It's A New Day, My Friends. A Joyous, Wonderful New Day. Let's Get To Work!!!!!

We are living through, and participating in, one of the most remarkable periods in all of American history. Let's close strong and win this thing, together.

Happy Friday all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some notes on what is a travel day for me. I feel blessed to have been in Chicago this week. So many emotions and thoughts this morning. I am exhausted. But I am also fired up, determined, and ready to go out and win this thing with all of you.

Here was my view last night:

In what was without question the most consequential and inspirational Democratic Convention I’ve been too (this was my ninth), last night was the most consequential and inspirational night. I got to my seat yesterday at 3pm and was there for every speech, every song, every English lesson for the bigots and assholes in the back.

The emphasis on patriotism, love of country, American strength and Trump’s ongoing betrayal of the country was welcome, fresh, inspiring and powerful. The Vice President’s close is even more remarkable and compelling this morning than it was last night:

America, let us show each other—and the world—who we are. And what we stand for. Freedom. Opportunity. Compassion. Dignity. Fairness. And endless possibilities.

We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world. And on behalf of our children and grandchildren, and all those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment. It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done. Guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love.

To fight for the ideals we cherish.

And to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth. The privilege and pride of being an American.

So, let’s get out there and let’s fight for it.

Let’s get out there and let’s vote for it.

And together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.

Loved all the prime time for Arizona and North Carolina last night. Adam Kinzinger’s speech was one of the most important political moments in modern American history. So proud of our good friend Ruben Gallego. The two “women from Michigan,” Gretchen Whitmer and Elissa Slotkin, crushed it. The Harris-Walz campaign is clearly on offense now, working to expand our coalition and the map, and - dare I say it - fighting now to Get to 55.

Love the new way of talking about Trump - weak, small, pathetic, desperate, a loser, a coward. Need to keep making the “strong” man a weak man, a silly man, a painted man, a rapist, fraudster, traitor, felon, a big blubbering and ridiculous baby man and a deep insult to everything that has made America great.

Still have that sense we are watching a new thing unfold in front of our eyes every day continued every night this week. A new Democratic Party is being born now. New leaders, new language, new purpose, new mission. It’s incredibly exciting to witness, to be part of. Our party is so strong right now, and together, right now, we are building the next thing:

And together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.

Love opportunity economy, freedom, for the people, we are not going back/we are going forward. So much to work with here, rhetorically. We have a very strong set of themes and narratives to close with.

I am still thinking about Michelle Obama’s speech three days later, and yes it is very rewarding to see what is one of the core Hopium bits - the 50m jobs stat used by Clinton on Wednesday night - getting the attention it deserves. More on that next week, and here in With Democrats, Things Get Better.

The speechwriting this week was just incredible, memorable, powerful. I continue to be blown away by the Harris-Walz-Biden campaign staff who have been performing miracles for many many weeks now and just produced the most important Democratic Convention in memory. Huge, huge shoutout to all of them.

The Vice President’s acknowledgement of the serendipity of the moment last night was meaningful, and the way she tied it to the serendipity of her own improbable journey - a very American journey - was important. It reminded me of these “seize the moment” lyrics of the musical Hamilton:

I am not throwin’ away my shot

I am not throwin’ away my shot

Hey yo, I am just like my country

I’m young, scrappy and hungry

And I’m not throwin’ away my shot

Peeps, we are not going to throw away our shot to crush MAGA and put it into the dustbin of history where it belongs, are we?

The election we now have is the election that this community always believed was possible. It is here now, and we need to put our heads down and go win this, together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Working From Joy, Supporting Our Hopium-backed Candidates and State Parties, Voting On Day 1 - In the spirit of not letting up, “doing something” as Michelle Obama said and leaving it all on the playing field as Gov Walz has encouraged, I again make my pitch for the candidates and state parties we’ve been working for this year. Our next Winning The House Thursday phonebanking and postcarding Thursday will be for Josh Riley on Thursday, August 29th. We had a great turnout for Will Rollins last week. Should a sign up link tomorrow. I hope you are planning on spending your Thursday nights with us in the home stretch!

Last Saturday I offered an in-depth post on the strategy behind our candidate and state party endorsements, including our Presidential battleground “check” and “checkmate” strategy. 27 days to go before early in voting begins everybody - time to get to work!

• Harris-Walz!!!!!! - $876,000 raised, $1m goal - Donate | Volunteer | Merch | The Harris-Walz YouTube Channel - Let’s make this a big week people!

• Winning The House - $888,000 raised, $1m goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More. Watch our recent discussion with Leader Hakeem Jeffries. To go deeper catch one of our interviews with our great candidates - Janelle Bynum (OR-5), George Whitesides (CA-27), Kirsten Engel (AZ-06) Will Rollins (CA-41), Laura Gillen (NY-04), Rudy Salas (CA-22), Josh Riley (NY-19), Tony Vargas (NE-02) and Adam Gray (CA-13).

• North Carolina - $400,000 raised, $500,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton

• Arizona/Ruben Gallego - $332,000 raised, $400,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with Ruben Gallego

• Nebraska/Blue Dot - $148,000 raised, $150,000 goal- Donate | Volunteer | Learn More | Be sure to watch my interview with NE Dem Chair Jane Kleeb

Here are ways you can do even more:

• Commit to Vote on Day 1 and get everyone you know to join you. Early voting begins in three states on September 20th - just 27 days away!

• Help grow the Hopium community. Use this link to encourage others sign others up to be a Hopium subscriber during our Democratic Convention subscriptions sale (10% off through August 22nd!). You can gift a subscription to a friend or student here and get group rates too. If you have changed credit cards or moved you can you update your payment information or check your renewal status follow these instructions from Substack. Let’s keep our community growing the Hopium flowing!

Finally, a reminder of what I wrote when I launched Hopium in March of 2023. it feels very relevant today:

…..Though I’ve been in politics for a long time, my journey fighting the “red wave” over the past year changed my understanding of the work that needs to get done to defeat MAGA, tell our inspiring story more effectively, and ensure that freedom and democracy prevail.

Basically I came to understand that our politics was changing and I had to change with it. It led me to conclude that my old organization, NDN, which I founded back in 1996, was no longer the right vehicle for me. It did a lot of good over a long period of time, and we built a remarkable community there. As I discuss in my recent interview with Ron Brownstein in the Atlantic, I feel like we are entering a new political era in America, one that requires new strategies and approaches. NDN was built for a different era, and it had a different mission. I needed to do something new, organize my work in new ways. So here I am. With all of you.

I am calling it Hopium Chronicles because I want this to be a journey guided by hope and optimism, of belief in ourselves, in love of country and a clear understanding of the nature of the conflict we are in. I have become convinced that part of Greater MAGA’s strategy is to intentionally poison our discourse with negative sentiment every day. They want us to feel bad about America, our democracy, our leaders, our institutions, our success, each other, ourselves. We cannot let them do that any more. While they talk American down every day, we need to talk it up. While they spread lies, we respond with truth and data. Hopium is a rejection of the darkness they are trying to spread. It is a way of standing up for our great country and its remarkable people. It is the key to how we win….

There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about our politics now. Democrats had a very good election in 2022, our third good election in a row. President Biden has been a good President, and America is far better off today. The Democratic Party is strong, our rising generation of leaders is ready and our grassroots is bigger and more effective then its ever been. Putin has stumbled in Ukraine, and the climate package passed by Congress last year has dramatically accelerated the global pace of decarbonization.

But we also know that MAGA remains too much of a threat, and we have a lot of work to do. This place and our community of proud patriots and info warriors is going to be about doing that work, bravely, passionately, successfully….

……….

Keep working hard all. We have an election to win, a country to save and a future to secure, together, bravely, passionately, successfully - Simon