So here are a few takeaways from yesterday. Some caveats. First while I'm talking about voting and electoral politics I understand it's necessary not sufficient. Second I also understand that the Democratic Party isn't the end all be all--in fact it's the opposite in many ways.
Third, I know that we've got less than twenty years to get this right (see: climate change report), so I get time is of the essence. Four, I'm not about hope and change. I am about winning though.
1. We won. I mean that literally--we took 25 seats they wanted. We got rid of gerrymandering in Michigan. We ended felon disenfranchisement in Florida. We took back at least two states (NY, Maine). We put two Muslim women in Congress AND two Native American women.
2. We also won figuratively. I also look at the "almost-wins" of Adams, Gillum, and O'Rourke, as victories. At the 45% of the vote the WA carbon tax received as victories.
3. In real terms these losses are going to cause real pain and suffering. Democracy is a four letter word to Kemp, Cruz, and that tendency. Every day we aren't moving forward on something like a carbon tax we're condemning our children.
4. But here's a question. I know where I was after the 2016 election. I know how I felt. If someone would've told you that in two years, a black woman running to (among other things) END cash bail would come THIS close to being GA's next governor, would you've believed them?
5. Trump ran the most vicious racist campaign ads we've ever seen from a President. And all he got to show for it was two Senate seats. Would you have predicted this?
6. Florida's black population percentage is pretty low. Like 14%. Would you have predicted a black man who wasn't afraid to call out his opponent for racism, who didn't run away from black people, would come THIS close to winning?
7. Better yet, let's say you predicted his loss. Would you have ALSO predicted that FL would STILL end felon disenfranchisement?
8. It's worth focusing on that for a second. If anything should put an end to the "new jim crow" narrative it's this. The only way FL ends felon disenfranchisement AND puts the racist in office is if.....racists voted to end it as well. (more complex than this. twitter.)
9. We have to understand these as victories. Not because it makes us feel good. Not because "people need hope" (because. they. don't.). But because they ARE. Remember how YOU felt two years ago. And it's unlikely YOU would've predicted any of this.
10. Going forward it seems to me this suggests a few things. First, it suggests that the ballot initiatives should be used incessantly going forward.
11. Progressive ballot initiatives make life better. They can expand democracy. They empower people. They give all sorts of people reasons to vote, particularly in midterms. They steer state and sometimes national party organizations.
12. They also help people recognize other aspects of their identities. Some white evangelical christians are also felons.
13. Second, candidates in this moment, even in the deep south, don't have to run from issues like mass incarceration or racism. Again, Abrams ran against cash bail. O'Rourke sided with Kapernick.
14. Third (relatedly), candidates don't have to shy away from socialism itself, or socialist-adjacent policies. I think LA came this close to passing an amendment that would've created a public bank.
15. This means that we can think much bigger than we used to think. We can propose ideas that are far larger in scope.
16. We should force the Democrats to run on a platform of ending voter suppression and gerrymandering. Paul Krugman argued that such a thing was too abstract for voters. Bullshit. Such a platform wouldn't be abstract to folk in Florida. In Michigan.
17. Such a move would emphasize the larger theoretical stakes AND local, state, and federal policy that people can actually wrap their heads around and be excited about.
18. I'll end with this. The moral arc of the universe does NOT bend towards justice. But it DOES bend. WE can bend it by acknowledging our victories when they occur, loudly claiming those victories, and then organizing based off of them.
