Thread by @DavidPepper

VIDEO/THREAD: A suggested path forward

Some of you have seen this video. Others haven’t. Either way, take a look. It’s more relevant now than when I first posted it.

Lots of talk about how Dems are failing to talk to rural Americans. And about how no one knows what’s in the…

…the bills being finalized in Congress. About the need to protect voting rights and democracy.

Truth is, as the video shows, they’re all connected. Deep decay in our democracy is leading to a decay in infrastructure, small towns, big cities, and so much of our country.

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And we need to make that case EVERYWHERE, right away.

We need to get to towns like Manchester & explain: “you see what trickle-down has gotten you? A dying town. A ghost town. People leaving. Lost jobs. Well, the BBB plan before Congress lets us get in here, fix these..”

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“…streets, build that flood wall, clean up these Main St storefronts, bring broadband & clean energy to towns like these,etc. Along w good jobs and health care. The trickle down agenda will simply continue the decline. We want to turn things around”

Some will say: “we’ve..

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..already said this!”

Broadly, yes. But not directly to communities. The debate has been too much about the big picture. The big money. The debate

Break it down. Get to towns like this. In Ohio. In West Virginia. In Wisconsin. Out west. In Texas. They’re everywhere. Dying

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Walk the crumbled streets. Take in the empty storefronts and broken glass.

Let it make your blood boil like it does mine that in America in 2021, we’ve let our great cities and small towns alike atrophy to the point where they are today.

And then say…we’re here to fix it!

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Many of these places, when they hear the talk in DC, think these bills are for someone else. For somewhere worse.

Some big bridge they’ll never cross will get fixed. But not their town.

So go to these towns and tell them, directly, w some fire…”we’re gonna lift YOU too!”

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“We’re as appalled by what trickle down has done here as you are, and these bills are our best chance to go in a new direction!”

Go to big cities & say this. Go to small towns and say it. Not a fancy speech..but walk the town and talk. And take footage of the deep damage..

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….that years of trickle-down have done to all of these places.

But then pivot to voting rights too. To democracy itself.

Make the connection: the decay in our democracy is why cities and towns like Manchester are struggling. Because as the video makes clear, the very…

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…politicians who have created the deplorable situation in so many American communities feel unaccountable to their own “voters.” They’ve created, in state after state, a system of rigged, undemocratic governance which allows them to fail with no consequences.

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Faced directly with their abysmal failure, they have the audacity to tell their residents to move….because they know those voters have no power to remove them!

Abysmal and always worsening public outcomes result directly from a decayed democracy.

And it hurts EVERYBODY.

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So make the case for BOTH robust democracy and infrastructure not just in Democratic areas, but everywhere.

Because all of America is suffering as a result of the decay in both.

We have precious little time to save this democracy. Let’s get to work.

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