oh I think FLGS would run for the hills instead of do that (too many owners in the target "small business" MAGA audience), but if you had *another* place to do that kind of thing it could crack open doors.
YES! I've argued for years that much of the trouble for the Democratic Party comes from its clueless consultants. They want to focus group and cleanse every candidate of their message, until they have no remaining appeal to Democratic voters.
I've been trying to get my local Dem committee moving in this direction, so far unsuccessfully. One woman has been carrying it for years and is probably just tired. Might be time for a palace revolution.
@jamellebouie.net what does this tell us about the strategy of the Kamala Harris campaign to hug Liz Cheney, visit Ripon WI and chase suburban Republican women, rather than visit Dearborn MI and show sympathy for Arab-Americans?
I belong to a group formerly called Pittsburgh Women for Harris, now called Pittsburgh Women for Democracy. We are already in early stages of doing civic education throughout Pittsburgh because it has historically been the case that Allegheny County women have low voter turnout.
If I ever am in a group like that, I would call it “for a democratic republic”.
That way we’d undercut the misleading “this is not a democracy, it’s a republic” motto.
A friend, educator, Kerry Irons recently created this podcast, 5 minute episodes for kids (parents and teachers too). Easily digestible. Great topics [Voting, The Constitution, What is a Flag, Words Matter, etc.]
There is a similar problem in the UK. Too much centralisation and insufficient listening to local areas, local people and their concerns. A party that actually spends the time listening might get a larger mandate come election times. But change is slow.
I wrote a short book about or related to this called The Everyday Patriot: How to be a Great American Now. Just spoke on it a week and a half ago at the Air Force Academy to a great loud long standing o. Young people get it.
This is very fair and true to the DNC. Although our District has a lot of volunteers and meetings in Colorado, nationally there needs to be more ground work.
The concentration of power resulting from the elimination of regional parties in the 50s in favor of a singular national party structure has been central to the long dismantling of the New Deal coalition.
I love the sentiment here, how what tech platforms do we need to build to enable this? The connections should DEFINITELY focus on IRL, but technology can do a ton to assist in organization and recruitment.
I’d nation investigate why the media all flocked to Donald Trump then how we are organized, if we want any advise from the nation, post, the NYT we will send them a reply via carrier pidgion.
Gotta start in grass roots. Our state party sucks. Local and county groups are close knit and doing the work.
The ADP is strangled by an old guard that doesn’t want to do anything but retain individual power.
This is happening in my community. Used to be solid Republican but the Democrats are finding each other and this election all the Democratic candidates I voted for were elected!
This is the hard, good work that we need. It could be joyful work, too. It needs supporting tech infrastructure that doesn’t exist, and which would need to exist beyond capitalism’s priorities.
These are the best suggestions I have seen for repairing the American political landscape. As local organizing grows in response to rising fascism, Dems need to be part of that instead of just trying to co-opt it after the fact, assuming de facto loyalty because there aren't any other good options.
Totally agree with this. Takes an activist base. A lot of work. People have to be willing to do the work and make the time in their lives. But the national political infrastructure won't do it anymore.
Evangelicals have had an advantage. The church is social infrastructure.
We did on in Santa Barbara that was about building power... it was focused on neighbor to neighbor and field. It was awesome and I've basically never talked about it.
Ty! We can start off slowly, ease Americans into learning how their government actually works, but it has to happen. How bout we bring back Schoolhouse Rocks?!
The people holding the levers of institutional power on the "left" are fundamentally elitist, paternalistic, and anti-democratic. This is the actual problem. The solution inevitably involves wrenching the levers from them or marginalizing their institutions.
I'm seeing talk like this floating around and one of the big obstacles I can imagine is risk aversion of the DNC at a national level. A subsidiarity strategy could not possibly come from the top, we have to just start doing it.
in union parlance this is the rank and file strategy. It works well but democrat elites will try to quash it because usually the outcome is democratic socialism.
"The Democratic Party should jettison its consultant class and move toward a local-membership model" - never going to happen. Local membership model has to form organically, and move upward to choke out the consultant class.
Local membership forming organically and trickling up *sounds* good, but I’ve experienced 8 cycles of pissy 3rd party voters that lob their wee grenades and then vanish into the shrubbery.
This article is stock in the time. You don’t engage Gen Z and millennials with local welcome packages. It’s 21st century the technology evolution. Republicans have captured the media ecosystem, they control the message.
I would have more faith in a party that had it's leaders make a decision, stick with it, and own it themselves if it didn't work than one who waffles and pays outside people to make a decision for them.
This is not what I see out of the Democratic Party. Let’s stop blaming democrats and acknowledge that though not perfect, we are good. And people are easily led. How do you fight ignorance when if you try to explain facts you’re accused of being elitist?
This is the kind of thing that has to start at the local level. One big challenge can be the local committee itself. I suspect a lot of them don't go out of their way to invite new members and aren't very welcoming to the people show up.
Having said that, try and find out when they meet and show up.
In NC our party leaders were stagnant and losing. We now have the youngest party chair in the country. It’s become a vibrant and very local party since. Trump won NC because 15% of voters voted only for him. Not engaged voters. Dems won almost all the top positions & broke the supermajority.
Yes, but they won’t. They’ll just double down pushing the same failed status quo, courting Wall Street, and ballooning the military budget. And they’ll still wonder why having Beyoncé as the convention opening act wasn’t enough to win elections.
Yes! I've wanted to get involved in a way that's not soul less phone banks, but there are never any info sources in doing it or joining events etc so I gave up contacting the GA Democratic party.
Do you know how popular a party that does childcare help/mutual aid would be???
Grew up N. Indiana and was always amazed by the Daly "machine". Actually terrified. This article says we should build back the machines that were so hard to break down. How does it logically reach a steady state? Moved to Canada many years ago and we have the same problem. Looking hard at this.
I'm on the board of my n'hood association in Chicago, and we struggle so much with getting people to actually show up to the stuff that we do, like movies in the park, and it's even harder to get people to volunteer. It would be great if the Dem could do this, but IDK if people would participate.
I live in Chicago and honestly it feels like there's no social media platform thats really set up to facilitate this. Email newsletters get lost in my inbox. Nextdoor is a joke. Facebook is probably the closest but I don't use that platform for other reasons. I often just don't know what's happening
Might have to get back to block captains and phone trees. Decentralize all the way down
Chi here too. Been involved a little with the local Indivisible group which seems like the political org most closely trying to recreate this kind of structure, but engagement definitely a struggle
Because the Nation is paywalled (yes, I totally understand and support why), how exactly does the author propose this be done? Would you mind offering a summary?
To survive? The decades old anti-Dem coverage by @thenation.com is part of the problem.
Katrina's late-in-the game jumping on board is hardly effective after years of complaints that the Dems were never quite good enough.
This is directionally correct, but if you want to attract new people to monthly meetings of a local political organization, you need that organization to take on some local fights that matter to the people you want to attract, and organize to win them. Funny that the Nation doesn't go there.
I think it’s hard to do this when you have a degree pipelining problem to the “professional managerial class” - over-degreed people looking for commiserate placement in jobs seems to result in the consultant class that I agree should rightfully be jettisoned. Idk how that gets resolved
I do not want to hear anymore chatter from consultants, pundits, talking heads, so-called experts, or even high paid news anchors. I no longer trust anyone who is getting a paycheck to lean a certain way in order to appease an overlord or oligarch or sell a book.
Instead we need to activate activists on the ground level to take the pulse & hear from them. This needs to be a bottom up process in order to know exactly what we’re dealing with instead of someone who appears on news shows who has no clue what’s really going on.
This is what I've been arguing! The DNC doesn't build up new leaders of tomorrow, it guts out the ever shrinking top echelon of their politicians from the 70s and 80s and the actual membership gets older.
The Dems need to start building from the bottom up, get more younger people involved!
We have begun this in N.C. with our amazing Dem Chair, the youngest in the nation. She strongly believes in the localization of politics, which also means to ensure democratic voices are heard everywhere. Trump won NC but we broke the GOP supermajority and won Gov, LtGov, AG, etc
Maybe (probably?) I am kidding myself (I am equal parts extreme introvert and homebody and "busy"—by which I mean I can easily convince myself I "don't have time" to do...almost anything that isn't paid or domestic work), but this sounds really appealing.
Another thing that jumps out to me is an app based ecosystem that allows local chapters to coordinate amongst their members with things like surveys for messaging, events and local issues.
If structured enough, this can be aggregated to give national visibility from the bottom up.
It strikes me that this can (and maybe must) begin with independent local civic orgs aligning into democratic coalitions. In NYC, the model may look like transit and housing orgs cross-pollinating. This would avoid any toxicity around the current Dem brand poisoning the well. Federate!
Interesting read. People crave relationships and those relationships have been obliterated by modern communication. Perhaps there is a desire to return to relationships due to the failures of social media?
The Democratic Party needs to stamp out biblical literalism which means controlling all primary and secondary education and the teaching of Christianity as the basis of all morals, values etc. But that won't happen because they believe Christianity is the basis of all morals, values etc.
Perfect example: In Michigan, there is "Project 83" from the state Democratic Party that attempts to pay full time organizers all over the state. They haven't covered most of the Detroit metro area in 2 years because they never bothered to fill a vacancy.
Call me crazy, but I feel like this could work. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen people complain about how hard it is to make friends or find people to date in today’s society. I’d show up to meetings/events with like minded people who told me what to do to help my neighbors/party.
this is the first headline so far that made me think “finally someone gets it.” Of course i’m sure that just means “finally someone who’s typed my exact beliefs into a headline”
This also brings up a big damn problem in local party politics. Brooklyn’s local party is hostile to rank and file. How can we build community if local leaders are trying to kneecap engagement?
I'll just say any local organizer who goes beyond a certain bossy attitude or who starts eating at fancy restaurants should be dragged outside and tossed on the sidewalk.
In San Francisco I would say the big money organizations such as GrowSF, TogetherSF, Neighbors have moved into this space. As a result it has largely paid off in wins for them while the progressive faction just whines about billionaires.
So much this - we need to rebuild civic society- voluntary institus have been decimated as well as govt institus. These are the other two poles in a three legged stool with markets- all three need to be in balance. Right now, the markets are controlling both civic society and government.
How about starting by actually doing *something* to help the working class, Like UBI or M4A? Give people a reason to support them beyond being the only alternative (which I'm not going to hold my breath but I hope they've learned is not a viable strategy anymore). And stop courting Republicans ffs.
They also need to stop treating politics like a casual game of putt putt golf and play to win like their lives depend on it, because ours sure do. They need to let go of this false hope of restoring decorum with opponents who clearly have no interest in it. We're dying while they're playing nice.
Last but not least, they need to be about something. Not enough of them have principles. Every bit of faith I had in Kamala disappeared when she said she'd "follow the law" when asked about trans rights. Then when she courted Liz Cheney and said she'd have a Repub in her cabinet, I knew it was over.
It's like they're doing this focus tested BS trying to appeal to the broadest audience but when you do that you end up standing for nothing. You end up with the appeal of bland oatmeal. I know it's harder to win over new and non-voters but they have to. The disenfranchised have spoken.
Gary Chambers Jr, the brotha out of Louisiana had some really cogent comments about this. Especially in the southern states. Dems keep throwing money at groups who clearly show them no interest. meanwhile black, who are the most loyal to them, get shoved to the back.
Former civic association president - my experience with trying to get normies(especially parents) to come to meetings focused on civic issues was a hard task in 2015 and I'm not sure how that would have gotten easier. Did plenty of outreach, never got more than a small core of diehards.
This was what Obama used to be good at. He started out as a community organizer. Now, he and others are rich, comfortable and above the trenches. We need new leaders that can get down and dirty. We need to build from the bottom up..
Was part of a local democratic club that grew out of the 2016 elections. It requires an enormous amount of effort/commitment by volunteers and it’s hard to maintain. Maybe exaggerated here where dem wins are few & far between, but political engagement competes with many less challenging activities.
Libraries have meeting rooms and community bulletin boards, so we can be a springboard. People of different ages, classes, etc. sit next to each other using our internet or working on puzzles. We host presentations on local topics as well as universal ones. Mine is engaged in a Civic Lab project.
I think the United States needs to transform itself. Enough of this 'what Democrats did wrong and what it needs to do'!
What is the problem with wanting the best for everyone?😡
It should build from local and drive up, not how it is now. If a local tells the consultant to piss up a rope, don't cut them off, find out why and embrace it. See if that same approach might work elsewhere. Oh, and nobody outside the district should be able to make decisions for them.
This is what we do in Chapel Hill and Carrboro NC and it’s very successful at a hyperlocal level. The issue is that most people want scale - we have a ceiling. It’s the population of our towns.
This, better than anything I’ve read, finally helped me understand the critiques of party leaders (many of whom I admire) being out of touch with ordinary members—and the consequences of that disconnect.
This feels right. Especially as a lot of folks are stepping away from their oppressive churches. Give them a way to minister, I bet there's all kinds of talented capable folks who would absolutely step up.
Absolutely. The decision to stop calling them weird should be the point of no return. That was a rare instance of Dems using an effective Republican strategy. A leader generated the message, and the crowd amplified and beat their opponents over the head with it and they were forced to respond to it.
The consultants fail to understand the essential role of BOTH negative and positive branding. Negative branding is the only way to attract the attention of people who don’t understand policy, but still need protection from the fascism they’ll otherwise vote for. The stupid outnumber the smart.
There's a better way. Actually, there are several better ways. The USA has the most Antiquated democracy still in use, with very little democracy left because the rich and Powerful have learned to exploit the flaws in the system. Are you interested in discussing how we could make it better?
And they got real weird and cheated cause they knew they were losing this Election!! I can’t believe people don’t see it , Even Joe Rogan said Elon Musk made an app that he knew who was going to Win 4 hours before they called the election!! He knew cause he Rigged it Period
I think this is true and it is happening, but it is not sexy work. It is a long hard slog, especially for those of us in rural red areas that the state party ignores.
There is going to be very fertile grounds to build something like this when Elon Musk's predictions of "hardships" under Trump comes to pass, which will probably be sooner than later.
The Democrats need a Tiger King they can put in as the chaos agent. History has now shown us the only way to succeed is to put in place unqualified people with big personalities.
More like, "Instead of JUST analyzing, here's another aspect that we can actually contribute to and work towards. My main thought about it was how we can utilize modern media to recapture and reinvigorate this civic engagement.
As someone who’s very engaged in his local party - the other problem is the national, state, and local party all trying to raise money from the same people, and locals almost always lose that battle.
I appreciate the perspective this article presents & there's truth within it, but I've always marveled at how "the democrats" must do this or that, or change, or whatever; yet no words are ever spoken to call-out the absolute swill that has become the GOP.
Mostly because the GOP can't be pushed to change. They don't want to and don't need to; they're winning just fine on the awful platform they've adopted.
They've made their bed and are sleeping comfortably in it.
Every company that I've worked for always hired a "consulting firm" to figure out the problems instead of listening to the workers who have to actually do the job. In other words, someone who doesn't work there knows better than the people who do. Soon after, businesses failed.
Welcome to the experience of teachers all over this country. They never ask US what needs to be done to better prepare students for life, just buy the next shiny new repackaged of stuff that already failed.
Great to see this article. I was listening to The Saint episode of your pod— and it occurred to me that there must be a correlation between diminished Democrat electability and declining union membership. Certainly here in Aust. the right has spent decades shearing the unions from the left.
Speaking as treasurer of our local Democratic committee, yeah, it would be great for the party to recognize our value and usefulness but if we're going to be relied upon to achieve grass root social change that inspires blue voters, we're going to need some funding.
Don't worry, civics will be irrelevant soon. We won't need to worry about the party once our president does away with all the mechanisms of a functioning government and spends the rest of his life enacting petty revenge while everyone lamely asks "why is no one stopping him?"
Wasn't that tried about 8 years ago with Indivisible? I know I went to a couple of gatherings with local candidates for office but just like with other organizations getting people to turn up regularly and put in the work doesn't seem likely anymore. Eagles, Elks, Moose lodges are closing
That kind of speaks to me. I have never felt like a Democrat. I have always felt like someone who votes Democrat because it makes sense to me in the current context. I would imagine there are a lot of political "free agents" who slide around a lot more than I do.
This ties in with what @gregpak.bsky.social was posting about the other day, in reforming local Dem offices into places that provide real, tangible services to their communities.
I got sick of the DONATE long ago. Institutions we voted for FAILED us - the powerful are not accountable for any crimes, the poor/downtrodden/mentally ill end up in jail for trivia.
here's what I notice about democratic consultants.
1. they live in nice houses.
2. they're on tv a lot.
3. they know nothing about what the average person goes through, especially with the blue specks in red areas.
4. they still get booked for tv interviews after being pantsed in an election.
maybe instead of talking with people who talk good on tv and know people in media and get lots of money whether or not they're right, they need to talk with their base and stop hanging around people who's status with the movers and shakers is more important than winning.
This is sort-of my understanding of Sun Tzus "moral law" and harmony. When we find out more about how repubs won, I claim it will include orgs where there is a strong HQ - Region - Local Chapter relationship. I know the left/liberal orgs I get emails from have near non-existent relationships.
Comments
Maybe not MTG or Warhammer 40k, but there are tons of other options out there.
On the bad site I made cracks about 'MAGA RPGA' but there's no reason not to set up an alternative.
Worth sounding out stores for somebody more aligned, or finding another friendly space.
Glad to have some variety, at least.
How did that work out?
Did anyone warn her and the Dems?
If I ever am in a group like that, I would call it “for a democratic republic”.
That way we’d undercut the misleading “this is not a democracy, it’s a republic” motto.
Mind you, I’m in a very red part of the country.
A friend, educator, Kerry Irons recently created this podcast, 5 minute episodes for kids (parents and teachers too). Easily digestible. Great topics [Voting, The Constitution, What is a Flag, Words Matter, etc.]
Start early.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/civics-bits/id1729038553
The ADP is strangled by an old guard that doesn’t want to do anything but retain individual power.
Evangelicals have had an advantage. The church is social infrastructure.
Just have to make sure the club does things.
Like a taco crawl, or Cards Against Colonialism night, or volunteering.
Group activities that demonstrate values without talking about the party platform right away.
Knowing that the little stuff can work.. that there's more to life than hoping for an upper caste's handouts.. that's important.
Nice turn of phrase
Who’s gonna tell them?
I would have more faith in a party that had it's leaders make a decision, stick with it, and own it themselves if it didn't work than one who waffles and pays outside people to make a decision for them.
Having said that, try and find out when they meet and show up.
Do you know how popular a party that does childcare help/mutual aid would be???
Chi here too. Been involved a little with the local Indivisible group which seems like the political org most closely trying to recreate this kind of structure, but engagement definitely a struggle
It’s a weird patchwork of Facebook posts, aldermanic emails, private text groups, fliers posted in windows, etc.
Katrina's late-in-the game jumping on board is hardly effective after years of complaints that the Dems were never quite good enough.
I do not want to hear anymore chatter from consultants, pundits, talking heads, so-called experts, or even high paid news anchors. I no longer trust anyone who is getting a paycheck to lean a certain way in order to appease an overlord or oligarch or sell a book.
D's have the popular programs. People do better under D's. The economy is better and world respects us under D's.
If D's can't get 60% of the vote under those conditions, it's not a "candidate problem" or a "campaign problem."
The Dems need to start building from the bottom up, get more younger people involved!
If structured enough, this can be aggregated to give national visibility from the bottom up.
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY
What is the problem with wanting the best for everyone?😡
https://prospect.org/politics/rncs-ground-game-of-inches-convert-minorities-into-republicans/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGfG_hleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHXEQvzPZZnyDfyLGSRKqVySdj2iEQMWiiWhV0T6oNwceKRevgCBx3OE1Vg_aem_UoStYlygjIbKKzoGqT5C1w
❤️❤️❤️❤️
It has to be more than a duopoly otherwise there's no point.. may as well write in Cthulhu.
https://www.amazon.com/Diminished-Democracy-Membership-Management-Distinguished/dp/0806136278
I guess they're OK just the way they are?
They've made their bed and are sleeping comfortably in it.
Jeffries should also step aside.
Our Democratic leadership has failed us.
Read that book in graduate school for political science. Just like punk rock it rings more true today than when it was published
Isn’t this the type of stuff political parties used to do I. The 1800s and early 20th century?
https://resnikoff.beehiiv.com/p/the-party-should-throw-them-a-party
1. they live in nice houses.
2. they're on tv a lot.
3. they know nothing about what the average person goes through, especially with the blue specks in red areas.
4. they still get booked for tv interviews after being pantsed in an election.