There isn’t anything you can say about – or to – folks who are doing the happy dance around the dimming embers of American civility, science, and the rule of law. They live in an irony, facts and traditions free Universe where the only things that matter are money, resentment, and immediate gratification. You might as well French kiss a wolverine or try and listen all the way through a Bee Gees’ album.
How this came about is evident in our institutions. We live in a country where evangelical Christians have been driving moneylenders back into the temple faster than we can count while banning immigrants, not only from the inn but from the manger as well. Meanwhile, our public school students rank a middling 27th and 34th out of 64 in science and math proficiency among students in developed nations. Our fierce drive toward mean and mediocre is the new American Manifest Destiny.
I’m sure these complaints will meet slabs of alternative thundering, but Democrats and the Democratic Party ought to resist accepting and nourishing their own fairy tales about what went wrong. While it’s true that Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by three million votes, the fact that her victory against an obvious pathological liar wasn’t tenfold three million is shocking. And Democrats lost more than 1,000 local races last November, clearly demonstrating why Trump (and George Bush, in 2000) won the Electoral College.
To win nationally, activists need to act locally. Here are four things to start doing today: first, take your county party back from the Clintonistas who’ve been running it for the last 30 years; pack party meetings and elect new leadership. Second, start a candidate’s fund to help candidates pay filing fees. Third, identify and nurture qualified up-and-comers and train them to be effective, knowledgeable candidates. Start grooming these candidates at least a year before a campaign begins. Fourth, host coffee parties within your personal networks for candidates, get them invited to speak at your fraternal clubs and organizations, and help them build a political base that is both deep and wide.
This is how town constables – and presidents – get elected.
Great column! I would add a fifth action. Many of us frame our arguments and rhetoric around urban concerns or only our own little universe. We’ve got to get out and get in touch with alternate universes. An example would be the DeVos nomination. While many of us focused on religious freedoms, the turning issue for the two Senators voting against the pack was their rural constituencies and their utter dependence on public schools.