Some Reflections On Finding A Higher Gear, Building A Stronger Movement, And Winning The FallEarly in person voting starts this Friday in Virginia - let's make it a big day!
Morning all. Yesterday the Ranking Members of the three House committees responsible for our national security released a powerful statement:
Boom. Powerful words. Big arguments. Welcome and muscular patriotism from three leaders responsible for keeping us safe and free. If you are a constituent of one of these three Members please call their offices today and thank them for this rousing defense of America. I want to drill down on that last passage:
These words spell out an agenda, a vision, for what we are fighting for, not just fighting against. As we discussed in my recent and comprehensive post, Fighting Trump Now, our movement needs rallying cries, things to be working towards, a way of moving from defense to offense. And what matters about this statement is that here we have three Members of Congress coming together to tell a necessary story about him and provide a rallying cry for us. It is what other Members of Congress must come to understand as their job now - in a time of national emergency, we need leaders and communicators and patriots not just legislators. Millions of us are ready to be led. Our leaders in Congress must come to understand that it is their job now, their historic responsibility, to lead us, and defend this great country in a time of unprecedented challenge. They must honor their oaths:
The time for caution, for listening to the ad testers, for believing that everything will just snap back to normal after we win the mid-terms next year is long past. We are in the middle of this fight and as Robert Frost told us the best way is always through - meaning that there is no easy path here and we just have to put our heads down and do what proud American patriots do - fight for democracy, and “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” In that Fighting Trump Now memo to our Congressional leaders I spelled out three ways we can raise our game now to meet the moment: 1) move to a 24/7/365 comms posture, hitting him on all fronts every day 2) create a loose national coordinating council of leading Democrats to deepen and strengthen our movement, make it harder for him to isolate us, for we are strong together than apart 3) work towards forging a new national narrative, a rallying cry, and agenda for the pro-democracy movement to counter his “Making America Great Again.” Our four part agenda is an attempt to workshop what a comprehensive agenda for our movement could be right now, a piece of the rallying cry, one that our leaders use to frame and orient their coming engagement with Trump and the Republicans: The Hopium Agenda
Last week I added a fourth recommendation to those initial three:
The powerful joint statement from Reps. Smith, Himes and Meeks is a step towards creating that national security council for our movement. It is an encouraging example of how we are continuing to find a higher gear.
In recent days we’ve also explored the importance of creating a national party wide strategy to take away the foundational pillar of Trump’s brand - that he is strong, not weak - and of the opportunity Trump’s ravaging of farm country is giving us now to reach voters in red states and red places. To all these recommendations today I am adding one more - that in the coming debate over the budget we must go bigger. Making health care, as important as it is, our primary area of engagement feels insufficient to the moment; is what Republicans want us to be focusing on; and yields on other areas of potential negotiation before the negotiations have even begun. In this moment our leaders must aspire to be big, not small; proud American patriots defending their country not legislators debating a bill; they need to speak to the American people and to history and not just their constituents. Trump is Making America Great Again. What are we trying to do? It has to be more than restoring Medicaid cuts (as vital as that is). Whatever it is we do now, however we approach the fall debates over the budget, polling, economic data and common sense tells us that we must make Trump’s tariffs the central area of engagement for us. It is both the top issue for voters and the issue where Trump is performing the worst. Our candidates running this fall have all made affordability, costs and the tariffs their central issue. If we make health care our defining fight and do not look like we are defending people from higher costs at a time when inflation is rising we risk replicating what many believe was a costly mistake in 2024 - that we were not adequately focused on what mattered most to them. Here’s the Economist/YouGov data from last week. While health care matters, economic issues are just more important to voters right now. Data is “most important issue” and Trump’s job approval:
In all my years in the business I’ve not sure I’ve seen an opportunity as rich and robust as opposing Trump’s terrible tariffs. They are raising prices on people. They are wildly unpopular. They are an extraordinary betrayal of Trump’s central promise of his campaign. They are modern tax “taxation without representation,” are illegal and unconstitutional, and an extraordinary abuse of Presidential power. They are alienating countries and consumers around the world and accelerating our decline as global superpower. They are hurting farmers and small businesses. They are shifting the tax burden in America from the wealthy to all of us. They are an oligarch’s dream and a working person’s nightmare. We should be fighting them with everything we got. Look at how the public is feeling about Trump’s economy right now - the lowest consumer sentiment reading in the last 50 years.
We can and must do more than one thing at a time. We can fight for democracy, rule of law, and freedom; AND we can fight to rollback the tariffs; AND block the escalation of ICE and the militarization of our streets; AND stand up for science, higher ed and public health; AND reverse the cuts to the ACA and Medicaid; AND challenge Trump’s selling out of Ukraine and Europe to Putin; AND we can far more aggressively challenge the rancid white supremacy driving so much of Trumpism; AND…….. As part of finding a higher gear and building a better and more successful movement we must simply learn how to engage and challenge Trump on many fronts, every day. We cannot leave any front in our struggle against him uncontested, and this is why I think Congressional Dems need to radically overhaul their communications operations to be able to operate in the daily information space 24/7/365 and not be so anchored to what is happening on the floor each day. That is what this new national security statement did and why it matters - it entered the broader conversation happening in the country and across the world right now without regard to what was happening on the floor. Another reason we have to become far more aggressive in the information space is that Trump’s government is failing, and he has come incredibly unpopular. Look at this new Economist/YouGov data out this morning. Trump’s job approval was 41%-54% (-13) last week. Today it is 39%-57% (-18), and he is now -50 with independents. All of these interviews were conducted after the killing of Charlie Kirk.  Assume polling is going to be bouncy these next few weeks but in the Economist/YouGov weekly track Trump's job approval with adults went from -13 (41-54) last week to -18 this week (39-57). He's -50 with independents, 19-69.  Tue, 16 Sep 2025 14:14:45 GMT View on BlueskyAnd on crime, the latest issue we were told he would be able to use to re-establish his STRENGTH and POWER and MANLINESS, he is 42%-49%, and -26 with independents.
It is time for us to reach big, find that higher gear, win the fall and do what generations of Americans who have come before would expect from us - fight like hell for the country we love. Today, let’s thank Reps. Smith, Himes and Meeks for stepping up, and let’s keep encouraging others to join them. Now, Let’s Get To Work Everyone!I will be speaking at two events tomorrow. Join me!
Hopium paid subscribers will be getting together this week on Thursday at 8pm ET. Look for an invite this afternoon. Support Our November, 2025 Candidates
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Our updated fundraising goals are now for the end of the year, December 31st, except for the 2025 races, which are now for Election Day, 2025. For more on Hopium’s approach to elections check out 1) the many important wins we had together last cycle 2) my big recommendations to the family coming out of the 2024 elections about what we need to do now 3) my latest thinking on where we are and the path forward for the Hopium community. Take Action, Express Your Love Of Country And Strengthen Our Democracy Through Good Works - We are prioritizing two actions today: 1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Four-Part Agenda - We need to be loud people, very, very loud and make the case for our our emerging four part agenda. Demand that your reps work to
2 - Bring “Resolutions Of Condemnation” To Your Community - Inspired by the tactics of our Founders learn about how Hopium members are advancing “Resolutions of Condemnation” in their communities across the country and consider bringing this initiative to your state, country or city/town. Be sure to check out our new discussion with Deborah Potter and Rachel Poliner who have passed resolutions in New Mexico and Boston, and offer advice on how to get a resolution passed in your own community. Remarkably, members of this community are now advancing 81 (!!!!) resolutions projects in 22 states + DC. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election? Last Tuesday night the town council of Corrales, New Mexico debated and passed a resolution of condemnation. A preview of the resolution can be found in this article from a local new site. In considering the resolution Councilor Bill Woldman said:
Keep up the great work proud, plucky patriots of the Hopium community!!!! Finally, please self-report your activities to our daily paid subscriber chat. These reports help inspire all of us to do more and fight harder! Been impressive to see how many of you remain involved in local, in person protests of all kinds in your communities. Great to see! Keep working hard all, and let’s go out and win the fall, together - Simon
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Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Some Reflections On Finding A Higher Gear, Building A Stronger Movement, And Winning The Fall
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