We just lost a ‘Paul Revere’ in the fight to save democracy

Blake Wright / United America

Rob Stein saw it coming.

The political activist and former government official passed away this week at the age of 78.

While much of America was shocked this week by the leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion that undermined a woman’s fundamental right to control her own body, two decades ago Rob described exactly how we How are you going to reach this point?

After serving in the Clinton administration, where I met him, Rob began to analyze the right in America. Nevertheless, the conservatives were coordinating to keep control over important elements of our system—from the states to the judiciary.

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After the 2002 elections, Robb produced a study of Republican funding networks. He found the GOP to be exceptionally disciplined in the way he played the long game.

Conservatives wanted to win the election, of course, but their real focus was on institutionalizing their power so that they could implement their ideas for decades to come—even if the massive demographic changes in America were not to their detriment. I will never forget to sit down with him during our periodic breakfast at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington in 2003 as he unveiled his presentation entitled “The Conservative Message Machines Money Matrix.”

By the time he had drawn up his analysis of years of effort by the GOP to win at the statehouse level — to control district initiatives to support candidates who shared their views on campaign finance and voting rights — America First. It had just shaken. by the politicization of the Supreme Court, as manifested in its bush vs gore decision.

The 2002 midterms were a rare instance when the party actually tightened its grip on the majority of Congress and state legislatures in the White House. Rob saw what was happening, and was concerned that if the Democrats did not make a similar effort, there would be “no return” after which America would no longer function as a democracy.

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However, he was not satisfied with the analysis and giving warnings. The stakes were very high.

Rob reached out to donors he knew and put together a thing called the Democracy Alliance. The goal was not just to raise money, but to allocate it in informed ways for the races that really mattered, to be as strategic and disciplined as the other side. Since Rob founded the group, he has reportedly raised $2 billion and has also helped form right-wing anti-propaganda groups like Media Matters.

Several years ago, when he learned he was ill with an illness that would eventually claim his life this week, Rob called me and suggested we have lunch. I went and greeted him with a typical, “How are you?” And he replied, “I am dying,” adding that he probably had only a few years left.

I was naturally puzzled and wanted to know more about diagnosis and treatment. He said no, so he didn’t want to have lunch. He wanted to talk about me.

Few people in friendship were as selfless as Rob. After our former boss, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, died along with many of our colleagues and friends in a plane crash in 1996, it was Rob who consoled the inconsolable (including me). Despite the devastation she felt, she made it her mission to make others feel at ease.

At our lunch, soon after learning of his impending mortality, he told me: “I was thinking of you and reading and watching your work. You are now at a turning point in your life.”

I responded with some derogatory joke about my age, which he avoided and replied: “No. This could be a new beginning. This is the beginning of the third act of your life. It could be the best.” You can make a difference. But you have to decide to make it happen. And I want to help you with that decision if I can.

I agree, it was, for me, a revolutionary approach… and an inspiring approach. But as he did with American politics, Robb not only saw the challenges – he continually sought solutions.

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The crisis he predicted two decades ago in our democracy is now more extreme than ever. Trump years of attack on the rule of law from attempted coup; From the corrosive effects of the Big Lie to using the Senate to pack the courts and render them into an engine of pure politics—Rob called it.

The “point of no return” he warned me about is drawing near.

For Robb, as manifested in every aspect of his life, the answer was searching harder for answers, working more energetically to generate change, fighting more for the values ​​we believe in. .

In other words, Robb not only saw the current crisis coming (and tried to avoid it), he clearly saw organized, strategic, informed, intensive action as the only solution to the challenges facing us.

Somehow, if we can capture his clarity, vision, commitment, resourcefulness, intelligence, and reality-based optimism, we can achieve the goal he sought…and give the country a great next act in the American story. can be installed on the route.

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