And the Winning Answer Is

[RedWedge]

35. The answer to winning is a lot more and harder work than I think many want to do.

It's not as easy as turning the Republicans' tactics against them. Just to get Democrats to win elections at the federal level means collective priority should go toward action against restrictive voting laws and redistricting. That means action at the state level and focusing on turning state houses blue. That's a lot of work.

If you want Democrats to win hearts and minds, it means even more work, at the individual level. It means dropping contempt for a lot of the kinds of voters who would support Democratic policies if they didn't have a D next to them. Each of us must identify our own outlooks and prejudices, determine how those affect our actions, and commit to seeing the common ground that each of us has with every other person in this country. Different people will do this to different extents, and that has to be OK. I'm not asking black people to sympathize with vocal racists; no one should be asked to sympathize or work with their oppressors. But as someone with a lot of privilege, it costs me nothing to try to listen to people who are angry and hurting, and to then work with them to help them see that common ground. It's boring and frustrating, but because I have privilege, I can use it against the system that gave it to me in the first place.

The contemptuous language isn't helpful, either. Stupid, deplorable, scum, maggots, cockroaches...I object to that. Even if it's "right." What good does it do? Would the party rather be right, or good? How can you build a useful, sustainable strategy if you start from a place that you're trying to convince "The Stupid"?