Sunday Hopium - A Weaker Trump, A Letter To America, Dems Are Raising Their Game
Our work is making a difference, a real difference. Thank you all......
Happy Sunday all. Here at Hopium Sundays are light days, rest and recharge days. It’s important in this challenging time to pace ourselves, enjoy the early spring weather, practice self-care. So just a few things today……
I think we made progress this week. As I wrote in my last two posts (here, here) Trump’s early miscalculations, Musk’s wild crime spree across Washington, a worsening economy, mounting losses in the courts including the Supreme Court and declining poll numbers has already forced Trump to make a series of serious course corrections. Early Trump 2.0 isn’t working, and Republicans know it. As we head into a consequential week of negotiations to avoid a government shutdown, Trump is weaker in this town than he was a few weeks ago.
And we are stronger. Protests of all sorts are growing across the country, and they are unnerving Trump and his allies. The newly formed House Dems Rapid Response and Litigation Task Force filed their first amicus brief in a case challenging Trump’s illegal usurpation of Congress’s authorities; held their first shadow hearing; engaged new pro-democracy media in unprecedented ways; held the largest grassroots organizing event of the year so far with over 100,000 attendees and regularly doing educational in person and tele-townhalls with record crowds; and launched a very aggressive media campaign in 23 Republican-held House districts on their plutocratic, Medicaid cutting budget outline. Senator Elissa Slotkin gave a powerful and patriotic response to Trump, and in general you get the sense that Democrats are waking up to the need to do more, and are doing more.
We need to keep encouraging our leaders to step up, help them understand what is expected of them now, and critically, also praise them when they do the right thing and fight.
As we’ve discussed I think it critical now that Democrats open up a sustained second front against Trump, one that goes on offense, aggressively, against his ongoing attack on our Constitutional order and his betrayal of Ukraine, the West and what I call the America of the Four Freedoms. For things are being broken now that will be very hard, if impossible, to repair. While I offer up a variety of ways we can take action this week below, there are two things in particular I hope you will join me in advocating for in the coming days:
Release A Letter To America - In our contacts this week let’s really try to advocate for this idea we’ve discussed here and here. Simply, borrowing from the Declaration of Independence, it is time for Democrats in Congress to write A Letter To America detailing the “abuses,” “injuries,” and “usurpations” of the new Mad King and “let Facts be submitted to a candid world.” Our leaders need to honor their oaths of office, and fight much more aggressively to protect our Constitutional order that’s under unprecedented attack from Trump and Musk.
Fight Trump’s Traitorous Embrace Of Putin And Historic Betrayal Of Our European and Ukrainian Allies - As we discussed yesterday we must force a serious debate about what Trump is doing in our name, and work to forge a bi-partisan coalition to minimize the extraordinary damage he is doing to America, our alliances and Ukraine itself. We should be asking our elected officials, of whatever party, to help lead this debate and challenge Trump’s truly historic and dangerous betrayal of America and our allies.
Here’s my contribution to a Saturday Wall Street Journal article (pay wall, sorry) on the Democratic Party’s path forward:
To Simon Rosenberg, a longtime Democratic strategist, protest politics works. Rosenberg, who uses his Hopium Chronicles substack and podcast to encourage Democrats to call their elected officials and organize against vulnerable GOP lawmakers, says the crowds at town hall meetings can both affect policy in Washington and help Democrats in the midterm elections. The GOP currently has a narrow, four-seat majority in the House, with three seats vacant.
“The theory of movement politics is that when people start taking action like this—a simple phone call or letter to Congress—they’re becoming engaged, and that engagement leads to more engagement later,” such as voting on Election Day, he said.
Here’s an exciting self-report from Hopium community member Clever yesterday:
I organized a grassroots coalition to rally in front of my Long Island R Congressman’s office. We held the rally yesterday (Hopium Day).
Simon we had 400-500!!!!!!!!!! people show up!!!!! Rep. Garborino has never had a crowd at his office like that. He touts how bipartisan he is. F that shit he is a Trump enabler just like the rest of the spineless Republicans.
I spoke first.
I began with:
We are Americans & we are here because we love our country! (Crowd roared)
We oppose DOGE takeover!
We oppose cutting Medicaid to fund tax cuts for the rich!
We want an in person town hall!
There were speakers, music and chants. We collected hundreds of signatures demanding an in person town hall and delivered them to the staffer.
The local news came and the rally has been on the news today on a loop!
I’ve never done this before. But I’m here, now, just like all of us in the Hopium community and across the country. And we’re already planning a town hall for our rep who will not show. Together we will win!
Here are some photos from events Hopium community members attended this weekend:
As we say here little cracks can become big cracks, little wins can become big wins and this past week we saw little cracks become bigger, and little wins become bigger wins. It is clear now that our pressure, our work together is making a difference. While things are dark now we made progress this week, my friends. Let’s work hard this week to make this one even better.
Weekend Reading And Videos - Thrown a lot at you these last few days. Some highlights for your weekend viewing, listening and reading pleasure:
Thursday’s Big Video and Post - If you are to read or watch one thing this weekend please watch and read my new video and post about the need for Democrats to open up a second front against Trump that goes beyond our early, appropriate focus on the economy and his plutocratic budget.
New Hopium Videos/Interviews - Watch Senator Elissa Slotkin’s important speech; feel the passion and the power of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaking directly to the American people about Trump and his tariffs; catch journalist Leon Krauze talking about what Dems here in the US must learn from Mexico’s experience with their own Trump like leader; enjoy NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton giving us an update on the critical battle to hold onto a Supreme Court seat Republicans attempting to steal; learn from leading climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann about the extraordinary war the right and their global allies have been waging on American science; dive into why Trump’s tariffs are such a threat to our economy and the global economy with Dr. Rob Shapiro.
Appearances and Podcasts - Catch me on new podcasts with the New Republic’s Greg Sargent and another with Leigh McGowan (PoliticsGirl). On Wednesday I had the great pleasure of joining historian Heather Cox Richardson for a town hall discussion with our friends at Commit To Democracy. The talk is in two parts on CTD’s YouTube page - first is the main conversation itself and then you can find our closing call to action.
Let’s Get To Work People!!!!! - Let’s start with our current four recommended sets of actions:
1 - Fight The Trump/Musk Attack On Our Government And Our Privacy, End This Historic Crime Spree - Encourage your Senators and Representatives to let Facts be be submitted to a candid world in what I’m calling a joint Senate/House “Letter to America;” hold their own hearings; file criminal referrals for Musk and his malicious posse to DOJ/FBI and amicus briefs in the court cases regarding the usurpation of their Constitutional authorities or file suits of their own (House Dems began doing this on last Friday). Encourage them to hold a daily morning press conference to more aggressively challenge Musk’s ransacking of the USG that is making America less prosperous, less healthy, less safe and far less respected in the world.
2 - Protest, Loudly, Trump’s Embrace of Russia and Abandonment of Europe - Let your electeds know you are outraged by traitorous Trump’s selling out of Zelenskyy, abandonment of Europe and embrace of Putin; and that we cannot accept this level of appeasement of someone who is a clear enemy of America and the West, and certainly not an ally. Demand that Trump not let his Saudi meeting w/Putin become our Munich; demand that he not become our Neville Chamberlain; demand that we rejoin our European allies in support of Zelenskyy and democracy here and everywhere. The country is not with Trump’s embrace of Putin and we must be very loud, very, very loud now.
3 - Organize Against The 17 Most Vulnerable Republican House Members - For those of you who live in AZ, CA, CO, IA, MI, NE, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WI please start talking to your local orgs - state and local Democratic parties, grassroots groups, traditional Dem allies - about mounting a campaign targeting the most vulnerable 17 Republican House Members to urge them to vote against whatever joint House-Senate reconciliation bill emerges in the coming weeks. We launched this new effort two weeks ago and while we should be urging all our Senators and Reps to vote against these emerging plans, those of you can work these 17 House Rs have a special role to play in this next phase of the battle over the budget. As we’ve discussed there is a lot of concern in the Republican House about the size of the Medicaid cuts required in the House outline passed last Tuesday and we need to keep working it people!
4 - Keep Calling Attorneys General In The States - Ask them to protect you and your data, tax returns and privacy, and to keep federally mandated monies flowing to your states and communities. For those in the 19 states that brought the successful Treasury suit thank them and encourage them to keep going. I still believe these 19 states should make criminal referrals of Musk/his posse to DOJ/FBI and raise the stakes.
Paid subscribers should self-report their actions today in our daily chat. So inspired by how hard so many of you are working. I want to make a special plea to all Hopium readers in states with Republican Senators - please make your calls, every day. Even 50 to 100 people calling every day in every red state can make a difference. We have hundreds of Hopium subscribers in every state in the country and it’s critical that we all do our part now.
Next, for those wanting to do more traditional political/campaign work we have four Hopium-backed efforts we're rallying behind right now:
Help Susan Crawford and Ben Wikler in Wisconsin - As a way of honoring our good friend Ben Wikler and supporting this critical April Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, I’m asking our community to donate to the Wisconsin Democratic Party today. The money raised here will make sure Ben has the resources he needs to keep his team in place so they can support this critical statewide race. I know many of you are already deeply involved here - thank you all.
Watch our new discussion with Susan and Ben and thanks to a huge surge of support in recent days we have already raised $123,000, blowing past our original $50,000 goal and now our stretch goals of $100,000 and $125,000 (almost!). We are now upping this to a new super-stretch goal of $150,000 by March 31st. Amazing work everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Help Get Ken Martin Off To A Strong Start - In this time of extraordinary challenge we need a strong DNC. Two weeks ago we set a goal of raising $100,000 by March 31st for our new Chair. Incredibly, over 1,000 of you have donated over $97,000 so far. Watch my interview with Ken about what he wants to do with the DNC, and chip in whatever you can to help Ken and the new exciting team at the DNC get off to a strong start. We now have a new stretch goal of $150,000 by March 31st after our very strong start for this effort (note that we did have some money clawed back due to an error in the amount someone gave!)
Help Abigail Spanberger Win Virginia - Virginia will be one of the big battlegrounds of the November, 2025 elections and we have a great candidate for Governor, Abigail Spanberger. Watch my interview with Abigail, donate, volunteer, and learn more here. Given how many federal employees live in Virginia, this race is also now on the front lines of the Trump/Musk assault on the federal government. We’ve raised more than $60,000 so far towards our March 31st goal of $100,000 - thank you all. Let’s keep working it for Abigail!
Get Anderson Clayton And The NC Dems Fight The GOP’s Attempt To Steal A Supreme Court Seat - Last week we began a campaign to raise $50,000 for Anderson Clayton and the NC Dems. These funds will help the NC Dems get off to a great start in 2025 and help cover the costs of their fight to prevent the Republicans from stealing a Supreme Court seat we won together in 2024. Watch my new interview with Chair Clayton from last week to get an update on the fight over the Supreme Court seat and her plans to win elections and counter Trump this year. We’ve raised $20,000 so far - thank you all!
Help Hopium Celebrate Our 2nd Anniversary - In yesterday’s post I reflected back on our work together over these past two years, and made two asks:
1) Commit to bring in one new Hopium subscriber at the your current subscriber level this month. Help us grow this community, and bring our plucky, upbeat, hardworking spirit to more people across the US.
2) Upgrade your subscription to paid or paid to Founding (10% off annual paid subscriptions through March). The resources you provide allows me to work full time at Hopium and keeps our community vibrant, growing and making all sorts of good trouble every day.
Let’s end today from that photo I took from the incredible Impressionists exhibit at the National Gallery earlier this year. This one is from a painting by Monet, and it goes out to our courageous friends in Ukraine and to all of you on this cold but beautiful spring morning in Washington, DC:
Keep working hard all. Our work is making a difference, and I am incredibly proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon
I just want to repeat something for everyone here. We are not going to spend our time here attacking other Democrats. People who do will be asked to leave. We can have debates, disagreements but we need to stay respectful of others in our family in a time of incredible challenge and resist descending into factionalism that will guarantee Trump succeeds.
The point I keep making in my presentations and writings is that while we may be disappointed with others in our family if we spend all of our time focused on that rather than continuing to engage Trump we will be making an extraordinary and dangerous mistake. Trump had a bad week, his worst as President. We had a good week. Turning that moment and that understanding back into an attack on Dems takes us away from the task at hand. I realize that not everyone here agrees with this, and it is a lot easier to attack familiar family members than big scary Trump but need to stay focused folks.
Simon, thank you for all the encouragement to resist this onslaught on our government and the valuable services it provides to it's citizens along with jobs. I've been calling my senators and congressional rep several times a week. One of my senators Ruben Gallego is holding town halls in the red parts of AZ, which is pretty much all of it except Maricopa and Pima counties. The subject is addressing the cuts in Medicaid. As a licensed allied health care professional who worked in ruby red Yavapai county years ago, many of the patients I saw were either on Medicare, Medicaid or uninsured (pre ACA days). It will be devastating to those local economies, along with neglect to our national treasure, the Grand Canyon National Park. This is all so senseless. Yesterday I protested in front of a Tesla dealership with about 100 others. I'm now setting my sights on how to stop the destruction of Social Security of which I'm a beneficiary. That monthly income is extremely important and it is an earned benefit which I've paid into for 54 years and am still paying into because I still work.