Happy Juneteenth all. Got a few things for you today:
Reflections on Freedom And The Conflict We Are In - As Juneteenth is still a new holiday, I’m not sure I’ve given it the reflection and study it so clearly deserves. So let me speak to this profound holiday by sharing my close to our most recent gathering of Hopium paid subscribers. It is video above. In it I talk about FDR’s establishment of freedom as the founding value of the modern world, and of the modern Democratic Party; and how this ongoing struggle between freedom and dominion over another has become once again the defining struggle of our time.
I also reflect this morning, sorrowfully, on the Party of Lincoln’s historic choice to respond to the Civil Rights era in the 1960s by abandoning it’s central mission of racial reconciliation and adopting a politics of exploitation of white racial fear. That decision, the purposeful adoption of what became known as the Southern Strategy, is, in retrospect, one of the great tragedies in American history.
So while we celebrate freedom and Juneteenth today, we also must mourn the loss of the Party of Lincoln to some of the most virulent racists and xenophobes in American history. As I discuss in my talk above, we are here now, in an extraordinary fight for freedom against forces who champion dominion, and we all understand that victory is our only option. That’s why we are here at Hopium, why we do the work. For the stakes are high, and simply, freedom must once again prevail.
Events Today and Tomorrow - Two more Hopium events this week:
Wed, June 19th, 1pm ET - With Democrats, Things Get Better - Register here. Hopium’s signature presentation, a 25 minute deep dive on American politics since the Cold War ended and a new age of globalization began. It tells a simple but powerful story - when Democrats are in the White House, things get better in America. When Republicans are we get recessions, higher deficits and American decline. If you can’t make it live today a recording will be available here tomorrow.
Thur, June 20, 5pm CT - I’ll be in Madison, Wisconsin for an in-person Wisconsin Democratic Party Fundraising event with the great WI Dem Chair Ben Wikler. Please register and donate here. Excited to be heading back into the 2024 battlegrounds, and looking forward to seeing members of the Hopium community too!
The President Takes A Bold Step To Keep Immigrant Families Together - From NBC News:
President Joe Biden is taking executive action to protect undocumented spouses of American citizens — a move that would shield about 500,000 immigrants from deportation.
The White House announced the election-year policy Tuesday, framing it as “new action to keep families together.” NBC News reported last week that action protecting the spouses was likely to be announced soon, after urging from immigration advocates and Democratic lawmakers and as the president courts Latino voters in crucial battleground states.
The new policy would allow noncitizens who have been in the country for at least 10 years and are married to a U.S. citizen, and their children, to apply for permanent residence without leaving the country.
During a ceremony at the White House, Biden called the steps a "commonsense fix" to a system that is "cumbersome, risky and separates families."
He said the order would go into effect this summer and stressed that it would not benefit people who recently came into the country. Instead, it would help people who are "paying taxes and contributing to our country" and their family members.
“This is the biggest thing since DACA,” said a source familiar with the matter, an immigration advocate.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, announced by then-President Barack Obama in 2012, allowed immigrants who illegally came to the U.S. as children to stay in the country.
Foreshadowing the likely battles to come over the policy, the White House was keen to stress that it has been tough on unlawful border crossings and has worked to dismantle people-smuggling networks.
The president "believes that securing the border is essential," it said in a news release Tuesday outlining the new action.
I thought Voto Latino’s Maria Teresa Kumar captured the moment well:
“This is both the political, but also the decent, fair thing to do…So, one thing that I do know, there's going to be 500,000 parents that are going to be able to safely put their child to bed tonight rid of anxiety. That’s the decent part. The political part is also doing contrast…When you talk to Latino voters, what is the biggest contrast between Republicans and Democrats? Democrats care about immigrant families and this demonstrates it. And then, you have the contrast of what the former president, twice-impeached, is trying to do and he promises to do. He does not only want to separate families, but he wants to set up a cottage industry of detention centers all around the country that promises to mobilize and incarcerate anyone who looks ‘not American,’ meaning not white.
This is a huge step forward not only for these families but for the local communities, for the economy of the local communities. But also it reminds us where our roots are, that we are decent people and we take care of families first.”
“We are decent people and we take care of families first.” Love that.
I talked about the President’s bold and welcome new policy on CNN yesterday:
Do More, Worry Less/Make June Count - The Hopium community keeps making June count! Learn more about the “Check and Checkmate” strategy driving my candidate and state party recommendations. Watch our new interviews with Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb, Janelle Bynum (OR-5), George Whitesides (CA-27) and Kirsten Engel (AZ-06). Together, over the past month we’ve raised more than $500,000 for our candidates and state parties and have already blown past our original Winning The House goal of $300,000. Thank you all - it’s amazing stuff. Here’s where we are today:
Biden-Harris - $373,000 today, $400,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More
Watch my favorite Biden-Harris Ad “Flag”
Winning The House - $312,000 today, $400,000 goal - yes!!!!! - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More. We’ve blown past our $300,000 goal and are now shooting for $400,000 - great work everyone!
Arizona/Ruben Gallego - $199,000 today, $300,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More - Watch my interview with Ruben Gallego
North Carolina - $247,000 today, $300,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More - Watch my interview with NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton
Nebraska/Blue Dot -$56,000 today, $100,000 goal- Donate | Volunteer | Learn More - Watch my interview with NE Dem Chair Jane Kleeb
Thank you all! Our community of proud patriots and information warriors just keeps bringing it day after day after day. So inspired by your passion, grit, determination and willingness to leave it all out there on the playing field for this great country. Proud to be in this fight with all of you.
Democrats Need A Big Reform and Renewal Agenda - In my recent New Republic essay I wrote that Democrats should develop and campaign on a clear agenda to strengthen our democracy and tackle the corruption and rot (Thomas, Alito) that has overrun our Capital:
If the primary job of the first term was about successfully getting America to the other side of Covid, the second term should be about mobilizing unprecedented resources around tackling the next two existential challenges of our time–countering climate change and accelerating the energy transition from fossil fuels, and ensuring that freedom and democracy prevail here in the United States and everywhere.
The president should talk directly and forcefully to the American people about the existential nature of these dual challenges, particularly the rise of what is perhaps the most serious threat we’ve ever seen to the American-led, rules-based order; and he should prepare Americans for what could be years or even decades of hot and cold conflict with authoritarians at home and abroad. The president began that process this year with his compelling speech near Valley Forge in early January.
As part that mobilization, we will need to keep our economy strong and prosperous, persistently proving that democratic capitalism remains the best system for human advancement; develop a long overdue national strategy to restore integrity to our daily discourse, making it far harder for authoritarian forces to manipulate and control speech in open societies; build greater governmentwide institutional capacity to advance pro-democracy initiatives here and across the world; and be direct in asking the American people, as President Kennedy once did, to become active partners in ensuring we prevail in these deeply consequential struggles in the coming decades….
…..The president should commit to making progress in at least two other areas during his second term—cleaning up a city and a democracy that have been weakened by corruption and illiberalism of all kinds, and raising American life expectancy so it is again at the level of peer nations’.
I think Joe Biden should promise to clean up the city he has so long been a part of. Among the things we can tackle are the influence of foreign money, the need to raise ethical standards at the Supreme Court, eliminating the debt ceiling and the ability to shut down the government, and the wild abuse of Senate holds on nominations. Perhaps Biden could set up a commission to make broader recommendations on how to modernize and reform a city desperately in need of it.
Such an agenda is not just needed and necessary, but we know from polling that tackling “political corruption” is a high priority for two of our most important target groups - independents and young people. If President Biden were to lead the charge it would be a way of taking his many years here - experience, wisdom, understanding of how DC works - and turning the issue of his age into a powerful weapon against the Republicans.
10% Off Annual Hopium Membership in June - As a token of my gratitude for all that you are doing, I’m now offering a 10% discount on annual paid subscriptions for new subscribers through the end of the month. Click on this link to subscribe today. On that link you can also purchase gift or group subscriptions for others you’d like bring into the Hopium community. If you signed up as a paid subscriber in the first half of last year and want to make sure your paid subscription is current and up to date check be sure to visit here.
My stretch goal is to get to 10,000 paid subscribers by June 30th - we are over 9,450 today - which will put Hopium in a financial place to close this election strong. Thanks to all of you who have stepped up and become a paid subscriber in recent days - you are making June count!
Keep working hard all. It’s how we win - Simon
Freedom and Dominion, Keeping Immigrant Families Together, Reform and Renewal, Making June Count!