J.D.Vance, who may or may not be the face of the Republican future, grew up just up the road, in Middletown. Last Thursday on CNN he said something like, ‘…everyone’s been asking what it will take for people who voted for Trump to lose faith. Losing their healthcare just might do it.’  

And this in Sunday’s NYT: No district is off the tableResistance matters.

At the same time, we grapple with the number of people who voted for DJT becausegovernment wasn’t working. As citizens, we have a job to do. 

This is a weekly post about ways to make citizenship a habit, for progressives who were already busy. 

We are thankful for the activists. But history says we also need people to push it over the line. Keep making noise. It is making a difference. Soon it will be time to support new candidates as well. 

GO 
Monday, May 8- 5:00p: Hands Off Health Care Rally, City Hall Steps, 801 Plum St., Cincinnati, 45202 
CALL OR WRITE 
Keep calling and writing your MoCs! The House has an “in-district work period” this week, aka recess, but neither Chabot nor Wenstrup have announced plans to meet with constituents. The staff tells us D.C schedulers control their appearances. Call the local offices, but also call or email the schedulers and let them know how you feel. They often post appearances last minute on Facebook, so follow MoCs on FB as well. Commenting on their FB pages is a great way to be heard! As for our Senators, we need to push Rob Portman to fix the ACA!
 
CONNECT 
OUR NEW LOOK
When Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861 there were sharpshooters on the rooftops and cavalry in the streets. Seven states had already seceded. 60% of the voters wanted someone else. Tension was high.
Deeply aware of the climate, Lincoln did his best to sooth a divided nation. In his inaugural speech he asked Americans to dig deep, to rise above the discord by looking to the innate goodness in human nature. He made this request, which he knew would be hard or impossible, by contrasting the toxicity of 1861 with spirit of 1776.

At the time of our nation’s founding, he explained, Americans with widely divergent priorities and passions came together as one. He ended with a plea that we do it again:

“… We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Barack Obama called on us to call up our “better angels” in January 2009 as he rode a train to Washington for his inauguration, and throughout his presidency. We had a faint hope he could be Trump’s better angel. But so much for that. Let’s figure out our part.