Big kudos to Adam Conover, of Adam Ruins Everything, for giving me this seed idea. If you want to see the video that inspired this post go to his YouTube video.
There is a deep, deep reason why Democrats lost this last election, even to a gargantuan loser like Donald Trump, who is so unbelievably ruled out it isn't even funny. No, it's not because Democrats didn't pitch enough to the working class (although that was a factor). No, it's not because Kamala didn't pay enough attention to central social media cogs such as the Joe Rogan Experience (though I'm sure that was also responsible for a percentage). No, it's not because Democrats didn't prosecute the 14th Amendment two whole years ago (though that's a HUGE factor which I will never forgive them for).
No, it's because Democrats, like all political organizations, have abandoned the central communities which used to be the backbone of political engagement.
Time once was that being politically involved meant participating in a local chapter or group. You would attend some spaghetti dinner, maybe with free beer, and engage with the actual process of having your voice heard. But those days are long gone. In their place is a network of donations, donations, donations. And nobody seems to give a rat's ass about your opinion, except as far as your checkbook and $27 dollar donation goes.
By way of example, Adam Conover points to his local Democratic Party website. There's donation buttons everywhere. And in the one, small area where there isn't a donation button, there's... oh, yeah, another donation link.
Contrast this with the NRA's website, which has multiple local engagement events. If you want to participate in your local right-wing event, there are actual areas where your voice can be heard. In person.
Not so the Democratic Party.
Now, part of this is due to the logistics involved with the whole political process. Local events are logistically difficult, while online donations are relatively easy. It's tempting for a political party to get sucked in to the vortex of "donate, donate, donate," at the expense of actual engagement at ground level, where bake sales and pot luck dinners used to reign supreme. It's also easier to send thousands of spam emails than it is to actually have a community event.
There are more social organizations besides the NRA providing social cohesion. Churches, more than any other groups, are providing the kind of social cohesion which Unions' dinners used to (often in direct violation of the Johnson Amendment). They've always had a social circle, and that's always been one of their strongest secret weapons. People want to belong! They want to be part of something greater. And if all Democrats have for this is "donate! donate! donate!" it's no wonder that so many chose to abandon the Democratic cause, even at the expense of our entire fucking Democracy! (Yes, I'll blame you, dumbass centrist voter, even as I explain why you were so stupid.)
It's also small wonder that a robust "ground game," as traditional politicos call it, matters little, anymore. If one can't belong to a social circle of like-minded thinkers, why should they give a goddamn about some pimple-faced fool who knocks on their door "canvassing," as if that weren't an old vestige of selling Kirby fucking vacuum cleaners?!
Well, that's the bad news. The good news, is that there's new, ground-level organizations which are taking the place of the old spaghetti dinners which used to make the Union-Organizers and Democratic-Party chapter so formidable. (And here is where I radically depart from Adam Conover's wonderful rant.) For example (and I'll brag a little bit, here) Atheist organizations are helping to fill the void. This past December's Solstice Celebration meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we had more engagement (and more food!) than at any other time in the history of SWiFT (the Southeastern Wisconsin Freethinkers, check us out!). Where Churches used to reign supreme, secular organizations are now beginning to assert themselves.
People want to belong. And if they can't stand hymns, they will find something else more fitting.
It's a heady time for non-Christian alternatives. People were already wondering if Churches were all but dead 75 years ago. (I know, because the Wisconsin Historical Society possesses the old articles suggesting so from that era!) The replacements for religious stupidity are already in place. And, yes, so too are the replacements for Democratic Party engagement which they have (for stupid, if understandable reasons) abandoned.
Maybe you're irreligious. Maybe not. But whichever you are, you should ask yourself, "What can I do to re-engage people at the community level?"
Because that will matter more in the long run than anything else.
Eric
**
