Hillary Clinton has established a new organization called Onward Together that will provide support to groups, causes and candidates to oppose President Trump and the far-right agency of Republicans in Congress. Clinton’s new organization is registered as a 501(c)(4) under the Internal Revenue Service rules, which allows it to receive donations and use the money to support progressive groups and candidates in the 2018 and 2020 elections and beyond.
Onward Together could set the stage for a Clinton presidential campaign in 2020, as pro-Clinton groups established before the 2016 campaign ultimately morphed into her formal campaign. Or, it could become a potent force supporting another nominee by mobilizing a significant number of former Clinton aides, staff, donors and political operatives to raise a war chest and create an organizational powerhouse that goes after Trump and Republicans in Congress, beginning with the 2018 midterms.
{mosads}Make no mistake about this: Clinton has set her sights on Trump and the Republicans who support him at a time when the president suffers from disastrously low poll numbers and the GOP is deeply divided. Onward Together has the potential to do a great deal of good by providing money and media support to progressive groups battling in the resistance against Trump and Republicans in Congress who have locked their interests to his.
Clinton’s major new group is a positive development, for the same reasons that I have strongly supported Our Revolution, the Bernie Sanders-affiliated group that is doing so much to promote progressive values, causes and candidates.
The 2018 campaign has already begun. Trump and Republicans in Congress are pushing hard for a horrifically unpopular healthcare bill that would be a disaster for millions of Americans and lead to 23 million citizens losing their insurance plans. They are imposing cruel pain on the poor by seeking aggressive cuts to important and popular programs — Medicaid, Meals on Wheels, SNAP — while they push hard for big tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest Americans.
Clinton and Sanders’ respective organizations — Onward Together and Our Revolution — have growing memberships to mobilize resources, promote citizen involvement and civic action and inspire and support new progressive candidates.
Hillary Clinton should smile at the thought that the many individuals and organizations that her group is going to support will inspire citizens to attend town meetings of Republicans in Congress and ask the tough and embarrassing questions about their cruel and damaging proposals! It is exciting and refreshing to watch the resistance to Trump rising from citizens who fervently believe in a higher standard of government and politics in Washington and state capitals.
As Republican scandals proliferate and citizens learn about the damage and dangers of far-right proposals, the opposition grows, the resistance rises, the people mobilize and change is coming.
The Republicans wanted a one-party Washington where they control the presidency, the House and the Senate. Now they have it and must take the responsibility for it. All Democratic candidates represent the party of change and all Republican candidates represent the party of the Donald Trump Republican status quo.
Hillary Clinton has created Onward Together which brings powerful reinforcements to the resistance.
Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), then-chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. in international financial law from the London School of Economics. He can be read on The Hill’s Contributors blog and reached at brentbbi@webtv.net.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.