Gwen Voted! November 7, 2018November 6, 2018 My Mail Chimp postman comes just once a day, a little after midnight, so I’m having to post this with lots of results yet to come in. But Gwen — the nonvoting mom you met last week — voted! Straight Democrat! When I heard that, I had a feeling it could be a good night . . . as so far, despite some real heartbreaks, it’s shaping up to be. Thank you for voting. Thank you for volunteering. Thank you for giving. And thank you for running, if you were among many wonderful new candidates did. In case you missed it, here was Captain Sully Sullenberger urging folks to step up. If we did do well yesterday, it was clear-headed, heartfelt letters like his that doubtless helped push a bunch of traditional Republicans to make an exception this year.
I Am A Praytheist November 6, 2018November 5, 2018 A praytheist is an atheist who prays anyway. I am one. And I love Jesus. I’m quite sure he never walked on water; but equally sure he preached love, justice, and compassion, which may be even more terrific. So I’m praytheing that everyone who cares about love, justice, and compassion will vote today* . . . . . . and for the party that is — generally speaking — for the needy, not the greedy . . . the struggling middle class, not the idle rich (not that I have anything against the idle rich, for one of whom I could reasonably be mistaken) . . . the gentle, not the violent . . . the embracing, not the intolerant. For hope, not fear. For “the people,” not the powerful. For tikkun olam. (Jesus was, after all, Jewish.) Whichever party you think that is. Scroll down. Scroll down. Scroll down. Anyone? Bueller? Okay, okay. I’ll give you a hint. It’s not the Republicans. There are loads of wonderful, compassionate Republicans — I know a ton of them. But even many of them are voting Democrat today. *Roger Angell — at 98! — makes a compelling case for that.
What You Get If You Vote November 5, 2018November 4, 2018 I’m not sure it’s technically legal for me to bribe you this way, but if you vote Democrat tomorrow, I will add a free year’s free delivery to your subscription. ‘Nuff said? Who can turn down a deal like that? How else would you have known about stocks like FANH or that dryer lint is compostable? (It is! Now you know!) On the other hand, if you vote Republican, Trump has told us over and over you’ll be voting for him. And, as I’ve said over and over, he’s right. So this is what you’ll get: Vulgarity. Misogyny. Dishonesty. Bigotry. Ignorance. Corruption. Division. Climate Denial. Tax Fraud. Fascism. A pathological liar (says Ted Cruz). A dangerous con man (says Marco Rubio). A national disgrace (says Colin Powell). The world’s number one bully (says Republican ex-governor Christine Todd Whitman). A Putin admirer. A sociopath who kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside. Our very own Mussolini. (Who, as it turns out, did not make the trains run on time.) That’s what you’re voting for if you vote Republican this year. If you encounter problems voting tomorrow, call 866-OUR-VOTE or text “our vote” to 97779. To find your polling place, click here.
“Vote Blue, No Matter Who” November 3, 2018 Sorry about yesterday’s typos, corrected below. Plus this just in from Ed Costello: “Great idea on texting. I’ve been using WhenWeAllVote.org for a week and the response % is really good. Please give them a boost, if you can. Vote Blue, No Matter Who (this time only). And help others vote, too.” Indeed. And now, without the typos this time: Action and Reactions: Will Gwen vote? By A.T. On November 2, 2018 First, some actions you can still take: Text encouragement to voters you don’t know with NextGen’s Blue Wave, Resistance Labs, MoveOn.org, or Build the Wave. Text encouragement to voters you don’t know with VoteWithMe. “If you give the app permission to access your phone contacts,” writes Brian Gatens, who tried it, “it will sync them to public voting rolls and suggest some you should reach out to — for example, voters registered in a swing district — and draft a suggested text. You can even sort your contacts by party registration or see if they voted in 2014 and 2016.” OutVote is a similar app. That’s the main thing. If each of us, who will vote ourselves, can inspire one other person to vote, the whole world changes. So I picked Gwen (not her real name), mom to Tim (not his real name), the young partner of my great friend Brad (not his real name). Because here’s the thing: Tim (a student) and Brad (a lawyer) are both totally voting — if only all millennials were, we’d win by a mile — but Tim’s mother Gwen has sworn off politics. “Whaaaaaaaat?” I asked Tim and Brad. “You have to fix this.” “She’s very stubborn.” “You have you have to get her to vote! She’s even in a swing district!” “We know. We’ve tried.” “Should I call her?” Their eyes widened a bit at this, but within hours they had gotten Gwen’s skeptical permission, and I think Gwen and I were both relieved that I got her voice mail. So I left a gentle, heartfelt message, beginning of course — with the added benefit of its being true — with my telling her what a great guy her son is and what a terrific job she had apparently done raising him. She texted back: “Thank you so much for calling me and the nice words you had for my son. He speaks very very highly of you also. I will consider your words but I hate politics. I think they’re all liars. What these politicians do at this time of year is speak bad of each other. Another reason I cannot stand politics is because I believe that there should not be two sides and that both parties should be ONE. I know that’s not how it works. And I know [Tim] is very passionate about politics. And I respect him for that. I just personally do not believe/trust what ANY candidate says. But I will keep in mind what you said. I personally cannot wait to meet you.” I replied: “Hey, thanks, [Gwen]! You and I are not liars and I know a lot of these people personally — most of them are not liars either. (Trump is a pathological liar, but Obama and your governor — and so many other Democrats — are not liars!) Democrats mean it when they they say they want to expand health care — and they have. They gave us Medicare and Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. They mean it when they say they want to fight to give your son and [Brad] equal rights — and they’ve made tremendous progress on that despite strong Republican opposition. If good people like you don’t vote — or trust people like me and [Tim] when we tell you how important it is — what are we left with? Don’t give up on our great country or its future. WE NEED YOUR HELP. Thanks again for listening. I’m eager to meet you, too.” What will Gwen do? Tim and Brad and I are still conspiring. There are thoughts of threatening to withhold holiday visits (if you don’t love me enough to detour half an hour on your way to work to do this for me, why should I . . .) but that seems harsh, and Gwen not being Jewish, she might not react properly. (Does the code of Jewish guilt translate across all upbringings?) We think a gentle, loving call from Tim Monday night — and perhaps another from his sister early Tuesday morning, on her way to vote — could help. But could it backfire? Can they all find the humor and the familial love in this situation? Would it help to note that she’d likely be canceling out the vote of her ex-husband? Is that the hook? I don’t know. I just know it shouldn’t be this hard. And it will come down to whether the Gwens of this world — mostly wonderful people — think logically and do something to impose “checks and balances” on the sociopath whom thousands of Russian agents helped install as our leader. Finally, a couple of your reactions this past week: Joel Margolis: “OK, 7,200 is an acceptable number; is 72,000 also an acceptable number? what about 720,0000? or 7,200,000 or 72,000,000 or 720,000,000? There are probably a billion people who would like to move to the US. Would you admit all of them? If not, at what number would you say: too many?” ☞ This is a fair question that gets to the crux of things. As I’ve repeatedly acknowledged, reasonable people can disagree — and compromise — when it comes to immigration . . . as the Senate did when Republicans and Democrats joined to pass by a margin of 68-32 comprehensive immigration reform that would have passed the House as well and been signed into law had the House Republican leadership allowed it to come to the floor for a vote. Or (to take a recent example) when Trump said he’d sign any compromise Congress brought him — but then reneged when they did. So that’s part one. Part two is simply: be realistic. We’ve had what Trump calls horrible laws with open borders and no enforcement etc., etc. long before he arrived and somehow the nation survived. Last year’s caravan dwindled down to just a couple dozen people; this one has already dwindled to 3,200 with a long way to go — facing 20,000 border agents and 2,000 National Guardsmen, and now 5,000 or 10,000 or 15,000 troops . . . and not even seeking to enter the country illegally, seeking asylum. Throwing themselves on our mercy. If people seek asylum for legitimate reasons, we might indeed want to grant them entry. When those reasons are deemed illegitimate, we already turn them away. The chances that millions will arrive on our doorstep, as you fear, seem remote. It’s hard walking thousands of miles to seek asylum. It’s impossible to swim here. And those who can afford airfare from Yemen or Sudan or Nigeria — well, they can’t. But we have mechanisms in place to review their applications if they do. But right now, there simply is no crisis. Let’s elect thoughtful people and resurrect the reasonable compromise reached in 2013 or craft a new one. In the meantime, to those genuinely worried about thousands of leprous Honduran rapists and murders invading Kentucky and Montana: rest easy. It’s totally not happening. Kaye Sandeman: “I love your line about knowing what team you’re on. Media does its best to make it about the personality of the candidates because everything else about politics can be boring to a large part of the population. You don’t see a daily story about the party platform, yet we ALL know Mitt Romney once put his dog in a cage on top of his car. We live in a county run by guns and religion and it’s not working.” Dennis: “Usually I lean somewhat Republican, but the craziness of this nearly-two-insane-years of everything being topsy-turvy will have me voting straight Democrat Tuesday. The first time ever. Keep making those logical straightforward points, and hopefully the truth on the issues can drown out the scare tactics and lies. P.S. Feel free to use my email if you’d like, but only with my first name please — Dennis (yes, a white, Protestant, married, business owner male…not that this should even need to be said, but I figured I’d mention it given the amazing amount of discounting of folks’ arguments out there because they’re…well, something that’s not white and male).” Now get out there and text!
Action and Reactions: Will Gwen vote? November 2, 2018November 3, 2018 First, some actions you can still take: Text encouragement to voters you don’t know with NextGen’s Blue Wave, Resistance Labs, MoveOn.org, or Build the Wave. Text encouragement to voters you don’t know with VoteWithMe. “If you give the app permission to access your phone contacts,” writes Brian Gatens, who tried it, “it will sync them to public voting rolls and suggest some you should reach out to — for example, voters registered in a swing district — and draft a suggested text. You can even sort your contacts by party registration or see if they voted in 2014 and 2016.” OutVote is a similar app. That’s the main thing. If each of us, who will vote ourselves, can inspire one other person to vote, the whole world changes. So I picked Gwen (not her real name), mom to Tim (not his real name), the young partner of my great friend Brad (not his real name). Because here’s the thing: Tim (a student) and Brad (a lawyer) are both totally voting — if only all millennials were, we’d win by a mile — but Tim’s mother Gwen has sworn off politics. “Whaaaaaaaat?” I asked Tim and Brad. “You have to fix this.” “She’s very stubborn.” “You have you have to get her to vote! She’s even in a swing district!” “We know. We’ve tried.” “Should I call her?” Their eyes widened a bit at this, but within hours they had gotten Gwen’s skeptical permission, and I think Gwen and I were both relieved that I got her voice mail. So I left a gentle, heartfelt message, beginning of course — with the added benefit of its being true — with my telling her what a great guy her son is and what a terrific job she had apparently done raising him. She texted back: “Thank you so much for calling me and the nice words you had for my son. He speaks very very highly of you also. I will consider your words but I hate politics. I think they’re all liars. What these politicians do at this time of year is speak bad of each other. Another reason I cannot stand politics is because I believe that there should not be two sides and that both parties should be ONE. I know that’s not how it works. And I know [Tim] is very passionate about politics. And I respect him for that. I just personally do not believe/trust what ANY candidate says. But I will keep in mind what you said. I personally cannot wait to meet you.” I replied: “Hey, thanks, [Gwen]! You and I are not liars and I know a lot of these people personally — most of them are not liars either. (Trump is a pathological liar, but Obama and your governor — and so many other Democrats — are not liars!) Democrats mean it when they they say they want to expand health care — and they have. They gave us Medicare and Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. They mean it when they say they want to fight to give your son and [Brad] equal rights — and they’ve made tremendous progress on that despite strong Republican opposition. If good people like you don’t vote — or trust people like me and [Tim] when we tell you how important it is — what are we left with? Don’t give up on our great country or its future. WE NEED YOUR HELP. Thanks again for listening. I’m eager to meet you, too.” What will Gwen do? Tim and Brad and I are still conspiring. There are thoughts of threatening to withhold holiday visits (if you don’t love me enough to detour half an hour on your way to work to do this for me, why should I . . .) but that seems harsh, and Gwen not being Jewish, she might not react properly. (Does the code of Jewish guilt translate across all upbringings?) We think a gentle, loving call from Tim Monday night — and perhaps another from his sister early Tuesday morning, on her way to vote — could help. But could it backfire? Can they all find the humor and the familial love in this situation? Would it help to note that she’d likely be canceling out the vote of her ex-husband? Is that the hook? I don’t know. I just know it shouldn’t be this hard. And it will come down to whether the Gwens of this world — mostly wonderful people — think logically and do something to impose “checks and balances” on the sociopath whom thousands of Russian agents helped install as our leader. Finally, a couple of your reactions this past week: Joel Margolis: “OK, 7,200 is an acceptable number; is 72,000 also an acceptable number? what about 720,0000? or 7,200,000 or 72,000,000 or 720,000,000? There are probably a billion people who would like to move to the US. Would you admit all of them? If not, at what number would you say: too many?” ☞ This is a fair question that gets to the crux of things. As I’ve repeatedly acknowledged, reasonable people can disagree — and compromise — when it comes to immigration . . . as the Senate did when Republicans and Democrats joined to pass by a margin of 68-32 comprehensive immigration reform that would have passed the House as well and been signed into law had the House Republican leadership allowed it to come to the floor for a vote. Or (to take a recent example) when Trump said he’d sign any compromise Congress brought him — but then reneged when they did. So that’s part one. Part two is simply: be realistic. We’ve had what Trump calls horrible laws with open borders and no enforcement etc., etc. long before he arrived and somehow the nation survived. Last year’s caravan dwindled down to just a couple dozen people; this one has already dwindled to 3,200 with a long way to go — facing 20,000 border agents and 2,000 National Guardsmen, and now 5,000 or 10,000 or 15,000 troops . . . and not even seeking to enter the country illegally, seeking asylum. Throwing themselves on our mercy. If people seek asylum for legitimate reasons, we might indeed want to grant them entry. When those reasons are deemed illegitimate, we already turn them away. The chances that millions will arrive on our doorstep, as you fear, seem remote. It’s hard walking thousands of miles to seek asylum. It’s impossible to swim here. And those who can afford airfare from Yemen or Sudan or Nigeria — well, they can’t. But we have mechanisms in place to review their applications if they do. But right now, there simply is no crisis. Let’s elect thoughtful people and resurrect the reasonable compromise reached in 2013 or craft a new one. In the meantime, to those genuinely worried about thousands of leprous Honduran rapists and murders invading Kentucky and Montana: rest easy. It’s totally not happening. Kaye Sandeman: “I love your line about knowing what team you’re on. Media does its best to make it about the personality of the candidates because everything else about politics can be boring to a large part of the population. You don’t see a daily story about the party platform, yet we ALL know Mitt Romney once put his dog in a cage on top of his car. We live in a county run by guns and religion and it’s not working.” Dennis: “Usually I lean somewhat Republican, but the craziness of this nearly-two-insane-years of everything being topsy-turvy will have me voting straight Democrat Tuesday. The first time ever. Keep making those logical straightforward points, and hopefully the truth on the issues can drown out the scare tactics and lies. P.S. Feel free to use my email if you’d like, but only with my first name please — Dennis (yes, a white, Protestant, married, business owner male…not that this should even need to be said, but I figured I’d mention it given the amazing amount of discounting of folks’ arguments out there because they’re…well, something that’s not white and male).” Now get out there and text!
“I’m Not Anti-Trump, I’m Just Pro-Jesus” November 1, 2018October 31, 2018 Meet the Evangelicals stumping for Democrats. Specifically, the Vote Common Good tour, a “rolling revival-cum-hootenanny performed in churches, city parks, pubs and parking lots, replete with klieg lights, backdrop banners and a portable stage pulled from a pickup truck.” . . . For two weeks this group of musicians, poets and pastors from both sides of the political divide has been driving across the country proclaiming the good news – or, to most Americans these days, what is simply news: that to be Christian, you don’t have to vote Republican. That you can love gay people and the flag at the same time, support Black Lives Matter along with the troops, and that God is perfectly fine with that. Most of all, the group wants liberal and conservative Christians to join forces and reclaim the gospel from the likes of Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr, who told Fox News that evangelicals had found their “dream president” in Donald Trump. Come 6 November, they’re asking people of faith to set aside cultural differences and vote for the common good, and, by doing so, flip Congress. . . . Amen, brothers and sisters. Spread the word, lest we reap the whirlwind. Speaking of which: > Stephen Colbert on the whirlwind, a clip I couldn’t find at the time of the Kavanaugh hearings but worth your minute even now. I mean, really. > Yesterday’s report of “startling new research.” The oceans are heating up much faster than we thought. If you feel threatened by an invasion of Hondurans — and comforted that the Republicans have sent 5,200 soldiers to supplement the 2,000 National Guardsmen they called up to supplement the 20,000 border patrol agents already employed to confront however many of the remaining 3,500 actually make it to our border seeking asylum to pick our tomatoes and clean our toilets — then you should feel even more threatened by climate change. It could force billions to relocate . . . cause famine, epidemics, and wars . . . flood millions more homes in Houston and North Carolina and everywhere else. To fight that crisis, the Republicans propose we close our eyes and pretend it’s a hoax. That’s their plan. Vote early, if you can. Vote even in deep-blue places where “it doesn’t matter” because actually it does: As much as Republicans should keep in mind that Hillary won by a nearly 3 million votes — despite Putin’s thumb on our scale — what I hope we might show the world this time is an even wider rejection of Trump’s “vision.” Vote, as those Evangelicals urge, for the common good.
A Baptist Minister and a Supreme Court Justice Walk Into a Bar . . . October 31, 2018October 30, 2018 Paul Raushenbush, an ordained Baptist minister, is an interesting guy. Senior VP of the Auburn Theological Seminary, his great grandfather, Walter Rauschenbusch (somewhere along the line they dropped the c’s), was a big deal Baptist theologian whose work — despite his being a thoroughly white blue blood — influenced the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bishop Desmond Tutu. “. . . [Walter’s] view of Christianity was that its purpose was to spread the Kingdom of God, not through a ‘fire and brimstone’ style of preaching, but by the Christlike lives led by its members.” Another of Paul’s great grandfathers, Louis Brandeis, was our nation’s first Jewish Supreme Court Justice. In 1985, relatives of Paul were murdered in what up until Saturday is thought to have been the deadliest attack on Jews in our country’s history. Informed by that background, Paul yesterday posted America’s Choice: The Tree of life or White Supremacy. As it happens, we get to help make that choice Tuesday. (Or today, with early voting.) And I’d like to stress — and ask YOU to stress to people who may be embarrassed not to know the names of all the candidates (how could “normal” people with one or two jobs and kids to raise follow all this?) — You don’t need to know who the candidates are. You know which team you’re on.* Just vote! *If you favor affordable health care that covers pre-existing conditions, affordable college, overtime pay, clean air and water, equal rights — things like that . . . if you thought Obama was a pretty good President and you “believe in” science and worry about climate change . . . you’re a Democrat. Vote D. If you think the really big problem we face as a nation are desperately poor Hondurans walking thousands of miles to turn themselves in at the border in hopes of asylum to pick your tomatoes and clean your motel toilets . . . and you think it’s okay for Trump’s party to control all three branches of government with no checks and balances . . . vote R. You’re a Republican.
Trump Is Right October 29, 2018October 29, 2018 He goes from state to state saying, “A vote for Sally is a vote for me.” “A vote for Ted is a vote for me.” And it’s true. So here’s what you get if you vote Republican this year: Vulgarity. Misogyny. Dishonesty. Bigotry. Ignorance. Corruption.* Division. Climate Denial. Tax Fraud. Fascism. A pathological liar (says Ted Cruz). A dangerous con man (says Marco Rubio). A national disgrace (says Colin Powell). The world’s number one bully (says Republican ex-governor Christine Todd Whitman). A Putin admirer. A sociopath who kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside. Our very own Mussolini. (Who, as it turns out, did not make the trains run on time.) That’s what you’re voting for if you vote Republican this year. Check out TheBigDeal2018 to motivate that 19-year-old of yours to turn out. Sign up with NextGen to text “Vote Early” reminders to young voters in swing states. They offer virtual trainings to make it easy. *Read this transcript. “Shame still exists,” Rachel Maddow is surprised to report. And then runs through a saga of corruption that will leave you agape Wait til you see whom they picked to be Inspector General at the Interior Department. You Russian literature fans will know that Gogol himself couldn’t have come up with something so ludicrous. And then wait til you read about the FBI building deal. Mind-boggling.
Cross Their Hearts And Hope To Die October 29, 2018October 29, 2018 Correction: I was wrong to say there are six churches in Paris, Texas, each of which would have to help accommodate a desperate Honduran family once every 24 years. (“Do the math.”) According to a friend from Paris, “There are WAY more than six. That link is incredibly wrong. It doesn’t even include my family’s church! I’d say there are probably 30 or 40 at least, no joke. If you go to Google Maps of Paris, and type in Church, at least 20 pop up.” So each church would have to help one desperate Honduran family more like once every hundred years. And this is the scare tactic — 7,200 desperate Hondurans with 1,000 more miles to walk before they turn themselves in at our border seeking asylum to harvest our tomatoes and clean our motel toilets — that Republicans are using to distract you from their having voted more than 50 times to kill or weaken Obamacare rather than improve it or offer anything to replace it. Flashback: Republican politicians have been saying they’re for covering pre-existing conditions and maintaining the social safety net — all those things Democrats have long been voting for and enacting — for a great long time. “Cross their hearts and hope to die.” Yet they always seem to vote “no.” I imagine you’ve seen this Roosevelt clip, but it’s always worth another look. As is this affirmation that, yes, now that Republicans have slashed taxes for corporations’ wealthiest shareholders, they’re coming after your Social Security. Reminder: The Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform 68-32. The House would have passed it, too, if the Republicans had allowed a vote. Question: Who should be allowed into this country? Not the Irish, certainly. (Who needed people like Ronald Reagan or John Kennedy in this country?) Not Syrians. (Who needed Steve Jobs?) People of good will can surely differ on the trade-offs involved in crafting comprehensive immigration reform. What they should not do — can’t we agree on this much? — is demonize refugees for political gain. It’s immoral, it’s unChristian, it’s unAmerican — and it’s the heart of the Republican strategy to maintain a stranglehold on all three branches of government. Oh — and by the way?
Four Years Later October 26, 2018October 25, 2018 [Movie tip: 1985 opens today in NY and LA. So powerful. It’s impossible not to care about this small-town Texas family.] I posted this on the eve of the 2014 mid-terms: Be Healthier AND Wealthier: Vote Democrat. Do you know what? Nothing’s changed. Sure, Republican voter suppression tactics have evolved. (I’ve noted the particular irony of their efforts to keep Native Americans from voting, since they’re the only Americans who aren’t immigrants.) And, sure, Republicans have spent four more years sabotaging the Affordable Care Act rather than proposing anything to improve or replace it. But if you updated it all, the conclusions would be the same. The only important difference is that this time, with a sociopath unchecked in the White House, our democracy itself is in peril. Vote! Volunteer! Give!