By writing fantastic articles like this one by Crimson Quillfeather yesterday ...And we have a challenger for the Congressional 10th in Virginia. It was really just an amazing piece of political writing. There was a map, the candidate was introduced in a great way and then the diarist explained (in a very nice way) why the opponent sucks! Oh and bullet points, there were bullet points too, it couldn't have been more readable. Oddly though, this great diary didn’t seem to have many readers.
Much like Angela Marx’s diary here which has maps, video AND progressive candidates, but very few readers.
Same thing happened with Gordon20024’s most excellent series on the recent VA elections.
Could any of these diaries/series been better or different? Well, the only thing I can think of is they could have had one of Stephen Wolf’s incredible and oh so useful interactive maps .
The thing is, that for the most part, politics isn’t very sexy. In the places where it really matters (Yep, I’m saying the Presidential race isn’t the most important one) like Congress and State Houses ,it’s just not all that exciting most of the time. It is where the power is though. These are the places where laws get written and policy gets shaped.
So I am inviting everyone here at Daily Kos to find a way to get interested, and I’m begging you to do it now.
Personally I get interested in the most inane things so it isn’t hard for me to do something like I did this morning. Read a comment about a Mayor in a certain county in CA (I live in TN) and go off exploring until I’m looking up the history of religions. For me a. just leads to m. which leads to d., stops by some pictures of cats for a minute, and then leads straight to b. And I have no vested interest in California or the history of religions. (for full disclosure, I do have a vested interest in cats. One is sitting on my shoulders as I type.)
Surely though, each reader on this blog site can find a way to become interested in their own local politics. If anyone can think of any suggestions to help people get interested, please jump in with them. I’m so interested from so many angles I don’t know where to begin with ideas.
Oh yeah, wait, I have one — forget about the Presidential election for a while. Quit fucking arguing about it. Enough with the all day every day. Presidents may set a tone and shape policy but they don’t write laws. They don’t confirm Supreme Court nominees. Why focus on arguing about one thing all day when you could argue about 435 Congressional districts, 100 Senate seats, and I don’t know how many precincts there are to argue about? (I tried to look that up but got distracted by tables that showed the top reasons why people don’t vote.)
What I’m saying is, for Christ’s sake, could we be a little more diverse in our arguments? There are some pretty interesting things happening in Florida right now. Three Democratic candidates who are well known, well funded and have a good chance of flipping seats from Repub to Dem. Come on, let's argue about that for a while.
If you don’t know exactly what to argue about in these “lower races” check out Daily Kos election news, follow it or any of these active groups on Daily Kos:
DK Fans of 90for90
Voters R US
50 State Strategy Project
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