I’m 51 years old and I’ve been volunteering and, at times, working in Democratic politics my entire adult life.
I’d like to make two simple observations.
1. In terms of potential impact, this is, hands down, the best time for Democratic Party and progressive activism in my entire lifetime.
2. At the same time, the emergence of white nationalism and backlash, deeply reshaping the Republican party, and the political playing field, remains extremely dangerous, and is a grave threat to US democracy and everything we care about.
Just yesterday my wife, step-daughter, her boyfriend and I participated in an Indivisible postcard-writing event sending anti-voter suppression postcards to Texas voters who may have been removed from the rolls.
The fact that it is early 2020 and groups like Indivisible are conducting well-organized, targeted events like this, and thousands of volunteers are participating and generating impact is huge. You can see it in grassroots fundraising, as well. The DLCC is setting records and the DSCC is building a warchest that has vulnerable Republican Senators quaking in their boots. Quietly, organizations like Movement Voter Project are rebuilding critical local infrastructure and Sister District and NDRC are overcoming Blue/Red divides.
As TrueBlueIllinois writes in the comments:
Thanks for the shout-out to Sister District. I work with a chapter in the Chicago area. We’re a scrappy group that’s focused on having fun and being effective. A bunch of us traveled to Virginia in early November to GOTV in a very tight race. Our candidate won! We love to work on the margins and make the critical difference. It’s so satisfying. You are right. Local is where it’s at!
American politics is highly local. Winning local races, taking back state legislatures, impacting school board, sheriff and DA races makes enormous impact on day to day life in this country. Local politics is the landscape that shapes what is possible nationally. Without local victories, there is not progress. It’s just not possible.
From that point of view, I think we are at a fundamentally different place than we were in 2006-2008. First, there is a good chance that we will win and hold enough state legislatures in 2020 that the crucial redistricting votes for the next decade will solidify a working Democratic House majority. We are not going away. Our views on core issues already are majority, and GOP voter suppression and gerrymanders are simply hiding that fact. Our political infrastructure has not really caught up to this reality. It will have to.
Second, there are progressives running and winning seats in the right kind of places. AOC and Rashida Tlaib are good examples of progressives winning seats that they can hold and build power from because their politics reflect the actual politics of their district. Not every Congressional District is NY-14 or MI-13, but year over year, as the Democratic caucus becomes more progressive, and more representative of the national majority, as, hopefully, Dan Lipinski gets replaced by Marie Newman and Henry Cuellar gets replaced by Jessica Cisneros, our Democratic majority becomes stronger, and more powerful.
However, a Democratic majority in the House does NOT mean we automatically get progressive legislation. And the frightening reality is that state legislatures have passed deeply xenophobic and anti-woman measures even as we’ve won victories that build our Congressional headcount. There are still majorities in places where right wing legislators can pass laws.
That should give all of us pause.
The story of our victories over the next decade will be the story of coalition politics and compromises that forge new political alliances. All of it will be hard fought. All of it will call for a Democratic politics that fundamentally restructures our courts, voting rights and takes long-dreamed goals like DC Statehood and the ERA and makes them reality sooner rather than later.
And yet we are still at a brutal crossroads.
What’s happening today in Virginia is a good lesson. A majority of voters elected representatives who support sensible gun laws. However, a backlash of a minority of voters have now taken to the streets, with guns and wearing masks, to protest that their side lost the recent election and legislative votes. This is the Reagan revolution, the ‘94 backlash, the militia movement, Tea Party and white nationalist movements come to fruition.
It’s ugly and startling and unsurprisingly, it looks like the Republican Party, overwhelmingly white and male.
The job for progressives in this environment remains what it has always been, to win local races and build local power that can pass meaningful reforms. Job one should be to build coalitions that can win results, especially for those with the least power and advantages.
I’ve largely stayed out of presidential primary politics this cycle. I deeply lament that candidates of color have slowly been stripped from the stage before the votes even begin, and, worse, that billionaires have stepped in and seemingly taken their place. This is fundamentally flawed. You should not be able to buy the Democratic nomination, and we should not be erasing candidates of color in the process of nominating our president.
Whomever we choose as our standard bearer will have to lead our party in thousands of local elections that will determine the true reach of Democratic power in the next Congress and in every state.
Personally, I have doubts about ALL the remaining candidates in some regards. However, I am also confident that the millions of volunteers and donors who will drive our turnout in 2020 understand the stakes. We must hold our eventual nominee accountable to our values and to keeping our coalition together.
2020 is about registering voters, organizing locally and challenging for every seat that we can win, and some we can’t.
What I’d ask all of us to do today, as we get involved and measure out our budget for volunteering and donating this year, is to keep in mind the world we have to win. We are not going back.
For the first time in my five decades, I can say that with confidence. What we build now stays built. Let’s dig in and each make a difference the best we can.
