We laugh at quitters. Princes Sarah did half of her Governorship and half of a charity 5K race.
Imagine with me:
You have trained for the 26 mile Boston Marathon for years. Showed up on the big day ready to go, confident in your ability to meet the challenge. You start running. 26....22...18....14....10...4....3....2...WHAT?
Somehow you must have gotten mixed up! You realize that you thought you only had two more miles to go but in actuality you miscalculated and you in fact have five miles to go to finish.
You are gobsmacked. You feel like the wind has been punched out of you. You were so ready to stop, to run across that finish line. Now, you realize you have five more miles to go.
Do you quit? Do you throw away all those dedicated mornings of running in rain, snow, uphill and in pain?
Hell no! You take a deep breath, clear your mind and put in the best five miles of your life.
The Democrats started that race in 2000. It took six years to create the congressional majority we have today. But we are coming to realize that OOPS we thought we were only two miles from the finish line, when in fact, we are five miles from it.
How precisely do we do it?
THE HISTORY
Over the last six years democrats have worked very hard to retake congress. The war helped, a dynamic and charismatic presidential candidate helped. We have majorities that literally make the GOP irrelevant. GOOD WORK! And better than that, Obama and Democrats are (IMO) doing a decent job of altering the social mindset - taking it from the individualistic Reagan mentality and moving it toward the values of collective responsibility. Reagan changed that dynamic years ago and it's taken 30 years to find the right way to counterbalance and begin to defeat it. History and personality have been favorable to democrats and in eight years, I think the social mentality will be much different.
I'd call that the first 21 miles of the race.
THE FACTS
The Senate (the conservative chamber) actually has 52 or 53 Democratic senators who were on record in favor of the public option back in the summer. Think about that for a second. We have several democrats in the Senate who actively oppose the platform on many fronts. Not just on Health Care but on many issues that define the party. But their numbers are few. Less than 5 or 6.
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Pretty damned good, if you ask me.THIS IS FIXABLE
THIS IS FIXABLE
THE MISSION
We have elections in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016. Our job is to create a favorable environment to allow our rogue senators to be removed from office. We don't have too many out there - only 5 or 6 - and we can focus like a laser on them to get them primaried and voted out. This is all we need to do to see a public option and many more of the actual democratic platform issues supported and passed. THIS is the last 5 miles of this race. Leaving the party won't help it. NOT VOTING won't help it. Being "unmotivated" won't help it. It's time to take a deep breath and blast off to cross the finish line. THIS is the last five miles of this race.
THE METHOD
ActBlue is a great resource BUT there's a huge flaw with it. Allowing people to donate to candidates they believe in has limitations. The worst of which is that most politicians or hopefuls will not even enter a contest against a long time incumbent. ActBlue only works if a candidate is already declared. A candidate usually will only declare if he/she feels that he/she can out-raise and out organize the party supported candidate. In conservative states, that's really a hard decision to make.
Think about this: you are a State Senator in, say, Nebraska. Would you jump into a race against Ben Nelson? No. Because he will get the party financial backing and you'd already be way behind the eight ball. It'd be an impossible fight. THIS is what we have to correct. I've seen too many great candidates go DOWN for this very reason. ENOUGH!!
ACTION PLAN
Many of you have already decided to stop contributing to the DNC, DSCC and DCCC. I totally get that. So I propose setting up a group that raises money in much the same way the DSCC, DNC and DCCC do. Millions. Tens of Millions. Our job would be let those who wish to run know that there's "starting money" for them. Imagine an organization that has, say 12 or 20 million banked up and ready to support serious candidates who want to run against those we want to get rid of? An organization that FUNDS the candidates that existing progressive organizations (like PCCC) work hard to identify). THIS is the missing link. Guaranteed support and money in tough states and districts.
I am setting up a virtual meeting to form such an organization. We can bring our skills and talents and knowledge together to partner with other organizations and make this work. PLEASE EMAIL ME or respond in comments if you want to be involved. I will send out emails in about two weeks as to our first virtual meeting and an agenda.
I'm serious.
It's time to focus like a laser on running these last five miles. In 4-6 years, we'll have a congress and senate we can rely on to make our country better.