My Discussion With Rep. Eric Swalwell About Fighting and Winning In The New Trump Era (Video)

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Friends,

Enjoy this interview I just completed with Rep. Eric Swalwell, one of our best and most able communicators in Congress. We talked about how he is approaching this new day, particularly how he thinks about fighting in the information space 24/7/365. It is a great discussion and hope you will get to it when you have the time. Note there is a transcript for those who would rather read than watch.

I wanted to make an interview with Rep. Swalwell one of our first in the new Trump era for he is, in my mind, a model for how elected Dems across the country need to understand their job now. We can no longer be just legislators or executives. We must always be communicators and influencers now too, working to close what I call the loudness gap with the right, 24/7/365. Going on offense, telling our story and contesting the right everyday has to become the responsibility of everyone in the family, not just our leaders.

As I’ve been writing to you there needs to be revolution in how we approach modern communications. There is incredible urgency for us now to collectively raise our game. And while Trump has more than he had in 2017, we cannot forget that so do we. We have twice as many donor/supporters; far more money, volunteers, and more advanced tools; we have a growing and important pro-democracy media ecosystem; and a new and maturing Dem grassroots across the US. We will also soon have a revitalized DNC and party infrastructure (no matter who wins in my opinion). It is going to take a while for us to figure out how to turn all this into an effective and ferocious opposition. But, importantly, WE ARE NOT WITHOUT POWER and must learn how to use what we have in a far more modern and effective way. Yes, we have to keep building, keep investing in new capacity but right now we also must make the most of what we already have, which is a lot more than we had 8 years ago.

As I say at the end of our discussion today and as I wrote to you this morning, I think Trump is stumbling out the box. He is making mistakes, big mistakes. He remains reckless and impulsive, and I think is showing far more weakness at this point and is far less prepared than I expected.

Governing is a lot harder than bullshitting your way through a campaign. It’s critical that we keep practicing how to say these things, think in this way - he is weak not strong - and keep pulling the curtain back from the orange Wizard each morning:

Trump 2.0 is a profound, ongoing betrayal of America, and everything that has made this remarkable nation the most powerful and prosperous in the world. It is why we must fight. As dark as all this is, we cannot for one moment forget that what Trump is doing is wrong; he and his project remain deeply unstable; he is embracing deeply unpopular actions; he is old, impulsive, reckless and clearly in decline; and extremists and ideologues are often far better at bread and circuses than governing.

Finally, I may go to two posts a day for a while. My posts this week have taken off. There is an appetite for our work right now, folks are tuning in, getting back in the game and our community is growing. So expect a bit more from me than you usually get, and if you are a paid subscriber click here to register for our discussion tonight at 7pm. It will be recorded and shared here tomorrow for those who cannot make it live.

Keep working hard all. Ever so proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon

The Korean War Memorial, Washington, DC

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