Pro democracy momentum and Senator Slotkin
2 April 2025
Here are excerpts from two posts by Jennifer Rubin of The Contrarian that I liked:
Pro democracy momentum is real!
“Don’t let this be another day in America,” Senator Cory Booker insisted. Well, it wasn’t. Yesterday was a soaring day for the momentum of the Democratic party, culminating in an overwhelming win for Justice Susan Crawford in Wisconsin, thereby delivering a crucial and symbolic referendum on Elon Musk, President Trump, and anybody else who might believe that our democracy can be bought. So, what now?
Democrats would dearly love to repeat their success from 2017 through 2020. Step by step, in the wake of Donald Trump’s first presidential election, they strung together a series of mass events, legislative maneuvers, and electoral wins, culminating in a Democratic trifecta (White House, House, and Senate) victory in 2020. That experience contains five important lessons for their ability to mount a comeback leading up to and through the 2028 elections.
First, the movement in 2017 was a bottom-up affair. . .
Second, increasing the number of Democrats vying for office raises the chances of interest and success in midterm elections. . .
Third, autocrats who suffer early losses lose the aura of invincibility, undermine morale among supporters, and fuel more enthusiasm among opponents. . .
Fourth, midterms and special elections matter. . .
Fifth, it is a misnomer that the party out of power needs a “positive” message before the presidential race. . .
Past political history does not guarantee future results. However, pro-democracy forces (to say nothing of the phenomenal activism exhibited last night by Senator Cory Booker, who held court on the Senate floor for 25 hours), are laying the building blocks brick by brick to halt and dislodge the MAGA menace. It will be up to Democrats and their allies to continue the momentum if we are to oust Trump and his authoritarian cohorts. Complete essay.
Undaunted Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan
U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin delivered the Democratic response to President Trump's Joint Address on Tuesday, March 4, 2025:
“We just went through another fraught election season,” she noted. “Americans made it clear that prices are too high, and that government needs to be more responsive to their needs. America wants change. But there is a responsible way to make change, and a reckless way.” And, she pointed out, we don’t need to lose our democracy in the process.
After a bloated, meandering, fallacy-riddled speech from Trump, Slotkin mercifully laid out three main issues to address, starting with the economy. The Democratic message can be boiled down to simple terms: Trump promised to help Americans get ahead but he’s ripping them off to line the pockets of billionaires. She came with receipts:
· Grocery and home prices are going up, not down – and he hasn’t laid out a credible plan to deal with either.
· His tariffs on allies like Canada will raise prices on energy, lumber, cars – and start a trade war that will hurt manufacturing and farmers.
· Your premiums and prescriptions will cost more because the math on his proposals doesn’t work without going after your health care.
· Meanwhile, for those keeping score, the national debt is going up, not down. And if he’s not careful, he could walk us right into a recession.
· And one more thing: In order to pay for his plan, he could very well come after your retirement – the Social Security, Medicare, and VA benefits you worked your whole life to earn. The President claims he won’t, but Elon Musk just called Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”
Slotkin’s best line, however, focused on the issue that drew derisive laughter during Trump’s speech: giving power away to an unelected bureaucrat, Elon Musk. “[I]s there anyone in America who is comfortable with him and his gang of 20-year-olds using their own computer servers to poke through your tax returns, your health information, and your bank accounts?” She asked. “No oversight. No protections against cyber-attack. No guardrails on what they do with your private data.”
. . .
In wrapping up, Slotkin told the audience what ordinary Americans can do to fight back against the Musk-Trump autocracy threat: stay engaged, hold officials accountable (“Watch how they’re voting. Go to town halls and demand they take action,”) and organize around an issue you care about. She is right that democracy requires that the people take action, not that we wait for elected leaders to tell us what to do.
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