Inflation
is not the problem. Environmental catastrophes like wildfires and
widespread deaths from excess heat are not the problem. The demise
of 25,000 people each day from malnutrition and disease is not the
problem. Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine is not the problem, nor
are disruptions in the global food supply. Attempts to outlaw abortion
and compromise women’s health is not the problem. Racist policing
and the summary execution of suspects is not the problem. The legal
privileges afforded guns and their owners at the expense of those they murder
are not the problem. That the US spends more on defense than the next
nine countries combined is not the problem.
As dangerous and appalling as these things are
there is only one fundamental national problem: securing justice for Donald Trump
and his co-conspirators before they can re-take power through fraud and deceit
and demolish American democracy. The legal and political systems continue to be
paralyzed at the prospect of putting a criminal ex-president in jail for his
crimes. It is the task of others to bring Trump to justice. Our job
is to help ensure that he loses a record third time in his quest for the
presidency. Do not believe that this will happen on its own.
Redefeat Trump has been brought to life, as you
might expect, by both fear and hope. Trump is likely to run again, win the Republican
nomination, and then claim victory in the presidential election, regardless of
the outcome. This would plunge the nation into a profound crisis in which
the future of the republic would be in grave doubt. We watch with anxiety
and discomfort the possibility that state legislatures in AZ, GA, FL, WI, MI
and others would cite bogus claims and award Trump their electoral votes,
despite his having lost in those states. It is surely not unreasonable to
worry that a Republican Supreme Court would again validate anti-Constitutional
state actions, as they did in
2004. As formerly respectable Republicans embrace Trump’s Big Lie that he
won in 2020 this nightmare scenario becomes more and more likely.
There is, however, hope that we can avoid this
calamity and protect American democracy from those who would misuse patriotic
language to subvert it. Our best hope lies in the legitimacy of constitutional
procedures. Trump has never won a majority, not in 2016 nor in 2020, and
mobilizing voters to oppose him is our central concern. Well over
half the American people stand with us in
opposition to Trump and his unrelenting calls to fear and division.
How will we do it? We will amplify messages
that would energize an anti-Trump audience. We will generate money that
will go into voter registration.
As Democrats it will always be our burden to
find voters who are not registered and who will respond to our energies to get
them to turn out. Despite every malicious and mean-spirited attempt by Republicans to reduce the electorate we will work to expand it. While 158
million Americans voted in 2020 (81 million for Biden, 74 million for Trump)
the nation’s largest political grouping remains the 82 million non-voters.
We would not expect to turn many of those Trump voters, living as they do on lies fed to them by the Trumpstream media. Expanding
our margin of victory in 2024 depends on bringing tens of millions of prospective
voters into the political system. This will require considerable time,
money, energy, dedication and enthusiasm. At its most expansive our goal
is to contribute to that however we can.