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President Trump took to Twitter on Monday morning to recommendsome reading: a book that suggests Democrats have no ideas.

The book, by Michael J. Knowles,is titled Reasons to Vote for Democrats. The cover promises a comprehensive guide, and the table of contents includes chapters on Foreign Policy, Civil Rights and Homeland Security. The following 260 pages are blank.

A great book for your reading enjoyment: REASONS TO VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS by Michael J. Knowles, Trump wrote on Twitter.

The endorsement of the book, an Amazon bestseller published on Feb. 8, comes as Trump has suggested he might reach out to Democrats for help with health care and other priorities stuck on Capitol Hill.

[Reasons to Vote for Democrats jumps to the top of Amazons bestseller list. But its pages are blank.]

It also comes after some members of Trumps team, including counselor Kellyanne Conway, have faced criticism for crossing ethical lines by using the White House to promote commercial products. Conway plugged the clothing line of Trumps daughter Ivanka Trump in February.

The promotion of Knowles's book, which has a list price of$9.99, was just one of a handful of early morning Trump tweets on Monday, including another in which he took another swipe at the media.

The Fake Media (not Real Media) has gotten even worse since the election, Trump wrote. Every story is badly slanted. We have to hold them to the truth!

Trumpthen weighed in on a special congressional election being held in Georgia, taking aim at the Democratic frontrunner, Jon Ossoff, whom the president called a "super Liberal" and accused of wanting to "protect criminals, allow illegal immigration and raise taxes!

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Trump plugs 'Reasons to Vote for Democrats' book filled with blank pages - Washington Post

Bernie Sanders and Tom Perez are working together to build a party that puts economic populism at the top of the agenda.

Senator Bernie Sanders. (AP Photo / John Locher)

It is easy to dismiss the Come Together and Fight Back Tour that this week will take Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez to eight cities in eight states this week as mere political theater. But this tour has the potential to finally begin redefininga Democratic Party that is still struggling with its identity after the disastrous 2014 and 2016 election cycles. Thats a big deal, not just for a party that lacks focus but for an American political process that will alter dramaticallyfor better or for worsein the months and years to come.

Political parties change identities over time, as anyone who has watched the sorry trajectory of the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower can certainly attest. Sometimes, parties evolve. Sometimes, parties respond to moral and political demands that can no longer be denied. That was certainly the case for Democrats in the late 1940s and 50s, when wise members of the partybegan to recognize the necessity of a clean break with the Southern segregationists who had historically been central figures in the Democratic coalition.

Though many Democrats still do not fully recognize the fact, their party is again at a moment where it must change.

The party of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman began veering in the 1970s toward more centrist economic approaches. By the 1990s, it was swamped by so-called Third Way thinking that embraced free-trade fabulism, deregulation of banking and Wall Street, and the cruel lie that there can be some sort of win-win compromise between crony capitalism and the common good. It was never true that all Democrats favored centrist economics, but too many leaders constrained the partys identity with a perceived need to keep on the right side of Wall Street.

Democrats cannot simply say no to Donald Trump; they must provide a coherent alternative to billionaire populism.

Then came the 2016 primary race, which drew clear lines of distinction. The Sanders campaign, with its urgent advocacy for a $15-an-hour minimum wage, fair trade, single-payer health care, taxes on the rich, necessary regulation of big banks, and profound political reform, excited millions of voterparticularly frustrated Democrats, progressive independents, and, above all, the young voters who will decide whether the Democratic Party has a future. And although Sanders did not win the nomination, he won the debate. The party platform reflected his campaigns progressive values. And Hillary Clintonembraced much of his agenda in her fall campaign.

Although Tom Perez did not back Sanders in 2016, he has a long track record of positioning himself on the left onlabor rights and a host of other issues.That helped him when he faced off againsta key Sanders backer, RepresentativeKeith Ellison of Minnesota, ina closely contestedrace for DNC chair.

The Perez-Ellison race was often portrayed as a contest between the party establishment and the Sanders camp, but there was more to it than that. Many 2016 Clinton backers, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and the heads of several major unions, supported Ellison in 2017. And Perez went out of his way to emphasize his belief that the party needed to change.

The party does need to change. It must become dramatically more militant on economic issues. Democrats cannot simply say no to Donald Trump; they must provide a clear and coherent progressive populist alternative to the billionaire populism of a president who never wasand never will becommitted to advancing the interests of workers, farmers, small business owners, students, and retirees.

THE STAKES ARE HIGHER NOW THAN EVER. GET THE NATION IN YOUR INBOX.

Democrats must also provide a clear and coherent alternative to the Third Way politics that weakens the message, and the appeal, of their party. The era of the so-called New Democrats and the old DLC (officially the Democratic Leadership Council but, in reality, as Jesse Jackson explained, Democrats for the Leisure Class) must be finishedonce and for all.

That is, however, easier said than done. Real change is hard. It must be conscious and it must take place in the open. Thats where the Sanders-Perez tour comes in.

The senator and the party chair are working together to send a clear signal about where the Democratic Party stands. That signal will have to get even clearer; but having Sanders and Perez on the same page is important.

Theyre saying the right things,announcing that their tour will speak out for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, pay equity for women, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, combating climate change, making public colleges and universities tuition-free, criminal justice reform, comprehensive immigration reform and tax reform which demands that the wealthy and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes.

Democrats need to recognize that real change is hard. It must be conscious and it must take place in the open.

And theyre traveling to the right placesMaine, Kentucky, Florida, Nevada, Utah, and Arizonaacknowledging the need for a 50-state strategy. Theyre inviting the right people, including Ellison (who will appear midweek in Texas and Nebraska with Sanders) and Planned Parenthood Action Fund president Cecile Richards (who will close the week off with Sanders and Perez in Las Vegas).

No one should imagine that this is the end of a process, however. It is only a beginning. But it is the right beginning.

It matters that, in their joint statement announcing the tour, Sanders and Perez correctly assessed the challenging moment in which the party must define not just its agenda but its mission. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality and a shrinking middle class, we need a government which represents all Americans, not just Wall Street, multinational corporations and the top 1percent, they said. Regardless of where they live or their political affiliations, most people understand that it is absurd for Republicans in Congress to support huge tax breaks for billionaires while pushing for cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. They understand that the recent Republican health-care proposal thatwould have thrown 24 million Americans off of their health insurance, substantially raised premiums for older workers, and defunded Planned Parenthood while, at the same time, providing almost $300 billion in tax breaks to the top two percent is a disgraceful idea.

Now Sanders and Perez and millions of grassroots Democrats must push forward. They must build a different Democratic Party. It cannot be a party that merely opposes Trump and Trumpism. What Sanders and Perez and Democratic activists must forge is a Democratic Party that, with its embrace of economic and social justice, can present itself as the absolute antithesis of Trump and Trumpism.

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The Democratic Party Must Finally Abandon Centrism - The Nation.

From Supreme Court nominations to healthcare, it doesnt take a high IQ to figure out that nobody, in what is supposed to be our nations most deliberative body, got the memo the American people sent in November. Do your job.

Today, Neil Gorsuch sat on the high court for his first day hearing cases as a justice of the Supreme Court, despite the petty politics going on in the Capitol.

The Democrats recent decision to filibuster an eminently qualified Supreme Court nominee and force Republicans to employ the nuclear option to confirm Gorsuch is a perfect example of what can best be described as playground politics at its lowest, and if President Trump and the new Republican-controlled Congress are going to deliver on their ambitious agenda then they should know there wont be any help from Democrats theyve taken their marbles and gone home.

On the Rachel Maddow show in January, Rachel asked Senate Minority Leader Chuck SchumerCharles SchumerCotton booed over Trump's tax returns Democrats' playground politics trample on the will of voters Five hurdles to avoiding a government shutdown MORE (D-NY) if there will be consequences for Republicans stealing a Supreme Court seat because they failed to consider Merrick Garland, whom President Obama nominated in March of 2016.

Its hard for me to imagine a nominee that Donald TrumpDonald TrumpOregon man dies 'peacefully' after told Trump was impeached White nationalist argues Trump should be liable for inciting violence at rally Warren on Trump administration: 'God, it's like dog years' MORE would choose that would get Republican support that we could support. So youre right, he responded. And so you will do your best to hold the seat open? asked Maddow. Absolutely, Schumer said.

This is the same Sen. Schumer who in July 2007 said that no Supreme Court nominee from President Bush should be approved 19 months before the inauguration of a new president. We should not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court, except in extraordinary circumstances," said Schumer.

Its baffling why Gorsuch is the battle they would pick, forcing the nuclear option to be invoked when, as early as this summer, there could be a second vacancy on the court. A vacancy that could actually shift the dynamic of the court, unlike the Gorsuch seat.

Playground politics.

The American people sent a clear message that what they care about is the hit their wallets are taking due to increased taxes over the last eight years, premium increases of 25 percent this year under ObamaCare, our national security, and the tremendous overreach into our freedoms and religious liberties under the last administration.

One out five general election voters told exit polls the Supreme Court was the most important factor in their vote for president, and 57 percent of those voters went for Trump. Understanding the next president would likely be responsible for appointing two, and possibly three, Supreme Court justices is what made conservatives, particularly evangelical conservatives who were uncomfortable with candidate Trump, comfortable enough to make him President Trump.

According to the Pew Research Center, 81 percent of white evangelical Christians voted for President Trump, and 58 percent of protestant/other Christians voted for President Trump. Thats more than a Republican presidential nominee received since George W. Bush in 2004, when he garnered 59 percent of the protestant/other Christian vote, but only 78 percent of the white evangelical Christian vote.

If his first selection of Gorsuch is any guide, the next Supreme Court nominee under Trump will likely be a well-qualified individual who takes an originalist view of the Constitution and wont seek to rewrite it. Its unlikely theyll continue the severe overreach of the last eight years, but will work to protect constitutional rights such as our religious freedom instead of stripping it away.

But all signs point to Schumer continuing his playground pattern, now inexplicably tying needed reform to Trump releasing his tax returns. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other.

As for the Republicans, it appears they dont fully grasp that this election was different, either. They ran on repealing ObamaCare, as the program is literally in danger of collapsing, and the American people handed them the Senate, House, and White House. That, combined with having six years to figure out an affordable replacement and they still arent able to get the job done.

Continuing to live in their little bubble and go about business as usual and engage in their own version of playground politics will no longer work. For many Americans the stakes have never been higher. Excuses and rhetoric no longer stand a chance. If Republicans fail to get to work they will find themselves out of work in the next election cycle.

People are tired of having their freedoms trampled on and their wallets hijacked. They want their elected officials in Washington to stop whining, get off the playground and do their job.

Lauren DeBellis Appell was a press assistant for Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and deputy press secretary for his successful 2000 re-election campaign, as well as assistant communications director for the Senate Republican Policy Committee (2001-2003).

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Democrats' playground politics trample on the will of voters - The Hill (blog)

MOLINE Official or political, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner's message in the Quad-Cities on Monday was much the same as it was when he was here last week: It's mostly House Democrats who are standing in the way of resolving the state's financial woes.

The governor made a stop Monday at the iWireless Center to speak to members of the Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce. Rauner praised Senate Democrats, even more so than last week, and said they want a balanced budget and a deal to end the two-year old budget impasse.

"I applaud them for that," he said. "I'm cheering for them."

Rauner has long focused on House Speaker Mike Madigan for much of what is wrong in Springfield. He didn't as harshly take on the Democratic leader as in the past, but the point was the same. He said there is "real reluctance to do anything."

Steve Brown, a spokesman for Madigan, responded by questioning Monday whether Rauner wants a deal himself. He accused him of derailing a deal in the Senate and said that Madigan is open to a deal but that it must be "balanced."

The governor's stop Monday was his second in the Quad-Cities in less a week. This one was an official visit. Last Tuesday, Rauner was in Rock Island for what he described as a political event not paid for with taxpayer funds.

Critics called the visit last week the unofficial kickoff of his 2018 campaign. Rauner denied that, saying he was simply trying to communicate with Illinoisans. But whether it was this week or last, Rauner emphasized changing the political equation in Springfield.

"The biggest thing you all can do is reach out to members of the ... House Democratic caucus," Rauner told the chamber members.

In fact, there is only one Democrat left in the Illinois Quad-Cities' House delegation: Rep. Mike Halpin, of Rock Island. Democrat Mike Smiddy was ousted last election, with Rauner supplying much of the money to target him.

Before Rauner's visit Monday, about 100 people gathered outside the iWireless Center to protest him. Many were from area labor unions.

A succession of speakers accused the governor of being dictatorial and failing to negotiate in good faith. They said schools, human service agencies and working people have been hurt by the impasse and, in a common refrain, they repeatedly told him to "do your job."

One speaker, Carlene Erno, a state worker and Quad-City area union leader, chided Rauner for recent television ads paid for by a group allied with him. "Quit spending money on stupid commercials, wearing flannel and holding duct tape," said Erno, president of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Local 2615. "Do your job."

In addition to the Quad-Cities, Rauner also was making a stop in Peoria on Monday.

Ed Tibbetts writes for the Quad-City Times, a Lee Enterprises sister publication of The Southern. He can be emailed at etibbetts@qctimes.com.

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In Quad-Cities appearance, Rauner praises Senate Democrats - The Southern

President Donald Trump and his key advisers are incompetent, mean-spirited, elite tontos who fooled 63 million voters into believing that he cares about the working Joe.

Meanwhile, 66 million other voters have been organizing marches across the land in reaction to Trump on every human rights issue from womens rights (are human rights once and for all. Dont forget Hillary Clinton said that) to immigration.

To the 1.2 million who voted for Jill Stein of the Green Party who is admirable for her Green New Deal platform, but who hasnt held elective office beyond the Lexington Town Meeting; to the 4.5 million who voted for clueless Gary What is Aleppo? Johnson of the Libertarian Party;and to the 90 million who did not vote: Heres your chance to do better now.

While Trump and most of the Republican Party are implementing an agenda based on beliefs that people who are poor (read working class and middle class) dont deserve doctors or medicine, and that all Muslims are terrorists, immigrants are job-robbers and that the Earth is not in imminent danger of becoming too hot for all living things, millions are protesting online and in the streets.

For those who thought hating Hillary was a fun way to spend the day, now find time to call your elected officials and support them when they take positions you agree with, and call them out when you disagree.

The way forward is not to agree on everything, as Sanders and some of his loud-mouthed followers insist. It is not to give up on the Green Partys ideals, or our most progressive dreams.

Instead, we can take our cacophony of ideas and push the Democratic Party to live by its platform and make this country greater.

And do put on your seatbelts because democracy is a bumpy ride.

When Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, gave himself a $45,000 raise earlier this year, he broke the Democratic platform contract which, among other things, deplores greed. But on other issues, including helping people who are impoverished by ill health or institutional barriers, he is outstanding.

When U.S. Reps. Jim McGovern, D-Worcester, who was a Hillary supporter, and Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, a Bernie supporter, joined forces recently at an event to motivate voters, they stayed true to the platform.

When Trump nominated a right-winger, Neil Gorsuch, to the U.S. Supreme Court, Democratic senators pushed by their base tried to block the appointment. They noted that there already was a well-qualified candidate, Merrick Garland, nominated by then-President Obama in March 2016, who Republicans refused to even consider. Encouraged by the base, Democratic senators became activists.

But U.S. Senate President Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, changed the rules. There wasnt much to complain about, though, because Democrats had done the same thing when they were in the majority.

So with a simple majority vote, Gorsuch, who voted in favor of the company and against the frozen trucker in the now-famous case, became an associate justice on the Supreme Court.

Compare that to Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who once said, I strive never to forget the real-world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses and government.

In the face of the real-time, real-life dangerous consequences to Trumps presidency, every month protests both nationwide and globally draw hundreds of thousands who reaffirm that most of us believe in the Constitution.

Immigrants come here fleeing war and climate change. They have a simple wish to live in peace. But this cruel administration casts them aside.

Except for Native Americans, every single one of us has ancestors who came here either voluntarily or were enslaved. The bravest came here, and they are still coming, pinning their hopes on the United States.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, a Greek-American, chose Neil Diamonds hopeful America for his campaign theme song in 1988. Diamonds heritage is Polish and Russian.

Rihannas tribute to immigrants, American Oxygen, has been viewed nearly 72 million times on YouTube. The song sung by the Barbados-born superstar highlights both the best and worst of the U.S., and it resonates. We are the new America, she sings.

We are, as our ancestors were, among the bravest. From the light bulb to airplanes, from charting human DNA to building bionic limbs, from television to computers to social media, immigrants and their descendants have contributed so much to this country, and the world.

Theres so much were fighting for. As Sotomayor has said, the Constitution must have a heart and soul.

Natalia Muoz, of Northampton, is the host of Vaya con Muoz on radio station WHMP (1400 AM).

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Columnist Natalia Muoz: Push Democrats to uphold party platform - GazetteNET