Simon, you keep referring to the GOP as the party of Lincoln and Reagan. However, they are two very different parties that happen to share the same name. The GOP of Lincoln was a liberal reform party (by the standards of its time). The GOP of Reagan was always and is still today, in spades, an anti-democratic reactionary political movement trying to overturn every liberal reform implemented during the New Deal era from 1933 into the 1970s. MAGA is the logical progression of the Reagan program. The GOP we would prefer to see today, though impossible, would be the Eisenhower Republicans. The conservative wing of the GOP hated the Eisenhower Republicans for accepting the New Deal reforms. They were chased out of the party long ago.
Yes, but the general public still thinks of Reagan as a great president, because of an unfair perception that he won the Cold War ( and look where that got us in the long run! ) so it's important to point out to people that today's R's are on the side of Putin, who was an actual KGB agent.
Great write up as usual. I'm sensing a change, even at Bloomberg, where pessimism reigns ( where is the recession? ) they are having to admit things are going great, not just good. Overlooked is education; there is a continuing right wing assault on education, and the far right nut jobs running for school boards ( which used to be sleepy elections only the families of the local district employees voted in ) were mostly turned away and not politely. They are coming for the public schools and guess what? The vast majority of folks don't approve of all the voucher schemes and don't want people telling teachers what they can teach, especially when it means ignoring history or science. We need to ramp up on this issue too; the right wing has, and they need to be countered; the public is with us here. As Obama said, fired up! Ready to go.
Hi there! Love your comment regarding public schools and the need to amplify, step up and step in to make change happen. I will take this opportunity to share what is happening in Orange County, CA. We are in the midst of an important Recall effort of 2 candidates who are supported by the far right machine. Our local community came together and gathered over 36k to get this on the ballot. Now, we are fighting an uphill battle in fundraising as the other side is bringing in dark money for PACs with the destruction of public schools as their main agenda item. Please take a look at the website and contribute if you are able. Donations are our biggest need right now so we can have a chance at winning this thing in March!! https://www.ousdrecall.com/contact-donate.
Fyi — I went to donate Eva but sadly the site requires a phone number. I do not want text or other phone communications – so “No” to donating. Sorry :(
Hi there! Thanks for donation consideration. I am pretty sure you can put in a fake number (all 9s) as the field is just looking for digits. Feel free to give that a try if you like. Thanks again!
Understood. I prefer authenticity! The more relevant question seems to be, “Why is a phone ‘required’ in the first place, instead of being optional?” Thanks!
Fair question. Given this is going to get primarily local traffic, the phone number has been an important in reaching out for signatures during that phase, further financial support, volunteer efforts and eventually messages about returning ballots. Thus, we made it required to give us the chance to reach out to supporters given the grass roots nature of this work.
Fair answer ~ Thank you. And thank you for making others like myself aware of your Recall efforts. Perhaps our conversation here has raised further awareness!
Canadian here; Biden is breath of dignity and intelligence. Most Canadians fear the chaos that will ensue through Trump. IMHO, I understand that most voters dislike Kamala Harris, the VP. I believe that for the good of the country, she should step down and have Biden choose someone else. It is shame but real.
Do that and it will alienate Black voters and rightly so. Harris faces a lot of hidden ( and not so hidden ) racism/sexism. She was instrumental in helping Biden win; she isn't going to cost him the election now. But tossing her aside just might. Democrats cannot win without strong Black support. Plus she is a damned good VP.
1) I haven’t seen data to back up this claim in a meaningful way with persuadable voters, and it’s useless to factor the 42% of the electorate that is either fully in the MAGA cult or so structurally partisan R that they won’t abandon the party regardless of who is representing it.
2) She is well liked in important segments of the Dem base and it would potentially depress our turnout, especially among women of color if he dropped her now. Also, low information persuadable voters vote the top of the ticket and don’t know enough about her to have a strong enough opinion for it to determine their vote. I would venture that well in excess of 90 - 95% of people who claim she is their reason to not support Biden were never actually available votes for any Democrat to begin with.
I don't know where you get that impression. Most Americans don't pay much attention to the VP. I love Kamala Harris, having worked for years with her office on the California Electricity Crisis. She's young, energetic, a woman, and a person of color. She and her husband are great ambassadors for Joe Biden.
Podcasts with HCR (during Democracy Awakening book tour) are stellar. Just The Right Book podcast with Roxanne Coady is A+ for knitting together how we got here. Listened 3 times to the last 20 minutes. Also perfect is HCR on Michael Steelers podcast, Lincoln Project’s Reed Galen with HCR and Al Franken’s podcast. There are more. Search Heather Cox Richardson in the Podcast app. All so helpful for those of us who just can’t get their head around how a cult leader got so much power.
Yes.... marvel at how often I think things like, “I miss the days of negotiating with the Tea Party,” or, “Newt Gingrich wasn’t so bad once you got to know him.” 🤦♂️😂 Sometimes I have to laugh about it just so I don’t cry.
I think he’s more than “a good president.” He’s holding the NATO alliance together, has passed significant legislation despite R roadblocks, and is a fervent advocate of democracy. He deserves tremendous credit.
"- Think about what we’ve seen in the past few weeks:" Simon, I would add this paragraph as the best on Substack in the past few weeks. Keep up the great work!!
This sounds like a good activity for anyone who has previously written letters for Vote Forward (www.votefwd.org) letters and can hit the ground running. It sounds like they want the letters mailed on or before Feb 6th.
I have signed up for a Zoom letter-writing party next week and have requested that they send me the letters/addresses in advance of the ZOOM meeting (otherwise things are pretty inefficient based on my previous experience with Vote Forward letter writing parties). There is a link in the event description to a form to request the pdf for the letters be emaled to you in advance. You are responsible for printing out the letters and adding your handwritten message,as well as envelopes and postage.
From the Mobilize description:
Join ZOOM letter parties 5 days a week to write Vote Forward-approved letters for the urgent NY3 Special Election with the Swing Left/Indivisible group, Target Majority NYC.
As you may know, Vote Forward was not able to mount a letter campaign for this special. So we, a grassroots group called Target Majority NYC did, working hand-in-hand with Vote Forward and Swing Left! We have also applied Suozzi's published messages in our letter, to appropriately support their campaign.
Simon - this great phrase from today’s newsletter totally needs to be your slogan: “We do more; we worry less.” It sums up the approach we should all be taking.
Biden’s refusal to take a firmer stand against clear Israeli aggression -- far out of proportion -- has really sapped my enthusiasm for him. I say this with someone with family in Israel who worries about both our countries.
I will vote for him and fervently hope he wins. I’ll campaign for other Dem candidates. However my view of him is greatly diminished -- he and our country have become accomplices to genocide and famine and appears weak and comlplicit.
Simon you can rattle off polls but we ignore this huge failing at our peril. YOU have a voice Simon. You say “Bibi must go” but nothing more.
Biden needs to be pressured by more than just Bernie to wake up.
Republicans are standing with Russia as it savages Ukraine and while it supports Iran, Hezbollah and Syria, trying to stoke Israel into broadening the war across the region. Others in MAGA call for Netanyahu to have a free hand to do what he likes. Russia may have even stoked Hamas into its action, counting on Israel to respond disproportionately - which Biden immediately warned Netanyahu against doing. I can't see Biden as the problem here but Russia, which desperately wants to weaken Biden and Ukraine.
I know a lot of you already follow Heather Cox Richardson's substack, but an activist friend sent me a link to her latest post and asked that I share it as widely as possible to amplify it. I'm not on X or Facebook, but I thought I'd share it with my peeps here:
Love these updates. Thank you, Simon. Let's get to work!
If you don’t know how we got here, I recommend Heather Cox Richardson’s Democracy Awakening. She lays it out quite clearly.
Been on the waiting list to get a copy for weeks at my library. That tells you something.
Simon, you keep referring to the GOP as the party of Lincoln and Reagan. However, they are two very different parties that happen to share the same name. The GOP of Lincoln was a liberal reform party (by the standards of its time). The GOP of Reagan was always and is still today, in spades, an anti-democratic reactionary political movement trying to overturn every liberal reform implemented during the New Deal era from 1933 into the 1970s. MAGA is the logical progression of the Reagan program. The GOP we would prefer to see today, though impossible, would be the Eisenhower Republicans. The conservative wing of the GOP hated the Eisenhower Republicans for accepting the New Deal reforms. They were chased out of the party long ago.
Yes, but the general public still thinks of Reagan as a great president, because of an unfair perception that he won the Cold War ( and look where that got us in the long run! ) so it's important to point out to people that today's R's are on the side of Putin, who was an actual KGB agent.
Great write up as usual. I'm sensing a change, even at Bloomberg, where pessimism reigns ( where is the recession? ) they are having to admit things are going great, not just good. Overlooked is education; there is a continuing right wing assault on education, and the far right nut jobs running for school boards ( which used to be sleepy elections only the families of the local district employees voted in ) were mostly turned away and not politely. They are coming for the public schools and guess what? The vast majority of folks don't approve of all the voucher schemes and don't want people telling teachers what they can teach, especially when it means ignoring history or science. We need to ramp up on this issue too; the right wing has, and they need to be countered; the public is with us here. As Obama said, fired up! Ready to go.
Hi there! Love your comment regarding public schools and the need to amplify, step up and step in to make change happen. I will take this opportunity to share what is happening in Orange County, CA. We are in the midst of an important Recall effort of 2 candidates who are supported by the far right machine. Our local community came together and gathered over 36k to get this on the ballot. Now, we are fighting an uphill battle in fundraising as the other side is bringing in dark money for PACs with the destruction of public schools as their main agenda item. Please take a look at the website and contribute if you are able. Donations are our biggest need right now so we can have a chance at winning this thing in March!! https://www.ousdrecall.com/contact-donate.
Fyi — I went to donate Eva but sadly the site requires a phone number. I do not want text or other phone communications – so “No” to donating. Sorry :(
Hi there! Thanks for donation consideration. I am pretty sure you can put in a fake number (all 9s) as the field is just looking for digits. Feel free to give that a try if you like. Thanks again!
Understood. I prefer authenticity! The more relevant question seems to be, “Why is a phone ‘required’ in the first place, instead of being optional?” Thanks!
Fair question. Given this is going to get primarily local traffic, the phone number has been an important in reaching out for signatures during that phase, further financial support, volunteer efforts and eventually messages about returning ballots. Thus, we made it required to give us the chance to reach out to supporters given the grass roots nature of this work.
Fair answer ~ Thank you. And thank you for making others like myself aware of your Recall efforts. Perhaps our conversation here has raised further awareness!
Canadian here; Biden is breath of dignity and intelligence. Most Canadians fear the chaos that will ensue through Trump. IMHO, I understand that most voters dislike Kamala Harris, the VP. I believe that for the good of the country, she should step down and have Biden choose someone else. It is shame but real.
Do that and it will alienate Black voters and rightly so. Harris faces a lot of hidden ( and not so hidden ) racism/sexism. She was instrumental in helping Biden win; she isn't going to cost him the election now. But tossing her aside just might. Democrats cannot win without strong Black support. Plus she is a damned good VP.
1) I haven’t seen data to back up this claim in a meaningful way with persuadable voters, and it’s useless to factor the 42% of the electorate that is either fully in the MAGA cult or so structurally partisan R that they won’t abandon the party regardless of who is representing it.
2) She is well liked in important segments of the Dem base and it would potentially depress our turnout, especially among women of color if he dropped her now. Also, low information persuadable voters vote the top of the ticket and don’t know enough about her to have a strong enough opinion for it to determine their vote. I would venture that well in excess of 90 - 95% of people who claim she is their reason to not support Biden were never actually available votes for any Democrat to begin with.
I don't know where you get that impression. Most Americans don't pay much attention to the VP. I love Kamala Harris, having worked for years with her office on the California Electricity Crisis. She's young, energetic, a woman, and a person of color. She and her husband are great ambassadors for Joe Biden.
Most voters do not dislike Kamala Harris. That is a myth perpetuated by the Right and by misogynic men.
Podcasts with HCR (during Democracy Awakening book tour) are stellar. Just The Right Book podcast with Roxanne Coady is A+ for knitting together how we got here. Listened 3 times to the last 20 minutes. Also perfect is HCR on Michael Steelers podcast, Lincoln Project’s Reed Galen with HCR and Al Franken’s podcast. There are more. Search Heather Cox Richardson in the Podcast app. All so helpful for those of us who just can’t get their head around how a cult leader got so much power.
Here's a long form magazine piece I wrote in 2012 about what I viewed then as the GOP's dangerous descent into extremism: https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/forward-or-backward-the-descent-of.
Yes.... marvel at how often I think things like, “I miss the days of negotiating with the Tea Party,” or, “Newt Gingrich wasn’t so bad once you got to know him.” 🤦♂️😂 Sometimes I have to laugh about it just so I don’t cry.
I think he’s more than “a good president.” He’s holding the NATO alliance together, has passed significant legislation despite R roadblocks, and is a fervent advocate of democracy. He deserves tremendous credit.
Wonderful post, Simon. Thank you.
Not one step back! We will
keep moving forward!
AMEN.
"- Think about what we’ve seen in the past few weeks:" Simon, I would add this paragraph as the best on Substack in the past few weeks. Keep up the great work!!
thank you Eric!!!!!!!!!!!!! Takes a village!
I ran across this on Mobilize and thought it would fit in well with our other volunteer activities supporting Tom Suozzi: https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/596961/
This sounds like a good activity for anyone who has previously written letters for Vote Forward (www.votefwd.org) letters and can hit the ground running. It sounds like they want the letters mailed on or before Feb 6th.
I have signed up for a Zoom letter-writing party next week and have requested that they send me the letters/addresses in advance of the ZOOM meeting (otherwise things are pretty inefficient based on my previous experience with Vote Forward letter writing parties). There is a link in the event description to a form to request the pdf for the letters be emaled to you in advance. You are responsible for printing out the letters and adding your handwritten message,as well as envelopes and postage.
From the Mobilize description:
Join ZOOM letter parties 5 days a week to write Vote Forward-approved letters for the urgent NY3 Special Election with the Swing Left/Indivisible group, Target Majority NYC.
As you may know, Vote Forward was not able to mount a letter campaign for this special. So we, a grassroots group called Target Majority NYC did, working hand-in-hand with Vote Forward and Swing Left! We have also applied Suozzi's published messages in our letter, to appropriately support their campaign.
Thanks for posting - I signed up!
Great!
Thank you for continuing to highlight all that is positive. We must "build on strengths" at this time.
Simon - this great phrase from today’s newsletter totally needs to be your slogan: “We do more; we worry less.” It sums up the approach we should all be taking.
Some have asked for links to the polls showing Biden leading in MI, NH and PA. Here you go - https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/good-polls-in-nhpa-trump-is-a-terrible
Biden’s refusal to take a firmer stand against clear Israeli aggression -- far out of proportion -- has really sapped my enthusiasm for him. I say this with someone with family in Israel who worries about both our countries.
I will vote for him and fervently hope he wins. I’ll campaign for other Dem candidates. However my view of him is greatly diminished -- he and our country have become accomplices to genocide and famine and appears weak and comlplicit.
Simon you can rattle off polls but we ignore this huge failing at our peril. YOU have a voice Simon. You say “Bibi must go” but nothing more.
Biden needs to be pressured by more than just Bernie to wake up.
Thanks
Republicans are standing with Russia as it savages Ukraine and while it supports Iran, Hezbollah and Syria, trying to stoke Israel into broadening the war across the region. Others in MAGA call for Netanyahu to have a free hand to do what he likes. Russia may have even stoked Hamas into its action, counting on Israel to respond disproportionately - which Biden immediately warned Netanyahu against doing. I can't see Biden as the problem here but Russia, which desperately wants to weaken Biden and Ukraine.
I know a lot of you already follow Heather Cox Richardson's substack, but an activist friend sent me a link to her latest post and asked that I share it as widely as possible to amplify it. I'm not on X or Facebook, but I thought I'd share it with my peeps here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/january-13-2024?r=1aiy5t&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web