Read on Twitter
Big picture 
take: Donald Trump is uniquely toxic among upscale GOP voters in cosmopolitan suburbs, & also uniquely successful in getting would-be GOP voters to the polls in less affluent & less engaged places. Hence contrasting down ballot results 2018 vs 2020 https://twitter.com/RyanDeto/status/1324167602437083143
take: Donald Trump is uniquely toxic among upscale GOP voters in cosmopolitan suburbs, & also uniquely successful in getting would-be GOP voters to the polls in less affluent & less engaged places. Hence contrasting down ballot results 2018 vs 2020 https://twitter.com/RyanDeto/status/1324167602437083143
The full picture, much less granular data, is still to come. But consistently disappointing results for Dem candidates of widely varied ideology across the country should I hope inspire rethinking that goes beyond usual "moderate" vs "Left" or mobilization vs persuasion sniping
The kitchen sink was thrown at this election, and in a context of extremely narrow victories of course anything & everything mattered: "the 10,000 votes due to [x] were crucial!" is a defensible take for any single x people tried, in a world where key states are won by 20,000
So [caveat caveat]. But fwiw: an idiosyncratic list of things I'm downgrading in my mental list of how to impact elections: Phonebanking; textbanking; postcards to voters; distributed digital organzng in general, incl relational apps; short-term candidate-specific paid advertisng
In contrast things I think matter alot, & where GOP/rw advantage has persisted/intensified: longterm communication infrastructure; control of information space esp virtual; intentional shaping of info flows w/in it; longterm party branding; synergy of all this w/informal f2f ties
(timely example of some of the preceding:
) whttps://twitter.com/alibreland/status/1324376419707817984
) whttps://twitter.com/alibreland/status/1324376419707817984
Broad engagement in politics matters: this is a hill I will die on. But we need to see serious soul-searching about how vast engagementis channeled: incl where the missing communications layers are that prevent local action fr gearing & gaining traction https://join.mobilize.us/blog/2020-election-volunteer-mobilization-by-the-numbers
is channeled: incl where the missing communications layers are that prevent local action fr gearing & gaining traction https://join.mobilize.us/blog/2020-election-volunteer-mobilization-by-the-numbers
What on the Dem side did work? Sustained place-based political organizing that is both directed & executed by local people organicly connected to the would-be voters they seek to mobilize or persuade. That's the story of the upscale Philly suburbs AND Lucha in AZ AND La Culinaria
So on the one hand everyone should be re-reading @hahriehan on the lessons of LUCHA & similar orgs https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/opinion/activism-power-victories.html
... and also reading @eitanhersh on doing the work close to home rather than cheering from afar: even when it feels like that battle over there is more clear & urgent (maybe if you were closer it would look more complicated, too) https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Politics-Is-for-Power/Eitan-Hersh/9781982116781
But after an election in which there was genuine, impassioned local activism across the center-to-Left spectrum in place after place that fell far short, I'm not going to claim that just doing a better job of patient local building w/in our current political terrain is the answer
The terrain itself is a problem. In ways that so hamper local electoral organizing on the Dem side in many places that it undercuts the incentives to do it at all.
@JosephONeillx describes some of the dynamics here https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/05/28/brand-new-democrats/
@JosephONeillx describes some of the dynamics here https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/05/28/brand-new-democrats/
(Oohâmust-read thread just in from @hahriehan too) https://twitter.com/hahriehan/status/1324175985571438592
) https://twitter.com/hahriehan/status/1324175985571438592
So locally-run local organizing is critical. But the angry recriminations being flung by national & local [not linking] candidatesâarguing that some people's community-engaging activism generated media hooks that cost others winnable seatsâshows problem https://twitter.com/ericawerner/status/1324439295847968768
& local [not linking] candidatesâarguing that some people's community-engaging activism generated media hooks that cost others winnable seatsâshows problem https://twitter.com/ericawerner/status/1324439295847968768
You might think about this problemas reflecting moral or strategic failures by Individual leaders. But you can also see it as a result of GOP dominance of last-mile communication structures, which make it so easy to generate & exploit context-collapse https://twitter.com/tbonier/status/1324685336270823425
as reflecting moral or strategic failures by Individual leaders. But you can also see it as a result of GOP dominance of last-mile communication structures, which make it so easy to generate & exploit context-collapse https://twitter.com/tbonier/status/1324685336270823425
Expecting local organizing to counter massive infrastructural failures & resultant disinformation flows is like asking parents to become chemists & set up neighborhood labs to combat lead in the drinking water https://twitter.com/ErinNinehouser/status/1324725700792885249
is like asking parents to become chemists & set up neighborhood labs to combat lead in the drinking water https://twitter.com/ErinNinehouser/status/1324725700792885249
Similar diagnosis here, in a smart piece that should encourage people to step away from the intra-Dem Your Message Screwed My Message flame wars currently underway (but probably won't
) https://newrepublic.com/article/160094/democrats-message-just-doesnt-matter
, in a smart piece that should encourage people to step away from the intra-Dem Your Message Screwed My Message flame wars currently underway (but probably won't) https://newrepublic.com/article/160094/democrats-message-just-doesnt-matter
I wrote a long thread recentlyabout how reintermediation is remaking the information ecosystem & changing incentives/rewards in ways that suggest the distrust/disinfo cycle will only get worse. That seems very relevant today https://twitter.com/lara_putnam/status/1320363915025522688
about how reintermediation is remaking the information ecosystem & changing incentives/rewards in ways that suggest the distrust/disinfo cycle will only get worse. That seems very relevant today https://twitter.com/lara_putnam/status/1320363915025522688
*Both* Donald Trump *&* Democratic canddates of widely varied ideology proved to be more unpopular than one might have thought, across a wider array of people & places than one might have thought.
Mass spending+shallow-touch voter outreach proved either unimpactful or inadequate
Mass spending+shallow-touch voter outreach proved either unimpactful or inadequate
What do you wish you had started building in 2012 to make Donald Trump's rise in 2015-16 less likely: or to mitigate the harm he could do if elected?
If you care about small-d democracy, that's the thing you need to prioritize now. There's no time to lose.
If you care about small-d democracy, that's the thing you need to prioritize now. There's no time to lose.
