Tommy

Your response to yesterday’s losses should be to organize and put in the work locally. Look, the populists on the right keep renting power while the left builds its own. The American left knows how to build a bunch of enthusiasm, raise a lot of money, and turn local organizing into something really permanent. Sure, the populist right has millions of supporters and wealthy backers, but too much of its political machinery belongs to donors and institutions with their own often contrary agendas. So, when elections end, the people on the right scatter, the contacts go cold, and all of that hard-won experience rarely trickles down to the local level. The result is most of what survives still belongs to someone else. A few years later, the populists on the right have to start it all over from scratch while your opponents are hitting the ground running. Think of one athlete who’s not training all off season while the other team has been training hard all year. You’re the team that’s on the couch and you’re playing against a trim, fit, prepared opponent. If you want to get something done, get started in your own city or county. Introduce yourself and talk to people. Find out who has influence and what people actually want fixed. Pick an issue worth working on, get a few dependable people together, and get to work. Start learn how your opponents are organized, too. That’s important. Understand the local alliances that keep them together. Show up, make your case, and challenge their influence in local institutions. Then keep at it after the campaign signs come down. Bring in new people and pass on what you’ve learned. Build something that can keep going. The left has been doing this for decades. Elections come and go. But the real test is who still controls an organization that can get things done after they’re over.