Praying for the day another admin has the power to do the same to him and does.
That wouldn’t be civil. We’re going to form an independent commission to study the possible effects of changing the rules on how the Secret Service operates. Then we’re going to issue all politicians a stipend to hire their own private security.
Then Dems are going to lose an election cycle after running Gavin Newsom and Charlie Kirk on the same ticket… Then we’ll get an earful about how the LGBTQ caucus and the black voter base are dragging the party down, we need to appeal to more rich white old people.
I find your lack of faith disturbing. If highly warranted. And pretty accurate.
It’s almost like everyone here isn’t communicating with their Democratic representatives. And expecting the party stuck in the 90’s to magically figure it out. And pretending the workers are going to seize the means of production any day now.
It’s almost like everyone here isn’t communicating with their Democratic representatives.
I’ve had face-to-face conversations with my House Reps on a number of occasions. Thanks to how gerrymandered my neighborhood gets, it’s been alternately Dan Crenshaw and Liz Fletcher by turns. Even got to chat briefly with Beto O’Rourke on a couple of occasions.
I used to get very enthusiastic at the opportunity to be at a rally and get a handshake or sit at a GOTV kick-off meeting and get greeted by the candidate, even asked a few questions. Dan straight up went into “debate mode” with me, then sent his wife out as I was leaving to say how much he appreciated the chat.
But at the end of the day, what I always only ever get from these people is “Yeah I really hear you and I agree with what you’re saying. It’s really important and I value that.” And then a mailer asking for money. And then… they do what their mega-donors tell them. My words are wind, if I’m not showing up with a five-figure check. Even then, the influence I see people buying is marginal - enough to get a special favor or access to a higher level official, but never anything that changes public policy.
I assure you that people are communicating with their representatives. People are marching in front of offices. People are bombarding their reps with phone calls - good and bad. People are answering polls. People are showing up to rallies. People are heckling and cheering in turns. But any individual is always read as “marginal”. The mythology of “losing one activist and picking up two of the silent majority” is repeated day in and day out in campaign offices all over the country.
The only way to be heard is to speak as a really big crowd. Like, big enough to swing an election. And as soon as you’re that big… what you become isn’t necessarily even “influential”. More often, you just become the scapegoat for why this or that candidate lost.
That’s ideal. So much of our time, labor, and infrastructure is privatized that it can be difficult to find an opportunity to mobilize large numbers of people to useful purpose.
But the truly great organizers figure out how to snowball a small activist base into a lively community wide movement.
Well you make some very good points. I guess we have to monitor the midterm races very closely. If one of you run in each state we only need 50 people . . . .
That wouldn’t be civil. We’re going to form an independent commission to study the possible effects of changing the rules on how the Secret Service operates. Then we’re going to issue all politicians a stipend to hire their own private security.
Then Dems are going to lose an election cycle after running Gavin Newsom and Charlie Kirk on the same ticket… Then we’ll get an earful about how the LGBTQ caucus and the black voter base are dragging the party down, we need to appeal to more rich white old people.
I find your lack of faith disturbing. If highly warranted. And pretty accurate.
It’s almost like everyone here isn’t communicating with their Democratic representatives. And expecting the party stuck in the 90’s to magically figure it out. And pretending the workers are going to seize the means of production any day now.
I’ve had face-to-face conversations with my House Reps on a number of occasions. Thanks to how gerrymandered my neighborhood gets, it’s been alternately Dan Crenshaw and Liz Fletcher by turns. Even got to chat briefly with Beto O’Rourke on a couple of occasions.
I used to get very enthusiastic at the opportunity to be at a rally and get a handshake or sit at a GOTV kick-off meeting and get greeted by the candidate, even asked a few questions. Dan straight up went into “debate mode” with me, then sent his wife out as I was leaving to say how much he appreciated the chat.
But at the end of the day, what I always only ever get from these people is “Yeah I really hear you and I agree with what you’re saying. It’s really important and I value that.” And then a mailer asking for money. And then… they do what their mega-donors tell them. My words are wind, if I’m not showing up with a five-figure check. Even then, the influence I see people buying is marginal - enough to get a special favor or access to a higher level official, but never anything that changes public policy.
I assure you that people are communicating with their representatives. People are marching in front of offices. People are bombarding their reps with phone calls - good and bad. People are answering polls. People are showing up to rallies. People are heckling and cheering in turns. But any individual is always read as “marginal”. The mythology of “losing one activist and picking up two of the silent majority” is repeated day in and day out in campaign offices all over the country.
The only way to be heard is to speak as a really big crowd. Like, big enough to swing an election. And as soon as you’re that big… what you become isn’t necessarily even “influential”. More often, you just become the scapegoat for why this or that candidate lost.
I’d contend that you then need to do something with that crowd. Otherwise, as you said, you just become a scapegoat.
That’s ideal. So much of our time, labor, and infrastructure is privatized that it can be difficult to find an opportunity to mobilize large numbers of people to useful purpose.
But the truly great organizers figure out how to snowball a small activist base into a lively community wide movement.
Well you make some very good points. I guess we have to monitor the midterm races very closely. If one of you run in each state we only need 50 people . . . .