The always-excellent @campbellnyt (who apparently does not tweet his own stories? so I will do it for him) has written a spot-on account of the endurance & exhaustion of local grassroots working against the tide in onetime Dem strongholds in western PA nytimes.com/2020/02/06/us/…
@campbellnyt On the ground people are still working so hard, despite frustrations & setbacks. It's like in a different universe from the one where chin-stroking pundits wonder why "no one" is doing the hard electoral work needed, or twitter mobs chase presidential candidate drama 
@campbellnyt I watch the open-handed commitment of the retired nurses & teachers & parents of kids with complex medical conditions who spend multiple hours *daily* trying to recruit precinct people for their local Dem Ctte, or get signatures for the PTA mom now running for school committee
And then I see the self-interested spin, casual incompetence, & routine impunity of some consultants & insiders who channel massive resources—& who adding insult to injury think they are the *real* Democratic drivers—& it a little bit breaks my heart democracyjournal.org/arguments/iowa…
I write here about the ways the Iowa debacle encapsulates both parts of that vexed truth. So many committed volunteers on the ground (yes, even the ones for candidates you don't like) pouring their hearts into convincing fellow citizens that elections really do matter:
I borrow @SarahTaber_bww's brilliant takedown of "Sugar Daddy Science" to think about why it is that, systematically, the people who are in a place to pitch "solutions" to Dem funders are far distant from any real knowledge of what's needed on the ground theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
@SarahTaber_bww No one asked me where money would be better spent than on dysfunctional apps and self-astroturf, but I have thoughts! Give matching funds for downballot campaigns, even in places Democrats can't yet win. Campaigns with real volunteer buy-in build capacity; lay tracks for the next
@SarahTaber_bww The immediate feedback and local accountability that down ballot races provide make it likely that the right people are learning lessons they can use for the future. It's one of the reasons I'm a fan of the work @amandalitman and @runforsomething do
