The Connector Newsletter

Pennsylvania’s most independent progressive state assembly member, Chris Rabb, is running for Congress and the primary election is less than two weeks away. I’ve known and been friends with Chris since 2005, when we invited him to speak at Personal Democracy Forum. Six years earlier, in 1999, he had founded Afro-Netizen.com, one of the first hubs for African-Americans online. It started as an e-newsletter that grew from 100 to 10,000 subscribers in 18 months.

How did insurgent candidate Péter Magyar come from nowhere to defeat Hungarian strongman Victor Orbán, winning 53% of the vote and a supermajority in the country’s parliament in last week’s national elections? This despite Orbán having rewritten Hungary’s constitution to favor his ruling Fidesz party, stacked the courts, tilted the electoral system heavily in his favor, taken over nearly all the media, and shut down or bought off most other sources of opposition?

A few weeks ago, Susan Wagner, founder of the activist group Markers for Democracy, posted an urgent plea on The Grassroots Connector substack. Addressing an array of liberal pundits, she begged them to change their focus: All your programs, podcasts, livestreams, and Substack content feed the public a steady diet of all the evils of MAGA and Trump. The message is relentless: Democracy is collapsing. Institutions are failing. Our opponents are ruthless.

I’ve long wondered why David Shor, a 34-year-old data analyst and self-styled party boy, has so much influence over Democratic party debates about strategy, given that his main expertise is only in polling. Shor, who runs Blue Rose Research and oversaw Democratic SuperPAC Future Forward’s massive $560 million ad spend on behalf of Biden/Harris during the 2024 election, was one of the select few political experts asked by Senate Democrats to brief them at their annual issues retreat last spring.

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” –Fred Rogers (aka “Mr. Rogers”) According to Axios, Reichsführer* Stephen Miller and Reichsminister* Kristi Noemheld a “tense meeting” last week with top immigration officials, demanding that they triple the number of daily arrests they were making to 3,000 a day.

April 20 came and went with no declaration of the Insurrection Act. Can everyone who shared that terrifying viral post about how martial law would be declared that day please now share a note saying “Hey, we’re still here!” Or something equally cheerful to counteract the unnecessary fear-mongering? The times are crazy enough! As my friend and movement historian L.A. Kauffman says, we have to Spread Courage.

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Yesterday afternoon, while door-knocking in Sleepy Hollow, NY on behalf of the Democratic slate, I saw someone across the street in a light blue sweatshirt carrying a piece of campaign literature and glancing at his cell phone. “Are you also canvassing here?” I called out. And that’s how I met Kevin, a 56-year-old Republican activist from Connecticut who was canvassing for Elon Musk’s America PAC. Yes, they’re here on the East Coast and not just in swing states.

As I wrote last week, I’m still feeling optimistic about the outcome of the election. Here are a few additional reasons why: Underlying demographic trends in the Rust Belt states that make up the Democratic “blue wall” favor Harris.

As I wrote last week, I’m still feeling optimistic about the outcome of the election. Here are a few additional reasons why: Underlying demographic trends in the Rust Belt states that make up the Democratic “blue wall” favor Harris.