So how do you do it? How do you build successful coalitions?
How does the GOP put pro-life and pro-gun in the same sentence? How does the GOP get the very, very poor vote AND the very, very rich voter?
mostly, by spending lots of money. but also by being amazing at building coalitions.
maybe a better term would even be bridging coalitions. maybe that would show that each coalition plays an important part in keeping our entire structure together. Each of us is a pillar that holds up the entire bridge. If one of us falls, the whole thing comes down.
But these pillars, or coalitions...ARE NOT THE SAME...thats why we need something that bridges us, that keeps us together. If we were the same, we wouldnt need something to keep us together--we'd do that naturally. Its like the difference b/w the solid earth beneath a street, and the many pillars that hold up a bridge. The solid earth is one, the pillars of a bridge are many.
And this is important. I'm not going to get cheesy on you that us 'not being the same is what makes us great'...it doesnt make us great. it causes struggle and sometimes alot of hurt. i dont need $10,000 of therapy to tell you the pie thing hurt me. it did. and to cont the metaphor, i'd rather be riding alone in a car on a solid road then a shaky bridge. but when the bridge is held together by real pillars that are independently strong, yet also work together precisely, the riding over a bridge can seem just like riding on a road, only with a bit better view.
I just read that hispanics are 1/7th of the population in the USA now. I'm willing to bet that 1 out of 7 kossacks are not hispanic. Asians had the next highest percentage growth. Again, I'm betting the representation isnt there. If we're gonna win elections as the Democratic Party in the next generation, we need to think how we are going to bridge Asians and Hispanics into our strong coalitions in the Democratic Party.
We're gonna need to bridge the netroots with the grassroots and the young roots with the old roots. All these groups will at times need our help to be strong--but we will always need each other's help to stay together.
I'm the eternal optimist sometimes, so today I think we can do it. Yesterday, I wasn't so full of hope. So this diary is about solving the pie crisis, its about realizing that the solution itself--on how to keep us together even the we are quite seperate and distinct--is also the solution on how to win in politics today, as it was yesterday, and how it will always be.
Thanks for getting this far. I reach my digital hand out to everyone out there. Even Kos who has pissed me off as of late..Who else is willing?
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