I am proud to be an Oregon Democrat!

The Democratic Party of Oregon, along with its allies, has fashioned a bright future for our state.

Our achievements – and values – include unwavering protection of our environment; solid progress toward a renewable energy future; a bold managed plan for Medicaid expansion under the Oregon Health Plan; free community college for eligible students; renewed funding for vocational education; a welcoming landscape for business; good-paying union jobs; first-in-the-nation automatic voter registration; easy and secure vote-by-mail; legalization and common sense regulation of marijuana; the landmark Death With Dignity Act; marriage equality before it was a federal right; unparalleled commitment to freedom of expression; and statutes barring discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

The vast majority of Oregon citizens will continue to resist the vast majority of Donald Trump’s policies.

The president’s reversal of our march toward universal healthcare, dismantling of key environmental protections, withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords, reckless bellicosity, embrace of white nationalism, discrimination against LGBT Americans (all of our troops – including transgender members of the military – deserve our respect), religious discrimination against Muslims, worship of greed, deprecation of the poor, moves toward greater income inequality, and willful ignorance of history and the Constitution has deeply damaged our nation and embarrassed the United States in the eyes of the civilized world. 

The election of such a petty, hateful and uninformed man to the highest office in the land is, and will remain, one of the great stains on our history. Donald Trump is the quintessential American Demagogue.

I am heartened that disgust and outrage among citizens of good faith and sound mind is being channeled into refreshing political activism. And that the vast majority of journalists, educators, scientists and business leaders have rallied to push back against Trump’s invective and extremism.

I am particularly pleased that comedians – Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers, Bill Maher – are leading the charge!

On air, I was always thrilled to engage in vigorous debate with principled conservatives (many of whom continue to speak out against Trump). But the Republican Party’s decades-long lurch to the far right – brilliantly chronicled in E. J. Dionne’s latest book, Why the Right Went Wrong – has cheapened our national discourse and endangered the core principles that bind us as one people.

This descent into the darker angels of our nature must not be allowed to stand. But the arc of history will not bend toward economic and social justice unless we make it.

Please join me in speaking out – and working toward the kind of national future that we are building here in Oregon.

50 organizations and causes that deserve your support!

All of these groups had their voices amplified on Carl’s radio show