Chosen by the "The Spirit of History"

VIDEO: Our Role at this Moment

The South Dayton Democrats just keep on growing.

“Exploding in membership,” their new leader, former state Rep candidate Rose Lounsbury (one of the most impressive candidates I’ve ever watched), told me as I spoke to the group Wednesday night.

And she wasn’t kidding. Here’s the crowd that greeted me. Ready to fight and ready to work:

Before speaking, I flipped on Substack Live for the first time, using my computer to tilt up the phone.

Not only did it show the speech live, but it also sent me the entire speech and clips after the fact. There were some connectivity issues, so I’ll spare you entire speech, but here are some of the clips.

First, much of my purpose was to explain why it matters so much that we all stay involved:

I emphasized how history tells us that the biggest danger at moments like this is that we do not take the threat of it all—and the potential risks—as seriously as we should:

So we have to take what we face deadly seriously.

At the same time, I explained that I feel resolute to push forward—like so many of you do. And like so many of our forbears in this fight for democracy did, overcoming more than we even face today:, amid greater dangers to their lives and freedom.

Their success inspires me today:

I read one of my favorite quotes, from John Lewis, about how he viewed the role and responsibility that “the spirit of history” had placed on him and his generation in the arc of history:

“At certain points in life, in the flow of human existence and circumstances, this force, this spirit, finds you or selects you, it chases you down, and you have no choice; you just allow yourself to be used, to be guided by this force and to carry out what must be done.”

That applies to us now. I feel it, don’t you? We have a higher purpose than we might have ever imagined.

But we also have a responsibility to act. Because what we do in the coming months will have generations of impact, for good or for bad. Again, history teaches us that:

I talked a lot more about the responsibility for all of us to act now.

But then I also emphasized just how much Trump is already overreaching his non-existent mandate. And that what he is doing, as painful as the impact will be to our country and countless Americans, presents our best opportunity to resist and fight back (successfully) if we are organized and energized from the ground up.

And I emphasized that the timing of this (his second-term midterm) coincides with past moments where the party out of power has gone on to sweeping victories:

And that the damage they’re doing now gives us the opportunity to awaken the electorate and throw these extremists out of power:

I said much more than this, and had a wonderful Q and A session after.

Thanks you South Dayton Dems for the warm welcome!

And now that I know how to use Substack LIVE, I’ll do it more often.

Day 102 — March 13, 2024

One of the central fronts in the far right’s attack on democracy is its vicious attack on America’s colleges and universities. As JD Vance summarized, they consider higher ed institutions “the enemy” and an obstacle to their conservative views winning the day.

This is playing out in so many ways—the NIH cuts, the censorship and attacking of academic freedom under the mantra of “DEI,” the replacement of academic leaders with right-wing figures. and so many other ways. It’s ripped right of Orban’s playbook, and they don’t even try to hide it. He’s Vance’s role model.

One of the most egregious examples right now is in Ohio, where, as the New Republic wrote, “[c]onservative lawmakers are pushing a bill that could create a devastating statewide brain drain.”

This bill has earned criticism across the nation, including letters of of protest from America’s most renowned historians.

But yesterday, a letter from the federal government to Columbia University took the attack to an entirely new level.

As background, the Trump administration has frozen federal funds to the school. This letter outlines the terms of reinstating those funds. It’s basically a mob-style shakedown. And the list includes not just the question of campus speech and security, but everything from how the school admits students to which departments (naming them) should be placed in “receivership” and for how long:

If Columbia acts upon these demands, it truly will set a precedent of the federal government dictating policies of private colleges and universities going forward.

Given the role that an independent system of higher ed plays in a functioning democracy, that’s as dangerous as it gets.