Both Sane And Insane - Coming To A Better Understanding Of Trumpism So We Can Challenge It More EffectivelyI am going live with Dr. Rob Shapiro at 3pm EST today - join us!
Happy Friday all. I tried to write something this morning that ended up becoming too big for me to wrestle to the ground so instead I’m sending along fragments and notes with a promise to get this thing pulled together before the Christmas holidays…… These initial notes draw heavily from yesterday’s post; my essays Surrender, Not War and When We Fight Trump We Can Win; and my conversations this year with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Anne Applebaum, Stuart Stevens, Garrett Graff, Rep. Adam Smith, Rep. Robert Garcia, Nathan Heller and Leon Krauze. I will be going live today at 3pm EST with Dr. Rob Shapiro at talk out one piece of this thing I’m wrestling with - Trump’s failed, tariff-driven economic strategy, something Rob wrote about in the Washington Monthly this week. You can join our conversation by clicking here at 3pm EST.
Here we go….. I am heartened by the progress we’ve made in weakening the regime. It should embolden us to become more ambitious, creative, and courageous in the coming months. The video from those six national security Dems warning servicemen and women that their oath required them to ignore unlawful orders was a great example of how we must operate now. It forced the regime to “defend the indefensible” and has caused enormous fissures in his coalition. Listen to Republican Congressman Mike Turner yesterday on Morning Joe:  The success of the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, led by Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia, in bringing the Epstein scandal to light and undermining their rancid cover-up of these crimes, is another great example of how we must move forward now. As was our fight over the ACA subsidy cuts and the shutdown, even though it ended prematurely. As has been our gritty fight led by the Texas Dems, JB Pritzker, Gavin Newsom and the House Dems against the illicit effort to steal Congressional seats next year. As has been the many successful legal challenges of our Dem AGs and other legal orgs that have blocked terrible policies and hamstrung the regime again and again. As has been Governor Newsom’s incredible innovation in the information domain.
These successes have come largely on terrain outside of the traditional legislative/candidate campaign battlefield that is the central responsibility of our Congressional leaders. They were an expansion of our understanding of the battlefield, unorthodox attempts to engage, challenge, and weaken the regime. Some of our wins this past November in CA, GA ME, PA also came on unorthodox elections or ballot initiatives, and certainly the Aftyn Behn race - which has shaken the Rs this week - was wildly unorthodox and unconventional. Trump is an unorthodox and unconventional opponent. To challenge him successfully we must let go of conventional understandings and adapt to the new battlefield we find ourselves in now. It turns out that we may be further ahead in that process than we understand, but it’s critical that we keep going. I think it’s time that the leaders of our party create some kind of loose skunk works that is exploring, testing, innovating, coordinating and sharing new approaches for this new battlefield, perhaps something akin to Ukrainian innovations in drone warfare…… Next, I think we need to come to a far deeper understanding of what Trump is attempting to do to the world and to our country, and find narratives, stories, themes, words to explain what I am currently calling “Trumpism” to the American people. I don’t think our current framework of affordability and health care, or concepts like fascism, gangsterism, Project 2025, oligarchy, or authoritarianism, are sufficient. They are incomplete, early attempts to describe the malevolent intent and agenda of the regime. I’ve often used “sabotage, plunder, and betrayal” in my own writing, something that is for now far more expansive than “affordability” and “ACA subsidies.” Over the last ten years of battling Trump the part of his agenda that always made the least sense, and was often hardest for us to gain traction on, was his illicit alliance with Putin. Here’s the very first paragraph from the 2017 Intelligence Community report on Russia’s enormous and successful campaign to elect Trump in 2016:
Since coming to office this time it is as if Trump is working from a checklist provided to him by Putin to weaken America and dismantle the post WWII global system that has been the driver of our prosperity and guarantor of our security. Here’s my working version of the checklist Putin gave to Trump:
We must be very clear here that there is no version of Trumpism that will make America more prosperous, more secure, and more free. There is no great America following this path. It is an agenda of sabotage and surrender, the very opposite of what a traditional nationalist strongman - like Xi or Putin - would pursue. It feels far more like treason or compromise than a strategy for greatness.
Last night the regime released an annual update of our National Security Strategy. We will have time to parse through it in the days ahead. But it is a confirmation of the incredibly dangerous place Trump is trying to take us. Here’s the first few graphs of the first NYT article on it this morning:
This is in essence America signaling that we are now aligned with Russia in Europe, and will work to undermine the European Union itself. Here is how one European analyst wrote about it this morning:
We are, my friends, in a very new place, a place that no living American has ever been before. The harms and dangers of Trumpism are about far more than affordability and ACA cuts. It is time our leaders recognize this, talk to the American people about this, strategize around this and commit to fight this fight in ways consistent with our heritage and what the moment requires. Understanding and defining Trumpism is a critical part of this new battlefield we are now in. And throughout all this we must remember
regardless of who may be currently occupying and dishonoring the White House. Now, Let’s Get To Work People!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Closing 2025 Strong
Winning The Midterms - Support Our 2026 Candidates
Expanding The Senate and Electoral College Maps (2026-2032)
In a new essay I talk about how one of the ways we win the 2026 midterms is by providing early support to our candidates and parties to allow them to staff up now, be loud now, define the terms of the debate now, before the inevitable onslaught on AI slop, Russian disinfo, and Trumpian lies funded through bribes and corruption wash across the land. The midterms could be won or lost in these next few months - not in the fall of 2026 - and we need be fighting now with everything we got. Defending America, Winning The Big Arguments With Trump, Making Hopium Stronger - We have three recommended actions today: 1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Five-Part Agenda - We need to be loud people, very, very loud and make the case for our now five part agenda:
2 - Celebrate America, Our Constitution, Our 250th Birthday By Bringing Our Resolutions Project To Your Community - Next year, on July 4th, America celebrates it’s 250th birthday. We need to make this holiday, a celebration of our Declaration Of Independence from a mad king, our day, and not allow it to become his. One way we can do this is by bringing our Resolutions Project to your community or state. Imagine if by July 4th of next year a large number of towns, counties and states had passed formal resolutions, in the spirit of our Declaration of Independence, defending our Constitution and condemning the “injuries,” “abuses,” and “usurpations” of our mad king. For as our Founders wrote in the Declaration:
So far Hopium members have introduced or passed resolutions in 85 communities in 23 states. In the coming days we will be convening to discuss how to bring this campaign to more places and start planning to Own The Fourth next year. 3 - Make Hopium Stronger - There are several ways you can help make our community stronger:
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! Keep working hard all. I am proud, oh so proud, to be in this fight with all of you - Simon You're currently a free subscriber to Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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Friday, December 5, 2025
Both Sane And Insane - Coming To A Better Understanding Of Trumpism So We Can Challenge It More Effectively
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