Take Leonhardt!

Looking for something to buoy your spirits?

Here is David Leonhardt in the New York Times:

Democrats Are Running a Smart, Populist Campaign

. . . The lesson here isn’t just about these two candidates [Stacey Abrams and Conor Lamb]. Dozens of other Democratic candidates also sound like Abrams and Lamb. The lesson is that Democrats are more united than many people realize — and are running a pretty smart midterm campaign. . . .

Read it all and take heart.

Sunday I shared with a lengthy list of “major donors” a 65-page DNC “prospectus” designed to show why they should invest — now, while the organizing snowball still has time to grow large as it rolls toward November.

I got, as always, a variety of responses.

One: where’s the message?  What are Democrats for?  

Four-word slogans that will magically inspire a massive turn-out are totally welcome — A CHICKEN IN EVERY POT! — though perhaps harder to rally around in a mid-term, when there is no one presidential candidate to lead the way.

If you have the magic bullet, for sure shoot it my way and I’ll pass it on up the line.

(As you’ll see, Leonhardt says the message is clear: We’re on your side. The other party isn’t.)

But this was my favorite response to the 65-page deck:

This is brilliant and much needed.  Having spent a decade at RAND where among other things I led the research and analytic work for the first Quadrennial Defense Review, followed by two years at the White House (NSC) under Clinton, and another decade working closely with the best companies and organizations in the world to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, I have no hesitancy in saying this is very high quality work.  It should help us understand the people we wish to serve much better and give us the infrastructure to engage them in successful campaigns.  Congratulations.  Tom Perez and his team may just have given us the tools we need to win.

There’s always room for improvement.  All suggestions welcome.

And much to be concerned about. (Ongoing Russian meddling, $30 million checks from a single old man, so many great Dems running in California they could inadvertently elect Republicans).

But these are just reasons to try the harder.  And to give our own equivalent of $30 million, whether that be $30, $300, $3,000, or $30,000.  If we all lean into it, we’ll produce a massive blue wave that changes everything.