Well said Robert. Perhaps Republicans can create that same sort of "circular firing squad" that Democrats have been so good at. But I don't think we can rely on the GOP (GQP) to self-destruct. Their hate and vitriol is attractive to millions of Americans.
We need more positive messaging about this administrations achievements - to appeal to that huge Independent middle. I didn't vote for Joe in the primary, but I am wicked impressed with what he has done in year one. Compared to most presidents, it is epic in scale. We're not making enough noise about it! I am proud of President Biden!
Instead, too many progressives are whining because Biden doesn't have a magic wand to wave over the heads of Manchin, Sinema and a few Republicans. Joe is doing as well as anyone could. Do we think Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren (my hero and presidential preference) could have gotten those two "DINOs" to back the Democratic agenda of Voting Rights and BBB? Dream on.
If we lose this year in the mid-terms, it will be our fault for a lack of turnout. Too many in our own party still don't get how important they are to saving democracy itself. The danger is in our own apathy and unrealistic expectations. Unite for the good fight! Drag your neighbors to the voting booth!
I like your take on Gingrich and Trump keeping the January 6th attempted coup front and center. I'm afraid with Biden's low approval rating that these two clowns will get much needed attention from the Right and the Left. It sickens me that Trump wants to pardon the U.S. Terrorists involved in the storming of the capital. He really knows how to stir up trouble. I continue to fear for our democracy. I have thought of ways to cope if Trump or someone like him wins the presidency. I will continue to keep to myself except for school and art events. I live in a neighborhood at the edge of town that is slowly eroding. Neighbors have recently passed away and some have moved. We no longer know anyone on our road which is still in the city limits. We have Trump neighbors that I ignore. Our town is relatively progressive and blue, because we live near larger university towns and Tupelo. I know people here even though I don't make much attempt to see them, and they know me, so I'm in the right place. Now is the time to fight and mobilize and get the word out, but once 2024 arrives, I will not be making any waves in this town. It's a small Mississippi town thing that most people elsewhere would not understand. We actually have stone monuments erected with the confederate flag displayed on them put up by the county. The flags are proudly displayed on many pick-up trucks here too. Smaller towns have "Trump Won" signs as you enter them. I stay away from those places now, where there are restaurants that my husband likes to frequent. I am uncomfortable in most local places and find that staying home is the best solution for me. I can write letters to Congresspersons and post on social media but I don't get a single "like" on your posts, RR, that I retweet on Twitter, which is disconcerting. Even so, hopefully my followers read them. Let's keep our focus on every manner of persuasion possible in each of our unique situations, to keep Trump from taking over our country. It's difficult for me to think of strategies when things seem overwhelming and insurmountable, but I will do my part, as much as possible. We are fighting for our democracy. We cannot lose that.
Prof. Reich, Amid a rapidly narrowing window to protect the key mechanisms of American democracy, I submit we would be remiss were our strategy for the 22 midterms to rest in any way on the public’s reactions to an admittedly increasingly “contemptible” Republican Party
To the contrary, I view our two most immediate challenges as 1) resuscitating momentum at the federal level both by reforming the Electoral Vote Count plus getting further federal voter safeguards passed and 2) mobilizing for democracy at the state and local levels principally by out-organizing Republicans, who ruthlessly are organizing to fill state and local positions with their own people—people who don’t believe in free and fair elections.
As a final point, I contend that the country needs a highly effective Explainer-in Chief, presumably though not necessarily the President, methodically to educate people, nationwide, about what they’re losing every time the President’s agenda is stalled.
Sick and tired of Trump's lies and threats - the same old corrupt song and dance - I've filled out the contact form on the Department of Justice website and respectfully asked for them to investigate his ongoing threats and lies as a national security issue. He is advocating violence and the overthrow of democracy - yet again!
I see the biggest failure in allowing Trump to run around, hold rallies, incite violence. That is what he is doing. He’s a twice impeached president, spewing very dangerous rhetoric. Why aren’t the Democrats’ lives being protected. Why can MTG & Boebert make terroristic threats and still sit in Congress. It’s time to pour on the pressure to media supporting and covering these rallies. I start to lose hope when these monsters continually promote deluded ideas to their psycho followers (who are well armed).
No consequences for a direct attack will NOT pull in voters!
Independent voters and young Democrats are not likely to vote on the basis of big bad Trump or relic Gingrich. They are concerned with what elected officials have done for them, economically.
Loyal Democrats like yourself and registered Dems who identify and contribute to the Democratic Party will find your strategy reaffirming and can be motivated to vote based upon it.
Gingrich and Trump are out to motive the base of the Republican Party. They misapprehension that base. It isn’t the misinformed Trumpers. The base of the Republican Party is all of those people who believe through their own efforts they have achieved some wealth and security which the Democrats they believe will tax away. This group wears masks and gets vaccinated and only tolerates Trump because he gave them another tax break. They are as loyal to the Republican Party as you are and others here are to the Democratic Party. But I believe they are disenchanted with Trump and the 1/6 crowd of extremists and would prefer a replacement, a mini Trump who is not so wildly bombastic but offers them the same tax breaks amid wealth protections.
It is already clear that what Trump is out to do is take away the working class base of the Democratic Party. Without that voter base and with the indifference of younger Democrats the Republicans win.
The press is already convinced that your strategy will not work and expects a disaster for the Democrats in the Fall.
What worked for Democrats in other mid-term elections was promises on basics like healthcare. If Biden doesn’t start to develop a strategy based around I presented Congress with childcare, I gave you childcare during Covid, give me a Congress that will allow me to sign a bill giving you childcare, then he and the Democratic Party will miss the boat.
The most I can say as a progressive is we told you so and you didn’t listen.
Of course Trump, Gingrich, etal will continue. They are the great grifters: Make American Grift Again! And McCarthy juvenilely and pathologically craves power than cannot handle and responsibility he cannot fathom.
I agree with Robert that T & G are great assets for Dems. I go a step further; the Rep Party is the Dem Party's greatest asset.
But this is damning the Dems. If Reps are their great advantage, they are their own worst asset. Nationally silent in most states as Rep legis run roughshod over Constitution, individuals and groups, established rights of all kinds. In the suits slowly winning in state after state against illegal redistricting and gerrymandering, to take one example, the Dems are never a party to the suits by LWV, ACLU, CommonCause, NAACP-NAACP LDF, in particular with guidance from Marc Elias and the Brennan Center. Same on other major issues
If the Dems had sense and a voice, "defund the police," "socialism," BLM, Antifa, critical race theory, fake "parental rights" and removal of children's rights that we won over more than a century would not be the issues they are.
In Ohio where I live, the Dem Party with no public discussion backs Rep. Tim Ryan and privately agrees to fund raise with him, and slights the younger, more intelligent, more articulate, more personable, and more knowledgeable black woman Morgan Harper! Why? Tim has served his time. Morgan, who is more articulate and dynamic, and stronger on issues, should wait her time. Tim has no platform. But he has raised $5M to Morgan's $400K! He wont' debate Morgan or the Reps.
That's a hell of a way to win elections. They also refuse to respond to my own and others' challenges in print: Where is the Ohio Democratic Party?
So let me get this straight. The 2020 election was rigged but the Republicans in the House, Senate, and elsewhere who were victorious were rightfully and legitimately elected? How does that work?
If Trump were really anxious to pardon the January 6 Capitol rioters, he could have done so during the period January 6 - 20, 2021. The arrests and prosecutions began while he was still president. Promising to pardon the rioters if he becomes president in the future seems designed to induce them not to cooperate to implicate Trump and his buddies for their role in the riots, as the investigations heat up. If the rioters' attorneys are doing their job, however, they would point out that there is no guarantee Trump will be elected president in 2024, and there is no guarantee he would follow through and pardon them even if he is. After all, Trump is the Stiffer-in-Chief.
I think Democrats could offer a simple campaign message, repeated relentlessly: Trump/McConnell Republicans are soft on crime. They are promoting violence in the streets, making this country unsafe for law-abiding citizens.
My reasoning: Pardoning violent criminals, enacting legislation that allows such vigilantes as George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse to freely gun down people they dislike, and giving convicted violent felons easy access to guns is soft on crime, as is pardoning Paul Manafort and his ilk.
You know, the other side has guns and wants to use them. We don't. If the GOP wins the midterms their rank and file will increase the domestic violence. If the GOP loses the midterms their rank and file will increase the domestic violence. As 2024 approaches, their rank and file will increase the violence. Please understand this. They are armed and eager. We aren't. We want to win the midterms and we have to know that more violence is ensuing. That said, we need to win the governorships and Senate seats of 8 states - Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona. To win those states we need to understand the electorate. In Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, people of color are a minority, and non-college whites are a majority. Therefore, in those states, the GOP will be talking about the stolen election, critical race theory, mask mandates - and it's all a freebie for them. Look at what just happened in Virginia. Not only did Youngkin win Virginia on those ideas, scaring people, critical race theory wasn't even taught in Virginia. As soon as he trashed mask mandates and parents started to rebel, some suburban white woman got up in a public meeting and announced to the world that she would bring her guns locked and loaded to school if her kids were required to wear masks. She had to walk it back because she was recorded and drowned by a million critics on Twitter. So that's where we have to fight. People in mainstream America don't give a damn about the attempted coup anymore. They also don't realize that we are headed into a shooting a day world. They aren't progressives - maybe 6% of the US public thinks they're progressives - and they aren't aware of what's coming. I repeat, passports.
And then there’s this as reported by The NY Times:
“Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away,” Mr. Trump said. “Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the election!”
“The statement was the first time Mr. Trump described his goal as overturning an election. But Mr. Trump’s statement also included his usual false assertions about election fraud, suggesting he does not believe the election was legitimate.”
Everything Trump does is to benefit Trump himself. EVERYTHING!
Hoping that the opponent will shoot himself in the foot, is a very risky posture. The Reps. are much better than the Dems at spinning stories, unhinged from the facts, that work for them as propaganda. And they are so busy legislating in the States to steal the next election. Why can't the Dems. use the numerous opportunities the Reps hand them? Publicize the consequences of the laws passed by the States to steal the election, the killing of the social programs in the BBB while giving more to the military than they asked for, $8 TRILLION over 10 years, Vs. $2 trillion over 10 years, McConnell saying essentially: "We have no program." They do: regain ALL power at all cost, cost to the 99% and the final death of our democracy on life-support. The list of points on which to fight is long. Why the silence from the Dems?
I read some of the prior comments and agree with a lot of what they stated , however no matter how important these other issues are, the most important one is saving our democracy. A coup cannot happen without the backing of the law and the military.
You write a great article as always. Best hope for Democrats. Bring gas prices down. Stop inflation. Don't get involved with Ukraine. Lower cost of groceries and medicine. Do something about the homeless on the streets, medical insurance and mental help for many American struggling from the pandemic. Get control over the southern border. Most people could care less about Trump and Gingrich. They care about feeding their families. Going to football games and who is playing in the Super Bowl and will Tom Brady really retire. That is why Washington DC is so out of touch with Americans. Career politicians need to get out of their bubble.
Well said Robert. Perhaps Republicans can create that same sort of "circular firing squad" that Democrats have been so good at. But I don't think we can rely on the GOP (GQP) to self-destruct. Their hate and vitriol is attractive to millions of Americans.
We need more positive messaging about this administrations achievements - to appeal to that huge Independent middle. I didn't vote for Joe in the primary, but I am wicked impressed with what he has done in year one. Compared to most presidents, it is epic in scale. We're not making enough noise about it! I am proud of President Biden!
Instead, too many progressives are whining because Biden doesn't have a magic wand to wave over the heads of Manchin, Sinema and a few Republicans. Joe is doing as well as anyone could. Do we think Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren (my hero and presidential preference) could have gotten those two "DINOs" to back the Democratic agenda of Voting Rights and BBB? Dream on.
If we lose this year in the mid-terms, it will be our fault for a lack of turnout. Too many in our own party still don't get how important they are to saving democracy itself. The danger is in our own apathy and unrealistic expectations. Unite for the good fight! Drag your neighbors to the voting booth!
I like your take on Gingrich and Trump keeping the January 6th attempted coup front and center. I'm afraid with Biden's low approval rating that these two clowns will get much needed attention from the Right and the Left. It sickens me that Trump wants to pardon the U.S. Terrorists involved in the storming of the capital. He really knows how to stir up trouble. I continue to fear for our democracy. I have thought of ways to cope if Trump or someone like him wins the presidency. I will continue to keep to myself except for school and art events. I live in a neighborhood at the edge of town that is slowly eroding. Neighbors have recently passed away and some have moved. We no longer know anyone on our road which is still in the city limits. We have Trump neighbors that I ignore. Our town is relatively progressive and blue, because we live near larger university towns and Tupelo. I know people here even though I don't make much attempt to see them, and they know me, so I'm in the right place. Now is the time to fight and mobilize and get the word out, but once 2024 arrives, I will not be making any waves in this town. It's a small Mississippi town thing that most people elsewhere would not understand. We actually have stone monuments erected with the confederate flag displayed on them put up by the county. The flags are proudly displayed on many pick-up trucks here too. Smaller towns have "Trump Won" signs as you enter them. I stay away from those places now, where there are restaurants that my husband likes to frequent. I am uncomfortable in most local places and find that staying home is the best solution for me. I can write letters to Congresspersons and post on social media but I don't get a single "like" on your posts, RR, that I retweet on Twitter, which is disconcerting. Even so, hopefully my followers read them. Let's keep our focus on every manner of persuasion possible in each of our unique situations, to keep Trump from taking over our country. It's difficult for me to think of strategies when things seem overwhelming and insurmountable, but I will do my part, as much as possible. We are fighting for our democracy. We cannot lose that.
Prof. Reich, Amid a rapidly narrowing window to protect the key mechanisms of American democracy, I submit we would be remiss were our strategy for the 22 midterms to rest in any way on the public’s reactions to an admittedly increasingly “contemptible” Republican Party
To the contrary, I view our two most immediate challenges as 1) resuscitating momentum at the federal level both by reforming the Electoral Vote Count plus getting further federal voter safeguards passed and 2) mobilizing for democracy at the state and local levels principally by out-organizing Republicans, who ruthlessly are organizing to fill state and local positions with their own people—people who don’t believe in free and fair elections.
As a final point, I contend that the country needs a highly effective Explainer-in Chief, presumably though not necessarily the President, methodically to educate people, nationwide, about what they’re losing every time the President’s agenda is stalled.
Sick and tired of Trump's lies and threats - the same old corrupt song and dance - I've filled out the contact form on the Department of Justice website and respectfully asked for them to investigate his ongoing threats and lies as a national security issue. He is advocating violence and the overthrow of democracy - yet again!
I see the biggest failure in allowing Trump to run around, hold rallies, incite violence. That is what he is doing. He’s a twice impeached president, spewing very dangerous rhetoric. Why aren’t the Democrats’ lives being protected. Why can MTG & Boebert make terroristic threats and still sit in Congress. It’s time to pour on the pressure to media supporting and covering these rallies. I start to lose hope when these monsters continually promote deluded ideas to their psycho followers (who are well armed).
No consequences for a direct attack will NOT pull in voters!
Independent voters and young Democrats are not likely to vote on the basis of big bad Trump or relic Gingrich. They are concerned with what elected officials have done for them, economically.
Loyal Democrats like yourself and registered Dems who identify and contribute to the Democratic Party will find your strategy reaffirming and can be motivated to vote based upon it.
Gingrich and Trump are out to motive the base of the Republican Party. They misapprehension that base. It isn’t the misinformed Trumpers. The base of the Republican Party is all of those people who believe through their own efforts they have achieved some wealth and security which the Democrats they believe will tax away. This group wears masks and gets vaccinated and only tolerates Trump because he gave them another tax break. They are as loyal to the Republican Party as you are and others here are to the Democratic Party. But I believe they are disenchanted with Trump and the 1/6 crowd of extremists and would prefer a replacement, a mini Trump who is not so wildly bombastic but offers them the same tax breaks amid wealth protections.
It is already clear that what Trump is out to do is take away the working class base of the Democratic Party. Without that voter base and with the indifference of younger Democrats the Republicans win.
The press is already convinced that your strategy will not work and expects a disaster for the Democrats in the Fall.
What worked for Democrats in other mid-term elections was promises on basics like healthcare. If Biden doesn’t start to develop a strategy based around I presented Congress with childcare, I gave you childcare during Covid, give me a Congress that will allow me to sign a bill giving you childcare, then he and the Democratic Party will miss the boat.
The most I can say as a progressive is we told you so and you didn’t listen.
Of course Trump, Gingrich, etal will continue. They are the great grifters: Make American Grift Again! And McCarthy juvenilely and pathologically craves power than cannot handle and responsibility he cannot fathom.
I agree with Robert that T & G are great assets for Dems. I go a step further; the Rep Party is the Dem Party's greatest asset.
But this is damning the Dems. If Reps are their great advantage, they are their own worst asset. Nationally silent in most states as Rep legis run roughshod over Constitution, individuals and groups, established rights of all kinds. In the suits slowly winning in state after state against illegal redistricting and gerrymandering, to take one example, the Dems are never a party to the suits by LWV, ACLU, CommonCause, NAACP-NAACP LDF, in particular with guidance from Marc Elias and the Brennan Center. Same on other major issues
If the Dems had sense and a voice, "defund the police," "socialism," BLM, Antifa, critical race theory, fake "parental rights" and removal of children's rights that we won over more than a century would not be the issues they are.
In Ohio where I live, the Dem Party with no public discussion backs Rep. Tim Ryan and privately agrees to fund raise with him, and slights the younger, more intelligent, more articulate, more personable, and more knowledgeable black woman Morgan Harper! Why? Tim has served his time. Morgan, who is more articulate and dynamic, and stronger on issues, should wait her time. Tim has no platform. But he has raised $5M to Morgan's $400K! He wont' debate Morgan or the Reps.
That's a hell of a way to win elections. They also refuse to respond to my own and others' challenges in print: Where is the Ohio Democratic Party?
Why does it strike me that so many of the "giants" on the right are just attention-starved little boys?
So let me get this straight. The 2020 election was rigged but the Republicans in the House, Senate, and elsewhere who were victorious were rightfully and legitimately elected? How does that work?
If Trump were really anxious to pardon the January 6 Capitol rioters, he could have done so during the period January 6 - 20, 2021. The arrests and prosecutions began while he was still president. Promising to pardon the rioters if he becomes president in the future seems designed to induce them not to cooperate to implicate Trump and his buddies for their role in the riots, as the investigations heat up. If the rioters' attorneys are doing their job, however, they would point out that there is no guarantee Trump will be elected president in 2024, and there is no guarantee he would follow through and pardon them even if he is. After all, Trump is the Stiffer-in-Chief.
I think Democrats could offer a simple campaign message, repeated relentlessly: Trump/McConnell Republicans are soft on crime. They are promoting violence in the streets, making this country unsafe for law-abiding citizens.
My reasoning: Pardoning violent criminals, enacting legislation that allows such vigilantes as George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse to freely gun down people they dislike, and giving convicted violent felons easy access to guns is soft on crime, as is pardoning Paul Manafort and his ilk.
You know, the other side has guns and wants to use them. We don't. If the GOP wins the midterms their rank and file will increase the domestic violence. If the GOP loses the midterms their rank and file will increase the domestic violence. As 2024 approaches, their rank and file will increase the violence. Please understand this. They are armed and eager. We aren't. We want to win the midterms and we have to know that more violence is ensuing. That said, we need to win the governorships and Senate seats of 8 states - Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona. To win those states we need to understand the electorate. In Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, people of color are a minority, and non-college whites are a majority. Therefore, in those states, the GOP will be talking about the stolen election, critical race theory, mask mandates - and it's all a freebie for them. Look at what just happened in Virginia. Not only did Youngkin win Virginia on those ideas, scaring people, critical race theory wasn't even taught in Virginia. As soon as he trashed mask mandates and parents started to rebel, some suburban white woman got up in a public meeting and announced to the world that she would bring her guns locked and loaded to school if her kids were required to wear masks. She had to walk it back because she was recorded and drowned by a million critics on Twitter. So that's where we have to fight. People in mainstream America don't give a damn about the attempted coup anymore. They also don't realize that we are headed into a shooting a day world. They aren't progressives - maybe 6% of the US public thinks they're progressives - and they aren't aware of what's coming. I repeat, passports.
And then there’s this as reported by The NY Times:
“Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away,” Mr. Trump said. “Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the election!”
“The statement was the first time Mr. Trump described his goal as overturning an election. But Mr. Trump’s statement also included his usual false assertions about election fraud, suggesting he does not believe the election was legitimate.”
Everything Trump does is to benefit Trump himself. EVERYTHING!
Hoping that the opponent will shoot himself in the foot, is a very risky posture. The Reps. are much better than the Dems at spinning stories, unhinged from the facts, that work for them as propaganda. And they are so busy legislating in the States to steal the next election. Why can't the Dems. use the numerous opportunities the Reps hand them? Publicize the consequences of the laws passed by the States to steal the election, the killing of the social programs in the BBB while giving more to the military than they asked for, $8 TRILLION over 10 years, Vs. $2 trillion over 10 years, McConnell saying essentially: "We have no program." They do: regain ALL power at all cost, cost to the 99% and the final death of our democracy on life-support. The list of points on which to fight is long. Why the silence from the Dems?
I read some of the prior comments and agree with a lot of what they stated , however no matter how important these other issues are, the most important one is saving our democracy. A coup cannot happen without the backing of the law and the military.
You write a great article as always. Best hope for Democrats. Bring gas prices down. Stop inflation. Don't get involved with Ukraine. Lower cost of groceries and medicine. Do something about the homeless on the streets, medical insurance and mental help for many American struggling from the pandemic. Get control over the southern border. Most people could care less about Trump and Gingrich. They care about feeding their families. Going to football games and who is playing in the Super Bowl and will Tom Brady really retire. That is why Washington DC is so out of touch with Americans. Career politicians need to get out of their bubble.
What exactly is our message,where is it going and to who,just to clarify.
Michele Obama committed to signing up 1 million people to vote,hope they really follow through!