In 2026 Democrats Can Be Both Warriors For Working People Against Oligarchy AND Proud Patriots Fighting For Democracy Here And Abroad

In recent weeks the threat Trump represents to democracy here and abroad has become far more clear. Pro-democracy forces must forcefully rise to the challenge in the months ahead

Happy Saturday everyone. I’m back from the DNC/State Chairs meeting in Los Angeles and will be reporting in on my trip in the coming days. As we’ve been discussing we’re closing out 2025 on a high note, with more consequential electoral wins and a further weakening of Trump and the regime (here, here, here). It’s why I believe we should view 2026 as a year of opportunity for our pro-democracy movement, and work hard to stay relentlessly focused on our 3-part core mission:

• mitigate the damage he’s doing/weaken the regime

• advance our agenda

• win back power

As we are stronger and they are weaker more is possible for us now, and we must act with far greater ambition in 2026. For as weakened and unpopular Trump now is I think things could get far worse for him, personally, in the coming weeks. First, he is clearly seriously ill. I think we have stop pretending otherwise. This is a photo from yesterday. He is now looking ill most days, not just occasionally.

The cover up of his declining health has reached comical levels. Listen to the press secretary on Thursday. They aren’t even attempting to come up with a plausible story for what we are witnessing with our own eyes…..

Next, the Epstein files. I just don’t know he survives what is about to happen. DOJ must, by law, release all the Epstein files by this coming Friday. The small release from the Oversight Committee yesterday put Trump himself right in the middle of it all (again), including this incredible photo:

House Oversight Committee Members who went on TV yesterday seemed shocked by what they received this week from the Epstein estate. For among the tens of thousands of photos they received were ones that showed people in sex acts, and this now infamous one of Epstein and top Trump advisor Steve Bannon. Note the passed out woman in the photo on Epstein’s desk.

A reminder of how Epstein responded to questions about Trump in his 2010 filmed deposition:

As part of our enhanced ambition next year I think there are two areas that Dems must develop a clearer and louder voice - on Trump’s deeply dangerous selling out of Ukraine and Europe to Putin, and his turning of America into a police state. We simply can and must talk about more than affordability and health care. We can be warriors for working people against greedy oligarchy and proud patriots standing up for democracy here and abroad. It’s not an “or.” It’s an “and.”

I’ve written about the Trump regime’s recent taking sides with Russia against our Ukrainian and European allies so I won’t go into in depth here this morning. The bottom line - Trump is attempting to unravel the American led global order, dramatically weaken America itself, and align the US with Russia and China against Europe. It is arguably the single most dangerous thing an American leader has ever done, and we must fight it with far greater ambition. I believe the escalation in the Americas is a side show, designed to distract us from the true play here which is to rip the US out of our historic alliance with Europe and make America Putin’s global lapdog. While we should be challenging Trump’s recklessness and war crimes we cannot lose sight of the far more serious events unfolding in Europe and Ukraine.

We talked about the extraordinary threat Trump’s betrayal of Europe is to our own security in recent conversations with Rob Shapiro, Stuart Stevens, and Rep. Adam Smith.

In recent weeks the regime’s malevolent designs to turn America into a police state have become more clear. In Minneapolis this week, and in court filings, we’ve learned that DHS no longer believes Real IDs, the IDs we all carry, are sufficient proof of legal status. Operationally, on the ground, they are only trusting their own internal system, which apparently requires a fingerprint taken in ICE detention facilities. So in other words they are asserting the right to detain ANYONE in America indefinitely without probable cause, even people who have proof of their citizenship and legal status in their possession. This is why, as we learned in the Blumenthal-Garcia hearing this week so many citizens are being detained for days at a time without access to lawyers or contact with the outside world. For DHS has decided that the Constitution no longer exists, and their powers are without limits.

We also learned this week that the regime is working to implement Orwellian (or perhaps Palantirian) requirements to enter America for all potential visitors, including from our European allies:

The performance by Democrats in the Noem hearing this week, and the power of the Blumenthal-Garcia hearing on detained Americans, were exactly where we need to be going as a movement. We simply must be doing more to stand up for the rights and freedoms of all Americans, and we must keep repeating - the loss of rights of any one in America is a loss of fights for all.

Finally, we know from polling data Americans have grown alarmed at these clear threats to our democracy and to our rights and liberties. They see the videos every day of innocent people having their windows smashed in, children being separated from their mothers, businesses being raided. We have also seen millions marched under the “No Kings” banner.

Here are results from a new Yale University poll:

A reminder of what that last CNN poll before the November election found (No Kings):

Registered voters who are Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents are far more likely than Republican-aligned voters to say they are extremely motivated to vote next year (67% compared with 46%). Those Democratic-aligned voters who consider the state of democracy to be a top concern are perhaps the most fired up within the party: 82% in that group say they are deeply motivated to vote, compared with 57 % among Democratic-aligned voters who call the economy their top concern.

Here’s a round up of polls from September showing “threats to democracy” at the upper level of concern for voters across in the country and in November, 2025 battleground states.

As part of our fight for democracy here and abroad pro-democracy forces should also join the fight against Trump’s ongoing desecration of the White House and the Capital city, the world’s most important symbol of democracy. We should join the new effort by the National Historic Preservation Trust to stop the illegal building of the gilded ballroom; and do everything we can to prevent Trump for seizing three of DC’s public golf course for this own malevolent designs. From the Washington Post this morning:

The Trump administration issued a notice of default to the group that manages Washington’s three municipal golf courses, escalating a behind-the-scenes struggle over who will control some of the District’s most visible public land and effectively positioning the president to operate its public golf properties.

The move could imperil National Links Trust’s 50-year lease with the National Park Service and clear the way for President Donald Trump to advance his own vision for redeveloping the courses, particularly the East Potomac property that includes views of the Washington Monument and for years has been a popular destination for tourists and residents alike.

In 2026, in a our year of opportunity, when we can and should be acting with far greater ambition, we can be both warriors for working people against oligarchy and proud patriots fighting for democracy here and abroad.

It’s an “and” not an “or.”

Now, Let’s Get To Work People!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In two new essays (here, here) I talk about how one of the ways we win the 2026 midterms is by providing early support to our candidates and parties to allow them to staff up now, be loud now, define the terms of the debate now, before the inevitable onslaught on AI slop, Russian disinfo, and Trumpian lies funded through bribes and corruption wash across the land. The midterms could be won or lost in these next few months - not in the fall of 2026 - and we need be fighting now with everything we got.

Winning The Midterms - Support Our 2026 Candidates

• Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $58k raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my conversation with Gov. Cooper

• Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $102k raised, $250,000 goal, - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my inspiring conversation with Senator Ossoff

• Hopium Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $38,000 raised, $50,000 goal - Donate to all four endorsed House challengers with one click | Learn More | Enjoy our new conversations with Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Mayor Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), and Janelle Stelson (PA-10)

Expanding The Senate and Electoral College Maps, Winning In Red States and Red Places (2026-2032)

• Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $226,000 raised, $250,000 goal - Join our new campaign to expand our map by investing in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas | Donate to all five state parties in a single contribution | Enjoy my conversations with Alaska Chair Eric Croft, Florida Chair Nikki Fried, Iowa Chair Rita Hart and Texas Chair Kendall Scudder | Many thanks to two generous Hopium community members who have audaciously donated $10,000 to each of our five state parties!

Winning The Big Arguments With Trump, Making Hopium Stronger - We have two recommended actions today:

1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Five-Part Agenda - We need to be loud people, very, very loud and make the case for our now five part agenda:

1. Stand with Ukraine and our European allies, and far more forcefully challenge Trump’s traitorous efforts to sell out the US and the West to Russia; demand Congress rebuke/issue a no confidence vote on his current efforts to force Ukraine to surrender

2. Congress must stand forcefully for rule of law in the Caribbean - these illegal strikes must end; no war can be waged without Congressional approval; there must accountability for those who have broken the law

3. Roll back Trump’s terrible, illegal tariffs that are re-igniting inflation, driving up prices, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to working people, hurting small businesses and farmers, reviving tyrannical “taxation without representation,” and alienating governments and people throughout the world

4. Defend our democracy, rule of law, and our liberties by blocking the expansion of ICE; restoring due process for immigrants across the country; vigorously defending the 1st Amendment; warring against his outrageous targeting of his domestic political opponents; ending the use of the military on our streets and the unlawful occupation of our cities; stopping the unprecedented corruption; and by forcing the Administration to finally comply with Congress, end the rancid cover up, and release all of the Epstein files

5. Fight Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; reverse - not delay - the cuts to the ACA and Medicaid; support and co-sponsor Rep. Haley Stevens’ effort to Impeach and remove Robert Kennedy

2 - Celebrate America, Our Constitution, Our 250th Birthday By Bringing Our Resolutions Project To Your Community - Next year, on July 4th, America celebrates it’s 250th birthday. We need to make this holiday, a celebration of our Declaration Of Independence from a mad king, our day, and not allow it to become his.

One way we can do this is by bringing our Resolutions Project to your community or state. Imagine if by July 4th of next year a large number of towns, counties and states had passed formal resolutions, in the spirit of our Declaration of Independence, defending our Constitution and condemning the “injuries,” “abuses,” and “usurpations” of our mad king. For as our Founders wrote in the Declaration:

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.

So far Hopium members have introduced or passed resolutions in 85 communities in 23 states. In the coming days we will be convening to discuss how to bring this campaign to more places and start planning to Own The Fourth next year.

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!

Keep working hard all, and remember Hopium is hope with a plan. We do not hope tomorrow will be better than yesterday. We do the work to make it so - Simon