To be specific, failure means you take a break - recharge your brain and then you work
smarter and harder next time. Leahy's yes vote on the Chief seat is an incredible disappointment. I'm generally a big doody head and I don't diary, but I was moved by
Armando's frustration and I wanted to spin out an answer to his question: "How do we persuade them?"
We persuade them by helping them win.
And I don't mean votes on bills or confirmations in the Senate. That comes later.
We persuade them by helping them win at the ballot box and on the street.
I don't know anything about Armando. I know he is an ultra-prolific blogger,
but I would wager that Armando wasn't even born when Pat Leahy first ran for Senate in 1974. First Democratic Senator Elected In Vermont - EVER. My point?
No dis to Armando, but its the Kossacks that need to do the hard work and daily weeding to get more progressive D's elected. It's an old saw but I'm playing it one more time.
I belong to the wing of the party that says: "until you have walked up to some stranger's house or apartment, knocked on the door and asked that stranger to vote for you, or to vote for your candidate - you haven't done sh*t." Street politics helps you know what can and can't be done. The more you do it the more you know. When the all folks who inhabit the blogosphere actually do the
GOTV and other work that actually helps D's actually win elections well, ... that's a strong persuader.
Pat's guts tell him he should vote yes on Roberts for the Chief seat. Pat believes John when he says he is "his own man." I think Pat is a dupe and a sucker to believe John, but then again I haven't been elected U.S. Senator six times. My opinion - John is a very smart lawyer, but since he comes out of a Republican establishment that is the most craven and atavistic ever, voting to confirm simply helps crush everything that America stands for.
There is nothing wrong with Armando's healthy distrust of the party. Remember this is the party that gave us Richard Daily and James Trafficant. Not exactly democratic icons for the progressives. Our job is to transform the party into a highly progressive political force that can write the laws to raise wages, provide universal health care, protect workers, ensure civil rights and economic opportunity, preserve and protect the environment. Remember, "Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line." I love Howard and I am going to do everything humanly possible to help him win in every election from 2005 through 2008. One thing I plan to do a little less of is sit in front of a computer screen.