We Did Not Know What Was Coming Series: Birth of “The 21 Series”

PREFACE: To say the last seven years have been a journey of growth for me and this country is an understatement. To help me process and cope with the roller-coaster of emotions I have felt these years, I started writing on Medium right after the 2016 election. My last series ended December 31, 2020, after Biden won the presidential election.

Recently I realized I missed writing “in my journal” and decided to go back to the very beginning and re-read my essays. I wanted to see where I started out on November 9, 2016, and where I am now. I decided to repost my favorite blogs with a short present-day commentary and continue onto current times.

I hope a few of you will join me on this journey of recollection, reflection, and learning. Little did we know what we were headed into.

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Birth of “The 21 Series”: January 19, 2019

I was exhausted after the mid-terms — delighted, happy and exhausted. I felt the same after the birth of my son, M. A big miracle happened in 1989 and a smaller one in 2016. After all the hard work on both occasions I just wanted to rest. Many of my fellow activists felt the same after the House mid-term elections. They could do nothing political other than watch pundits wax and wane on the Blue Wave and what it meant for Trump. More exciting was watching the seating of the 116th Congress.

To recap that wonderful event, the House won:

· 67 Democratic seats claiming majority rule in the House of Representatives

· 38 Democratic women joined Congress

· 9 Democrats previously worked in the CIA or are veterans of the military

· 23 Democrats are people of color and many represent mostly white districts

· The class boasts the first Native American Congresswomen and the first Muslim Congresswoman

· 25 of the Democrats are Progressives including 4 who will represent districts Trump won in 2016. 19 other Democrats also won in Trump districts

· Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House and is third in line to become President of the United States

· Adam Schiff is now Chairman of the Intelligence Committee

· Elijah Cummings is Chairman of the Oversight Committee

· Jerry Nadler is Chairman of the Judiciary Committee

The Democrats now have oversight power to rein in Trump and his administration. The committees are busy drafting and passing bills, rules, and setting the groundwork for hearings and investigations. I feel like I can breathe again — at least a little bit. There are responsible people back in charge of one branch of the government and they have power to stop Trump on many fronts.

While that is welcome news, I have begun to wonder what now am I supposed to do. I could write encouraging postcards to the legislators and wish them well. I could let them know my priorities and ask them to represent my interests. I may do that as the session unfolds, but I also know they will do their jobs well. I have been wondering if my energy could be put to better use.

I loved the mid-term GOTV effort. I loved that Democrats, Independents and principled Republicans could make their voices heard and their votes count in House races. Our votes changed the course of the corrupt 2016 elections and brought some sanity and oversight back to Washington. That said, we lost the Senate; they hold an even bigger majority after the mid-terms. There are currently 47 Democrats and Independents and 53 Republicans.

That is a problem so the question becomes how do we change that? Well I went looking and discovered 21 Republican Senators are up for re-election in 2020. That is absolutely wonderful news. They are:

Lamar Alexander (R — Tennessee)

Shelly Moore Capito (R — West Virginia)

Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana)

Susan Collins (R-Maine)

John Cornyn (R-Texas)

Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas)

Steve Daines (R-Montana)

Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming)

Joni Ernst (R-Iowa)

Cory Gardner (R -Colorado)

Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina)

Cindy Hyde-smith (R-Mississippi)

Martha McSally (R-Arizona)

Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)

David Perdue (R-Georgia)

Jim Risch (R-Idaho)

Pat Roberts (R-Kansas)

Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota)

Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska)

Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska)

Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina)

Lamar Alexander (Tennessee) and Mike Rounds (South Dakota) have already announced they will not be seeking re-election in 2020.

My next question was what could I do with these 21? I know exactly what I would be doing if Democratic challengers had announced their decision to run against these incumbents. I would be working with my tribe to get fellow Democrats to the ballot box, but that is still too far away.

On the other hand, I simply cannot sit silent while I see these 21 Senators continuing to shield and protect Trump and his cruel unethical policies. My imperfect solution for the moment — particularly with respect to the shutdown is to start “The 21 Series”.

Every morning since January 10th, I have gone to: https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

This government site provides a link to each Senator’s official website and is a way for citizens to share their thoughts and opinions about issues and legislation. I have written Senators on both sides of the aisle many times since the 2016 election. It takes a lot of time.

I decided to narrow my focus and begin writing my 21 (as I affectionately call them in my head) each day to share my thoughts and feelings about the Trump shutdown — to begin with. I am on auto-fill so this process takes me 15–20 minutes each morning.

I seek to name the issues and provide supporting facts. I think that is important. I end the message with a reminder of the Blue Wave and let them know they will likely be swept away by a Blue Tsunami in 2020. I think that is the most important part of the message. I want them to know that while we are quiet in the moment, there are many who will be working to bring Democrats into the Senate.

My internal parts are all over the place on these messages. Some say they are too fierce. Some say oh no we are back to against not for; some parts are totally fine with that. I let the parts know that in this moment until we have candidates who will run against the Republicans in 2020 this series will help me feel I am using my voice and power.

I took a major news break after November 6th so this process is helping me become informed on the issues. I feel I am taking a daily action which helps my helpless, hopeless, victim parts. I am also trying to channel Nancy Pelosi who is my role model in this fight — strong, clear, forceful but impeccable with her word. Her friend in the House refers to her as “satin and steel”. I like that.

I have a ways to go to be like Nancy, but I am only 9 days into my series. To help me be accountable and impeccable in my word, I have decided to post the messages I have already sent and the new ones I write each morning. I am a bit embarrassed by some of the early ones; they are “meaner” than I would wish. I can feel the parts that are grieving and angry and want to berate the Senators until they change. I let them have a voice in those messages.

That said, I know better than most professionally and personally such a strategy is ineffective in the long run. I can comfort my grieving parts; I can let them know we will move back to a total “for” strategy when challengers are announced but in the meantime we can learn to be “satin and steel”. I can feel them smiling just a bit.

So what follows are my opening emails to The 21.

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Commentary: December 16, 2024

I read through the series of emails I sent to 21 Republican Senators up for re-election in 2020. To summarize:

· I wrote my first email to all 21 on January 10, 2019: I wrote the last set of emails on March 15, 2019.

· I sent a total of 81 separate messages to each of the 21 Republican Senators.

· Topics ranged from all manner of trump atrocities at the southern border, including threats to declare a national emergency, threats of a budget shutdown, trump’s increasing number of lies about any and all who opposed him, his attacks and threats on Robert Mueller and his investigation, and on and on.

· In each, I appealed to their oath of office which required them to honor and uphold the U.S. Constitution above all else — be it party or an individual.

· I continued pointing out our Blue Wave success in the House and assured them the resistance to trump and his supporters was strong and would oust them from office if they did not curtail him.

· I never heard from one Senator or staffer in response to my 81 messages sent to each of their offices.

What happened in the 2020 elections?

· 7 or 1/3rd of the 21 Republican Senators retired or lost their seat.

· The Senate went from being Republican controlled (53R/47D) to a tie (50R/50D) situation. Vice President Kamala Harris often broke a tie vote in favor of the Democrats on many matters of importance.

Looking back, what did I learn from this experiment?

· How important it was to stay on top of the news daily about all manner of issues.

· I learned to write about the issues succinctly and to the point thus meeting the word requirement of Senate emails.

· I was not surprised I never heard back from anyone.

· I recognized three months into the experiment I was tired of writing against those who did not hold the same values I did. I did not want to waste my energy in such a way so I ended the series to the 21.

· I was genuinely curious if anyone ever read them.

It is to this final point I want to cite an open letter in the Huffington Post dated December 11, 2023 authored by Capitol Hill interns accusing Congress of ignoring constituent calls for a permanent cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

More than 140 interns and fellows signed the letter, and 71 disclosed the number of calls and emails in support of a cease-fire that their offices have recorded. Those 71 offices (out of the total of 535) have received a total of 693,170 messages supporting a cease-fire since Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip began in early October.

But in spite of constituents’ outreach, most senators and representatives have refused to publicly support a cease-fire — and privately, the letter said, many senior staffers responsible for briefing members of Congress are downplaying the number and intensity of the calls.

“In some cases, Members of Congress are not being adequately briefed about the volume or contents of these messages,” the letter says. “In several instances, senior staff have deliberately provided inaccurate information about these data to Members. In other cases, Members have willfully ignored the pleas of large swaths of their constituents.”

The letter goes on to say, “While we refrain from telling our bosses how to do their jobs, as congressional interns and fellows, we owe it to the American people to expose the patent malpractice of Congress. We can no longer stand by while the voices of constituents are suppressed and ignored by their elected officials.”

The letter came together after interns and fellows in several offices witnessed senior staff downplaying the number of calls and emails supporting a cease-fire, one of the letter’s organizers told HuffPost. In his office, a senior staffer quoted a number to the congressman that was 3,000 less than the actual number of callers, the organizer said.

“It’s very deliberate,” he said. “They see these overwhelming numbers, and they decrease it.”

Sadly, I am not surprised by this revelation. That said, I hope with all my heart that each and every concerned US citizen continues to call and/or write their elected officials and express their concerns, worries, and points of view — daily if need be — on any issue important to them. Just like I did.

We simply cannot afford to be silent. To paraphrase Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men [and women] to do [or say] nothing. We cannot remain silent. We simply cannot.

Bravo to the good interns and fellows who chose to alert us to the fact our calls to our elected officials were being ignored. We will not be ignored when we go to the ballot box.