As I compose this diary, a diary on the Rec List list has 2048 comments. It's essentially on the novel topic of how we should support the President without regard to complaints that many of us progressives have about aspects of his progress.
If I weren't otherwise engaged, I might well drop in a few comments. I'd be wasting my time, but I might well do it. Put otherwise: I might well do it -- but I'd know I'd be wasting my time.
I'll tell you what isn't a waste of time, though: electing progressive Democrats to state legislatures. In about 83 hours, an Assembly District in Southern California -- my own AD-72, it so happens -- will vote in a special election for a new Assembly member.
Tomorrow, I might ask you to to help my friend the candidate. But not today, not on Friday night.
Tonight, I want to invite you to talk me out of it. Discourage me.
Especially if one or more of those 2000+ comments are yours, tell me why you won't take the time to make some calls this weekend. (You prefer donating? OK.)
It so happens that I've had a pretty successful week of blogging. One substantive diary with over 370 comments, a couple of easier and lighter diaries that got about 300 combined, and one (I thought) thoughtful diary that got a couple of dozen thoughtful comments.
My God -- can you believe how crass I'm being? Reviewing my diary successes over the past week? Isn't that about the most disgusting thing that you've ever seen here?
Well, be patient. I'm getting to my point.
The three diaries before that were about the CA-AD72 race in Orange County -- a race that, if we win it, will send shock waves through the nation. It's a race where our candidate got over 45% of the vote last time. In the first diary, I set out my manifesto on "target of opportunity polling" (raid deployment in special elections.) It got 11 comments -- 7 of them mine. The one after that, plaintively entitled "Help elect my friend": 18 comments, 8 of them mine. The big push on Sunday? 12 comments, 4 of them mine. (The first two of those diaries -- the less successful ones -- explain the how and why of making calls into CA-AD72 between now and Election Day.)
Is it just my puny district that's the problem? Well, let me review my diaries for the week or two before that. A confrontational rant on the racial aspects of the NYC Mayor's race got 54 comments. Reveling in the victory of John Garamendi -- 282 comments. Skipping three days before that, a Halloween discussion of belief in ghosts broke 170 comments. So evidently I can write diaries that do reasonably well -- but what happened between Halloween and the day after the election?
Oh yeah. Three more diaries trying to get people to phone bank -- for marriage equality in Maine, furthermore! That should have gone well, right?
8 comments. 4 (!) comments. Then 17 comments, but only because I lured people in with a title about toilets and a little cultural criticism.
I won't even review my similar records in trying to get people to phonebank and in the special elections in NY-23 (where we did make a difference) and LA-04 (where we could have) done so with a little effort.
I realize that the definition of insanity, Einstein said, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
So I am asking for your intervention.
As it stands, I plan to devote my next three diaries to trying get people to make phone calls, from all over the country, for John MacMurray. I will probably post a frenzied diary on Election Day, and then a wrap-up.
Do you really want me to have to go through this? Wouldn't it be better if I posted some diaries about how Obama is or isn't worthy of our devotion? I've got five days I can devote to it! I can write one diary each saying "Yes!", "No!", "Probably," "Probably Not," and (my favorite) "I'm conflicted"!
Isn't that what you'd really rather read from me -- and from everyone else?
Well, if so, I need your help. I can't quit this nagging feeling that it matters if we elect a progressive Democrat in this district -- and get that much closer to being able to pass a budget over Schwarzenegger's veto -- and that I should be involved in this. Worse, that I should try to get you involved in this. Left to my own devices, I know that I will only continue to wheedle and cajole.
You can help prevent this.
Just post your comments explaining why trying to get Kosters to call and try to influence a very interesting race in another part of the country, on a day when nothing else is going on is completely pointless and absurd, and maybe you've got a chance to convince me to accept my fate and just leave the damn thing alone. I can do something more productive, like reply to each one of those 2048 comments in that Rec Listed diary.
Come on -- isn't that what you'd really prefer? Not having to worry about all this activist stuff?
So, if that's how you feel, make your case! I'll listen. But if you disagree, if you think that this site is about activism, then you can always saddle up and ride with me. This sort of insanity loves company.
UPDATE: An ugly rumor is going around in comments that John MacMurray is actually a fictitious character, or a large aquatic mammal, or the long-departed actor Fred MacMurray. At least two of these are not true! To prove it, I am important some "issues" statements from John's (who is my friend, and therefore very like not to be fictitious, although I can't make any guarantees) campaign web page
JOBS: Where did the good ones go, and what do we replace them with?
Not all that long ago, Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler all had assembly plants in Southern California. Goodyear, Uniroyal, and Firestone all built car and truck tires here.
Rheem and Western-Holly made stoves and other household appliances. Douglas and Lockheed built airliners and cargo planes. Autonetics built the Apollo spacecraft.
These were good paying jobs, mostly union jobs, with companies who offered careers to their employees.
And, they supported a large network of smaller, mostly family owned businesses that provided parts and services.
And they’re gone and not likely to return. So let’s look in new directions like the projected $200+ billion green energy generation industry, using a tailored mix of solar, wind, and tidal energy to power our homes and industries.
And create good new jobs while we clean our air.
Now, who’s on your side?
TAXES: Are your taxes higher because some people don’t pay their share?
Nobody likes to pay taxes, but it hurts worse when we have to pay for somebody else. California loses more than $60 billion a year in unpaid fees and taxes from people and companies who under-report and just don’t pay.
California State agencies are doing a good job of collecting this money and plugging the leaks.
Let’s support these State efforts and maybe we can lower our tax bills.
Now, who’s on your side?
EDUCATION: Eating our seed corn?
Our K-12 public school system pays $7 back to the community for each dollar invested in it.
The return comes both from the higher incomes and increased purchasing power that education brings, and from money not spent on incarceration and welfare.
And it does this while serving the educational needs of over 6 million students and their families, who speak nearly sixty languages from Albanian to Pashto to Vietnamese.
And although the K-12 budget is large, around $6 billion, its funding is uncertain. Funding it one year at a time makes long range planning nearly impossible, wasting time and money.
So, California’s educators are being required to meet higher mandated test standards for more students from more diverse backgrounds who have more needs, with fewer and uncertain resources.
Let’s take this opportunity to bring in new funding ideas so our educators can finally have the rest of the tools they will need to produce our future leaders.
Now, who’s on your side?
Large aquatic mammal or not, this is what I want to hear from my Assembly representative!
UPDATE 2: Oh no, he's got photos!