Morning all. Last night I got together with Hopium paid subscribers for a spirited discussion about our challenging moment. A recording is above. I hope you will watch and share with others you think might be interested. Note there is a rough transcript above for those who would rather read than watch or listen.
I was also fortunate to have been able to have a long discussion with historian Heather Cox Richardson yesterday which helped clarify a few things I’ve been writing and thinking about in recent weeks. I will get a link of that discussion to you as soon as it is available. It was an extraordinary blessing to be able to spend an hour talking to such a remarkable patriot.
Here’s where I am this morning. I feel like despite the horrors of recent days we have a bit of momentum, that our work is starting to make a real difference. Trump continues to suffer significant setbacks in the Courts, and even lost in his Supreme Court yesterday. His poll numbers have dropped significantly, and consumers have lost confidence in his stewardship of the economy. In just a few weeks Trump has caused inflation to rise and may have pushed the strongest economy in the developed world into recession. He is clearly spooked by the organic protests that are springing up across the country, and the pressure being put on his allies. Cracks are appearing in his Congressional support over his rancid embrace of Putin; his plutocratic, anti-worker, deficit-exploding budget plan; and Musk’s outrageous lawlessness and attack on the US government.
In recent days we’ve seen Congressional Democrats start to really raise their game. House Dems have created a task force to challenge Trump more effectively; they have filed an amicus brief in a case challenging Trump’s unconstitutional attack on the government; Leader Jeffries held a national grassroots event last night with DNC Chair Ken Martin to talk about the path forward, showing an elevated level of organization and ambition; today House Dems are holding their first “shadow hearing” on Trump’s proposed cuts to the health care of 80 million Americans.
On Tuesday night Senator Elissa Slotkin did something really important. She opened up what I call a rhetorical “Second Front” for Democrats, creating language and an argument that went beyond our early - and appropriate - focus on Trump’s reckless economic agenda, and put his lawlessness, his attack on what I call the America of the Four Freedoms and his betrayal of the country squarely in front of the American people. If you haven’t watched her impressive speech please do so as soon as you can.
It’s my view that while continuing to make our case against Trump’s destructive economic agenda we must now pursue this Second Front with equal vigor for Trump and Musk are breaking things right now that will be very hard to repair. The first step in this new campaign is for Democrats to get far more comfortable talking about the crimes being committed, the historic disregard for the Constitutional and rule of law and the clear betrayal of our country that all of this involves. Senators and House Members swore an oath to protect the Constitution. It is under unprecedented attack, and now they must be true to their oath and defend it, vigorously, with everything they got. THEY HAVE NO CHOICE. For a failure now to defend the Constitutional order makes them complicit in its destruction. It makes Democrats American villains rather than American patriots.
So let’s be clear about a few things. The Musk assault on the US government is unconstitutional, illegal and wrong. It is outside of what would be permissible in any democracy, in any country, at any time in history. Musk has probably committed more crimes in recent weeks than any American in all of our history, and certainly committed arguably the most serious crimes against our democracy ever committed. By enabling all this Trump too is a historic criminal, and is betraying our country in unprecedented and historic ways. He is also violating international law and abrogating treaties by implementing his tariffs and threatening the seizure of an entire country - Canada - and the lands of others. He and Musk are committing what amounts to genocide by cutting off our aid programs to the world’s most desperate people. Their cutting off of our support to Ukraine will cause tens of thousands - perhaps many more - to die, and has made a full on war between Europe and Russia (and us?) far more likely. His forced repatriation of legal refugees and migrants to places like Venezuela, Afghanistan and now Ukraine will also result in the death of many more people, perhaps tens of thousands. His undermining of our public health systems will cause many millions to die here in the US, as many hundreds of thousands of people died unnecessarily due to his extraordinary mismanagement of COVID.
Trump is wantonly breaking US and international law. He is tearing down the US Constitutional order and the global rules based order. He is taking steps that will knowingly cause millions of people to die here in the US and abroad. He has allied America with the genocidal maniac who runs Russia against our Ukrainian and European allies. He is breaking apart North America, an economic and political arrangement that has been as essential to our prosperity and security as NATO and our European alliances. He is tearing down our world leading scientific research ecosystem that has been the central driver of our prosperity for generations. Yes, he is causing inflation to rise and our economy to slow but he is also a madman who has launched an unprecedented assault on our Constitutional order and has committed more crimes than any person in all of our history; is throwing the entire world into chaos and turning the people of the world against us; he is destroying the engines of our prosperity; and has left America more vulnerable to some kind of devastating cyber or physical attack than any time in over 200 years.
THESE ARE THINGS WE NEED TO BE TALKING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ABOUT.
As Heather Cox Richardson and I discussed yesterday our movement has to come to understand itself as proud American patriots defending the Constitutional order and our great nation against an unprecedented attack. TWe are Americans. Fighting for freedom and democracy is what we do, who we are. It is also in the oath every one of our Senate and House Democrats swore. They did not swear to protect American against $8 a dozen eggs. They swore to protect the Constitutional order. And that now must become our central mission, or at least a Second Front as important as the First.
Here is that Congressional oath. Feel free to share with your elected Representatives when you contact them:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
In our daily work we have been contacting our representatives and letting them know what is expected and required of them now. I am incredibly proud of what we’ve done, together, here over the past few weeks. In a moment of great crisis many, many of you here have stepped up for your country. As a fellow American I am proud and grateful for your courage, resolve and commitment. And so while there are many ways for us to prosecute this Second Front campaign (see below), I want to revisit two ideas we’ve been discussing here of late - A formal Congressional “Letter to America” and criminal referrals for Musk and his malicious posse.
First, the Letter to America. I have discussed this here and here. The idea is simple - all Congressional Dems should sign on to a letter that lays out their case for why what Trump-Musk is doing is illegal, unconstitutional and an unprecedented betrayal of the country. Here is how I described it in a recent post……
I’ve come to believe the next step Leaders Schumer and Jeffries must take is to write a letter to Trump, to their fellow members of Congress and the American people outlining why they believe what Trump is doing is wrong and unconstitutional. It should borrow from our Declaration of Independence, and lay out in clear language the case against our Mad King. It should be signed by every Democrat in both chambers. Every Congressional Dem should build days of action around it in their districts. It can be used by those fighting Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional acts in the courts. The national Dem grassroots can them amplify this call for patriotism and rejection of tyranny throughout all of our networks. It can become the rallying cry for proud patriots of all stripes to start rising up against our corrupt and traitorous leaders.
Here is a passage from our Declaration of Independence that then leads into a list of the Mad King’s “abuses and usurpations:”
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Listing our Mad King’s “abuses and usurpations” is something that must get done, Leaders Schumer and Jeffries, “let Facts be submitted to a candid world.” It should be published early next week. Work all weekend. History is calling you, now. For as the inscription at the Department of Justice tells us:
It is critical that the leaders of the Congress whose powers are being illegally and unconstitutional usurped go on the record explaining why they believe it to be the case. The absence of this clear, definitive statement is no longer acceptable and our Congressional leaders need to fill this political and legal void as soon as possible.
The absence of this letter or a more vigorous and public fight against Trump is also causing our traditional allies across the world to wonder where the Democratic Party is right now, and why they aren’t fighting Trump as aggressively as they are.
The second step, after the Letter to America, is for Congressional Dems to use these new understandings to send criminal referrals to the Department of Justice for Musk and his staff. While it is unlikely that these referrals will be acted upon we must go on record arguing that there are historic crimes being committed against America. It is critical in my view now that we introduce words like criminal, betrayal, even treason into our discourse now. We must make it clear to the public that Musk is doing is an epic, unprecedented crime spree. He is an extraordinary criminal, a betrayer of American democracy not a reformer. He is literally stealing things, big things. He has seized control of the US Treasury, of our air traffic control systems, of our private data and god knows what else. Either Elon Musk goes to jail or we have a democracy. It is one or the other. Either we defend the Constitution with everything we got or we contribute to its demise. There is no middle path here any longer.
So, that’s what we talked about last night. Enjoy the discussion. Steady yourself, and now let’s get to work. We have a country to save and a future to reclaim for our kids and grandkids, and the kids and grandkids of all the people of the world.
Let’s Get To Work People!!!!! - Let’s start with our current four recommended sets of actions:
1 - Fight The Trump/Musk Attack On Our Government And Our Privacy, End This Historic Crime Spree - Encourage your Senators and Representatives to let Facts be be submitted to a candid world in what I’m calling a joint Senate/House “Letter to America;” hold their own hearings; file criminal referrals for Musk and his malicious posse to DOJ/FBI and amicus briefs in the court cases regarding the usurpation of their Constitutional authorities or file suits of their own (House Dems began doing this on Friday). Encourage them to hold a daily morning press conference to more aggressively challenge Musk’s ransacking of the USG that is making America less prosperous, less healthy, less safe and far less respected in the world.
2 - Protest, Loudly, Trump’s Embrace of Russia and Abandonment of Europe - Let your electeds know you are outraged by traitorous Trump’s selling out of Zelenskyy, abandonment of Europe and embrace of Putin; and that we cannot accept this level of appeasement of someone who is a clear enemy of America and the West, and certainly not an ally. Demand that Trump not let his Saudi meeting w/Putin become our Munich; demand that he not become our Neville Chamberlain; demand that we rejoin our European allies in support of Zelenskyy and democracy here and everywhere. The country is not with Trump’s embrace of Putin and we must be very loud, very, very loud now.
3 - Organize Against The 17 Most Vulnerable Republican House Members - For those of you who live in AZ, CA, CO, IA, MI, NE, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WI please start talking to your local orgs - state and local Democratic parties, grassroots groups, traditional Dem allies - about mounting a campaign targeting the most vulnerable 17 Republican House Members to urge them to vote against whatever joint House-Senate reconciliation bill emerges in the coming weeks. We launched this new effort two weeks ago and while we should be urging all our Senators and Reps to vote against these emerging plans, those of you can work these 17 House Rs have a special role to play in this next phase of the battle over the budget. As we’ve discussed there is a lot of concern in the Republican House about the size of the Medicaid cuts required in the House outline passed last Tuesday and we need to keep working it people!
4 - Keep Calling Attorneys General In The States - Ask them to protect you and your data, tax returns and privacy, and to keep federally mandated monies flowing to your states and communities. For those in the 19 states that brought the successful Treasury suit thank them and encourage them to keep going. I still believe these 19 states should make criminal referrals of Musk/his posse to DOJ/FBI and raise the stakes.
Next, for those wanting to do more traditional political/campaign work we have four Hopium-backed efforts we're rallying behind right now:
Help Susan Crawford and Ben Wikler in Wisconsin - As a way of honoring our good friend Ben Wikler and supporting this critical April Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, I’m asking our community to donate to the Wisconsin Democratic Party today. The money raised here will make sure Ben has the resources he needs to keep his team in place so they can support this critical statewide race. I know many of you are already deeply involved here - thank you all.
Watch our new discussion with Susan and Ben and thanks to a huge surge of support in recent days we have already raised $110,000, blowing past our original $50,000 goal and now our stretch $100,000 goal. We are now upping this to a new super-stretch goal of $150,000 by March 31st. Amazing work everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Help Get Ken Martin Off To A Strong Start - In this time of extraordinary challenge we need a strong DNC. Two weeks ago we set a goal of raising $100,000 by March 31st for our new Chair. Incredibly, over 1,000 of you have donated over $96,000 so far. Watch my interview with Ken about what he wants to do with the DNC, and chip in whatever you can to help Ken and the new exciting team at the DNC get off to a strong start. We now have a new stretch goal of $150,000 by March 31st after our very strong start for this effort (note that we did have some money clawed back due to an error in the amount someone gave!)
Help Abigail Spanberger Win Virginia - Virginia will be one of the big battlegrounds of the November, 2025 elections and we have a great candidate for Governor, Abigail Spanberger. Watch my interview with Abigail, donate, volunteer, and learn more here. Given how many federal employees live in Virginia, this race is also now on the front lines of the Trump/Musk assault on the federal government. We’ve raised more than $56,000 so far towards our March 31st goal of $100,000 - thank you all. Let’s keep working it for Abigail!
Get Anderson Clayton And The NC Dems Fight The GOP’s Attempt To Steal A Supreme Court Seat - Last week we began a campaign to raise $50,000 for Anderson Clayton and the NC Dems. These funds will help the NC Dems get off to a great start in 2025 and help cover the costs of their fight to prevent the Republicans from stealing a Supreme Court seat we won together in 2024. Watch my new interview with Chair Clayton from last week to get an update on the fight over the Supreme Court seat and her plans to win elections and counter Trump this year. We’ve raised $17,000 so far - thank you all!
Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon
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