Sunday Hopium - Hopium's 2nd Anniversary This Friday, We Need To Be Really, Really Loud This Week
I will be joining Fred Wellman today live at 11:15pm AM ET
Morning all. Here at Hopium Sundays are light days, easy days, days to rest, recharge and get ready for the week ahead. I am back in DC after a few days visiting friends (part of self-care) and have a busy week planned. In addition to some interviews I’m conducting with important leaders of this critical moment, you will be able to catch me in a new comprehensive discussion with Leigh McGowan for her PoliticsGirl podcast (coming soon); a live interview this morning with Fred Wellman; and these three additional events:
Wed, 4pm ET - I’ll be joining historian Heather Cox Richardson for a Commit to Democracy town hall discussion. This timely event is likely to sell out so register this morning to make sure you get your slot!
Wed, 7pm ET - Our next Hopium Paid Subscriber gathering. Look for a separate invitation later today.
Fri, 1pm ET - Hopium Founding Members “Most Fridays” get together. Look for a separate invitation in the coming days.
A reminder that we have a new “Events” page on the site which has our latest schedule of events and links where applicable. You can find it on the right side of the Navigation bar at the top of the site. While there also check out the “Podcast” tab which links to all of our video clips and interviews. Lot’s of really good stuff there to chew on. I also want to note that we are close to hitting $100,000 raised for Susan Crawford and Ben Wikler in Wisconsin - incredible work all!
I posted a lot of new content and analysis this past week. You can find my initial take on Trump’s extraordinary selling out of Zelenskyy; why the GOP’s passage of the Trump budget outline is a real opportunity for Democrats; reasons to be optimistic that the opposition movement required now to counter Trump is finally coming together; my case for why it’s time for our elected leaders to do far more to counter Trump than they are doing now; and new and compelling interviews with NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton and influential journalist Leon Krauze.
It was a dark week for our country, but I end it knowing that Trump is weaker than he appears right now, and our movement stronger. With all that is going on it is really important what we all plan to be as loud as we can this week. Republicans need to feel and hear us this week, and we must keep fighting to prevent them from doing even more harm to this remarkable nation and it’s gritty and wonderful people.
Let’s watch a few videos now. Here is Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas just literally walking off stage when asked, politely about the many, many veterans losing their jobs now due to Trump’s savage disassembly of the US government:
Here is Rep. Greg Self (R-TX) getting booed, loudly, at a town hall yesterday when mentioning “DOGE” -
Here is Rep. Tom Suozzi getting a standing ovation yesterday at a town hall in his district when talking about Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine, Europe and America itself (via our friends at MeidasTouch):
And here is last night’s SNL cold open take down of the ongoing Trump/Musk shitshow:
Hopium Turns 2!!!!! - I launched Hopium Chronicles on March 7th, 2023 with this initial hopeful post. An excerpt:
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.
I am incredibly proud of what we’ve built here together over the past 2 years. We have helped hundreds of thousands of Americans become bigger and more powerful citizens. We racked up really important electoral victories from New York to Florida to California. We’ve met dozens of elected officials, rising stars and thought leaders in our interviews and live events. We’ve showcased and gotten to know critical new leaders of the pro-democracy media space. We picked each other up when we were down, and kept “doing more and worrying less” every day. While producing Hopium each day is a lot of work, it is the most rewarding project I’ve even been a part of - largely due to the extraordinary community of doers and proud patriots who are fighting hard here every day to ensure that American democracy is not extinguished on their watch. It is rewarding because I am here, together, with all of you.
To celebrate our anniversary friends of Hopium will come visit us this month to talk about this critical moment in our history and the importance of our work. I am also offering 10% off new, paid annual Hopium subscriptions through the end of March. Go here to sign up. You can also use this link to buy gift or group subscriptions too. Paid subscribers provide the resources to make Hopium go everyday and keep most of our content free and widely available to Americans in this time of enormous challenge. Become a paid subscriber this month, celebrate our good work together and help Hopium get stronger and reach more people!
My Notes On The Path Forward And Building An Effective and Ferocious Opposition - See my essays (here, here) on this process of building the opposition and our critical role in leading the way; watch my new video that goes into greater detail, reminding us that
We are Americans. Fighting for freedom and democracy is what we do. Who we are.
Learn why I think it’s time for Congressional Dems to “let Facts be submitted to a candid world;” read my post that pulls together all my big recommendations for the pro-democracy family; and watch my recent interviews with Rep. Eric Swalwell and journalist Leon Krauze for in-depth discussions on how we must fight harder, smarter and get much much louder now.
OK, Let’s Get To Work - Here are my current working recommendations for calls/contacts this week. Four today, and thanks to all of you who are busting your ass right now:
Fight The Musk Attack On Our Government And Our Privacy, End His Historic Crime Spree - . Encourage your Senators and Reps to let Facts be be submitted to a candid world and criminal referrals filed for him and his malicious posse to DOJ/FBI; insist our Senators and Reps file amicus briefs in the court cases regarding the usurpation of their Constitutional authorities or file suits of their own; 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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
A note - while physical protests and rallies are a vital part of how we build our new opposition movement, make sure you only attend or promote events by organizations you know and trust. Please do not support any action - boycott, protest, rally, etc - unless you know and trust the organizers. Given the import of our work now I don’t think it wise or advisable to lend our support to newly formed, opaque organizations without a proven track record of working with Democratic groups and leaders.
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 $97,000, blowing past our $50,000 goal. We are now upping this to a stretch goal of $100,000 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 $93,000 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 $51,000 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 Off To A Great Start - Yesterday webegan 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. Watch my new interview with Chair Clayton. We’ve raised $12,000 so far - thank you all!
Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon
After the Trump meltdown, R Reps Lawler (NY), Bacon (Nebraska) and Fitzpatrick (PA), plus Senator Murkowski (AK) have spoken against this treatment of an ally. So far. Their leadership may allow other Rs to step forward. An issue we can make a bridge with.
I cannot view Wednesday's events live because I'm marching in a demonstration against Andy Harris, my congressman and head of the Freedom Caucus. I attended a local Democrats meeting focused on how to fight back. I contacted my two Democratic Senators multiple times this week. I reminded them that they, along with EVERY Democrat in the Senate voted to confirm Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. Democrats have to stop that adoration of Senate manners! And I contacted our traitor congressman five times. I also made smart donations where the money can make a difference.