Expanding Our Coalition, Biden's Investing in America Tour, VP in Africa, Wisconsin Tomorrow

The Monday Hopium Chronicles Newsletter/Welcome New Subscribers!

We are once again entering a week that will be dominated by the depravities of Donald Trump and the hysterical arm wavings of his cowardly defenders. But we have been talking about that so much of late that I’m choosing to start the week focusing on the more uplifting and constructive parts of our work here together.

I also want to welcome our many new subscribers. Our community of proud patriots and wild-eyed optimists is growing, and it’s been really exciting to see……

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court Election Is Tomorrow - I’m booked for a 3pm CT phone bank shift this afternoon. Who’s joining me?

If you want to learn more about this critical election see our recent interview with the dynamic WI Dem Chair, Ben Wikler. Hope everyone reading this will do a final shift today or tomorrow - need to leave it all on the playing field friends. This one really matters.

Get to 55/Strive for 55 - In watching the Republicans once again rally around their disgraced leader these past few days, I’ve become even more convinced that the historic awfulness of Trump/DeSantis/MAGA is giving us a big opportunity to go-on-offense, expand our coalition and grow our vote - get to 55% nationally - next year. I spell out this ambitious idea in the original memo, and a new short take video. This video and analysis go deep into our remarkable success with Hispanic voters over the past 20 years - expanding our vote with Hispanics is an important part of how we “get to 55.”

More on this early stage project in the coming weeks.

Winning The Economic Argument This Year - In my mind the two big priorities for Democrats this year are to win the economic debate with Republicans and to launch a national voter registration drive for younger Americans (as part of getting to 55). I’ve spelled out some of my ideas about what we need to do to win the big economic debate in this recent memo on the March jobs report. It is also core to our With Democrats Things Get Better presentation. Lots of good data and charts and graphs for you to chew on in these products.

Note that the President has launched a big effort to talk about his “Investing in America Agenda.” Everyone should try to follow the campaign closely and amplify it when possible. It’s really important. A good, sharable chart from the campaign is below……

Workshopping A New Agenda for Women and Families - Last week I asked our community to join me in workshopping what I’m calling (for now) “A New Agenda for Women and Families.” We’ve gotten a lot of great comments - thanks, everyone! Check out the original concept memo and weigh in if you haven’t yet. There is something here and I want to keep exploring it. This is an area where we need to go on offense now, not let the right continue to get there first and push us around. We need to do better here.

A Very Good Week for American Diplomacy in Africa - The Vice President just completed a very successful week long trip to Africa, and the images from it all week were remarkable, encouraging, strong. It was a good week for her, and for the US.

Restoring Integrity to Our Discourse/Getting Louder - One of our main themes here is that the US is in desperate need of a big conversation about what’s happened, and is happening now, to our daily discourse. The new conversation about TikTok is a good beginning, but so much more needs to be done to talk about the power of the right wing noise machine/Fox “News,” the promise and perils of AI, the degradation of Twitter, the clear harms of social media.…Going to be a big focus of our work together in the coming months. I found this new memo, “America is unprepared for the 2024 political internet,” from Kyle Tharp at the FWIW substack helping in thinking about what comes next.

One the central ways we are responding to the loss of the intergrity in our discourse is for all of us to get louder. See this post and this video for more on that foundational Hopium Chronicles concept. We are a noisy bunch here at Hopium, loud and proud!

The Ugliness of MAGA Is The Central Story of Our Politics Now - The awfulness/ugliness of MAGA was the central driver of the last three elections, and with DeSantis’ lurch to the right and reckless, and Trump’s ongoing depravations, it is likely to be again in 2024. Here’s some of my recent writing on how MAGA is getting worse, not better, and why we need to keep doing our work:

• Trump Indicted

• Trump Takes Control of the GOP Nomination Fight

• Learning How To Say Its Not Okay

• The Republicans Have a DeSantis Problem

• On Ukraine, DeSantis Sides With Putin Over The West

Upcoming Events

Tues, April 4th - Simon Speaks to the Consolidated Oregon Indivisible Network - Learn More/RSVP

Thur, April 6th - Paid Subscriber Political Briefing w/Simon - Learn More/RSVP

Thur, April 13th - With Democrats Things Get Better - Learn More/RSVP

Mon, April 17th (New)- The Israeli Fight For Democracy: A View From Israel - Save The Date

Thur, April 20th - Simon’s Monthly Political Briefing - Learn More/RSVP

Citations

Trump Indictment Marks New Volatile Chapter In American Politics - Time

Why Chicago’s Mayoral Runoff Has America’s Attention - NPR

Why President Biden Won’t Comment on Trump’s Indictment Anytime Soon - Scripps News

‘New Democrat’ Who Called 2022 Right Targets MAGA - Washington Examiner

Will Trump’s Indictment Help or Hurt His Campaign? - Vox

Trump Builds Early Lead Over DeSantis - The Guardian

Why Is Ron DeSantis Slipping In The Polls? - The Week

Ron DeSantis Says US Should Not Get ‘Further Entangled” In Ukraine War - The Guardian

Why Hopium Chronicles? If you are new here be sure to read my welcome statement and Ron Brownstein’s interview with me in the Atlantic.   Together they do a good job of explaining why I’m shuttering NDN and setting up shop here.

Note that there is a lot of material on the H/C site itself as I have brought some of my work over the past two decades along with me. Do explore. There is a lot of good stuff here.

Happy Monday All! Keep working hard - Simon