Biden thread III: Still Robinette after all these years

[hokie]

She was talking local, so I used a local-ish example of a well-known close house primary where eDems put their thumbs on the scale to shut out a young, progressive candidate. I must ask yet again, did you even read the post you are responding to?

[hokie]

My fundamental issue is with this idea that progressives can take over a party committed to erasing them as candidates. Dems keep shutting out progressives left and right and then wonder why progressives stop caring and no longer want to associate with Dems

[skydiver8]

@skydiver8

. Join your county party’s central committee, however you can. Join a progressive Democratic Club.

Argh. My point here is, from the DNC down to local party level, the Party rewards people who put in the work. Look, the party is going to naturally work to protect incumbents. So if you’re a progressive who wants to run for office and have a good shot at winning, here’s what you do:

First, forget about winning a congressional race if you jump in from out of the blue. I know, I know, you think being in congress will change the world, but can you maybe build name recognition and a base of voters in your district by running for city council first?

Also, if you decide to run for local office in order to build your brand, you MUST start participating in the process. Sit in on Party meetings. Get involved in a local Dem Club. Network. Go to the Victory Fund Gala or the Labor Council Dinner of the Martin Luther King Breakfast. The party, just like the voters, isn’t gonna support you if they don’t know who the fuck you are.

And RUN FOR OPEN SEATS. Lots of local/state seats have term limits. Be strategic. Be patient.

Being a candidate is WORK and it isn’t just knocking doors and doing interviews. It is getting to know the right people. You have to play the game in order to change the game.

If you’ve been on school board for 4-8 years, and everyone in your town knows who you are and LIKES you, then all the money and party support in the world isn’t going to stop you when it comes time to vote on that higher office you’re running for then.

Look at MD yesterday. the national party machine backed David Trone and he got destroyed by the candidate who played the game and did the work and built her name rec from the ground up.

[CaffeineNeeded]

They aren’t popular locally much either! Seems like a problem

[nunnehi]

House is not local

[skydiver8]

but, but, school board is BORING

[Trolly]

@NotBruceZ

Right now, they’ve chosen to make stuff like abortion be the unifying issue (but protecting incumbents is still a higher priority for the establishment). If I were going to refocus the Democratic Party, I would want the unifying principle to be something economic in nature with the party more tolerant of diverse social stances.

Abandoning abortion as a main talking point in favor of “something economic” would be suicidal for Dems, it’s the best weapon they have right now.

[hokie]

“local-ish”

If you have any examples of Joe Schmo getting blocked from the Podunk City Mayor’s Office off the top of your head please feel free to substitute them for this widely known and recently-discussed race that resulted in the election of a known piece of shit

[nunnehi]

House is not local-ish either man move on from this. Local is city and county level offices

[hokie]

I have no reason to doubt that this is a fairly accurate description of how someone could potentially spend 10-20 years rising to a national position. I guess you’ve got me there, those damn lazy progressives just don’t have their heart in it. It certainly has nothing to do with the toxic centrism of the party.

[hokie]

@nunnehi

Local is city and county level offices

Here maybe this will help you understand my point

@hokie

If you have any examples of Joe Schmo getting blocked from the Podunk City Mayor’s Office off the top of your head please feel free to substitute them for this widely known and recently-discussed race that resulted in the election of a known piece of shit

Cisneros didn’t have to be nationally popular to win. Just locally popular! And she was! And the party still chose Cuellar.

[skydiver8]

@beetlejuice

the leftist mindset is not well adapted to conform to that kind of structure. and that’s a shame because you really want them voting on your side because they have a ton of great ideas and are genuinely good, empathetic people.

so the goal of a reasonable-pragmatic-genuinely-good-and-empathetic person should be to encourage good people to compromise on their morals, which makes those reasonable pragmatic people look kinda evil, which is a shame, you know, that’s not ideal.

anyway, good luck

I understand there’s a certain level of facetiousness in this post, but I do want to address this.

Nowhere have I said you need to compromise on your morals. That’s why you build a coalition, rather than forcing everyone to conform one way or another. It’s also why we need single-issue activist groups to stick to their issues. Just like the Party should stick to a mission of getting people elected.

@hokie

If you have any examples of Joe Schmo getting blocked from the Podunk City Mayor’s Office off the top of your head please feel free to substitute them for this widely known and recently-discussed race that resulted in the election of a known piece of shit

But…but…

What I’m saying is there are way fewer examples of this because these are the exact spaces where there is more room for outsiders to win elections. You have taken the opposite message from my posts than what I’m actually saying.

@hokie

I guess you’ve got me there, those damn lazy progressives just don’t have their heart in it.

Where did I say that? Where did I even imply that? Let me be clear. In our local races, I have seen both centrists AND progressives fail to do the work I described and consequently fail to win elections.

[hokie]

I think we’re talking past each other. To make my position clear: I don’t think the national democratic party will ever allow itself to be captured by progressives. I blame the national party for the lack of nationally-visible progressives, which is what came off of Wichita and CN’s brief exchange. I use Cisneros/Cuellar as an example of the national party’s commitment to shutting progressives out, even when they’re locally popular. I do not think the problem is a lack of progressives willing to Play The Game The Right Way, which was what I took away from your posts (perhaps incorrectly). To continue that analogy, I think the problem is the game itself, and who is refereeing the game at the national level.

[skydiver8]

How do you think the people who are refereeing the game at the national level got there?

[nunnehi]

You are hopeless. Sit down and think why a locally popular politician couldnt win a federal office. It will come to you.

[hokie]

I’m sure most of them started by making a name for themselves. But don’t forget the backstabbing, compromising on their supposed morals for their own personal gain, schmoozing with assholes, and money–that helps too.

[hokie]

@nunnehi

You are hopeless. Sit down and think why a locally popular politician couldnt win a federal office. It will come to you.

I genuinely don’t know what answer you think I’m supposed to get here. Money? Racism? Misogyny? Social media? Underpants gnomes? All of the above?

[L.Washington]

@skydiver8

Look at MD yesterday. the national party machine backed David Trone and he got destroyed by the candidate who played the game and did the work and built her name rec from the ground up.

I get the point you’re trying to make, but a cursory look at endorsements on their sites show me Trone was endorsed by a bunch of state level nobodies and Alsobrooks was endorsed by basically the entire MD congressional delegation (including Hoyer), a bunch of senators (including the other MD senator), the sitting governor and lt. governor, and her own slew of state level nobodies. So I wouldn’t say this was the national party machine backing Trone, it was just a rich dude spending boatloads of his own money going against the national party favorite, and the national party favorite won. Not saying it’s a good or bad thing in this case, but it is what it is.

[skydiver8]

I think I’ve drilled down to the real disconnect here, but to be sure I have a serious question for you:

do you believe that compromising on policy = compromising on morals?

[nunnehi]

She is popular in a small area. Congressional districts are HUGE. Obama tried to make a jump in the wrong district and it almost ended his career.