Chapter 07 - Meeting with the Congressman
After the initial video had gone viral, many comments came into the Website requesting more information about Caroline. The viewers wanted to know who she was and how she got started in this venture. Eventually, The Minute Women posted a brief bio about Caroline to give the viewers some background about her. But as there was quite a bit of chaos in the office then, it took several days for that bio to get put online. It contained Caroline’s employment history, initially with the Accounting firm and then working for the Congressman, as well as information about her college studies. There also was a paragraph about her dad’s passing from Covid and how difficult that time was for her. It was rebounding from that plus learning about the leaked draft of Justice Alito’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson which crystallized in her mind the idea for The Minute Women.
Even after the bio sketch was posted it probably took a few more days before most viewers had seen it. In the meantime, within Congress gossip spread like wildfire about Caroline’s past with the Congressman. Certainly, there was no secret about it within the Congressman’s office, nor in the other Congressional offices that had become aware of Caroline when she was a staffer. Subsequently, the Congressman received many calls and quite a few office visits. Those who contacted him didn’t know that the Congressman and Caroline had been out of touch since she quit working for him, and many didn’t believe it when the Congressman told them as much. Consequently, the calls and the impromptu office visits kept on coming.
After a couple of weeks of this, the Congressman’s staff began to urge him to get in touch with Caroline. Invite her for an office visit or if that wasn’t possible then at least have a chat with her on the phone. Many of them also wanted to see Caroline, simply to congratulate her on what The Minute Women had accomplished. The Congressman was reluctant to take this advice. He didn’t want to interfere with Caroline’s work. Yet he was feeling more and more squeezed by all these contacts. With the pressure mounting, a couple of weeks later he relented. It still took another week to schedule a meeting.
* * * * *
Upon arriving at the Congressman’s office, she could see him standing a distance away. Staff members who were eager to give hugs and offer their congratulations came up to her and did so. After several minutes of this the Congressman ushered them back to work and asked Caroline to come into his office. He closed the door, making it obvious to all that this would be a private session. He asked Caroline if she wanted something to drink. She politely declined. Then he started right in.
“How are you doing? This must be exhilarating and overwhelming at the same time.”
“It is. I’m very grateful for what we’ve accomplished. I’m less happy about all the attention that is on me personally. I didn’t expect that and I didn’t realize how much I value my downtime. It’s becoming more and more important as a way to preserve my sanity.”
“You do look a little tired. Are you getting enough sleep? Getting exercise and eating right? You’ve got to take care of yourself.”
“I know. I really do. I’ve reduced my official work hours, but then I get caught up in unofficial business. And sometimes my mind is racing when I go to bed. It’s hard to have balance and do other things that would help me to relax.”
“Maybe you should hire a personal trainer or some other sort of life coach. I know from my own experience that intensity can work if it is episodic, but the downtime is just as important and in the long haul maybe even more so. Anyway, I’m finished now with paternal advice. Let’s get down to why I asked you here.”
“Sure. That sounds good to me.”
“I’ve been bombarded with others in Congress contacting me, thinking it was a way to get a message to you. Quite a few of them want to set up a meeting with you. Others want you to slow down, maybe even stop altogether. I would group them into three categories.”
“Democrats, Republicans, and Independents?” Caroline smiled after that one.
“No, not quite. The first group are Democrats who want to publicly endorse what The Minute Women are doing. They wanted to know how you’d react to such a potential endorsement.”
“We are trying hard to make a bipartisan appeal. In fact, we’ve decided our target population should consist of stay-home moms. What’s their party affiliation and what are their views about abortion? I don’t mean what they’ll say in public. I mean what they would tell their coming-of-age daughters about this. We need a large fraction of the voting population to embrace our efforts. If we can appeal to this group, we expect our message to be widely heard. A partisan endorsement might alienate this audience and end up backfiring, no matter how well intended it was.”
“I thought you might say that. But I didn’t tell them because I hadn’t heard it from you. Now I know.”
“Feel free to tell them what I said.”
“I’ll do that. You have on your Website that The Minute Women are looking for a prominent leader, one who is well-known in national politics. The date of that announcement precedes the date of your first video. And you still have yourself listed as Acting CEO. Are you still looking for that prominent leader?”
“Yes, we are. Though I must say there haven’t been any real candidates who have come forward.”
“I’ve heard from several in Congress who are interested as well as several who have retired from Congress.”
“Any Republicans in that group?”
“No, only Democrats.”
“That makes it more challenging for us. I definitely want to find this leader but we can’t be seen as a partisan organization.”
“Yes, you’ve said that.”
“Originally, I didn’t think that would matter as much. What would matter is the content in the white papers we produce. Unfortunately, while many people are aware of us, not nearly as many really understand what is written in those white papers. They might be persuaded by ephemera. We need to steer clear of such distractions, if we can.”
“I understand. Perhaps your ideal now should be to have two leaders, one Republican and the other Democrat. That would show what you’re doing is truly bipartisan.”
“I like that. If it’s possible, that’s what we should do.”
“Would you like me to sniff this out behind the scenes?”
“Can you do that without it leaking?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Then, let’s hold off on it for now. Thanks for offering. Maybe in the near future we should reconsider your offer.”
“All right. The third group who have been contacting me are Republicans who are quite angry about what your are doing. They want you to slow down or better still, from their point of view, cease and desist. Their anger frightens me, Caroline. You need to be careful.”
“I understand what you’re saying. Yet I wonder if we can cut through their anger. The Minute Women wants these Republicans in Congress, especially those in the Senate, to take responsibility for their actions in enabling Trump. We have said that if they knew Trump was obstructing justice, and it seems they must have known that, then their acts of enablement are criminal.”
“Yes, I’ve read your white papers on this. Everyone in Congress has read those white papers.”
“Well, let’s talk about what we haven’t said there. Suppose a group of Republican Senators and Members of the House actually issued a real mea culpa. If there were enough of them doing this, and if Trump is found guilty of several different crimes, which now seems possible, might it be a way to get past the Trump era and have Republicans begin anew?”
“You’re saying that they admit to committing crimes and yet they run for office after that, is that right?”
“I’d like to game that out with you some, to see if it can make sense when framed in a good way. Do you know former Speaker Ryan well enough to have a conversation with him about this?”
“Caroline, what you are saying is really pushing at the boundaries. If a bunch of elected Republicans will admit to crimes while in office, Democrats are likely to demand that they step down, rather than encourage them to seek reelection. And as far as knowing Speaker Ryan is concerned, I know him enough to say hello but not much beyond that. Why does that matter?”
“On Speaker Ryan, I’m guessing that he stepped down at the end of 2018 because he found it difficult to impossible to deal with Trump. And maybe he would own up to other crimes that Trump committed which have so far not been made public.”
“I see.”
“Congressman, can we consider a hypothetical negotiation between you and some other Democrats along with some Republican members of Congress where each party in the negotiation is representative of a larger like-minded group?”
The Congressman hesitated at this question, but then said, “Okay.”
“I’m going to assume that this negotiation will begin with a recounting of history, starting around the time that Trump was elected President in 2016. The Republicans need to be honest in the telling, and to be forthcoming about it without omitting important details. A cagey approach won’t work.”
“It’s fine to say that, but how in the world can we get that to happen?”
“First, their expressed anger about The Minute Women is showing us they feel the pressure that we’re applying.”
“True enough.”
“Second, they must be fatigued by having Trump still the leader of their party with his criminal actions associated with January 6 and the taking of Top Secret documents to Mar-a-Lago so evident. It’s clearly dragging down other Republicans. So, they have a reason to want to cut their losses.”
“Again true.”
“Third, many of them may not want to fall on their sword the way Elizabeth Cheney has done. If it is possible for them to seek reelection after they’ve come clean, with a decent shot of winning in that case, this gives them some upside for doing the right thing.”
“I’m beginning to see where this is going. You are making the case purely in Machiavellian terms. So, even if they are saying mea culpa, they are taking a strategic posture.”
“For now, that’s what I’m doing. We will get to the aspirational part in a bit. Now to cement this, the various Republican voters who embrace the message of The Minute Women need to commit to supporting these candidates if they agree to the full bargain, but otherwise will vote for the Democratic candidate or possibly a Republican competitor who embraces The Minute Women principles. So, for them to have a chance at reelection, they need to commit to the full bargain.”
“And that full bargain is what again?” “The full bargain includes a confession of their own guilt as Senators in aiding and abetting Trump while he was President. Doing so violated their oath of office. They should have first Censured him and, assuming that wouldn’t have deterred Trump, then voted him guilty after the House impeached him. This confession implies that the various judicial appointments made while Trump was President were tainted. As part of their mea culpa, they must then agree that those appointments should be reversed, preferably by the various Justices and Judges seeing the light and stepping down of their own accord. And then, assuming new appointments are made, the Supreme Court overturns Dobbs v. Jackson, restores Roe, and makes it clear that the political imbalance impacted the Court. This was then a righting of the ship. If only one Republican Senator does this, that person will look crazy. But if twenty or more do it simultaneously, it will start to make sense as a political action.”
“And you really think they’ll go for this?”
“I think there are parts of this that you and I can’t determine. They have to do that themselves. What does a post-Trump Republican party look like? Can it mean less animus between the two parties? Will those Republican voters who have embraced The Minute Women willingly vote for such Republican candidates, or will they distrust them? What would it take to earn back that trust?”
“Okay. Then we need to talk about the process by which this could happen. But before we do that, you mentioned a more aspirational way of seeing things. What do you have in mind?”
“I am convinced that we will reach our goal of getting 70% of the voting population to embrace the ideas articulated by The Minute Women. That’s an overwhelming majority of voters.”
“Let me change the subject on you for a second. Do you have any political aspiration yourself?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Well, I know there has been polling on you as a potential candidate for President. You are polling above 70%.”
“I wish you hadn’t told me that. Fortunately, I’m too young to run for President. And I have no desire to enter politics as a candidate. If and when our work at The Minute Women reaches conclusion, I will seek anonymity and a normal life.”
“I understand. But you should realize that sometimes people embrace ideas because of how they are embodied in a leader they admire.”
“Yeah. I get it. Let’s move on. My aspiration is that these Republican Senators who embrace their mea culpas then sit down with the Democratic Caucus and negotiate through a bunch of legislation that they can agree upon together. The beginning of this negotiation happens quietly, early on, as an exploration of what’s possible. Then something similar happens in the House, even though Representatives there have nothing to do with appointing members of the Judiciary. “
“So the aspiration is for your effort to lead to true bipartisan government thereafter. Is that right?”
“Yes, but the story so far is too simple. There are other forces that need to be considered that would block this from happening unless they are dealt with in a realistic manner. The two obvious ones are the media and the high rollers who bankroll the politicians with all that dark money.”
“And you have ideas for how to manage this, I suppose. How would you do it?”
“My ideas are woefully incomplete on this, but my hope is that a grass roots movement will accomplish this. Imagine a headline like this - Soccer mom tells Fox News to dial it down or that channel won’t be watched in her house.”
“Ha ha ha. I’d love to see that. Got any more of those?”
“I wish I did.”
“Let’s talk about something else that you haven’t mentioned yet. The MAGA types aren’t going to be happy with your plan. Some might want to cut you down to size with a violent approach. Are you concerned about that?”
“Of course I am concerned. Why do people think that violence offers a solution?”
“There’s a lot of frustration out there. The violence follows. The system doesn’t seem fair to an awful lot of people.”
“I’m aware. On our Website we sometimes get comments that aren’t related to the videos or white papers. One that is fairly common goes like this - Why don’t you work at getting ordinary folks like me a better job? It’s outside our realm at The Minute Women, though I accept it as a legitimate complaint.”
“Agreed. What about your own safety. Are you taking care of that?”
“It’s on my to do list.”
“You should put it at the top of the list. It’s really important.”
“Okay. And on the high rollers having too much influence, any thoughts there?”
“If that new bipartisan spirt can be achieved, one of the first things they should do is campaign finance reform. While I’m skeptical on this, from what I’ve read making at least some of the dark money contributions explicit would help a lot. So let them have at it, though I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“This has been a pretty good overview of your thinking. How would you like me to play things out based on what we’ve discussed.”
“Congressman, I trust you implicitly. I’ve always admired your judgment. I think you can quietly investigate all we talked about today, but don’t yet make any firm commitments. Let’s meet again in a month and see where we are then. Things may happen quickly, in which case I’ll be in touch sooner. Does that sound all right with you?
“Yes. That’s fine. And if I’m getting a lot of pressure to have a group meeting I may get in touch with you.”
“Okay. I should be going now.”
“Goodbye, Caroline.”
“Goodbye, Congressman.”
They gave each other a hug. Then he walked her to where her ride was waiting.
Even after the bio sketch was posted it probably took a few more days before most viewers had seen it. In the meantime, within Congress gossip spread like wildfire about Caroline’s past with the Congressman. Certainly, there was no secret about it within the Congressman’s office, nor in the other Congressional offices that had become aware of Caroline when she was a staffer. Subsequently, the Congressman received many calls and quite a few office visits. Those who contacted him didn’t know that the Congressman and Caroline had been out of touch since she quit working for him, and many didn’t believe it when the Congressman told them as much. Consequently, the calls and the impromptu office visits kept on coming.
After a couple of weeks of this, the Congressman’s staff began to urge him to get in touch with Caroline. Invite her for an office visit or if that wasn’t possible then at least have a chat with her on the phone. Many of them also wanted to see Caroline, simply to congratulate her on what The Minute Women had accomplished. The Congressman was reluctant to take this advice. He didn’t want to interfere with Caroline’s work. Yet he was feeling more and more squeezed by all these contacts. With the pressure mounting, a couple of weeks later he relented. It still took another week to schedule a meeting.
* * * * *
Upon arriving at the Congressman’s office, she could see him standing a distance away. Staff members who were eager to give hugs and offer their congratulations came up to her and did so. After several minutes of this the Congressman ushered them back to work and asked Caroline to come into his office. He closed the door, making it obvious to all that this would be a private session. He asked Caroline if she wanted something to drink. She politely declined. Then he started right in.
“How are you doing? This must be exhilarating and overwhelming at the same time.”
“It is. I’m very grateful for what we’ve accomplished. I’m less happy about all the attention that is on me personally. I didn’t expect that and I didn’t realize how much I value my downtime. It’s becoming more and more important as a way to preserve my sanity.”
“You do look a little tired. Are you getting enough sleep? Getting exercise and eating right? You’ve got to take care of yourself.”
“I know. I really do. I’ve reduced my official work hours, but then I get caught up in unofficial business. And sometimes my mind is racing when I go to bed. It’s hard to have balance and do other things that would help me to relax.”
“Maybe you should hire a personal trainer or some other sort of life coach. I know from my own experience that intensity can work if it is episodic, but the downtime is just as important and in the long haul maybe even more so. Anyway, I’m finished now with paternal advice. Let’s get down to why I asked you here.”
“Sure. That sounds good to me.”
“I’ve been bombarded with others in Congress contacting me, thinking it was a way to get a message to you. Quite a few of them want to set up a meeting with you. Others want you to slow down, maybe even stop altogether. I would group them into three categories.”
“Democrats, Republicans, and Independents?” Caroline smiled after that one.
“No, not quite. The first group are Democrats who want to publicly endorse what The Minute Women are doing. They wanted to know how you’d react to such a potential endorsement.”
“We are trying hard to make a bipartisan appeal. In fact, we’ve decided our target population should consist of stay-home moms. What’s their party affiliation and what are their views about abortion? I don’t mean what they’ll say in public. I mean what they would tell their coming-of-age daughters about this. We need a large fraction of the voting population to embrace our efforts. If we can appeal to this group, we expect our message to be widely heard. A partisan endorsement might alienate this audience and end up backfiring, no matter how well intended it was.”
“I thought you might say that. But I didn’t tell them because I hadn’t heard it from you. Now I know.”
“Feel free to tell them what I said.”
“I’ll do that. You have on your Website that The Minute Women are looking for a prominent leader, one who is well-known in national politics. The date of that announcement precedes the date of your first video. And you still have yourself listed as Acting CEO. Are you still looking for that prominent leader?”
“Yes, we are. Though I must say there haven’t been any real candidates who have come forward.”
“I’ve heard from several in Congress who are interested as well as several who have retired from Congress.”
“Any Republicans in that group?”
“No, only Democrats.”
“That makes it more challenging for us. I definitely want to find this leader but we can’t be seen as a partisan organization.”
“Yes, you’ve said that.”
“Originally, I didn’t think that would matter as much. What would matter is the content in the white papers we produce. Unfortunately, while many people are aware of us, not nearly as many really understand what is written in those white papers. They might be persuaded by ephemera. We need to steer clear of such distractions, if we can.”
“I understand. Perhaps your ideal now should be to have two leaders, one Republican and the other Democrat. That would show what you’re doing is truly bipartisan.”
“I like that. If it’s possible, that’s what we should do.”
“Would you like me to sniff this out behind the scenes?”
“Can you do that without it leaking?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Then, let’s hold off on it for now. Thanks for offering. Maybe in the near future we should reconsider your offer.”
“All right. The third group who have been contacting me are Republicans who are quite angry about what your are doing. They want you to slow down or better still, from their point of view, cease and desist. Their anger frightens me, Caroline. You need to be careful.”
“I understand what you’re saying. Yet I wonder if we can cut through their anger. The Minute Women wants these Republicans in Congress, especially those in the Senate, to take responsibility for their actions in enabling Trump. We have said that if they knew Trump was obstructing justice, and it seems they must have known that, then their acts of enablement are criminal.”
“Yes, I’ve read your white papers on this. Everyone in Congress has read those white papers.”
“Well, let’s talk about what we haven’t said there. Suppose a group of Republican Senators and Members of the House actually issued a real mea culpa. If there were enough of them doing this, and if Trump is found guilty of several different crimes, which now seems possible, might it be a way to get past the Trump era and have Republicans begin anew?”
“You’re saying that they admit to committing crimes and yet they run for office after that, is that right?”
“I’d like to game that out with you some, to see if it can make sense when framed in a good way. Do you know former Speaker Ryan well enough to have a conversation with him about this?”
“Caroline, what you are saying is really pushing at the boundaries. If a bunch of elected Republicans will admit to crimes while in office, Democrats are likely to demand that they step down, rather than encourage them to seek reelection. And as far as knowing Speaker Ryan is concerned, I know him enough to say hello but not much beyond that. Why does that matter?”
“On Speaker Ryan, I’m guessing that he stepped down at the end of 2018 because he found it difficult to impossible to deal with Trump. And maybe he would own up to other crimes that Trump committed which have so far not been made public.”
“I see.”
“Congressman, can we consider a hypothetical negotiation between you and some other Democrats along with some Republican members of Congress where each party in the negotiation is representative of a larger like-minded group?”
The Congressman hesitated at this question, but then said, “Okay.”
“I’m going to assume that this negotiation will begin with a recounting of history, starting around the time that Trump was elected President in 2016. The Republicans need to be honest in the telling, and to be forthcoming about it without omitting important details. A cagey approach won’t work.”
“It’s fine to say that, but how in the world can we get that to happen?”
“First, their expressed anger about The Minute Women is showing us they feel the pressure that we’re applying.”
“True enough.”
“Second, they must be fatigued by having Trump still the leader of their party with his criminal actions associated with January 6 and the taking of Top Secret documents to Mar-a-Lago so evident. It’s clearly dragging down other Republicans. So, they have a reason to want to cut their losses.”
“Again true.”
“Third, many of them may not want to fall on their sword the way Elizabeth Cheney has done. If it is possible for them to seek reelection after they’ve come clean, with a decent shot of winning in that case, this gives them some upside for doing the right thing.”
“I’m beginning to see where this is going. You are making the case purely in Machiavellian terms. So, even if they are saying mea culpa, they are taking a strategic posture.”
“For now, that’s what I’m doing. We will get to the aspirational part in a bit. Now to cement this, the various Republican voters who embrace the message of The Minute Women need to commit to supporting these candidates if they agree to the full bargain, but otherwise will vote for the Democratic candidate or possibly a Republican competitor who embraces The Minute Women principles. So, for them to have a chance at reelection, they need to commit to the full bargain.”
“And that full bargain is what again?” “The full bargain includes a confession of their own guilt as Senators in aiding and abetting Trump while he was President. Doing so violated their oath of office. They should have first Censured him and, assuming that wouldn’t have deterred Trump, then voted him guilty after the House impeached him. This confession implies that the various judicial appointments made while Trump was President were tainted. As part of their mea culpa, they must then agree that those appointments should be reversed, preferably by the various Justices and Judges seeing the light and stepping down of their own accord. And then, assuming new appointments are made, the Supreme Court overturns Dobbs v. Jackson, restores Roe, and makes it clear that the political imbalance impacted the Court. This was then a righting of the ship. If only one Republican Senator does this, that person will look crazy. But if twenty or more do it simultaneously, it will start to make sense as a political action.”
“And you really think they’ll go for this?”
“I think there are parts of this that you and I can’t determine. They have to do that themselves. What does a post-Trump Republican party look like? Can it mean less animus between the two parties? Will those Republican voters who have embraced The Minute Women willingly vote for such Republican candidates, or will they distrust them? What would it take to earn back that trust?”
“Okay. Then we need to talk about the process by which this could happen. But before we do that, you mentioned a more aspirational way of seeing things. What do you have in mind?”
“I am convinced that we will reach our goal of getting 70% of the voting population to embrace the ideas articulated by The Minute Women. That’s an overwhelming majority of voters.”
“Let me change the subject on you for a second. Do you have any political aspiration yourself?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Well, I know there has been polling on you as a potential candidate for President. You are polling above 70%.”
“I wish you hadn’t told me that. Fortunately, I’m too young to run for President. And I have no desire to enter politics as a candidate. If and when our work at The Minute Women reaches conclusion, I will seek anonymity and a normal life.”
“I understand. But you should realize that sometimes people embrace ideas because of how they are embodied in a leader they admire.”
“Yeah. I get it. Let’s move on. My aspiration is that these Republican Senators who embrace their mea culpas then sit down with the Democratic Caucus and negotiate through a bunch of legislation that they can agree upon together. The beginning of this negotiation happens quietly, early on, as an exploration of what’s possible. Then something similar happens in the House, even though Representatives there have nothing to do with appointing members of the Judiciary. “
“So the aspiration is for your effort to lead to true bipartisan government thereafter. Is that right?”
“Yes, but the story so far is too simple. There are other forces that need to be considered that would block this from happening unless they are dealt with in a realistic manner. The two obvious ones are the media and the high rollers who bankroll the politicians with all that dark money.”
“And you have ideas for how to manage this, I suppose. How would you do it?”
“My ideas are woefully incomplete on this, but my hope is that a grass roots movement will accomplish this. Imagine a headline like this - Soccer mom tells Fox News to dial it down or that channel won’t be watched in her house.”
“Ha ha ha. I’d love to see that. Got any more of those?”
“I wish I did.”
“Let’s talk about something else that you haven’t mentioned yet. The MAGA types aren’t going to be happy with your plan. Some might want to cut you down to size with a violent approach. Are you concerned about that?”
“Of course I am concerned. Why do people think that violence offers a solution?”
“There’s a lot of frustration out there. The violence follows. The system doesn’t seem fair to an awful lot of people.”
“I’m aware. On our Website we sometimes get comments that aren’t related to the videos or white papers. One that is fairly common goes like this - Why don’t you work at getting ordinary folks like me a better job? It’s outside our realm at The Minute Women, though I accept it as a legitimate complaint.”
“Agreed. What about your own safety. Are you taking care of that?”
“It’s on my to do list.”
“You should put it at the top of the list. It’s really important.”
“Okay. And on the high rollers having too much influence, any thoughts there?”
“If that new bipartisan spirt can be achieved, one of the first things they should do is campaign finance reform. While I’m skeptical on this, from what I’ve read making at least some of the dark money contributions explicit would help a lot. So let them have at it, though I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“This has been a pretty good overview of your thinking. How would you like me to play things out based on what we’ve discussed.”
“Congressman, I trust you implicitly. I’ve always admired your judgment. I think you can quietly investigate all we talked about today, but don’t yet make any firm commitments. Let’s meet again in a month and see where we are then. Things may happen quickly, in which case I’ll be in touch sooner. Does that sound all right with you?
“Yes. That’s fine. And if I’m getting a lot of pressure to have a group meeting I may get in touch with you.”
“Okay. I should be going now.”
“Goodbye, Caroline.”
“Goodbye, Congressman.”
They gave each other a hug. Then he walked her to where her ride was waiting.
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