Letter to US Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, NY-08

Hi Rep. Jeffries,

Just wanted to say thank you for putting in the work with that long speech this week. I appreciate that you forced the vote to occur in broad daylight, and you generated a story around the bill's actual contents along with your record-setting speech. Since it still resulted in the passing of this poisonous pork barrel of a bill I do consider in only a minuscule win, but I really appreciate the effort it took.

Please keep it up, and think creatively about how you and other Democrats can prevent the effectiveness of this administration, rhetorically or logistically. I believe you and your colleagues will have to risk more than a few hours of your time to stop the worst of the damage to American democracy yet to come.

I offer one idea in case it is useful: this administration relies on an unholy alliance between neo-monarchist racist technocrats (see Steven Miller and Curtis Yarvin), neoconservative hawks, and socially conservative evangelicals, but it relies on those groups mostly ignoring the conflicting aims of those other groups (as is the case with all political movements). Point at the alliance, point to how each of them is building opposing versions of America that cannot coexist, and make sure they understand that they are talking about very different visions of a "Great America" than their co-conspirators. My conservative, ethnically-blended Evangelical family in Ohio has never heard of Curtis Yarvin, nor Steven Miller or even Peter Thiel. I intend to tell them that Yarvin, an atheist and technocrat, wants an American monarchy and a return to black slavery. This will be so alarming to them as to be unbelievable until they see it for themselves. I do not know if it will dissuade them from supporting the Republican cause, because they have been convinced for many years that the liberal movement is an existential threat to America and Christianity thanks to the work of Fox News and the evangelical leadership, but I have to try. I think you should make sure everyone in the country knows his name.

Relating it back to the progressive movement in America: we must do the inverse of this in order to build a public liberal alliance. You disagree with Zohran Mamdani's policy and, incorrectly, have called on him to explain his nonexistent use of the phrase "globalize the intifada", instead of telling the American people the vast majority of the story you two share: you are both Democrats that believe in the liberal democratic experiment at the heart of America, who believe in the rule of law being used to protect the human rights of all Americans to live their lives without harassment or subjugation. You two believe that we are a nation of immigrants and that is our strength, and that representative democracy is a better system—not just morally but practically—than autocracy or monarchy. By highlighting your differences, you have done the work of the right-wing and anti-democracy factions of the right. Please endorse him for mayor of New York City. Please protect his right to a political life. Please take seriously the musings of the Secretary of Homeland Security and the President about what is within their authority to do to prevent him specifically from holding public office.

I didn't start off this letter intending to talk about Yarvin or Mamdani, apologies. I do appreciate your work, and appreciate the difficulty of your position in history. Thank you for it. Please consider future tactics that prevent this kind of law from making it to a vote in the first place.

Best,

Frank