The Undeniable Ugliness of MAGA, With Dems Tuesday, Expanding Our Coalition, More
The Monday Hopium Chronicles Newsletter
Things I’m working on, thinking about on this Monday:
The True Ugliness of MAGA Is On Display - Last week we spent time discussing Ron DeSantis’s bumbling start to his Presidential campaign, his backing of Putin in Ukraine and his declining poll numbers against Trump. Many Republicans are waking up to the reality that their new golden boy may not have what it takes to defeat Trump next year. As I wrote in a tweet, the ”next guy kinda sucks” and “there is no next next guy.”
That likely leaves the Republicans, and all of us, with Trump again. And holy moly, how ugly, illiberal, corrupt, lawless, unhinged and hate-filled Trump 2.0 is. A serial criminal, backer of Putin, betrayer of America, insurrectionist, rancid racist, most consequential champion of the ending of Roe. All of it. This is who they are. This is who they are choosing. This is who they are hysterically circling the wagons for. We cannot look away or normalize what we are seeing, let their powerful propaganda outfits distract us from what is right in front of our eyes.
This is why we are here, why we are putting our head down, together, and doing the work we must do to defeat MAGA, again. This is why we must get loud, expand our coalition, win the big economic debate this year, develop a new politics of women and families. All of it. It’s what we need to do now, together. Because one of our two political parties has been taken over by extremism and extremists, and in its current form it is a danger to us and to the free world the US imagined and built after WWII. We have to win.
Tuesday, 1pm ET - With Democrats Things Get Better – This presentation is foundational to everything we are going to do here at Hopium Chronicles so hope you can catch it live with me or watch a recording later in the week. It usually runs about 35 minutes and will be worth your time – I promise. Learn more, RSVP here. Also note that my monthly, live political briefing and discussion is next Tuesday, March 28th at 1pm ET.
Expanding the Democratic Coalition in 2024 – My new memo, “Get to 55, Expanding Our Coalition, The Youth Opportunity,” discusses the idea of Democrats going for it this cycle, and exploring ways to expand our national vote from 51% to 55%. Take a look and offer feedback in the comments section. Excited for this project.
Another Really Strong Jobs Report, Winning The Economic Debate This Year – 311,000 new jobs added in February, another remarkable jobs report. In my monthly look at the jobs report we review data showing how strong the economic recovery has been and remind that the last three Republican Presidents brought recessions, higher deficits and American decline, the last three Dem Presidents have brought growth, lower deficits, progress.
I believe there are two overarching political things Democrats should/must do in 2023 to make it more likely we have a successful 2024 – win the big economic argument with Republicans this year, and launch a national youth voter registration drive.
This jobs memo and my With Democrats Things Get Better presentation provide a great deal of data to help Democratic info warriors get smarter and become more effective advocates in the coming months. Winning the big economic argument with the right is something that should front of mind, and core to our work this year.
On Fox, Getting Loud and Becoming Info Warriors for Democracy –My new commentary on Fox “News” being outed as a pretend news organization received millions of views on Twitter and was cited by the Washington Post, Politico and MSNBC. Expect a great deal of attention and work here at H/C to creating a more serious conversation about building a healthier information ecosystem in the US, and in developing strategies to more effectively counter the right wing noise machine which dumps so much poison and bullshit into our daily discourse. It’s a core reason we are here, something I discuss at length in this free video preview of my first paid subscriber discussion on Friday.
Watch this video for more on the need for all of us to get louder and become information warriors for democracy. Vital, vital work we need to do, together.
Does America Need More Workers? In a new post I talk about the need for America to find more workers, and explore options for where they might come from. I have a long history in the immigration debate so expect commentary and events on the border and immigration in the coming months.
New Discussions, Podcasts, Media Appearances and Upcoming Events – Every Saturday I put together in one place links to some of my recent media appearances, podcasts and public discussions, and to upcoming events where I will be presenting or speaking. You can catch this new one we released Saturday here.
Why Hopium Chronicles? If you are new here be sure to read my welcome statement and Ron Brownstein’s interview with me in the Atlantic. Together they do a good job of explaining why I am shuttering NDN and setting up shop here.
Note that there is a lot of material on the H/C site itself as I have brought some of my work over the past two decades along with me. Do explore. There is a lot of good stuff here.
Happy Monday All! Simon
My idea for a slogan for the Dems:
Democrats: the party with heart
Happy Monday, Simon! Do you have a YouTube channel where all of your videos are uploaded? Hopium has been helpful in motivating me to do more and possibly to throw my own hat in the ring. Have a great week!