A question about the New DU

[JNelson6563]

42. Yeah, ok.

See, out here in the Real World, I go to a Dem event, I don't inquire of the attendees if they are in the "right half" or the "left half" of the party. I consider them all allies and treat them accordingly. Interestingly enough I don't know of any of them much caring either. When we ask them to support our effort they donate.

Then we go and do stuff like support Dems in our community. Many more elected officials are at the state and local levels than in the glamorous world of DC. We work to get Dems elected to city and county positions, try to send more Dems to Lansing, get the damn fundies off the school boards, promote human rights for all ballot initiatives and the like. We sit together for hours assembling mailings, phone banking on behalf of candidates or causes and stuff like that.

Now I can assure you, the hundreds of volunteers I have had the honor to work with over the years were't all exactly of the same opinion on everything. We all supported different candidates in primaries, we all have our pet issues, as it were. But we knew if we were focused on our differences we'd get nothing done so we didn't waste the time.

All decisions are put to a vote and when an effort is agreed upon the work moves ahead. We tend to leave the hair-splitting categorizing & difference finding for those who have the time and inclination. I prefer to spend my time focusing on commonalities and building from that point.

Enjoy!

Julie

PS One last tip about RL politics, it's pretty standard for a caucus to accept as low as 80% agreement on issues to offer support to a candidate. And yet, somehow the world continues to spin, hard to believe.