We are now deep into “Now We Act,” a series of live, unscripted conversations with Democratic legislators, who will soon enjoy decisive majorities in both houses of the United States Congress.
These conversations, like the one I am releasing now with Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, take place thanks to the generosity and patience of the lawmakers themselves, who are willing to engage in impromptu exchanges about some fundamental questions, and to listen to my views as well as expressing theirs.
I’d like to explain why I initiated these.
As those of you who have been around me on my American journeys these last six months or so know, I have been confident that the opposition party, the Democrats, would win a big victory in the midterms. I was worried about attempts by Trump allies to disrupt the elections, and am thankful for the efforts of organizers and lawyers around the country that — along with the size of the Democratic victory — made that impossible.
My greater concern all along has been that Democrats might fail to transform a huge electoral victory into rapid and meaningful change.
I believe that voters have given Democrats a chance, and that Democrats have to take that chance, quickly, radically, demonstratively, showing concern for the daily difficulties people face, and getting on the right side of the issue of corruption. Affordability and accountability are connected, as Americans now understand: you can’t get to the underlying economic issues that have made life unaffordable without breaking the hold of corruption and addressing inequality.
Americans think that the system is broken — and they are right — but they also think that Trump is far, far more corrupt than the system — and there they are also right. This is what gives Democrats their once-in-a-lifetime chance: to show that they are better than they have been, to show that they are better than the system, to show that the system can be changed.
And it can be — that was the message today from Senator Chris Van Hollen. People have “invested hope” in the Democrats, he said, but they need “to follow through” on health care, data centers, and money in politics.
If Democrats don’t — and this is my feeling now — they will quickly lose credibility, and could even collapse as a political party. Their historical success in these elections arose from the hard work of organizers and candidates and the decisions of voters, but it was enabled by a certain historical moment. As Shakespeare has Brutus say in Julius Caesar: “There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” My personal sense is that the Democrats have about six months before that tide goes out again. The task is to establish that that they are the party that wants money out of politics and back into citizens’ pockets.
I very much appreciated the combination of clear judgement and radical aims demonstrated by Senator Van Hollen in our conversation. We talked about the methods of authoritarians, the need to break normalization, the meaning of the freedom of speech, and the need to see the connections between the abuses of rights and the decline in good opportunities for all of us.
It is also worth pondering what Senator Van Hollen has to say about new members and leadership in the Senate at the end of our conversation: “We should not have a coronation.” “I’m listening now to people who are demanding change.” “The new members have demanded change.”
These “Now We Act” conversations are freely available to everyone. If you are a subscriber to this substack you will be notified by email when each new live conversation is broadcast and when each recording is released. If you are a paid subscriber you can leave questions in the comments; I will try to bring them up in future sessions. Feel free to share these recordings with others who might be interested.
I had four other live conversations with Senators on Monday November 9th (Senators Blumenthal, Baldwin, Kelly, and Kim); I will be posting those recordings each morning this week.
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