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Saturday, March 25, 2017

WHITHER NOW?

In the aftermath of the enormous legislative defeat for Trump and the Republicans, now is the time to plan the way forward.  I think we can confidently anticipate more and more bad news for Trump and his crew on the Russian front, which will weaken their ability to get anything done.  They are on their heels, two months into their presidency, and we ought not to allow them to recover.  We shall of course meticulously follow Robert Shore’s advice and grant each and every one of them the legal presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

As I see it, with regard to health care, the Democrats ought to draft and put forward legislation calling for the transformation of the Affordable Care Act into a single-payer Medicare-For-All system.  They will of course not even be allowed to bring the proposal to the floor of the House – that does not matter.  What matters is to make this the ­de facto Democratic position.  Nancy Pelosi should “accept’ Trump’s facetious call for a bi-partisan approach and invite him to join with her in supporting a Single Payer plan.  [It goes without saying that I do not need to advise her on legislative tactics.  Nor do I need to teach her how to suck eggs, as the saying goes.]

Right now, we need to capitalize on the Republican defeat by doing everything we can to elect Ossoff to the House in the Georgia by-election.  He is apparently assured of surviving the first round, but after that it gets dicey. 

Can any of you tell the rest of us about other up-coming local elections to which we ought to be lending our support?  The idea is to try to create the reality, or at least the appearance, of a groundswell, a wave, a national uprising.  The general principle is, Hit ‘em when they’re down.


My natural Tigger has come to the fore and I am hopeful that we can turn this into some genuine advances.

4 comments:

Tom Cathcart said...

Let's all commit to send at least another $25 to Ossoff. If 200 of us do it, that's $5000.

Ludwig Richter said...

Professor Wolff, you asked about upcoming local elections that we might consider supporting. I will suggest one.

In Washington State, Democrats have a Democratic governor and state house. There are more Democrats in the state senate, too, but because of one turncoat Democrat, the Republican caucus has had control of the senate for a number of years. They have been holding up much-needed legislation for funding education and social services. However, this could all change in the fall.

In the 45th state legislative district, the Republican state senator recently died of lung cancer. By law, he was replaced a Republican, who has said he will not run in the special election in the fall. The 45th district voted for Clinton in 2016 by a margin of 65% to 28%. The district's two house members are Democrats, and the Democrats are highly motivated to win this seat.

The only serious candidate to declare for the race is Manka Dhingra. She's raised about $100K, she's a King County deputy prosecutor, a PTA mom, a Golden Acorn winner, and a strong supporter of public education. She has the support of an extensive network of Indian immigrants, and she will be an appealing candidate for the many Microsoft employees who live in her district.

I have said repeatedly that we will defeat the Republicans precinct-by-precinct, district-by-district. This is one of those districts. Democrats will start canvassing tomorrow, eight months in advance of the election. We can win this one. Here is more about Manka Dhingra:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/15/1634197/-Huge-Democrats-finally-have-a-chance-to-take-back-the-Washington-Senate-and-turn-the-state-blue

And here is her website:

http://www.electmanka.com/

Washington State, I'm proud to say, has been a leader in the resistance. However, we're one legislative district away from shutting out the Republicans in our state. Contributions to Manka Dhingra's campaign could make a difference.

Chris said...

If you want a medicare for all system you should sign this petition and maybe donate to this cause:

http://go.justicedemocrats.com/page/s/take-a-stand?utm_source=medicareforall&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jd

Chris said...

Also, seriously, how can you talk up nency pelosi!? How can you honestly expect her to do the right thing:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/25/how-nancy-pelosi-saved-the-nsa-surveillance-program/

How can you expect her to champion single payer health care!?



http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/01/nader-pelosi-and-single-payer/


For christ sake, stop letting these corporate hacks pull the wool over your eyes. She takes so much money from the health services industry!


https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=2016&cid=n00007360&type=I