Sorry for the lack of free ice cream (inside blog joke). I’m busy as heck, all the stuff I want to blog is complex and long, and to be frank the (U.S.) news is too effing depressing to keep me very motivated. Between Jocko, Terri, and the news from Red Lake High School I’m having my fill of human frailty.<\/p>\n
I’ll comment on them as I find time (and if they’re still of any interest to anyone).<\/p>\n
But I saw something interesting I wanted to make sure people saw, and then something else that I think ties neatly to it – and summarizes a lot of my frustration – and hope – in domestic politics, anyway.<\/p>\n
First, an article by Christopher Hayes called “How to Turn Your Red State Blue<\/a>.”<\/p>\n It’s a paean to ground-level political organizing, and advocates, simply, that liberals copy Mormon youths on their missions. Literally. Hayes points out the struggle for relevance within the labor movement as an example of why his kind of ground-level organizing is necessary.<\/p>\n
\nI love it, in no small part because I believe that it would be transformative for modern liberalism – it would force liberals to get out and talk to their fellow Americans, and it just might result in some opened eyes on both sides of the ideological fence. It would, more than anything reaffirm the connection liberals have – and ought to have – with their fellow Americans and with America as a whole. I may disagree with some small parts of his program, but on a macro level, bring it on.<\/p>\n