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Running for Congress [1]

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Date: 2025-03-09

Senior House Democratic members (including Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, Minority Whip Katherine Clark, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries) are trying to stop progressives from attacking the Trump regime. While decorum is important in Congress, they appear to have forgotten where the problem lies. Hint for Democratic top brass: The Trump team is destroying the federal government.

See:

The lackluster response of the Democratic Party to the wanton destruction of our government is simply inadequate to the day. We should start right now to replace them with better Democrats.

I’m considering running for the congressional seat in my own district (OR-2, currently occupied by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici). I’m not motivated to be in office. I’m comfortably retired and don’t have any personal ambition to take on a new career in politics. But the current crop of politicians (of all stripes) has made such a hash of things that I feel the need to go fix hash.

See Turn Red Blue by me.

Rep. Bonamici is not a bad Democrat. Her policy positions are sensible. The problem is that Bonamici, like many Democrats, is willing to work with Republicans. She has, in fact, a long list of bipartisan efforts to her name.

The second district here is overwhelmingly Democratic. Bonamici beat her Republican opponent, Bob Todd, last year by 68.6% to 28.1% (with Libertarian Joe Christman getting 3.1%). She does not have to coddle Republicans, and could be on the forefront of confronting the fascist destruction of our government. She could have stood up at Criminal Trump’s speech last week and called him out for cuts to Medicaid and other vital government programs.

I think you should run for Congress, too. (Caveat: presuming you could reasonably mount a campaign and are willing to get into the fray.)

I encourage you to look into it. The constitutional requirement is that you be at least 25 years old, and a U.S. citizen for at least 7 years, with residency in the state where you would serve.

The practical requirements can be daunting. You have to raise sufficient money to float a campaign and you have to manage a few filing requirements. But the basic driving force of getting elected (presuming you meet the constitutional and legal requirements) is pretty basic: You need a message.

My message is very basic: Voters in the Oregon second district should be terrified of continued Republican dominance in the federal government, and they need a Representative who will forcefully and effectively protect the American people against that existential threat. The purpose of the government is to protect the people and the land. We need a government that prevents exploitation of people by entrenched wealth, corporate greed, and bigotry like racism and sexism.

Bonamici’s opponent last year professed to have “the same values as our Forefathers Judeo/Christian principles.” He said he would “sponsor and support bills that focus on waste and mismanagement of federal funding”. KATU-TV He’s a bit of a religious nut. “I believe that our leaders should have Judeo/Christian principles as our Nation's founding fathers did.”

He thinks our greatest challenges are “Dealing with political sabotage, illegal aliens, energy and corporate interference in elections namely through the unconstitutional court ruling giving corporations personhood creating an unfair balance for individuals.” Ballotpedia He doesn’t want the federal government to give money to nonprofits that “have proven to be inefficient and have no significant measurable progress”. Streetroots

(You might note that I think Mr. Todd has a point about corporate personhood.)

This is a recurrent Republican theme of waste and mismanagement that is a total sham. How do I know? One of the first things the Trump team did when they got power was to fire inspectors general—the very people charged with rooting out waste and mismanagement.

The key to progressives winning elections is to attack Republicans in those areas where our Democratic opponents are not. This puts those Democrats in the position of either defending Republican positions (which are mostly unpopular when properly framed) or joining us in attacking the Republicans. If our Democratic opponent wins the primary, we haven’t harmed them—only their Republican opponents.

But to do that, they have to win.

It’s also important to do a great job of promoting progressive proposals. Those who’ve followed my postings here over the last twenty years or so know that I am a strong proponent of key progressive values: improving our healthcare system, raising incomes, supporting democracy, the rule of law, and respect for rights around the world.

I think you can win in your district by taking on an important progressive issue and pushing it. One of the problems we’ve had as Democrats is that the Republicans force their bogus issues on the voters, crowding out real issues like fair and affordable healthcare. Where’s the push back? Where is the Democratic dominance on the issues?

So, I’d like to invite you to think about running for Congress. It is important for Democrats to start campaigning right now. The filing deadlines are all next year. But the early candidate often gets the job.

Plus, by campaigning now, we put pressure on Republicans in Congress to push back against the illegal and vile things the Trumpettes are doing to the Executive Branch. The more of the damage we stop now, the less we will have to rebuild in a few years when, inevitably, Democrats will take possession of the White House once again.

And we can continue our march to the future.

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