According to President Trump’s enemy number one, CNN, 57% of viewers “had a very positive reaction to [Trump’s] speech” to a joint session of Congress. I’m firmly in the 43% column. Why? Well, for starters, as a Jew, sure, I was pleasantly surprised that President Trump led with the anti-Semitic acts of vandalism and bomb threats against JCC entities in his speech. But does that mean I’m supposed to forget that he also insinuated that the attacks and bomb threats weren’t really anti-Semitic? This Jew sure won’t. Not when something that the President is insinuating comes pretty darn close to aping a David Dukeism.
Moving on, President Trump brought up civil rights. But does that mean I’m supposed to forget that Jeff Sessions is the Attorney General? President Trump finally brought up the “get out of my country” murder in Kansas City. I’m supposed to forget his anti-Muslim rhetoric? President Trump brought up caring about education. Does that mean I’m supposed to forget that Betsy DeVos is the Secretary of Education? President Trump brought up clean water. Does that mean that I’m supposed to forget that it’s now okay for the coal industry to dump its waste into that very same water? Trump brought up unity but in the same breath told us that he’s starting an organization to single out immigrants. The list goes on and on and on.
You want me to get excited because President Trump made it through a whole speech without saying “fake news” or citing his Electoral College win? Please. Don’t lower the bar for Trump. He is the President of the United States.
So, as you can see, I’m not excited. But rather than complain, I decided to devise a strategy to take back power, if I ran the Democratic Party:
- Do Not Let the Democratic Party Be Taken Over By the Fringes.
There is a strong desire among many on the left to turn the party over to Bernie Sanders and make the Democratic Party an extreme left-wing party. It’d be a mistake. That is not to say that liberals in the Democratic Party should abandon liberal ideals. (e.g. climate change action, equal pay for women, pro-choice, voting rights, etc.). What I mean is that we can’t become the left wing version of the Tea Party where nothing we stand for makes fiscal sense.
Sen. Bernie Sanders tapped into a lot of energy on the left, and that is great. We need to get young people involved. But we can’t forget that Bernie’s economic policies literally did not add up. We can’t lose the moral high ground with regard to economics by proposing an economic agenda that flies in the face of math every bit as much as trickle-down economics does. If we do, we’re no better than the Republicans.
- Do Not Take the Foot Off of the Gas Pedal With Regard to Trump.
The Republican Party has married itself to President Trump for better or worse. That was plainly obvious if you watched the speech and watched them rise and clap on command and in unison. Let’s make it for worse.
With President Trump, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by the multitude of off-the-wall proposals and appointments he has made. Rather than use generalizations, focus the energy on specifics. First, demand President Trump’s tax returns, and keep demanding them. The Democrats have started this, and even though there is no chance Republicans will agree to have the tax returns released, keep making them vote as such.
Second, oppose President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch. This nominee was literally stolen from President Obama for no earthly reason. We will lose this one, but it’s worth fighting for. The Supreme Court shapes our nation’s laws. Do not let this one go down without a fight.
Third, demand that a special prosecutor be assigned regarding potential entanglement between Russia and President Trump as well as his Administration. The question of Trump’s allegiances is to the point where even President George W. Bush wants answers. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) went on Real Time with Bill Maher and called for a special prosecutor. He has since walked it back, but so what? Demand it, and keep demanding it until we find out what’s behind the Kremlin curtain.
- Focus on Specific Political Targets and Specific Policies.
A. Specific Political Targets
Rather than lump all of the Republicans together, remind the electorate that the Republican Party has supported and/or allowed in the following people, who are all at once unqualified and terrifying:
- Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
One thing that unites those on the left and the right is that they all want their children to receive the best education possible. So who did the Republicans sign off on to run the show? Someone with no experience with regard to public education. Not only that, but she is the epitome of the “swamp” that the Republican voters wanted to drain. In the same article linked above, it states that “[b]y some estimates, DeVos and her family have donated over $200 million to Republicans nationally, including sizable donations to many of the senators who will vote on her confirmation.” Do you want the best person for the job? Well, how much did you donate to the Republican Party is the question their leaders in Congress are asking? These ads write themselves.
- Attorney General Jeff Sessions
We’re not even a month into AG Sessions’ tenure and already he has decided to stop going after those impeding the ability of minorities to vote and also to stop monitoring troubled police departments. Sessions’ past runs so far afoul of what is acceptable that his candidacy for federal judgeship prompted this letter from Coretta Scott King in 1986. In other words, the Republicans are so in favor of advancing civil rights that they accepted as Attorney General someone whose candidacy for a federal judgeship was condemned by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s widow.
- Steve Bannon
Do not let the nation forget what an enormous role Steve Bannon is playing in this administration. Couple that with the following winning articles that were published with Bannon’s blessing while he ran Breitbart:
“Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy”
“Donald Trump Would Be the Real First Black President”
“Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew”
“The Solution to Online ‘Harassment’ Is Simple: Women Should Log Off”
“Does Feminism Make Women Ugly?”
If you can’t figure out how to run an attack ad with those, I don’t know what to tell you.
B. Specific Policies
- Voting Rights
The disenfranchisement of minority voters is not only morally reprehensible; it is also a strategy that is working for Republicans. They have taken over state governments, gerrymandered districts, and are now simply denying minorities the right to vote as iterated above. We can kill two birds with one stone here: Doing the right thing and winning votes.
- Economic Reality and Jobs
Simply highlight how the economy has fared under Democratic leadership as opposed to how it has done under Republican leadership. That is a Forbes article from 2012 linked in the previous sentence. Not exactly a leftist rag. Then you can dovetail that into how the Republicans want to pad their pockets with tax breaks to the detriment of the middle and lower classes, which takes us to healthcare.
- Healthcare
Just keep up the good work. Don’t stop. Also, start incorporating Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price into those attack ads down the line.
- Women’s Rights
If you think Roe v. Wade is settled law with the right-wing, think again. We’re not there yet on equal pay either. Trump and Bannon having positions of power created a powder keg of sexism exploding in our country. We need to fight back.
There are plenty of other issues that demand our attention, but the thing is, Democrats need to focus their energy, and their PR, on issues that maintain liberal ideals while at the same time not alienating entire segments of society who are going to go to the voting booths. We can’t protect the LGBT community if all three branches of government and most state houses are Republican. We need to win those seats back one at a time.
To conclude, we cannot afford to take our collective eyes off of the ball just because the President of the United States acted like an adult for an entire hour. His positions haven’t changed. The hate in his Administration hasn’t gone anywhere. And Democrats are at least 4-6 years away from having the ability to do anything about it. Rather than tread water, let’s start turning the tide, united, as one progressive voice.