So many diaries today trying to describe different parts of an elephant.
The best answer is lurking right here in this extraordinary diary by tmservo433.
The Republican Party and their allies are well into a coordinated plan to eviscerate Democrats on the local and state levels in much of this country. And the Democrats have given up without a fight. The party apparatus in many states is virtually an empty shell. The party does not wish to dirty itself with such boring, trivial, local matters as school board and city council elections.
Newsflash (to Democrats; Republicans already know this): Those trivial local boards and races are where you build your party's base!
Just look at the contenders for the upcoming presidential election: the Republicans have a boatload of governors vying for the nomination. Sure, they're all a bit nuts, but that's never stopped Americans from electing a Republican president. In fact, it seems to be a basic qualification for the job. Meanwhile, we've got ... Hillary. Yes, she's pretty popular. She's also a war hawk with years of baggage that will be spilled all over the floor for all to see in the general. Maybe she'll win. But beyond Hillary, who have we got?
Anyone?
Oh -- Martin O'Malley.
Fuck.
More below the squiggle.
How did we Democrats get into our present position? Apparently, we whiled away our days reading the demographic data and hoping that eventually the old white folks would go away. Our reward is minority party status across most of the country.
What were the Republicans doing instead? They built their base. Notice how you keep hearing about rightwing wackadoodles taking over boards of education? And you never hear about progressives doing the same--even though many teachers are progressive?
That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because the right wing pours money into building their base on the local level.
I want to see a news story someday where progressives win a school board election, dump the abstinence curriculum, sponsor an "Evolution Week", and it's the conservatives who are out on the streets whining and holding signs.
You know what -- forget ActBlue for a while. Statewide elections are great and all, but we need to go deeper.
Our party is dying--already dead in many places. We need to perform CPR by nationalizing local campaigns from city council to stormwater board--which the Republicans and Tea Partiers are already doing, by the way, so I hope goo-goos won't get their knickers in a twist about it.
I want to be able to chip in $3 to a school board candidate in Salina, Kansas, or a county commission candidate in suburban Nashville. I want to sponsor conferences for these candidates so they can learn and share strategies for getting elected. Think Netroots Nation local edition.
And come up with a snappy name. I'm terrible at naming, but call it something like Orange Punch so it's clear from what community the support comes from.
It seems to me there's basically two choices for this website.
Spend the next two years energizing Democrats about races where we can make a real difference, and building organizations on the ground.
Or just continue with the scary-Gooper porn and turn this site into the Hillary Channel for the next two to four years. Maybe it would be cheaper. When we get our clocks cleaned again in 2018 (or 2016, if we're unlucky), you can just recycle the same posts.