Tax bill passes … but could it retire Republicans?

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Well that wasn’t the end to the year that many people were hoping for. Donald Trump signed the GOP’s tax bill on Friday, bringing to an end weeks of spirited protests by progressive groups.

Activists in the press gallery shouted “Kill the bill, don’t kill us”, and about 70 protesters were arrested, as the vote took place, but Republicans were soon celebrating Trump’s first legislative triumph as president.

Progressive organizations soon rallied, however, with Indivisible calling for activists to hold a series of “retirement parties” at Republicans’ offices.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Activists are detained as the Senate and House vote on the GOP tax bill. Photograph: Pacific Press / Barcroft Images

“A retirement party is an action where you creatively send the message that your member of Congress’ vote for the Tax Scam is the beginning of the end of their time in office,” Indivisible said in a statement.

Activists are hoping that the bill will influence the 2018 midterm elections in the Democrats’ favour.

In more positive news …

… the Washington Post notes that the country’s view of Trump has slumped even further – a series of polls showed the president has an approval rating of between 33 and 37%.

With that in mind, a series of Democrats are “starting to get anxious to run against Trump”, the Post reckons.

It has produced a ranking of the top 15 Democratic presidential candidates for 2020, which features many progressive candidates.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Elizabeth Warren is among those who may run against Trump. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP

Santa reimagined …

… is the title of a new Christmas book by Daniel Kibblesmith, a staff writer for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. It depicts Santa Claus as a black gay man – who is married to a white bearded man.

Kibblesworth said Santa’s Husband should serve to set a more inclusive, LGBT-positive example to young readers.

“If kids are part of a bigger, more colourful world right at the beginning of their lives, they’ll have a broader definition of what a ‘normal’ person is, or what constitutes a family,” Kibblesmith told Pink News.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photograph: Daniel Kibblesmith

“Detractors will say things like, ‘How do I explain a same-sex couple to my kids,’ but you also have to explain hetero couples, and doorknobs, and not walking into traffic.”

The book has also managed to upset a lot of conservative websites. Which is always fun.

What we’re reading

• “Since Trump’s Victory, Democratic Socialists of America Has Become a Budding Political Force,” writes Anna Heyward in the Nation. Heyward says the organization has seen a boost in its membership – and a change in demographics. The median age of the DSA is 33 years old compared with 68 four years ago, and Heyward writes that the DSA “has a newly youthful feel to it, startlingly dissimilar from the geriatric-seeming organization before 2016”.

• Writing in the Hill, Brent Budowsky predicts a big 2018 and 2020 for progressives. He sees parallels between the “populist policies” of William Jennings Bryan, which “evolved into the progressive populist presidency of Teddy Roosevelt”, and the Sanders movement in 2016. “The programs championed by Sanders in 2016 will largely be adopted in the Democratic platform in 2020 and fervently championed by the 2020 nominee, whether it is Sanders or a similar candidate,” Budowsky writes.

The Resistance Now newsletter will be back in the New Year