Midterms -- Now we have to get to work

 Now we have to get to work

• Public Citizen 

  citizen.org

  From:president@citizen.org

  
  

  To:m.mk@...

  Wed, Nov 4 at 3:23 PM

  If you believe in democracy ...
  
  If you believe in justice ...
  
  If you believe in humanity ...
  
  If you believe in the very promise of America ...
  
  Yesterday’s election results are a truly monumental affirmation of what this country is supposed to be and what we can achieve together against even the longest odds.
  
  The American people have spoken — loudly, resolutely — and delivered an unmistakable mandate to the Democratic Party:
  

  • Hold Donald Trump and his regime accountable.

  • Fight the billionaires and corporations that see the rest of us as their subjects.

  • Take real action to make life better for everyday Americans.

  No half measures.
  
  No stalling.
  
  No carrying water for big campaign spenders.
  
  And no “just getting back to normal.”
  
  “Normal” was putting the greed of Wall Street before the needs of Main Street. “Normal” was millions and millions of people in the richest country on the planet not having health insurance. “Normal” was talking the talk but not walking the walk when it comes to racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of systemic oppression. “Normal” was handing over staggering amounts of taxpayer money to the military-industrial complex. “Normal” was letting Big Pharma and Big Oil and Big Tech literally kill people and cook our planet and fry our brains. Etc. Etc. Etc.
  
  There is exactly zero time to waste:
  
  1. With their power fading and the clock ticking, Donald Trump and his acolytes may turn even more radical, even more corrupt, even more vicious than they have already been.
  
  2. Desperate billionaires and corporations — at least some of them — will exploit their wealth and power in an effort to further distort our information ecosystem and to sabotage any attempts at curbing their outsized influence.
  
  3. Before long, politicians and the media will turn their attention to the 2028 presidential election — so the next year is both a moment to do some real work and a chance to set the stage for what comes after.
  
  Here’s where Public Citizen comes in.
  
  Since our founding in 1971 — over half a century ago! — Public Citizen has developed a record of policy expertise, legal mastery, political acumen, and organizing know-how that is simply unrivaled.
  
  We will be bringing all of that to the table — in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and also in statehouses, city halls, and courtrooms all across the country — to ensure that Democrats actually deliver what the American people need.
  
  Public Citizen — along with partners in nationwide coalitions that we help lead — will make sure Democrats hit the ground running and get to work immediately doing what We the People just empowered them to do.
  
  For example:
  

  • Act aggressively to expose and hold accountable the corporations and individual executives who actively participated in and enabled the Trump regime’s corruption.

  • Get behind the movement to overturn the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United ruling so we can get billionaire and Big Business money out of our elections once and for all.

  • Advance Medicare for all. Undoing Trump’s cruel health care cuts is necessary but not nearly enough.

  • Confront the corporate price-gouging and runaway inflation that has made everything cost more than it should.

  • Stop giving money and power to ICE.

  • Deliver justice at last for people victimized by Jeffrey Epstein and those in his orbit (up to and including Donald Trump himself if warranted by the evidence).

  • Put forward a plan to reform the Supreme Court.

  • Reject the notion that Big Tech bros just get to inflict AI and data centers on the rest of us. Demonstrate how we can impose significant controls that make sure the technology is beneficial.

  • End the illegal war against Iran and stop feeding ever more of our tax dollars to the military-industrial complex (which will never say it’s had enough).

  • Map out a path for restoring and reimagining the many, many parts of our government that the Trump regime has dismantled or disfigured.

  • Initiate meaningful moves to drive the long overdue transition to clean energy and a green economy that is our only hope at averting full-on climate catastrophe.

  • Take substantive steps to secure our democracy from the kind of subterfuge it has endured under Trump and could face from a less inept would-be authoritarian in the future.

  • Use the full powers of Congress to begin the process of holding Donald Trump and others in the regime accountable for any laws they have broken and crimes they have committed in pursuit of their fascist agenda or their own personal gain.

  That’s only a sampling of the work Public Citizen will be doing — and pushing Democrats to make tangible progress on — in the coming year. But you get the idea.
  
  And of course we will also keep taking the regime to court — 55 lawsuits and counting since Trump returned to power — as long as it keeps breaking the law (which we suspect it will keep doing even though, or maybe because, Donald Trump is now in his “lame duck” era).
  
  
  
  If you’ve donated to Public Citizen before, thank you. If a donation is not right, we understand. Either way, thank you for being part of Public Citizen.
  
  For progress,
  
  - Lisa Gilbert & Robert Weissman, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen
  
  
  Public Citizen | 1600 20th Street NW | Washington DC 20009