Is it time for the Democratic Party to stop worrying about winning the presidency in 2028 and start focusing on winning state and local elections now? It feels like half the reason we're in the situation we're in is because the DNC gave up on the down-ballot races years ago and conceded state control to the Republicans.
It seems that mass peaceful community action - the 3.5% thing - will be the only effective response against the trump authoritarian government. It also seems there is a reluctance to roll this out. What do you think about a general strike with optional peaceful protest (to avoid the incitement of violence by Trump we are already seeing) as the means to capture the attention of both the rest of the public as well as lawmakers who could do - and in response would do - something to stop Trump, but are in his thrall? Because if we all just keep going about our business, nothing will change.
Ditto this question. I've been wondering when/how there will be a general strike. The Jimmy Kimmel thing worked because people could unsubscribe. How do we unsubscribe from ICE? How do we removed our $$ from the oligarchs?
And, while we are told getting out and being seen protesting in these big events like the one planned this Saturday is supposed to raise awareness and gather media attention (but is media attention even helpful now?) how do we make what we do be viewed as working to a specific goal rather than just not wanting "a King" - such as a boycott, general strike, or some other very specific outcome of our just showing up?
One thing I think is very clear: they are HOPING that these protests turn violent. We must do everything we can to prevent feeding the dragon. We are all very proud of Portland for using humor to fight back. From silly costumes to fishing poles with Voodoo Donuts on the ends of fishing poles (most people think these are great donuts) to "lure" authorities, it has been really effective and even fun. Having participated in all the marches, I don't know if they are effective, though they inspire our own. And now it is beginning to scare me. Though maybe we can learn from historical non-violent approaches. That would take more organizing than I see.
It will be interesting to see how Dan addresses this question, because media messaging strikes me as being a somewhat different topic than what is essentially a community organizing question.
I've been seeing the idea of a general strike come up frequently in activist circles, but what is generally missing has been a realistic sense of how to actually do one that is considered successful. We might see general strikes in France and think, why can't we do that too?
Part of the problem is that in the U.S. we don't have a history of general strikes so we don't have a feel for the mechanics of how to hold one. In addition, the U.S. is much bigger than France, so achieving a "critical mass" would be a much more difficult logistical challenge.
May I be honest? We latch onto ideas such as a general strike before thinking through 1) what are our goals and 2) what are our current capacities? Here Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" book can be useful because he illustrates how to maximize your political impact with even relatively small numbers of people.
If Alinsky were alive right now, my guess is that he would discourage a general strike and instead brainstorm more localized activities. For example, he organized a "pee in" of the Chicago airport that would have effectively shut it down by clogging up the restrooms. That got the attention his group was seeking.
Interested in how you process news and what resources do you consider most reliable. I’m sure you must take in a lot of info daily but do you prioritize certain pubs or posters etc. Do you structure your day for periodic breathers too to keep yourself sane managing all of it???
Visit them outside their jobs + also places that help them - in DC it would be hotels, restaurants, Miriam's Kitchen, that serves free meals, public libraries that are a refuge for the poor, designated places for shelter from heat + cold. Again consult experts, such as Jose Andres, who founded World Central Kitchen.
What, if anything, actually gets the attention of SCOTUS and does anything we do, protest, show up at rallies, etc., really matter at all? Many of us are just raging angry at what they are doing but have no valuable way to point that rage toward the right targets or in a way that may matter at all. Are there any options to make the majority feel any heat?
Piggybacking on this - I know Neera Tanden and others are working on a Democratic version of Project 2025 which I would guess - like Project 2025 - focuses on multiple issue/action fronts that would need to be tackled to undo some of the damage to our politics, society, and government, but this highly partisan Supreme Court is the sphere that most overwhelms me. We have tools to elect better candidates, reform our party infrastructure, etc. (not that any of those happen easily), but what are the tools to reform the Supreme Court? It's brazen corruption (no following of ethics guidelines) and extreme partisanship/political agenda is a powerful reason our democratic process is so weakened. But they seem untouchable. I can't conceive of an effort I could join, as an individual, to push for positive change on the Court.
For the midterms and future elections, and given the rise of progressivism and Mandani, how can the Democratic Party balance its progressive base with the need to appeal to moderates and swing voters, especially in swing states where elections are often decided by narrow margins? I am worried my former Republican relatives who have made the switch to the Democratic Party are going to draw a line in the sand.
Can I piggyback on your question? Part of a partisan realignment is that people rearrange themselves among the parties and while former Democrats have moved right, I see more former Republicans stuck in the middle and not making the switch your relatives have made. They just — hover, voting Democratic but, I think, waiting to become Republicans again.
Meanwhile, they have gotten more liberal on a bunch of issues, just by virtue of hanging out more with Dems (political scientist Seth Masket has a good piece on this in his substack, Tusk, right now) and I think they’d fit in on the moderate end of the party just fine. If they would claim it, they would counterbalance some of the pressure from the progressive end to move the whole party leftward. Until they do claim it, the realignment is going to be incomplete, with Dems a minority party.
I think that there is a tendency in the Dem Party to conflate youth and energy and progressive values. As if the choice is inevitably between AOC and Mamdani on the one side and Schumer and Durbin on the other. But you can be young, energetic and moderate. Obama was. (And on the other side, you can be Bernie). Moderate doesn’t mean namby pamby, stand-for-nothing, focus-group-tested-out-the-wazoo the way Harris ended up.
Maybe it doesn’t matter in the immediate moment if disaffected Republicans are voting Democratic anyway, but as your question makes clear it’s a problem that compounds itself if they do make the move and then feel too uncomfortable to stay.
Long winded, sorry, but is there inclusive messaging that can make the party a welcoming place for homeless Republicans without driving away progressives? Progressives who want really radical social change, maybe not, but liberals who believe that government can do good things and should be allowed to try, they have plenty of common cause with pro-democracy Republicans rejecting the worst impulses in their former party.
Youth are being highly, highly targeted and changing, esp young men. It was so disheartening yesterday at the event I was at to hear so MANY progressive parents telling how their kids' hopes and dreams are being changed ("Of course my wife will stay home with the children and not work...") Plus our massive outrage makes it such an easy way to go through the rebellion stage of adolescence and come out opposing that rage. Plus that social media targeting.
Why do you think Dem leadership is being obtuse and obstructionist and how do you think we common folk up here in the cheap seats can start to be heard? And please do not say “Call your reps”. Because we all know that our reps just see the tally sheet. They don’t hear what Carl the intern hears when Jan from Topeka calls. Related, has the PSA franchise ever thought about a forum in which the common folk in the cheap seats like Jan get to take the mike? Two questions, I know…
Thanks Beth I have thought of this many times, for PSA. Even, on a lighter note, for pods like Smartless, where these guys we tend to love are so rich and talk about their golf game and clothes for half an hour before their famous guests. What about all the people in Hollywood who have unbelievable talent and never got through the fame bottleneck and really suffer(ed) for it, but are still there trying even as they age past you know, their fabulous 20s and of course older? (I can't listen to those guys anymore.) I think many pods could bring on "ordinary people" and Crooked could do so much with this. Yet bc of PSA I have learned of many great pols and other leaders I would not ever have known of or known how to really hear who they are, or might be. That has helped so much. Here is one more idea I have had, which is to find a way to let people here also form smaller chat groups, build community with each other in smaller groups. There could be good outcomes. I think Dan here could help with that. I am just unable to spend money on the larger things (Friends of the Pod, all the Substacks and Patreons I follow or want to follow.)
I was listening to the Ezra Klein show with Favreau on it, and I was wondering. Given the ICE and NG deployments, could the Democrats escalate their shutdown demands to include restrictions on ICE and NG deployments? What would that look like?
Or alternatively, demand a restoration of the cuts that Trump has made in retaliation for the shutdown?
So, I think most politically active Democrats get that the DNC isn't the all-powerful, well-oiled machine we may have once imagined.
State parties seem to vary in approach and involvement. What's a good model for a state party that hits the right notes of activism and electoral strategy?
Democrats have a masculinity problem. We're seen as weak. If we want to start winning again we need to bring men back to the party. Any thoughts on how we might do that?
This is the BIG question, not a small one. Thanks for asking it. The answers are not going to be easy... I do think that a lot of older pols just need to go. We need images of strong, kind males who are young and in touch. And of course more AOCs, she is so fearless.
Want to know about strategy. I think massive protest on Oct 18 might be effective, and electorail. victories in PA,, VA, NJj, CA, and NYC on Now 4 might move some GOP but I think protest in DC on Nov 5 is premature and could be discouraging. What do you think?
Dan, is any Democratic-aligned group working on a Project 2029 for Democrats? There will be so much that has to be repaired and rebuilt when Democrats are back on the top, and a clear vision of that, an explicit picture of what all (well, at least most) Democrats stand for and want to achieve, would seem like an important tool.
A short note on "What can we do?" would be nice. On saturday night there was a dinner in Wilomington DE for the Palastanian Children Relief Fund that was MCd by a woman from our Church Nora Whisnant and it did so many things that needed to be done including moving towards bringing together the next generation of Palastinians to a two state solution.
Is it time for the Democratic Party to stop worrying about winning the presidency in 2028 and start focusing on winning state and local elections now? It feels like half the reason we're in the situation we're in is because the DNC gave up on the down-ballot races years ago and conceded state control to the Republicans.
Agree!
It seems that mass peaceful community action - the 3.5% thing - will be the only effective response against the trump authoritarian government. It also seems there is a reluctance to roll this out. What do you think about a general strike with optional peaceful protest (to avoid the incitement of violence by Trump we are already seeing) as the means to capture the attention of both the rest of the public as well as lawmakers who could do - and in response would do - something to stop Trump, but are in his thrall? Because if we all just keep going about our business, nothing will change.
Ditto this question. I've been wondering when/how there will be a general strike. The Jimmy Kimmel thing worked because people could unsubscribe. How do we unsubscribe from ICE? How do we removed our $$ from the oligarchs?
And, while we are told getting out and being seen protesting in these big events like the one planned this Saturday is supposed to raise awareness and gather media attention (but is media attention even helpful now?) how do we make what we do be viewed as working to a specific goal rather than just not wanting "a King" - such as a boycott, general strike, or some other very specific outcome of our just showing up?
One thing I think is very clear: they are HOPING that these protests turn violent. We must do everything we can to prevent feeding the dragon. We are all very proud of Portland for using humor to fight back. From silly costumes to fishing poles with Voodoo Donuts on the ends of fishing poles (most people think these are great donuts) to "lure" authorities, it has been really effective and even fun. Having participated in all the marches, I don't know if they are effective, though they inspire our own. And now it is beginning to scare me. Though maybe we can learn from historical non-violent approaches. That would take more organizing than I see.
It will be interesting to see how Dan addresses this question, because media messaging strikes me as being a somewhat different topic than what is essentially a community organizing question.
I've been seeing the idea of a general strike come up frequently in activist circles, but what is generally missing has been a realistic sense of how to actually do one that is considered successful. We might see general strikes in France and think, why can't we do that too?
Part of the problem is that in the U.S. we don't have a history of general strikes so we don't have a feel for the mechanics of how to hold one. In addition, the U.S. is much bigger than France, so achieving a "critical mass" would be a much more difficult logistical challenge.
May I be honest? We latch onto ideas such as a general strike before thinking through 1) what are our goals and 2) what are our current capacities? Here Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" book can be useful because he illustrates how to maximize your political impact with even relatively small numbers of people.
If Alinsky were alive right now, my guess is that he would discourage a general strike and instead brainstorm more localized activities. For example, he organized a "pee in" of the Chicago airport that would have effectively shut it down by clogging up the restrooms. That got the attention his group was seeking.
I think a "pee-in" is just what Stephen Miller dreams of, to justify violent responses to us.
Interested in how you process news and what resources do you consider most reliable. I’m sure you must take in a lot of info daily but do you prioritize certain pubs or posters etc. Do you structure your day for periodic breathers too to keep yourself sane managing all of it???
Great question!
How can Democrats appeal to poor people - who are working 2-3 jobs, raising kids, or just don’t have time/energy to pay attention to politics?
Visit them outside their jobs + also places that help them - in DC it would be hotels, restaurants, Miriam's Kitchen, that serves free meals, public libraries that are a refuge for the poor, designated places for shelter from heat + cold. Again consult experts, such as Jose Andres, who founded World Central Kitchen.
And I also mean: how can Democrats effectively HELP poor people. (Messaging is important, obviously, but we need to help fix the awful $$ divide)
What, if anything, actually gets the attention of SCOTUS and does anything we do, protest, show up at rallies, etc., really matter at all? Many of us are just raging angry at what they are doing but have no valuable way to point that rage toward the right targets or in a way that may matter at all. Are there any options to make the majority feel any heat?
Piggybacking on this - I know Neera Tanden and others are working on a Democratic version of Project 2025 which I would guess - like Project 2025 - focuses on multiple issue/action fronts that would need to be tackled to undo some of the damage to our politics, society, and government, but this highly partisan Supreme Court is the sphere that most overwhelms me. We have tools to elect better candidates, reform our party infrastructure, etc. (not that any of those happen easily), but what are the tools to reform the Supreme Court? It's brazen corruption (no following of ethics guidelines) and extreme partisanship/political agenda is a powerful reason our democratic process is so weakened. But they seem untouchable. I can't conceive of an effort I could join, as an individual, to push for positive change on the Court.
Ask Ketanji + also her brilliant surgeon humanitarian husband.
For the midterms and future elections, and given the rise of progressivism and Mandani, how can the Democratic Party balance its progressive base with the need to appeal to moderates and swing voters, especially in swing states where elections are often decided by narrow margins? I am worried my former Republican relatives who have made the switch to the Democratic Party are going to draw a line in the sand.
Can I piggyback on your question? Part of a partisan realignment is that people rearrange themselves among the parties and while former Democrats have moved right, I see more former Republicans stuck in the middle and not making the switch your relatives have made. They just — hover, voting Democratic but, I think, waiting to become Republicans again.
Meanwhile, they have gotten more liberal on a bunch of issues, just by virtue of hanging out more with Dems (political scientist Seth Masket has a good piece on this in his substack, Tusk, right now) and I think they’d fit in on the moderate end of the party just fine. If they would claim it, they would counterbalance some of the pressure from the progressive end to move the whole party leftward. Until they do claim it, the realignment is going to be incomplete, with Dems a minority party.
I think that there is a tendency in the Dem Party to conflate youth and energy and progressive values. As if the choice is inevitably between AOC and Mamdani on the one side and Schumer and Durbin on the other. But you can be young, energetic and moderate. Obama was. (And on the other side, you can be Bernie). Moderate doesn’t mean namby pamby, stand-for-nothing, focus-group-tested-out-the-wazoo the way Harris ended up.
Maybe it doesn’t matter in the immediate moment if disaffected Republicans are voting Democratic anyway, but as your question makes clear it’s a problem that compounds itself if they do make the move and then feel too uncomfortable to stay.
Long winded, sorry, but is there inclusive messaging that can make the party a welcoming place for homeless Republicans without driving away progressives? Progressives who want really radical social change, maybe not, but liberals who believe that government can do good things and should be allowed to try, they have plenty of common cause with pro-democracy Republicans rejecting the worst impulses in their former party.
Youth are being highly, highly targeted and changing, esp young men. It was so disheartening yesterday at the event I was at to hear so MANY progressive parents telling how their kids' hopes and dreams are being changed ("Of course my wife will stay home with the children and not work...") Plus our massive outrage makes it such an easy way to go through the rebellion stage of adolescence and come out opposing that rage. Plus that social media targeting.
Really well framed and I honestly feel like I need this reminder myself, at times.
Why do you think Dem leadership is being obtuse and obstructionist and how do you think we common folk up here in the cheap seats can start to be heard? And please do not say “Call your reps”. Because we all know that our reps just see the tally sheet. They don’t hear what Carl the intern hears when Jan from Topeka calls. Related, has the PSA franchise ever thought about a forum in which the common folk in the cheap seats like Jan get to take the mike? Two questions, I know…
Thanks Beth I have thought of this many times, for PSA. Even, on a lighter note, for pods like Smartless, where these guys we tend to love are so rich and talk about their golf game and clothes for half an hour before their famous guests. What about all the people in Hollywood who have unbelievable talent and never got through the fame bottleneck and really suffer(ed) for it, but are still there trying even as they age past you know, their fabulous 20s and of course older? (I can't listen to those guys anymore.) I think many pods could bring on "ordinary people" and Crooked could do so much with this. Yet bc of PSA I have learned of many great pols and other leaders I would not ever have known of or known how to really hear who they are, or might be. That has helped so much. Here is one more idea I have had, which is to find a way to let people here also form smaller chat groups, build community with each other in smaller groups. There could be good outcomes. I think Dan here could help with that. I am just unable to spend money on the larger things (Friends of the Pod, all the Substacks and Patreons I follow or want to follow.)
Would you consider running for Governor of California?
I was listening to the Ezra Klein show with Favreau on it, and I was wondering. Given the ICE and NG deployments, could the Democrats escalate their shutdown demands to include restrictions on ICE and NG deployments? What would that look like?
Or alternatively, demand a restoration of the cuts that Trump has made in retaliation for the shutdown?
So, I think most politically active Democrats get that the DNC isn't the all-powerful, well-oiled machine we may have once imagined.
State parties seem to vary in approach and involvement. What's a good model for a state party that hits the right notes of activism and electoral strategy?
What has been the most successful messaging ( including both prepared and unprepared messaging) that you've seen from Democrats during the shutdown?
Democrats have a masculinity problem. We're seen as weak. If we want to start winning again we need to bring men back to the party. Any thoughts on how we might do that?
This is the BIG question, not a small one. Thanks for asking it. The answers are not going to be easy... I do think that a lot of older pols just need to go. We need images of strong, kind males who are young and in touch. And of course more AOCs, she is so fearless.
Any thoughts on the sale of Dominion Voting Systems to the Trumper?
Want to know about strategy. I think massive protest on Oct 18 might be effective, and electorail. victories in PA,, VA, NJj, CA, and NYC on Now 4 might move some GOP but I think protest in DC on Nov 5 is premature and could be discouraging. What do you think?
Dan, is any Democratic-aligned group working on a Project 2029 for Democrats? There will be so much that has to be repaired and rebuilt when Democrats are back on the top, and a clear vision of that, an explicit picture of what all (well, at least most) Democrats stand for and want to achieve, would seem like an important tool.
A short note on "What can we do?" would be nice. On saturday night there was a dinner in Wilomington DE for the Palastanian Children Relief Fund that was MCd by a woman from our Church Nora Whisnant and it did so many things that needed to be done including moving towards bringing together the next generation of Palastinians to a two state solution.