This is the first diary I've written in many years. My DK number is 15,530, so I've been around awhile. If anyone remembers the screen name BigDog04 I was known for Practical Politics. (Must have changed it somewhere along the line...)
Now it's 2015 and I came back after reading the daily news summary hoping things had changed. But in 11 years it's still the same problem. Very few get the nature and the necessity of effective, street-level, ground pounding, feet killing practical political campaigns.
Oh so many can find all the reasons DNC Chair Dean would have changed the world and that Rahm was the filthy ass at the table. But will that change a damn thing? Does that argument even matter?
How about giving up short term history?
How about no more single issue politics?
How about no more lamenting the past?
Want change? Create a better campaign!
Organize a district BEFORE you have a candidate. Got a candidate or an organization? Go work. Is there a candidate on the horizon you don't like? Fine.
Go find someone and recruit them! You don't need anyone's permission. Just go find someone. Don't like the final candidate? Who cares! Work anyway.
If 435,000 dedicated Kossacks threw themselves into districts can you imagine the potential impact? If they helped do the ugly, disagreeable work of retail political campaigns that effort...those campaigns will have an impact. that kind of support makes all the difference to candidates, the staff and, (hold your nose), donors!
Forget making the campaign policy perfect or even near perfect or even agreeable. Just work.
Those campaigns could breathe life back into a local party. That active participation, simply showing up and working, will make a difference. Don't stop when the election is over! Take a couple of months to get some sleep and then start over. Lousy candidate? Recruit another!
Practical Politics
Take this diary for what it's worth: Something, nothing...it's up to you.
Buckaroo aka BigDog04, a voice from the Edge "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." HST