What can YOU do to impact the Special Counsel Investigation? Not much. What can YOU do to ensure that an opposition party gets elected to provide a check on Trump? Everything. Use your time wisely.
Over the next 70 days, there will undoubtedly be a firestorm of news. Indictments. Denials. Disinformation. Indignation. Firings. Litigation. Subpoenas.
President Trump will attempt to distract and change the conversation as many times as possible. He may try to bring a whole new meaning to the term “October Surprise”.
Don’t fall for it.
Cable news will be laden with stories about Trump, his lawyers, his tweets and his attacks – not to mention “Democratic infighting”, the Presidential race in 2020, and the many strands and threads of the Mueller investigation.
Don’t succumb to the drama.
There will also be a narrative floating around that Democrats have the midterms “locked up”, and the Republicans are totally screwed.
Don’t believe it.
We all remember sitting at election night watch parties or in our own living rooms nearly two years ago. We walked into those rooms ready to experience history: the election of the first woman President of the United States – an accomplished Senator and diplomat with a life of public service under her belt and a record of fighting on behalf of the most vulnerable in society.
We walked out having experienced a different, unexpected history: the election of the first Russian asset ever to hold the oval office. A bigot. A philanderer. A mobster. A con man.
The lesson: ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. If we haven’t learned this lesson yet, we may as well hand the keys to Air Force One over to Vladimir Putin. Gerrymandering. Voter suppression. Vote hacking. Disinformation. There are a lot of variables. The answer is to shoot to win overwhelmingly, not via a squeaker.
So, here are three rules to follow leading up to November 6th, 2018:
Don’t rely on Saint Mueller. Though there are some in the legal community who believe it would be lawful for law enforcement officials to indict and try a sitting President, they are in the minority. Americans who recognize and despise Donald Trump’s abuses of power should not rely on Saint Mueller to “save” us. We have to save ourselves. And the way we do that is by electing an opposition party.
The more Democrats in Congress, the more profound the rebuke of Trumpism and the GOP’s loathsome enabling. Democrats in the majority can investigate. They can subpoena. They can review Trump’s tax returns. They can do what comrade Devin Nunes’ refused to do – try to actually find out what the hell is going on. They can impeach and try the President for high crimes. Imagine Chairman Adam Schiff. Imagine Chairman Mark Warner. It is the combination of DOJ and Congressional pressures that will most forcefully strangle the Trump Presidency.
Don’t get distracted. There will be ample opportunity for distraction. This is a melodrama, albeit a highly consequential one. Trump is a reality TV star (yes, we elected a reality TV star), and that genre is all about audience manipulation. It may – in fact – be Trump’s primary skill set. Every time you see an outrageous story about the President in the next 70 days, ask yourself: “What is he trying to distract me from?” The answer, surprisingly, is NOT the Russia scandal. The answer is the midterms.
If Americans abandoned the inclination to turn on the Trump Show at night and instead used even a quarter of that time to interface with an Indivisible group, register voters, write postcards, phone bank or knock on doors, imagine how many more votes Democrats could get this November. If, instead of sharing snarky Trump comments on social media we shared and amplified the campaign messages of Democrats running for county commissions, statehouses, governorships or Congressional seats, wouldn’t that effort be more useful? We cannot impact the special counsel investigation. Be we can sure as hell turn a blue wave into a beautiful, majestic tsunami.
Do more to get Democrats elected. People don’t get elected via tweet, post or prayer. Think of the election that you have been the most engaged with during your lifetime. Your goal should be to beat that level of engagement. If the most you’ve ever done is vote – try writing some postcards. If you’ve registered voters, try phone banking. If you’ve phone banked, try hosting a phone bank event or canvassing. Whatever you have done in the past, BEAT IT. And beat it soundly.
Flip It Blue
If each of us followed this simple set of rules, we could turn a modest wave into an overwhelmingly powerful tsunami. I’ve decided that I’m largely tuning out the Russia investigation until November 6th. I mean – what am I going to do? I can spread the details of the investigation, but won’t that just distract people from the job at hand – the one job that is handed exclusively to the American public, which happens to be the biggest influencing factor in determining the direction of the democracy? It’s a no-brainer.
Let Mueller do his thing. I’m not suggesting we shouldn’t pay attention: it is important to stay informed about matters affecting our republic. I’m suggesting that we pay enough attention to get outraged, then take our outrage and channel it to the place where we can have the greatest impact: electing an opposition party that can protect our democracy, instead of undermining it at every turn – which is apparently the position of the Trump-era GOP.
If you’d like to get more involved in the Blue Wave, we have a resource we would like to introduce you to: FlipItBlue.com.
This site – which we manage here at DemWritePress – aggregates all of the US Congressional races that are deemed “competitive” by Swing Left, DCCC, The Cook Political Report and/or Democrats Work For America, and has links to critical information about each of the Democratic nominees in those races, including volunteer opportunities. At the top of the page, there is a box with a highlighted Democrat to support, which randomly changes each time you load the page. Please check it out. Let’s #FlipItBlue. Resoundingly.
Love this. Shared with Facebook and tagged the head of my indivisible group.