Put one foot in front of the other. Repeat.
Put one foot in front of the other. Repeat.
November 16, 2024
It was a tough week—on the heels of an even tougher week. A few Democrats are revved up and ready to jump back in the fight. But if my inbox is a reliable indicator, many (most?) people are still reeling from the losses on Election Day. They are bewildered, exhausted, tapped out emotionally and financially, and angry. You wouldn’t be human if you did not feel those emotions in some measure. Hopes were high, and the loss was unexpected. The disappointment was exacerbated by PTSD.
The president-elect has a feral sense that many Democrats are emotionally vulnerable. His cabinet picks are designed to rub salt in our wounds and deepen our sense of bewilderment. We must recognize that the ludicrous nominations over the past week are part of a strategy to dispirit and weaken Democrats—in hopes of reducing their resolve to resist his dark plans.
We cannot give in to the president-elect’s transparent ploy. Although I am not a fan of the Godfather movie franchise (no hate mail, please!), every American knows the line, “‘It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.”
Trump’s bizarre, anti-government nominations are not personal. They are strictly business—to Trump and to us. He is using them as an emotional cudgel against Democrats and a test of loyalty for incredulous Republicans. Our job is to defeat as many of the nominations as possible—thereby demonstrating that Trump is vulnerable and weak after his narrow win.
It is possible that Trump will resort to unilateral recess appointments by forcing an adjournment of Congress for ten days so that he can cram his unqualified, anti-establishment choices on the American people.
Doing so would be a mistake and would overplay Trump's hand. The officers would be branded as illegitimate leaders who could not make it through a Senate confirmation. More importantly, such a move would instantly convert Trump into America’s first (and last) dictator.
No other president has forced an adjournment of Congress, much less for the anti-democratic purpose of evading the Senate’s “advice and consent” role under the Constitution. Although lawsuits would challenge the recess appointments unilaterally engineered by Trump, the bigger point is that the move would drop all pretense of a president bound by the rule of law.
Whatever the Framers thought they were doing with the recess appointments and the adjournment clause, none of them believed those clauses could be manipulated to strip the Senate of its constitutional obligation to review presidential nominations.
If Trump manages to remove the Senate’s advice and consent role from the Constitution, he will sow the seeds of his quick undoing.
As I write, it appears that the nominations of Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth, and Robert Kennedy are in trouble—at least if they go through the Senate confirmation process.
We can help keep up the pressure by notifying our Senators and Representatives that we oppose the nominations of Gaetz, Hegseth, Kennedy, and Gabbard. See Jessica Craven’s Chop Wood Carry Water for a word script and link to phone numbers. Chop Wood, Carry Water 11/14.
There are two other themes that deserve mention as we head into the weekend.
The first is the stand-alone injury to women across America who hoped that the 2024 election would be a major step to re-establishing their status as equal citizens under the Constitution. Few opinion writers or journalists have mentioned that the re-election of Trump has dashed those hopes—at least for another four years.
Mother Jones has addressed the issue of the election’s impact on women in its article, Of Misogyny, Musk, and Men by Clara Jeffrey. The article runs under the sub-header “Women are not okay. We’re furious.”
For all of the punditry analyzing the reason for Democrats’ loss on November 5, almost none of them mention the Trump campaign’s explicit appeal to sexism among young men. Any pundit who purports to analyze the reasons for Kamala Harris’s loss and does not list misogyny among the top three reasons is running cover for Trump—whether they intend to or not.
The second issue is the unrelenting tidal wave of pundit analyses that seek to assign blame for the Democratic loss. Spoiler alert: The reason is (allegedly) that Democrats are “liberal elitists” who ignored the working class.
The above analysis is both wrong and lazy. But even if it were accurate, it beggars belief that journalists and pundits are wasting their time assigning blame at the very moment that Trump “is slouching toward Bethlehem” in the manner of the “rough beast” in The Second Coming.1
If the above metaphor is too obscure for a Saturday morning, here is another: Imagine that we are on an oil drilling platform in the North Sea. A fire has started in the galley and threatens to engulf the entire platform. What is the better course of action? To argue over who is responsible for starting the fire in the galley or to work on extinguishing the fire?
It is appropriate and necessary to understand how and why Democrats fell short in 2024. But to do so at a time when we are stranded on a burning platform is suicidal. Assigning blame may fill column inches but it corrodes unity. The legacy media is failing us.
And yet, readers cannot resist the temptation to forward articles to me with the thesis, “Democrats are liberal elitists who got what they deserved.” I get a dozen such emails a day (often multiple duplicates of the latest from NYT or WaPo). I have received hundreds since November 5.
Amplifying such articles merely compounds the journalistic malpractice of the legacy media. We should not give them oxygen. They invite disputation and discord. They are inimical to our prime objective: Resist the efforts of the Trump administration to erode the rule of law.
Opportunities for Reader Engagement
Help cure ballots for Derek Tran
Readers have informed me that as the result of ballot curing efforts, Derek Tran has reduced a deficit of several thousand votes to only 58—with ballot curing efforts continuing until November 22! To sign up to phone bank, go to Recruitment Phone Bank for Derek Tran (CA-45)! (Hosted by Grassroots Democrats HQ). There are opportunities every day from Saturday, November 16 to Saturday, November 30.
You can also knock on doors to help cure ballots (with Derek Tran for Congress). Sign up here: Cure Ballots for us by Knocking on Doors. Again, there are opportunities every day from Saturday, November 16 to Saturday, November 30.
Bless all of you who are engaged in ballot-curing efforts! You are helping to narrow Republican control in the House!
Join me and my Managing Editor for a reader meeting on Saturday
My Managing Editor and I will hold another reader meeting via Substack Livestreaming and Zoom on Saturday, November 16 at 8:00 a.m. Pacific / 11:00 a.m. Eastern.
If you have the Substack App, you will receive a notification on your phone when we go live. Just click on the notification to join. There is no limit on the number of attendees via the Substack App.
For those of you who don’t have the Substack App who want to join from you desktop via Zoom, click on this link at the appointed time: Zoom link for Today's Edition Readers. The Zoom portal is limited to 300.
Concluding Thoughts
I attended an event on Friday evening in Westwood, CA, with Grassroots Democrats HQ. Simon Rosenberg of Hopium Chronicles was the featured speaker. As expected, Simon was terrific. For those of you who do not follow Simon, I highly recommend Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg | Substack.
Simon explained that Democrats are responsible for the period of (relative) global peace and prosperity that followed WWII through the present. We continue to enjoy the fruits of those efforts despite the current reactionary efforts by MAGA extremism.
The organizers graciously invited me to speak for a couple of minutes. I agreed. As I thought about what I would say, I was struck by the enthusiasm, determination, and joy of the assembled crowd—volunteers who made millions of contacts with voters across the nation during the 2024 election. As a whole, the crowd did not seem to be in the same place of emotional distress as many readers are (for the moment).
The crowd's enthusiasm made me wonder if I should speak about my hopeful outlook for our struggle—something I have not done since the election. It is not that my outlook has changed. Instead, I recognize that many readers are so devasted that it might seem disingenuous or discordant to talk about hope when many people are still mourning the loss of the hope embedded in Kamala Harris’s candidacy.
After reflection, I concluded that even those who are ready to rejoin the fight might be offput by talk about hope so soon after November 5. So, I described the actions of the civil rights marchers in the 1950s and 1960s who did not live to see our first Black president or first Black female Supreme Court justice.
I asked rhetorically if their efforts were wasted or were in vain—and I answered,
“Their actions were not in vain. They were noble and sacred, preparing the ground for future victories. Their actions were a gift to our generation, just as your actions are a gift to the next generation, regardless of whether we are able to enjoy the fruits of our efforts.”2
So, this weekend, even if it is too soon to talk about our hopes for ultimate victory, it is not too soon to acknowledge that the mere act of enduring serves as a bridge to the next generation. If our task is to keep the flame alive so that the next generation can succeed, then we are repaying the gift that was bestowed on us.
Over the weekend, rest and be kind to strangers. Abide. Put one foot in front of the other. Repeat.
Talk to you tomorrow!
Daily Dose of Perspective
Below is my second effort at imaging the Cocoon Nebula. Because of a short exposure time, this image lacks the detail of my first attempt. Ah, well! Live and learn. I will come back to this target in the future and devote more time to capturing the image.
The Cocoon Nebula is 4,000 light years from Earth. The central star (visible in the photo) is estimated to be only 100,000 years old. The Cocoon Nebula is surrounded by and partially intersected by a “dark nebula,” shown by the dark lane at the bottom of the nebula.
Enjoy!
Okay, that metaphor was too much of a reach. But even if it fails as a metaphor, it should motivate you to read Yeats’ great poem, The Second Coming.
The written version is more eloquent than my spontaneous remarks. But since I am telling the story, I have granted myself literary license to tighten up my remarks.
This is what I wrote on my family blog the other day:
"This is the only story I can tell right now, a week+ later, following the initial gut-punch:
Kamala Harris did NOT lose.
She ran one of the greatest campaigns in American history FOR the middle class.
Trump did NOT win.
Sadly, it won't be long before Americans and the world find out why.
DISINFORMATION won!
And it's happening all over the world, including here in the Netherlands (where I live with my Dutch wife).
Can we figure out how to counter it? I sure hope and believe so!"
Robert, Thank you for these thoughtful and encouraging comments. As one who gave time, money and heart to Kamala’s campaign, I am among those who are still in shock: less about her loss, and more about the elevation (again?!) of this grifter and felon to the highest office. Like many, I am taking a little time off from most political commentary. But like many, I will soon re-engage. So again…thank you. Your encouragement inspired me to get into the fight, and it encourages me to do so again.