Thank u Simon. Many people are confused and disheartened by the ten Dem Senators who helped the GOP and Trump pass their budget resolution, led by Schumer. They included my Senator John Fetterman. Perhaps you can speak to this at some point
Please stop this - it’s not definitive and your/our job is not to prove one another wrong. AOC doesn’t agree with you and neither does Josh Marshall (and Hakeem Jeffries and most of the house). I also don’t agree with you (and I’ve read both sides). But, what is sone is done. So, let’s move on and figure out where we go from here.
Yeah, this exhaustive report settles it. A shutdown would have given the Mad King and Prince Musk absolutely unrestrained power to do unimaginably terrible things. I encourage everyone to read this.
I still feel that I don’t know enough to have a strong feeling one way or the other on the CR. What seems clear is that all possible choices were horrible. At best, this is horrible timing and messaging from Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. But I would like to throw on the table for further discussion this summary by Matt Yglesias, who defends Schumer’s decision.
. 16 thoughts on an averted shutdown: A bitter pill that Schumer is correct to swallow
I read that yesterday and I am in agreement with Matt (who I often disagree with). I had originally been in favor of a shutdown but have changed my mind. It is a Scylla and Charybdis moment. Our only real way out is to focus on gaining one or both houses in 2026.
Thank you. Some of this makes sense. But the idea that the CR pushes things slightly to the right is nonsense. The cuts are horrendous and the beefing up defense spending totally unwarranted
Here are four or five key points that made me hesitant about fully embracing or applauding the idea of a government shutdown:
– Trump alone gets to decide which government workers and which federal services are "essential". That would hypercharge the demolition that Trump, Musk and DOGE are carrying out.
– As far as I know, in the event that a budget deal fails to eventually emerge from Congress, there is no obvious off-ramp from a shutdown.
– It’s unclear whether and to what extent federal courts would continue to operate.
– Trump and Republicans have a far-stronger megaphone in the right-wing media and blogosphere. There is a strong risk that they could successfully twist the narrative and shift the blame in ways that would be very damaging for Democrats.
– …moreover, this might well mean Trump could recover from today’s situation, where he is sinking like a rock in the polls. Right now, increasingly many Americans (of all political stripes!) are waking up and blaming Trump and his insane policies for the downward spiral that is negatively impacting their lives. We certainly don’t want that to change.
Thanks for this analysis and especially for the last point, about Trump's possible opportunity to spin this in a way that would rescue him from his own downward spiral. That's a deal-closer and makes me feel stronger.
Jamie Dupree has a good piece on why DC Republicans are both giddy over progressive Democrats ripping Schumer to shreds, and confused as to why it's happening.
I agree with you 💯. Point three makes it an open and shut case for me. Also, Mump would also decide which agencies to bring back online and which to keep shut. Why make the dismantling of government easier for them.
You’re correct that the fascists would control the narrative from the get-go. As it is, the media is making a big deal of Democratic infighting and how pissed Dems are at Schumer. FWIW I’m trying get my progressive friends to stop the negativity and keep their eyes on the prize.
Thank you for posting this. I felt the shutdown was high risk, with too many unknowns. I just came back from listening to a professor talk about the current immigration situation. I thought I was well read but found much of what she said shocking and unbelievable. I think we have to realize senators are so immersed now in things we just don’t know about. So my feeling is we should maybe give them a little grace and consideration and, even if we don’t like their vote, consider that they’re trying to do what they think is best in these awful times. That said, I’m totally ready to put all that away and move forward on Simon’s ideas.
See if this had been communicated from the jump instead of Schumer getting everyone excited with his “united front” talk, I think it would have look less like he caved.
Spot on. Inept or nonexistent messaging – and I don’t think Schumer played his cards well. He even managed to piss off much of the Senate Democratic caucus.
Great to see Ken Martin stepping up to the challenge! This is a clear sign that he’ll be a great catalyst for much-needed change in the Democratic Party.
His "People’s Town Halls in all 50" states are a brilliant way to enliven, enlist and activate our base, as well as to win more hearts and minds. (That’s how you kick-start a re-energized "50 State Strategy"!)
These town halls are likely to generate lots of good media coverage, especially at the local and state levels where it really matters.
Yeah, some lone good news, now they need to have something to rival all the yearly MAGA CPAC event and the "Stop The Steal" tour bullshit financed by Uhlien Corp and other Billionaires 'Rump and his Criminally Indicted Admin traveled around the country with from late Nov. 2020, through Jan. 6th 2021 and his 2024 campaign since he didn't get locked up like he should have.
Like the annual San Diego "Comi-con" event, a Big Tent Party rally for ACTION, INSPIRATION support for the GOOD Dem Elected Officials, the hardworking Grassroots Organizers repping all the factions of this diverse Big Tent Party, plus the true Blue Influencers of new-media. An event to unite every American that are sick and tired of the 10 Years 'Rump, now Musk, and the Cult of MAGA, their bought & paid for Billionaire MSM, and their on-purpose Trump Project 2025 destruction of the United States as it's about to turn 250 years old.
I feel very committed to the idea of a Letter to America. I believe this is doable. To prove it to myself, I drafted one. I'm certain that professionals in the business could do a much better job of it than I did, but I can now see that it can be done. All that is needed is the vision and the will.
I want to comment on this. I think people should write their own Letters to America. Use it as a way of organizing your thoughts, clarifying your arguments, and share them with your elected reps. We can learn from one another as we move this process. Every time I write Hopium I learn. Writing, speaking forces you to work through all that stuff in your head and make it clear. The idea of the Letter came from a Hopium member who posted about the revolutionary Committees of Correspondence which are a form of the info warrior concept. We just need to keep working to keep making it clear to our fellow citizens about Trump's "injuries, abuse and usurpations" and make it harder, much harder, to get lost in their phone and pretend all this isn't happening.
I did mine as a kind of thought experiment. I left out the specific abuses and usurpations because this evolves daily. They can be plugged in at will. The introduction and conclusion were what I focused on. See it below.
Two-hundred forty-nine years ago, members of the Continental Congress signed their names to the Declaration of Independence. In so doing, they founded the United States of America on the proposition that all human beings are created equal and that all are endowed with the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In their bold claim of independence from the ruling monarch of Great Britain, George III, the founders asserted that only through self-government could a free people maintain their rights to liberty in the face of growing tyranny. So that the world would have no doubt about the justice of their claims, the Declaration specified the “long train of abuses and usurpations” suffered by the people under the rule of King George III.
Now, almost two and a half centuries later, we again find ourselves subject to growing tyranny, this time from a would-be king. Once again, we must reclaim our fundamental right to self-government in the face of a long train of abuses and usurpations. The willful crimes that Donald J. Trump has committed, or has allowed to be committed, include the following:
[insert bulleted list]
The authors of the Constitution wisely devised a balanced system of three co-equal branches of government: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. Our government, under the unruly excesses of an unbalanced President, has itself become unbalanced. It’s long past time for the legislative branch to restore Constitutional order.
Without further delay, Congress must draw up articles of impeachment for the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
In addition, Congress must issue criminal referrals for Elon Musk, the members of DOGE, and anyone who has willfully enabled them in their criminal acts.
We find ourselves in a time of testing, when we are called upon to show courage and patriotism in service to our country. We understand that the struggle to restore Constitutional order will be arduous and difficult. However, we are strengthened in our resolve to undertake this labor of liberty by the knowledge that the people of the United States of America share a common love of country and freedom.
We are a nation not ruled over by monarchs or oligarchs, but self-governed by “We the People.” As the founders so eloquently asserted in its Preamble, We the People ordained and established the Constitution “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” These ideals are our birthright, and they reside in the hearts and minds of their ultimate defenders, the free people of the United States of America.
As your servants in the cause of liberty, we hereby submit this letter to the conscience of the world and the judgment of history. With our trust in the protection of divine Providence, we recommit ourselves to support and defend the Constitution, so that now and for generations to come the people of the United States of America may enjoy their unalienable rights to the blessings of liberty.
I hadn't planned to send it to my members of Congress. I prefer to talk to staffers on the phone in an informal way about the Letter idea.
Writing this was an exercise for me, a thought-experiment. I wanted to know that it could be done. Now I know.
In rereading the DOI, I was struck, as I hadn't been before, by the last paragraph. The momentousness of what they were doing! And that last line reminds us of the danger they were putting themselves in: "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."
These were people who lived in a time when one's honor was all-important, sacred even. They pledged their sacred honor, but they knew they were risking their lives and fortunes. By "fortune" I don't think they meant "wealth." Rather, I think they meant "fate." In any case, for a sense of what could happen if they lost, consider the fates of those revolutionaries who rose up against the British in Ireland in 1798. They lost, many were hung, and ordinary people suffered the fate of having their homes destroyed. The British left scores of people homeless to fend for themselves in the famously bad Irish weather.
In short, the signatories to the DOI were courageous.
Thanks. I really meant this as an exercise, a thought experiment. I wanted to know it could be written. Now I know.
It helped that I had read Garry Wills' "Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence." Wills is especially good on the language of the DOI. His book on Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is a masterful study of Lincoln's style and rhetoric. It also helped that I taught the DOI as part of our study of Enlightenment thought in my history classes.
In writing this exercise, I thought about how Lincoln had referred back to the DOI and how Dr. King had referred back to the Address and the DOI in his "I have a dream" speech. I wanted the Letter to establish its own context in American history. In the Address, I was reminded how Lincoln spoke of the "unfinished work" involved in the labor of liberty. It's also a theme in Dr. King's speech. The Letter should remind us that ultimately, as the founders believed, all power resides with the People. The People, not monarchs, are sovereign. We the People established and ordained the Constitution. Our leaders, who should be fellow laborers in the unfinished work, must turn to us for the authority and support to declare that we're suffering a tyrant and that we are by rights a free people. So by the end of the Letter I wanted a sense that the unfinished work is our work. Recall Lincoln's words:
"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced."
I did not use the phrase "new birth of freedom" at the end, but I wanted that sense to be there. That is what we ought to be fighting for. It can't just be to hang on to what we've got left. It has to be for a future in which we experience a rebirth of freedom.
I love this! I think we should perhaps consider advocating for modern versions of the Federalist Papers as well. The Federalist Papers, written anonymously by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, were a series of essays written to convince the public to ratify the Constitution. In effect, they were a marketing campaign! We need a modern-day equivalent: essays, letters to the editor, TikToks, billboards, etc.
I call my Dem Senators and R rep every day, with my succinct and professional concerns (registered Independent who has never voted R in my 71 years. (Ret, RN, MPH, US Army Reserves medical officer.) Our wonderful AG, who is on the suits, Phil Weiser, is running for governor, and I have thanked and supported him. I decline to take part in echo chambers or venting "how awful so snd so is,",and point out that venting is annoying and useless, and apathy is unacceptable. I urge such people to subscribe to non-corporate news sources, and share some with one particular venting friend.
OK is it just me or does Tim Walz for President 2028 feel right? He is so relatable, down home, and authentic! OK, he is another olderish, white guy, but he's got something that isn't policy wanky and appeals more to emotions and values in a way that is essential to capturing less active and informed voters. Right now I like the idea of Walz in 28.
I agree with you - a definite possibility. But i don't agree that he's olderish - at 60, i feel he has the right blend of vigor, lived experience and maturity for the job. And he has access to a part of the country's voters that the Dems need - rural and Midwest. When i started listening to this video, I had a sense of relief and homecoming - Dad's back!
As far as potential D presidential candidates go, it's an embarrassment of riches. I thought Kamala was an amazingly bright, charismatic, optimistic, and highly qualified candidate. Not trying to open old wounds, but I think she was hamstrung by the mostly undeserved negative press around Joe Biden. And, a short runway to get into the race. And, sad to say, anti-woman, racial prejudice. Enough of regrets... maybe we'll collectively realize the folly of using our 'rat brains' to choose our representatives (I'm telling myself). Onward!
Some of the Dems who are coming into the news are great and ones i hadn't known as they're State level, such as Michelle Wu (Mayor of Boston) and Mike Johnston (Mayor of Denver). They had to step forward in DC to defend their immigrant policies and they were super.
You and me both. I was cheered and relieved - Dad's back! Also, i like him when he gets serious and into the weeds in policy. So smart! Hoping to find his other town halls on line as well. Today was Nebraska.
I'm not going to get into a discussion here, since we're all on the same team; I will simply point out that your comment is a classic example of mansplaining.
Simon we need to talk about Democratic Senators Why did Sen Schumer cave? It seems 30 day lapse to compromise might have been a better idea Without the Senate we are not firing on all 50 chargers
Thank you for sharing those two articles, by Chuck Schumer and Michael Gold, as gift links. Very much appreciated, given that my wife and I long ago cancelled our NYT subscription.
Thanks. I'm reading parts of the first article. Essentially, Democrats are in a no-win situation and they have to choose the less (but slightly less) painful option.
Now that the Democrats are getting their game together, I was musing and wondering if, in a few generations of EVs, if "firing on all cylinders" will be understood in the coming years. Sad, it was a beautiful analogy.
Two of us last night while sipping espresso-martinis, wrote out dozens and dozens of pink slips addressed to The White House specifically to Musk & Trump (in that order). My morning walk with my dog was to hand deliver these postcards to our local Post Office...felt good!
I have been particularly pleased with Ken and Jeffries this week. Pelosi also chimed in when the moment was critical. And you echo much of this Simon.
Even so the Senate leadership must step down. That Schumer is beginning a book tour next week is incredibly insulting. I am perfectly fine with those that want to protest those book signings.
It's very insulting to myself and everyone who depends on Medicaid. The stakes for a lot of us is that we will not be able to survive without Medicaid as the cost of our care is beyond our financial means. And as Rick Wilson put it in his sub stack the filibuster can kill anything. Really at this point making them kill that bill through a shutdown was for people on Medicaid our only hope.
On March 25, a Special Election will be held in Senate District 36 in Lancaster County. This is a traditionally red district, but as we’ve seen across the country, Democrats in red districts are turning out in record numbers. We have a real opportunity to make a difference - let’s help our fellow Democrats get out the vote!
Join us on Saturday, March 22, as we head to Senate District 36 to knock on doors and talk to voters. Face-to-face conversations are the most effective way to turn out the vote!
Thanks for sharing the post from Tom Martin! I’m planning a Town Hall for Long Island’s red NY01& -02 with a small team of freedom fighters. We’re now going to reach out to our Dem county chairs about partnering/promoting the event.
Thank u Simon. Many people are confused and disheartened by the ten Dem Senators who helped the GOP and Trump pass their budget resolution, led by Schumer. They included my Senator John Fetterman. Perhaps you can speak to this at some point
Kenneth, this is not the right place for you. I have removed your posts and will refund your subscription in the morning. Thank you. S
A shutdown shuts down the very things keeping Trump in check:
https://open.substack.com/pub/wakeuptopolitics/p/how-a-shutdown-could-empower-trump?
I realize thats the argument.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/03/14/democrats-have-to-stop-making-political-decisions-with-an-eye-towards-2026/
As Jamie Dupree says, you fell for rage-bait.
Condescending
Is that what you always say when you're proved in the wrong?
Please stop this - it’s not definitive and your/our job is not to prove one another wrong. AOC doesn’t agree with you and neither does Josh Marshall (and Hakeem Jeffries and most of the house). I also don’t agree with you (and I’ve read both sides). But, what is sone is done. So, let’s move on and figure out where we go from here.
So clear. Thank you very much! This puts the issue even more to bed for me. It's done and we move forward with the positives.
Yeah, this exhaustive report settles it. A shutdown would have given the Mad King and Prince Musk absolutely unrestrained power to do unimaginably terrible things. I encourage everyone to read this.
Marcy Wheeler had the same worries
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/03/14/democrats-have-to-stop-making-political-decisions-with-an-eye-towards-2026/
Excellent! I’m a big fan of both EmptyWheel and Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo, which she quotes and links to.
They were doing a long back and forth over at the DSA Echo Chamber known as Bluesky. Marcy won.
(Reposting this from yesterday:)
I still feel that I don’t know enough to have a strong feeling one way or the other on the CR. What seems clear is that all possible choices were horrible. At best, this is horrible timing and messaging from Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. But I would like to throw on the table for further discussion this summary by Matt Yglesias, who defends Schumer’s decision.
. 16 thoughts on an averted shutdown: A bitter pill that Schumer is correct to swallow
https://www.slowboring.com/p/sixteen-thoughts-on-an-averted-shutdown
I read that yesterday and I am in agreement with Matt (who I often disagree with). I had originally been in favor of a shutdown but have changed my mind. It is a Scylla and Charybdis moment. Our only real way out is to focus on gaining one or both houses in 2026.
"It is a Scylla and Charybdis moment. "
It was a "leadership" v. "politics" moment. People look in the rear-view mirror and assess: Did they fight? Or did they cave?
Thank you. Some of this makes sense. But the idea that the CR pushes things slightly to the right is nonsense. The cuts are horrendous and the beefing up defense spending totally unwarranted
Here are four or five key points that made me hesitant about fully embracing or applauding the idea of a government shutdown:
– Trump alone gets to decide which government workers and which federal services are "essential". That would hypercharge the demolition that Trump, Musk and DOGE are carrying out.
– As far as I know, in the event that a budget deal fails to eventually emerge from Congress, there is no obvious off-ramp from a shutdown.
– It’s unclear whether and to what extent federal courts would continue to operate.
– Trump and Republicans have a far-stronger megaphone in the right-wing media and blogosphere. There is a strong risk that they could successfully twist the narrative and shift the blame in ways that would be very damaging for Democrats.
– …moreover, this might well mean Trump could recover from today’s situation, where he is sinking like a rock in the polls. Right now, increasingly many Americans (of all political stripes!) are waking up and blaming Trump and his insane policies for the downward spiral that is negatively impacting their lives. We certainly don’t want that to change.
Thanks for this analysis and especially for the last point, about Trump's possible opportunity to spin this in a way that would rescue him from his own downward spiral. That's a deal-closer and makes me feel stronger.
Yes
Jamie Dupree has a good piece on why DC Republicans are both giddy over progressive Democrats ripping Schumer to shreds, and confused as to why it's happening.
https://substack.com/@jamiedupree/note/p-159075202?
I agree with you 💯. Point three makes it an open and shut case for me. Also, Mump would also decide which agencies to bring back online and which to keep shut. Why make the dismantling of government easier for them.
You’re correct that the fascists would control the narrative from the get-go. As it is, the media is making a big deal of Democratic infighting and how pissed Dems are at Schumer. FWIW I’m trying get my progressive friends to stop the negativity and keep their eyes on the prize.
Thank you for posting this. I felt the shutdown was high risk, with too many unknowns. I just came back from listening to a professor talk about the current immigration situation. I thought I was well read but found much of what she said shocking and unbelievable. I think we have to realize senators are so immersed now in things we just don’t know about. So my feeling is we should maybe give them a little grace and consideration and, even if we don’t like their vote, consider that they’re trying to do what they think is best in these awful times. That said, I’m totally ready to put all that away and move forward on Simon’s ideas.
See if this had been communicated from the jump instead of Schumer getting everyone excited with his “united front” talk, I think it would have look less like he caved.
Spot on. Inept or nonexistent messaging – and I don’t think Schumer played his cards well. He even managed to piss off much of the Senate Democratic caucus.
PEOPLE’s TOWN HALLS in ALL 50 STATES
Great to see Ken Martin stepping up to the challenge! This is a clear sign that he’ll be a great catalyst for much-needed change in the Democratic Party.
His "People’s Town Halls in all 50" states are a brilliant way to enliven, enlist and activate our base, as well as to win more hearts and minds. (That’s how you kick-start a re-energized "50 State Strategy"!)
These town halls are likely to generate lots of good media coverage, especially at the local and state levels where it really matters.
This 200%!
Yeah, some lone good news, now they need to have something to rival all the yearly MAGA CPAC event and the "Stop The Steal" tour bullshit financed by Uhlien Corp and other Billionaires 'Rump and his Criminally Indicted Admin traveled around the country with from late Nov. 2020, through Jan. 6th 2021 and his 2024 campaign since he didn't get locked up like he should have.
Like the annual San Diego "Comi-con" event, a Big Tent Party rally for ACTION, INSPIRATION support for the GOOD Dem Elected Officials, the hardworking Grassroots Organizers repping all the factions of this diverse Big Tent Party, plus the true Blue Influencers of new-media. An event to unite every American that are sick and tired of the 10 Years 'Rump, now Musk, and the Cult of MAGA, their bought & paid for Billionaire MSM, and their on-purpose Trump Project 2025 destruction of the United States as it's about to turn 250 years old.
I feel very committed to the idea of a Letter to America. I believe this is doable. To prove it to myself, I drafted one. I'm certain that professionals in the business could do a much better job of it than I did, but I can now see that it can be done. All that is needed is the vision and the will.
I want to comment on this. I think people should write their own Letters to America. Use it as a way of organizing your thoughts, clarifying your arguments, and share them with your elected reps. We can learn from one another as we move this process. Every time I write Hopium I learn. Writing, speaking forces you to work through all that stuff in your head and make it clear. The idea of the Letter came from a Hopium member who posted about the revolutionary Committees of Correspondence which are a form of the info warrior concept. We just need to keep working to keep making it clear to our fellow citizens about Trump's "injuries, abuse and usurpations" and make it harder, much harder, to get lost in their phone and pretend all this isn't happening.
The name happily echoes HCR's Letters from an American.
I did mine as a kind of thought experiment. I left out the specific abuses and usurpations because this evolves daily. They can be plugged in at will. The introduction and conclusion were what I focused on. See it below.
Two-hundred forty-nine years ago, members of the Continental Congress signed their names to the Declaration of Independence. In so doing, they founded the United States of America on the proposition that all human beings are created equal and that all are endowed with the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In their bold claim of independence from the ruling monarch of Great Britain, George III, the founders asserted that only through self-government could a free people maintain their rights to liberty in the face of growing tyranny. So that the world would have no doubt about the justice of their claims, the Declaration specified the “long train of abuses and usurpations” suffered by the people under the rule of King George III.
Now, almost two and a half centuries later, we again find ourselves subject to growing tyranny, this time from a would-be king. Once again, we must reclaim our fundamental right to self-government in the face of a long train of abuses and usurpations. The willful crimes that Donald J. Trump has committed, or has allowed to be committed, include the following:
[insert bulleted list]
The authors of the Constitution wisely devised a balanced system of three co-equal branches of government: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. Our government, under the unruly excesses of an unbalanced President, has itself become unbalanced. It’s long past time for the legislative branch to restore Constitutional order.
Without further delay, Congress must draw up articles of impeachment for the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
In addition, Congress must issue criminal referrals for Elon Musk, the members of DOGE, and anyone who has willfully enabled them in their criminal acts.
We find ourselves in a time of testing, when we are called upon to show courage and patriotism in service to our country. We understand that the struggle to restore Constitutional order will be arduous and difficult. However, we are strengthened in our resolve to undertake this labor of liberty by the knowledge that the people of the United States of America share a common love of country and freedom.
We are a nation not ruled over by monarchs or oligarchs, but self-governed by “We the People.” As the founders so eloquently asserted in its Preamble, We the People ordained and established the Constitution “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” These ideals are our birthright, and they reside in the hearts and minds of their ultimate defenders, the free people of the United States of America.
As your servants in the cause of liberty, we hereby submit this letter to the conscience of the world and the judgment of history. With our trust in the protection of divine Providence, we recommit ourselves to support and defend the Constitution, so that now and for generations to come the people of the United States of America may enjoy their unalienable rights to the blessings of liberty.
This is really really good David!
Thank you for sharing and motivating us!!
Jefferson would have had a hard time topping that! Are you sending it to your congressmen?
I hadn't planned to send it to my members of Congress. I prefer to talk to staffers on the phone in an informal way about the Letter idea.
Writing this was an exercise for me, a thought-experiment. I wanted to know that it could be done. Now I know.
In rereading the DOI, I was struck, as I hadn't been before, by the last paragraph. The momentousness of what they were doing! And that last line reminds us of the danger they were putting themselves in: "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."
These were people who lived in a time when one's honor was all-important, sacred even. They pledged their sacred honor, but they knew they were risking their lives and fortunes. By "fortune" I don't think they meant "wealth." Rather, I think they meant "fate." In any case, for a sense of what could happen if they lost, consider the fates of those revolutionaries who rose up against the British in Ireland in 1798. They lost, many were hung, and ordinary people suffered the fate of having their homes destroyed. The British left scores of people homeless to fend for themselves in the famously bad Irish weather.
In short, the signatories to the DOI were courageous.
Beautifully written! You obviously put in some serious research and thought into this exercise. I think it deserves some wider circulation.
Thanks. I really meant this as an exercise, a thought experiment. I wanted to know it could be written. Now I know.
It helped that I had read Garry Wills' "Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence." Wills is especially good on the language of the DOI. His book on Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is a masterful study of Lincoln's style and rhetoric. It also helped that I taught the DOI as part of our study of Enlightenment thought in my history classes.
In writing this exercise, I thought about how Lincoln had referred back to the DOI and how Dr. King had referred back to the Address and the DOI in his "I have a dream" speech. I wanted the Letter to establish its own context in American history. In the Address, I was reminded how Lincoln spoke of the "unfinished work" involved in the labor of liberty. It's also a theme in Dr. King's speech. The Letter should remind us that ultimately, as the founders believed, all power resides with the People. The People, not monarchs, are sovereign. We the People established and ordained the Constitution. Our leaders, who should be fellow laborers in the unfinished work, must turn to us for the authority and support to declare that we're suffering a tyrant and that we are by rights a free people. So by the end of the Letter I wanted a sense that the unfinished work is our work. Recall Lincoln's words:
"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced."
I did not use the phrase "new birth of freedom" at the end, but I wanted that sense to be there. That is what we ought to be fighting for. It can't just be to hang on to what we've got left. It has to be for a future in which we experience a rebirth of freedom.
I love this! I think we should perhaps consider advocating for modern versions of the Federalist Papers as well. The Federalist Papers, written anonymously by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, were a series of essays written to convince the public to ratify the Constitution. In effect, they were a marketing campaign! We need a modern-day equivalent: essays, letters to the editor, TikToks, billboards, etc.
Simon and David …this is so smart! I’m going to suggest this to friends & family. Thank you!!!! Brilliant idea!!!
👍🏻👏🏻
Great idea. Share with our elected.
"Roma traditoribus non praemiat," is all i have to say to the 10 Vichy Democrats in the senate.
I call my Dem Senators and R rep every day, with my succinct and professional concerns (registered Independent who has never voted R in my 71 years. (Ret, RN, MPH, US Army Reserves medical officer.) Our wonderful AG, who is on the suits, Phil Weiser, is running for governor, and I have thanked and supported him. I decline to take part in echo chambers or venting "how awful so snd so is,",and point out that venting is annoying and useless, and apathy is unacceptable. I urge such people to subscribe to non-corporate news sources, and share some with one particular venting friend.
Great thoughts!
The act blue page for the seven house dems is not working.
What a heartening summation of all the positive in this past week!! Thank you, Simon!!!!
Here's Tim Walz's town hall in Iowa yesterday - right now he's in Nebraska's 2nd district -
talk about uplifting! He powered me through my last hour of post carding last night - all 1400 done and will be in the mail today!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fUU_IbMxw8
Kudos to Mark Pocan who might have spearheaded this movement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEfcqtXgSqA
Here's the link to the Dems' new 50 state town halls!!!
https://democrats.org/peoples-town-halls/
OK is it just me or does Tim Walz for President 2028 feel right? He is so relatable, down home, and authentic! OK, he is another olderish, white guy, but he's got something that isn't policy wanky and appeals more to emotions and values in a way that is essential to capturing less active and informed voters. Right now I like the idea of Walz in 28.
I agree with you - a definite possibility. But i don't agree that he's olderish - at 60, i feel he has the right blend of vigor, lived experience and maturity for the job. And he has access to a part of the country's voters that the Dems need - rural and Midwest. When i started listening to this video, I had a sense of relief and homecoming - Dad's back!
I agree he isn't old and he does have vitality!
It's going to be a long 3 years till the next election. I'm ready to be surprised by others who might step up as Prez candidates also!
I also like Andy Beshear
Gov Pritzker too. But......3 years and who knows what will be left after DT.
As far as potential D presidential candidates go, it's an embarrassment of riches. I thought Kamala was an amazingly bright, charismatic, optimistic, and highly qualified candidate. Not trying to open old wounds, but I think she was hamstrung by the mostly undeserved negative press around Joe Biden. And, a short runway to get into the race. And, sad to say, anti-woman, racial prejudice. Enough of regrets... maybe we'll collectively realize the folly of using our 'rat brains' to choose our representatives (I'm telling myself). Onward!
Some of the Dems who are coming into the news are great and ones i hadn't known as they're State level, such as Michelle Wu (Mayor of Boston) and Mike Johnston (Mayor of Denver). They had to step forward in DC to defend their immigrant policies and they were super.
Thanks for sharing the links! So so good to be hearing from Tim Walz again. I’ve missed that man!
You and me both. I was cheered and relieved - Dad's back! Also, i like him when he gets serious and into the weeds in policy. So smart! Hoping to find his other town halls on line as well. Today was Nebraska.
I'm not willing to ever support Tom Suozzi again after he voted to sanction Al Green.
I'm not going to get into a discussion here, since we're all on the same team; I will simply point out that your comment is a classic example of mansplaining.
Simon we need to talk about Democratic Senators Why did Sen Schumer cave? It seems 30 day lapse to compromise might have been a better idea Without the Senate we are not firing on all 50 chargers
There's a NYT Opinion piece that Schumer wrote explaining his decision -
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/opinion/trump-musk-shutdown-senate.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4E4.ShLI.HP-yvZZz0Z6_&smid=url-share
and a NY Times article examining it -
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/us/politics/democrats-schumer-shutdown-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4E4.S8oH.oILO6vHHTMW1&smid=url-share
Thank you for sharing those two articles, by Chuck Schumer and Michael Gold, as gift links. Very much appreciated, given that my wife and I long ago cancelled our NYT subscription.
Rushing and forgot - thx for alerting me! Now edited to provide paywall-free link.
I have a subscription to NYTimes paywall-free link how
Btw I am not buying it 40 Senators stood with House
Thanks. I'm reading parts of the first article. Essentially, Democrats are in a no-win situation and they have to choose the less (but slightly less) painful option.
"firing on all 50 chargers"
Now that the Democrats are getting their game together, I was musing and wondering if, in a few generations of EVs, if "firing on all cylinders" will be understood in the coming years. Sad, it was a beautiful analogy.
I went back to even older times. Diane's "50 chargers" made me think of cavalry on charging horses!
I’m glad to see you are gathering support for Dems in vulnerable districts.
So, apparently I put the wrong link for donating to the Hopium 7. Here is the correct one -
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopiumhouse2025
Sorry, and thank you all - S
Done! Have been donating to my CA ones but happy now to keep supporting the Magnificent Hopium Seven.
Just set monthly donation - made calls for several of these folks last cycle & proud to help them win again!
Donated. I have been following Janelle Bynum. She has boundless energy!!!
Two of us last night while sipping espresso-martinis, wrote out dozens and dozens of pink slips addressed to The White House specifically to Musk & Trump (in that order). My morning walk with my dog was to hand deliver these postcards to our local Post Office...felt good!
YES! 1400 pink slips are going out from my house today to the local PO - feels good too! I love your addressing - wish i had thought of that, kudos!
Good news for DC:
https://bsky.app/profile/fritschner.bsky.social/post/3lkeqeqetr223
I have been particularly pleased with Ken and Jeffries this week. Pelosi also chimed in when the moment was critical. And you echo much of this Simon.
Even so the Senate leadership must step down. That Schumer is beginning a book tour next week is incredibly insulting. I am perfectly fine with those that want to protest those book signings.
I'm posting above about the book tours! There will be protests for sure.
Here is one Reddit thread about them:
.https://www.reddit.com/r/50501/s/YhmzBxKBnP
It's very insulting to myself and everyone who depends on Medicaid. The stakes for a lot of us is that we will not be able to survive without Medicaid as the cost of our care is beyond our financial means. And as Rick Wilson put it in his sub stack the filibuster can kill anything. Really at this point making them kill that bill through a shutdown was for people on Medicaid our only hope.
On Mar 15, 2025, at 8:45 AM, MCDC wrote:
Montco Mobilizes Everywhere
MCDC Community,
On March 25, a Special Election will be held in Senate District 36 in Lancaster County. This is a traditionally red district, but as we’ve seen across the country, Democrats in red districts are turning out in record numbers. We have a real opportunity to make a difference - let’s help our fellow Democrats get out the vote!
Meet the Candidate: James Malone
https://www.friendsofjamesmalone.org
How Can You Help?
📢 Canvass!
Join us on Saturday, March 22, as we head to Senate District 36 to knock on doors and talk to voters. Face-to-face conversations are the most effective way to turn out the vote!
➡️ Sign up here: https://mobilize.us/s/TbfUT3
📧 Questions? Contact Chris Thomas at christhomas@mcdems.org
☎️ Phone Bank!
Can’t make it to canvass? You can still make an impact by calling voters from home! Phone banking is a critical way to remind supporters to turn out.
➡️ Sign up here: https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/752616/
Every conversation counts. Let’s win this! 💙
Montgomery County Democratic Committee
754 East Johnson Highway, Building #4
Norristown, PA 19401
Thanks for sharing the post from Tom Martin! I’m planning a Town Hall for Long Island’s red NY01& -02 with a small team of freedom fighters. We’re now going to reach out to our Dem county chairs about partnering/promoting the event.