Congresswoman Sharice Davids found her name, to use the phrase, on the lips of a lot of pundits and advocates around the country. In some cases it was activists and advocates, in others it was the House Caucus, in yet another instance, it was caustic referrals to her votes as an elected member.
As Democratic voters prepare for 2020, we will all be faced with data, attacks, and responses to our candidates, and counter-responses in defense of the candidates we enjoy.
Within reason, these discussions are healthy, a productive way to understand how and why our congress works the way that it does. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Rep. Davids since before she ran for US Congress, and on her visits back home into the district, on more than one occasion, we’ve had the opportunity to sit in person and talk about the process of representing her district and making sure that her district hears from her and understands her advocacy.
At Netroots Nation, I had the pleasure of speaking with fellow Congresswoman Deb Haaland who reminded our small group: “the first job is to represent your district and to do it well.” Other representatives present at Netroots Nation similarly praised each other, cheered for each other, and at times criticized each other and pushed for things to continue to get better.
The last week, however, I’ve seen more Democratic advocates and activists on fire — not about defeating Donald Trump, but about making equivalencies between Democratic elected, Donald Trump, and throwing in the towel in disbelief.
In all of it, one congresswoman should have felt besieged. With Republicans already actively recruiting against her, in a reddish-purple district, in a state where Trump won handily, a Native American woman, the first openly gay federal elected from Kansas in it’s history, found herself the punching bag of both sides in this debate — and yet, despite that, the Democratic Congresswoman from Kansas didn’t return punches on Twitter or engage in a fight with both sides.
She spent her weekend working her district, talking to voters, learning about the needs of the people she represents and how her committee can help.
If you’d like to see a diary about the tweets of the Democratic House Caucus or the tweets of the staff of Congress members, and now is the time to start attacking everyone involved, this diary is not for you.
Instead, I am writing this diary to talk about US. I mean US in the sense of Daily Kos readers, and also U.S., as in the United States. In meeting after meeting, at Netroots, at the DNC, and with Cyber Security experts, all of us learn more and more about the means by which individuals sow dissent and cause us to distrust each other, to be angry at each other, and rather than arguing reasonably, we begin to argue unreasonably.
In meetings I’ve been at, the method is called “poisoning the water”, wherein voters and advocates are slowly slipped partial information about candidates — rarely the whole story — piece by piece to slowly poison the viewpoint of those who find themselves drinking down the information.
The effect is easy. Slowly make candidates, ideas, elected, or policies toxic. Find small events about individuals we don’t like, when we agree 90% of the time, focus on the 10%, when we agree 99% of the time, focus on the 1% — and rather than focus on those areas as opportunity to come up with solutions, frame these as unforgivable sins that turn anyone else into “other”. Instead of having a disagreement where we work to change minds and influence our friends, we instead are encouraged to resort to blunt tools that tear us apart rather than grow the issues we believe in. We ignore complexities and discussion in favor of devastating attacks and poisoned water, which do very little to help us win any issues, influence our friends or those opposed to even consider a viewpoint.
The communication methodology is intoxicating. For individuals focusing on winning for their cause, the idea of doing so by poisoning the drink of anyone else seems good.
There can, of course, be right and wrong. And arguments can and do happen.
In the only statement issued on the matter, Congresswoman Davids spokeswoman responded:
“Representative Davids’ complete focus is on serving the people of Kansas’ Third District and that is where it will remain,” spokeswoman Johanna Warshaw said in a statement issued early Sunday evening.
“That’s why she spent the weekend in Kansas with fellow Transportation and Infrastructure Committee members advocating for the infrastructure needs of our region, like expanding U.S. 69,” Warshaw said.
There are big tasks ahead for our candidates, for our staff, for our elected officials. Disputes, anger and passion are OK within the process.
We will have fights and disagreements, even when we do, like Daily Kos, like those who hope to elect something better, we are a family. And when time comes, I hope we learn more from Congresswoman Sharice Davids than either the Twitter feed for the House Caucus or the Twitter feed of certain staff members.
Because if our attitude is to fight each other, we are in real trouble. If the attitude is to put our heads down and remind our districts that we are going to work to deserve their vote in every way possible — that is the opportunity to win.