Something’s going on.
I feel a change in the air. It’s the dead of winter here, but I feel as if something has just woken; as if something was just reborn.
Like flowers shooting out through crack in the sidewalk, in the last couple of days, I have seen the Resistance waking up.
It may too fresh for everyone to have noticed it, but it is happening.
My local indivisible group, whose Facebook group has been relatively quiet for way too long, is suddenly full of action. People are sharing information, organizing for the election, and donating money to Senate candidates from all over the country.
And it is right on time because they tried to break us this week. They tried to sell us a story of a lost cause; a republic beyond hope; and a president that can’t be stopped.
And for a moment, it seemed like it might work. I was worried that people were losing hope. I worried that my friends were feeling overwhelmed with fear. My heart was breaking at signs that my allies were letting despair lead them to surrender.
And this was really worrying, because the only way they can win is if we give in to fear and despair.
We are the majority. We won the majority of elections in 2017, 2018, and 2019. And, frankly, they only won 2016 because we didn’t show up.
We are smarter, better organized, more dedicated, more creative AND on the right side of history.
And there are way more of us than there are of them.
The only way we lose is if we lose hope and give up.
So they tried to break us this week. They pushed the story that Iowa meant we were a mess and the Senate acquittal meant that Trump won. They showed us a president acting without regard for any constraints in the hopes that we would say “all is lost” and give up.
But they misjudged us. They didn’t realize that this week would only light a fire under us. They forgot that the pain and fear they are so good at sowing only lead us to fellowship and fight. Yes, we might detour into despair and despondence, but we never stay long. And when we rejoin the fight, we are that much tougher for it.
They’ll keep trying. We are going to face months of this effort to demoralize us, because this is their only tool. Our despair is their only hope. They will flood the internet and the news and television with panic porn and lies and just shit pile of awful behavior on top of shit pile of negligence, in the hopes that we will give up.
But we won’t. You won’t. How do I know? Because I saw you march in the streets in 2017. Because I saw you vote in 2018. Because I saw you donate money in 2019. I have faith in you. I have faith in us.
You Think Trump WON This Week?!?!
You know how someone acts after they have won and are feeling really confident? When they just won a big victory? When they know it is easy street ahead?
Ask yourself this: Is that how Trump is acting?
Spoiler alert: It isn’t
He is acting like a desperate and scared human who knows that his time is coming; a man who knows that his house of pathetic, flimsy, and crime-ridden cards is eventually going to come tumbling down around him.
He knows all the awful stuff he has done. He knows that once it is not “his” justice department, he will no longer be able to hide and the truth will come out.
I know a lot of people were upset by this week, and I get that because there was a shit-ton of bad and tiring crap, but honestly, I am filled, filled, filled with hope and optimism and I have a belly full of righteous fire and energy.
Here are seven reasons why I think this week was bad for trump and his sycophants:
Reason #1: Trump’s SOTU Was a Disaster (for him)
Standing behind Trump, Nancy Pelosi rips up a copy of his State of the Union speech right after he finishes
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore a copy of President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech in half Tuesday shortly after he concluded his address in the House chamber.
"The manifesto of mistruths presented in page after page of the address tonight should be a call to action for everyone who expects truth from the President and policies worthy of his office and the American people," Pelosi said.
At a Democratic caucus meeting Wednesday, multiple sources inside the room told NBC News that Pelosi called Trump's address a "disgrace" and accused him of turning the speech into a "reality show." Fellow Democrats gave her a standing ovation for her remarks
What NDP did that night was take the spotlight from Trump. She made all the headlines and all the images and all the stories about HER and not him. He did all he could to turn the SOTU into an attention seeking three ring circus centered around him and HE FAILED.
Ratings down 21% from 2019
Trump’s reality TV oriented SOTU address crashed and burned in early ratings Deadline.com. They came in with under 16 million viewers in the fast ratings for the major networks, the earliest viewpoint on likely ratings.
That is down from 2019, by a lot.
In summary: 1/5 fewer people watched than last year AND most of the stories were about NDP and not him. 😆
Reason #2: This was no exoneration — Trump knows that, and so should you!
I see how totally distressed everyone was that the Senate didn’t hold a real trial and let him off. First, who among you REALLY expected the Senate to hold him responsible? Think back: remember when we were all debating whether impeachment was the right road to go down (it was). One of the key arguments was whether it was worth it because we all knew the Senate would let him off. WE ALL KNEW THAT. There is literally zero surprise to this ending.
Actually, I take that back, the ending was surprising! Because most people thought that the Rs would be unanimous in their decision and that they would get a couple of Democrats to vote with them.
So, in reality, the outcome was better than we were guessing it would be.
And the consequences of the impeachment were real. Here are a few:
1. Trump may be acquitted, but House Democrats proved their power to check him
They went from toothless to aggressive on oversight.
No matter the ultimate vote in the Senate, the House’s Ukraine investigation was successful. It exposed rampant wrongdoing to the American public, and it stopped cold that particular scheme of the president’s. We now know that before the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), began his investigation in September, the president’s plan was on track. After months of pressure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had scheduled an interview with CNN to announce an inquiry into the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, on whose board former vice president Joe Biden’s son Hunter once sat. Schiff’s announcement that a whistleblower had filed a complaint and his subsequent aggressive investigation killed that interview, and prevented the president from achieving his goal of casting a shadow over the Biden presidential campaign.
2. Mitt Romney’s Decision to Convict Destroyed Trump’s Victory
Here’s why this is so important:
1. This will hurt GOP Senators up for re-election in 2020 as they have lost much of their political cover. Their cowardice will stand out even more to voters in their states.
2. Democratic Senators who considered voting to acquit were forced to reconsider their strategy. They now have more cover and don’t want to jeopardize their reelection chances with Democrats my moving to the right of Romney, and side with Republicans.
3. The national conversation now becomes about a bipartisan vote to convict.
4. Most importantly, Mitt Romney has sway with a faction of national Republicans and center right conservative independents who now have at least one example of some modicum of moral courage. This may make them better deal with their internal conflict around the need to remain loyal to Trump given his actions
And Trump KNEW this was bad for him:
3. This was not a vindication for Trump OR the Senate.
Trump won’t be vindicated. The Senate won’t be, either.
Republican leadership in the Senate had the power to conceal the president’s full misconduct during the trial by disallowing witnesses and documents, but they cannot keep the full, ugly truth of the president’s conduct, and that of all the president’s men, from the American people. Not for long.
Because of the impeachment process, voters can now stand forewarned of the lengths to which the president will go to try to secure his reelection, violating the law and undermining our national security and that of our allies.
By denying the American people a fair trial, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also deprived the president of something that he desperately sought — exoneration. There can be no exoneration without a legitimate trial. Out of fear of what they would learn, the Senate refused to hold one. The president will not be vindicated, and neither will the Senate, certainly not by history.
This Will Come Back to Haunt Trump and His Enablers
impeachment has forced Americans to confront it — a question, it turns out, that was central to the framers’ decision to include impeachment in our Constitution. And Americans overwhelmingly reject what Mr. Trump did, with 75 percent saying in December that his Ukraine extortion scheme was wrong (a view that even some Republican senators have endorsed). That’s huge: For all that divides Americans today, this is a dominant consensus on what it means to abuse public office and distort American democracy.
A brief interruption for this data (from the wonderful chloris creator):
Back to how bad this is for trump:
Remember also that the investigation into Mr. Trump’s Ukraine extortion scandal isn’t over. Trump’s own lawyers insisted that key witnesses like John Bolton should testify in the House, rather than in the Senate. And Mr. Trump’s entire defense was that the people should decide in November. So be it. The House has a continuing duty, as part of its oversight and legislative functions, to get to the bottom of what happened so that November will be a fully informed choice. Recall that it was Mr. Trump’s central defense that there weren’t witnesses who testified that they saw, firsthand, his extortion of Ukraine. The House now has an opportunity to do so. And it must, according to Mr. Trump’s own arguments, so that the November election can serve the function that Mr. Trump, in warding off impeachment, claimed it should.
President Trump may remain in office for now, but he now serves an American people that’s stronger for the journey our country has just taken. It’s a country energized by a sense of when a president has abused his office; reminded of how a political party can choose morality over political expediency; enlightened by the display of candor from public servants; and educated about the crucial nature of whistle-blowers and thus of the legal protections afforded them.
Regrettably, one political party has resisted acknowledging, let alone embracing, these lessons. That’s a danger to the Republic. And it’s one that Americans now need to address through their public advocacy, their community engagement — and, ultimately, at the voting booth in November.
Reason #3: Senate Cowardice will help us take the Senate
People are FIRED up about taking the senate now more than ever! Check out this new amazing initiative from Indivisible dedicated to making them pay for this at the ballot box (and sign up!):
Payback Project
Get angry.
Then, get even.
Yes, we could just set our sights on canceling Cornyn, or getting rid of Graham, or trashing Tillis, or ejecting Ernst, or sending Perdue packing, but after years of Senate Republicans enabling Trump and destroying democracy, we have to do more.
Realtalk: Defeating this many Senate Republicans will not be easy -- it will take a massive awareness campaign to expose the truth of their complicity to voters and a growing grassroots army on the ground ready to ensure their Democratic opponents have the funding and people necessary to knock doors, activate voters, and win. We have a comprehensive, four-pronged approach to make sure Republicans Senators are held accountable for their actions, their votes, and their enabling of Donald Trump.
Sign up to be involved at this link
And we are doing well on our path to keeping the House too:
Reason #4: Lots of Good Came out Of Iowa
Truth time: we don’t know much more about who will be our nominee now than we did a week ago. And that isn’t just because the results were a mess, it is also because Iowa is super White and super old (although it is also a great state!) AND caucuses are not a good barometer of what people really think.
That said, we are all glossing over something AMAZING that happened in Iowa:
A Gay Man won a state (or tied) while running for president
- It was 1987 (a 30 year old adult ago) that homosexuality was removed from the DSM, banishing the notion that it was a mental health disorder.
- It was 2003 (a teenager ago) that the Supreme Court struck down anti-sodomy laws, which effectively decriminalized homosexuality in America.
- It was in 2015 (a toddler ago) that gay marriage became legal in the United States.
- To this day being gay is not a protected class in many states or at a federal level.
I am proud of my party. We remain committed to a more inclusive America, and we do so with our actions.
Huge! Just huge. We’ve come a long way ❤️ ✊ ❤️
Reason #5: This isn’t over
What’s coming next
Former national security adviser John Bolton’s forthcoming book will detail that Trump personally discussed his withholding of nearly $400 million in military aid to extort Ukraine into launching a sham investigation designed to smear potential 2020 opponent Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, there’s another ticking time bomb: The National Security Agency, or NSA, may have withheld from the House information that would have been directly relevant to the conduct for which Trump was impeached.
In an important interview with Rachel Maddow, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the leader of the House impeachment managers, noted that the NSA did withhold information, requested by the House, that was directly relevant to the Ukraine scandal.
“It was information that was pertinent to the case, that they should have had to make their determination,” Schiff said, adding that after “instructions” from “up above,” the information was “withheld.”
We don’t know much about this. But we might soon.
Price noted it’s likely the White House counsel — who led Trump’s impeachment defense — could have instructed NSA officials not to cooperate with House demands.
“By law, the NSA is required to provide pertinent information to congressional overseers,” Price told me. “Blocking that would require a deliberate intervention from the White House.”
To be clear, we don’t know what happened here. But as Price told me, though it’s unlikely the NSA will cough up this information, dogged investigative reporting might — and might also establish how it was covered up.
This would be damning. If this happens, or if Bolton’s book is as incriminating as advertised, GOP senators would be pressed to revisit their refusal during Trump’s impeachment trial to hear from Bolton — and their refusal to seek the sort of evidence the NSA apparently withheld.
And because trump is a stupid impulsive small man baby, he can’t help himself from lashing out, even when it would be WAY smarter not to. For example this:
There is no way that isn’t a mistake. Tell me this man does not (a) have receipts and (b) love drama:
Yah, this dude is going to keep quiet 😆 Good luck with that, morons!
Reason #6: That 49% approval rating people are losing their minds over is BS
Has Trump’s approval rating really shot up to 49 percent? Probably not.
His recent polling gains have the hallmarks of a specific kind of polling error called differential nonresponse bias.
More Republicans — and fewer Democrats — are responding to pollsters. That could skew the results.
as the relative number of Democrats increases, Trump’s approval decreases. With Gallup, it looks like almost all the variation in Trump’s job approval from one poll to the next can be explained just by looking at how many of each party’s supporters are in their sample.
Reason #7: Winning in November is completely within our control
Maybe…. there Is No Swing Voter
Bitecofer’s theory, when you boil it down, is that modern American elections are rarely shaped by voters changing their minds, but rather by shifts in who decides to vote in the first place.
Bitecofer’s radical new theory predicted the midterms spot-on. So who’s going to win 2020?
Today her model tells her the Democrats are a near lock for the presidency in 2020, and are likely to gain House seats and have a decent shot at retaking the Senate.
Get it? That suggests that it IS within our reach and we just have to focus on GOTV GOTV GOTMFV!!
So lets get to work: We have 260 days until the election. We have 260 to do all the work necessary to save our country.
Feeling despondent? I get it but also: Snap the fuck out of it. Our grandparents crawled though mud and death to fight fascism in war torn Europe. They literally gave their youth and lives for Democracy. All you have to do is donate money, drive people to the polls, march in the streets, go door to door, make phone calls, send postcards…. etc. So suck it up buttercup. America needs you!
Need some ideas?
Here are some ideas of ways to donate your time from the comfort of your own home (click on the links):
- Get involved with Postcards to voters. Postcards to Voters are friendly, handwritten reminders from volunteers to targeted voters giving Democrats a winning edge in close, key races coast to coast.
- register voters in key battleground states. Vote Forward has active campaigns going in 8 key states to encourage under-represented (potential) voters to register. In 6 of them, the packet you send to each potential voter will include the actual voter registration forms and instructions with pre-paid postage for that state. The folks at Vote Forward have collected data on this technique and determined that it does, indeed, appear to increase voter registration.
- Text voters in key Senate races Payback Project has a comprehensive, four-pronged approach to make sure Republicans Senators are held accountable for their actions, their votes, and their enabling of Donald Trump.
- Contact the campaign of your favorite presidential candidate(s) and find out how to make phone calls to other states. You dial an 800 number once, and the computer will connect you to Democratic voters. No arguments necessary. And it is free (options 1 and 2 aren’t expensive, but do require that you pay for postage)
Here are some ways to get involved outside your house:
- Find volunteer opportunities at Vote Save America Every election matters, even the ones that aren't as sexy as those Iowa caucuses. Rawr. (Too much? Maybe. But get out there and help right now!)
- Get involved with Stacey Abrams Fair Fight which is fighting voter suppression — and already helped us with two huge victories in the south!! Fair Fight is Fighting Back. Fair Fight built and engages a robust network of grassroots activists that works to strengthen democracy at all levels.
- Get involved with your local democratic party
- People who live in or near a state with strict voter ID requirements might wish to help by volunteering with Voteriders. They provide hands-on assistance with getting voter registration and ID, “including obtaining documents (such as birth certificates, change of name records) and arranging rides to and from ID-issuing offices.”
- Sign up to go door to door in your district It’s time we start talking with everybody about the progressive change our country needs. To do this effectively we’ll have to take the time to listen to voters who may not agree with us, but could be persuaded to our cause through civil conversations about what matters most in our lives. #KnockEveryDoor is a volunteer-led organization created in the wake of the disastrous 2016 election.
- Sign up to drive people to the polls Do you have a spare seat to help get somebody to the polls or voter I.D. office? Click the link to let Carpool Vote know when and where you'll be driving, and they will match you with riders!
Here are some ideas for donating:
- Donate to a fund for Democratic candidates that run in the 2020 Senate elections This fund is devoted to the Democratic candidates that run in the 2020 Senate elections against Susan Collins in Maine, Cory Gardner in Colorado, Martha McSally in Arizona, Thom Tillis in North Carolina, Pat Roberts in Kansas, and David Perdue in Georgia.
- Donate to the Unify or Die fund for WHOMEVER our nominee will be 100% of your donation to the Unify or Die Fund will go to the eventual Democratic nominee for President, exactly when they need it most: right after the convention in July 2020, as they enter the general election.
- Donate to Swing Left Swing Left connects you with the most effective actions you can take to help Democrats defeat Trump and the GOP in 2020. Enter your zip code and find out what you can do, right now.
- Donate to the ACLU Donate to the ACLU today to help protect the rights and liberties of people across the country. Right now, they're: Protecting free speech and the right to protest; Defending reproductive freedom; Fighting anti-LGBTQ discrimination; & Safeguarding the rights of refugees and immigrants.
I am so lucky and so proud to be in this with all of you ❤️ ✊ ❤️