Going “all in” to support local change makers
DL readers have accepted the fact that the Democratic Party is a useless dumpster fire run by corporate shills with a PR interest in sounding like they support women, gays and minorities.
So rather than be drawn into that nonsense, we have said that the better use of our progressive time and energy would be to give our FULL financial and volunteer support a local candidate that we think will make a difference.
But who are these local challengers that need our support? Four come directly to mind, but there are certainly others.
Work hard. Think local. Block out the nonsense, and let’s get this done this September and November.
Jordyn Pusey www.facebook.com/JordynPuseyNCC
Don Allen www.allanforde.net
Chris Johnson www.chrisjohnsonforag.com
Elizabeth Tizzy Lockman www.lockmanforsenate.org
Kerri Evelyn Harris. www.kerrievelynharris.com
David Carter www.carterforncc.org
Laura Sturgeon www.sturgeon4statesenate.com
All day long.
Also, Chris Johnson.
Finally get to a meet and greet this evening. I don’t what to get my hopes up because that’s not my bag, but I have visions of an upstart Larry Krasner type.
I know El Som is already 100% on board.
Also of note on this topic. News Journal double tap in the Sunday Opinion section.
First, Kerri Harris campaign staffer Jordan Howell
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/05/08/democrats-should-stand-up-progressive-policies/589652002/
The, yours truly, second letter down. Carper shouldn’t be senator for life
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/opinion/readers/2018/05/12/stop-blaming-others-your-problems-reader-says/600160002/
I read that. “Senator for Life” Nailed it.
Jordyn Pusey is a an excellent candidate as well.
Don Allan has previously been featured and should also be included on the list.
Great to see you folks doing this. Some sites like to pretend they are liberal, or “blue” but never really step up when it’s time to challenge the party establishment.
Thanks for noticing. Our politics are better. Everyone knows it. Even them.
@Ben: If the site is the one I think it is, I think you’re being a bit unfair. Working within the system necessitates compromises that some of us aren’t willing to make. When you’re working within such a system, you’re constantly making decisions about which compromises are necessary and which aren’t.
The GOP shows what happens when a significant portion of your team refuses to compromise: The perfect becomes the enemy of the good. I salute the ability of those at That Other Site to navigate that path; I couldn’t do it because being a team player requires keeping one’s mouth shut at just the times I’m most likely to blurt something out.
As annoyed as I get with what I perceive as wrong-headedness, I try not to forget that they’re on the same side I am. They just want to run the team differently than I would.
It’s Allan with an A, not an E.
Come on, Al. Don’t go soft.
The GOP controls nearly all levers of power in the country and there’s enough conservative Democrats that acquiesce. It’s odd you would use that example.
We did it that way already. Poor results.
The Carney / Carper crowd are actively recruiting a primary candidate to take out Sean Lynn. The speaker, pistol Pete , is involved as is Rep. Paradee and the other members of the corrupt Kent Caucus.
Of course they are. But don’t worry, Mitch Crane was is SDS 50 years ago so we’re fine.
On the other topic, I just popped over to take a look. Top post is a Pandora that is absolutely incoherent.
Premise: Progressives move to the center on social issues.
Who does this? Which issues? She doesn’t say….
There’s a vague inference to “a certain demographic” so I guess it’s imaginary white dudes?
Waste of time.
@REV: I disagree with Ben that those folks “never step up.” They would say the same about those who don’t go to party meetings. Each group should occasionally acknowledge that the other isn’t the ultimate enemy.
I haven’t visited, but I suppose today’s missive is partly a response to my contention that the ERA amendment is the equivalent of a vibrating dildo.
Point taken. They are all involved and active. I would never say they don’t step up. Fair enough.
I would think that if you made that analogy than yeah that likely has something to do with it.
Liberal – *The only way to win is to do x.*
Leftist – *But that hasn’t worked at all.*
Liberal – *Misogynist!*
Leftist – *Don’t you think an economic platform, like that argued by Sandy Darrity and Derrick Hamilton, would motivate disenfranchised people to the left?*
Liberal – *Racist! Purity tests!*
Leftist – *Hamilton and Darrity are black intellectuals. Don’t we need a platform to address inequality while remaining steadfast on social issues?*
Liberal – *Bernie Bros are bullies!*
The thing about GOP propaganda as promulgated by Fox/talk radio is that it’s not just the suckers who hear it. Even as non-conservatives reject the points, the frame still gets embedded. That’s why there are now more culture warriors on the left than there are on the right.
For the GOP to enact its Southern strategy, it needed a way to get poor, more rural whites to vote for metropolis-dwelling rich guys. So “American values” were invented as the unifying force. Liberals, almost inevitably, took up the opposite position on that battlefield, to the point where now lots of people on the left think that law-making bodies should take action on social issues that don’t lend themselves to solution by legislative action.
The ERA is a case in point. As a practical matter, non-discrimination laws can do only so much, because you can’t police people’s thoughts, only their actions. So you get such abominations as the Paula Manolakos case, in which a white woman in an executive position sued Wilmington when the incoming black mayor fired her. She claimed racial discrimination and won $800,000. This is the problem with such laws (“hate crime” laws are the worst in this regard) — we can’t really know what people were thinking, but the law asks juries to do just that.
When a white person claims racial bias when the far more likely reason for her firing was that the mayor wanted a crony in the job, the law’s shortcomings should be obvious. Unfortunately, many people think laws should be passed to “send a message” rather than “solve a problem,” a foible not restricted to any particular region of the political spectrum.
Alby, you have more behind the scenes interaction with the humans behind the handles than I do (none), so i’ll take your word for it, but the projected image is that we need to support the party, RATHER than the party needs to earn our support.
This is insanely apparently in their near silence on Kerri Harris. Im not saying they SUPPORT crusty, white old Tom Carper, but when given the chance to really go to war against him, some* seem to be sending thoughts and prayers.
The working class and the poor, if they voted at all, leaned heavily Clinton. That’s what all the numbers say. Voters earning less than $50k voted for Clinton like 65% to 35%. Average Trump voter earned $69k+ something like that.
Trump won middle and upper middle class people with out a college degree. They’re afraid they’re losing something.
Are many of these people racists, sexists dolts? Yes.
Will even more disenfranchised working class and poor people vote for strong economic plan that reduces inequality, pays a fair wage for non-professional/service work, and guarantee everyone health care. I think they will. So let’s convince them. Honestly.
Considering the number of women and people of color who work service jobs or as home health aides, etc. I see absolute zero way this strategy is racist or sexist or any such thing.
This is where I’m at and so far nothing and no one has even come close to convincing me otherwise.
And it’s not going to be easy to convince vicious, bigoted, mean spirited rubes to vote their interests and for their kids rather than their vile racial and religious resentments.
They’re lost. Agreed. I’m talking about rallying the disenfranchised. A single mom working 2 jobs at $7.25/hr wasn’t excited about Hillary for about 1000s valid reasons.
But this voter may be excited in a $15 hourly wage and Medicare for herself and family.
Clinton didn’t and wouldn’t go there. See what I’m saying?
Absolutely. I agree with everything you say about issues and priorities.
Most of the disagreement is about priorities. We mostly agree with them about social issues; they agree, though a bit less so, with our economics. They think Democrats can gain more votes by appealing to people who vote but vacillate between parties. We think we can gain more votes by appealing to people who say “meh.”
The disagreement boils down to whether there are more voters who are persuadable but inconstant, or more non-voters looking for a reason to care (or, as the top vote-getter in history called it, hope). I think it’s the latter.
How can that be debatable in 2018?
Thanks for the weekly mention, RE. Only someone who has never met me would think what I think or am doing have that much influence.
As to your list, I have written checks and or given advice to most of them.
More importantly, there is no truth to “Prophet@ assertion that there is a cabal trying to find someone to Primary Sean Lynn. I know Pete S isn’t doing that. I know Trey Paradee is working hard to win a senate seat- and it would be contrary to that goal to alienate voters in Lynn’s district who are also in the senate district
Sean Lynn is an excellent representative and an I support him, if that matters
I don’t think you have much influence. That’s not why I mention you. You rep for cops. The idea that you were in SDS is embarrassing. It’s like Fred Hampton working in the FBI.
The question, Mitch, is where did you go wrong?
I used to ignore opinions about me from strangers. I went wrong when I started caring what people who don’t know me think about me
Yesterday would have been my grandmother’s 120th birthday. I went wrong when I forgot the advice she gave me in 1963 when I was attacked for organizing the West Chester buses to the March on Washington:
“Mitchell Gregory, there are almost 3 billion people in this world. Not all of them will like or understand you. Don’t waste your time on them. Move on to somebody else.”
RE, you are wrong and I am moving on
As Frederick said, every man must get to heaven his own way.
There wasn’t anyone more disappointed than me when Mitch signed up with Pete. Check the record if you doubt it. Young Mitch, the civil rights champion, is still in there somewhere – but working for Pete was just another sign that everything is shit and nothing matters.
And so I’ll try to drive that thought into a corner by seeing what I can do for the candidate closest to in philosophy and geography – David Carter.
However you want to rationalize it, bud. You’re a quasi-public figure and I’m commenting on your public work. I’m sure you’re a pleasant enough fellow.
My pop was in SDS so I’ve understood what it was and what it meant for a very long time. I find somebody who touts their own activist bona fides from the Kennedy administration, but who now reps corporatists and cops very interesting.
I think you know exactly what I’m saying too. I do not dislike you. I dislike your politics and I think portraying yourself as some type of activist based on what you’ve done like this decade is strange.
On another note, I meet Chris Johnson last night. Top bloke. He’s the candidate – period. Everything we do here re: the Attorney General primary should be focused on getting him elected.
Also, go donate to his campaign. I just went ahead and maxed out last night individually – $600. Not bragging. It’s public record.
@ RE: My dear minion, you are an @$$hole.
@Mitch: Perhaps you don’t see it, but a lot of people have a hard time reconciling your own political positions with your support for Pete Schwartzkopf, who is neither liberal (or progressive, or whatever leftists want to call themselves) nor a friend to those in his caucus who are.
max cont. for state wide race is 1200..
The post above starting with @re was NOT written by me. I do not not resort to that tactic
I take some pride in posting in my own name and I resent someone doing this
I just stopped for lunch on my drive back from a business trip to DC and saw this
Finally, I support Pete because he is my friend and mostly because he has helped me in need more than once.
No worries. It was wildly out of character, but I’m not bothered either way. Anyone who uses Mitch’s name and doesn’t have the minerals to actually type out a-s-s-h-o-l-e is not someone we need to trouble ourselves with.
Again, you know exactly what I’m talking about. I’m critiquing your public work and public statements. That’s it.
I don’t make friends with cops. And the fact that he’s helped you is part of the problem. Personal relationships over politics doesn’t play with me.
It’s $1,200 per couple I thought? Maybe I’m confused with city races?
Well, if I stand corrected I owe the campaign more dough. Thanks, fwiw.
You know who you are. Don’t do that again or you’ll be banned.
Oooohhh Drama! I love that people will use all manner of trickery and subterfuge to curse me! I drive you wild.
Come on Jason, out the rat. Used Mitch’s name (that’s the lowest).
Totally weak and low energy.
“Personal relationships over politics doesn’t play with me.”
Sorry RE, but man are you in the wrong state.
No need for apologies, Ruf. I understand how it works here. I plan on dunking on it every day.
Look at Mitch. He’s nearly beaten already. Telling stories about his grandmom and what he did back in ’63. He’s “moving on.” Whatever the fuck that means….
Politics works the way it works until it doesn’t anymore.
“I support Pete because he is my friend and mostly because he has helped me”
(Barf)
Pete is cutting taxes for the rich while public schools are imploding from lack of funding. Go to hell.
It was brought to my attention that someone hiding behind the moniker of “Prophet” claimed on this thread that I am somehow involved in an effort to unseat Rep. Sean Lynn. Let me be as clear as I possibly can. I am unaware of any “crowd…actively recruiting a primary candidate to take out Sean Lynn.” What a ridiculous assertion. I support the re-election of Rep. Sean Lynn 110%, and I look forward to working with him in the years to come. Thank you.
– Trey Paradee
@Trey: Thank you for the clarification. You never can tell what trolls hope to accomplish with comments like that. It’s a jungle out here.
Anonymous claims are treated with suspicion and usually meet with crude ridicule. No worries.
But if we do confirm anyone’s up to something I will personally massacre you and your reputation such as it is.
Pretty sure that was Prophet’s first (and last) post.
Smells like a crude Rethug attempt to sow some discord in the Democratic ranks.