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The mirror image is this kind of piece
which I don't even have time to rant about. Several thousand words on current electoral shifts w no mention of anyone shaping politics today other than politicians? Amid just a mass of voters who are like, inert oatmeal, pulled by gravity?
which I don't even have time to rant about. Several thousand words on current electoral shifts w no mention of anyone shaping politics today other than politicians? Amid just a mass of voters who are like, inert oatmeal, pulled by gravity?
Eg, what kept media coverage of Kenosha from upending the presidential race? Axios says luck. Weigel says nimble Biden campaign. I say both are ignoring the crucial prior infrastructure-building that has reshaped communication landscapes, in suburbs esp. https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1316411362688540673
Eg. Was it the nimble Biden campaign who arranged for a whole summer of peaceful weekly protests in Brookhaven in Delco so that Nin Bell would see neighbors standing up for racial justice, a living counter-narrative to GOP fearmongering? Nope, it wasn't https://twitter.com/lara_putnam/status/1315841195470446593
. Was it the nimble Biden campaign who arranged for a whole summer of peaceful weekly protests in Brookhaven in Delco so that Nin Bell would see neighbors standing up for racial justice, a living counter-narrative to GOP fearmongering? Nope, it wasn't https://twitter.com/lara_putnam/status/1315841195470446593
Talk about burying the lede! "Bell has become involved with a group of Democratic women in her county â 'they call us angry housewives'â". Gotta read all the way to Paragraph 19 to realize you're seeing the impact of local, intentional political action. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-women-trump-biden/2020/09/12/6764b89a-f167-11ea-999c-67ff7bf6a9d2_story.html
Must-read from @panaritism shows exactly how that local, intentional political action has built & is now poised to transform state politics. It only looks inevitable in retrospect. You need to carve the landscape to make water+gravity into a river. https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/election-suburban-women-trump-pennsylvania-turnpablue-represent-maria-panaritis-20201015.html
Meanwhile on the other side of the state: a deep dive on some of the people fighting to turn non-metro SWPA purple. Again: non-politicians dedicating their time, talent & treasure to remake the political terrain https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/route-22-battle-royale-murrysville-area-serves-as-ground-zero-for-biden-trump-supporters/?slug
YES! This from @llerer is everything. The stories foreground personal reasons for changing votes: but also capture the wealth of social-organization processes underway, pulling voters with shifting sentiments into new networks and new actions https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/17/us/politics/trump-women-voters.html
from @llerer is everything. The stories foreground personal reasons for changing votes: but also capture the wealth of social-organization processes underway, pulling voters with shifting sentiments into new networks and new actions https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/17/us/politics/trump-women-voters.html
. @llerer captures examples from the Ohio suburbs, but the hyperlocal new-since-2016 grassroots political groups she's glimpsing there have counterparts in the vast majority of similar communities all across the country. We pulled together data & maps here: https://www.americancommunities.org/grassroots-blossom-across-america-reshaping-countrys-political-geography/
Although nationally the bulk of such groups are in Big City & Urban Suburb counties, in swing states they are spread evenly across Rural, Exurban, ex-industrial/Middle Suburb, Graying America & College Town counties. Appropriately, their goals & allies vary w/ their surroundings
Wow: speaking of pop-up grassroots democracy groups in swing-state Rural Middle America counties ( @AmCommPro), 
this just in from Franklin County PA. New grassroots women's group with ~600 members meeting weekly THIS IS A BIG DEAL https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/election_2020/pennsylvania/republican-democratic-women-unify-for-biden-harris/article_1294ede8-ee05-5202-843b-c735d7d1649c.html
this just in from Franklin County PA. New grassroots women's group with ~600 members meeting weekly THIS IS A BIG DEAL https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/election_2020/pennsylvania/republican-democratic-women-unify-for-biden-harris/article_1294ede8-ee05-5202-843b-c735d7d1649c.html
In our article we used the # of listings submitted to the Indivisible portal in 2017-18 as a rough indicator of the intensity of grassroots activism. See below some of the regions usually colored red on maps where those indicators were high. Don't sleep on rural local organizing!
Another day, another 
account that recognizes the suburban women actively remaking the political landscape around them https://apnews.com/article/suburban-women-trump-biden-michigan-6e0e7217e86929c46f729c4127341340
account that recognizes the suburban women actively remaking the political landscape around them https://apnews.com/article/suburban-women-trump-biden-michigan-6e0e7217e86929c46f729c4127341340
I bet! But the amazing thing is she's not alone. I've heard near identical descriptions of so many women who became grassroots dynamos in the wake of Donald Trump's election. Rock star organizers who had never before known what they could do here https://twitter.com/akaashkolluri/status/1318384115905945601
You know what I think about as each of these stories rolls in? I think about the incomprehension/condescension these women faced from male Dem electeds & insiders in 2017 & 2018, captured perfectly here by @campbellnyt (& I saw first hand again & again): https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/us/democratic-women-campaigning.html
ââI donât like this president & Iâm mad as hell & Iâm going to put some knockers on people's doors &come home & feel good about myselfââis that really going to accomplish something?â
Um: yes? Literally you have just described exactly how transformative political movements happen?
Um: yes? Literally you have just described exactly how transformative political movements happen?
