Spring training—for democracy!

Publisher's Roundup, 6

Major league baseball spring training has begun, the Grapefruit League in Florida for the East Coast teams and the Cactus League in Arizona for the West Coast. There are wow moments: towering home runs and leaping catches. As a maniacal Dodgers fan (here I am at the 2024 World Series), I enjoy those thrilling early glimpses of promise.

But there are stumbles too. Pitchers don’t have their pitches down. Batters are rusty and out of sync. Teams have made major personnel changes since the championship parade last November—but the new rosters haven’t quite gelled yet.

The same is true of the patriotic opposition to Donald Trump throughout the first month of his administration. Across the country, Trump’s illegal actions are being stopped by the courts, they’re being protested in the streets and questioned at increasing volumes in town halls. For every illegal action, pro-democracy lawyers and organizations (some bipartisan) are working to file multiple lawsuits and have multiple demonstrations against it. The coalition of pro-democracy forces has won many fights—but not all of them.

Take Friday. The coalition had three important wins: a judge issued a preliminary injunction against Trump’s anti-DEI policies, another court blocked DOGE out of Treasury, and SCOTUS refused to interfere with a lower court order reinstating a wrongly fired agency head. There was a loss too: a judge denied a preliminary injunction in one of the cases to protect USAID. And there were two new major lawsuits: AP sued the Trump administration over being unfairly banned from press pool access, and NYC sued over $80 million in FEMA funds being withheld. (h/t Ryan Goodman.)

Just like my Dodgers and everyone’s teams in spring training, it feels like democracy is still gelling; still working to hit its stride. Team Democracy will not triumph in every contest, although, on the whole, I thought Friday was a good day and fairly representative. (I can’t resist noting that our team at State Democracy Defenders Fund is undefeated so far in the dozen-plus cases we have filed or worked on in the past month. Remember, by subscribing to The Contrarian, you are supporting those legal efforts, in addition to enabling our journalistic efforts.)

All in all, it was another grand slam week for us at The Contrarian, with Monday marking a full-day celebration of Presidents’ Contrarians’ Day featuring content honoring the historic leaders who merit a national day of respect. By Friday, we had added our 500,000th subscriber in just four weeks of operation. And this Roundup is our 250th piece of content! That success is thanks to all of you, our Contrarian community. We could not do this work without your support, your fervor, and your devotion to democracy.

This Week’s Opening Pitch: Contrarians’ Day

*Jen Rubin got us started on our huge day of coverage Monday with a reminder that although we did not elect one this time, Some Presidents Deserve to be Honored. Without leaders like Washington and Lincoln, there arguably may not have been an America for future leaders to reform, strengthen, and modernize.

*Jen Rubin and Heather Cox Richardson then discussed the broken promise of presidential integrity, and how this once taken-for-granted value—mythologized since George Washington’s cherry tree—has been eroded in recent decades by cynical politics. As a result, we find ourselves in a moment in which the president and his party lie openly and with impunity.

*The inimitable April Ryan wrote about Discontent and the Disconnect of Presidents' Day. She analyzed how our present war of ideas—over executive authority, mass federal firings, and open debates as to who gets to be an American—renders hollow a celebration of our highest office.

*James Roosevelt Jr., Henry Scott Wallace and June Hopkins—all direct descendants of the architects of the New Deal—argued in Trump’s Project 2025 is a disaster that Americans’economic security is key to stopping oligarchs from endangering our republic.

*Our short Contrarian video, “President Musk,” offers a historical revue of those who have occupied the halls of executive power. (Here’s hoping ours opts to seek out life on Mars.)

*Esteemed presidential historian H.W. Brands talked to Jen and put into context how dire a threat Trump poses to the peace and prosperity of the post-WWII order, while ruminating on Trump's influence on the economy from a historical perspective.

*Historian Ted Widmer wrote on the ways that former presidents continue to talk to each other–and to us–across the centuries in Remembering the Real Presidents of Presidents’ Day. Because Trump has chosen willful ignorance of this history in his performance of the office: “It’s as if we are being taught by a Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum and Mop.”

*White House chronicler Kate Andersen Brower gave a thoughtful essay on the perennial Catch-22 of serving as first lady, and how recent occupants of the role have tested its boundaries, in Flipping the script: How America’s first ladies are refusing to play by the rules

*Jen and our clean-up hitter Ambassador Susan E. Rice discussed Trump's wrecking-ball impact on international relations, laying out how he is shattering our trust with European allies, the fatal consequences of cutting off USAID funds, and much more.

*We highlighted a reel of our starting lineup, or Founding Contributors, who in five weeks have brought you our prior 249 pieces (kindly putting me on deck to claim the 250th today). Their work has offered unflinching content in defense of democracy. We thank these political leaders, fearless activists, historians, journalists, economists, legal minds, intellectuals, brilliant humorists, and bakers.

Hitting a Democracy Double—the US & Global Scenes

And all that was just the first inning! By Tuesday morning we were able to feature scenes from the wave of “No Kings Day” protests that had swept the country the prior day, organized by the grassroots nonprofit #50501 (named for its ambition to organize 50 protests in 50 states in the same day–goal achieved!) Here, survey images from a nation that is simply not having it.

*For Jen’s weekly column on words we are prepared to remove from our vocabulary, thanks to their loss of meaning in the jargon-mill of the Trump administration and Republican party, she wrote on why “efficiency” has become meaningless under Musk.

*Award-winning historian Adam Hochschild chatted with Jen about his book American Midnight, which chronicles 1917-1921 in America—the crucial window between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, which has more than a few eerie resonances with our own time.

*In Holding the Line, former SDNY prosecutor Arianna Berg wrote why it matters that seven career prosecutors resigned rather than approving the craven dismissal-attempts of NY Mayor Eric Adams’s case. As one of them, Hagan Scotten, stated: “I expect you will find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”

*Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, wrote on how Trump's slash-and-burn shrinking of the federal workforce will not make America great—it will strip the government of expertise, rob it of the capacity to respond to public need, and make us less secure globally.

*We turned our gaze abroad in Jen Rubin’s interview with Steven Cook, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, about Secretary of Defense Hegseth and VP Vance’s inflammatory remarks at the Munich Security Conference, and what they mean for our transatlantic relations.

*David Bernell and Thomas Graham wrote on what they call the American surrender to Putin, arguing that Trump’s utter capitulation on Ukraine and dismissive stance towards NATO sets us up not for a reality of “America First,” but of “America Alone.”

We Are a Steal

*We like to think we offer you one of the best bargains around. On Wednesday, we officially introduced you to Coffee with The Contrarians! Every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 9:15am ET, start your day with Jen, me, and occasional guests for a dose of breaking legal and political news. All subscribers can watch on Substack Live and paid subscribers can access a permanent archive of full episodes. Just one of many benefits you get for only $7 a month.

*Jen’s column offered a galvanizing primer on two ways of making your point: Showing Up & Walking Out. “The Musk-Trump regime thrives on confusion, chaos, and capitulation. In the case of the moribund House and Senate Republicans, it has worked…Not everyone is cowed, however.” A must-read for anyone eager to halt the authoritarian assault on the Constitution.

*Our friend and former US Attorney Barb McQuade wrote on how The Trump administration is giving the black market the green light, soliciting bribery in the name of national security and taking steps not just to normalize corruption but to celebrate it.

*Jennifer Weiss-Wolf continued her vital reporting on how Women's and LGBTQ rights are under attack, and how to fight back to protect and advance essential civil and biological rights.

*Jared Bernstein gave a fortifying prediction that Non-MAGA Trump voters will soon lose patience with this scattershot policy agenda that isn’t fulfilling campaign promises to improve living standards. What does the “Gulf of America” have to do with the price of eggs?

*Robert P. Jones took a close look at Trump’s executive order on “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias,” arguing that his pandering to imagined culture-war victimization is both a vehicle for white evangelical Protestant favoritism and a weapon against other Christians.

*After the Seventh-Inning stretch, Jen Rubin delivered the vital, common-sense point that They Broke It, They Own It. The Trump-Musk regime has made flying less safe, degraded food safety, and undercut America’s edge in science and medicine…with nobody to blame but the GOP.

*Brian O’Neill, former CIA and National Counterterrorism Center executive, wrote An Open Letter to Tulsi Gabbard, pleading for our thinly-qualified yet nonetheless newly-confirmed Director of National Intelligence to reform with purpose, not disruption.

*Journalist Carron J. Phillips wrote about the linguistic sleight of hand by which the GOP has made DEI another dog whistle to cover patently racist policymaking—and how, though Black Americans are squarely in the crosshairs of the DEI purge, they aren’t alone among its victims.

*Political analyst Norm Ornstein wrote a blistering condemnation of Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center in Just Another Example of his Reckless, Punitive, and Narcissistic actions, by which a public institution is co-opted as an agent of the executive branch–and vastly diminished.

Sliding into Home

*As we rounded third base and headed for the weekend, Friday was full of high quality content for the whole family. Jen’s opening pitch was Undaunted, our weekly portraits of those standing tall for democracy. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear was up, as a beacon of successful governance, humanity, and strategic rhetoric.

*Ben Wikler reported that, fresh off his successful purchase of the Oval Office, Elon Musk wants to buy himself a majority on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court.

*Congressman Joe Neguse and Jen Rubin discussed threats to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and Musk’s potential influence on government budget decisions.

*Joyce Vance delivered the second installment of The Democracy Index, reporting on how Trump’s autocratic ambition poses new threats to the press and to Americans’ health and safety.

*New York City public defender Eliza Orlins broke down (via video) the ruling in the Eric Adams case, explaining with her signature lucidity what it means that Judge Ho vacated the corruption trial yet appointed a conservative attorney to argue against dropping the case.

Extra Innings Are Fun!

*For some of our lighter fare—the likes of which still nods at our shared pro-democracy ethos, Ruben Bolling and Tom the Dancing Bug brought us a comic vision of Star Wars from a galaxy (too) close to home; Marissa Rothkopf offered a recipe and poignant reasoning for Ukrainian honey poppyseed cake—reminding us that one Putin fanboy doesn’t get to decide the relationship the rest of us have to Ukraine (or to reality); and we all met Raven, Kim Lane Scheppele’s feral and fabulous feline friend and our Contrarian Pet of the Week.

Spring training is also about hope. You can watch players dusting away the offseason cobwebs and taking the field with a sense that this year, anything is possible. Maybe, just maybe, this might be their team’s year. Little kids line up to get their heroes to sign their hats, trading cards, or jerseys. Hearing your favorite player’s walkup song, watching them hit a home run during batting practice, and getting an early look at the latest arrivals reminds us all that baseball is back. That is reason enough to smile.

All of that is a reminder that there is hope, too, for democracy. The quality of the team that shows up to play in February is not what you will see on the diamond come September. In spring training you see lots of reactive play — shortstops who are two seconds late on turning a double play, batters swinging at will, hoping recklessly that it will be an offspeed pitch like they guessed, and runners just inches from completing their tag on a sacrifice fly. Most of the time it works out; it is still Major League Baseball. But it’s clear there is room for improvement, and confidence in the air that we will see it.

As we wait to see who will be the next breakout stars in baseball—the Paul Skenes, Elly De La Cruz, Gunnar Henderson, or Bobby Witt Jr.—of 2025, I look forward to seeing who will be the great heroes of the autocratic pushback. But baseball teaches us that an all-star can only get you so far. At the end of the day, a World Series team has to come together as a whole. The starting rotation, the bullpen, the infield, the outfield, the catcher, and even the designated hitters all have to play their part. And then there is the undeniable effect of the fans—the 10th player on every field.

We all have a role to play in our team’s success. Our roars matter and our mere presence makes a difference. Sure, it’s the players, coaches, scouts, managers, and clubhouse that ultimately bring the team home, but they absolutely could not do it without the people-power backing them up. That’s even more true when it comes to democracy—it is the opposite of a spectator sport. That’s why we at The Contrarian are working to ensure all of you are warming up and preparing to do your part.

Batter up!

Warmly,

Norm Eisen