I ask that the following be considered during (or after) the call:
A deep, growing concern is that the architecture of our core institutions is being disassembled in real time with very little public outcry and even less political resistance. My idea is that (similar to the grass roots origins of the Tea Party movement) enough Americans (and it won’t take that many) can be mobilized to stop – or at least slow down – this disintegration by positioning our core institutions as mirroring our core values, much like a trial lawyer simplifies complex facts to a lay jury.
Which could look something like this:
As Americans, we demand the right to be informed so we can make our own decisions (a free press), to be kept safe (effective law enforcement at home and dependable allies abroad), and to remain able to force the government to base its decisions on facts, instead of taglines (a functioning judiciary).
The Problem
Being informed requires access to information. The Press must be permitted to do its job. That means – at a minimum – that the government not sue or investigate press organizations with which it disagrees (e.g., CBS, NPR) or disfavor press outlets based on their perceived political viewpoint (e.g., the White House’s exclusion of news organizations from the White House Press Pool).
Keeping us safe means many things. What it cannot mean is:
pardoning violent convicted felons because they are perceived by the Administration as political allies (e.g., the blanket January 6h pardons)
using the Department of Justice as the President’s personal lawyers (e.g., Attorney General Pam Bondi’s acquiescence to threatening criminal charges against NYC Mayor Eric Admas as a political lever for the Administration)
using the FBI as the President’s personal enforcers (e.g., the elevation of Kash Patel, who has promised to do so, as the FBI head)
punishing law enforcement agents based on the Administration political agenda (e.g., the targeting of over 5,000 highly trained FBI agents who worked on the January 6th riot and summarily firing respected FBI leaders who spoke out on their behalf)
or making the world less safe now and in the future by openly bullying and undercutting our allies while publicly aligning with (and emboldening) our enemies (e,g., the recent UN vote in which the US voted with North Korea, Syria, Russia and Belarus concerning Russian aggression in Ukraine).
Our ability to make the government base its decisions on facts, instead of taglines, depends upon a functioning judiciary.
Individual federal judges cannot stop government decisions. They answer to juries of ordinary citizens, and also to Appellate Judges. Appellate Judges answer to the Supreme Court. And the composition of the Supreme Court is determined by the President and the Senate.
In our topsy turvy reality, the courtroom is the only place where an ordinary citizen can force our government to support their decisions with actual evidence. Knowing that it can be forced to do so certainly discourages some bad decisions from being made by the government in the first place. And shining a light on what our government is doing and why in this way allows us to change bad decisions, and support good ones, when made. .
Like all systems, our court system is imperfect. But it will cease to exist if the Administration carries out its repeated threats to simply ignore court orders.
A Practical Solution Available Now
The narrow majorities in Congress offer an opportunity – particularly in the House of Representatives. No House member has a vote on the degree to which the Administration continues to pursue the destabilizing and harmful actions described above. But each House member does have the ability to impact those actions. How?
In a very closely divided House, the President needs every Republican vote to enact his legislative agenda. Indeed, the loss of just three such votes can be decisive. If just three House Republicans told the Administration that unless the actions described above are stopped they will not support the Administration legislatively, then some (or all) of those actions likely would stop.
The path to getting there is as old as our species. Determine what your audience cares about and then speak to that thing. Our elected officials on both sides of the aisle care about remaining (and expanding their) power. That can’t happen if they are not re-elected.
Fundamentally, Biden/Harris lost because their vision of America was not one held by a majority of Americans. It is hard to imagine that – once so explained – most Americans would agree with the current Administration’s vision of America as demonstrated by the above actions.
That is the pressure point. And it can be effectively exerted by social media, in Town Halls, with phone calls, and with ads.
