PSA: You do NOT seek radical change in government by electing a president.

[MohRokTah]

People should learn the lesson of the extreme right. They did not rise to power by electing a radically conservative president. They adopted a fairly conservative president as the icon of their movement and drove radically rightwing policies from the ground up. They started with school boards, county boards, and city councils. They moved on to state legislative districts and state senate districts and wound up controlling the redistricting process, thus solidifying a minority of the voters controlling the majority of the federal House of Representatives.

This has ever been the problem on the left. The left consistently tries to drive radical change every four years in the presidential election and then are consistently disappointed.

Get a grip. All politics is local, and until you regain local control, you have nothing.

[Cheese Sandwich]

1. So you're saying Hillary should drop out and run for school board?

That's fine.

[MohRokTah]

2. .

[Cheese Sandwich]

3. Actually a presidential campaign can be a great help to build a grass-roots movement

[MohRokTah]

5. Not really. eom

[Cheese Sandwich]

8. Believe it or not a president could actually help lead a movement if they wanted to

[MohRokTah]

9. Wrong.

The movement adopts a president as an icon.

The conservatives adopted Reagan as their icon even though he raised taxes 11 times, granted amnesty to undocumented aliens, and did nothing other than give lip service to the anti-abortion movement.

Now we have what could be the Left's Ronald Reagan in office right now and all the left does is spit in his face.

[Cheese Sandwich]

10. You're describing the past. I'm describing the future.

A possible future.

We already have grass roots progressive movements. We thought Obama was going to help lead. We thought he would be an ally.

But hasn't been a very strong ally.

Your words about "spitting in" faces... I think those words are used just to provoke rage and emotional response. Basically flame bait that doesn't even deserve a response.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. Two words. Gene McCarthy.

He didn't start the movement but he gave it enough strength to rid us of LBJ.

[Rose Siding]

16. more words: Richard Nixon

Some movement.

[KittyWampus]

19. No, the point was you should spend less time on DU trashing everyone but Sanders

and work locally. That was very clear.

Your attempt at being witty ends up exposing you as having nothing to add to an important discussion.

[Cheese Sandwich]

20. So Hillary supporters should spend less time on DU and work locally on school board elections?

Very well then!

[arcane1]

4. That's why people who don't vote are assholes n/t

[MohRokTah]

6. The district I lived in in 2012 had over 5000 people come out for the election.

A year later when the city council was voted on, that number dropped to 248.

In reality, that city council had far more of a daily effect on the lives of the voters than the president ever will.

[arcane1]

7. Exactly. Too many get discouraged because they feel their prez vote doesn't count.

Drives me crazy.

[elehhhhna]

21. Many of us feel our primary votes don't count either.

The primaries should be one day, all states.

[arcane1]

23. A very good point, as this Californian knows too well :(

[MineralMan]

11. Precisely. This country is not a top-down

country. It's a bottom-up company. It's a lesson we need to learn and act on.

[Fumesucker]

22. It's not supposed to be a company of any sort, interesting Freudian slip there

[MineralMan]

24. Autocorrect.

A funny one. Usually it makes no sense at all. I'll just leave it, thiugh. Good catch.

[octoberlib]

13. I agree with this. We should be paying far more attention to mid terms.

[NCTraveler]

14. Great post. Thanks. Nt

[Armstead]

15. The "radical left" engages in a lot of local activity

Both political and addressed at correcting the root causes of problems.

This is a political discussion board, and this forum is the Primary forum. Hence the subjects are national in scope, especially the WH.

[yodermon]

17. I agree that local politics is vitally important.

That's why we need the 50-state strategy back.

Occupy, fantastic as its intentions were, tried to be "Local" but still shied away from political races, even local ones. (I vaguely remember references to "occupy" candidates in some local elections but it was very few).

However, none of this precludes choosing a progressive or "radical" for President. Leadership at the top can still inspire participation at the bottom.

[Ron Green]

18. PSA: You seek radical change in SOCIETY by first electing a president who tells the truth.

With straight talk coming from the White House, people will (or won't, it's their choice) build local systems that work for them in their communities.
But at least there's a clarion call for change, and in 2016 that's where we've got to start. Bernie is not sufficient, but he's necessary.