Martin O’Malley Calls Battle with Musk and DOGE Democrats Modern Day ‘Bunker Hill’

Elon Musk is terrorizing older Americans. Trump is allowing it. The Republican majority in the House and Senate are encouraging it. Why? Because the destruction of Social Security at any cost was their plan from the start.

“It’s like being invaded,” 83-year-old retired nurse Carol Goldstein of Maryland said in an interview with the Associated Press addressing Musk and his DOGE trying to obtain Americans private data from Social Security. 

"What are they going to do with it? Why do they want it?” said retired social worker Debra Brown, 71, who admitted she was “scared to death” about what Musk and DOGE could do with their personal  information. "I'm just thinking of all the bad things that are going to happen.”

Trump and Musk have gone beyond anything considered normal for an administration, and they don’t even try to hide that their motives are power, profit, control and fear. Their inhumanity is part of their psychology for creating hopelessness to proceed unchallenged. 

"That’s how fascists win, by making us feel like we can’t do anything about it,” former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley said, describing to Rolling Stone the frightening situation retirees and their loved ones are facing. 

A growing number of Americans of all walks of life and every political ideology recognize a real line in the sand must be drawn for Social Security. There is a deep dark opinion among many throughout The Resistance that if we cannot win the battle to protect Social Security, we will ultimately lose the war to maintain democracy. 

"All of us need to be speaking up. This should be the Bunker Hill on which the Democratic Party is willing to die, because this cuts into the heart of who we are as a people.” O’Malley, former governor of Maryland and Social Security commissioner, declared to Rachel Maddow.

It doesn't matter where you live, Blue State or Red State, or whether you vote as a Democrat, Independent or Republican, Elon Musk and his DOGE delinquents are coming for your Social Security. MAGA is not immune.

“Someone made a huge mistake,” said former convenience store clerk and Trump voter Teresa Casey of Georgia, whose disability benefits administered by the Social Security Administration one day stopped arriving.

“This isn’t about politics now,” Casey, who had to travel to a Social Security office to clear up the glitch, told the Christian Science Monitor. “This is my life.” 

The special elections in Florida offered a testing ground for how to build a wall around Social Security. O'Malley aggressively sought out Sunshine State Social Security recipients and elderly advocates, mainly at a string of town halls. O'Malley sought out to create a working model in real time for how to organize and fight back to save Social Security.

“I think this is the beginning of something,” O’Malley told Rolling Stone during his push to recruit voters to fight to protect Social Security from Musk. At a town hall in Fort Lauderdale, O'Malley told attendees that “this is a moment in our country’s history to not give up on the capacity of our neighbors to be engaged. So many of us are checking out because it can be anxiety-inducing, but now is the time to be at the table of democracy.”

Looking for signs that Social Security moved the needle with Florida voters,  O'Malley and his allies will comb over the results of the two special elections for House seats vacated by a pair of notorious Republicans. Defrocked Republican Matt Gaetz was Trump's original pick for attorney general, but he was so toxic even the rubber-stamp Republicans in the Senate wouldn't confirm him (says a lot when we consider those who did pass GOP muster). Trump's National Security Advisor Michael Waltz carved out his own special place in Trump World when he invited a well-known reporter and editor into a Signal chat where secret military strike plans for Houthi rebels in Yemen were revealed.

O'Malley and other Democratic leaders, activists and organizations, including Left of Center, intend to cultivate and share lessons learned from Florida. One trend that's immensely helpful: scared or not, people are showing up, and many of them are digging in for the fight. 

“I have to say that sitting here and listening to you speak is frustrating because we are at war,” 61-year-old retiree and Marine veteran Enrique Tamayo told participants at one social security town hall, as O'Malley looked on.

“Our country is being taken over. Our programs, our entitlements are being dismantled. What I feel is that we’re bringing a knife to a gunfight,”  declared Tamaho, who is Cuban-American. “Do you think they’re going to stop with Social Security? This is authoritarian rule that we’re under and it’s going to get worse.”

Written by Ken Bazinet, former White House correspondent, has covered three presidents and five presidential elections. Still writing, he works with organizations and individuals that focus on opening and expanding ballot access to Black, Latino, Women, Native American, pro-worker and rural voters.

Trump Bluster is Back, So is All the Hate and Vindictiveness

There are a bunch of emotions to describe our reaction, and the fallout from Donald Trump’s audacious opening act in his second term in the White House. But as malicious and odious as his pen has been the first days of his administration, Trump’s emotionally draining antics are less of a blow when we focus on why he is doing what he is doing, and recognizing he’s not even doing it well.

So far Trump’s pardons and commuted sentences have angered cops and made prosecutors and court witnesses fear for their lives. Orders he has signed have cost jobs and revenue in communities that voted for Trump and re-ignited the fear of the unknown in Latino communities, a chunk of which supported Trump. This is a lousy way for Trump to treat his rank and file voters, and they should be reminded of that repeatedly.

Cold, clueless, or both, Trump already imposed economic hardship on communities where he’d never won until last year. The resulting loss of jobs and investment is in a memorandum he signed to suspend for review new or renewed offshore and onshore leases for commercial wind projects, and to end leasing of the outer continental shelf. Somerset, Massachusetts voted for a Republican president last year for the first time since 1956. Trump’s thank you to those supporters was killing a $300 million project for a wind power components manufacturer that pulled out when it learned Trump was going to try to derail wind power. The mostly white middle and working class community of more than 18,000 people was set to be part of the geographic center for a budding regional wind electrification industry. The company’s now upended plan was a move into an obsolete waterfront power plant, creating up to 350 new manufacturing jobs.

In another order guaranteed to hit us in the wallet, Trump basically flipped off just about all American consumers (who make up about 70 percent of the U.S. economy) when he killed President Biden’s order to seek out ways to negotiate for lower prescription drug costs. What a bonehead move at a time when we need work to be done to bring inflation down further.

What really jumps out about this first week, and worth repeating over and over, is nothing Trump has done has lowered the price of eggs, a loaf of bread, a gallon of gas, or the coming rent hikes. He doesn’t seem to be taking inflation seriously. Trump hasn’t made America safer or stronger, or more affordable.

It's crystal clear Trump wants to intimidate his opposition, see us panic, feel hopeless, and ultimately capitulate to the whims of his regime. Overwhelming us is a big part of why he’s trying to mess around in so many areas all at once, but anticipation and adequate response are potent antidotes to Trump’s shock and awe style of bullying. Twenty-two state attorneys general and a handful of citizen groups were prepared and ready to engage when Trump signed an order removing the birthright to citizenship for children born to documented immigrants.

Those AGs and groups are now successfully suing Trump in multiple courts around the country, arguing the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States. It’s a strong case against Trump. The opening line of the 14th Amendment is clear: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

By design, we will see uncomfortable images from Trump’s deportation program, which is threatening to go so far as to pull children out of schools, patients out of hospitals, and worshipers out of churches that are deemed to be undocumented immigrants.  Pay attention to the numbers of people that are being deported compared to the Biden administration and the first Trump term. Right now there is parity, but we don’t know what is coming and should remain prepared and vigilant. At the moment, Trump is mainly interested in making headlines and delighting in the news coverage of immigrants being removed from quite a few Blue States, at least at the outset, which has got to be a kick in the teeth to Red State MAGA, who expected to see ICE blanket their communities.

MAGA climate change deniers, however, are delighted by Trump leaving the Paris Accord (joining Iran, Syria, and Yemen as non-participants) and his promises to open up oil exploration and drilling offshore and in other sensitive areas. MAGA absolutely wallowed in Trump’s disregard for curbing climate change, even amid a freak snow storm that reached as far south as the shores of Red States along the Gulf of Mexico, and the deadly firestorm that now threatens Republican enclaves in San Diego County.

Trump poured his own brand of kerosene on the California wildfires this week, threatening to hold federal disaster aid hostage unless the state pays a political ransom. Disregarding loss of life, property and the lasting economic burden the devastation will put on residents and communities, a cold hearted Trump wanted a deal for emergency aid in exchange for a big hike in the federal debt limit (telegraphing his plans to blow out the deficit again), but then shifted to seeking to force the state to pass a voter ID law in exchange for disaster relief. It’s disgraceful to do that to any Americans, but it really triggers wise Californians, who pay more in federal taxes than they get back in federal aid.

 The TikTok flip flop was already a work in progress, but do you remember Trump’s tough on China tirade? Trump suddenly sounds more like a pussycat when it comes to Beijing. The sizable support Trump discovered he had on TikTok was the shiny object that caught his eye. Like snakes in the grass, the TikTok bosses and a first of its kind high level delegation from Beijing to attend a presidential inauguration aptly came off like vassals in Trump’s mind. The suck-up sirens song was too much for Trump to say no to. He extended the deadline that he set in motion during his first term, so TikTok’s Chinese owners allegedly could find a suitable buyer outside of China. Trump is already scheming to personally profit from whatever happens to TikTok, and he most certainly will ensure a rightwing corporate stooge or mad tech bro gets control of the platform.

Speaking of mad tech bros, had enough of Elon yet? A lot of the people who might consider buying his cars dislike him, there is a constant exodus from the social media platform he poisoned, and his spaceships do blow up on occasion. If it talks like a duck, hangs out with other ducks, and flaps like a duck, guess what? 

There is an underlying hatefulness and need to target the most vulnerable among us throughout the Trump world. We know Trump does not fight for the underdog. We know that he does not have a humanitarian calling. We know Trump won’t protect Americans from the mob as long as the mob wears the red hats. He has no desire to seek a pursuit of universal happiness. 

Among the most targeted groups by Trump, who flooded the airwaves with a deceitfully inaccurate but painfully effective anti-trans TV ad, is the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ Americans face an erosion of rights and maybe worse under Trump and the theocratic extremists he is beholden to. The idea that Trump, a despot who rejects science, could even begin to comprehend gender identification is laughable and frightening all at once. The personal privacy and individual decisions made by every American are worth protecting.

We are for sure enduring a deafening needle scratch on the soundtracks of our lives. For MAGA, Trump’s hit-list is a victorious melody of vindictiveness and brutality. This is why they stood in lines for hours to hear Trump ramble, bought the Trump bibles, invested in Trump cryptocurrency, and wore the red hats made in China – just to see somebody else get screwed over. Well, MAGA supporters should enjoy it while they can, because the orders signed by Trump are pretty much the bulk of the reward for all their loyalty and support. The real payoff is yet to come, but that’s not for MAGA, that’s going to be for the wealthiest Trump backers and friends and the Trump-friendly corporations.

Written by Ken Bazinet, a former White House correspondent, has covered three presidents and five presidential elections. Still writing, he works with organizations and individuals that focus on opening and expanding ballot access to Black, Latino, Women, Native American, pro-worker and rural voters. He is third generation organized labor.

We’ve transitioned to https://bsky.app where you can follow us at: 

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Trump Thinks We've All Gone Away; Wow, is He Ever in for a Big Surprise!

The holidays are a truly welcomed relief this year for many of us. We get to spend time with family, friends and welcomed acquaintances. Love and goodwill prevail, and we try to end the year still hopeful and resolute.

We also get to take the temperature of the people we really care about during the holidays. How are they feeling? What are they thinking? What is their general disposition? We try to reconnect and feel part of something meaningful.

At one notable Thanksgiving dinner this year, where about a dozen stakeholders in the election were gathered, the conversation was light and comfortably superficial. Despite those folks having career and family matters threatened by the result of the presidential vote, not a word was said of the election. There was no pre-dinner edict that such talk was forbidden. It just went that way. It seemed clear that for such politically aware people, a temporary break from the national discourse was necessary, They weren't retreating; they were in the process of recharging their batteries. It made sense, because there will be ample opportunities to re-engage soon enough.

We all react to situations in our own way, but it's wise for some people to avoid panic and burnout by taking a break from the yammering on cable news panels and the rage on social media platforms. It's also reassuring to see others among us still slamming Trump's policies and critiquing his choices for top government positions and trying to plan for what is expected as well as the unknown.

It will not be difficult to re-ignite the opposition to Trump -- he will do the most to pull people back into the fight. However, as folks begin to find their way back to the political fray, we should also pursue intelligent analysis and honest reflection, and most of all, avoid the blame game.

We just lost a frighteningly significant chunk of the working class vote -- white, Black, and Latino -- because we couldn't convince them the price of eggs would either come down. or their income and ability to absorb inflated prices would go up. This is a big problem, and right now we need to look for ideas and solutions, not find somebody to take the fall.

We've already learned a few things from the election, above all that the truth is not enough to counter Trump's propaganda and tactics, and having the facts on our side doesn't guarantee a positive result. That's a tough pill to swallow for anyone with respect for the rule of law and classical education, but nonetheless, that's what we are enduring in the aftermath of the 2024 elections.

So given that we are not going to abandon our core values and embrace Trump's success in lying about nearly everything to win an election, we're going to have to do a better job of crafting and telling our side of the story. We already have the ability to tell interesting stories about what we stand for, but we don't do a very good job of bringing our intended audience into our stories. We're all fond of charts that measure the periodic metrics, but telling people things are getting better when they are seeing their household budgets erode because of the cost of everyday life is annoying after a while.

"When we talk about the economy and the data points that are typically associated with measuring the economy, and the jobs report and all of those things — great, beautiful and nice leading indicators, all of that — that doesn’t mean anything to people who don’t have money in the market and aren’t watching at that level," 

Michigan State Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet explained in The New York Times after she won an open seat in a white blue collar area by 6.7 percentage points.

"What really matters to them is how much it costs at the grocery store and the gas pump," said the congresswoman-elect, who constantly discussed the economy and avoided discussing the threat Trump presents to democracy.

We need to work on establishing and communicating the relevance of national policies to individual voters and their families in a big way. Voters need to feel they are part of a story, not just hear it, after all the stories we should be sharing are theirs. That's how we need to connect, by getting voters after they hear from us to think, "Hey, that's me they're talking about!" 

We're going to have to make many of these types of adjustments in real time, but fortiunately Trump is giving us a pretty good idea of the chaos that is coming. He is already overplaying his hand with the unqualified and ridiculous nominees he's naming to key jobs in the administration. Almost a month away from being sworn in and Trump is even giving some Senate Republicans heartburn. Corporate and Wall Street campaign contributors are loading up on the antacid over what is emerging as the next administration. It will be important to communicate Trump's failings every step of the way and exploit the division in the GOP ranks at every opportunity, but there will be plenty of time for all that.

Now is a good time to reaffirm our commitment to the most essential political entity in our lives, our loved ones and friends. As we keep that group close and tight, we can build out from there as we re-engage in political debate and reorganize on each of our own timetables. Happy holidays are already happening, and it feels good. Rest assured Deb and Mara will be at their posts and Left of Center PAC will be here whenever you're ready.

Written by Ken Bazinet, a former White House correspondent, has covered three presidents and five presidential elections. Still writing, he works with organizations and individuals that focus on opening and expanding ballot access to Black, Latino, Women, Native American, pro-worker and rural voters. He is third generation organized labor. It took him a month to get motivated to write this item, because he's clearly on his own timetable.

As We Hit the Homestretch the Election is Still Up from Grabs; Democrats will need Biggest Ground Game Ever to Compete

This is not the Boy who Cried Wolf. This is not someone shouting fire in a crowded theater. This is not a drill.

“Expect no justice and fairness under Trump. I know,” warns Yusef Salaam, a member of the Exonerated Central Park Five, and the voice of authority in Left of Center-PAC’s latest radio ad, titled “I Know.” 

“In this election we must again reject hate and chaos, and choose a brighter future for all Americans. Join me, Yusef Salaam, in choosing Kamala Harris,” adds Mr. Salaam, now an elected New York City Councilman, who in 1989 was a teenager when he and four others were wrongly accused of a highly publicized violent crime.

Trump injected himself into the narrative at the time when he bought full-pages ads in NYC that suggested executing the Central Park Five for a crime they did not commit. Eventually fully exonerated, Trump nonetheless has persisted in persecuting the Exonerated Central Park Five and continues to falsely accuse those then innocent boys, now grown men, of a crime they were cleared of. Not surprisingly, now the Exonerated Central Park Five are suing Trump over his repeated lies and defamation. 

Yusef Salaam is a gentleman, leader and survivor of a system that wrongly tried to cancel him, and he has successfully faced down Trump and his toxic image as Manhattan media darling born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Instead of resentment, Mr. Salaam embraces empowerment, freedom and democracy, and when it comes to Trump he knows what he is talking about.

Partnering with Yusef Salaam and others, Left of Center has committed to reaching undecided and low-propensity voters in two key Battleground States where there are crucial votes to be harvested, Georgia and North Carolina. The spot will run through early voting right up to Election Day to support get out the vote efforts on the ground. Frankly, we believe this ad belongs in other Battleground States (Philly and Detroit/Dearborn come to mind).

All over the country brigades of activists, volunteers and field organizing professionals are now at their posts. To support the Democrats ground game, organizations like Left of Center are divvying up the duty. The goal is to find every malleable or persuadable vote for Harris-Walz and down-ballot Democrats, leaving no one on the couch. Name a demographic — women, working men, union households, suburban voters, young voters, Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQ+ — you name it and some organization is micro-targeting the available votes among those and other cohorts.  

It’s a critical moment, and reports out of the Battleground States are a mixed bag. Key states and races are just just too darn close call.

We also hear Mr. Salaam’s words of warning, and mark them well. We have seen Trump’s lies inspire violence, tear apart communities with malice and hate, and disrupt rescue and recovery efforts after deadly hurricanes. We expect more to come. There have been "at least 300 cases of political violence since Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, including at least 51 incidents this year,” according to an investigation by Reuters news service.  

A new investigative report by Politico, titled, The Very Real Scenario Where Trump Loses and Takes Power Anyway, is an absolute must-read to come to terms with the potential evil that is lurking.

 “No one knows exactly what Trump’s attack on the electoral system will be in 2024,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the Jan. 6 select committee, said in that report. “What will he do this time.”

Democrats need to be vigilant and elevate their game the final two weeks of the elections. We must fight until the clock expires and we must be resilient. Expect the unexpected and ignore the noise. We need to find every vote everywhere. It’s doable; and if everyone shows up or digs deep we can save democracy and put the stake into the hate of Donald Trump.

Republican Tied to Project 2025 Poses Threat to Montana; Tim Sheehy, Scandal-a-Day MAGA Bro, Spends a lot of Time Hiding

Trump really doesn’t do much for other Republicans. Between his run for office and millions of dollars in legal expenses, Trump vacuums up the largest amount of campaign cash, leaving less money for GOP candidates downstream. His lies and distortions prompt reporters to go running to down-ballot Republicans for their reaction to his twisted and often dangerous campaign rhetoric. His detached demagogic tantrums draw Republicans into fights they don’t want.

So when Trump showed up in Montana this summer with his full circus-like sideshow of doom to promote equally sketchy GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, a lot of people noted how out of character that was for Trump. After all, doing a favor for a Republican is usually not how Trump does business.

But Sheehy is Trump’s guy, and Montana is the real prize. Sheehy hopes to join a notorious  cabal of elected leaders in federal and state government, backed by out-of-state interests and cash, that intends to transform Montana into a MAGA-ruled dominion. Sheehy and his cohorts aspire to model Montana after states like Arkansas, Mississippi or Oklahoma, where MAGA rules, and healthcare, the rights of women, and fresh economic opportunity for all are in steep decline. 

“I gotta like Tim Sheehy a lot to be here,” Trump told a rally in support of Sheehy, where Trump whined and complained that he had to fly too far to get to Montana and do too much driving once he got there. It was a typical Trump endorsement. It was mostly about Trump, not the minion Sheehy, whom he was endorsing. 

Sheehy and Trump are a good fit. They both stink up a room with their toxic rhetoric, they both share a reputation for shady business practices, they both spew tales as high as the Rockies, and they both are committed to the extreme Trumpist agenda known as Project 2025.

Sheehy is running a Project 2025 campaign, and Sheehy hopes he will become the latest Republican to mold Montana into a Project 2025 state. Adhering closely to Project 2025, Sheehy’s agenda would hurt women, children, the elderly, veterans, and Montana’s ancient Native American lineage. 

Montana is becoming the front line for the war on women. Sheehy’s support for Trump’s agenda would mean eliminating provisions that protect Montana women with pre-existing conditions, forcing mothers, sisters, daughters and friends in Montana to either pay more for health insurance or go without. In addition, right wing abortion activists in support of Sheehy are on the ground promoting an agenda so extreme it calls for cracking down on local officials who don’t prosecute abortion bans. In addition, about 151,000 women in Montana lose existing guaranteed access to emergency contraception, and access to contraception through the mail is banned.

About one-third of children in Montana have pre-existing conditions. Senate Republicans intend to end protections that guarantee those children healthcare coverage, but they need Sheehy to win to do it. In addition, Sheehy’s agenda would end Head Start for 3,870 children in Montana, which is particularly crippling in rural areas where there is already a shortage of child care options needed to free up families to work. The agenda wipes out school lunch programs and additional assistance for children for countless Montana families.

Seniors and retirees in Montana get hit the hardest in the wallet under the scheme. The retirement age for Social Security would be raised for 788,825 people, about 70 percent of Montana residents. The median-wage Montana retiree would lose $46,000 to $100,000 over 10 years, according to analysis. In addition, prescription drugs for up to 54,010 people in Montana by eliminating out-of-pocket Medicare drug cost limits, and the government can no longer negotiate to lower drug prices.

Montana is already a Project 2025 laboratory for shifting the tax burden from the wealthy onto the middle class. A middle class family sees an average tax increase of $2,687 a year, while super rich get an average annual tax cut of $1.5 million. It's already created a wave of super-rich outsiders buying up land in Montana. Under Sheehy it will continue.

Sheehy isn’t alone in this devious endeavor. If elected he would join a sleeper cell of MAGA goblins holding office in Montana. Sen. Steve Daines, the Republican in charge of winning Senate campaigns across the country this year, recruited Sheehy. Daines, who like Sheehy is a transplant who moved to Montana, gained recent notoriety when he killed the strongest bipartisan bill that would have cracked down on illegal immigration. Daines carried the water in the Senate for Trump, who feared his re-election chances would be hurt by doing something real about the border, as the bill would have done. 

Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke was wrapped up in so much spending, questionable business dealings and ethics transgressions as Interior secretary that it was even too much for Trump, who forced Zinke to resign.  Another Sheehy ally, Gov. Greg Gianforte, has a history of violence and is credited with bungling the post-pandemic drawdown of healthcare coverage that threatened to close hospitals and nursing homes.  More than 134,000 Montanas have lost healthcare coverage so far, including 30,000 children, under Gianforte.

The cabal of Montana Republicans all have tried to distance themselves from Project 2025, but it can't be done when you consider Daines’ own national security advisor Chris Anderson helped write Project 2025. Project 2025 outright hails Zinke as one of its most committed lawmakers. What’s amazing is how Montana Republican leaders embrace Project 2025 even though the vast majority of Montana residents oppose Project 2025.

Montana is at a crossroads. These aren't the guys you want making sure Montanans are safe. These aren't the guys you want making sure Montana roads are clear and Montana river levels are being monitored. These aren't the guys you want protecting Montanans water rights or making sure Montana's lights stay on. These aren't the guys you want maintaining Montana public lands. These aren't the guys you can trust to lure visitor dollars to Montana. These aren't the guys you want to do business with in Montana or anywhere else.

Adding Sheehy into the Trump sandbox would only heighten the threat to democracy, open a new front on the war on individual rights and freedom, and increase the chance that innocent people are victims of the Project 2025 agenda and all the chaos it would bring. It would be a travesty for Montana voters to send a misfit transplant like Sheehy to represent their needs in Washington over a loyal, proven and respected dirt farmer from Big Sandy, Jon Tester. That's an understatement.

Written by Ken Bazinet, a former White House correspondent, has covered three presidents and five presidential elections. Still writing, he works with organizations and individuals that focus on opening and expanding ballot access to Black, Latino, Women, Native American, pro-worker and rural voters. He is third generation organized labor.

What's It Gonna Take To Win

Focus.

Zone coverage is how to describe our overall strategy for the 2024 election cycle. There’s no other way to put it: we are going into unfriendly territory to find under-represented Democratic voters who don't hear a lot from Democratic campaigns is our priority. Idle voters hear plenty from the Republicans, but not from Democrats. We've put in motion targeting strategies to find and deliver votes in underperforming congressional districts in key presidential and senate battleground states where we have on-the-ground experience, the voter contact infrastructure and local partners to develop strong connections with often neglected Democratic voters.

Check out these top targets and donate to our cause.

Georgia

In 2020 and 2021, we were able to identify and reach minority voters in the reddest of counties in Georgia that were essential in moving the state purple and delivering some very close victories. Folks were not used to meeting and hearing from Democrats in some rural red parts of Georgia, but they heard from us four years ago during a pandemic and they will again through election day in November. We're part of an innovative voter outreach partnership that will help Democrats to keep winning in Georgia.

Montana

A must-win state if Democrats are going to maintain the paper-thin margin in the Senate, no votes can be left at home in Montana. There are more than 70,000 Native American adult votes in Montana. We are part of a coalition effort reaching, registering and turning out the biggest Native American voter turnout in Montana history. It requires targeted Native American voter outreach and native-to-native contact by trained canvassers. Jon Tester is needed in the US Senate. Democrats are fighting mighty headwinds. MAGA Republicans at the state and local levels are trying to put in place 11th-hour restrictions to suppress the Native American vote. This fight will be at the ballot box and the courts before this election is decided.

North Carolina

North Carolina is again our focus this year. Although we've operated in North Carolina in the past with some success, circumstances have made the Tar Heel State a very real target of opportunity this cycle. Reaching Black voters is essential, but there is also a Native American vote that if motivated can put the Democrats over the top statewide. Robeson County, home of the Lumbee tribe, has long vexed Democrats. Republicans have ignored the tribe's plea for federal recognition, yet many Lumbee still vote for GOP candidates. Epic voter outreach and a strong campaign of persuasion is critical to finding hidden votes in areas the Republicans take for granted.

Your support is needed and appreciated to make these goals a reality. Every little bit means we reach more voters. At Left of Center we know how to make your contributions go a very long way.

Thank you and let's win this together,

Deb and Mara
 

It's GO TIME!

America's Union-Busting Oligarchs Pose a Threat to All Workers; The Supreme Court's MAGA Majority is Their Willing Accomplice

American workers who take pride in their performance and bring real skills to their jobs deserve to be happy this Labor Day. Thankfully, American workers do have a few good reasons to be upbeat on their holiday.

The U.S. economy has rebounded despite Trump's dismal and bungled response to the pandemic, and nearly 16 million jobs have been created during the Biden-Harris administration. Incomes are up as inflation has cooled and consumers are spending at a healthy rate, writes economics maven Neil Irwin at Axios. The recession that Republicans and conservative economists promised has not materialized, much to their disappointment.

Workers indeed have much to appreciate about the Biden-Harris economic rebound, but they still have to look over their shoulders and be prepared to fight to protect their rights today and everyday.

Workers are up against a powerful cabal that conspires and cooperates to smack down workers at every opportunity. The anti-worker oligarchs are a familiar bunch of scoundrels likened to modern-day robber barons, and they have spent upwards of $400 million for lobbying and propaganda to keep workers from organizing in their industries, which are ripe for collective bargaining.

●      Billionaire Charles Koch deserves top billing because he and his late brother David have been messing with workers the longest. Their right wing political arm, the group Americans for Prosperity, seeks to end collective bargaining and has a history of backing anti-union candidates and astroturfed movements, like the Tea Party, which tried and failed to topple Obamacare dozens of times.

●      Billionaire Starbucks founder Howard Schultz does not like sharing the profit from a premium priced cup of coffee with the people who brew it, pour it and serve it. When a worker tried discussing workplace issues with him, Schultz barked, "If you're not happy at Starbucks, you can go work for another company.” The guy is a greedy morale killer.

●      Richest man in the world Elon Musk longs for the day that he can build robots to replace his workers that build his self-driving electric cars and spaceships. Musk, whose companies have been plagued by layoffs, has threatened to fire workers that try to unionize.

●      The nearly richest man in the world Jeff Bezos doesn't rise to Musk's level of villainy, but he still has one of the most notorious anti-worker records in history. The man made rich by making bookstores obsolete would rather fire long-term employees than pay them what they're worth, even amid a rate of worker turnover reportedly at a whopping 150 percent at Amazon warehouses.

●      The billionaire Albrecht family is not as well known, but their Trader Joe's and Aldi brands are well known for their anti-worker agenda and they have joined Bezos and Musk in trying in the courts to overturn the National Labor Relations Act, which grants American workers most of their rights.

 And that brings us to the most corrupt and dangerous players in the oligarch's anti-worker conspiracy: the extremist MAGA majority on the Supreme Court. Many people are well aware of the MAGA majority's war on the individual rights of women, made possible by Trump and Mitch McConnell's three unqualified and embarrassing nominees to the court. Folks also know that the MAGA majority has targeted minority voters and students, and the misguided justices have made it possible for Americans to convert guns into rapid fire weapons despite the epidemic of school shootings and gun violence in America.

What most Americans don't know is the majority on the court has allowed companies starting with Starbucks to delay rehiring workers that are wrongly fired for organizing, and companies like Amazon can keep workers for 25 minutes after their shifts end without pay to rifle through their pockets to make sure they are stealing anything.

The MAGA majority of the Supreme Court has also banned workers from filing class action lawsuits against employers, however it allowed companies to sue striking workers for losses. The conservative justices also ruled union dues are a violation of government workers First Amendment rights. Really? That's an ignorant excuse to hurt unions and one of the MAGA majority's lamest constitutional arguments/

"A 2022 study found that of the 57 justices who have sat on the court over the past century, the six justices with the most pro-business voting records are the six members of today’s 6-3, rightwing supermajority, all appointed by Republican presidents: Thomas, Alito, Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett," wrote Steven Greenhouse, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and a labor and workplace journalist and writer. Greenhouse.

 "The study found that Donald Trump’s three appointees – Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett – were the three most pro-business justices of the 57 evaluated," added Greenhouse, who’s covered a lot of ground in his article titled "Most Americans have no idea how anti-worker the US Supreme Court has become" in The Guardian.

Workers are under assault from all sides, including Trump, the extremist justices on the Supreme Court, and the billionaire oligarchs and their culture of greed. But loyal and grateful Americans fight on today and everyday for workers, their families and their pursuit of happiness. It's the right fight and it's worth it. As Vice President Harris noted recently,  "When union wages go up, everybody's wages go up. When union workplaces are safer, all workplaces are safer. When unions are strong, America is strong." 

Written by Ken Bazinet, a former White House correspondent, has covered three presidents and five presidential elections. Still writing, he works with organizations and individuals that focus on opening and expanding ballot access to Black, Latino, Women, Native American, pro-worker and rural voters. He is third generation organized labor.

Democrats Adjourn Pumped Up for the Coming Fight; Harris-Walz Joyfest Put Trump in the Fetal Position

One way to tell that something is good? You want more! The viewers of the Democratic National Convention know exactly what that felt like on Friday night a day after the Democrats broke camp in Chicago and headed back to their districts and campaigns: we wanted more. That's how good it was.

Each night nearly 22 million of us on average tuned in on TV (countless more streamed it) to a Hollywood production of a contemporary real life Broadway play. Everything was perfect, the cast, the script, the off-script stuff, the delivery, the score, the cinematography, the multi-media, the set, and the crowd. It was an inspiring, entertaining and clever experience to take in. 
 
Fortunately, there was no time for a hangover after the parties ended. As inbound planes from Chicago landed around the country, energized delegates and voters learned the Democratic National Convention indeed drew more viewers each night than Trump’s dark carnival of doom a month earlier in Milwaukee. The strawberry on top was Vice President Harris attracting more eyeballs than Trump did in the keynote speaking spot.
 
As the momentum out of Chicago held through the middle of weekend, Democrats were again jolted by news the Harris-Walz campaign raised $82 million the week of the convention, bringing the total amount raised since Vice President Harris launched her campaign to a whopping $540 million in contributions. For perspective, according to Trump's last reported fundraising figures, the GOP candidate's campaign and affiliated PACs announced raised $138.7 million in July and Trump had $327 million in cash on hand at the start of August. It was a great week. It's been a great month.

An uprising of the individual mind and spirit has exploded into a movement of the many. Harris-Walz has signed up nearly 400,000 volunteers since Vice President Harris launched her campaign. Electrified Democrats are taking the initiative at every level. The Harris-Walz campaign is pushing aggressively into states like Georgia and Nebraska, keeping Trump off balance and having to play catch-up. Senate and House candidates are putting into play states and districts that at the very least had been tilting Republican. Democrats are indeed playing offense heading into Labor Day.
 
At the core of this movement is the fight to preserve democracy, protect the Constitution of the United States, ensure individual rights and choices, and enable Americans' continued pursuit of happiness.
 
It was around this time two years ago when President Biden spoke the words "semi-facism" to describe a GOP overrun by Trump, theocratic extremists, white nationalists, and billionaire oligarchs. Most anyone who has watched President Biden over a half century in government recognized the magnitude of his choice of words, but the tipping point was the Supreme Court's ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization two months earlier that ended 50 years of womens' constitutionally protected reproductive rights. A polite institutionalist like Joe Biden had to have walked some long miles in his head and heart to get to the point of calling the Republicans semi-fascists, but it was a necessary escalation that recognized the strength and capability of the enemies of democracy.
 
The following months, Democrats took their fight against fascist and anti-democratic Republicans out for a good test run in the 2022 midterm elections.  Pro-democracy Democrats followed up with a dramatic and consequential string of victories in special elections, the 2023 off-year elections and ballot initiatives. We take those lessons learned seriously as our coalition engages now in the showdown with Trump himself, and let there be no doubt that the Democrats have the high ground in this dispute. 
 
Vice President Kamala Harris is the only pure pro-democracy candidate for president on any ballot. Gov. Tim Walz is the only pure pro-democracy candidate for vice president on any ballot. Trump and Vance are obviously a clear and present danger to American democracy and the Constitution, aided and abetted knowingly or unknowingly (it does not matter which) by third party candidates.
 
There has not been a single workable new innovation, idea or proposal by any third party presidential candidate in this election. Not a single third party presidential candidate has shown even a modicum of meaningful support from voters. There is no one on the planet who can chart a roadmap to victory for any third party presidential candidate in this election. When conspiracy theorists and people who just won't take yes for an answer outnumber altruists, leftists, and libertarians among your supporters, are you really running a legitimate insurgent campaign? Well, ask the guy who's ballot access depends on GOP lawyers, the lady who is mobbed up with Putin, or the lost soul who might not have a seat at his family's Thanksgiving Dinner table this year.
 
The Democrats’ big tent has done the most to try to make third party candidates irrelevant. Think about it. If you're a progressive, who is more likely to get results on climate change and wage fairness, a third party Trump asset, or the Justice Democrats? Looking for rugged individualism with a conscience? The Democrats have a cowboy rancher who hangs with Pearl Jam. If your values are ‘roll up your sleeves and get it done’ American pragmatism, who do you trust, Vance or prairie populist (and neighbor you wish you had), Gov. Tim Walz?
 
It's a big tent. It was evident at the convention. Nine weeks out from election day is a good time to get involved. If you sign up with a local candidate, the hands-on work you do will flow upward. Joining a strong regional or statewide campaign will generate positive results up and down the ballot. If you get on board with the top of the ticket you will be part of the umbrella that most of the party infrastructure is relying on. It’s all right there. Nobody is going to say no to honest, committed campaign volunteers.
 
And make no mistake, just because it will take a lot of work and some sacrifice doesn't mean it won't be fun too. As we just saw, the Democrats’ joy offensive at their convention freaked out Trump, Fox News and The New York Times all at once. If smiles and joy are a burr under Trump’s saddle, let's help him ride that horse until he gets thrown off. It will be fun.
 
Written by Ken Bazinet, a former White House correspondent, has covered three presidents and five presidential elections. Still writing, he works with organizations and individuals that focus on opening and expanding ballot access to Black, Latino, Women, Native American, pro-worker and rural voters. He is third generation organized labor.

Trump Disrespects Workers in Talk with Musk; Begs Asking, How Quickly would Trump Replace Truckers with Musk’s Autonomous Semi-Trucks?

Most Americans have a lot of respect and admiration for truckers. For some it's recognitionof truckers' role in keeping the U.S. supply chain rolling. Others appreciate truckers for their skill and entrepreneurial spirit. Some of us as kids passed the time on a long road trip by getting truckers to pull the air horn and we decided then that truckers were forever cool.

American truckers work hard, they take seriously the economic and safety implications of their job, and they spend a lot of time away from their families and friends. Most Americans will agree truckers deserve prosperity, happiness and job security.

So people take notice when truckers are getting scammed. Unionized and independent truckers are increasingly seeing they are getting scammed by Trump and his tight relationship with the trucking conglomerates, their owners and the union-busting billionaire boys club led by glitch-prone tech bro Elon Musk.

Like most workers, for truckers the Musk-Trump streaming Twitter flop this week was a wake-up call and confirmation of their worst fears. Trump is a union-buster and he delights in broadcasting it to the anti-worker oligarchy that backs him. In his fealty to Musk, Trump demonstrated deep rooted disrespect and contempt for American workers.

“You're the greatest cutter," Trump groveled to a smiling and laughing Musk. "I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in, you say, You want to quit? They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone. And you are the greatest."

Vice President Harris' running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, called Trump a "scab" and declared that the only thing Trump and his running mate Vance "know about working people is how to work to take advantage of them."

“When unions are strong, America’s strong,” Gov. Walz, a union member during his years as a social studies teacher in Minnesota, told the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees convention this week. “I happen to be the first union member on a presidential ticket since Ronald Reagan,” he added proudly.

Imagine the embarrassment for Teamsters President Sean O'Brien, who bent the kneebefore the Trump GOP convention, despite warnings that he was being played and would end up looking foolish before the election is decided. That's just what happened with the Musk-Trump talk, but O'Brien to his credit quickly recognized the line had been crossed and he shot back at Trump. “Firing workers for organizing, striking, and exercising their rights as Americans is economic terrorism,” O’Brien said in a statement to Politico’s Playbook.

What Trump said out loud about firing strikers was long suspected to be the low opinion of workers he keeps, but it's what Trump and Musk didn't talk about publicly that should be of immediate concern for truckers. Musk hopes to get richer by putting self-driving vehicles on America's roads, and that includes semi-trucks, which he's already producing at Tesla.

“If you're a truck driver and you want the most badass rig on the road, this is it,” Musk boasted when he unveiled his driverless semis.

Trump has been critical of autonomous 18-wheelers, and truckers fearing for their jobshave too, but things change when the CEO of Tesla is bankrolling a big part of your campaign and the candidate is openly trading favors for campaign cash with billionaires. If Trump is elected he easily can change lanes and clear the road for self-driving semi-trucks according to Musk's wishes and timetable, especially if Trump can figure a way to skim something off the top for himself.

Autonomous semis would be economically devastating for the Teamsters and independent truckers alike, but the thought of 18-wheelers and the tonnage they haul getting rushed onto America's roads without a driver behind the wheel is also scary to a lot of folks.

“It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen,” Kent Franz, a high school basketball coach in Chandler, Oklahoma, explained to the Associated Press. “I’ve heard of the driverless cars — Tesla, what have you — and the accidents they’ve been having. Eighteen-wheelers? Something that heavy, relying on technology that has proven it can be faulty? Doesn’t sound very comfortable to me.”

Some truckers obviously are pretty fond of Trump, and maybe a few even like Musk. They like Trump's style, or perhaps the character he first began playing on The Apprentice, and it all gets reinforced by the endless pro-Trump talk on right wing radio while they are on the road. Whatever, that's fine, but let's be honest, none of Trump's showboating is giving truckers or forklift operators any of the answers they deserve about their current jobs or a clear vision for their economic future.

The Democrats have earned a look. There is no question the Biden-Harris administrationhas made great strides in trying to cut regulatory red tape for Teamsters and independent truckers. Biden-Harris passed the biggest highway and bridge maintenance bill in history, they have been strong on job-protection, good benefits, and they actively support union organizing and actions.

 “When people show you who they are, believe them and Trump showed us for over 40 years who he really is: someone who is not for us. Endorsing a candidate with his history would be a betrayal of the values that we have fought to uphold,” James Curbeam, chairman of the Teamsters National Black Caucus, said in a statement. "Labor should focus on supporting candidates who are committed to protecting workers’ rights, promoting equality and building a fairer and more inclusive society. For the Teamsters National Black Caucus, those candidates are Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”

Written by Ken Bazinet, a former White House correspondent, has covered three presidents and five presidential elections. Still writing, he works with organizations and individuals that focus on opening and expanding ballot access to Black, Latino, Women, Native American, pro-worker and rural voters. He is third generation organized labor (his step-father was a Teamster lift operator).

Let Us Now Praise All Great Working Women

Let Us Now Praise All Great Working Women

Say the phrase “war on women” to anyone not in the MAGA coterie and most people will tell you it refers to the Supreme Court ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which opened the door to states removing the reproductive rights of women and allowing state governments to launch an inquisition against anyone that would not abide by the law. Without question, the ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade was the breaking point. Women and personal privacy were the victims. The extremist majority on the Supreme Court was the villain.

Clearly not all infringements against women are as easily documented as the Supreme Court blunder on Dobbs, and infringements happen too frequently and mostly out of sight, especially when it comes to working women. Greedy right wing bosses, many of them in the Trump camp, deploy an arsenal in the economic War on Womenthat includes wage inequality, insufficient  healthcare coverage, dismal allowance for family and medical emergencies, pregnancy discrimination, random overtime policies, workplace neglect, and inadequate safety provisions.

“The true working class — the surviving not thriving low-paid women in jobs without fringe, without leave, without care — deserve a champion, or at least a politician to recognize them for what they are,” labor economist Kathryn Anne Edwards wrote recently in a column for Bloomberg.

As we all know, employers cheating women out of fair worker compensation packages unfortunately is not new, however putting an anti-worker agenda in writing and boasting that you’re selling out your presidency to some of thebiggest worker-bashing billionaires on the planet is pretty novel. The imprudent Project 2025 report and the arrogant bloviator Trump are advertising their bad faith agenda for the working class, and women would feel the brunt of it.

“For 900 pages, Trump’s Project 2025 playbook dives into excruciating detail on how a Trump-Vance administration will roll back workers’ rights, curbing the right to organize, eliminating overtime pay laws, gutting health and safety protections and protections against child labor,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

Vice President Harris gave a more colorful review of Project 2025 in her recent address to the American Federation of Teachers convention. “Can you believe they put that thing in writing? Nine hundred pages in writing,” Vice President Harris chortled. “Project 2025 is a plan to return America to a dark past.  Donald Trump and his extreme allies want to take our nation back to failed trickle-down economic policies—back to union busting—back to tax breaks for billionaires.”

Women make up about 47 percent of the U.S. workforce, but women earn just 84 cents for every dollar a man makes, and Black, Latina and Native American women make even less. About 42 percent of management positions are held by women, but women hold only 28 percent of executive C-suite level positions – and in both categories women had lower salaries on average than their male counterparts.

So whether blue collar or white collar, women continue to get ripped off in the workplace.

Fortunately a diverse bunch of labor leaders, many of them women, are stepping up to try to improve the quality of life for their members in what they are hoping will turn into a “year of the women” election in November. The enthusiasm was seen and heard during a “Labor for Harris” video call, one of a series of organizing and fundraising group-think online meet-ups with supporters on behalf of the campaign.

“At every step in her distinguished career in public office, she’s proven herself a principled and tenacious fighter for working people and a visionary leader we can count on. From taking on Wall Street and corporate greed to leading efforts to expand affordable child care and support vulnerable workers, she’s shown time and again that she’s on our side,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said.

The labor boost for Vice President Harris is a big deal, and not only in terms of fundraising and volunteers, but for what it says coming after President Biden, arguably the greatest pro-labor president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Labor is counting on the Harris administration to continue to help create more good-paying union jobs and open pathways that make it easier for workers to organize.

Women make up almost half the total union membership in the U.S., working mostly in services industries. Women in unions are paid on average 23 percent more than women in the same jobs without a collective bargaining agreement, and are likely to have better health care coverage, paid leave and other benefits that outway packages for non-unionized workers. Union women who are mothers are more apt to get hard-fought flex hours than women not under a collective bargaining agreement. The gender wage gap is also narrower for women in unions.

“In our vision of the future, we see a place where every person has the opportunity not just to get by but to get ahead, a future where no child has to grow up in poverty, where every senior can retire with dignity and where every worker has the freedom to join a union,” Vice President Harris said. “We see a future with affordable healthcare, affordable childcare and paid leave, not for some, but for all.”

The core of the Trump agenda for the working class is deflect and disguise with chaos, hate and lies. No plans to invest in workers, families or communities; no plan for protecting the supply chain; and no incentives for returning manufacturers back to the U.S. Like Trump’s first term, his campaign has nothing real to offer workers, just selfies with Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock, and that's not a plan, it's a sham.

“We are not going back,” Vice President Harris said. “And one of the best ways to keep our nation moving forward is to give workers a voice, to protect the freedom to organize, to defend the freedom to collectively bargain, to end union-busting.”

Written by Ken Bazinet, a former White House correspondent, has covered three presidents and five presidential elections. Still writing, he works with organizations and individuals that focus on opening and expanding ballot access to Black, Latino, Women, Native American, pro-worker and rural voters. He is third generation organized labor.

Working Class Zero

Trump is on Course to Decimate the American Middle Class. There has been a lot to process the past few weeks, and there has been so much to take in that it’s been easy to miss or forget a few things that caught our attention at a particular moment. The rapid fire series of events that ended with Democrats quickly coalescing around Vice President Harris simply blew everything else out of the water. 

Now that the course forward is set, we should address how we clean up some of the toxic waste left by Trump, Vance and the rest of the unremarkable cast of the Republican National Convention. There is plenty to choose from, but a priority has to be rejecting and disputing the absurd claims that Trump, Vance and the Republicans are in it for working people.

Trump is a working class zero. It’s a joke to pretend he’s a working class hero. Trump is selling a dangerous lie that Democrats are going to have shut down firmly, factually and repeatedly from now until the election. It shouldn’t be that hard to expose the BS blue collar lip service as just another way to scam workers and hypnotize the MAGA cult. Trump and Vance’s insincere and absurd posture is an affront to the accomplishments of every Democratic White House on behalf of workers since the Clinton administration. The only thing Trump will deliver to working families is bluster and chaos, and Vance is his dark force multiplier.

Hat tip to Left of Center contributor Isaac Kaufer, a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, and a research specialist in analytics and communication integration, who came across an easy to read summary of Vance’s policy positions and greatest hits by topic. This is a great tool for quickly getting up to speed on Vance as we engage in discussions and outreach efforts aimed at electing Democrats. Now, if you want to discuss actual working class heroics, start with the Democrats’ three cornerstone pieces of middle class legislation signed into law by President Biden: the inflation Reduction Act, the Chips and Science Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

As we’ve said before, the Biden-Harris approach to strengthening the middle class is built on investment in people, their businesses, their roads and buildings, and their access to prescient and valuable information, and the best training and education. Trump accomplished nothing like it for working people when he was president, and he has no ideas to match it going forward, because he is way outside his lane when it comes to understanding wage earners and middle class economics.

While we see right through the cow pucky populism that Trump and Vance spew, their lies and false promises unchecked can reach a lot of uninformed or misinformed voters. Consider the massive applause Vance received for this whopper (but nonetheless powerful line) in Milwaukee: “We need a leader who’s not in the pocket of big business, but answers to the working man, union and nonunion alike.” 

And who is that leader not in the pocket of big business? Trump, who has all but admitted he’s handing out markers to about 60 billionaires who are funding his campaign and legal expenses, and was caught outright offering to pimp his presidency for Big Oil in exchange for $1 billion? 

Or is it Vance, the one-time apple of Appalachia turned Silicon Valley tech bro and protege of uber-rich darkside capitalist Peter Thiel and his sidekick Elon Musk? Once those two mad broligarchs (tip of cap to The Guardian for that one) got hold of the bright author, they sucked the bluegrass right out of that boy and wired him up for some serious Silicon Valley money-grubbing venture capitalism. Hillbilly Elegy suddenly became hillbilly ugly.

As was the case with the Trump tax cuts, when it's time to hand out the gold bars, the billionaires boys club will get the payday, while a working class flock that follows Trump will maybe get some scraps while they wait outside the door, but more likely will get nothing at all.

Trump’s favorite right wing think tank even put it in writing in a MAGA master plan called, Project 2025. The plan has been revealed to be so diabolical that a panicked Trump suddenly started to not know anything about it. The problem for Trump is that his running mate Vance, the bard of the broligarchs, wrote the foreword for a coming book by Kevin Roberts, who headed Project 2025.

Quoting Vance’s forward in Roberts’s book,  Vox reports: “Never before has a figure with Roberts’s depth and stature within the American Right tried to articulate a genuinely new future for conservatism,” Vance writes, according to the book’s Amazon page. “We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.” 

A lot has been written and said about Project 2025, and expect to hear more before the election. Trump has promised a lot of class warfare and bad times ahead on his own, but what makes Project 2025 unique is it puts in writing the plan for the richest Americans to force the middle class to pay the way and pretty much pick up the entire tab.

The Republicans have long proudly engaged in class warfare against the poorest and most economically vulnerable Americans, but Project 2025 breaks dangerous new ground by contending that class warfare aimed at the middle class is a necessary requisite to maintain and protect the ruling class. “Even if you agree with the far-right ideology this report espouses, the policies it advocates will very likely plunge the American economy into a death spiral,” writes accomplished business executive, philanthropist and wiseman Jeff Raikes in Fortune. 

There is even more trouble brewing in Trump's billionaire boys boardroom. Trump has discovered that when you promise Big Oil you will help it by cutting electric vehicles and renewable energy, you tend to anger Musk, who’s Tesla’s are not rolling out the dealership showrooms at the moment (which is what happens when Musk continues to anger the consumer groups he needs to buy Teslas).

“I will end the electric vehicle mandate on day one,” Trump said at the Republican National Convention. “Thereby saving the U.S. auto industry from complete obliteration, which is happening right now and saving U.S. customers thousands and thousands of dollars per car.” 

That doesn't sound very promising for Tesla at all, which has benefitted from EV tax credits among slumping Tesla sales. Trump claims Musk didn’t pressure him to tone down the anti-EV rhetoric, yet out of the blue he did just that only days later. “I’ll tell you, he’s never called me and said, could you lay off the electric car?” Trump told Fox News. “I love Elon. And I have to tell you this about this, he endorsed me. He announced he’s giving me $45 million a month. And yet, I’m against certain electrics.”

Musk gave Trump a pass, sort of, on the Big Oil quid pro quo to eliminate EV tax incentives, but the episode illuminates the volatility and thin layer of unity that exist in Trump’s billionaire boys club. "It would be devastating for our competitors, and it would hurt Tesla slightly but long term probably actually helps Tesla would be my guess," Musk said, at least admitting he’s just guessing.

Trump is not hiding that he is mobbed up with a bunch of rich scoundrels. They might pass as Bond film B-level villains that never made it past the screen test, but they should never be allowed to pass themselves off as fighters for American workers. That is a mask that needs to be ripped off Trump and Vance before more people start believing it.

Written by Ken Bazinet, a former White House correspondent, has covered three presidents and five presidential elections. Still writing, he works with organizations and individuals that focus on opening and expanding ballot access to Black, Latino, Native American, pro-worker and rural voters. He is third generation organized labor.

 

Chances Are You Might Not Know Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress Are Enacting Core Parts of the Green New Deal

Innovation, economic incentives, and improving the quality of life has a hard time competing these days with the juicy stuff that dominates the waves of clickbait we are destined to surf through, but when these ingredients for good government policy come together it’s important to share that knowledge to ensure no opportunity to do the right thing is missed.

The Green New Deal for Public Housing that would rehabilitate and restore housing needed to counter the shortage of apartments and homes, greatly improve livability and wellness for communities and reduce the carbon emitted from environmentally unsound dwellings. It’s also a substantial jobs bill since contractors, building architects and the rest of the building trades food chain is required to make it happen. But, chances are you didn’t hear much, if anything, about it.

The serial polluters and chronic naysayers insisted the Green New Deal was dead on arrival. The critics promisedthe sky would fall, the U.S. economy would crumble, and Americans' jobs would melt away like another glacier succumbing to the earth’s rising temperature.

The climate change deniers were entrenched, organized, and well financed with billions of industry dollars. Most in the environmental movement believed there was no chance of passing breakthrough legislation that could contain carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.

And then President Biden and the Democrats in Congress proved the toxic fossil fuels cabal wrong, investing at least $369 billion in America’s clean and renewable energy sources over the next 10 years, and finally setting the U.S. on a course that protects the earth for generations to come.

“I will tell you there was a two-week period before it came out of nowhere being branded the Inflation Reduction Act where we all thought the bill was dead for real this time,” Leah Stokes, a political scientist at UC-Santa Barbara who studies and advocates for clean energy, recalled on PBS NewsHour. “And there was real sadness across the climate community, because folks knew this was really the last, best chance that we had to pass a climate law. So, seeing President Biden sign it (in 2022), I mean, it was just monumental.”

The pioneering Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) arms the Environmental Protection Agency with stiff penalties to use to finally go after industry villains that take a careless and cavalier poison for profit approach to the air we breathe. We are already seeing positive results.

As for the economy, job creation is through the roof, inflation is finally coming down and the recession that Fox News and right wing economists promised and prayed for never happened.

With more environmental initiatives to come, the IRA is the foundation for reaching the same goals the Green New Deal set out to achieve, but don’t just take our word for it. Take the words of Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), the authors of the Green New Deal.

“When we first introduced the Green New Deal, we were told that our vision for the future was too aspirational. Four years later, we see core tenets of the Green New Deal reflected in the Inflation Reduction Act — the largest ever federal investment in fighting climate change, with a focus on creating good, green jobs,” AOC said, vowing to build off the IRA to expand environmental policy.

It was young people and workers that drove the passage of the IRA, Markey declared.

“Thanks to the persistence of the Green New Deal movement, we succeeded in securing historic progress through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” Markey said. “Now we have an obligation to honor the origins of that success – which sprung from the young people and workers who never once stopped organizing for their future – by putting those dollars to work to create dignified jobs, rectify generations of systemic injustice, and reverse climate damage.”

The comprehensive package of environmental measures in the IRA includes:

●      Reducing carbon emissions by about 40 percent by 2030 by bringing online a combination of expanded renewable energy sources, including wind and solar; and replacing gas guzzlers with affordable electric vehicles incentivized through a series of lower- and middle-income tax breaks up to $7,500 for new clean vehicles and up to $4,000 for used clean vehicles.

●      Increasing cleaner production by cracking down on polluters that shirk the law and allow excessive amounts of greenhouse gasses to escape into the atmosphere. The penalties, formally called a waste emissions charge, are hefty: $900 per metric ton of methane in 2024, $1,200 in 2025, and $1,500 in 2026 and thereafter. Violators get a more than fair chance to avoid the if they adhere to a schedule for fixing methane leaks, replacing faulty or outdated parts, and build in new testing for leakage.

●      A whopping $60 billion for Environmental Justice programs and grants for communities and hard hit by emissions and pollution, especially where people live, work, play, and go to school, including low-income neighborhoods where people have been passed by and ignored for too long.

●      Lowering energy costs for individuals up to 30 percent, or about  $1,200 per year, in tax credits and rebatesfor energy-efficient home improvements, including heat pumps, cooktops, and other appliances and related electrical upgrades. Up to 30 percent in tax credits for rooftop solar, batteries, geothermal heat pumps, and related technology and equipment.

It’s obviously the biggest environmental agenda ever signed into law. Any president or Congress could stop there, but there are clear signs President Biden isn’t done yet. Late last month President Biden paused applications for new liquified natural gas export depots so the Energy Department can study the economic and environmental impact of the new facilities.
The pause "sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time," President Biden said.

Late last year President Biden also took executive action to create the long sought after American Climate Corps, which will place and train more than 20,000 young people for jobs in energy, conservation and the restoration of the earth.

“When we first introduced the Green New Deal there were so many cynics in our politics in Washington and beyond, saying, ‘This isn’t possible, this is too big, this is too ambitious,'” Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said of the American Climate Corps, according to E&E News. “Well, today we can say that we are starting to turn the green dream into a green reality.”

There is no question Washington is finally going green, with one catch. It all comes to an end if Trump is elected in November.

Written by Ken Bazinet, a former White House correspondent, who covered three presidents and five presidential elections. Still writing, he works with organizations and individuals that focus on opening and expanding ballot access to Black, Latino, Native American, pro-worker and rural voters.

Happy 2024. The Fight of Our Lifetime is On (Again) and Democracy Must Prevail

We wish you and your loved ones a Happy New Year and hope your holidays were joyful and memorable ... that much needed something to restore our faith in family, friends and goodness. 

2024 is finally here. It’s no longer just an election cycle, it’s the actual year. We all know what is at stake this year. We are blessed to you all, a thoughtful and intelligent following that doesn’t need to be bombarded with fresh facts and anecdotes to be convinced the future of the greatest democracy the world has ever known is in the crosshairs of a violent and deceitful authoritarian movement backed by immense wealth and power.

What we will appeal for is an understanding that we are going to have to work harder and longer than ever before to ensure every available vote for American Democracy is identified, courted and moved to cast a ballot for freedom and individual rights for ALL Americans. We can do this with positive persuasive voter engagement and relentless repetition, avoiding the barbs and bomb-lobbing that regale audiences on social media.

President Biden has successfully guided us out of a pandemic exacerbated by MAGA malfeasance and through a painful aftermath of greedy profit-taking by unscrupulous players that contributed to inflation and further belt tightening for American consumers. Think about that for a moment. Many American families blew through their savings during the pandemic and then were hit with a debilitating rise in prices at gas pumps, grocery stores and clothing outlets, and unprecedented jumps in rent and mortgages.

We empathize with the anger and disgust, but we most assuredly know that America is on the path to overcoming the natural and man-made calamities that have imperiled The American Family. The biggest threat now to those ravaged is a repeat performance. If Trump and his allies are to be believed (and we do), the chaos and upheaval that ensued throughout his administration, including the attempted overthrow of the election on Jan 6, 2021, will be dwarfed by the fascist MAGA agenda he will impose in a second term.

With an ambitious pro-democracy agenda for the year, we will do everything we can to ensure a second MAGA White House never comes to be. We’ll update throughout the year, but here are a few highlights:

  • Fortunately, there are no serious primary challengers and the Democratic presidential nominating process is a formality, but that won’t keep us from supporting the grassroots write-in campaign for President Biden in the great state of New Hampshire. Primary Day is Jan.23 in New Hampshire.

  • Democratic candidates and core issues including reproductive freedom have been on an incredible winning streakin special and scheduled elections, as we have proudly boasted here in recent months. Lets keep it going by helping our sisters and brothers in the great state of New York, where Tom Suozzi is seeking to return to Congress in the seat vacated by indicted MAGA troll George Santos. The special election in NYCD-03 will be held Feb. 13

  • We will be announcing our House and Senate endorsements in the intermediate future, which is the first step in setting our targeted states and congressional districts in the November elections. 

  • Discussions with key partners on the ground in targeted states and districts are moving forward. We are planning for another diverse menu of voter outreach and engagement along the lines of our past activities, including our rural Black voter program in Georgia, our contribution to putting ballot drop boxes on isolated reservations in Montana, women voters outreach in Michigan and our bilingual direct mail effort in Western States.

  • Last but definitely not least, we are so excited about our co-founder Mara Dolan’s run for Massachusetts Governor’s Council, the body that confirms judicial nominees and has oversight of the state parole board. A public defender with an A-list government and professional resume, she will bring unique and unquestionable experience to the Governor’s Council at a time of unprecedented court reform.  It’s a significant workload, but Mara is the definition of a multi-tasker, having been trained for it in the most proven hands-on job in our society: motherhood and now grandmotherhood.

We’re excited about 2024 and we are confident that we will play a significant role in energizing and moving voters in the races we enter. We thank you for all your support and all you do to protect American democracy and to promote the best qualified and deserving candidates for elected office. It’s going to feel like a haul up a mountain at times, but we can do this. We must do this.


Nikki Haley: Rob From the Poor to Give to the Rich

The 2024 Republican presidential sweepstakes is a peculiar competition in which the contestants battle among themselves to see who ultimately can finish second in at least the early primaries without taking themselves out the running to be picked as Trump’s running mate. It’s difficult to differentiate oneself when having to act like an independent-minded and unique candidate and be a boot-licker to the frontrunner at the same time.

The GOP nominating contest is a circus that requires a lot of double talk, outright lying, and despicable policies that aim to hurt some people rather than trying to help all people. With one or two exceptions, the GOP nomination charade requires trying to out-Trump Trump with outlandish statements and embarrassing episodes of candidates having to show fealty to a criminally indicted ex-president.

Not a single challenger or would-be challenger to Trump has caught fire enough to pose a real threat to Trump. The stunts by DeSantis, like flying immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, crashed on landing. Ramaswamy’s bid to portray himself as ‘fresh face Trump’ didn’t bring smiles to the MAGA base. And Chris Christie's message of 'I’m normal and that’s okay’ has turned out to be a sentimental journey back to when Republicans elected the Bush family to high office – and that shrinking wing of the GOP is just too far in the rearview mirror to try to appeal to.

So the Republicans are left with Haley as the new flavor of the month hoping to topple Trump with an agenda of delaying Social Security and Medicare for Americans approaching retirement age and eliminating it for millions of others who are already paying into the system. Specifically, Haley is pushing a work until you die scheme that raises the age eligibility for Social Security and eliminates it for future generations.

Like everyone in the GOP leadership, Haley wants to give billionaires and corporations a second Trump tax cut that would be paid for by gutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

None of this should be a surprise. Gutting the American Safety Net has long been a cause for Haley, like most Republican leaders currently holding or seeking office. Haley was able to go after parts of  the Affordable Care Act as a governor, but she couldn’t get her dirty hands on Social Security or Medicare unless she held high federal office.

Haley also has a costly scheme she tries to sell as a middle class tax cut in which she claims she would eliminate gas taxes. The obvious problem is that revenue from gas taxes go to building and maintaining highways and public transportation, so Haley’s bad idea would leave truckers, commuters and travelers in a giant pothole of a mess that would require a tax hike to fix in the long run. Haley, a beneficiary of Big Oil money and largesse, won’t address the real problem for Americans, which is the industry profiteering and market manipulation that triggers the fluctuating and inflation-causing cost of oil and gas that always seems to hit Americans when we need to travel most.

Haley’s ascent to No. 2 is, at least in part, thanks to the endorsement in November by Americans for Prosperity, the political arm of billionaire Charles Koch (pronounced coke), an anti-government Big Oil oligarch with holdings in paper, mining and chemical industries, among others. The coveted but controversial Koch endorsement was joined days later by billionaire Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase. In both cases the endorsements were more against Trump than for Haley, but down 40 points behind Trump in the polls, Haley will take what she can get.

In Trump, the Koch heads now seek to destroy a monster they helped create. Americans for Prosperity was the biggest astroturfer of the Tea Party midterm elections of 2010, pumping $30 million into GOP campaigns, according to  The Washington Post. The big money backers gave the Tea Party slate it funded well known marching orders to vote to overturn Obamacare immediately, before the American public discovered the massive advantages it provides in health care insurance and protections.

At the behest of the Koch cabal, the Tea Partiers quickly after taking office, began to force scores of failed votes to overturn ACA in Congress, and even shut down the government in 2013 for a couple of weeks in an extreme attempt to gut the ACA, costing the government $24 billion, according to Wall Street ratings referee, Standard & Poors. All told, there were more than 70 failed attempts in Congress to vote to overturn the ACA, none more dramatic or consequential than the Senate vote on  July  27, 2013. By then, Trump had grabbed the lead role in the Koch’s cause to repeal Obamacare, which would have ended health care coverage for millions of Americans. If not for the one Republican iconoclast with the guts, integrity and clout to take on Trump, the powerful Koch-Trump alliance would have succeeded in voting to repeal ACA.

Long before the late great Sen. John McCain smoked Trump and the Tea Party supplicants on ACA, Haley was doing her part to serve the Koch heads. As governor of South Carolina, she denied millions of residents in the state health care coverage available under Obamacare. Although she didn’t have a vote in Congress, she was a loud anti-ACA cheerleader during the repeal effort.

“We have fought Obamacare in South Carolina as much as we possibly could. We said no to the state exchanges. We said no to the Medicaid expansion,” Haley boasted to right wing news outlets in 2013 while governor of South Carolina.

The billionaire boys club apparently waited to endorse Haley until one of their own members of the corporate cabal, Virginia Glenn Youngkin, flamed out. Youngkin banked on a total Republican takeover of the Virginia legislature in last month’s state legislative elections. Had Youngkin succeeded it would have meant for Virginia an extremist bait and switch abortion ban, new anti-worker policies, an end to early voting, and a new era of Jim Crow voter suppression laws.

Youngkin was expected to announce his challenge to Trump within days if Virginia Republicans took complete control of the state House and Senate, a top Youngkin donor told reporters.

Haley and Youngkin share at least two significant traits: they are slick operators, and there is plenty of evidence they will say anything if it helps them reach their goal of replacing Trump as the GOP presidential nominee.

Youngkin demonstrated his double-talk with a dubious watered-down bill taking reproductive rights away from women. Youngkin knew Virginia GOP lawmakers would put forward a vindictive abortion ban that resembles that of Idaho, which is facing a healthcare crisis beyond women’s reproductive rights because of its own extreme abortion ban. “‘It depends on what makes it to the floor of the Senate and the House — if it will pass. That is why we are fighting to get as much as we can,’ said state Del. Tara Durant, a rabid anti-abortion Republican from Virginia, according to the Richmond Times-Democrat.

Haley is running on a ‘wants it both ways’ agenda aimed at wiping out reproductive rights. She had tried to soften her extreme anti-choice agenda by letting it be known that she urged Republicans in Congress not to seek a national ban on abortion while babbling about finding a “consensus” on abortion, but it turned out to be a ‘she will say-anything’ stunt. With anti-abortion religious zealots co-mingling with the MAGA base recently had to clarify ahead of the primaries that she intended to sign a six-week abortion ban as governor.

Some Republicans question her authenticity and her word. GOP lawmakers in her own state accused Haley of chameleon-like shape-shifting with her overnight conversion from Sikh to Christian. Many South Carolina Republican lawmakers didn’t believe the conversion and let Haley know it by teasing her to try to get her to react.

“Everybody knew she wasn’t a real Christian.  Everyone knew she converted for political purposes,” Jake Knotts, a veteran GOP lawmaker now retired, said in a 2021 Politico Magazine piece. “Her whole career has been stair-climbing, and becoming a Methodist was just one of those stairs.”

In fairness, the religion question says more about her GOP colleagues’ intolerance, but that won’t keep MAGA operatives from chomping at the bit to make it an issue if Haley moves from longshot to legitimate contender. For Democrats, conscientious Independents and old school traditional Republicans, Haley’s faith won’t be, or at least shouldn’t be, an issue.

The real problem is trusting the word of candidates like Haley. MAGA doesn’t trust Haley to carry the Trump legacy and centrist voters don’t trust her to keep House Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson and rightwing Supreme Court stacker Mitch McConnell from finishing their sinister scheme for taking rights away from women, minorities, young people, and the most vulnerable Americans.

Written by Ken Bazinet, former White House correspondent, covered three presidents and five presidential elections. Still writing, he works with organizations and individuals that focus on opening and expanding ballot access to Black, Latino, Native American, pro-worker and rural voters.

Elections tell who won, but not why

In May, Left of Center conducted a survey of likely Democratic voters in Philadelphia ahead of the 2023 mayoral primary election. The opportunity to gauge voter sentiment and candidate preference in a race that featured multiple credible candidates was too interesting to ignore. With the 2023 election a receding memory, we thought it was time for a rear view mirror look at our survey and evaluate what went right and what went wrong.

Identifying Gym's Decline: One aspect we got right in our survey was the assessment of Helen Gym's performance. We observed that Gym was falling in the ranks late in the cycle, and this was validated by the final results, where she secured 22% of the vote, finishing third. The then most recent public poll from the race had been conducted by Emerson College, rated A- pollster by 538 showed Gym leading the field. 

Margin of Error Analysis: In our survey, Cherelle Parker came within the margin of error of winning. This proved to be an accurate assessment, as Rebecca Rhynhart’s lead in our survey (9%) was not outside the margin of error of +/- 6%. 

Recognizing the Top-3 Race: Left of Center’s survey identified that the mayoral race was a top-3 contest with Rhynhart, Parker, and Gym atop the field, followed by a sizable gap, then Alan Domb, then Amen Brown. The actual results showed precisely that with Parker, Rhynhart, and Gym as the top three candidates, then an 11-point gap between the top three contenders and Domb, followed by Brown. Every one of these candidates had creditable experience in government service, no other candidate received a significant percentage of the vote. 

Highlighting the Possibility of a Parker Win: We indicated in our survey report that Cherelle Parker had the potential to win the race, and if she pulled it off, it would be due to her strong support among Black voters. Parker did end up winning, and according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the majority-Black precincts gave her 56% of the vote, while she got just 12% of the majority-white precincts. Furthermore, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Parker won areas with more gun violence by larger margins. This is notable as our survey indicated people’s top concern by a wide margin was crime and gun control, with 54% listing one of those options as the top issue mattering most when choosing who to vote for. Parker was able to secure the advantage of those shared concerns and had geared her campaign towards it. She was seen as the most tough on crime, even saying that the controversial “stop and frisk policy” was something that needed to be revisited, despite having been a vocal opponent to the policy as recently as 2020.

Sample Size and Weighting: Also important to note is that our survey was conducted with a relatively small sample of likely Democratic primary voters. Despite this, the information gathered provided valuable insights into the race. We weighted the poll on factors such as race, gender and age. Turns out we would have been wise to include income. In that demographic breakdown The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Parker winning nearly 50% of voters making $75k or less, 25% of voter making between $75k-$100k, and just 12% of voters making $100k or more. Had we weighted the by economic status, it's likely the result would have been more aligned with Cherelle Parker's support base, which could have further informed our predictions. 

Low Social Trust Voters: While fielding the survey, we observed that low social trust voters were more likely to respond via text, indicating their intention to vote for Parker but not completing the survey. This phenomenon suggests that some Parker voters may have been hesitant to engage fully in the polling process. This highlights the importance of considering non-response bias in future surveys as well as alternate ways of recording responses beyond text-to-web methods.

If there’s a perfect polling method, we have yet to see it. Our pre-election survey provided valuable insights into the 2023 Philadelphia mayoral primary race. We correctly identified key trends, such as Gym's declining support and the potential for a Parker victory. The small sample size and potential non-response bias are areas for improvement in future efforts. Overall, our survey contributed to a better understanding of voter attitudes in an important local election and suggests opportunity for future use as we navigate the polls and the path to winning more elections. 

Written by Isaac Kaufer, a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, and a popular contributer to Left of Center’s blog page. There is nothing more important than electing Democrats. Your investment will help Left of Center PAC to do exactly that.

Virginia Would Take Biggest Economic Hit in U.S. Under MAGA Republican Shutdown

It’s unconscionable that any party in charge of the House of Representatives would even consider a politically motivated government shutdown as the United States works to pull itself out of the grip of the COVID-19 economic calamity and its lingering inflation.

Instead of seeking ways to run on a positive and fulfilling legislative agenda of “we fixed the COVID economy and tackled inflation,” MAGA Republicans are instead pushing for a government shutdown that would disrupt American workers, military, families, supply chains, travel, and volatile financial markets, among causing other unnecessary problems.

Ultimately, like the Jan. 6 insurrection succeeded in doing, the MAGA Republicans shutdown will also threaten the nation's credit rating, causing more economic pain as the country tries to escape the grip of inflation that unmercifully followed the pandemic.

And it’s all because MAGA Republicans are willing to shut down the government unless Congress passes a dangerous series of cuts guaranteed to slow the U.S. economy and give Russia an advantage in its insidious invasion of Ukraine. The scheme is poorly thought out and utterly reckless since it won’t see the light of day in the Senate. Even worse, the MAGA Republicans plan does not appear to include a face-saving exit strategy to end the charade.

While a government shutdown for political points may seem to be a million miles away from many Americans' day to day doings and responsibilities, it is important to recognize the immediate turmoil it directly causes for federal workers, military personnel, contractors, suppliers, communities, and even some entire states. Eventually the shock waves from a prolonged shutdown hits us all in the wallet, but for some the pain comes quickly and runs deep.

Consider the massive fallout that the threat of a shutdown alone has on Virginia, for example. There are more than 140,000 civilian federal workers in Virginia, and their families, communities and businesses where they shop would be affected by the MAGA Republican shutdown. The massive military presence in the state, and frankly U.S. national security, would also be put under duress by forcing military personnel to continue to their jobs without getting paid during the shutdown. Over time support and potential supply chain issues would also cause problems on military installations in Virginia.

“In Virginia alone, 129,400 active-duty service members will be forced to continue working without pay — a phenomenon that will undermine our national security and threaten the well-being of military families,” they said. “Service members should never be put in this situation,” Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia said in a joint statement.

One might expect that the devastating impact a government shutdown poses on Virginia would prompt the state’s highest Republican elected officials to at least urge their Republican colleagues in the House to avoid a shutdown at all costs. Sadly, no chance. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin is downplaying the threat and hasn’t said a peep publicly about what if anything he plans to do to at least try to avoid a shutdown, and there is no indication he’s said much privately to persuade MAGA Republicans to halt the approaching crisis. The same goes for Virginia’s Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert, who also hasn’t been heard speaking out at MAGA Republicans over the shutdown threat. No-show leadership while early voting is going on in Virginia state elections does not project well.

Some Virginians, however, do remember well the 35-day Trump-driven government shutdown between 2018 and 2019, the longest shutdown in the country’s history. Sen. Warner of Virginia believes one lesson learned in that episode was government shutdowns hit Virginia hardest.

“I just don’t get anyone who’s calculating that somehow this is in the country’s best interest, or even in their short-term political interest,” Warner said, according to WTOP news radio in Washington.

There is at least some hope that a long-term shutdown won’t happen. Senate Democrats and Republicans are at least trying to use a temporary measure to keep the government open and running, but it will take some legislative finesse to get a bipartisan bill through the House, where MAGA Republicans can’t even work with traditional Republican conservatives to pass a budget, let alone Democrats.

Any so-called stop-gap measure, however, would bring the country back to a potential shutdown once the next deadline hits. So the problem of a shutdown isn’t being solved, it's just being delayed, and unfortunately, MAGA Republicans are under orders from Trump to shut down the government, so if not now, this scenario could easily play out again in a month or so.

The shutdown is just the latest incarnation of MAGAnomics, the prevailing agenda in the Republican Party in which chaos, division and destruction replace policies that improve the lives of Americans and bolster the U.S. economy. We’ve seen this kind of malicious lawmaking for at least nine years, so there is no reason to believe it’s going to stop until those responsible are held accountable by the voters.

This piece was written by Ken Bazinet. Ken is a respected, longtime national political reporter and freelance writer based in rural Maryland.

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How America’s Free Market Democracy Still Prevails Despite MAGAnomics: Rebuilding U.S. Economy After Trump’s Disgraced Pandemic Response & January 6 Coup Attempt

It took two and a half years for Fitch Ratings to blame “an erosion of governance” for doing its part in threatening the U.S. economy, but when the Wall Street economic arbiters finally lowered America’s credit rating the message was clear: the Trump-led, MAGA-driven Jan.6, 2021 insurrection was bad for business.

By comparison, it did not take the economic forecasters nearly as long to assess the cataclysmic predecessor to the insurrection,  COVID-19. The pandemic revealed the vulnerability of the supply chains, overwhelmed urban and suburban hospitals and rest homes, exposed the shortage of rural hospitals, threatened air and ground mass transportation, and introduced “super-spreader events” into the lexicon.

What took a little while longer to uncover was the fatal response to the pandemic, which included initial denial of the threat by Trump and his allies even though most recognized Covid was indeed a clear and present danger to the American people and economy. Nothing demonstrated the deceit and incompetence of the initial pandemic response more than the GOP pandemic-deniers, especially those that were later discovered to have sold their stocks after being warned of the threat during a classified briefing.

However, the crowning moments of ineptitude and perhaps criminality came from the Trump White House itself, as Trump initially opposed a national coronavirus strategy because he feared it would help “Blue States.”  Trump then prescribed insane and harmful remedies to the American people to fight the virus, including injecting disinfectant. Finally, Trump and his son-in-law-turned-henchman Jared Kushner were caught giving away free coronavirus money to their pals and cronies (a massive fraud investigation into Covid money is underway and some of the money is expected to be recovered), while then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin worked to keep the incoming Biden administration from having access to coronavirus response money. 

There is a lesson shared and taught by both the pandemic and the Jan. 6 insurrection: the inept initial response to a deadly virus, and Trump’s attempts to overthrow free and fair elections were toxic for the U.S. economy.

MAGAnomics were bad business and have turned out to be very bad for business.

The forecasts for escaping the economic and legal disasters left by MAGAnomics were bleak, with some economists predicting dark years ahead with recession, declines in the financial markets and job losses that would not easily recover. As hard as it was for him to win the election, for President Joe Biden the more difficult task of cleaning up the mess was ahead.

Biden’s approach to all the gloom has been practical. He and his brain trust have pursued the path that had saved America from economic peril since 1932: make smart investments in people, their businesses, their roads and buildings, and their access to prescient and valuable information, and offer workers the best training and education to fit into next-level jobs of the fast-coming future. Finally, add a differentiator into the mix: promote and incentivize competition.

The three-pronged approach has manifested itself as the three pieces of legislation signed by Biden most credited with pulling the country out of the malaise of MAGAnomics: the Inflation Reduction Act, the Chips and Science Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The results so far are noteworthy:

  • 13.2 million new jobs since becoming president, including 750,000 manufacturing jobs

  • Wages are up across the board 

  • Biggest surge in factory construction and returning manufacturing from overseas since the start of over-globalization in the 1980s saw much of Wall Street and American corporations sell out American workers and communities for the low wages and hazardous environmental conditions in countries like China

  • The S&P 500 has climbed about 16% since Biden's inauguration

  • There is more work to be done, but inflation is slowly moving downward

While workers and middle class families have been most vulnerable to the top-heavy scourge of MAGAnomics,  the pro-labor Biden policies have contributed to an economy that is benefiting workers beyond those covered by collective bargain agreements. Biden’s bottom-up and middle-out approach clearly isn't hurting the richest “one percenters” that have continued to grow their wealth during his administration.

The epic fight for democracy and the protection of the individual rights of all Americans is clear, but make no mistake, the battle to protect the American economy from that same tyranny must be fought with the same vigor and resolve.  

This piece was written by Ken Bazinet. Ken is a respected, longtime national political reporter and freelance writer based in rural Maryland.

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