Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

I really should read my own blog.

When we show up, we win.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Let there be snark.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Consistently wrong since 2002

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

In after Baud. Damn.

This fight is for everything.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

The willow is too close to the house.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / You’ve been so kind and generous

You’ve been so kind and generous

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Thanks a lot to everyone who gave. We raised 1.3 million this cycle.

It’s fair to say that the down ballot races didn’t go as well as hoped, despite tons of money pouring in. I’m going to think about what are the best causes to raise money for as we go forward (I’m also going to raise money for Warnock and Ossoff, yes). Here is one that really delivered: Stacey Abrams’ group Fair Fight. By my count, there were 49 states where things didn’t go as well as I’d hoped last week and ONE STATE where things went much better. That one state is Georgia. This group’s work in registering 800K new people and getting automatic registration passed almost certainly played a big role in Biden winning Georgia.

I hope there is a lot of thinking being done by lots of Democratic donors right now and that they are considering making Fair Fight, and other groups like it, a top priority.

Balloon Juice for Fair Fight

Goal Thermometer

And, remember, don’t gloat, organize.

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  3. 3.

    Baud

    I do wonder whether pandemic restrictions that we followed and the GOP is the main reason we didn’t do as well in other states.

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    @Rand Careaga: The right has done their best to pretend GWB never existed, so I’m guessing it won’t make that much difference to them. Still, every little bit helps.

  6. 6.

    Kathleen in NC

    I tried this comment on the previous post but it said …duplicate… and didn’t post. Apologies if I am repeating myself:

    I am desperate to support Ossoff and Warnock and gain the Senate. My son suggested moving to Georgia and register to vote, but obvs not enough time for that. I don’t quite get phone and text banking – it doesn’t seem effective, at least it isn’t when I get ‘banked.’ And donating money didn’t quite do it in several races.

    I need your thoughts on this idea: Tiffany Bond on twitter, I know you’ll look her up, suggests instead of donating to candidates, that we do a #RaisingGeorgia campaign of supporting local business, food banks etc and let them know why we are donating. The one that appeals most to me is the DonorsChoose support. All of the projects under $100 in Georgia were cleared this morning and I think it is growing. The most important part of donating is including a #GeorgiaRaising note such as: This donation is part of a #Georgia Raising initiative in support of senatorial candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Rather than send them money to buy ads or mailers it seemed better to contribute something to make things better in Georgia. Please make sure you spread the work about these fine candidates. Good luck with your [french studies] project.

    Opinions? Expertise? Would this be more impactful?

  7. 7.

    Rand Careaga

    @dmsilev: Well, put it this way: every single living former Republican president has congratulated Biden/Harris on the win. It’ll probably take the average Trump voter several seconds to process this.

  8. 8.

    Barbara

    @Baud: I believe it was a contributing factor.  The Politico article linked to yesterday noted that there was a lot of internal angst in the Biden campaign over lack of canvassing in the last few weeks.  It’s really hard to say.  I also think Trump was able to effectively make more than a few voters believe that it’s either fixing the economy or addressing Covid, and they had to choose. Never mind that it is a false proposition,  it’s a narrative desperation has driven them to seize on.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    @Barbara:

    I also think Trump was able to effectively make more than a few voters believe that it’s either fixing economy or addressing Covid, and they had to choose.

    I can see this.  You’re starting to see that attitude pop up all over the world, although it’s not as bad as it has been here.

    I think it’s wrong to assume that all of the 70 million who voted for Trump are committed to Trumpism.  But we have to recognize that at least 70 million people are not horrified by Trumpism.  I think one lesson we need to learn is that demonizing Republicans only gets us so far, even though demons they be.

  10. 10.

    natem

    After taking a four year break, right-wingers are dusting off their moral superiority badges again, wagging their fingers at mean liberals for not caring about the sad Trump voters. Well, at least they’re not harping about a rigged election, so I guess that’s a step up.

  13. 13.

    John S.

    Jim Clyburn had some words of caution for the party going forward:

    James Clyburn, the House majority whip and Democratic party “kingmaker” who played an outsized role in Joe Biden’s successful presidential run, has said the “sloganeering” of Black Lives Matter and other social justice efforts this summer might have hampered the party at the polls.

    “I came out very publicly and very forcibly against sloganeering,” Clyburn said on CNN’s State of the Union.

    “John Lewis and I were founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. John and I sat on the House floor and talked about that “defund the police” slogan, and both of us concluded that it had the possibilities of doing to the Black Lives Matter movement and current movements across the country what “Burn, Baby, Burn” did to us back in the 1960s.

    “We saw the same thing happening here. We can’t pick up these things just because it makes a good headline. It sometimes destroys headway.”

    Clyburn also had thoughts about the Democratic party’s “progressive” left wing, members of which have already broken ranks and fired the first shots in a looming battle for the direction of the party.

    “Sometimes I have real problems trying to figure out what progressive means,” he said. “My father was very conservative. He was a minister. I never heard him ask his congregation to give conservatively. He always asked for a liberal offering. And so I believe that it’s good to be conservative at times and in many ways, but it’s also good to be liberal at times. You have to balance all of this out.”

    I think Biden agrees with this assessment based on his speech last night. Progress happens more slowly than destruction, and it’s a lot harder to get people to agree on how to build something than to tear it down.

  14. 14.

    lamh36

    I know this is not a specific Warnock post, but Doug J when you do ya gotta include his latest ad

    Like wow…even Steve Schmidt and the LP commented on how good an ad it was!

    @ReverendWarnock

    US Senate candidate, GA-Special

    Good morning Georgia! I’m Raphael Warnock. I grew up in public housing in Savannah and went to college at
    @Morehouse
    where I was the first in my family to graduate college. And I’m running to be Georgia’s next U.S. Senator.
    https://twitter.com/ReverendWarnock/status/1325451604531752962

    Hell, I’ve watched it 2x myself already

  15. 15.

    Yarrow

    Kay talks a lot about hiring local organizers at a relatively low wage. You can hire lots of them for the cost of one consultant. Hire people that live in districts and already know the area. Better use of the same money.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    @Yarrow: I agree.  The Dems need to start thinking of themselves as a business than a pop-up market.  That means making the investments in party infrastructure that can operate continuously, rather than simply trying to mobilize at election time.

  18. 18.

    Yarrow

    @lamh36:  He’s so impressive. That’s a fantastic ad. I also love the one countering the negative ads he knows are coming – he eats pizza with a knife and fork and doesn’t like puppies. LOL.

  19. 19.

    John S.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It really is. Think about how long it takes to build a skyscraper— from the planning, the actual work to get it erected and all the finishing touches to make it functional. It takes years.

    But if you want to destroy that same building, a few months of planning and some carefully placed explosives and — BOOM — it’s gone in almost the blink of an eye.

    ETA: Or even worse, think of how many thousands of years it took for those forests to grow in California, and how quickly they were destroyed by fires. The imbalance between life and death is one of the worst and most immutable laws of nature.

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    @Kathleen in NC: Your post did go up in the previous thread. I know because I replied to it.  :-)

    @Kathleen in NC: My personal opinion?  Giving to Donors Choose does nothing for the Georgia runoff.

    If you give to GASenate.com, which is Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight organizing for the Georgia runoff, your contribution is split evenly between Warnock, Ossoff, and Fair Fight.

    If you look at Election Action! in the sidebar, you will find a BJ post with all sorts of links for where you can donate and how you can volunteer.

    I suggest you do something more concrete and direct than Donors Choose

    P.S. There will be an upcoming post that highlights some of the other organizations in Georgia that also helped us get this win.

  21. 21.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Yarrow: I know I’m a foreigner and we do things differently here but I think this idea has merit. Trump had organisers on the ground who have been working throughout the last 4 years, registering voters, keeping records up to date, motivating them to vote.

    This seems to be more or less what Stacey Abrams did in Georgia and it worked! Democrats should look to do the same in every State, or at least the purple ones.

  22. 22.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @zhena gogolia: Howdy! Off topic, but I was wondering if you might happen to know Rachel May? She was a classmate of mine and taught Russian Language and Literature (hence my question); now a Democratic New York State Senator from the Syracuse area, eking out a reelection bid.

  24. 24.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Yarrow: Judging from CNN this is what Trump did and it worked for him in getting his vote out. It also seems to be what Stacey Abrams successfully did in Georgia, so I think you could be on to something here.

  25. 25.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lamh36: so glad he’s leaning into his Ebeneezer Baptist connection. Seeing this man sworn into Dixiecrat Herman Talmadge’s seat (to say nothing of Zell Miller’s) would be tectonic.

    He can talk about that, stay positive, offer the rhymes of hope and history.

    The Lincoln Project can talk about Loeffler’s stock portfolio…

  26. 26.

    Barbara

    @natem: Even when they lose they demand to be treated with all the prerogatives of having prevailed. I think that is a good working definition of cultural privilege.

  28. 28.

    Sloane Ranger

    Sorry for two posts which are almost the same. I didn’t think my previous one had posted.

  29. 29.

    Aleta

    Money to good candidates is never a loss I like to think since it keeps talking, saying there is strength in those ideas or belief in that person.  It might go toward the long view or affect the next election.   At the least it encourages a good person in the next thing they decide to do.

  30. 30.

    Butter emails

    I think Democrats need to think more about branding combined with being the change we believe in.  We need to be out and proud Democrats while doing things in our communities and look for ways to visibly help other communities.

  31. 31.

    Yarrow

    @Baud:  I don’t know if they did that but they were certainly registering voters. Lots of news articles about how Republicans were registering voters at a much higher rate than Democrats.

  34. 34.

    Yarrow

    @Butter emails:

    I think Democrats need to think more about branding combined with being the change we believe in.

    Along those lines, I agree with this from Rachel Bitcofer

    The dumb shit phrase “defund the police” stuck bc the GOP’s electioneers are expert “nailers.”

    Yes, @alfranken & @BWilliams messaging ineptness is the D’s problem.

    The Dems don’t message at all, & when they do, it’s defensive.

    Ds need their own set of hammer & nails

    ☎️me
    — Rachel “The Doc” Bitecofer ??? (@RachelBitecofer) November 8, 2020

  35. 35.

    Yarrow

    @Baud:  I agree with that. It was a tough call. I think I read some Democrats went door to door and their campaigns did better. Maybe by midterms it’ll be better. Don’t know how it’ll play for the GA Senate runoffs.

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Yarrow:

    Yes, @alfranken & @BWilliams messaging ineptness is the D’s problem.

    Right. Nobody noticed the phrase until Brian Williams and Al Franken talked about five days after E

    ETA: also, Brian Williams is not a Democrat, and Al Franken is now a podcaster. But he helped shift MN from purple to blue.

  38. 38.

    Woodrow/asim

    @John S.: As someone who was vocal about how much we batter on That Phrase in these parts, I’ll consider Rep. Clyburn’s words on it.

    He has, no doubt, put in The Work.

  40. 40.

    zhena gogolia

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    I know her book about translation — I don’t know her personally. I’m bad at networking and hate going to conferences, so I don’t get to know a lot of people.

  42. 42.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @zhena gogolia: It’s kind of fun that there’s a connection, however slight. I used to know people in the German language and literature world when I was still aspiring to be one of them, but that was in a former life a long, long time ago.

  43. 43.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @zhena gogolia: Yes, apparently she was instrumental in getting the early voting law passed in New York. It’s astonishing to me that they didn’t have early voting until (I think) this year.

  44. 44.

    wmd

    Looking for a tax deductible way to help in the Georgia runoffs?

    https://newgeorgiaproject.org/ has been doing the on the ground work to register and energize new voters. Their work will pay dividends for years to come, and the work is easier with the Biden win in Georgia (“your vote matters” has been demonstrated).

    Stacy has shown a lot of class by calling out all the good work done in Georgia and boosting name recognition for those organizers and organizations. I’m amplifying it for one of them again – Dougj did in a post yesterday.

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    @wmd: I’m pretty sure that was me and not DougJ, and I plan a followup post on the organizations like NewGeorgia that Stacey credited in that post.

    There are some similarities to Wisconsin.

    In Wisconsin we (me, for sure) tend to credit only the WisDem and Ben Walker for amazing organizing – which it was and is – and don’t credit some of the smaller groups that have been organizing there for a long time, and helped set the stage for what was accomplished in Wisconsin these past few years.

    So they don’t get any of the credit here because we’re not aware of all the work they have been doing, though I have tried to address that with a couple of posts and we will have a followup post related to that tonight.

    In Georgia, Stacey Abrams is the big name, but there are several groups that are also organizing but just don’t have the name recognition.  I hope the upcoming post on Georgia will do at least a tiny bit toward recognizing them, too.

  47. 47.

    D Gardner

    Donated again just now and will probably do so again in the next couple of months. Gaining 50+VP in the Senate would mean the world, and Stacey Abrams is not a person to be fucked with!

  48. 48.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Baud: I don’t think he actually paid them. They self financed by selling overpriced Trump merchandise to true believers but they registered voters and maintained a visible Trump presence in their area.

  49. 49.

    Aleta

    Since election day I keep thinking about how much energy and time it takes to do what you do here DougJ.   And thinking about the effects beyond  who won and who lost, the little effects we don’t know about.   You’ve let us as individuals have an effect in maybe hundreds? of little ways.  Like boosting candidates’ volunteers.   Which might (imaginary example) even transfer to a kid around them, wrt whether a person comes home one day with a positive feeling about volunteering from seeing national support for their work.  Or the cat or dog that picks up on a moment of lowered stress.  Etc.

    Also appreciated your realistic analyses and how thoroughly you seem to look at the info from different sources.

  51. 51.

    One of the Many Jens

    @Kathleen in NC:  PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS. I think this would have completely the opposite effect to what you intend.  I, for one, bridle pretty damn hard if it appears someone is trying to bribe me in some way.  I think it would be far better for this election to donate to the several Georgia groups that are organizing actual Georgians, like but not limited to Fair Fight.  But helping out Georgians in need, without trying to create some political strings, is definitely a nice idea.

  52. 52.

    dm

    Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight wasn’t just a Georgia organization — she was organizing in several battleground states to protect the vote.

    Also, as to the “organizers on the ground all the time” chatter — that’s what the Democratic Party of Wisconsin did, and it’s a big part of how Democrats can win going forward — don’t just show up in October before the election, be there in the off-years, too.

    Some of you may be tired of me trotting out this list, but at least this time I can leave Fair Fight off the list.

    To that end, DougJ, please consider the following groups:

    • Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee — https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/44039 — before she was a candidate for Governor, Stacey Abrams was a legislator.  Legislatures are where redistricting happens.  Legislatures are where the laws are passed that affect people’s daily lives.
    • Democratic Attorneys General Association — https://secure.actblue.com/donate/democratic-attorneys-general-association-1 — when those Democratic legislatures pass those laws, it is Attorneys General that have a major hand in how they are enforced.
    • Democratic Association of Secretaries of State — https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/40928 — we’ve been hearing a lot from Secretaries of State lately, a lot about where ballot collection boxes go, how ballots are counted, where polling places are located.

    Let’s work on the infrastructure of the Party.

    I bet there are others that I don’t know about.  These are the ones that I’ve paid most attention to.

    I’d also like to mention Black Voters Matter.  I support them, but I don’t know enough about how effective they are to recommend them to others.

  57. 57.

    EmanG

    I’m a recent GA transplant and would love to find ways to work with other local jackals to get Ossoff and Warnock seated in the Senate. Don’t have a lot of money, but have some visual talents (video) and more time than I’m comfortable with. Might as well use it in the best way possible. I’m in Athens so definitely Atlanta adjacent. Anybody else feel like dancing this mess around?

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