Don't crash the D.C. fortified gate..do the opposite (see below image)
..and not the
176,000 gates - grass roots - precinct by precinct. Our siege engine made of many on the ground at the down ballot level
While a good question is partially answered, partially defending something else altogether and meanwhile terminology is disputed taking the discussion even farther afield.
Not that undoing sound bites and catchphrases that blur things isn't a good thing and an important field to explore, it still ends up, in the field of weeds territory - imo - if that focus on language and terminology supersedes the more important idea of freeing ourselves from beltway "wisdom" and finding a path to victory around the usual gates, designed to be crash points. These types of arguments no matter how diverse, thoughtful and relevant, seem to lead back to or are at least reminiscent of an old rut, or a version of it, we get stuck in again and again:
pragmatism vs ideology.
A rut that exists, and depends almost entirely upon the premise that we have to play by the rules as laid out by beltway "common wisdom"
When it comes to tearing down walls or gates we'd do better to give a one fingered salute to the standard entrance while outflanking the opposition by finding our own inroads (or gates to crash)
The original question about gate crashing as a reply then gets re-focused, not on odds making horse race pundit dialogue, but where it should be (I've purposefully left out candidates names):
..crashing the gate of labor, economics, and money in politics.
[...]
..crashing the gate with grassroots, "people-powered" movement building.
[...]
.. crashing the gate of social justice.
[...]
crashing the gate of environmentalism.
And from commenters:
..CTG was about the movement underneath the candidate, not the candidate themselves. How that movement formed, operated, and was funded. And then how to use that sort of self-funded decentralized grassroots movement to, in essence, take back power and influence from the DLC (among others).
This comment which is recognizing the mistake of targeting the singular gate idea; a gate and status quo way of doing things that is heavily defended.
It Identifies the mistake of building and setting up a siege engine (progressive liberal Dems) where and how that siege is expected and accepted. Following the usual rules of engagement:
..Pragmatic realism is a way of defending the gates. If you select your candidate based on electability you're perpetuating that gate with respect to race, gender, and above all economic policy.
I haven't been here at Daily Kos that long, so I may have missed it, but recognizing that we Dems are NOT obliged to play by the rules, crashing the obvious, conventional gate by conforming, is a very good thing to see and hear being discussed and tangled over.
Yes I've heard the many arguments over the years during election time that are roughly a pragmatism vs ideology thing; and have seen the many tangents taken and side topics that go every which way, but this year it seems different for a number of reasons one of them being the supreme court ruling Citizens united and the massive dark money flooding into mostly republican pockets. Citizens United has all but neutered the RNC much more than it has effected the Dems base (as the GOP donors are the 1%ers and Dems are mostly the 99%ers - a fact even Reince Priebus was forced to admit in his autopsy)
But it is something beyond Citizens United undoing Feingold/McCain campaign finance. Its the people of both parties demanding change. The Fox "news" rwnj's for all the wrong reasons. Everyone else because of Fox "news" and everything it represents of the "conservative" party.
There is a real opportunity here, One we don't see too often.
This is where Bernie Sanders has broken the mold. Sticking to issues, rejecting the negative primary race attack mode. And it's spreading amongst the Dems candidates too in a good way.
The horse race that D.C. ptb care about is being overwhelmed by actual issues
Even Trump with his unmitigated assholery (despite Citizens United advantage to billionaires and their chosen puppet candidates) has broken the republican party; exposed it for the shell corporation it is.
For the good of this and other countries and the land we live on, we want/need to win, and that means the GOP must be defeated. One republican like a Scott Walker need only one or a handful of billionaire donors. Dems need the other 99% - iow's the whole of America united and engaged
If we keep it together, united, and crash the gates we decide need crashing, GOTV from the bottom up with all our focus on solutions to important issues we will prevail.
And yes, even with RedMap (gerrymandering), dark money, and most pundits declaring that the House of representatives is lost to us Dems until the next census year 2020, that too is another gate/barrier we need not accept.
We find another way around it, again precinct by precinct. On the ground making our own rules and forcing answers by raising the issues and supporting our local representatives despite of the way things are usually run around D.C. town
From what I've seen there is a new dynamic going on today. A reaction by a majority of the people rejecting the over-reach and hubris that came with the 2010 wave of republican imbeciles; Big money high powered politics and the crooks that thrive at our expense. With that negative reaction showing in many polls for instance there has rarely been more opportune a time to challenge the elite 'common wisdom'.
- This is a good thing
Let the beltway matador wave its cape. We have other ideas:
...We do this. Our siege engine is many on the grpound
note: this pseudo diary (iow's nothing but my opinion - & not news or new information) is aimed at no one in particular.
The links chosen aren't random but of popular voices that just reminded me of the version of the pragmatic vs ideology rut we seem to drive into time and again on a single lane super highway instead of where we could be traveling; on many small mountain back roads through a much different landscape into many varied gates that need crashing