We started this series a lifetime ago on Thursday, February 20, exactly one month ago today.
With all the new developments, immediate concerns are more pressing than working on campaigns. I know that the elections in November are still worth our time and energy – they have to be if we want to survive as a nation. I know that campaigns will figure out ways to continue activities without canvassing, without rallies, without offices brimming with activity.
I know that we will all figure out how to keep working toward a Democratic President, a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate, and Democratic statehouses – even as we are sheltering in place.
What I don’t know is whether we press pause on these posts for a few weeks, as we all get our lives figured out in the new normal, or whether perhaps you still want a post once a week as a place to congregate as we each break through the immediacy of figuring out our new lives and are ready to get back to work.
Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Scout211
One vote here for “pause.”
JPL
After watching a few clips of the press conference, I think it’s time to call trump a fking moron. Why aren’t the dems running ads pointing out that he let go a team of experts studying pandemic responses. He dismissed efforts months ago to get ahead of the spread
Yeah maybe pause because I’m not sure how helpful my comment was.
Betsy
This is peak 21st century
.. one hopes.
https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-drone-walks-dog-cyprus-lockdown-20200319-dvpxy46a7ncxza2kxijlu6ym6i-story.html
Geoboy
Republican Party delenda est. Given the latest felonies reported regarding at least two Republican senators (using information from confidential briefings on coronavirus to unload millions of dollars in stock ahead of the crash) it’s time to run the table. Send money to every Deomcratic challenger. Work our asses off. This is a once in a generation, maybe once in a century chance to flush a whole bunch of normally unbeatable neanderthals into retirement.
Dmbeaster
Don’t pause. This is the Trump virus. Connect the disaster to him. You need to do that to stay even with the torrent of lies that seek to exonerate him. Pause means that tactic will work.
This is an existential time. This virus is such a threat because of the cult he has created. Pausing allows this other virus to thrive.
One of the interesting things I have read about pandemic response is the social virus of panic, denial and disinformation that can be as much of a challenge as the disease. The political dimension of Trump is at the root of this other disease wrecking our polity, and needs to be combatted with vigor. Doing so does not detract from response to Covid-19 – it enhances it. Let them scream about it – just don’t relent
I understand the opposite impulse. It just seems decent. Just know that these completely indecent people will exploit that impulse and run you over.
cmorenc
I think it’s good to keep a conversation going about strategy / tactics to help stay adapted to circumstances as they evolve. Maybe the immediate urgency to focus on campaigns per se isn’t as pressing while they are momentarily more in the background, but we need to stay sharp in the meantime.
debbie
@Betsy:
Helicoptering pet owner. //
Feathers
@JPL: FFS, they aren’t running attack ads because they need him to sign relief bills.
Republicans see actually caring about people as a weakness. So, yeah, Democrats are going to come across as weak.
As to the topic of the post, I don’t actually know how often these run, but maybe cut them back and only run when there is concrete electoral info to share, so they stand out from the generalized pandemic horrorshow.
JPL
@debbie: tee hee First smile today.
JMG
I second the motion to continue the conversation. As a practical matter, planning is 1. all we can reasonably do right now and 2. something we have more time to do.
piratedan
in regards to how the approval numbers are baked….
what has changed is that they see the President speaking every day regarding the crisis and in our short attention span world, just seeing him at a podium speaking the the crisis promotes the idea that someone is doing something…
Now when someone has a chance to listen and process what is being done, not a lot of thought is going into the decision making process as to whether this is the right decision, they just care that someone is saying something, doesn’t matter how tenuously connected to reality those statements are, that’s essentially immaterial and with the media doing little to no education on the veracity of what is being said (and done), people will go with the fact that the see a guy behind a podium, projecting authority and will follow. Regardless of what has happened in the past.
This is all exacerbated by the fact that the media, by and large, have essentially treated all of this creeping fascism as totally normal and until Trump starts singling them out to be incarcerated or shot, their bosses will continue to take this stance.
James E Powell
Are the Republicans pausing
Are the press/media who want to keep Trump in office pausing
Did we pause when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
Elizabelle
I think PTW could be a weekly thread??
And increase the incidence as Juicers request?
Who would have guessed the primary would (for all practical purposes) end as quickly as it did? But — providentially — just in time to avoid COVID19 in campaign-related gatherings. That was eerie.
FlyingToaster (Tablet)
I think I’ll second
@Feathers: notion and recommend once a week.
The DNC and officeholders can’t run attack ads yet.
As individuals, we can stay on message — we’re all in this together, check on your neighbors and shun the gun nut around the corner.
Paul W.
Speaking from a campaign being run in a Blue seat in a Blue state (NY-12) and being connected to the Brand New Congress slate in other swing states – we need y’all! Our campaign is struggling to raise any funds right now, and in general we are also trying to be sensitive to the disadvantageous position everyone finds themselves in with the Clown in Chief in charge.
Give people ways to stay active is important, and hopefully gives people some structure, sense of normalcy, and a way to stay connected to each other. Keep it up!
Fair Economist
I like once a week, to keep the lights on, and save the trouble of when to go back on. Plus we may need to multitask. There’s no guarantee this will be resolved by fall.
JPL
@Feathers: That makes sense.
H.E.Wolf
I’ve appreciated these posts, and the chance to read what others have been doing. (I’m doing the same ol’ postcard writing and data entry from home during COVID that I was doing anyway, which is not very interesting to report on.)
I’d be happy with once a week or once a fortnight, whatever folks prefer, with the option to increase the frequency again between now and November, if/when warranted.
Meanwhile, thank you WaterGirl – and thank you jackals – for your service. There is power in our union!
Mary G
I haven’t been participating because I feel a bit guilty that all I’m feeling up to right now is donating. I do read the threads though and agree with not pausing. This is so important.
BroD
Pause? WTF?! We all understood going in to 2020 that taking back the White House and the Senate was JOB ONE this year. That hasn’t changed–in fact, it’s become even more urgent. The context has shifted but the objective remains. Them as want to/need to pause are free to do so but let’s keep our eyes on the prize.
Cacti
I’m hands down opposed to any pausing of the democratic process.
No matter how good an idea it might seem at the time, those are the circumstances in which full-fledged authoritarian regimes are born.
Duane
@cmorenc: The coronavirus won’t stop in November. The Republican party is making the situation worse and will continue to do so as long as they have control. Stay focused on removing them from power. We can walk and chew gum.
Raven Onthill
Trump is still campaigning, I think we should be too.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Illinois is on lockdown starting Saturday.
Mary G
This is interesting – Elizabeth Warren is doing a mass telephone call on the Coronavirus at 6 pm Eastern about and with poorly paid frontline workers:
(I took out hashtags for Amazon, Walmart & Covid19 to hopefully not get sent to moderation.)
This is so smart. I hate misogyny.
UncleEbeneezer
I say keep them coming, but admittedly I probably only read 1/3rd of the posts (mainly due to scheduling). Our Indivisible group is going to use Zoom/Skype to do virtual meetings and one of the things we are going to discuss Sunday, is how to keep doing postcards/letters via SwingLeft/VoteForward. IE- come up with a plan to let members who are interested continue getting the info they need to write and mail them.
Duane
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Trumpov says he’ll wait till the crisis gets worse before he issues a national lockdown. Did Richard Burr wait till the stock market got worse before selling? //
pamelabrown53
@Duane:
Okay. So walk and chew gum. What can we constructively do at the beginning of a pandemic? Donate? Write postcards? Letters to the editors?
Me? I’d like if we could come up with a concerted effort to pressure Sanders to drop out. My reason is this would make Biden the presumptive nominee for real and then maybe he would have the authority to demand and be allocated air time to demonstrate his decency, empathy, and expertise as a Trump antidote.
I
pamelabrown53
@Raven Onthill:
Okay. Agree. We should keep campaigning. Tell us your ideas of the where and how.
Yutsano
@Paul W.: Do you feel comfortable giving us a name? We could certainly start throwing coin at your candidate.
Duane
@pamelabrown53: Keep doing what we know works. All the things you mentioned along with GOTV efforts. A national emergency of this severity should awaken a lot of previously indifferent people. Trumpov’s pathetic leadership has never been more evident. If the crisis we now face isn’t enough for Sanders to understand the urgency of a united Democratic party…
mvr
I guess I would ask how much of a strain on you it is to keep these going. I’m not contributing much but I do like to see new content on the page and it doesn’t hurt if some of it focuses more on the election and less on the virus that is making me worry more than I already worry.
Thanks!
scav
I’d say keep going as everyone’s also going to need a different topic of conversation as things continue. Especially one with a focus on participation (however possible) in making things better.
p.a.
No pause. Politics is especially important now. Like Cole in post above, I’m usually an ‘it’s worse than it even seems’ person, and my thinking is the rethugs will try to use this pandemic as their Reichstag fire; they’ll attempt to put off elections indefinitely if their internal polling looks bad. We should start agitating for mail voting now, and keeping the election dates as is. There are already, according to TPM, rethug and astroturf groups arguing that mail ballots are inherently corrupt.
smedley the uncertain
Pause. Becoming repetitive.
Paul W.
@Yutsano: Oh yeah! I have it linked in my nym so I figured I’d let people get there on their own! My partner’s name is Lauren Ashcraft, we’re hosting a virtual townhall tonight to keep the sense of community going so if you don’t want to donate outright hop in at 6:30pm tonight and register here to check her out live!
Jeffro
I’m still totally playing to win here. I was on a conference call for Biden supporters/donors and man it felt GOOD knowing I was hearing solid info and plans to take out the orange moron in November.
Off to go forward some fundraising links to every non-TCNJ friend and relative that I can think of! =)
WaterGirl
Sorry to not be here for the time I scheduled this. IL governor issuing a lockdown order, shelter in place, effective tomorrow, and the person who was going to pick up my final groceries today backed out because it was suddenly going to be super crowded.
So after a week of hibernation, I had to go back out. sigh.
Anyway, about to catch up on the thread.
WaterGirl
Let’s plan on once a week then. If you have any thoughts about weekday vs. weekend or time of day for the post, please chime in.
Sorry, smedley the uncertain, we won’t be offended if you skip on by the weekly post.
Marcopolo
All the campaigns I was volunteering on have stopped door to door canvassing, of course. My Indivisible group is still doing postcards to folks who have moved but maybe not changed their voter registration to reflect that. One of my candidates is doing a virtual campaign event next week–we’ll see how that goes.
I am continuing with my regular donation schedule. I am blessed to have a steady income to do that and know not everyone is able to do that with layoffs.
I urge everyone to call all of your representatives at the state and federal level and yell at them that they need to figure out vote by mail like yesterday (if they don’t have it already). They need to hear this loudly and often until they do it. We won’t be able to have elections without this.
That’s what’s on my mind atm.