Today’s Edition: I am not quitting. I hope you aren’t either.

           As I write on Thursday evening, the House is in the process of voting on the portions of the reconciliation package known as the Build Back Better legislation. Speaker Pelosi holds votes only when she is confident about the outcome. The vote comes immediately after the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the legislation will increase the federal deficit by only $16 billion per year over a ten-year period—compared to an annual budget of $6 trillion for FY 2022.

          The fate of the bill is less certain in the Senate, where neither Joe Machin nor Kyrsten Sinema has committed to support the legislation. Republicans are predicting doom for Democrats if they pass the bill.  Despite the difficult journey to arrive at this point and the rocky path ahead, Democrats did not quit. If Democrats successfully pass the bill despite the unexpected obstacles, it will be a historic achievement. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. If you want to contact U.S. Senators to let them know how you feel, contact information is here: U.S. Senate: Contacting U.S. Senators.     

The U.S. economy is outperforming other leading economies across the globe.

          The perceived doom and gloom over the economy is at odds with the actual performance of the U.S. economy compared to other leading economies. See Business Insider, “One Chart Shows How the US Economic Recovery Beats Other Rich Nations'.” Per Business Insider,

          [T]he US enjoys a healthy lead in the global recovery. Americans may be annoyed with higher inflation, but the alternative might've been weak stimulus and a much slower rebound.

          As a result of the aggressive response to the pandemic recession, the US is the only member of the G7 group of nations to have a larger economy now than before the pandemic.

          Tell a friend.

Republican Response to Censure of Rep. Paul Gosar.

          The Republican response to the censure of Rep. Paul Gosar was as bad as Gosar’s original offense. Indeed, Gosar republished the offending video on a right-wing social media platform—along with a meme that portrayed himself as a member of the “thug life” culture. Not to be outdone, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy quickly announced that he would reappoint Gosar (and Marjorie Taylor Greene) to committee assignments if McCarthy becomes Speaker of the House in the future. Finally, GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert gave a speech in the House on Thursday in which she used religious slurs against Rep. Ilhan Omar and made baseless accusations against Rep. Eric Swalwell. See The Hill, “Boebert faces heavy criticism after Gosar floor speech.”

          The extremists in the Republican Party will continue to descend to ever more disgusting and vile levels until American voters send a strong rebuke to the GOP at the ballot box.

Reader response to yesterday’s newsletter.

          In response to yesterday’s newsletter (“A lot of explaining to do”), a few readers sent emails saying that I was “delusional” and “naïve.” They claim that “Trump voters” don’t care about the hateful rhetoric emanating from the extremists in the GOP and that Democrats are going to lose in 2022 because of redistricting. As one reader said, “If redistricted maps like Ohio and NC (and others) are implemented, the election is over. Period.”

          As I responded to the reader who predicts certain doom, “What do you recommend? That we give up?” It was a rhetorical response that I shouldn’t have sent, but I have lost patience with Democrats who accept the media narrative that we are powerless to change the result in elections. If you are a Democrat who believes all is lost and insists on convincing others of that fact, you are doing a grave disservice to democracy. We are not sheep, we are not powerless, and we are not naïve because we refuse to give up. If you want to quit, go ahead. But don’t take others down with you. I am not quitting. I hope you aren’t either.

          Pique aside, I understand the anxiety and dread that people are experiencing. The system is unfair, and the GOP is trying to dismantle the system as a way of staying in power. That stinks. But life is almost never fair, and that doesn’t stop us from living our lives, raising families, holding down jobs, and planning for the future. We should adopt the same attitude in politics. The political system will never be fair—and may even be corrupt in significant measure. But that has been true of every political system that has ever existed in all of human history. Get over it—or at least don’t use it as an excuse to demoralize others. Predicting disaster is an easy and cheap way to be the smartest person in the room because disaster inevitably strikes. But it is not helpful to those of us who refuse to give up and are trying to motivate others to join the fight.

          In February of 2020, Democrats believed that their chances of taking back control of the Senate were nil and that Trump was unbeatable because of the chaos created by twenty-six Democratic candidates running for president. My inbox at that time was filled with notes from readers predicting disaster. I wrote the following in February of 2020:

          Many readers are convinced it is impossible for Democrats to win the 2020 election because of three swing states and 75,000 blue collar workers dependent on fracking. Or they believe Democrats are doomed because the party will nominate a candidate who is progressive or centrist or old or young or female or male or white.

          Readers frequently use the word “despair” to describe how they are feeling. Some are angry or disgusted with the Democratic party for creating a fractious primary that has not produced a clear frontrunner capable of beating Trump by the time of Iowa caucus.

          Feelings of despair notwithstanding in early 2020, Democrats won the presidency, flipped the Senate, and retained control of the House. So, let’s not give up now. After all, we have still have a full year to mobilize, organize, and campaign.

          As to the reader who says it is delusional to believe that the hateful speech of the extremist wing of the GOP will make a difference in the 2022 election, the reader is demonstrably, objectively wrong. The GOP lost control of the House in 2018, and lost control of the Senate and the presidency in 2020 because women and Independents grew weary of the ugliness, hate, and misogyny of Trump. Look it up if you don’t believe me. (Here and here.) With the benefit of those three recent examples, history shows that hateful speech matters enough to enough voters to make a difference. I acknowledge that Trump’s loyal base won’t care. But that base is shrinking.

          So, I stand by my point: Watching the GOP defend or excuse Paul Gosar’s fantasy killing of a Latina woman is painful. But in that pain are the seeds of the GOP’s defeat in 2022—if Democrats are willing to hold Republicans to account before voters. If we give up on this point because we believe it is futile (as one reader suggested), we will lose the opportunity to sway the very suburban women and Independents who abandoned Trump in 2020.

          The surest way to lose the 2022 midterms is to tell ourselves (and others) that all is lost. The only way to win is to refuse to quit. I am not quitting. I hope you aren’t either.

Concluding Thoughts.

          A reader sent a link to an essay by Andrew Tobias. The essay is entitled, “The Right Way To Think About What’s Going On.” I highly recommend Tobias’s essay as a good way to begin the weekend. In fact, I wish I had written it. Instead, I will quote from it liberally and encourage you to read the original. Tobias says, in part:

The stock market is at record highs.  Unemployment is near record lows.  Anyone who wants a job can get one.  Wages are rising.

Taxes are about to go up on the wealthy — whose talent, hard work, good luck, and inheritance we should celebrate — to help pay for massive, long overdue investments to revitalize our infrastructure, including the electric grid and more-widely-available broadband, and to lower health care costs and the cost of raising kids.

We’ve ended our endless war in Afghanistan and evacuated 124,000 of those most at risk.

We’ve rejoined the Paris Accord and the community of nations, reestablished the dignity of the Presidency, reimposed ethical norms, restored the independence of the Justice Department, cut child poverty in half, vaccinated the majority of the country.

We’ve staved off autocracy, at least for now.

These are fantastic things.

The point is: Democrats have so much to run on. With more to come.

In ordinary times, the party in power gets killed in the mid-terms.  These are not ordinary times.

Let’s emphasize the positive and get to work.

          I agree wholeheartedly. These are not ordinary times, so don’t let people tell what is “supposed to happen” in the midterms. The only certainty is that those who choose to vote will decide what happens. We have a fair amount of input into who shows up on Election Day. Let’s make our voices heard, loud and clear.

          Enjoy the weekend! Talk to you on Monday!