(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The World Is Made By The People Who Show Up For The Job - Democrats need to show up [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-27 There are two must-reads at Digby’s Hullabaloo: The first is disturbing enough. The man who is now second in line to the Presidency, who was a lead architect in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, has never faced a real election challenge in his entire career. He’s never faced an opponent who could force him to explain and defend his views, the policies he would impose, the actions he would take. Several times he's run unopposed. His House district so deep Red, his winning margins have been 30%, 30%, 35% — and unopposed in 2022. "You know, we don't live in a democracy" but a "biblical" republic.That's what Mike Johnson said in a 2016 interview as he explained his views on the U.S. government.That's what the new Republican House speaker, who tried to overturn the will of the voters in 2020, believes. David Rothkopf at the Daily Beast has this assessment of Johnson; Read The Whole Thing: The term Christofascism may seem inflammatory. It is not. It is intended to provide the most accurate possible definition of what Johnson and those in his movement wish to achieve. Like other fascists they seek to impose by whatever means necessary their views on the whole of society even if that means undoing established laws and eliminating accepted freedoms. Christofascists do so in the name of advancing their Christian ideology, asserting that all in society must be guided by their views and values whether they adhere to them or not. Although Johnson was little known outside Republican congressional circles (and not that well known within them), he made it clear from his first moments as speaker who he was and what kind of speaker he would be. In his opening remarks, he even suggested it was divine intervention that made him the second in the line of succession to the U.S. presidency. He said, “I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority.” Johnson is not an exception unfortunately. Remember Howard Dean and the 50 state strategy? When former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean became chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in early 2005, one of his main efforts was to undertake a "50-state strategy," a bid to build up party infrastructure and candidate recruitment at every level and in every state -- even in solidly Republican bastions. "We strengthened the parties so sitting governors could find good candidates" for offices high and low, Dean said. "That's much easier to do from Topeka than it is from Washington." This would seem to be a no-brainer. You can’t win elections if you don’t put up candidates. Local and state elections 1) are the “farm club” for higher office at the national level, 2) where the ground work for national campaigns needs to be done, and 3) where the rules, procedures, and drawing up districts for those national elections are handled (as well as the lower races). So what happened? State party chairs loved the idea, but among national strategists, the approach was controversial. Dean bumped heads with then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who believed in a more conventional strategy of focusing limited campaign resources on swing districts. On CNN, Paul Begala said Dean's gambit amounted to "hiring a bunch of staff people to wander around Utah and Mississippi and pick their nose." (Begala later apologized.) So what’s the situation in Louisiana? Tom Sullivan’s article lays it out. (Take a look at the map at the link.) But gerrymandering is only one reason. Democrats’ writing off rural America to focus on federal races handed Republicans the power in those statehouses to gerrymander them: Democrats focus so much on federal offices in a few swing states, we have decided it’s acceptable to let the young Mike Johnsons of the world, or the Tennessee Republicans of the world, or the book banners, or the abortion banners (no exceptions), and so on, do all the damage they’re doing in statehouses, and not even face opposition in elections that could be referenda on their extremist actions if we made them that. The Louisiana map above is an object lesson. Of 64 Louisiana parishes in 2020, only 11 Democratic committees had a website, active Facebook page, or published email address for For The Win or the public to contact. Random newspaper stories suggest some exist, but how would anyone know or find them? Run everywhere, Pepper insists. Don’t let Republicans walk into seats of power unopposed! Bring accountability. emphasis added It’s very easy to focus on the drama at the national level — the White House, the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court. Those ARE important places to watch, and the ones that get the news coverage even as the medial collapses in on itself. The problem is ignoring all the stuff underneath it where so many critical events take place, where the success of what happens at the national level can turn or fall. It’s like treating the battle between two teams in the Super Bowl as the only game that matters. It’s like focusing on the two baseball teams in the World Series while ignoring all the games that got them there and ignoring promising players coming up from the farm club system who could be future contenders. So why doesn’t the Democratic Party do more of what seems to be basic political tradecraft? That’s a subject that could consume multiple posts here (and has). Let me observe for now, as Sullivan does, that fixing this is something that will take a sustained effort over the long term — which is extremely difficult to do from election cycle to election cycle. It’s hard but it needs to be done because any and every seat that Democrats cannot find a decent candidate to contest is an unearned gift to people like Johnson. The world is made by the people who show up for the job — Lois McMaster Bujold. 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