The moment the shutdown ended Trump got the jump on the Democrats by quickly shouting out that the Democrats have "buckled" and therefore "failed" in their government shutdown.
No. The Democrats haven't failed. They actually won something with the shutdown. But they have just failed in getting their own label on events. Trump is a master at media manipulation and the Democrats are pathetic at it. So now many in the media are scoffing at the Democrats for having gotten "rolled" by the GOP in that the Democrats didn't continue the shutdown long enough to get protection against deportation for the "Dreamers" (long-time immigants brought here illegally as children). There never was a liklihood the Democrats would get protection for the Dreamers by pulling a shutdown.
The shutdown was never going to work for that purpose so long as the GOP also held hostage the health care of nine million needy children. In effect the GOP was offering a Sophie's choice: the Dreamers' being protected or healthe care coverage for the nine million poor children. The public loves the Dreamers; a staggering 80% support letting them stay. But a hefty two-thirds of the public were saying that ending the shutdown was more important than protecting the Dreamers. And the GOP was saying the Democrats' shutdown was stopping a vote on the children's health program (CHIPS). The Democrats were looking bad. But they were doing good!
Now that the Democrat's have entered the present accord with the Senate GOP, they have secured a splendid six-year funding of CHIPS and a second bite at getting the Dreamers protected, i.e. if by February 8 the Senate has not resolved the Dreamers issue, the Democrats can do another shutdown.
In bridge we would call the Democrats' move "finessing", luring a trick into the open so as to take it from your opponent. Of course anything which involves finesse is going to be beyond the understanding of Trump and — sadly — much of the media. A few members of the latter, however, have understood the outcome, including David Leonhardt in the New York Times at Leonhardt: The Democrats Did Just Fine. His column mentions several others who understand the moves, e.g., Paul Krugman, Ezra Klein, Catherine Rampell, Nate Cohn, and Perry Bacon Jr. Former Republican Joe Scarborough also says the Democrats won big in the shutdown. It was his lead-off topic this morning on his three hour TV show, "Morning Joe". Since he was once a Congressman he might know something about what goes on in Congress.
While a Republican Congressman, Scarborough was part of the GOP shutdown under Clinton. The GOP truly got nothing for this much longer shutdown and nothing for the one during Obama's second term.
So now the Democrats have literally beaten the GOP at their own game. But the Democrats sorely need a good public relations person to get the word out promptly and well. Their leadership is lousy at this. Nancy Pelosi is off-putting to watch and tends to ramble, and Chuck Schumer mumbles and looks down at the podium. By contrast the Democrats are up against a media master and are facing a news channel media dominated by very young, inexperienced people who need someone to explain things to them.
So, Democratic leaders, listen up! Remember the Eisenhower mantra: "Tell them loud and clear. Tell them again. Keep telling them!" (Ike had a good mantra but a lousy delivery. Talk about rambling!)
Put your stamp on it! Label it! Tell the truth loud and clear and maybe Trump won't be able to grab the mike. You are up against an agile, unblinking liar. You have got to up your PR game!
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Monday, January 22, 2018
Grassroots Campaigning Is Back From the Dead Because of Alabama
[This is the second part of a posting about the death and revival of grassroots campaigning and Alabama's role. The first part is Winning Political Campaigns With Virtually No Money. An Alabama Lesson!]
Because I persisted in using grassroots campaigning all the way into the '80s, Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic operators hated me. My success in winning campaigns without big money gave the lie to their claim that big money was needed. I was threatening all that money they amassed, all those perqs they insisted campaigns needed! They were in the business of literally selling candidates and personally benefiting from the market.
But in grassroots campaigns, power could no longer be bought just by raising money. To save their marketplace they tried to shut down my little headquarters or get our signs removed by the police. I'd even get anonymous threatening phone calls at 1 a.m.
That sounds frightening but actually it was fun! Fighting bad guys is my idea of a good time. And these were the bad guys.
Under the mismanagement of Pelosi and her like, the Democrats have lost the presidency, both houses of Congress and most of the state legislatures and governorships. We are also teetering on getting a solidly conservative Supreme Court for the lifetime of our children. Plus the GOP has been able to control redistricting and thus gerrymander future contested elections virtually out of existence. Further — the worst sin of all — in 2016 Pelosi and her chums failed to get candidates to run in a number of Congressional districts that were winnable. This not only gave a bunch of Republicans a free ride but freed up GOP money to be spent in other races. With a "leader" like Nancy, who needs an enemy?
But that's over. On election night in Alabama, the victorious Doug Jones credited his victory to his grassroots campaign.
And Tom Perez, the new head of the Democratic National Committee, said he had been so impressed with the grassroots campaigning in Alabama that all of the DNC funds for the race had gone into that grassroots effort. Even more heartening, Perez pledged that he would support grassroots campaigning all over the country and that he would be sure that there was a Democratic contender in every single House race nationwide.
Grassroots campaigning is now alive and well. Not only will Democrats start winning again, but something even better will happen. People will have a chance again to experience community.
There is so little of community life in our present society that people love grassroots campaigning. The headquarters becomes a second home, a place to hang out. They bring their kids. They bring sandwiches and coffee makers. They have parties and play baseball together when not working the precincts. Some go on into politics and run for office. Some marry other volunteers. All become better, more knowledgeable citizens.
The skills of grassroots have value beyond political campaigns. I use grassroots skills to rally people to fight for all manner of things. e.g., exposing some of Nixon's early dirty tricks, getting housing for farmworkers, instigating a federal law prohibiting mass detention without due process, working to end the Vietnam War, saving historic buildings, stopping the ruination of farmland by development and the pollution of world-famous trout streams, protecting Native American spiritual places. I even got some conventional benefit, being one of the first four women to hold an executive position in California state government. In that job I got to buy about a billion dollars worth of beaches, redwoods, historic sites, Lake Tahoe. Remember the Godfather's house at Tahoe in "Godfather II"? With state funds I bought that for the people of the state of California and all who come to visit.
And when I finished all this work, I walked away, unlike Nancy Pelosi who never turns it over to younger people.
I am delighted the torch is passing to yet another new generation. (If Nancy Pelosi would just let go of it!)
Please take up the torch. Please take up grassroots campaigning. I may write a little how-to booklet and make it available through this blog or my Facebook page. But please don't let the flame go out. Don't let money run politics. Let the people do it.
I promise you you'll have the time of your life. And will also make this a better America and a better world.
Hurrah for Alabama and the good people there who made so much happen.
Now let's go ring some doorbells!
Because I persisted in using grassroots campaigning all the way into the '80s, Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic operators hated me. My success in winning campaigns without big money gave the lie to their claim that big money was needed. I was threatening all that money they amassed, all those perqs they insisted campaigns needed! They were in the business of literally selling candidates and personally benefiting from the market.
But in grassroots campaigns, power could no longer be bought just by raising money. To save their marketplace they tried to shut down my little headquarters or get our signs removed by the police. I'd even get anonymous threatening phone calls at 1 a.m.
That sounds frightening but actually it was fun! Fighting bad guys is my idea of a good time. And these were the bad guys.
Under the mismanagement of Pelosi and her like, the Democrats have lost the presidency, both houses of Congress and most of the state legislatures and governorships. We are also teetering on getting a solidly conservative Supreme Court for the lifetime of our children. Plus the GOP has been able to control redistricting and thus gerrymander future contested elections virtually out of existence. Further — the worst sin of all — in 2016 Pelosi and her chums failed to get candidates to run in a number of Congressional districts that were winnable. This not only gave a bunch of Republicans a free ride but freed up GOP money to be spent in other races. With a "leader" like Nancy, who needs an enemy?
But that's over. On election night in Alabama, the victorious Doug Jones credited his victory to his grassroots campaign.
And Tom Perez, the new head of the Democratic National Committee, said he had been so impressed with the grassroots campaigning in Alabama that all of the DNC funds for the race had gone into that grassroots effort. Even more heartening, Perez pledged that he would support grassroots campaigning all over the country and that he would be sure that there was a Democratic contender in every single House race nationwide.
Grassroots campaigning is now alive and well. Not only will Democrats start winning again, but something even better will happen. People will have a chance again to experience community.
There is so little of community life in our present society that people love grassroots campaigning. The headquarters becomes a second home, a place to hang out. They bring their kids. They bring sandwiches and coffee makers. They have parties and play baseball together when not working the precincts. Some go on into politics and run for office. Some marry other volunteers. All become better, more knowledgeable citizens.
The skills of grassroots have value beyond political campaigns. I use grassroots skills to rally people to fight for all manner of things. e.g., exposing some of Nixon's early dirty tricks, getting housing for farmworkers, instigating a federal law prohibiting mass detention without due process, working to end the Vietnam War, saving historic buildings, stopping the ruination of farmland by development and the pollution of world-famous trout streams, protecting Native American spiritual places. I even got some conventional benefit, being one of the first four women to hold an executive position in California state government. In that job I got to buy about a billion dollars worth of beaches, redwoods, historic sites, Lake Tahoe. Remember the Godfather's house at Tahoe in "Godfather II"? With state funds I bought that for the people of the state of California and all who come to visit.
And when I finished all this work, I walked away, unlike Nancy Pelosi who never turns it over to younger people.
I am delighted the torch is passing to yet another new generation. (If Nancy Pelosi would just let go of it!)
Please take up the torch. Please take up grassroots campaigning. I may write a little how-to booklet and make it available through this blog or my Facebook page. But please don't let the flame go out. Don't let money run politics. Let the people do it.
I promise you you'll have the time of your life. And will also make this a better America and a better world.
Hurrah for Alabama and the good people there who made so much happen.
Now let's go ring some doorbells!
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Winning Political Campaigns With Virtually No Money. An Alabama Lesson!
[NOTE: I am deliberately ignoring the government shutdown. It has no long-term significance. And the Dreamers will get to stay. Instead we need to focus on how to rid ourselves of the current dysfunctional government by winning campaigns. The how-to in this posting is key to winning campaigns. So I'm cutting this posting into two parts because it's too long and too important to tackle all at once.]
Get on your dancing shoes!
The Senate race in Alabama is now a month old, but for a long time to come we will be celebrating the victory of Democrat Doug Jones of Alabama. This special election victory was not only historic in its importance but instructive as to the future of campaigning. It was also joyful, as shown in the photo below.
.
Democrat Doug Jones' campaign headquarters on election night December 12, 2017
Jones' victory could mark the end of a dismal 150 years in Southern race relations. (See my posting at Alabama Is Still the Biggest Political News We May...) For the first time ever in the Deep South blacks and whites pulled together politically. For the first time ever they have a joint victory and are laughing together, hugging in joy. Until this campaign white racism in the Deep South, barred blacks from virtually all political participation. Here they and whites are partners!
Small wonder that Rachel Maddow has called this election "a miracle".
And it was a miracle. Whites and blacks working together for the same candidate! And the outcome was a miracle too. The Democrat — a quiet, unflashy district attorney — beat, Roy Moore, a Ruby-Red Republican in a Ruby-Red State.
Ironically this great victory was achieved through an old political practice: grassroots campaigning. Until the Jones' campaign, it had been virtually abandoned for forty years by the Democrats— even suppressed by the party's higher-ups who instead favored campaigns based on huge spending on TV ads.
For reasons I'll discuss in a moment, grassroots campaigning is what a political campaign should be. Unlike the sales pitch approach of a TV ad campaign, which solely depends on well-connected individuals raising big chunks of money and paid professionals creating ads, grassroots campaigning depends almost entirely on hard working volunteers going door-to-door. It's called "walking a precinct", i.e. a precinct commonly being an area of residences that share a polling place.
The precinct walker goes door-to-door identifying which voters are supporters so that these voters — every last one of them — can be targeted on election day in "get out the vote". Each of these voters will be nagged into voting, offered rides and babysitting.
Election day is harvest time. From the blocks you walked will come your victory. Never have I run a campaign or worked in one that door-to-door campaigning didn't win all the precincts walked. By contrast, we would lose an adjacent but unwalked precinct demographically identical to one we had walked and won. Precinct walking made the diference!
In Alabama the GOP outnumbered the Democrats statewide and also in a large number of precincts. Yet, against the odds, the Democrat walked the precincts and won.
Some commentators think the election turned on allegations Moore had messed with teenage girls. That is not an adequate explanation. After all, Donald Trump confessed on audio tape to grabbing women's genitals whenever he wanted to and apparently didn't lose one voter nationally after the tape of his boasting was made public.
That said, undoubtedly Moore's and Trump's transgressions lost Moore some should-be-GOP voters who just sat it out, far more Republicans staying home than usual in a special election. Normally it's the Democratic voters who don't show up for special elections. Alabama could thus have turned out quite differently. But even though some disheartened Republicans sat home, it was the surprisingly strong Democratic turnout that pushed Jones ahead.
And how do you get a good turnout of your voters in a normally no-show special election? I just keep saying it: with grassroots campaigning! With going door-to-door on behalf of a candidate. That visit to a voter's door is the most powerful of all weapons in politics.
Voters marvel that someone has come to their door. A real live human being cared enough about this candidate to walk the walk! That has great clout with a public that is sick and tired of paid TV ads, junk mail, and robocalls. Do you know anybody who actually watches political commercials? Doesn't everyone have a remote and know about "fast forward"?
For almost forty years I have been virtually alone in insisting on the value of grassroots campaigning. Back in the 1980s, as far as I know, the grassroots campaigns I ran were the last nationwide. The Democratic establishment systematically imposed the TV ad style campaign instead.
Why, you ask? They had ther reasons. Raising tons of money for TV justifies paying big salaries to campaign "pros" who also get a 15% commission on the ad buys. For their part the candidates get to ingratiate themselves with the wealthy contributors who will take care of them even after their days in office are over. There is also plenty of money for posh headquarters for Democratic party officials, big cars, drivers, conferences in posh places. And with all this there is also power and prestige.
Behold how the ability to raise big money for party candidates has given Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi her stranglehold on the highest Congressional posts in the party. She has clung to party power for half a century. She now has a dreadful 69% disapproval rate nationwide and is kicking 80 years of age (at 81 I get to note this). Nevertheless she's announced she's running for yet another term. For someone like Pelosi it's simple: TV ads = big money = power. And power is heady stuff. Apparently addictive. She'll still be running from her grave so as to keep her position of party power!
By contrast with TV-based campaigning, grassroots campaigning is cheap. You just need a little storefront headquarters, a HQ phone, volunteers' computers for printing handouts, and a couple of hundred bucks in seed money to get the first round of bumper stickers and campaign buttons. These campaign items will pay for themselves when sold for a dollar or two to volunteers and voters. In fact, bumper stickers can help pay the rent. Need more money? Have a fund-raiser barbecue dinner and get the firefighters union to cook the food. Charge the attendees a modest amount. Have games and popcorn and beer. Make it a family thing on a lovely fall evening in a park.
I remember a local, rich wanna-be Congresswoman who was in the Pelosi mould. She scolded me : "Why do you bother with those $5 dinners? I can call ten people and get them to pay $1000 each for tickets to our fundraisers. That's $10,000!"
She didn't understand. I wasn't raising money. I was raising people. I didn't need the big money. I needed precinct walkers and other volunteers to get out the vote. Paid workers are no good in a campaign. Their support and efforts aren't sincere and the voters can tell.
[Here ends part one of this posting about grassroots campaigning. The second half tells why it was suppressed by Democratic leadership in fsvor of just spending big money and how it is now coming back because of Alabama. The second part is titled "Grassroots Campaigning Is Back From the Dead Because of Alabama."]
Pelosi and other Democratic operators hated me. My successes without big money gave the lie to their claim that big money was needed. I was threatening all that money, all those perqs! In grass- roots campaigns, power could no longer be bought just by raising money. To save their marketplace they tried to shut down my little headquarters or get our signs removed by the police. I'd even get anonymous threatening phone calls at 1 a.m.
That sounds frightening but actually it was fun! Fighting bad guys is my idea of a good time. And these were the bad guys.
Under the mismanagement of Pelosi and her like, the Democrats lost the presidency, both houses of Congress and most of the state legislatures and governorships. We are also teetering on getting a solidly conservative Supreme Court. Plus the GOP has been able to control redistricting and thus gerrymander future contested elections virtually out of existence. Further — the worst sin of all — in 2016 Pelosi and her chums failed to get candidates to run in a number of Congressional districts that were winnable. This not only gave a bunch of Republicans a free ride but freed up GOP money to be spent in other races. With a "leader" like Nancy, who needs an enemy?
But that's over. On election night in Alabama, the victorious Doug Jones credited his victory to his grassroots campaign.
And Tom Perez, the new head of the Democratic National Committee, said he was so impressed with the grassroots campaigning in Alabama that all of the DNC funds for the race had gone into the grassroots effort. Even more heartening, Perez pledged that he would support grassroots campaigning all over the country and that he would be sure that there was a Democratic contender in every single House race nationwide.
Grassroots campaigning is now alive and well. Not only will Democrats start winning again, but something even better will happen. People will have a chance again to experience community.
There is so little of community life in our present society that people love grassroots campaigning. The headquarters becomes a second home, a place to hang out. They bring their kids. They bring sandwiches and coffee makers. They have parties and play baseball together when not working the precincts. Some go on in politics and run for office. Some marry other volunteers. All become better, more knowledgeable citizens.
The skills of grassroots have value beyond political campaigns. I had learned how to rally people to fight for all manner of things: exposing some of Nixon's early dirty tricks, getting housing for farmworkers, instigating a federal law prohibiting mass detention without due process, working to end the Vietnam War, saving historic buildings, stopping the ruination of farmland by development and the pollution of world-famous trout streams, protecting Native American spiritual places. I even got some conventional benefit, being one of the first four women to hold an executive position in California state government. In that job I got to buy about a billion dollars worth of beaches, redwoods, historic sites, Lake Tahoe. Remember the Godfather's house at Tahoe in "Godfather II"? With state funds I bought that for the people of the state of California and all who come to visit.
And when I finished all this work, I walked away, unlike Nancy Pelosi who never turns it over to younger people.
I am delighted the torch is passing to yet another new generation. (If Nancy Pelosi would just let go of it!)
Please take up the torch. Please take up grassroots campaigning. I may write a little how-to booklet and make it available through this blog or my Facebook page. But please don't let the flame go out. Don't let money run politics. Let the people do it.
I promise you you'll have the time of your life. And will also make this a better America and a better world.
Hurrah for Alabama and the good people there who made so much happen.
Now let's go ring some doorbells!
Get on your dancing shoes!
The Senate race in Alabama is now a month old, but for a long time to come we will be celebrating the victory of Democrat Doug Jones of Alabama. This special election victory was not only historic in its importance but instructive as to the future of campaigning. It was also joyful, as shown in the photo below.
.
Democrat Doug Jones' campaign headquarters on election night December 12, 2017
Jones' victory could mark the end of a dismal 150 years in Southern race relations. (See my posting at Alabama Is Still the Biggest Political News We May...) For the first time ever in the Deep South blacks and whites pulled together politically. For the first time ever they have a joint victory and are laughing together, hugging in joy. Until this campaign white racism in the Deep South, barred blacks from virtually all political participation. Here they and whites are partners!
Small wonder that Rachel Maddow has called this election "a miracle".
And it was a miracle. Whites and blacks working together for the same candidate! And the outcome was a miracle too. The Democrat — a quiet, unflashy district attorney — beat, Roy Moore, a Ruby-Red Republican in a Ruby-Red State.
Ironically this great victory was achieved through an old political practice: grassroots campaigning. Until the Jones' campaign, it had been virtually abandoned for forty years by the Democrats— even suppressed by the party's higher-ups who instead favored campaigns based on huge spending on TV ads.
For reasons I'll discuss in a moment, grassroots campaigning is what a political campaign should be. Unlike the sales pitch approach of a TV ad campaign, which solely depends on well-connected individuals raising big chunks of money and paid professionals creating ads, grassroots campaigning depends almost entirely on hard working volunteers going door-to-door. It's called "walking a precinct", i.e. a precinct commonly being an area of residences that share a polling place.
The precinct walker goes door-to-door identifying which voters are supporters so that these voters — every last one of them — can be targeted on election day in "get out the vote". Each of these voters will be nagged into voting, offered rides and babysitting.
Election day is harvest time. From the blocks you walked will come your victory. Never have I run a campaign or worked in one that door-to-door campaigning didn't win all the precincts walked. By contrast, we would lose an adjacent but unwalked precinct demographically identical to one we had walked and won. Precinct walking made the diference!
In Alabama the GOP outnumbered the Democrats statewide and also in a large number of precincts. Yet, against the odds, the Democrat walked the precincts and won.
Some commentators think the election turned on allegations Moore had messed with teenage girls. That is not an adequate explanation. After all, Donald Trump confessed on audio tape to grabbing women's genitals whenever he wanted to and apparently didn't lose one voter nationally after the tape of his boasting was made public.
That said, undoubtedly Moore's and Trump's transgressions lost Moore some should-be-GOP voters who just sat it out, far more Republicans staying home than usual in a special election. Normally it's the Democratic voters who don't show up for special elections. Alabama could thus have turned out quite differently. But even though some disheartened Republicans sat home, it was the surprisingly strong Democratic turnout that pushed Jones ahead.
And how do you get a good turnout of your voters in a normally no-show special election? I just keep saying it: with grassroots campaigning! With going door-to-door on behalf of a candidate. That visit to a voter's door is the most powerful of all weapons in politics.
Voters marvel that someone has come to their door. A real live human being cared enough about this candidate to walk the walk! That has great clout with a public that is sick and tired of paid TV ads, junk mail, and robocalls. Do you know anybody who actually watches political commercials? Doesn't everyone have a remote and know about "fast forward"?
For almost forty years I have been virtually alone in insisting on the value of grassroots campaigning. Back in the 1980s, as far as I know, the grassroots campaigns I ran were the last nationwide. The Democratic establishment systematically imposed the TV ad style campaign instead.
Why, you ask? They had ther reasons. Raising tons of money for TV justifies paying big salaries to campaign "pros" who also get a 15% commission on the ad buys. For their part the candidates get to ingratiate themselves with the wealthy contributors who will take care of them even after their days in office are over. There is also plenty of money for posh headquarters for Democratic party officials, big cars, drivers, conferences in posh places. And with all this there is also power and prestige.
Behold how the ability to raise big money for party candidates has given Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi her stranglehold on the highest Congressional posts in the party. She has clung to party power for half a century. She now has a dreadful 69% disapproval rate nationwide and is kicking 80 years of age (at 81 I get to note this). Nevertheless she's announced she's running for yet another term. For someone like Pelosi it's simple: TV ads = big money = power. And power is heady stuff. Apparently addictive. She'll still be running from her grave so as to keep her position of party power!
By contrast with TV-based campaigning, grassroots campaigning is cheap. You just need a little storefront headquarters, a HQ phone, volunteers' computers for printing handouts, and a couple of hundred bucks in seed money to get the first round of bumper stickers and campaign buttons. These campaign items will pay for themselves when sold for a dollar or two to volunteers and voters. In fact, bumper stickers can help pay the rent. Need more money? Have a fund-raiser barbecue dinner and get the firefighters union to cook the food. Charge the attendees a modest amount. Have games and popcorn and beer. Make it a family thing on a lovely fall evening in a park.
I remember a local, rich wanna-be Congresswoman who was in the Pelosi mould. She scolded me : "Why do you bother with those $5 dinners? I can call ten people and get them to pay $1000 each for tickets to our fundraisers. That's $10,000!"
She didn't understand. I wasn't raising money. I was raising people. I didn't need the big money. I needed precinct walkers and other volunteers to get out the vote. Paid workers are no good in a campaign. Their support and efforts aren't sincere and the voters can tell.
[Here ends part one of this posting about grassroots campaigning. The second half tells why it was suppressed by Democratic leadership in fsvor of just spending big money and how it is now coming back because of Alabama. The second part is titled "Grassroots Campaigning Is Back From the Dead Because of Alabama."]
Pelosi and other Democratic operators hated me. My successes without big money gave the lie to their claim that big money was needed. I was threatening all that money, all those perqs! In grass- roots campaigns, power could no longer be bought just by raising money. To save their marketplace they tried to shut down my little headquarters or get our signs removed by the police. I'd even get anonymous threatening phone calls at 1 a.m.
That sounds frightening but actually it was fun! Fighting bad guys is my idea of a good time. And these were the bad guys.
Under the mismanagement of Pelosi and her like, the Democrats lost the presidency, both houses of Congress and most of the state legislatures and governorships. We are also teetering on getting a solidly conservative Supreme Court. Plus the GOP has been able to control redistricting and thus gerrymander future contested elections virtually out of existence. Further — the worst sin of all — in 2016 Pelosi and her chums failed to get candidates to run in a number of Congressional districts that were winnable. This not only gave a bunch of Republicans a free ride but freed up GOP money to be spent in other races. With a "leader" like Nancy, who needs an enemy?
But that's over. On election night in Alabama, the victorious Doug Jones credited his victory to his grassroots campaign.
And Tom Perez, the new head of the Democratic National Committee, said he was so impressed with the grassroots campaigning in Alabama that all of the DNC funds for the race had gone into the grassroots effort. Even more heartening, Perez pledged that he would support grassroots campaigning all over the country and that he would be sure that there was a Democratic contender in every single House race nationwide.
Grassroots campaigning is now alive and well. Not only will Democrats start winning again, but something even better will happen. People will have a chance again to experience community.
There is so little of community life in our present society that people love grassroots campaigning. The headquarters becomes a second home, a place to hang out. They bring their kids. They bring sandwiches and coffee makers. They have parties and play baseball together when not working the precincts. Some go on in politics and run for office. Some marry other volunteers. All become better, more knowledgeable citizens.
The skills of grassroots have value beyond political campaigns. I had learned how to rally people to fight for all manner of things: exposing some of Nixon's early dirty tricks, getting housing for farmworkers, instigating a federal law prohibiting mass detention without due process, working to end the Vietnam War, saving historic buildings, stopping the ruination of farmland by development and the pollution of world-famous trout streams, protecting Native American spiritual places. I even got some conventional benefit, being one of the first four women to hold an executive position in California state government. In that job I got to buy about a billion dollars worth of beaches, redwoods, historic sites, Lake Tahoe. Remember the Godfather's house at Tahoe in "Godfather II"? With state funds I bought that for the people of the state of California and all who come to visit.
And when I finished all this work, I walked away, unlike Nancy Pelosi who never turns it over to younger people.
I am delighted the torch is passing to yet another new generation. (If Nancy Pelosi would just let go of it!)
Please take up the torch. Please take up grassroots campaigning. I may write a little how-to booklet and make it available through this blog or my Facebook page. But please don't let the flame go out. Don't let money run politics. Let the people do it.
I promise you you'll have the time of your life. And will also make this a better America and a better world.
Hurrah for Alabama and the good people there who made so much happen.
Now let's go ring some doorbells!
Monday, January 8, 2018
Oprah Winfrey's Speech at Golden Gloves: the Correct Link to the EntireText
Sorry I misposted this link yesterday. This one should work! Now we'll have to wait and see what happens!
Golden Globes: Read Oprah Winfrey's entire stirring speech ...
Golden Globes: Read Oprah Winfrey's entire stirring speech ...
Monday, January 1, 2018
Alabama Is Still the Biggest Political News We May Ever Get. (Part One.)
[In December I promised a series of comments on the Alabama special election for the vacant Senate seat that had been held by Republican Jeff Sessions. On election night, Doug Jones, the Democrat, won the seat. And the import of that victory and the details of its achievement are among the most important political news we shall ever encounter. This story was of such magnitude and (hopefully) lasting importance, that the 2016 electoral college fluke for Trump was by comparison a nothing. Here's the first comment about that momentous night in December in Alabama. What a great way to start the New Year!]
**********
In all my 81years I never saw what I saw on the night Doug Jones beat Roy Moore for the Senate seat from Alabama. On the TV screen black and white Alabamans were joyfully celebrating Jones' victory. They were hugging each other, laughing together, slapping each other on the back. Together, they had done this great thing!
Together. Blacks and whites. In the deep South. Sharing — of all things! — a political win.
It's a wonder the TV didn't blow up.
Do you understand what this could mean? It could be the end of the vicious black/white divide that has been ruthlessly enforced by the whites in the Deep South, even with violence, since the Civil War. And nothing has divided the blacks and white as much as has politics.
But now they had made common cause against an outrageous candidate. And against all the odds, they had beaten him. This could mean that blacks and whites would be willing to campaign together to raise Alabama from its tie position with Mississippi for the bottom of the list of the states in everything that should make life good. Maybe now Alabama could have good education, real medicine, museums, artistic achievement, a cultural life, a better income for its people.
Maybe there could be redemption from all the scars of fervid racism that has blinded and bound the South. Maybe we could indeed all get along together, as Rodney King once said.
Good things can come from the seemingly bad. If the extremism and outrageousness of the Trump/ Moores of the world can provoke a reaction like that which occurred in Alabama, then the old saying is true: God is always busy transmuting evil into good.
I never thought I would live to see what I saw on the TV that night. As Rachel Maddow said, "It had the aura of a miracle." Miracle or not, it was truly wonderful.
And maybe it's only a beginning?
Next: How Did They Do The Impossible?
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In all my 81years I never saw what I saw on the night Doug Jones beat Roy Moore for the Senate seat from Alabama. On the TV screen black and white Alabamans were joyfully celebrating Jones' victory. They were hugging each other, laughing together, slapping each other on the back. Together, they had done this great thing!
Together. Blacks and whites. In the deep South. Sharing — of all things! — a political win.
It's a wonder the TV didn't blow up.
Do you understand what this could mean? It could be the end of the vicious black/white divide that has been ruthlessly enforced by the whites in the Deep South, even with violence, since the Civil War. And nothing has divided the blacks and white as much as has politics.
But now they had made common cause against an outrageous candidate. And against all the odds, they had beaten him. This could mean that blacks and whites would be willing to campaign together to raise Alabama from its tie position with Mississippi for the bottom of the list of the states in everything that should make life good. Maybe now Alabama could have good education, real medicine, museums, artistic achievement, a cultural life, a better income for its people.
Maybe there could be redemption from all the scars of fervid racism that has blinded and bound the South. Maybe we could indeed all get along together, as Rodney King once said.
Good things can come from the seemingly bad. If the extremism and outrageousness of the Trump/ Moores of the world can provoke a reaction like that which occurred in Alabama, then the old saying is true: God is always busy transmuting evil into good.
I never thought I would live to see what I saw on the TV that night. As Rachel Maddow said, "It had the aura of a miracle." Miracle or not, it was truly wonderful.
And maybe it's only a beginning?
Next: How Did They Do The Impossible?
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