The Presidential Election: Six Reasons for Optimism
From time to time, TCDC Chair Linda Hoffmann will share this space with a member who wants to write about an issue of interest to Democrats. This month, the Message is from Communications Director Claudia Montague Wheatley. Rosenberg quotes are lightly edited for length.
Simon Rosenberg is a Democratic political consultant and master of Hopium Chronicles, the place for Democrats to go when our nerves are shot from unsettling presidential polls and other campaign news. He shared his reasons for optimism on the April 26 Bulwark podcast.
Rosenberg prefaced his remarks by telling listeners to give up dreams of a white knight who will take Trump out of the picture for us.
“We have to stop waiting for Jack Smith or the prosecutors,” he said. “And we have to not make it contingent upon him being found guilty. If it happens, great. But if it doesn’t, we have to fight the election that’s in front of us now.”
Rosenberg cited six facts about Trump that voters didn’t know in 2020.
Number one: “He raped E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room.”
Two: Trump “oversaw one of the largest financial frauds in all of American history. Has been fined half a billion dollars for it. And he and his two sons have been banned from doing large amounts of business in New York State.”
Three: “He stole America’s secrets. He lied to the FBI about it. He shared those secrets with other people. It is, without question, the greatest betrayal of America by a former president.”
Four: “He tried to overturn an election. He led an armed attack on the Capitol on one of the only days that all 435 members are there. And he’s promised to end American democracy for all time if he stumbles into the White House in January of 2025.”
Five: “He and his family have corruptly taken more money from foreign governments than any political family in the history of the country.”
Six: “He’s singularly responsible for ending Roe and stripping the rights and freedoms away from more than half the population.”
“I don’t think he can overcome all six,”Rosenberg said. “And none of those things are contingent upon him getting convicted in a court of law. These are all just facts in the ground. We know they happened.”
It’s on us—you, me, other Democrats and any voter who wants to preserve our democracy—to talk to other voters about these six facts, Rosenberg said. “The American people deserve to understand who they’re voting for in this election. This Donald Trump, to me, is far weaker, far more degraded.”
Turns out, we’re the heroes we’ve been waiting for. Talk it up, everyone!