The Democrats need to “champion working families and give voters a reason to show up at the polls in 2018 and beyond”—that’s what Representative Keith Ellison says. The Nation has endorsed him for chair of the Democratic National Committee. Ad Policy Start Making Sense is hosted by Jon Wiener and co-produced by the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Also: What can Ivanka possibly do for women who work? Amy Wilentz examines the website of our de facto first lady to find some answers.

And historian Eric Foner talks about another time in our past when the federal government was as vicious as Trump wants it to be: the 1850s, when the Fugitive Slave Act was the law of the land.

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