Tuesday, April 04, 2017

The Anti-Trump Tsunami of 2017

>

OK, fellas, YOUR election is over, so... what about ours now?

-by Alice Marshall

I knew there was popular mobilization like no other time in my life, but I did not realize how great it was until I saw this comment at Daily Kos: "Organization is also a bottom-up thing starting with organizing at the precinct and county level. Our precinct meeting last month, which usually draws 5 or 6 people, had 20. We raised $200 on the spot to support the local party. People are itching to get involved-- they just need a small bit of organizing."

Whoever heard of 20 people showing up to a PRECINCT meeting? Most of the time there is a Democratic precinct captain and that is it. Now 20 people are showing up to precinct meetings?

A friend of mine forwarded this message from the Virginia House Democrats:
so far we've trained over 60 Democratic candidates for the House of Delegates?
we're currently running candidates in 80 districts (with only 34 incumbents)?
Republicans, with 66 incumbents, have only managed candidates in 73 districts?
so far 7 Republicans are either retiring or seeking another office rather than defend Trump?
My Democratic friend in Minnesota tells me that hundreds of Democrats are coming forward to run in this year's municipal elections. In fact, all across the country we hear news of thousands of people running for municipal office as Democrats, and they won't lack for volunteers. Millions of Democrats are joining their local Democratic committee.




The importance of this year's elections cannot be overstated. All across the country voters will be choosing their school boards, county boards, sheriffs, mayors, and a host of other offices. These officials have far more impact on our daily lives than any member of congress, or even the president. Whether or not you have charter schools, how your local jail is run, how your local public transit system is operated, all these kinds of issues are decided at the local level. If you want to stop fracking and protect your ground water, if you want pedestrian friendly development, if you want to prevent the privatization of the commons, these are the elections you need to participate in.

And these elections will be watched very closely by editors, news directors, lobbyists, political consultants, and the entire public opinion mafia. A shift to the left will have an immediate impact upon our national discourse. It will influence editors as to which stories are news-worthy and which are not. It will affect who appears on Sunday morning talk shows and what topics are discussed by syndicated columnists.

A shift to the left will also have an immediate impact upon candidate recruitment and funding. I don't suppose anything can convince the DCCC to refrain from sabotaging good candidates, but a shift to the left in the 2017 elections will make that more difficult.

A dramatic shift to the left will find every politician in Washington re-positioning themselves to the left.

A dramatic shift to the left, not just Democratic gains, but gains by progressive candidates will shift votes in Congress. Politicians will understand that voters are not kidding around and expect meaningful progress on our most pressing problems. A dramatic shift to the left will pull the rug out from under the Republicans and stiffen the spine of the Democrats. It will also shatter the talking point that voters are looking for centrism (which is newspeak for corporatism).

A shift to the left will also affect editorial judgment. It will persuade editors to run more global warming stories and fewer "let's go to war" stories. It may even, gasp, persuade editors to run labor stories. Voting is the one power we hold in our hands, the one thing lobbyists cannot overwhelm, if we will put it to good use.

Ideally, the Democratic National Committee would be pouring money into precinct operations and training THIS year to lay the ground work for retaking the House in 2018. Realistically, that is not going to happen. That is why I wrote The Precinct Captain's Guide To Political Victory, described by one reader as "clearly written, right to the point and will certainly drive political campaigns to victory." My book is not for candidates, campaign managers, nor consultant. My book is for every grassroots political volunteer who wants to win elections and is looking for practical guidance as to how to do so. My book assumes that the reader has little or no experience of electoral politics and little or no institutional support from the local party apparatus. I have personally tried every method I describe here and can guarantee the effectiveness thereof. You can buy it at the DownWithTyranny book store.



Labels: , , , ,

7 Comments:

At 7:55 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I cannot ever get juiced about any effort to push the horrid corrupt worthless feckless democraps back into a plurality in either chamber or in the WH either.

You may get states houses filled with them and they may be measurably better than the fascists and nazis they supplant... but the national orgs are still horrid corrupt worthless feckless democraps. And no state will be able to do much on its own with the burden of constant war and neoliberal econ.

You can have 20 children with their sand castle shovels trying to fill a hole. But if you have a 4-ton excavator digging at the same time... get the picture?

blow up the excavator and recycle all the metal. Only if that happens can the hole ever get filled.

 
At 9:50 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...


In Ohio, whether or not we have charter schools is NOT really determined at the local level. State policy dictates vouchers be given for charters and parochial schools. Since ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) model legislation has been pushed through Republican majority legislatures in 2/3 of the states, state laws have pre-empted many local ordinances. It is sickly ironic that the original "small government" people are stripping local governments of their home rule authority. But it was never about "small government." It was always about concentrating more and more power in fewer and more wealthy hands.

 
At 1:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

small govt. means simply no govt. influence on corporations except as the buyers of a lot of war stuff. No regs. No law enforcement. No ecological enforcement. No labor enforcement. No nothing.

And profitizing everything. sickness, health, life, death, food, medicine, roads, everything.

 
At 6:57 PM, Blogger Alice said...

Just go word of another retirement in Virginia, David Albo will not be running for re-election. Democrats could sweep Fairfax County, more than they already have.

my goodness, such negativity. for those who think that the Democrats are a lost cause my book has a long section about the special challenges of volunteering for a Green or other emergent party candidate. We really have more power than we think.

 
At 7:47 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Alice, do you remember what happened when democraps had filibuster-proof numbers in all 3 branches (or 4)? Nothing. That's what happened. Neoconism, neoliberalism, corruption, war... all got worse. And SSI would have been gashed except for john boner... yeah... john boner saved SSI from being gashed.

So you can get excited for the democraps maybe (prolly not) winning back the house if you want. I won't ever.

I know it won't be easy... prolly can't happen, but the democraps aren't ever going to voluntarily refuse billions per from their corporate and billionaire owners. The only way is to make them all suffer electoral demise... forever.

 
At 10:01 PM, Blogger Alice said...

If you have given up on the Democrats as irredeemably corrupt, why not volunteer for the Greens or some other emergent party? My book deals with the problems of working for emergent parties and has lots of tips with how to cope with the problems of working for candidates with few resources.

 
At 7:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Alice. The democraps ARE irredeemably corrupt and feckless. Sorry I haven't read your book. But I live in a glowing crimson red tri-county area within a blue state. There is no presence here of any kind of primordial Green or Socialist party. The democraps have also vacated, though I would never waste one erg of my energy on them.

Ignorance, churches (and, ergo, hate) and stupid are pandemic here. Kinda pointless trying to do anything.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home