,
21 tweets,
6 min read
Read on Twitter
I understand that you believe that we need the best policy maker. I do not. I think we’ve gotten so far away from the proper path that we can dramatically fix our policies with a blunt instrument. 1
What’s more, I believe that we need power, and that power does not come from policy but from having a big majority of votes. So I want votes. 2
As has been said with tongue in cheek, the winner of the last election wasn’t republicans or Democrats, it was: Did Not Vote. 3
If progressives could find another 10 or 15 million votes just laying around ready to be motivated, then we’d be in good shape to restore a constitutional democracy. Hmmm, where might we find those votes?
All the soviet bots and the HRC loyalists and the Rich White Bankster-supported Democrats claim they want to woo the conservatives, to become more centrist to appeal to the fiscal conservatives. 5
But there is ample proof that the fiscal conservatives would rather bask in the naked raw power of a trump than follow the Constitution, so that plan simply doesn’t and won’t work. 6
And that “It’s not time yet” and “We can’t anger the right” and other centrist arguments are what people of color in this country have been hearing since 1865 (or earlier). And they KNOW those arguments are bullshit and are not true. 7
And that is one reason why people of color and poor people and marginalized people don’t vote (not, by far, the only reason, but a strong one). 8
So, I think it would be a good thing to give those self-disenfranchised people a powerful reason to want to overcome the not insignificant hurdles required to vote. 9
They would need good policies, but not necessarily the best policies. What they would need would be some BOLD SIGN that the old white, male, wait, not yet ways are truly gone and over. A sign like say, a woman of color as a candidate. 10
There are many Latin, Puerto Rican, African-American women here now who are eminently qualified to serve at every level of the government, Federal, State, and Local. Let’s run them, and watch the vote count ratchet up to the stars. 11
One thing about winning is that it attracts talent. Talent brings with it the best thoughts and ideas about policies. So, by getting the marginalized voters involved, we get brown female leadership AND we get the best policies. 12
But if instead, we follow your logic (logic is rarely useful outside of math or physics), we fight endlessly over which policies are best, because there are so many that need work, and we never motivate new voters, and we lose. 13
And I think that the strong reasoning that you, @MarkDForman, are so eloquently and aggressively tweeting at me isn’t really a progressive, winning strategy as much as it is a white male strategy. It’s a strategy of comfort & familiarity and dragging of heels because of fear. 14
@MarkDForman I spent the majority of my years on this planet agreeing with you, @MarkDForman, and look where it has gotten us. I am just as terrified as you are of handing over the reins to people I don’t know and don’t understand. But I value this country more than I value my comfort. 15
@MarkDForman When I’m truly honest with myself, I realize that what we need is to seek out the most troubled people in our country, and give them the reins. God knows, giving the reins to the least troubled has been a fucking disaster. 16
@MarkDForman So, the longstanding, easily-defensible strategy of progressive color-blindness is one of the roadblocks that I believe has to go. So I am no longer color-blind about race. I want people who are not white to take the reins and lead us out of this valley of shit. 17
@MarkDForman And, @MarkDForman, I want you to abandon your color-blindness and your policy righteousness, and FIX THE FUCKING PROBLEM BY ENFRANCHISING THE DISENFRANCHISED AND WINNING. 18
@MarkDForman PS. The one thing that this wonderful country has NEVER had, is “the best policymakers.” Our leaders have always been compromised humans, and they have always fallen short of the mark. 19
@MarkDForman PPS. This chart just crossed my feed kind of fortuitously, just so you know there are actual facts behind my reasoning. 
@threadreaderapp unroll
