[Dialogue] What if? ... Some thoughts on what we could do in the current political climate

[Jo Nelson]

Context:  Selected quotes taken from a post by Rosemary Cairns of an article in The Atlantic. 
 
"What Would a Liberal Tea Party Look Like?  Democrats might have a chance to replicate the energy of the 2009 grassroots movement—if they actually want to."
 
“Republicans aren’t the only ones taking flak. Democratic voters’ frustration with their party’s leaders, who are widely seen as either flat-footed or acquiescent, is growing.  ...
 
To recover their mojo, Democrats need some sort of organizing principle, real or purported. ...
 
One challenge of creating a liberal version of the Tea Party is that what liberals want right now is so basic. The opposite of what Trump has done in his first month in office is good governance—careful, measured administration. But that doesn’t make a good bumper sticker, and it doesn’t inspire crowds. ...
 
Representative Jake Auchincloss, a Massachusetts Democrat, has warned against Democrats trying to offer voters a “Diet Coke” version of Trumpian populism. “Voters who ordered a Coca-Cola don’t want a Diet Coke,” he told the New York Times columnist Ezra Klein recently. “There are two different parties. We have to start by understanding who our voters are not and then understanding who our voters could be—and go and try to win them over. ...
 
Ultimately, Democrats will return to viability only if they’re able to learn from and absorb grassroots energy. ...
 
Democrats could certainly use an infusion of fresh ideas—and new leadership."
 
 
My response:
Maybe a shift is needed to what the Iowa caucuses looked like when I was a child in the 1950’s — not about candidates for President, but grassroots meetings to create planks for the party platform.  The ideas from the precinct caucuses were taken to a county convention, which then took the consensus to the state convention, and the consensus from the state was taken to the national convention to create the national party platform. (I remember one of these precinct caucuses happening in our family front room when I was 10. I was serving hot coffee to the participants and spilled it on me, which literally burned the meeting into my memory.) 
 
This is what my father loved about politics – the way that ordinary people coming together and sharing their ideas created the foundation for grounded choices and decision-making all the way up to the national level.  
 
Facilitators know how to design these from the grassroots up.   And ICA did community town meetings across the US in 1976.  I personally have facilitated consultations for governments that started at the local level and brought those ideas together at a higher level, looking for the common patterns that included all the perspectives.   
 
What if we locally took action to bring our neighbours together to discuss what is important to them, and then shared these concerns with others doing the same thing? 

Jo Nelson
jo.r.nelson at gmail.com



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