Fighting Trump Now - Some Recommendations For Congressional Democrats

Our politics changed in August, and Congressional Dems will have to raise their game

Afternoon all. When Congress returns next week they will face a changed political environment. A lot changed in August. First, Trump has dramatically escalated this month, and descended deeper into unchecked, unaccountable and undeniably dangerous authoritarianism and extremism - the wild tariffs, the occupation of DC, his ongoing efforts to take over the Fed, the red carpet for Putin and back of the hand for our European allies, the FBI’s going after John Bolton, the firing of the BLS Director, the ending of US support for mRNA vaccines and crackpot Robert Kennedy’s continued assault on our vaccine regime, his attempt to steal Congressional seats and a never ending stream of lies, confabulations, attacks, threats and assertions of power that no democracy would ever place in a leader. Perhaps there was a way earlier this summer to somehow be in a place that “it couldn’t happen here” but after this terrible, terrible August that head-in-the-sand place is no longer an option for any responsible leader in America. It is happening here.

Second, led by Governor Newsom, Governor JB Pritzker, and those Texas House Members, Democrats began to find a higher gear this August by showing the kind of grit, creativity, courage, and fight appropriate to the gravity of the moment.

Here’s Governor Pritzker’s powerful remarks from yesterday. Please watch this:

When Congressional Democrats return next week they are returning to a changed (and occupied) Capital and a new political moment. Trump has become more dangerous. Democrats more ambitious. It is going to be critical that our Congressional reflect these changes and find a higher gear to meet the an escalating Trump and a Party that has a new understanding of what fighting Trump can look like. Leaders Schumer and Jeffries will simply have to demonstrate that they understand the ground has shifted, and come out of the box next week challenging Trump in far more aggressive ways.

There are many ways this can happen but I have a few recommendations:

1 - The Senate-House communications operations must become far more ambitious, and operate 24/7/365. “Recess” can no longer be a thing, as Trump has had the stage to himself in DC this August and I think the lack of aggressive push back has encouraged the escalation we’ve seen. Staff will have be redeployed to beef up the Comms operations. Ranking Members MUST start acting like a Shadow Cabinet and take on daily communications - not just legislative - responsibilities. Gov. Newsom’s digital team should be leading training for all Congressional Comms and Digital folks. “Silence is complicity” should be the sign that sits on the desk of every Democratic leader this fall. We must be in his face, challenging him every day, on all fronts.

Simply, our Congressional leaders must increasingly understand that they not just legislators but communicators and leaders of a proud, patriotic American opposition to what is the greatest threat to our democracy our nation has ever seen. Fighting Trump is not what the “Democratic base” wants. It is what is required of us now, and particularly required of those who swore an oath to defend the Constitution, a Constitution under unprecedented and historic assault.

2- Talks must begin to create some kind of national Democratic leadership coordinating council. We must find a way for the Senate, House, Governors and other prominent Dems to coordinate and work together. Trump prevails by dividing people and organizations, keeping them isolated and apart, so they are more easily steamrolled. The antidote to that strategy is for us to try to find ways to get bigger, to work together not separately, as the 23 Dem AGs do every day. We have to start seeing ourselves as all on the same opposition team, and to build these disparate parts into a true opposition movement with some kind of loose coordinating council.

What we have now is insufficient and something much bigger, more powerful has to be built, and Democratic donors MUST get off the sidelines and help create the kind of capacity needed now to fight an escalating and increasingly ambitious Trump. Factional infighting is an indulgence we do not have right now. We must all hold hands and get stronger, more ambitious, more powerful for we will literally hang together or hang separately. Everyone must do their part now, and everyone has a role to play.

3 - We must settle on some kind of loose national narrative. They claim they want to Make America Great Again. What do we want to do? What is our rallying cry?

As we’ve discussed here and here, the absence of a clear ambitious, muscular national narrative, agenda and rallying cry (and not just flaccid “messaging”) is a serious problem for us, and it must be addressed in the coming days.

What follows are some initial recommendations for a unifying movement wide agenda (Restoring The Promise Of America) and the beginnings of a national narrative (A Letter to America)…….

Restoring The Promise Of America

Fight For Democracy And Freedom - We will fight for democracy, for Ukraine, for Europe, for NATO, for our own national security and sovereignty, for maintaining American leadership of the global rules-based order that our party imagined and built after WWII. We will oppose Putin, the selling out of Ukraine and the West, of Trump’s tearing down of the American-led rules based “Four Freedoms” global order and his abandonment of the Constitutional order here in America.

End The Inflationary, Destructive And Illegal Tariffs - We will fight to end Trump’s terrible tariffs that are raising prices on every day Americans, slowing the US and global economies, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to all of us, harming our farmers and small businesses, angering our allies and dramatically undermining the American-led rules based global order. While doing harm these tariffs are also illegal and unconstitutional, the greatest abuse of power by an American President in our history. Together, we must roll them back.

Block The Creation Of An Unaccountable Political Police Force Loyal To Trump - We will fight to block the rancid and dangerous expansion of ICE and Trump’s illegal use of the military to forge for himself an unaccountable domestic political police force loyal to only to him and not the Constitution. Need to be all in on this one peeps.

Stand Up For Science, Higher Ed, Our Public Health - We will fight to stop the ongoing assault on science, higher education, and our public health. We will oppose the escalating attacks on our universities, the gutting of our global scientific leadership, the dangerous undermining of vaccines and preventative health, and the cutting of the ACA and Medicaid. These authoritarian attacks are making our country poorer, our companies less able to compete, are dramatically undermining the health of the American people and violate our cherished First Amendment rights.

A Letter to America

Let Facts Be Submitted To A Candid World

March 13, 2025 - In several posts over the last few weeks I’ve advocated that Democrats in the Senate and House come together to write A Letter to America about Donald Trump’s unprecedented attack on the US government and our Constitutional order. It is part of a broader need for Democrats to open up a Second Front against Trump, one that goes beyond our current, proper focus on his reckless economic agenda to include these attacks and selling out of America to Putin and his abandonment of our Ukrainian and traditional allies in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

What follows are the two posts where I wrote about this idea. I hope to have time in the new next few days to integrate this posts into a single more concise articulation of the idea, one I hope all of you will join me in advocating to Democratic Senators and House Members.

Post 1, Feb 21st (link)

I am unbelievably proud of all of you. I am deeply inspired by the actions you are taking and the self-reporting we all get to read on our chat each day. This community is stepping up bigtime in a time of extraordinary national challenge. Together we are moving the needle, and just need to keep working it peeps. For with pressure, little cracks can become big cracks, and little wins can become big wins. We are Americans. Fighting for freedom and democracy is what we do. Who we are.

It is why Congressional Dems must launch a serious national campaign now to talk to the American people about Trump’s savage attack on the America of the Four Freedoms; his betrayal of all of us; and his ongoing unconstitutional usurping of Congress’s powers. I have written and spoken extensively about all the things I think our Congressional leaders need to do now to rise to the moment, and defend this oath:

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.

And we in our calls to Congress each day are helping our leaders understand what is required of them now. But I’ve come to believe the next step Leaders Schumer and Jeffries must make 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:

Among the many Facts our Founders submitted to a candid world where these four familiar grievances:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offence

Post 2, March 3rd (link)

Below I offer a series of things you can contact your representatives about today, either in person or via phone or email/online forms. The goal of these contacts is to help your electeds, of either party, to understand what is expected of them now.

One thing I think we should be encouraging our local Democratically controlled legislatures, city and county boards/councils to do is to pass condemnations of Trump. Go the record on whatever is of greatest concern - embrace of Putin, destruction of the US government, elimination of vital health research, mistreatment of workers. Whatever it is. As we discussed the other day these kind of bottom up public expressions of condemnation, of going on the record very clearly about why what Trump is doing is wrong, dangerous, a betrayal is very much in the spirit of how we last fought a mad king almost 250 years ago. We must become more comfortable going on the record with our fellow Americans laying out the case against him, spelling out what our Founders called in the Declaration of Independence “abuses and usurpations.”

This is my very first recommendation for what I think all Senate and House Dems need to do now. There needs to be a clear statement from half the Congress that they believe that what Trump is doing is unconstitutional, illegal, wrong and an extraordinary betrayal of our Constitutional order and all of us. This “letter to America” can become the rallying cry for all of our work together. It can become the amicus brief in every court challenge to Trump. It can become a clear statement to the world that American patriots are fighting this historical betrayal of our democracy but also of freedom loving people throughout the world. The people of America and the world need to hear from Democrats and other leaders of this pro-democracy movement that they understand the stakes of the fight we are in and are willing to leave it all on the line for the most important force for freedom humanity has ever seen. The absence of this clear, simple statement from our Congressional leaders is unacceptable and dangerous, and it is why I believe this “letter to America” remains our very first ask of all of Congressional representatives.

………

Friends, we are in the fight of our lives now. August has been a terrible month for our democracy and nation. Yes, Trump is deeply unpopular, and he is in clear physical and cognitive decline. And yes, I think that sense of his ebbing powers is one of the main drivers of the dangerous escalation we are seeing.

But simply the time for internal squabbles, of fence-sitting, of perfection not progress, of being perpetually disappointed, is over. We have to dive in and fight with the team we have and and be guided by the mantra that losing is not an option. We should be inspired by our Founders; by our bravery in WWII; by the incredible courage we are seeing every day in Ukraine; and by the millions of us who have been out there doing the work and fighting for our great country. Our leaders must take greater responsibility now for building a better, more potent and more ambitious opposition, and we must continue to advocate for that, to continue to remind them what is expected of them now. For we are here now, we know where we are, and we must fight with everything we got. For we are Americans for fuck’s sake, fighting for freedom and democracy is what we do.

Now…..

Let’s get to work everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Our Recommended Actions - We are prioritizing three actions today. You can get our full list of recommended actions here. Let’s get to it:

1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Four-Part Agenda - While it is recess we need to be loud this week, very, very loud. Make the case for our our emerging four part agenda, and demand they 1) Stand with Ukraine and work to block Trump’s selling out of the West to Putin 2) Roll back Trump’s terrible tariffs 3) Block the expansion of ICE and the use of the military on our streets including DC 4) End the war on science, higher education and the public health of the American people, and demand the removal of Bobby Kennedy (aka “the quack) from the leadership of HHS.

2 - Bring “Resolutions Of Condemnation” To Your Community - Inspired by the tactics of our Founders learn about how Hopium members are advancing “Resolutions of Condemnation” in their communities across the country and consider bringing this initiative to your state, country or city/town. Be sure to check out our new discussion with Deborah Potter and Rachel Poliner who have passed resolutions in New Mexico and Boston, and offer advice on get a resolution passed in your own community.

Remarkably, members of this community are now advancing 64 (!!!!) resolutions projects in 20 states. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election?

Our newly updated Resolutions Project page includes a new chat for folks to report in on their progress or seek counsel from those interested in launching a resolutions project in their community. This is one way to fight back against Trump’s unprecedented abandonment of our Constitutional order.

Finally, please self-report your activities to our daily paid subscriber chat. These reports help inspire all of us to do more and fight harder! Been impressive to see how many of you remain involved in local, in person protests of all kinds in your communities. Keep it up!!!

As we get ready for what is going to be a very intense fall of politics a reminder from Robert Frost - that “the best way out is through” - Simon