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I agree that the energized grassroots are going to be a major force in the primaries—and 2020 general. Crucial in shaping that impact is not their own ideology or demography: it's the fact that they've gotten to know so many voters around them through hands-on campaigning already
With 155 million doorknocks in 2018 alone, Democratic and progressive volunteers have turned themselves into the most experienced presidential primary electorate on record. They've put in weeks & months talking to voters way outside any blue bubble vox.com/first-person/2… 
That makes them both less confident of the transformative power of either microtargetted moderate messaging or "bold policy visions" than some commentators seem to be -- but also, less willing to write off any places or people based on stereotypes from afar
The post-Trump grassroots are not a radical mob pushing for extremes, nor sheltered suburbanites who don't care about real inequality. What they are is ideologically diverse, & able to work together despite contradictions: and in this they resemble the American electorate itself
Hands-on political outreach creates two-way communication. Passionate progressives who canvass spend lots of time talking politics to infrequent voters and haven't-voted-Dem-for-a-decade voters & I'm-not-political people. The actual activist base doesn't live in a bubble, at all
Not coincidentally, grassroots volunteers are the people *least* likely to treat "energize the base" and "move to the center" as meaningful alternatives, much less as battle flags worth gathering around. They know the real voters all around them are way more complicated than that
