S.H. Smith

When Democrats take power again, we need to take a two-pronged approach to cleaning up our institutions and communicating about it. This will rely on investigations, single-issue bills, and an aggressive social media presence from our strongest Democratic communicators. First, Democrats need to launch investigations into the insider trading, pay-for-play, and pardon economy that Donald Trump has created. We need answers to some very serious questions. Did Trump ACTUALLY remove tariffs on Vietnam and then get a golf course announcement just weeks later? But these investigations can't happen in isolation. They need to be paired with single-issue bill after single-issue bill that directly addresses whatever corruption is being uncovered. For example, if Democrats uncover 28,000 insider trades coming from the oval office, we introduce a bill banning executive branch officials from trading individual stocks. Force Republicans to vote on it. If they vote against it, make them explain why. Then, it's necessary to have our strongest communicators flooding the zone about the corruption, and what we're doing. Flipping Steve Bannon's strategy back on him. Imagine if we had Jon Ossoff, AOC, James Talarico, Abdul El-Sayed, and our strongest Democratic communicators making face-to-camera videos every single day explaining exactly what's happening. "Here's the corruption we're investigating. Here's the evidence. Here's how we're going to stop it." I think this is how you connect the dots in voters' minds between the way they vote and having a responsive government that's actually trying to address corruption and rewire the system. Then we move to gerrymandering, affordability, paid family leave, and other reforms. Single-issue bill after single-issue bill, forcing Republicans to take public positions on these issues while Democrats communicate directly with the American people. I know this might sound idealistic, but we already have the tools at our disposal. I see people like Talarico, AOC, and Ossoff pulling insane numbers on social media. There's no reason that same infrastructure can't be used to explain congressional investigations, proposed legislation, and exactly what Democrats are doing with the power voters gave them.