1. We live in a political era of knuckleheads and idiots.
Twitter, Facebook, and ‘real life’ are full of windbags, bots and blowhards.
There is no getting around this. There is also no reason to indulge it.
We live in a world where millions of women can march in the largest protest in our nation’s history, and we still have to deal with stuff like this:
Pelosi frames this around suffering because she's a pampered out of touch elite who doesn't have to be on hold dealing w/a billing problem.
(No, Nancy Pelosi talks about suffering because that’s what the AHCA will cause for millions of Americans, and she’s a leader.)
Here’s my advice with regards to knuckleheads.
Ignore them. Move on. If you are on Twitter, ignore, block or mute them. If you are on Facebook, unfriend them. And if you are on Dailykos, don’t engage them.
There is too much important work to do, right now, to waste one second on someone whose ulterior motive, in one way or another, is simply to distract you from the important work that you have to do. (Which includes, by the way, taking care of yourself and the people you love.)
2. We are living in the most hopeful time in human history. (It just doesn’t feel like it.)
I have been around for 48 years. I’ve participated in this community for over 14 years.
Every day, in every way, I see hope even in the most challenging and frightening realities.
Women and people of color, around the world and around our nation, are standing up and demanding equality. Anyone who wants to be a part of that is joining in.
There is a push back. And it’s ugly and tragic.
But this movement from below is huge, and it is not going away. And we all will be stronger and better off because of it.
Because the answer to knuckleheads is brilliant, brave people demanding economic and social fairness. There is so much talent and insight and ability in our diversity; I see this every day with my own eyes.
And none of that is going away.
They may repeal Obamacare. They may even reverse Roe v. Wade.
But here is the reality of 2017.
We will not stop until we have built a world based on fairness for all within a sustainable economy.
And that is why I have more hope now than at any time I have written here.
It’s also why I am inviting you to have hope, in your own way, too.
3. Voting for HRC built a community, respect and nurture that.
Whenever I read about the attacks and the circular firing squads in our community I think about volunteering for Hillary.
There were about 50 of us in a small room. Not everything worked right. Many things didn’t work right, in fact.
But goshdarnit there was goodwill among all of us who gathered to make phone calls and recruit more volunteers.
We had a mission that went beyond a candidate.
65,853,516 people voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and I will be damned if we give up on a single one of them.
Dailykos should respect that. The Democratic Party should respect that. And everyone who is hopeful about building the kind of movement that I talk about above should embrace that.
On this website that should mean that there should be amnesty for anyone who voted for or worked for Hillary and abides by the general rules here. That would be a healthy outcome for dailykos. That’s my vote if anyone is listening.
4. Arguing and disagreeing are okay, as long as we stay reality based.
As Democrats, we just lost four prominent elections. That stinks.
We have to debate it out. We have to take sides, advance arguments and offer positions.
For myself, I always place my hope in the volunteers. They are such amazing people.
(And frankly, in my experience, the volunteers are more likely to simply read dailykos than ever make a comment or diary here. Take that as you will.)
But the point is, there is not a clear path forward and there is a ton of disappointment.
For myself, I never thought any of the candidates in any of the races were going to win.
But they came close to victory because of the reality of Trump and the GOP and the hard work of volunteers and people like you.
And that means we should do two things.
1. We should not give up.
2. We should learn from our mistakes and move on.
And that means debating what worked and what didn’t based on facts. I’m all for it and am not afraid of it. Debating does not make us weaker when it is fact-based.
In order to move forward, let’s look at the facts and data with cold eyes, debate our strategy and move forward together.
5. Miracles happen, but gravity is real.
There’s a basic rule in American politics that you win small offices and then big offices, and you do that by building relationships precinct by precinct.
Sure, maybe there will be a few candidates in 2018 who come from nowhere to win election to Congress. (We helped Jerry McNerney do exactly that in 2006.) But basic rules are basic rules.
We’ve just seen two candidates spend millions of...ahem...our dollars...who were on the miracle side of the equation.
We need to invest in great candidates in every winnable race, focusing on recruiting great, progressive as possible, candidates who’ve actually won an election somewhere in their district before.
Sure, ignore me. But ignore me at your peril.
As someone who was part of electing a miracle and knows how easy it would have been for us to have lost...I am telling you, gravity is real.
Having a track record with voters in your district is an essential criteria for a political campaign.
6. Trump is unpresidented
This is just so frustrating, isn’t it?
It’s a shitshow and a circus carnival at the same time.
It’s also very real. And it’s more than a little dangerous.
Trump has shown his proclivities.
Autocrats.
Petroleum states.
Nepotism.
Kleptocracy.
A reality TV approach to everything.
Words mean what KellyAnne/Trump/Bannon want them to mean.
This is insane and it will drive you nuts if you let it.
As someone who lived through Nixon, Reagan, and GWB let me offer this piece of advice.
Get local, get excited about a winnable victory in your locale or state and work your ass off to win that victory.
That is how we will defeat Trump.
You may think I’m kidding. That the formula is too simple.
No, it’s not.
Everything in American politics is local. Get involved in a winnable victory that moves the needle towards progress and work your ass off.
Defeating Trump will take care of itself when people do the above because once democracy is in motion in America, idiots get flushed from the system.
7. People aren’t idiots
I know this runs counter to much of what I’ve written above.
But hear me out.
People aren’t idiots.
Every day, people do the right thing. And it’s beautiful.
No one is paying attention or calling this out because you can’t make money off it on TV.
But it’s true.
Teachers teach. Nurses heal. Janitors clean. Farmers grow food. Children learn.
I see a ton of idiocy online. I also see enormous reasons to have hope.
There are brilliant people holding almost every bad guy on the planet accountable.
I try to retweet these good people every day, to do my part.
If you are on Twitter, follow me, and retweet the voices I share.
You will find, little by little, that a new world is opening to you and your followers.
A world of shared values, of respect, of hope, of mourning at times, and anger at others.
Jump into the list of people I follow and pick five or six of your own.
We have every reason to work together, now more than ever.
People aren’t idiots if you can reach them in the right way.
Let’s do this.
A new world is possible.