"You Have To Be Willing To Fight"
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Morning all. Thought this quote from former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison in Politico today got to the heart of it:
“It’s the No. 1 requirement for whomever becomes our de facto head in 2028,” said Jaime Harrison, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee. “You have to be willing to fight.”
As we often say here you never know in politics. You never know when the cause you’ve been working on breaks through; when the bill you’ve been introducing for 20 years finally passes; when your candidate finally takes off. You never know. So you just have to keep plugging away and keep grinding for you never know.
We don’t know why this new national fight over redistricting has become the issue that has galvanized Democrats to fight harder, find that “higher gear” that we discussed yesterday, to leave it all out there on the playing field for our democracy and freedoms, but it has. And it is great to see.
When moments like this arise they are the culmination of all the work that has come before - the hundreds of Town Halls, the millions marching, the overperformances and wins in special and local elections, the dramatic unraveling of “Trump” the brand and the clear failure of his economic agenda, our ongoing victories in the courts, our sturdy leads in NJ and VA and Mamdani’s innovative campaign, the millions of postcards being written, the successful Senate blocking of GOP nominees this summer, the forcing of the House to subpoena the Epstein files from the DOJ and just the cumulative outrage of his antics, the chaos and historic ongoing betrayal of the country.
However we got to this place of confrontation and fight it is a place we must stay now. There is no going back to a time when fights like this are “distractions” from “kitchen table” issues. For I think in all the polling and analytics and ad testing we have missed something essential in our politics, something Nathan Heller touches on in his commentary - many, many people in our politics today are “rubbed” by news, or are as Tara McGowan describes it “passive news consumers.” These citizens and often infrequent voters come to politics very differently than all of us. I want to propose that these voters put more value on things like “fight,” “winning,” “strong” - the place Trump lives in everyday - and want leaders, simply, who are willing to fight for them and are strong enough to get things done to make things better for them and their families. “Issues” matter to them as they do to all of us but it is possible that these leadership attributes matter more. It just may be that as Bill Clinton once famously said voters will choose someone who is “strong and wrong” over someone “weak and right.”
Look at this data from the 2024 exit polls. Trump won the election with late breaking and new voters, “rubbed” news voters (and Hispanics and young people, two very large consumers of social media who live in a “rubbed” news environment):
Now let’s look at how leadership attributes played in the election, again from the exit polls. Trump just crushed it on strong leader/weak leader and will fight for me/has the strength to get things done/make my life better:
Harris was a better human. Trump a stronger leader. Strong and wrong beat weak and right.
Thus, in showing our willingness to fight for our beliefs, to stand our ground, to not compromise on our values and our love of country we are sending a very powerful signal to voters, perhaps the most important of them all - that we are willing to fight for them and their families and take on tough battles against powerful forces - and win - to make things better for them.
But as we discussed yesterday, if we are to keep fighting we need to forge a clear national narrative about why we are fighting and what we are fighting for. People simply must have a clearer sense of who we are and what we believe we are doing. I think whatever that narrative becomes it has to have at least three elements:
Trump’s agenda is doing enormous harm to the country and to all of us
Trump is attempting to end American democracy, turn himself into a dictator and strip away our long held rights and freedoms
We are proud American patriots who are willing to stand and fight for the country we love and our fellow Americans; mitigate the damage our extremist leader is doing; and pursue a course that makes things better for all of us and preserves our cherished liberties
To do this I think our Congressional leaders are going to have to dramatically change the way they organize themselves every day. So much is about legislating and hearings. Good and important as that is the core role of a legislature. But we must develop a capacity to meet their outrageous acts with a loud and angry roar every single time even during Congressional recesses. Whether it is a People’s Cabinet, or a new Congressional War Room, when Robert Kennedy says he is abandoning mRNA vaccines - some of the most promising health care technology to emerge in our history - it should be met with a bicameral press conference denouncing this dangerous sabotage and demanding its restoration; a team working with outside groups and state leaders to create amplification; and a clear commitment to restore the funding and programs in the coming fiscal year 2026 budget. While we cannot fight every battle, we have left far, far too many uncontested. And that has helped make us look weak, and helped drive down our approval rating to unacceptable levels.
If we believe their tariffs are raising prices and harming working Americans then we need to fight to roll them back.
If we believe that the tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy in the big, ugly bill threaten the fiscal integrity of the United States then we need to fight to repeal them.
If we believe that a supercharged ICE is a threat to our liberties then we need to fight to curtail its expansion and put clear guard rails on its activities.
If we believe that believe that their attacks on our global scientific and academic leadership is doing irreparable harm to the country then we need to ensure that the funding for this research is restored and preserved, and our courageous scientists honored.
If we believe that Robert Kennedy and the cutting of the ACA and Medicaid is doing extraordinary harm to our public health then we need to fight to restore the funding and stop the sabotage.
If we believe that the cuts to our soft power and intelligence agencies threaten our security then we should fight to restore their funding and programmatic ambitions.
If we believe that Trump and his team are breaking laws then we should make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice and relevant state law enforcement agencies.
If we believe that Trump is a national emergency and a clear and present danger to our democracy then we must act with great urgency and fight 24/7/365.
I could go on but you get the idea.
Here is what I wrote in my very first Hopium post:
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.
Now, proud, plucky, patriots of this remarkable community, let’s get to work. For here we stand and fight, every day, together:
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Support Hopium’s Priority Candidates And Party Committees - A reminder that Election Day, 2025 is a little more than three months away and early voting starts in Virginia in less than two months - September 19th!
As background learn about 1) our big recommendations to the family coming out of the 2024 elections 2) the many important wins we had together last cycle 3) my latest thinking on where we are and the path forward for the Hopium community.
Donate, volunteer, learn more about our candidates and opportunities here. I consider all these options must dos for anyone serious about winning this year and next year...
Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $47k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Rep. Sherrill
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Our updated fundraising goals are now for the end of the year, December 31st, except for the 2025 races, which are now for Election Day, 2025.
We can do this people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our Recommended Actions - We are prioritizing three actions today. You can get our full list of recommended actions here. Let’s get to it:
1 - Call your Senators and Rep To Demand They Rescind Trump’s Terrible Tariffs - Congress simply must take back its tariff authority that Trump has illegally and unconstitutional seized and dangerously abused. It is time now for to rescind these terrible and destructive madman tariffs.
2 - Bring “Resolutions Of Condemnation” To Your Community - Inspired by the tactics of our Founders learn about how Hopium members are advancing “Resolutions of Condemnation” in their communities across the country and consider bringing this initiative to your state, country or city/town. Remarkably, members of this community are now advancing 50 resolutions projects in 20 states. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election?
Our newly updated Resolutions page includes a new chat for folks to report in on their progress or seek counsel from those interested in launching a resolutions project in their community. This is one way to fight back against Trump’s unprecedented abandonment of our Constitutional order.
3 - Grow Hopium And This Wonderful Community Of Proud, Plucky, Patriots - We’ve set a goal of trying to grow the Hopium community from the 152,000 we are now to 175,000 by Election Day, 2025. Do what you can to encourage your friends, family and colleagues to become a summer subscriber to Hopium, free or paid. If each current paid subscriber brings in just one new subscriber this summer we will hit our goal.
To encourage the growth of our community annual paid subscriptions are 10% off through Labor Day. Use that link to buy gift or group subscriptions, and join our new referral rewards program too.
Finally, please self-report your activities to our daily paid subscriber chat. These reports help inspire all of us to do more and fight harder! Been impressive to see how many of you remain involved in local, in person protests of all kinds in your communities. Keep it up!!!
Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you, and a fight it truly is - Simon
On Nov. 7, 2024, five days after the disappointing election, I posted: "Take care of each other. We're not giving up!" I’m an eternal optimist at heart. The message is simply that:
1.) We’re not happy about the situation.
2.) Let’s take care of ourselves and each other.
3.) Together, we can prevail!
The resistance is finally starting to pick up steam. We can win the battle to preserve our democracy.
We have to show voters we’re willing to fight! I’m convinced that this is the key to restoring voter approval of the Democratic Party.
Hopium has a lot of talk about Trump’s declining popularity, and rightly so. But it’s a depressing fact that Democrats have an even lower approval rate than Trump. This needs to change!