Dear MoveOn member,
Donald Trump said there was "no reason" for the Civil War that ended slavery.1 He threatened to repeal the First Amendment.2 He proposed a tax plan that would give massive tax benefits to himself personally.3
And this is just recently.
Eddie, we must remember that this is not normal—and if America is going to survive the Trump presidency, we must continue to fight back. And the #1 most important thing we can do to hold Trump in check is to make sure Democrats take back control of Congress, starting by winning the special elections being held in this spring in Georgia and Montana.
Will you chip in $5 a month to MoveOn to take back Congress and hold Donald Trump in check?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
I truly believe that the American institutions that we rely on might not survive four years of a Trump presidency if Republicans remain in control of Congress.
We've already seen Trump undermine so many of the core institutions of democracy, from the free press to the independent judiciary.
He's brought unprecedented levels of corruption to the White House, including pay for play, nepotism, and a refusal to provide even basic transparency into his personal financial dealings and actions as president.4
Can you imagine what will happen if, God forbid, America suffers a serious terrorist attack or foreign policy crisis under this president? A president who can't go a week without praising a bloody dictator, like Kim Jong Un, Rodrigo Duterte, and Vladimir Putin?5
The Republican Party has abdicated any responsibility for holding this president in check. They won't investigate his possible collusion with Russia to hack the election or his conflicts of interest. When Trump demanded that they change the rules of the Senate to ram through his far-right Supreme Court pick, they just fell in line.
So it's up to us to keep fighting and make sure Trump's authoritarianism and bigotry never become normalized. And while we're fighting his agenda at every turn, we know that the ultimate way we'll stop him is by taking back Congress, starting with special elections this month and next, and then taking back the House in 2018.
Recent polls that pit a generic congressional Democrat against a Republican show that Democrats are in the best position at this early stage of the midterm election cycle of any opposition party dating all the way back to 1942.6
And no one has proven to be better at building grassroots armies to get out the vote than MoveOn. So now's our chance. Will you chip in $5 a month—or whatever you can afford—to help take back Congress and stop Trump?
I'm in! I'll chip in right now to MoveOn to help win back the House and hold Trump in check.
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Taking back the House is possible: Democrats need to pick up 24 seats to win control of the House, and there are Republican incumbents in 23 congressional districts that Hillary Clinton won last November. There are another five seats with Republican incumbents that Clinton very narrowly lost.7 Winning these seats is the obvious path to victory.
But it's not the only path, since Democrats in special elections so far this year have performed astoundingly well in deep red districts—including in Kansas in one of the reddest districts in America and the seat in Georgia once held by Newt Gingrich.
The midterm elections are still more than a year away, but already many candidates are announcing their campaigns and reaching out to MoveOn and other progressive groups for support.
That's why MoveOn is launching a new Resistance Summer program to train 1,000 community leaders, with a special focus on these very important congressional districts. This program gives me hope, Eddie. The sheer scale of this ambitious program has the potential to be game-changing—building the electoral power of the resistance and laying the groundwork to take back political power in 2018.
But building the infrastructure we need to win in 2018 requires major, ongoing resources. So will you join me in supporting this bold, innovative, and game-changing program by chipping in $5 a month to MoveOn?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
MoveOn is able to do this—and do it incredibly well—because they've done it before. Political pundits didn't believe that taking back the House was possible in 2006. But MoveOn was one of the first groups to say it was—and went on to play a pivotal role in making it happen. That win helped build the momentum for Barack Obama's historic victory in 2008.
According to a top election data expert, early data "suggest that House Republicans are on track to suffer a potentially major defeat in the 2018 midterm elections."8
We can make it happen and take back the House. But we need to get started right now and keep it going for the long haul. Will you join me?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
During these first few months of Trump's presidency, we proved that the resistance is powerful, when we give it our all. Now, we need to do more than just slow down Trump’s agenda. We need to win back power—starting right now.
Thanks for all you do.
—Robert Reich
Sources:
1. "Trump on the Civil War: 'Why Could That One Not Have Been Worked Out?'" The New York Times, May 1, 2017
https://act.moveon.org/go/10002?t=10&akid=182670.10220574.0VI7AM
2. "Priebus: Trump Considering Amending or Abolishing 1st Amendment," Talking Points Memo, April 30, 2017
http://act.moveon.org/go/10003?t=12&akid=182670.10220574.0VI7AM
3. "President Trump's Laughable Plan to Cut His Own Taxes," The New York Times, May 1, 2017
https://act.moveon.org/go/10004?t=14&akid=182670.10220574.0VI7AM
4. "Donald Trump's Enduring Corruption of the Presidency," New Republic, May 1, 2017
https://act.moveon.org/go/9860?t=16&akid=182670.10220574.0VI7AM
5. "McCain Calls Trump's Dictator Praise 'Very Disturbing,'" NBC News, May 2, 2017
http://act.moveon.org/go/9861?t=18&akid=182670.10220574.0VI7AM
6. "Here's Another Good Omen for Democrats in 2018," New York, April 26, 2017
http://act.moveon.org/go/9859?t=20&akid=182670.10220574.0VI7AM
7. "Democrats Can Retake the House in 2018 Without Converting a Single Trump Voter," The Nation, April 27, 2017
https://act.moveon.org/go/9858?t=22&akid=182670.10220574.0VI7AM
8. "Don't Just Look At Trump's Approval Rating To Judge His First 100 Days," FiveThirtyEight, April 25, 2017
https://act.moveon.org/go/9865?t=24&akid=182670.10220574.0VI7AM
Want to support MoveOn's work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it MoveOn needs your ongoing support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
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