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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has already conceded that he believes President Donald Trump won't pick a "mainstream" candidate. | AP Photo

Progressive groups will mount a multi-phase effort against President Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominee, targeting specific Democratic and GOP senators and preparing a broader assault on Republicans to pressure them against blowing up the filibuster even as some Senate Democrats pledged Monday to block Trumps pick.

Leaders of key groups have been meeting privately to coordinate strategy for the past month, and have already begun to talk protest plans in senators home states and at the Supreme Court in Washington, with early conversations about fundraising and advertising underway.

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They are still outraged by the Republican blockade of Barack Obamas nomination of Merrick Garland last year but are trying to cast their own opposition as different particularly as Trump already has issued a series of executive orders that have prompted court challenges nationwide.

Foremost is Trumps far-reaching and controversial executive order to ban immigrants from several predominantly Muslim nations, a directive sure to be a focus in the coming Supreme Court fight.

There is now an urgency to oppose anyone who wont be a powerful check on the Supreme Court against the executive branch excesses and impulses, said Nan Aron, founder and president of the Alliance for Justice. I would predict that there will be a huge outcry if the nominee cannot demonstrate that he or she could be independent and serve as the check on presidential power.

On the Democratic side, progressives are zeroing in on red-state Democrats like West Virginias Joe Manchin and North Dakotas Heidi Heitkamp. Among Republicans, theyre looking at Arizonas Jeff Flake and Nevadas Dean Heller, who are both up for reelection in 2018, and the moderate Susan Collins of Maine.

And while conservative forces are already putting the finishing touches on a $10 million ad blitz targeting red-state Senate Democrats who will come under enormous pressure to back Trumps nominee, People for the American Way is readying a television ad campaign of its own as a counterbalance.

There will be resources available to make the case, said Marge Baker, the groups executive vice president. This is a fight that were going to be in, in an absolutely serious way.

The advocates contend they have both the progressive energy to pressure Democrats to hold the line, and enough of a buffer in a Democratic caucus of 48 members to lose several while still being able to block a nominee.

There is a lot of energy in the progressive space to say, This seat was stolen from a Democratic president, period. It was grand larceny, said Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change. Democrats in the Senate, and progressives and liberals who care about the unprecedented nature of that theft by Republicans, shouldnt roll over for Donald Trump and his Supreme Court pick.

Along the way, theyre hoping to drive a major wedge between Republicans in the Senate, many of whom are wary of blowing up the filibuster completely, and Trump, whos made clear thats what he wants if Democrats dont confirm his nominee.

I dont advocate taking the same approach that GOPers took to Garland (in refusing meetings, hearings and votes), said one former Obama White House official. Id advocate for close, intense scrutiny at every stage of the process which I think will eventually lead just about every Dem to oppose the nominee and likely at least some GOPers.

For months, groups such as the Alliance for Justice and People for the American Way have done extensive research on the nearly two dozen judicial candidates whom Trump named during his campaign, with special focus recently on names that have popped up more frequently such as Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Thomas Hardiman and 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch, two jurists reportedly at the top of the pack.

The pro-abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America has also been distributing its own research on where potential nominees stand.

A broad array of liberal groups, including People for the American Way, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Alliance for Justice Action Campaign, and Center for American Progress Action Fund, have organized a protest for Tuesday night at the steps of the Supreme Court against Trumps nominee, wholl be announced earlier that evening.

Senate Democrats who are also waging a political fight over Trumps executive orders and Cabinet nominees for the most part have tried to reserve judgment until the president actually unveils his pick. Democrats have been insisting on a so-called mainstream nominee, although Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has conceded that he believes Trump wont pick such a candidate.

Still, Democrats are almost sure to face a massive level of pressure from the base to hold the line against Trumps pick.

They need to fight like hell and do all they can to confirm only someone who is fair and an independent judge who can serve as a check to this president, said Ellen Buchman, executive vice president for field and communications at the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights.

Though the advocacy groups insist they are not simply trying to go tit for tat over the obstruction of Garland, theres little doubt that the lingering frustration over how Obamas final nominee was treated has permeated thinking among many Democrats.

Thats how we see this, one Democratic senator said of the Garland blockade. The anger, we feel it in our stomach.

Whenever the Supreme Court fight begins in earnest, Democrats wont be hungry for help from the outside.

The Constitutional Responsibility Project, organized by former Obama aides last year to push for Garlands confirmation, will be reconstituted at the offices of SKDKnickerbocker, with Sheila OConnell, most recently Chris Van Hollens 2016 Senate campaign manager, coming on board.

The opposition-research group American Bridge is preparing a full-research, rapid-response and video-tracking operation to expose the nominee as too conservative and out of step with mainstream Americans, said Kevin McAlister, a spokesman for the group.

And End Citizens United, a political action committee that advocates for campaign finance reform, is readying a national grass-roots campaign that will push its 3 million members to flood senators with calls, emails and petitions, as well as a digital advocacy effort, spokesman Adam Bozzi said.

All that is to counter the expected assault and pressure from conservatives, who backed the Senate GOPs nearly yearlong blockade of Garland but now expect Democrats to fall in line.

Schumer said its hard for him to imagine a nominee from President Trump who Senate Democrats could support, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday. We dont even have one yet. I hope we can get past that and get down to our serious work.

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Progressives ready all-out assault on Trump's Supreme Court pick - Politico

WASHINGTON More than 1,000 progressives signed up to run for office this weekend following President Donald Trumps executive action targeting immigrants and refugees.

And thats just through one organization.

Run for Something, a new grass-roots group that helps young Democrats run for local and state office, announced Monday that it nearly doubled its total number of recruits from 1,200 to 2,200 in the last three days. The organization, whichlaunched on Jan. 20, the day of Trumps inauguration,was already surging with interest before Trump signed an executive order Fridaythat bans Syrians from taking refuge in the United States, halts the U.S. refugee resettlement program for four months and temporarily blocks people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. at all.

The presidents action, which comes amid a wave of nationwide protests against him, sparked chaos at U.S. airports over the weekend as refugees and immigrants arrived only to be detained or told they couldnt enter the country. Thousands of protesters showed up at airports to speak out against the Muslim ban and demand that arriving immigrants be let through.

Amanda Litman, co-founder of Run for Something, said Trump is doing a great job of driving furious Democrats into public service.

Anyone leading a protest or organizing friends to get to a local airport should think about running for office, Litman said. Trumps presidency is already inspiring an incredible wave of energy and re-engagement in civic life running and winning is how we capture that and make it last.

A number of progressive grass-roots groups have cropped up since Trumps win in November, and they, too, have seen huge interest.Swing Left, which links volunteers with progressive House candidates in nearby swing districts, has drawn more than 220,000 people since it launched two weeks ago. Daily Action, which launched in mid-December and makes progressive activism as easy as a daily text, already sends 75,000 texts per day and has more than 40,000 Facebook members.

The organizers of the massive Womens March on Washington started a campaign, too:10 actions for the first 100 days, which calls on its broad base of supporters to take action on a specific issue every 10 days.

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More Than 1,000 Progressives Signed Up To Run For Office Over ... - Huffington Post

On January 28, Sen. Elizabeth Warren rallied crowd at Boston's Logan Airport protesting Trump's muslim ban

Until last week, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren was a beloved progressive icon. Her populist attacks on Donald Trump drew such raves that many progressives pushed for Clinton to make Warren her VP.

Now Warren is being criticized by Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos and other progressives who once backed her for the Vice-Presidency. What changed? She voted to confirm Ben Carson as HUD Secretary. As Kos puts it, we cant even get Elizabeth Warren to commit to full resistance.

Progressive Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown also voted to confirm Carson. He was similarly criticized by the left.

Too Hard on Allies?

Progressive politicians should pay a price when they betray progressive interests. And a lack of accountability has been a problem. But the attacks against Warrens vote are far out of proportion.

Consider the favorable comments about Carsonfollowing his confirmation hearing made by Diane Yentel, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition . Yentel, representing the nations leading DC-based housing advocacy group, said that the nominee has clearly taken the time to begin to understand and come to appreciate the importance of HUDs programs Dr. Carsons commitment to advocate for HUDs programs within the administration was a positive and welcomed one.

Warrens vote is consistent with theNLIHCs position. She also reasoned that there was no reason to suspect Trump would offer a better HUD nominee, and the alternative could be much worse. Support for Carson from the nations leading DC-based affordable housing advocacy group may explain why there was no national grassroots campaign against Carsons confirmation as has arisen against Betty De Vos (Education) and Andrew Puzder (Labor).

So while the left was miffed that Warren backed Carson, her vote did not mean that she fails to understand the importance of resistance (she was at Logan Airport over the weekend with a megaphone). Nor that she was not listening to the Democratic base.

A poll last week found that Warren could face a tough re-election battle next year. This is not the time for progressives to join Republicans in criticizing a Senator who has been on the right side of every big progressive issue since taking office.

Too Soft on Allies?

While progressives take a hard line toward their national allies, it is different locally.

For example, last March when the San Francisco Chronicle asked San Francisco Supervisor Norman Yee which sites in his District Seven would be suitable for new homeless centers, Yee said, I cant think of any. Yee had backed a proposal to increase Navigation Centers, but said they were not suitable for his district because I dont think its appropriate to have it next to a business for families and children.

If a moderate like Mark Farrell made such a comment, progressives would have torn him apart. Theyd condemn Farrell for accepting the placing of homeless centers near businesses for families and children in the low-income SOMA or Tenderloin, but not in his more affluent District 7.

But progressives remained entirely silent. After all, Yee is a progressive.

When Jane Kim opposed a soda tax on San Franciscos November ballot backed by most progressives, progressives backing the measure remained silent or tried to justify her position. The feeling, which I shared, was that Kims solid progressive record did not justify her being attacked for her position on a single issue that was not central to the citys progressive agenda.

But progressive activists act differently at the national level. Politicians like Barack Obama or Elizabeth Warren are lambasted for any deviation from the progressive line, an approach seen as counterproductive locally.

Progressive politicians must be held accountable to their grassroots progressive base. As I describe it in The Activists Handbook, activists need to instill a feeling of fear and loathing in many politicians to ensure they do the right thing.

But Elizabeth Warren has proved her progressive mettle time and again. She does not need to be proverbially hit in the head by a two by four to do the right thing.

At a time when the stakes for the nation have never been bigger, Warren deserves our support, not condemnation.

Randy Shaw is Editor of Beyond Chron

Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Franciscos Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw is the author of four books on activism, including The Activist's Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. His new book is The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco

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Progressives Wrong to Bash Warren - Beyond Chron

It was another chaotic weekend for the Trump administration.

It began with Steve Bannon taking on the mainstream media. On Thursday, Bannon told the New York Times, The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while. Then on Saturday Trump signed an executive order that bars citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for the next 90 days and suspends the admission of all refugees for 120 days.

Confusion ensued as Trumps chief of staff, Reince Priebus, claimed that the order doesnt affect anyone with a green card, but later said of course anyone with a green card from Syria, Iran, Sudan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen would be affected.

Airport officials were confused, Muslims were detained, and Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham created a joint statement that criticized the order, Our government has the responsibility to defend our borders, but we must do so in a way that makes us safer and upholds all that is decent and exceptional about our nation.

In other words, Trumps order fails to live up to American ideals.

And Americans have spoken. Americans took to the streets and airports to protest when Trump announced his ban on children and their parents fleeing war torn areas. Trump said, We dont want you here. But the American people said, We do want you here.

And as a progressive, Im filled with hope. Trump was right about one thing during his inaugural address. The power is not with Trump. Its not with the media. The power is with the people.

This brings me back to Steve Bannon and the mainstream media, specifically the New York Times. Why does the Trump Administration, along with Bannon, consistently try to demonize the mainstream media? Its because they know that they are weak and that the media holds the power in the relationship.

In addition, Bannon holds a love/hate relationship with the New York Times. Bannon was the executive chair of Breitbart News. He has described it as the platform of the Internet-based alt-right.

As Donald Trump declared in November, the New York Times is, a great, great, American jewel, a world jewel. Breitbart? Not a jewel. And Bannon knows that the New York Times is more powerful and more influential that Breitbart will ever be.

Anthropologist Ren Girard calls this the model-obstacle relationship. Whether we are aware of it or not, we all have models. We all have people we want to be like. But our models want to hold onto power, prestige, or success. To do that, they can become an obstacle in our desire to be like them. This leads to increased feelings of jealousy, envy, and rivalry.

Bannon envies the New York Times. The Times is his model for success. Thats why he calls them the opposition party. The model of success is always a potential rival, in this case, the opposition. We want our model to admire us. Trump and Bannon envy the Times because of the Times success, and even more because they desperately want the Times to admire them.

But the New York Times refuses to admire the Trump Administration. Thank God! Thats not their job. But theres nothing more that Trump and Bannon want than to be admired. Why? In part because they are human, but also because they know they are politically weak.

Thats how these events of the weekend are connected. Trump doesnt have a mandate. He lost the popular vote. Hundreds of thousands of people joined the womens march in Washington DC, while many more marched throughout the world. From Seattle to New York, protesters spoke out against the refugee ban to tell people fleeing war torn countries that they are in fact welcome here. And many more of us are flooding Congressional email boxes and calling our representatives to tell them this act of exclusion is un-American.

Indeed, as a progressive Im filled with hope because we are witnessing that the power is with us the people. But in our protests and our search for justice, we would do well to realize that the Trump Administration is already weak. Their grasps for power are signs of their actual weakness.

As such, we must be careful to not turn Trump or Bannon into our models or into rivals. They are politicians in desperate need of an enemy. And so they create an enemy out of the mainstream media or the elite or the progressives.

We cannot afford to play their game. For when we do, we make them into our model and we give them more power than they deserve. The Trump Administration is not our enemy. Our current enemy is their divisive policies. And we must fight against those policies. But we would do well to do so in a way that doesnt demonize them. Otherwise, we make them into our model. And they become our obstacle. And we play right into their hands.

Images: Donald Trump (By Michael Vadon [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons); Protesters (By Nathan Keirn from Kadena-Cho, Japan (NAK_2421.jpg; to the Commons uploaded by odder) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons); Steve Bannon (By Don Irvine (Steve Bannon) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

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Why Progressives Should Be Hopeful: Trump, Immigration, and the Media - Patheos (blog)

Control of the Senate will be key to the early successes of a Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton administration. The House is also up for grabs Tuesday night, but Republicans are widely expected to keep their majority -- even if their current 246-186 seat advantage is narrowed.

(CNN) Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer stepped to the microphone to rally a crowd of President Donald Trumps opponents in New Yorks Battery Park on Sunday.

Are we gonna win this fight? he asked.

The cheers Schumer got back were mixed with jeers. Stop voting for his nominees! an attendee shouted back.

The episode showed the pressure Democratic senators face as they head into another week of votes on Trumps Cabinet nominees.

Democrats have watched as progressives turned out en masse at pro-Obamacare rallies, then stunned the political world with the attendance across the globe at womens marches, and now are opposing Trumps executive order banning travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority nations with protests at airports across the the country.

The protesters and activists loyalty, though, is to their causes not to Democrats and what binds them is their strident opposition to Trump. They are demanding total opposition to the Presidents Cabinet nominees, and turning their fury on Democrats who dont fight Trump tooth and nail.

Even the partys liberal icons like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts arent getting the benefit of the doubt.

Warrens committee vote to confirm Ben Carson for secretary of Housing and Urban Development set off intense backlash on the left leading to Warren addressing her vote in a Facebook post that began with the frustrated line: OK, lets talk about Dr. Ben Carson.

Yes, I adamantly disagree with many of the outrageous things that Dr. Carson said during his presidential campaign. Yes, he is not the nominee I wanted, Warren wrote. But the nominee I wanted is not the test.

Some Democrats are attempting to strike an impossible balance: The left craves the same tactics Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell used to stymie President Barack Obamas legislative agenda and block him from filling a Supreme Court vacancy.

But Senate Democrats have also sought to pick their battles, knowing that one day Republican senators could face the same pressures to oppose a Democratic president.

Tying nominees to executive order

On deck Monday is a Senate vote to advance the nomination of former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to become secretary of state.

Democrats are now expected to push for the vote to be delayed until he comments on the Trump travel ban on refugees and citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries.

Democrats say this is going to be a big line of focus going forward, hoping to to put the question to all the nominees on whether they support the executive order. This includes non-controversial nominees, including Elaine Chao, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells wife, who was chosen to head the Department of Transportation and would have oversight on the airline industry/airports.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trumps pick for attorney general, energy secretary nominee Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, Rep. Ryan Zinke, Trumps Interior Department pick, and education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos are all slated for committee votes Tuesday.

Trump could also roll out a Supreme Court nominee as early as Tuesday, setting off another battle royale on Capitol Hill.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine the 2016 Democratic vice presidential nominee tweeted a passionate criticism of Trump on Saturday, saying the United States should not turn our backs on widows and orphans fleeing the very evil we despise.

Then a response came from Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chairman and progressive hero.

Tim, this is great but the Dems in the Senate actually have to do something about this stuff. You are being left behind by your base, Dean wrote.

Kaine defended himself Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press, arguing that opposition to Trumps Cabinet nominees is so fierce in part because of Democrats tough questioning.

We are holding Trump nominees feet to the fire, demonstrating to the world that many of them are either unqualified or extreme or ethically challenged. And Ill tell you, Chuck, I have never seen calls to my office from folks the way Ive seen them over these cabinet nominees, Kaine told host Chuck Todd. And thats because a lot of us on the Democratic side are cast in a spotlight on what theyre doing.

The real test of Democrats reading of the national mood, though, will be a set of five red-state senators up for re-election in 2018: Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly, Montana Sen. Jon Tester, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.

Dean wasnt the only Democrat calling on the partys senators to block Trumps nominees.

Dan Pfeiffer, a long-time top Obama aide, tweeted that Democrats need to oppose Trump nominees including Sessions.

We cant live in a world where Trump violates every norm and Democratic elected officials support people like Sessions out of courtesy, he said.

In Battery Park on Sunday, Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian American activist and former Bernie Sanders campaign surrogate, said that any Democrat who voted to confirm Sessions should expect a primary challenge next time theyre on the ballot.

Thats not a threat, she said. Its a promise.

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Progressives warn Democrats: Stand up now or face challenges in '18 - WGNO