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We Must Choose Freedom

It's time now to "abandon caution" and do what Americans do - fight for freedom and democracy, here and everywhere

Simon Rosenberg

Jan 23

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Morning all. Some notes on a hard week……

We will be talking a lot about the DHS vote in the days ahead but it’s important to understand the strategic backdrop to what’s happening in Congress this week. The passage of individual appropriations bills by Congress, something that has not been done in a long time, was a way for Congress to claw back some of the power it had recklessly given to Trump and Russell Vought. That both parties were able to come together, largely around Democratic funding levels throughout government, will end up being a bi-partisan, bicameral repudiation of Trump’s attempt to functional eliminate the legislative branch. Trump’s wild overreach and assault on our Constitutional order forced Congress - even Republicans in Congress - to fight restore their power and begin repairing our system of government.

Some excerpts from a Punchbowl News story this am:

Jeffries and House Democrats won here too. CRs give the Trump administration too much leeway in doling out federal dollars. From Democrats’ point of view, GOP appropriators came their way on nearly every issue, from topline spending numbers to eschewing “poison pill” policy riders.
“This is the most significant progress towards restoring regular order in this institution in many years,” Johnson told reporters following a huge bipartisan vote for the $1.2 trillion Defense-Labor-HHS-THUD package.
…….
OMB Director Russ Vought called for more than $100 billion in discretionary cuts on top of the hundreds of billions of dollars cut from Medicaid and other mandatory programs in the One Big Beautiful. House GOP appropriators drafted partisan spending bills at the Vought-proposed level knowing Democrats and the Senate would never go along with it.
Hill Republicans also did nothing when President Donald Trump unilaterally shut down USAID and tried to dismantle the Education Department, all while laying off tens of thousands of federal employees.
But the record-setting 43-day government shutdown — which Democrats triggered in an epic clash over Obamacare subsidies — was a watershed moment for House and Senate appropriators.
With House and Senate leaders’ tacit approval, the Four Corners on the Appropriations panels — Cole, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) — began to quietly hash out spending deals. It was clear that the Vought-pushed spending level wasn’t going to work, and they drafted bipartisan bills accordingly.
Appropriators and party leaders desperately wanted to avoid another CR. It’s not hyperbole to say that this was a critical moment for the 160-year old House Appropriations Committee.
“We got the bills done, and we came out very well, you know, and that should be proof enough that we need to make the process work,” DeLauro said in an interview.
“But first and foremost, it is reaffirming the power of the purse, as the Constitution said, resides in the Congress, and there we are not just going to let Russ Vought, an unelected bureaucrat … go run roughshod over the appropriations process.”

Is the deal here - claw back Congressional powers Trump had illegally appropriated for himself, get meaningful funding wins, accept ugly DHS appropriations - worth it? We will be debating this vigorously in the coming weeks. But at the very least our expectation should be, after these bills are passed, and hopefully signed by Trump, that our Congressional leaders offer a plan to work to rein in ICE and restore rule of law this year - not after we win back power in the elections.

In this week’s talk I argue that this first year of Trump was a good one for us electorally and politically. We’ve won elections of all kinds all across the country, some by enormous margins. New, promising leaders have emerged for the pro-democracy movement. We are likely to win the redistricting wars with Trump. The No Kings movement has brought millions of people to the streets, peacefully. The response we are seeing from every day citizens in Minnesota has been inspiring and powerful. Trump and his agenda have been powerfully rejected by the American people, including his various puerile strongman plays. His ironclad control over Congress had frayed, and he is starting to regularly lose votes on the Hill - as he is with these appropriations bills. Republicans have clearly grown weary of defending the indefensible.

But where we were not successful in this first year of Trump, and should be not satisfied, has been in our ability to block the damage Trump is doing to the country and the world. Thus in 2026 we need to maintain our electoral and political momentum and seize the clear opportunity in front of us; and we must do more to stop him from wrecking the country and destabilizing the world. Here’s how I described this second responsibility in last Sunday’s post, Coming Together:

We are here now, deep into dangerous Mad King/Bond Villain territory. 2026 is no longer about affordability or restoring the ACA subsidies. It is about pro-democracy movement somehow coming together and forming a unified and far more powerful front against his dangerous Imperial and dictatorial designs.

In an ideal world, what we would see next week is a public statement signed by all Dem Governors, AGs, Senate and House Democrats that states clearly that

Rule of law must be re-established in America, ICE must be reined in, and Trump’s outrageous plunder and corruption must end
That he must back off his illegal and destructive territorial ambitions, end all these ridiculous tariffs, and re-commit to the Trans-Atlantic Alliance

Stake in ground. Unified voice. Muscular defense of liberty, democracy, and the American creed. Yes, it is time now for something akin to our Letter to America, and for our leaders to make clear, before it is too late, that we are willing to come together and fight for America, freedom, and democracy; and for us to start listing, clearly, his modern day “injuries,” “abuses,” and “usurpations.” That we elected an American President and not a dictator, and it is way past fucking time he start acting like one.

As we discussed yesterday the Europeans have shown us the way - no appeasement, only strength; come together for we are always stronger together than apart. To me these are the two big lessons from his history - appeasement signals weakness, and encourages authoritarian escalation; and we must stick together at all costs no matter how hard that is at times.

For when this appropriations battle ends, and Congress has re-asserted itself in a way that we have all wanted and called for, then it becomes time to really start focusing on “coming together” and creating more power for ourselves in this fight to stop the harms he is doing. We have more power than we understand. We just have to organize ourselves differently in order to be able to wield it. To do this we will, as EU President Ursula van der Leyen counseled this week, have to “abandon caution.” (cc Leaders Schumer and Jeffries).

In trying to make sense of this challenging week I find comfort in seeing that our adversaries - the champions of dominion, autocracy, and oligarchy - are weaker than their strongman posturing suggests. Russia is not winning the war in Ukraine. Putin’s close allies in Syria, Venezuela, Iran, and Cuba have been thrown from power or are teetering. It’s economy is on the brink and global oil prices continue to drop. Russia is a far weaker nation today, despite the extraordinary help Trump, Witkoff, and Kushner have provided it. Trump was humiliated on the global stage this week, and looked weak, addled, desperate and pathetic. Trump’s stumbles not only weakened him here, but it will hurt the far-right movements in Europe aligned with him. Orban, the Putinist/Trumpist in the middle of Europe trails in public polling in his upcoming April election and could very well lose. Putinism may well be on the retreat in Europe soon, not on the ascent.

When I launched Hopium almost three years ago I wrote this:

Here at Hopium we work on strategies to defeat MAGA, tell our story more effectively, and ensure freedom and democracy prevail

I think after these appropriations bill are passed it will be time for our leaders to lift their heads up, raise their gaze, and embark on a course that is much bigger than flipping the House and Senate this November. We need to accept the gravity of the moment we are in, and the opportunity we have, over the next ten years, not just to win elections and claw back power, but to ensure that here in America and all around the world there is a “new birth of freedom,” and that forces of freedom, of America, of democracy, prevail in the great ongoing struggle between freedom and dominion. It remains “the great task before us,” as Lincoln challenged us at Gettysburg 163 years ago:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

We need to start visualizing not just tactical success, but strategic success here and all around the world. For Trump and Putin, in their greed, bloodlust, buffoonery, idiocy, and vanity are helping the people of the world, of this time, understand why it is we must choose freedom. They’ve become powerful teachers of an ancient lesson, the same lessons that drove our founders to imagine and visualize and build this great nation, and for FDR and mid-20th century Americas build a global system whose foundation was freedom and not dominion.

It’s why in 2026 our ambition must be to “come together” as the Europeans just did and

organize ourselves into in a more powerful force for opposition. Our Congressional leaders, Governors, big city mayors - the free states and cities - must come together and force a unified front against Trump. Reining in ICE will be the first structural test of a new, more muscular opposition. How can the free states and free cities, and Congress do more to help the people of Minnesota on the front lines?
start making common cause with the Europeans and other free nations to forge a “liberal internationale” to more intentionally, and forcefully, challenge the rising illiberal one. We saw early steps in this direction with Coons-led trip to Denmark and Davos, and Gavin Newsom’s turn as a pro-democracy American voice on the global stage in recent days.

When I think this way, see the world this way, I get excited. I feel opportunity. I am starting to visualize success. In this struggle over the next ten years we will have good days and bad days. We will have invigorating wins and debilitating losses. But through it all we must stay on mission, and remember that other great lesson from our own Revolution, and from the historians of autocracy:

We will either hang together or hang separately.

There is nothing more that Trump, and Putin, and Orban want than for us to turn on one another, and see ourselves as the adversary, and lose sight of what this fight is really all about. Together, my friends, we must choose freedom……

Recent Related Discussions:

On countering Trump’s reckless, dangerous foreign policy - Senator Chris Coons, Rep. Adam Smith, Stuart Stevens
On how Trump is leading American to economic and geopolitical ruin - Dr. Rob Shapiro
On challenging Trump’s abandonment of rule of law, the lawlessness of ICE - Glenn Kirschner, TNR’s Greg Sargent, Minnesota Democratic Party Chair Richard Carlbom
The great Anderson Clayton gave us an overview of what 2026 looks like in North Carolina, and the opportunities she thinks we have this year
My Wednesday night talk, and a new spirited one from last night with Susan Wagner of the Grassroots Connector

Now, Let’s Get To Work People!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winning The Midterms - Support Our Candidates

Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $89,600 raised, $250,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Donate to all four endorsed House challengers with one click | Learn More | Enjoy our new conversations with Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Mayor Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), and Janelle Stelson (PA-10)
Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $20,800 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer and learn more. Amazing start everyone!
Winning Ohio - $40,000 raised, $250,000 goal - Our new campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton/Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party. Donate today and help us turn this critical 2026 battleground blue! | Watch my conversation with David Pepper, who does a great overview of the opportunities we have in Ohio this year. Note a generous donor has sent $21,000 worth of Hopium-infused contributions directly to the candidates which are not included in this total.
Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $69k raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my conversation with Gov. Cooper and a new, terrific one with NC Dem Party Chair Anderson Clayton
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $114k raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my inspiring conversation with Senator Ossoff

Expanding The Senate and Electoral College Maps, Winning In Red States and Red Places (2026-2032)

Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $335,100 raised, $500,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Join our new campaign to expand our map by investing in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas. Many thanks to two generous Hopium community members who have audaciously donated $10,000 to each of our five state parties

3 Campaigns Where We’ve Hit Our Goals, But Are Still Active - We have three campaigns where we’ve hit our goals but that folks can still participate in - Ken Martin’s New DNC, Anderson Clayton and the North Carolina Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party of Minnesota (DFL).

Why We Must Invest Early, Now, And Not Wait - In three new essays (here, here, here) I discuss 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, be loud, 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.

Winning The Big Arguments With Trump, Defend Our Democracy

We have two 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:

Stand with Ukraine and our European allies, and far more forcefully challenge Trump’s traitorous efforts to sell out the US and the West to Russia; demand Congress rebuke/issue a no confidence vote on his new threats to seize Greenland and his new, dangerous European tariffs;
Congress must stand forcefully for rule of law in the Caribbean and the Pacific - these illegal strikes must end; no war can be waged without Congressional approval; there must accountability for those who have broken the law, and the US must withdraw from Venezuela and cease other threats to violate the UN Charter and the sovereignty of other nations
Roll back Trump’s terrible, illegal tariffs that are re-igniting inflation, driving up prices, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to working people, hurting small businesses and farmers, reviving tyrannical “taxation without representation,” and alienating governments and people throughout the world. To put America on a sounder fiscal course due to the enormous deficits brought by Trump’s 2025 tax cuts we should reverse the cuts to the wealthy and corporations
Defend our democracy, rule of law, and our liberties by blocking the expansion of ICE; restoring due process for immigrants across the country; vigorously defending the 1st Amendment; warring against his outrageous targeting of his domestic political opponents; ending the use of the military on our streets and the dangerous occupation of our cities; stopping the unprecedented regime corruption; and by forcing the Administration to finally comply with Congress end the rancid cover up of the Epstein crimes.
Fight Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; reverse - not delay - the cuts to the ACA, Medicaid and our clean energy investments; support and co-sponsor the Stand Up For Science/Rep. Haley Stevens effort to remove Robert Kennedy from HHS.

2 - Celebrate America, Our Constitution, Our 250th Birthday By Bringing Our Resolutions Project To Your Community - This 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:

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

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.

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 everyone, and I remain so incredibly proud to be in this righteous fight with all of you - Simon

Business Blog

Friday, January 23, 2026