ORGANIZING NOTES
January 7, 2025
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Did The Democrats Choose A Loosinng Strategy By Mistake?
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Did The Democrats Choose A Losing Strategy By Mistake?
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In September 2022 73% of people said the country was headed in the wrong direction and 71% said the economy was poor. (AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research (September 2022)). Two years later the figures were similar. Despite this information, the Harris campaign focused on democracy and abortion rights. Trump’s campaign focused on the economy and immigration. Following the election virtually all the analyses said that working class unhappiness with the economy and anger with Democrats for failing to respond to their needs explained the outcome. The Democratic campaign was directed to suburban voters, particularly white women, with Liz Cheney as the poster spokesperson. Ads that focused on the working class were produced and aired briefly, but the campaign leadership had them withdrawn.
Commentators did mention Biden’s unwise decision to run, and the racism and misogyny that undermined support for Harris. Still, the overwhelming consensus is that fundamentally, it was working-class economic concerns and a failure of the Democratic Party to make them central that explained the outcome (Podhorzer, 2025).
The Democratic election strategy in 2024 was not a series of errors. Rather, it was a continuation of the Democratic Party strategy established 50 years ago. Then, in the mid-70s, world-wide capitalism was starting globalization. This produced a rapid decline in industrial manufacturing in the classic capitalist countries, with a collapse of local manufacturing economies and the shrinking of industrial unions. All the major social democratic parties in the world shifted their thinking about who would support them. With decreases in industrial blue-collar electorates, the Socialists in France, Labour in Britain, the Democrats in the U.S., and the Social Democrats in Germany looked for electoral bases amongst the managers, professionals, and upper-income white-collar workers. These were termed “The Brahmins” by the French economist Thomas Piketty who described this major change in the political structure of capitalist countries (Capital in the Twenty-First Century, 2014). Think of these people as the professionals and managers living in white suburbs. Continue reading here
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Our Projects for 2025: Envisioning the World We Want
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With president-elect Trump and his billionaire cabinet selection dominating the news,
climate scientists can barely find an audience for their despairing pleas. Join us…
PATRICIA HYNES Jan 4, 2025
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Pick up any US liberal newspaper today and there are reams of columns speculating on the fate of our country. What will happen and how quickly to our country with Trump as president and a cabinet of billionaires as they destroy an already shredded social safety net? As for foreign policy: what will be the fate of Ukraine with US/NATO determined to weaken Russia, but Trump ready to end war with Russia. And the Middle East: it’s a speculative gamble as to the fate of Syria with the new government(s) – HTS, formerly terrorists, and lots of others who have joined them to rule. Turkey is intent on controlling the fate of the Kurds in northeast Syria; and Israel is adding to settlements in the Golan Heights and already expanding farther into Syria and Lebanon.
You will find very little, though, about the climate crisis or the fact that we are in uncharted territory with the release of carbon dioxide from the arctic tundra. No longer a “carbon sink,” the arctic tundra shifts now to be a source of carbon dioxide thus auguring in a future of accelerated warming temperatures. The parallel catastrophe to the growing likelihood of nuclear bombs being used, has been relegated to back page news. Climate scientists can barely find an audience for their despairing pleas. Continue here…
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Massachusetts Democrats Listening Tour
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In the wake of the national defeat of the Democrats, party leaders are engaged in re-evaluation to determine forward direction. We have a rare opportunity to weigh in. Please sign up for the State Democratic Party Chairman, Steve Kerrigan’s, “Listening Tour” and tell him we cannot rest on our laurels as a “Deep Blue State.” Space is limited so sign up now. Even in Massachusetts, we continue to experience a multi-year decline in Democratic voter registration. And like the rest of the country, Democratic vote totals declined in Massachusetts as many working-class voters stayed home and some voted for Trump.
If Democrats want to regain the trust of voters they have lost and strengthen the loyalty of their base, then we must show how state and national government can and will work to improve their everyday lives by:
*(see below for a link to coordinate with others to maximize effectiveness)
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Raising the minimum wage to a living wage so that no one has to work two or more jobs to make ends meet;
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Ensuring that everyone has access to high-quality, free public education from pre-K to college;
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Investing in our public transportation system so that it is the world-class system we deserve;
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Investing in innovative approaches to our housing crisis like social housing and allowing communities to stabilize rents;
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Finally, passing Medicare for All (which has been languishing in the Legislature for decades despite repeated majority support within the Democratic Party and in dozens of local non-binding ballots;
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Accelerating our transition from fossil fuels toward a green energy economy.
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Insisting in transparency in governance and recorded roll call votes
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Making the party platform a roadmap for progress rather than a list of aspirations that we hope someday will happen.
Let Massachusetts redefine what being a Blue State means. Today, 60% of the American people are living paycheck to paycheck. Weekly wages are less now than fifty years ago. We can make people’s lives better. Massachusetts is the size of many Western European countries. Like them, we can provide healthcare for everyone, universal childcare, free college education, and many other necessary conditions for security and well-being.
In the 1930s, the Democratic Party, under the leadership of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the model of a pro-working class government. We can do it again.
*To coordinate with other Listening Tour testifiers fill out this form
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Senator Bernie Sanders on Making Government Deliver with Jon Stewart
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As American’s faith in government reaches historic lows and billionaires turn their attetion to government efficiency, Bernie discusses how to restore trust in public institutions by making them more accountable and responsive to the needs of the people. Listen here
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Climate Win in Montana Supreme Court Sets Precedent for Future Lawsuits
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In December, the Montana Supreme Court ruled in favor of young climate activists who argued that the state had violated their constitutional right to a clean environment. The plaintiffs, aged five to 22, challenged a 2011 state law that prohibited the consideration of climate impacts in energy policy decisions, asserting that it was unconstitutional. The court affirmed their position, recognizing a “fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment.”
This decision sets a precedent for other climate lawsuits of this kind, representing a significant victory for climate activists. Similar cases are set to be heard in courts in Hawaii, Utah, and Alaska in the near future.
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If you would like to work with ORMA Members on
- Climate Change
- Community-Based Alternative Emergency Response Teams
- Ranked-Choice Voting
- Housing For All
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ORMA depends on your support to continue Bernie’s Political Revolution to create a society, a politics, and an economy that works for everyone, not just billionaires, corporations and the political elite.
If you value Organizing Notes and its twice a month distribution schedule, please make a donation to ensure its continued existence.
Invest in Change Now!
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Please send requests for action items, articles or upcoming events
for the next Organizing Notes to
beccobrien.orma@gmail.com by Thursday, January 16th
We’d love to have you send us your favorite pictures of Bernie here in MA!
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Campaigns End, Movements Endure
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