriously considering nominating the previously fallen Eric Greitens, who resigned as governor after being accused of blackmailing an ex-lover.
Marco Rubio in Florida has a polling problem. Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murray is already running, and Rep. Val Demings may run as well. Demings is the former Orlando police chief that Joe Biden considered for the vice presidency.
Ohio provides an excellent opportunity with the retirement of the moderate but Trump-genuflecting Rob Portman. There is a big squabble among Republican candidates. On the Democratic side, Representative Tim Ryan is a very strong candidate, and he is all in.

Given these excellent opportunities, let’s hasten to do these three things:

1) Give Tim Ryan a Fast Start
	Tim Ryan is a ten term Member of Congress whose ties to blue collar workers mirror those of Joe Biden. He is a good bet to reach the voters that elected John Glenn and Sherrod Brown. He has already started his campaign and has $1.25 million while the Republican field is still being buffeted by Trump, who organized a bizarre “Hunger Games” tryout. It is a good thing to get back in the habit or writing checks to candidates, and there is no better place to start than Tim Ryan.
2) Convince Our Side to Get to Work
	It is now a long time ago, but we should not forget that Indivisible and Swing Left (and others) stepped up to organize against Trump after the 2016 election while the Democratic Party itself was in the highest level of disarray. That is why we were able to take back the House in 2018. With regard to strategies to take back some more Senate seats in 2022, Indivisible is invisible and Swing Left is becalmed. You can use Act Blue to donate to Senate races through the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. It would be even better to use your existing connections to either or both Indivisible and Swing Left and tell them that you are eager for them to get going with developing and sharing their targeting strategies.
3) Set the Record Straight
	By now we have heard everything from Trump supporters. But there still can be a time when you can be appalled by what a member of Congress just said. Jim Jordan excoriated Dr. Anthony Fauci for depriving Americans of their liberties through mask requirements and limitations on large assembly. Fauci has responded that the real deprivation of liberty has been the death of 560,000 Americans due to the pandemic. It is time to call Jim Jordan’s district office in Lima at 419-999-6455 to give his staff your thoughts on these matters. Ask them what kind of man would rail at a simple request to protect others from an agonizing death?

Our efforts continue, and we have accomplished so much. As of today, we don’t have daily tweets to recall Donald Trump’s contempt for democracy. We need to recognize that we don’t need that reminder. Let’s get to work on these Senate seats as if today is October 1, 2022.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington