Two Strategies for the Anti-Trump Forces

I wrote this piece a couple of days ago — i.e. before Trump fired Comey — with the plan to post it today. At least in the short run, that firing seems to have changed the political climate around the issue highlighted in the first of the two strategies described below: i.e. the issue of ferreting out the truth about what went on between the Russians and Trump and his campaign.

The question therefore arises: what does this potentially game-changing event change?

Here’s what I can see. That first strategy — The “Protect and Defend” Movement — calls on the anti-Trump forces to pressure Democrats “to make the Trump/Russia question a major focus of the national conversation,” (while also calling out the Republicans for protecting their President and not the Constitution).

At the moment, with Trump’s “Nixonian” move, that part of the two-pronged approach seems to have been accomplished by Trump, and his assault on the integrity of our system of justice.

So what is left of that piece of the strategy is to encourage the Democrats in Congress to keep up what they’ve been doing quite powerfully for the past 18 hours or so.

The rest seems still pertinent.

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When Donald Trump was first elected, it felt to me like a final defeat, like the forces of brokenness that have been using the Republican Party as their instrument increasingly over the past generation, had at last vanquished our side. Those forces then controlled not only both Houses of Congress, but also had put so monstrous a man, Donald Trump, into the presidency of the United States and, through him, would soon also control the Supreme Court again.

But now I see that the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of both Trump and the GOP in Congress open up an opportunity to turn that painful defeat into victory. There is a chance here to turn what seemed sure to be a catastrophe into a tool for turning that larger battle around.

Here are two strategies that seem to me might help achieve that goal– i.e. the goal of taking power away from Trump and away from those forces behind him, and to give it to the better part of America.

I. The “Protect and Defend” Movement

The Russia collusion issue is the greatest vulnerability of the Trumpists’ — and thus also of the Republicans, because they are tied to him. Their conduct gives away their level of anxiety about what might be exposed.

We should go after that Russia/Trump vulnerability with a movement that makes that collusion the focus of political attention.

That can be achieved in two ways. 1) It would go after the Republicans for protecting Trump instead of the Constitution. (An example of calling out the Republicans is how I have gone after Bob Goodlatte, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, here.)  And at the same time it  would 2) pressure the Democrats to make a huge issue of this, the MAIN issue, along with Trumpcare. (An example of the pressuring the Democrats is my piece on “Senator Mark Warner: MIA, AWOL, or What?”)

This two-pronged strategy is strengthened by its non-partisan posture, in which people of both parties are pushed/attacked in pursuit of the consistent goal: fulfilling the vital duty OF EVERY AMERICAN PATRIOT to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

It is this gift our founders gave us that may be jeopardized if we don’t get to the bottom of what happened between the Russians and the Trump gang as Trump headed toward the presidency, clearly with Russian help.

So, one approach is through the “Protect and Defend” movement, which strives to make the Trump/Russia question a major focus of the national conversation.

II. The “The Better Part of America” Movement

Against Trump, there are now many voices. That multiplicity of voices dissipates the potential power of the anti-Trump force.

The hunting dogs cannot, by themselves, bring down the bear. They must wait for the hunter. But we, unfortunately, do not have a hunter.

It would be worth making every effort to elevate one voice to prominence to be the counter to Trump. (Not instead of the other voices, but as an addition: a soloist backed up by a choir.)

That voice should say to America, and say it powerfully and well, whatever most needs to be said to take power from the destructive force, of which Trump and the Republicans in Congress are the agents, and inspire Americans to empower instead America’s better self.

The anti-Trump forces should make as their goal to find and feature the right person who will stand, as much as possible, on a level with this– in the sense that John the Baptist stood level with Herod (and Elijah the prophet confronted Ahab the king, etc) speaking out boldly to the corrupt ruler, despite the disparity in worldly power.

More about this voice — what that message should be, and how the right person might be chosen — in a subsequent piece.