How about some happy political news? Here are some updates. Two years ago I wrote about a retired librarian with a bad knee and 4 grandchildren, who had thrown herself into local politics for the first time after Donald Trump's election. 
Tonight she was elected Vice-Chair of her Township Democratic Committee democracyjournal.org/arguments/midd…
In March 2018 I wrote about the angry and inspired women who had found each other in deep red Westmoreland County (in the snow by the courthouse protesting the Muslim ban) and created a grassroots group that knocked hundreds of doors to elect Conor Lamb democracyjournal.org/arguments/who-…
Today Voice of Westmoreland has over 200 dues-paying members & canvassing dates set all winter long. You can hear all about them first-hand in this week's inspiring episode of #TheWilderness crooked.com/podcast/chapte…
... and read even more about what Voice of Westmoreland are doing & how in @eitanhersh 's just-released, could-not-be-more-essential book _Politics is for Power_ simonandschuster.com/books/Politics…
@eitanhersh In May 2018 I wrote about handing out palm cards get a woman I'd never met onto the Democratic ballot for a PA state house as a write in candidate. She got onto the ballot. And lost. By a lot. But she didn't walk away angry.
She stayed to win election as the new chair of the Beaver County Democrats, and throw herself into the work of rebuilding the party from the bottom up and inside out.
And the progressive state house candidate who found young NRA guys were totally willing to connect with her at the doors? She's right beside her, helping her update the county party committee's bylaws for a new era. Glamor-free, essential political action vox.com/first-person/2…
The upstart campaigner who came within 10 pts of unseating Mike Turzai 2018? She's running again in 2020. The mild-mannered business who refused to let homophobe Daryl Metcalfe go unchallenged? He's running again as well. vox.com/first-person/2…
Back in October 2019 I was (inexplicably!) your only source on #ElectionTwitter with updates on prothonotary campaigns. Dee Dixon ran hard but lost in November (tho she did 7 pts better than Hillary Clinton in her county). Did Dee walk away in frustration?
Nope. She's the new secretary of the Beaver County Young Dems. You're sensing a theme here right?
I first wrote about Beaver's Young Dems back in Nov 2017: the group was born in the wake of Trump's election. If your only window onto "the Resistance" has been hashtags or pundits, you might think that energy has vanished, or that the "Dem base" is locked in mortal infighting
Actually, last weekend they were jumping into an icy river as a team to raise money for charity. This is the actual activist Democratic base, right here, folks. If they can come out of that river laughing, maybe we're gonna be ok.
What do these people have in common? They didn't react to the crisis of national politics by trying to do a little at a distance: they jumped in full strength *with people they found close to home*. @Mlsif's great recent essay makes exactly this point newrepublic.com/article/155999…
@Mlsif The highest profile groups who have tried to create (or claimed to speak for) a single national "Resistance" are not where the crucial action is. What is transformative & sustained is what's happening locally that you never hear of
