Excellent points. The one that hasn’t been done to death is why Democrats haven’t taken that same step (of building from school board on up). The only answer that I can come up with, which isn’t at all satisfactory, is that Democrats find that manner of doing things unacceptable. The Democratic electorate isn’t interested in playing the long game, even though that seems to be the best strategy.
I think it’s a matter of motivation. Most of the GOP grassroots stuff seems to be motivated by people’s religious beliefs. That’s what gets them out to attend school board meetings all the time, that’s what gets them out to vote in every election. They think they’re doing “God’s work”. If you’re already going to church every week for God, how much harder is it to add a few meetings here and there? Particularly if there’s important members of the church who make a point of reminding everyone to get out and do these things.
The Democrats don’t have nearly the same motivation. “Do it to stop the religious right” has far less impact on people. If you don’t already have the habit of Doing Things For This Reason, it’s much harder to develop the habit. How many Democrats have people like their church reverend telling them to get out a vote every election?
There are organizations like BLM that are trying to build that motivation, but it’s an uphill battle in the middle of the overall uphill battle of trying to fight the Republicans.
That happened a long time ago, it certainly didn’t happen that often, and it doesn’t take a vast amount of bravery and decisiveness for one to say that it is most assuredly wrong.
I remember when the go-to answer when someone did something wrong wasn’t “Someone else, somewhere else did something somewhat like that too!”
I don’t think Rittenhouse can pass a clearance check …
No, the abortion issue is about power, too. The power is who gets to make the decisions. Maybe one’s religion says that abortion is wrong. Therefore, that person craves the power to apply his religious faith to everyone.
But that makes everything political power and then the term has no meaning and neither does voting on issues.
No it’s just a wedge issue. Republicans amplified and pushed it because it wedges large sections of religious people off the Dems.
Nominally anti-abortion policy making Republicans don’t actually care about it and would get their daughter an abortion in a heartbeat.
You mean like this?
“We’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”
…
“I don’t think anything about curfew. Curfew means I want you all to stop talking. I want you to stop meeting. I want you to stop gathering. I don’t agree with that.”
…
“If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. People need to be more forceful, more confrontational, and more prepared to push back on this administration.”
-Maxine Waters
“There needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there is unrest in our lives, and unfortunately there’s plenty to go around,”
-Ayanna Pressley
“I just don’t know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country, and maybe there will be.”
-Nancy Pelosi
“Michelle Obama always says, ‘When they go low, we go high, No. No. When they go low, we kick them.”
-Eric Holder
“Please, get up in the face of some congresspeople,”
-Corey Booker
“You can’t be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for and what you care for."
-Hillary Clinton
So it is o.k. for Congresscritters to openly advocate for violence?
The best strategy for what goal tho? For keeping political power, maybe. Is that what we want American politics to be about?
Are we using different dictionaries? A wedge issue is an issue.
No, I think they are all shitheads, including Gaetz and anynother Republicans saying inflammatory things. Politicians should be a calming force, not a source of incitement.
I just added them for a little balance, lest anyone think that it’s only the right saying stupid shit.
That isn’t “balance”- that is just throwing a shitload of out of context quotes into the mix.
In some ways, yes we are. Above, you said:
I’m not sure and maybe I’m misunderstanding you, but the distinction you are making seems built around the idea that (for example) advocating for rational precautions in a pandemic is not seeing it as an “issue”. You seem to be using the term “issue” to mean “a reflexive political football” - if you advocate for something rationally, you aren’t seeing it as an “issue” (in the sense you are using the term).
If I’m correct in my understanding then I see your position as internally consistent and I can see the point you are making about how Republicans operate.
I suppose I was seeing an “issue” as being as something about which a political party cares substantively, as opposed to something they just say to get votes. And hence I wouldn’t see a (specifically) wedge issue like abortion as being about religion as much as about saying certain things to get power to push certain “real” issues about which a political party actually cares.
Wadda ya mean? Quotes from Republicans openly advocating for violence and quotes from Democrats not openly advocating for violence are exactly the same.
I wouldn’t have been surprised to find a quote about violins in that mix.