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OK, Democrats. Its time to stop mucking around.

Cancel the focus groups. Junk the lame slogans (what does A Better Deal even mean? Better than what, and how?)

Its time to take stock of where you arewhere we are as a country given the dire condition of the presidency and the alternatively vulturous and supine impulses of the congressional majority, and formulate a plan to pull us back from the brink.

It has been clear for some time that Democratic control of the congress is the only hope for saving the health care of tens of millions of people and reining in a president in full meltdown over Russiagate before he really breaks something.

Trumps latest gambits have the feel of a despot flailing through his final days clinging to power, making a change of leadership on Capitol Hill all the more urgent. He and his team announced a plan to turn trans peoples military service into a Karl Rovian campaign ornament to give his base in exchange for the wall he cant build and the trade agreements he cant cancel. He and his interior secretary have threatened to destroy the economy of an American statethe very red state of Alaskato try and bludgeon its junior senator into agreeing to take away her constituents health care and thus deliver the GOPs King Joffrey his win.

Worse, Trump and the leadership of the United States Senate dont even care whats in the bill, or what it does to Americans. Meanwhile, Trump is transparently seeking to muscle out his own attorney general for failing to shield Trump and his campaign team from criminal inquiries. And his new communications director is carrying on his bosss thuggish and ignorant ways, knifing the White House chief of staff on live television and Twitter, in a clumsy attempt to frame Reince Priebus as the lead West Wing leaker.

Absent Democratic control of one or both houses of Congress, Donald Trump will surely add to these abrogations of democratic norms by arranging for the firing of Bob Mueller. Republican pledges to remain in session to prevent it notwithstanding, nothing in their behavior up to now suggests this temporary bout of independence would hold, and that if Sessions was fired, they would do anything other than to dutifully snap to attention and confirm whatever lackey the White House puts in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The ever-hopeful media dream is of an ending where John McCain rides heroically to Americas rescue on Russiagate, with his trusty lieutenant Lindsey Graham at his side. But McCain and Graham are not coming to the rescue. They are Party Men who support Donald Trump fully and will likely do so until the bitter end. There will be no Republican heroes. Democrats, as clumsy and scattershot as you are, are going to have to do this on your own.

A Democratic congressional victory next November, resulting in Democrats in the speakers chair and heading the relevant investigative committees, and if possible, helming the Senate too and sidelining the serpentine Mr. McConnell, is the only hope of saving or restoring Medicaid coverage to tens of millions of people who need it, preventing the total collapse of the individual health insurance markets, fully investigating this president and his team for potential collusion with a hostile foreign power, and impeaching him if it is warranted.

Thats a lot to lay on a party that until now has proved unequal to the challenge of the Trump era, and unprepared for the post-Reconstruction style backlash over the Obama era. The party that thought the parade of social progress would never end, for black people and DACA recipients, and gay couples and trans people has seen a Mack truck driven through the band line. Its time to stop playing, and engage in the fight.

So what should Democrats do and say?

On the doing front, Democrats must recognize the unprecedented nature of the threat to their voters next year. Voters who lean Democraticmeaning voters of color and single womenare likely to be subjected to a national onslaught of voter suppression the likes of which has not been seen since the 1950s. That means Democrats should aim to register as many voters as they can, starting now, and mount a national information campaign to get their already registered voters to check and double check their registrations.

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Set your goal high: Aim for a million or more new registrants. And spend the money it takes to reach out to them and convince them of the urgency of the cause, and the relevance to their own wallets, given the bottom that could fall out of their own lives if they lose their health insurance or the subsidies that pay for their aging parents nursing home care. Put an army of lawyers on speed dial, because youre going to need every one of them fight a party that has proven it will do anything, including widespread disenfranchisement and even shrugging off Russian collusion in order to hang on to power. By the way, expect that the Russians will be back. They interfered with Democratic candidates down ticket from Hillary Clinton last year too.

Meanwhile, its time for the party to do a little casting. Choose your most charismatic voices, preferably some who havent worn out their welcome in cable TV green rooms, but also some tried and true All Stars. Kamala Harris, Joe Kennedy, Al Franken, Eric Swalwell, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar come to mind, as do state-level stars like Mitch Landrieu, Stacey Abrams, and Gavin Newsom. Get your congressional and gubernatorial candidates out there too, not just on TV, but in every blue and purple state and every major urban center.

As to what they should say, the message seems pretty simple: Its time to cancel this dangerous and embarrassing reality show and get back to rebuilding America and the American dream.

Rebuilding America requires a few fundamentals. Luckily, one of them is not that red states and blue states fall in love with each other. That dream is just not on the table right now. Theres too much enmity. Too much water under the bridge. Obamas election and reelection broke something in the body politic. Maybe one day it will get repaired, but it wont by the next election. Everyone wants their particular views affirmed and for their opponents to be obliterated. If either the red or the blue states were to propose secession today, the other side would likely say dont let the door hit you on the way out.

But given the urgency of the moment, our disunity doesnt really matter that much now.

America is like a house full of squabbling relatives. We dont have to like each other, but we damned sure better fix the roof before it starts raining.

And our roof is leaking where it counts: in the working of our democracy. Right now, the Congress isnt functioning. The White House sure as hell isnt. Were creaking along on aging, ragged infrastructure. Millions of our fellow citizens fear they or their moms, dads, grandparents or children will be left to face sickness and financial collapse in one fell swoop. Still othersthirst for jobs where they are scarce, or freedom from fear of police. And we face waning confidence among our allies that we are a strong, reliable ally that is not being dictated to and toyed with by a foreign adversary and that we are led by a sound, sane leader.

Democrats must sound the alarm but stay focused. They must succinctly and powerfully tell the country that if given control of Congress, they will do a small number of concrete things, and leave the great driving dream to 2020.

First and foremost: They will save Americans health care by guarding Medicaid, while fixing the very real problems in the individual insurance market, together with any Republicans who will join them, and in consultation with the nations governors.

Second: They will pass legislation, also crafted by working with the states, to invest in literally rebuilding Americaour roads and bridges, highways, electrical grids and water and sewer systems; to finally give us a 21st century national transportation system and to ensure every household has access to the Internet, creating jobs and opportunity. If Republicans cry tax hikes, remind them of their push to steal a trillion dollars from Medicaid to hand over to the wealthy. Thats your money, too, America.

Third: Democrats will pass laws supporting business and scientific innovation to create jobs well into the future, including industries that promote clean air and water and make us independent of imported fossil fuels. We dont need to lie to displaced workers by pretending the coalmines and factories are coming back. America is the innovation nation. We raised entire industries from the dust and ashes of a world war and emerged to build the interstate highway system. We can do it again. We can out-build and out-innovate the world, and put our people back to work in the industries of the future. And we can use our extensive network of community colleges to retrain displaced workers so they can get in on the tech rush, too.

Fourth: Democrats will cancel the clownish Trump reality show by forcing the White House to live under real oversight, ensuring Robert Mueller can do his job (if he still has one) and giving America a real and thorough investigation of Russias intrusion into our election. No party can make Donald Trump behave like a rational adult, but he can be boxed in by a Congress willing to assert itself.

And fifth: They will return the Congress to the American people, putting an end to secret committees who write legislation behind closed doors and conspire in the dark to steal health care from the sick and the elderly in the dead of night. With an open Congress that does its business in the daylight, we can prepare to tackle the weighty issues in our culture: immigration, refugees, policing, drug legalization, and drug addiction, and whether to move to truly universal, single payer health care.

Those are big debates worth having, but we cant even begin, with the Congress and the White House in the state theyre in, and while the fundamentals of our democracy are being sawed off and hammered into dust.

The White House and the GOP want us wasting valuable time fighting over where people relieve themselves, whether to turf our thousands of serving soldiers, sailors and airmen on the whim of a man who five times refused his countrys call to service, or over whether millions of phantom voters denied Trump the popular vote he felt entitled to. They want the opposition fractured and fighting over a bygone primary thats lost to history and over which targeted group to throw over the side to lighten the boat.

Tell America you know better, Democrats. Tell Americans its time to turn off the noise and get back to rebuilding this country; this weathered house, and to have a congress that at least has the backbone to stand up and say enough to the three-ring circus at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

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How the Democrats Can Pull Us Back From the Brink - Daily Beast