OK. The Senate Voted To Re-Open The Government. What Do We Do Now? Some Early Thoughts

I am going live with Stuart Stevens at noon ET today. Join us - we have a lot to talk about.....

Morning all. I first want to thank everyone who worked so hard in the elections last week. It was a big win, and as we move forward in this next challenging period, we need to keep that feeling of accomplishment, of joy, of repudiation - of winning - with us at all times to help us keep moving forward.

I obviously do not support what 8 Senate Democrats did last night (here, here), but it happened, and we need to focus now on what we can do to influence what comes next. For we are only in the very early stages getting of both getting “continuing resolution” in place to re-open the government, and in passing a final budget for next year. There are a lot of votes ahead of us in both chambers and days and days of debate.

Some notes on where we are now:

He is weaker - Trump is historically unpopular, his agenda more so, and he just suffered a huge, humiliating election rout. His government has failed, his health is in decline, his powers are ebbing, and I believe that his malevolent handling of the shutdown these past few months has done lasting damage to his and the GOP’s brand (we will see). In the past few months he has confirmed our essential indictment of him - that he cares about himself and not about us, the country, our democracy, our future.

Their control over Congress is very wobbly - Republican majorities in both chambers are historically narrow, their conferences are factious, and the leadership has already started losing important votes (Epstein Files, tariffs). The House must return now to vote on this deal. Adelita Grijalva will be sworn in and the cowardly and pathetic Speaker will somehow have to corral MTG and his conference through what will be a series of tough votes and rancorous debates.

We are stronger - in recent months Democrats have made significant gains in measures of our party’s health - Party ID, generic ballot, who is better for the economy, and we just had one of our best elections in the last few decades. We enter this next period stronger, more capable, closer to the American people and with a renewed confidence that when fight we can win and should now act with greater ambition (clearly we need more Dems to believe that now).

We need a big conversation in our family about strong and weak, and how to best fight autocracy -

Literally every day I think about this data from the 2024 Exit Polls:

We will only be where want to be with the electorate if they believe we are strong enough to bring needed change. That when we got to bat for them we will not just try really hard but that we will win.

Or as Yoda told us “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

They lost the argument over the shutdown, badly - When government paychecks resume, when air traffic controllers go back to work, when SNAP benefits are fully restored it is far, far more likely that we get credit for being the adults in the room and getting the country back on track. It may be painful to discuss this but we will need to open to taking credit for ending the Trumpian chaos when this is all done (very open to his being completely wrong btw).

Last night’s vote was a mistake. But we need to now focus on what comes next, use these next few months to refocus the national discourse on the harms their agenda is doing to the country, and getting as much of our agenda passed as possible.

For as I’ve been arguing here for some time the battle over the re-opening the government was only an early battle in a much bigger struggle over the budget and their destructive agenda. This next phase gives us an opportunity to state very clearly what we are for and then go fight with everything we got to get as much as we can for the good of the country and the American people.

We need to turn last night’s bitter loss into a consequential winter win for the American people.

I want to be very clear about one thing - I believe that in the coming negotiations over the budget we should be fighting for much more than just the restoration of the ACA subsidies. While I applaud our leaders for making this our central demand, it was always insufficient given the extraordinary harm Trump is doing to our country, and his traitorous desire to end American democracy and become a monarch.

So, here are some recommendations for things we can do this morning (if you need to take time away I totally understand):

• If you live in a state with one of the Democratic eight call their offices today and tell them how disappointed you are, and how you now expect them to do everything they can to make sure the final year end budget is consistent with our values (something like our four part agenda, below)

• If you have a Republican House Member call them and demand they come back to Washington and vote in Adelita Grijalva, vote for the release of the Epstein files, and vote for our something like our four part agenda

• For everyone else do what we’ve doing since the summer when we launched the four part Hopium agenda call and demand they fight for whatever part of our agenda is most important to you

Stuart Stevens and I are getting together live at noon ET today. Join us by clicking here. We thought we were going to do a victory lap on our great blue wave election. It will be that of course, but now, also, a whole lot more.

In this fight for our democracy we are going to have good days and bad days. Last week we had a great day, one of the best we’ve had in a long time. Last night we had a bad night, a disappointing and unfortunate night. But the fight against Trump and his rancid agenda of sabotage, plunder, and betrayal continues, and it is a fight we simply - for the good of the country, the American people, and our the future of our kids and grandkids - must win.

FDR Memorial (SR Photo)

The Working Hopium Four Part Agenda

1. 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 and fully fund SNAP FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. 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, and ending the use of the military on our streets and the unlawful occupation of our cities

3. 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

4. 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 and China

Keep working hard all, and remember Hopium is hope with a plan. We don’t just hope tomorrow will be better than today.

We do the work to make it so - yes, even on the hard days.

- Simon