AOC is apparently thinking about running to replace Jamie Raskin as ranking member of the Oversight Committee. Last night I noted on Bluesky that she’s smart: she walked into Congress, looked around, and figured she could run the place if she wanted. So what she did was first lock down her fundraising, so she could donate to PACs of her colleagues. Then she locked down her district — she regularly destroys her well-funded opponents (and primary challengers). Now, she’s on step 3: moving up the committee ladder, but not at the snails pace usually happens, and choosing a committee where she’s distinguished herself as a tenacious, well-informed questioner.
I also think she uses social media the way every Congressperson should, and she runs a good district office. Her office does a lot of constituent services, and they also do things like hand out turkeys on Thanksgiving.
Anyway, there’s a piece making the rounds arguing that Democrats need to undergo a transformation to address the fact that the US is a “Civic Desert”. Basically, the idea is that the loss of social clubs and other interactive spaces have isolated people, and Democrats’ could step in to address that. I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Certainly, I’ve witnessed the death of local party meetings in rural red states.
The piece identifies four areas where Democrats could do something: Membership Cards, Maps (by which the author means precinct maps maintained by captains who live in the precinct), Meeting Halls and Mutual Aid.
The author, Pete Davis at The Nation, is a little too wedded everything starting with “M,” so Membership Cards encompasses more than just a card — it’s tracking registration and recognizing precinct captains that grow their membership. He also mentions dues as part of the membership package.
Maps, and all the infrastructure associated with maintaining likely voter lists, was often the work of the federal office holders in red states. They had the money to keep those lists going, and when they lost office, the underfunded state party couldn’t keep up with it.
Meeting Halls that we pay for directly is a big ask, but having a place to gather is important. And, of course, Mutual Aid probably already happens but if Democrats were a visible part of organizing this, that’s all to the good.
The barrier to this is obviously money. Other than the 50-state project, which never really amounted to much, it’s clear that money spent by the Democratic Party is almost all spent during elections, for infrastructure that doesn’t last. And, there’s just a shitload of money spent on TV ads that I think is at least partially wasted. There are a bunch of political consultants who won’t get anything out of the 4 M’s, so they will certainly resist.
That all said, one of the smartest people in Congress, AOC, is doing a lot of these “M’s” in her district, and it’s working for her.
