The Fight of Our Lives

Did any of you actually relax over the weekend - while we got a running account of how Elon Musk and his henchboys were rooting through the Treasury’s payment systems and accessing government’s records of all our personal information?

Our aspiring dictator is governing the same way he debates - they’re burying us in a Gish Gallop of outrageous actions, and gambling that there will be no consequences for their criminality. Between mass firings, mass deportations, freezing Federal payments, attempting to erase entire agencies, destroying our national security apparatus, and starting “the dumbest trade war in history” - against our allies… it’s a lot to process.

This is going to be the fight of our lives. And fight we must.

But - as Aliza pointed out in our podcast last week, this fight has to be against the actual enemy, which is MAGA, DOGE, their billionaire backers, and everyone else who is enabling an American authoritarian regime.

Democrats Are Fighting Back. You Just Have to Look.

Rep. Jamie Raskin at today’s rally at USAID headquarters

So much has happened since our last podcast it seems almost quaint to address anything that went on, but there is indeed some continuity and relevance to the matters about which Karoli and Donna (on the one hand) and I (on the other) were at odds.

I was sick of hearing people on our side (liberals, Democrats) screaming “DO SOMETHING” to our Dem electeds. K & D were doing just that. It’s not that I DON’T want them to do something – It’s just that I don’t believe they aren’t.

I was sick of hearing people on our side calling our team weak, accusing them of rolling over and taking it, being quiet. “Where are they??? What are they doing???” Because they are everywhere. Doing their jobs. Newsom was in California helping his residents manage unfathomable loss from fires and even kissing Trump’s ring a little while doing it.

AOC is not the only one who knows how to use social media – Sorry, kids, Swalwell mastered Twitter before she was even elected, and he is still the master. Jasmine Crocket came on the scene two years ago and wipes the floor with every single GOP committee member who dares cross her. Pritzker is making it clear he won’t comply with Twitler’s ICE raids. Bennet destroyed RFK, Jr. in his Senate hearing. Chris Murphy has been FIRE since minute one of Trump II and I am here for it. Hell, even Kathy Hochul is standing her ground in New York State – the land of not standing your ground – on the matter of extraditing NY doctors who helped southern women with their reproductive health. Mark my words, for all her centrist flaws, she will never hand those doctors over to the South.

So where were these electeds? They were doing their jobs. Preparing. Consulting. Figuring out where to shore up their defenses and how to deploy their troops. You may not like it. It may not be movie material. But good god, we are two weeks in, and you’ve already let the people who couldn’t be assed to vote off the hook while being angry at the people put in place to defend the nation? Methinks a refocus is in order.

After all. It’s Day 14, and within 72 hours of Muskrat’s coup of the nation’s financial systems, we have Raskin, Van Hollen, Connelly, Olzsewski, Omar, and so many more AT the doors of USAID as I write this screaming for defending our Constitution and our financial institutions, our Pentagon budget, our foreign aid partners, and so much more. Democrats are organizing protests, Senate office visits, lawsuits, alternative supports, and managing all manner of trauma while doing it. Where do we get off being pissed at THEM?

Keep calling, people. Tell them what you need. Thank them for their actions. Where are the Democrats? They’re everywhere if you open your eyes.

One More Thing

Elon Musk: “DOGE is working 120 hour a week. Our bureaucratic opponents optimistically work 40 hours a week. That is why they are losing so fast.”

Such a shame that our civil servants and legislators aren’t “hard core” enough to sleep in their offices every night, right? One thing we know: Arrogance, overreach, and hubris do not equal success. They’ve shocked the system. That’s not the same as winning the game.

Last night, Aliza and I joined over 60,000 other Americans for a coalition call led by Indivisible, MoveOn, the Working Families Party, and other progressive groups who are organizing the grassroots opposition. It was a reminder that we do have power. We just have to use it.

That begins by making noise - as a community. We need to remind our legislators (both Democrats AND Republicans) that their job is to represent US. Freezing payments to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Meals on Wheels, and Head Start affect millions of Americans in both red states and blue, and the pushback the government got from that action last week got them to temporarily walk it back.

Today’s event at USAID offices is just the beginning. There will be a demonstration at the Treasury offices tomorrow at 5PM (and if you are in the DC area, you are invited to join).

View the stream of last night’s call here.

See you in the ring!

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