The current version of The New Yorker has an article with the in-print title of The Teaching Moment. Read the article; it’ll be well worth your time, and it’ll make you feel better about where we’re going.
The article makes a number of important points:
- The march from Tulsa to Oklahoma City, combined with teacher walkouts all over the state, led to: “During the walkout, the demonstration at the capitol was attended by as many as eighty thousand people—more than came to the state for the land rush of 1889.”
- In special elections since 2016, Democrats won four out of nine, in districts that Republicans won easily in 2016.
- The state and local Democratic party, long dormant, now is seeing crowds show up at meetings, ready to support candidates and the party.
- All politics is local. Campaigning on the issue of paying for education pays off. Campaigning on national issues does not.
My interest? I’m co-chair of my local ward Democratic committee here in Boston. Our problems are the inverse of Oklahoma’s; our precincts regularly vote 90% Democratic. But before 2016, our committee was running at half its statutory allotment of members. After that election, we gained a large number of young, energetic new members. They are active in all manner of local activities: voter registration, phone banks and visits to swing districts in competitive states, get-out-the vote, etc.
It wasn’t that surprising that we had a surge of interest after 2016; it is surprising that this is happening everywhere. Maybe people are finally waking up. And, maybe, the wisdom of the beltway pundits is as far out of focus as usual.