This is the second installment in what will be a brief series. In the introductory piece — the text of which I will post here below — it was argued that 1) the Democrats’ impeachment effort has been inadequate to move public opinion, so therefore more is needed and 2) Elizabeth Warren’s campaign (which I support) seems on course to fall short, unless she finds an effective way to rekindle it. I am proposing a solution to both problems, which I will now proceed to briefly describe.
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The Democrats yearn for victory over Trump and all that is aligned with him, and they sense that things are not moving their way. If any candidate can show the Democratic electorate that they have what it takes to take on Trump and best him, and to take on the Trump Party and taken them down, the Democratic electorate will be thrilled, and will elevate that candidate to be their standard bearer in 2020.
Consider these two points:
Trump is clearly far-and-away the most criminal and most corrupt President the United States has ever had, and constitutes a “clear and present danger” to the survival of our constitutional order. (Yet he has apparently a 50-50 chance of being elected to a second term.) The Republican Party — in the face of that reality, which we have reason to understand full well — has conducted itself throughout this impeachment process in an absolutely disgraceful way, in betrayal of the nation and their oath of office. (This is quite likely the most appalling display of moral bankruptcy by any American policy in our nation’s history.)In view of those two points, does anyone think that the Democrats’ way of fighting the battle against Trump and the Trump Party has been as intense and fierce and impassioned as the occasion calls for?
I’m proposing that Senator Warren GO ALL OUT NOW to press the battle at this crucial moment while a) Trump has been impeached and is going to “trial,” and b) the Republicans in the Senate are lining up to make that trial a sham.
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When I say, “ALL OUT” I mean that it is not sufficient for it to be said, “Senator Warren made a fine speech in which she said, ‘such and such,’ but it didn’t garner much media attention and nothing came of it.”
What would be “sufficient” is WHATEVER IT TAKES to make her calling out of the Trumpian evil an ongoing story in our national conversation. (Does anyone think that it would be IMPOSSIBLE for Senator Warren — a candidate for President, an intelligent and articulate woman with moral passion — to do ANYTHING that would become a focus of media attention?)
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Coming up with the most effective ways of accomplishing that — i.e. an attack on the lawless President and his lying supporters — is a creative task that one hopes Senator Warren (and her best advisers) would be capable of pulling off. And yes, there’s a chance that she could hurt her standing if the approach she took was a wrong one.
But, as I indicated in the introductory piece, Senator Warren — as a presidential candidate — has really nothing to lose. It is hard to see how, on her current course, she wins this nomination. So she has every reason to act boldly to go for the win, and no reason to play it safe (and, it seems likely, finish third).
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A commenter on the introductory piece to this series critiqued my argument, saying that any candidate that took my advice “will be accused of doing it as part of their campaign...”
To which I responded: “I ask you: what’s wrong with it being part of a person’s campaign for her TO SHOW THAT SHE’S GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO GO TO BATTLE AGAINST TRUMP AND THE TRUMP PARTY and beat them?”
To expand on that:
The 2020 Democratic standard bearer must be capable of accomplishing TWO MAIN THINGS:
The Democratic nominee must be able to defeat Donald Trump in the general election of 2020. If successful at the first task, the new Democratic President must be able to defeat the predictable efforts of the Republicans in Congress to block that President from accomplishing anything (as they did with so much success with Barack Obama).It is really ass-backwards for the Democrats to choose their nominee based on how that person campaigns against other Democrats. It’s TRUMP they are going to have to defeat.
So let’s get someone who can demonstrate NOW that they can go toe-to-toe with Trump, get under his skin, and best him in rhetorical combat.
(Elizabeth Warren has already demonstrated great capability in that arena: back in 2016, she went toe-to-toe with Trump in a Twitter battle, and she scored off him at will. She clearly got the best of him, and she maintained her dignity and her fidelity to what is true and responsible to say.)
Moreover, NOW is the time to go after Trump. What better time could there be than NOW, when the President is being impeached and tried? His wrong-doing is the present focus of attention. Hit him now with the truth of his criminality and corruption. Score off him while he’s exposed.
(I.e. don’t wait until a sham trial has given him a sham “exoneration.” He’ll be stronger then, and the reasons why the nation absolutely must rid itself of this corrupt and criminal president will have receded from view.
So it is good politics for the general election, as well as for the Democratic primaries, for Senator Warren to demonstrate to the Democratic electorate, and to the nation as a whole, that she is prepared to take the battle to Trump and to defeat him in the duel.
And likewise with the Republicans in Congress, and with Mitch McConnell in particular. As indicated above, any new Democratic President is going to have to defeat them or to coerce them into changing their ways.
(The Democrats may or may not gain control of the Senate. But they surely will not control 60 votes.
(It’s all well to have an impressive panoply of “plans for that.” But if the Republicans can get away with their old strategy of hurting the nation for their own political advantage — as they did from 2009-2017 — those plans will not come to fruition.)
So the Democratic President will have to be able to do what President Obama never really tried to do: make the Republicans pay a steep political price for their obstructionism, which transparently put party ahead of nation.
There’s no better time to strike at their unprincipled and unpatriotic partisanship than now. McConnell’s public statements about the Senate trial were described by John Heilemann — an asture political observer — as a political blunder. A sham trial? The head of the jury declaring he’s working in total cooperation with the defendant? The explicit statement that he will not be the “impartial” juror he is going to take a solemn oath to be?
When will McConnell’s total moral bankruptcy and irresponsibility and bad faith be on fuller display than now.
So this is a fine time for Senator — and soon-to-be President? — Elizabeth Warren to take Mitch McConnell (and his Senate minions) down than when they are those exposed?
Which has the added benefit of further exposing Donald Trump and the wrong-doings that McConnell et al. are trying to cover up.
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NOTE # 1: If anyone here would like to see Senator Warren act on these ideas, and has access to her inner circle, I would be grateful for your doing what you can to bring this to their attention.
NOTE # 2: Below is the text of the introductory piece in this mini-series, published earlier.
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INTRODUCTION (TO A BRIEF SERIES)
For the past generation, the relationship between the two parties has been one of war. But the problem is – and our present national crisis is the result of this problem – during all this time, it has been only one party (the Republicans) that has fought it as a war, while the other has engaged as if it were a continuation of the typical inter-party relations in American politics.
Until now. With the impeachment of Donald Trump – in the face of the Republicans’ grotesque assault on our constitutional order – the Democrats have at last picked up a weapon.
But it has become clear that this way of fighting – although necessary – is not sufficient. Which has opened up an important opportunity for Elizabeth Warren to seize, one which can simultaneously solve two big problems:
In this moment of national crisis, the nation needs more from the Democrats than we’re getting. Elizabeth Warren needs to find a way to rekindle her campaign for the presidency, if she’s to get the Democratic nomination.I begin here a brief series to propose a single solution to both problems.
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First, more on those two problems:
On the first point, if anyone doubts that the Democrats need to be doing more in this vital battle over impeachment, consider this: Over the past month, according to the futures markets, Trump’s chances of winning a second term have increased substantially. (The odds have leapt from around 40% to about a 50-50 proposition).
Clearly, something must be missing from the Democrats’ current approaches to swaying public opinion if -- during the same month that the Democrats have dramatized on national television how President Trump has undoubtedly committed crimes, corrupted our constitutional election process, and betrayed the national security which the people have entrusted him with the powers to protect – Trump’s political prospects have improved!
Not to belittle the excellence of the Democrats’ performance in the House, leading from the House Intelligence Committee through to the House Judiciary Committee to the floor of the entire House of Representatives. But clearly, those fine performances have been insufficient to defeat the stream of lies and distractions deployed by the Republicans.
For years, the Democrats have been unable to weaponize their important truths to make the Republicans pay a political price for their lies.
Fortunately, I believe Elizabeth Warren has the ability to do that. (I’ve favored Elizabeth Warren since the early spring, because she’s been the only candidate I could envision going toe-to-toe with Trump, and calling out the Trump Party, and defeating them in the way America needs.)
What I will propose is that Senator Warren wholeheartedly takes on the role of being the Democrats “War-time leader” (in this moment in which the long-standing war between the parties is focused on the issue of the Trump impeachment).
It is clear that she needs to do something, if she’s to have any hope of being the nominee.
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So, on the second point — Senator Warren’s need to find a way to rekindle her campaign -- Elizabeth Warren’s campaign has faltered in recent weeks.
Her standing in the polls has dropped to just over half of where it was, both nationally and in key states. Her fund-raising has grown weaker. Bernie Sanders has overtaken her position as the front-running progressive alternative to Joe Biden. The futures markets assessment of her chances of getting the nomination has dropped accordingly. (The markets give Warren just 1/3 as much chance of being the nominee as Sanders.)And there’s no sign that Senator Warren has come up with any idea for re-igniting the campaign’s fire that has been doused (presumably by her positioning on the Medicare-for-All issue).
In terms of the race for the nomination, it would seem that Elizabeth has nothing to lose by being bold.
Fortunately, the political situation in America right now presents Senator Warren with an opening to make a bold move. She should jump forward now to provide Democrats with the kind of bold leadership – a kind of domestic “war-time leadership” – the Democratic electorate craves in this moment of perilous crisis in America.
For Democrats these days not only want to win this battle against Trump, and all the forces aligned with him. They yearn for that victory.
And, I believe, a majority of those Democrats can sense that the impeachment process – as now being waged by the Democrats in Congress – is not moving things their way and against Trump and the Trump Party.
And if a 2020 candidate steps forward now and demonstrates that they can fight that battle with the forcefulness and effectiveness that the Democrats have so chronically lacked, that candidate will excite the Democratic electorate and will be able to ride that excitement to the nomination.
Senator Warren, I believe, has it in her to be that kind of hero to the Democratic voters, and to move American politics away from the brink, as so many of us deeply desire in these dark times.
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But there is no time to lose. The time to strike the necessary blows to turn the impeachment process to the advantage of the Democrats (and the nation) is now. And the time for Senator Warren to make herself the war-time leader to inspire the Democratic electorate – with its profound yearning for victory – is now as well.
Stay tuned for what I envision Senator Warren doing as the Democrats’ “War-Time Leader” in this war between the nation’s two major parties — a war in which the survival of American democracy is arguably at stake.