How To Beat Trump and the GOP in November

Wouldn’t you think the Republican Party, that is as gung-ho for empire and genocide as the Democratic Party, but domestically is blatantly open about its policies against women, children, workers, the environment, climate crisis, public lands, public education and fair-share taxes for the wealthy, would be easy to defeat? Not when you see how the Dems, whose campaigns are controlled by corporate-conflicted political consultants using corporate campaign cash, keep making the election razor close.

In 1988, the formidable spouse of New York Democratic Sen. Pat Moynihan — Elizabeth Moynihan — told me “Ralph, these consultants are destroying the Democratic Party,” right after she fired them and took over managing Pat’s last re-election campaign.

Elizabeth Moynihan’s observation is true now more than ever, as corporate money looms gigantically over all elections with no limits on how much these PACs can spend.

Still, with three weeks before Nov. 5, the Party of the Donkey can lighten some of its self-imposed burdens and prevail in congressional races and the presidential race.

First, Bibi-Biden and Bibi-Blinken have to end their serfdom and stand up for American interests. Tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop dissembling, agree to a ceasefire in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, and to open up Gaza to all those thousands of U.S.-funded humanitarian aid trucks with food, medicine, water and other critical supplies. Tell him to open up occupied Gaza to American reporters — along with Israeli and other nations’ journalists — prohibited from independently reporting the realities of the genocidal destruction of that Palestinian enclave and its dying 2.3 million people. Otherwise, no more U.S. weapons of mass destruction, no more vetoes at the U.N. and no more arm-twisting other critical countries. These just and proper moves could be vote-getters in swing states.

Second, give the media vote-getting authentic commitments to benefit millions of voters. A serious commitment to a living wage would move millions of low-paid workers to vote.

Raise Social Security benefits, frozen for over 50 years. This would get the attention of 65 million elderly (See the Social Security 2100 Act, a bill introduced on July 12, 2023, by Rep. John B. Larson, D-Conn., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.).

Demand, with specifics, the raising of taxes on the wealthy. This taps into the 85% of the people backing such a decision.

Crack down on corporate crooks, with specific illustrations on how they harm daily lives and livelihoods. This issue comes in with heavy left-right support.

Respect the millions of midnight shift workers who keep our society going while we sleep. Campaign before midnight shifts at hospitals, factories, all-night stores, police and fire stations.

The few Democratic operatives who approve the strategies, tactics and messaging are notoriously tone-deaf, defiantly incommunicado to citizen group input — activists who know how, what and when to communicate to all workers, consumers, patients and parents, regardless of their labels. (For effective elaborations, see winningamerica.net).

The Dems have huge amounts of money, and when used to pay for ads, often vacuous and irritatingly repetitive, consulting profiteers reap 15% commissions. More of this money should be used for an advanced ground game of locating voters, persuading them, transporting them to the polls if need be and festively celebrating with a snack or supper. Australians, where voting (for anyone) is a civic duty, are known to make voting a joyous social occasion.

Massively assailing Trump for his lawbreaking, his lies, his bigotry, his corruption, his delusions, his incitements to violence, voter suppression and precinct worker harassment does not seem to diminish support from his base. Why not concentrate laser-like on getting out more of the 80 million or 90 million nonvoters, instead of pushing off the ballot and harassing the small Green Party with frivolous suits and political bigotry?

Many of these nonvoting eligible voters are low-wage workers. Listen to Rev. William Barber, who says just increasing their vote by 10% to 15% from 2020 would win the election. Few people have interacted with as many impoverished Americans as has Barber. Even fewer can match the details and inspirations of his oratory. (See, breachrepairers.org).

The media covers the horse race — give them more horses. They cover the money raised — tell them you’re using it for people-to-people voter turnout behind explicit progressive mandates. The media covers spontaneous comments that magnify as faux pas — give them spontaneous statements that mean something — like increasing the number of federal cops on the corporate crime beat.

Or support the expanding interstate compact of states that gives the anti-democratic Electoral College votes to the candidate who wins the national presidential vote (See, NationalPopularVote.com).

Or why not support more consumer cooperatives, or repeal handcuffs on union organizing and expression embodied by the notorious Taft-Hartley Act of 1947?

The media gets bored with the same old stump speech day after day. Give them some variety that invigorates a democratic society. Especially tell them ways you would empower the powerless people to overcome corporatism, apathy, indifference and withdrawal from elections and politics. These could be short educational addresses on TV.

Above all, open up electoral campaigning to regular input by the citizenry and citizen groups from the grassroots to Washington, D.C. Drop the force fields around you, Nancy Pelosi, Gary Peters, Suzan DelBene, Pete Aguilar, Jaime Harrison, et al. None of you are smarter than all of us. Ignoring that truism is why you will be needlessly sweating on election night. (See my book “Let’s Start the Revolution: Tools for Displacing the Corporate State and Building a Country that Works for the People” and the report, “Crushing the GOP, 2022.”)