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Carl Van Ness's avatar

"And withering on the vine. In fact, what is needed right now is a massive consolidation of organizations, not breeding new ones. The chances of that happening are somewhat less than me getting a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract to pitch for the New York Yankees."

I went to my local April 5 demonstration. It was impressive. But there was no one there tabling or doing anything to interact with the 1000+ people who showed up. No one spoke. I have no idea who called for the demonstration. It almost seems intentional. Has the movement already gone underground?

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Jonathan Tasini's avatar

Hi, Carl: thanks for your comment! The short answer: I think the nitty-gritty of organizing long-term escapes most folks attention. It's maybe a bit of resources. And a bit of people get really excited about the energy of a rally but the follow up is weak... like life generally? But, mostly organizing is not dramatic, or "sexy". The best organizers I've known are not in the political realm, but union organizers: winning a union election, when everything is arrayed against you, including the law, means having to really do one-to-one organizing and build out solid connections. How one scales that up is the challenge=you really can win very local races but, right now, it's extremely difficult to win statewide or even expensive Congressional races.

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MsSwayzeJr's avatar

Bernie gave us Adolf Donnie humans will just never fing learn

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Lynn W Gardner's avatar

Jon, you make several good points about organizing. I remember working so hard on the Buchanan campaign. We had a great team and for some reason beyond my comprehension some DC lizard had Pat wearing that black hat when we hit Tucson. I asked Bay who thought that was a good idea, and had any body advising Pat ever seen a John Wayne movie….. he was on the cover of every weekly in that damn black Stetson…. However one point on Bernie, you are to close to the fire, Bernie is a damn Communist and was never going to win national office. I know it’s hard to realize from you perch as a fellow traveler but sorry, Bernie says some pretty reasonable things but he can only rally young people that have no knowledge of history, that and individuals like yourself.

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