Gloom, Doom – Clarified November 20, 2021 Your feedback to “enough with the gloom and doom” fell mostly into two camps: > “Thanks! I needed that.” . . . and . . . > “Love your optimism, but you’re dreaming. We’re almost surely doomed.” So let me clarify. I am not optimistic. I am hopeful. I entirely agree with the list of difficulties you offered. But that’s the point: in the face of these difficulties, we should not sink into despondency, we should rise to the challenge. Step up, not give up. I am hopeful that we will because I know we can — as we did, for example, in the two Georgia Senate races earlier this year . . . . . . and because the stakes are too high for each of us not to do more than we ever have before. > Hey! Join Field Team 6. Right now! > Hey! Join Vote Forward. Right now! > Hey! Engage right-leaning folks you know in what become a series of friendly conversations — not debates — where your goal is not to get them to admit to you they’re wrong, but, rather, to get them to think about the things that concern you, as you think about the things that concern them . . . and try gently to allay some of those concerns. > Hey! Help fund the effort with 1% of your net worth (leaving you 99%, if my math is right) — right now! — because early money is the hardest to raise and gives the organizing snowball that much more time to grow. Two years ago (Dinner With Republicans), I quoted the then executive director of the Florida Democratic Party: “You may not expect to hear this from me, but we had enough money in 2016 and 2018. The problem was, we didn’t have enough TIME. Of the $165 million we got in those two cycles, $160 million came in after the primaries.” Money NOW is so much more powerful than the SAME money when most people give it. If Florida had had more to work with a year out, in 2015 and 2017, we could well have won the state in 2016 (and thus the Presidency, and the Court); and Florida’s governorship and Senate seat in 2018. That’s plenty for one day. But if you want to know why in addition to being hopeful I am scared, try these: > The Terrifying Future of the American Right. What I saw at the National Conservatism Conference “The left’s ambition is to create a world beyond belonging,” said Hawley. “Their grand ambition is to deconstruct the United States of America.” “The left’s attack is on America. The left hates America,” said Cruz. “It is the left that is trying to use culture as a tool to destroy America.” “We are confronted now by a systematic effort to dismantle our society, our traditions, our economy, and our way of life,” said Rubio. > ‘Is Trump planning for a 2024 coup? The machinations are unfolding right across the US at all levels of government. The stage is being set for a spectacle that could, in 2024, make last year’s unprecedented assault on American democracy look like a dress rehearsal. > Are We Witnessing the Mainstreaming of White Power in America? Over the course of Donald Trump’s presidency, the far-right fringe became a surprisingly visible and influential force in American politics. . . . . In a recent survey, nearly a third of Republicans agreed with the statement that “true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” The historian Kathleen Belew has spent her career studying political violence and the once-fringe ideas that now animate even right-of-center politics and news media. . . . [Her book] tells the story of how groups — including the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and Aryan Nations — coalesced into a radical white-power movement after the Vietnam War. These groups were united by a core set of beliefs about the threats of demographic change and governmental overreach, perceived hostility toward white Americans and the necessity of extra-political, often violent, action to achieve their aims. This is a conversation about how some of those ideas have seeped into mainstream Republican politics and what that could mean for the future of the party — and the country. Democracy itself is at stake next year. The time to fix that is this year. Click here! Have a great weekend!