I am all in! Ben Wikler caught my attention (from Virginia) during the height of the pandemic with his innovative operation of WisDems. He understands grassroots and knows how to motivate us. Bravo!
As a rural Wisconsin dem who saw my community once again be completely ignored by the wisdems, I can’t agree less. Ben’s a great fundraiser, little more. We’re not building an authentic grassroots infrastructure. I credit Wisconsin’s wins way more to year-round community orgs like BLOC than the Dems.
Hi Libby, Sounds as though we should do an article on BLOC. Any suggestions for an angle that would be pertinent to grassroots volunteers and leaders? Any suggestions for a first contact?
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the WisDems. Rural Dems across the country are being ignored. Organizations like the Rural Democracy Initiative are trying to change that. Ben Wikler's track record extends far beyond fundraising. The WisDems are the best state party in the country.
We came the closest to winning the Presidential election in Wisconsin than any other state and did win the US Senate race, unlike PA whose state Party is pitiful.
If we had leadership even 1/4 as good as Ben, Bob Casey would still be in the Senate.
Democratic candidates & politicians are called crooked, losers & extremists. But we are grandparents, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers. Shop for groceries & play in parks. Live in small & large apartments, houses & farms in large & small cities. A vital prelude to any political discussions will require a realignment of the profile(s) of Democrats. People don't join a club they revile & fear. #democratsareeverydaypeople
Point taken. A while back the Washington Post ran an article about home schoolers whose Christian family had convinced them of all sorts of evils of public schools. They had to enroll their kids, tho I forget why and whoa, they found out reality was the exact opposite of the lines they had been fed. It's a big job to rewire assumptions and expectations.
Thank you so much for the work you do, inspiring and connecting the rank and file. Question: In this hopefully new era, is there any conversation about ending the policy that keeps the DNC's national members secret? If that persists, I will have a much harder time trusting them with my time, money and faith.
We can only hope for that much needed transparency. To my mind, you will be able to tell a lot about the new leadership based on those kind of changes that are easy to make. We shall see.
We need a Chair who will get into the Red areas of Blue States & Blue areas of Red states. Nobody should be left out.
Signed and shared on Mastodon and a few private FB groups.
FYI, both Threads and FB (public post) would not let me post the link to this Substack page.
I'll put it inside a Google doc and then share it when I get to my laptop and add that here.
Thanks, Joe. My workaround is to copy and paste part of the article and then say read more on www.grassrootsconnector on substack.com
It's unfortunate that we can't reverse the ban on our content. Thanks for trying!
Got it done. Google Doc with link to this article is at https://docs.google.com/document/d/17kzJrYV-EMCAmMVzsBeGI4MNTnazFbRrdeP4UDDdtfk/
Thank you!
I am all in! Ben Wikler caught my attention (from Virginia) during the height of the pandemic with his innovative operation of WisDems. He understands grassroots and knows how to motivate us. Bravo!
As a rural Wisconsin dem who saw my community once again be completely ignored by the wisdems, I can’t agree less. Ben’s a great fundraiser, little more. We’re not building an authentic grassroots infrastructure. I credit Wisconsin’s wins way more to year-round community orgs like BLOC than the Dems.
Hi Libby, Sounds as though we should do an article on BLOC. Any suggestions for an angle that would be pertinent to grassroots volunteers and leaders? Any suggestions for a first contact?
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the WisDems. Rural Dems across the country are being ignored. Organizations like the Rural Democracy Initiative are trying to change that. Ben Wikler's track record extends far beyond fundraising. The WisDems are the best state party in the country.
Let's push to rid ourselves of VAN: https://networknova.substack.com/p/every-actionngpvan-must-go
Did we win Wisconsin? No.
We came the closest to winning the Presidential election in Wisconsin than any other state and did win the US Senate race, unlike PA whose state Party is pitiful.
If we had leadership even 1/4 as good as Ben, Bob Casey would still be in the Senate.
Democratic candidates & politicians are called crooked, losers & extremists. But we are grandparents, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers. Shop for groceries & play in parks. Live in small & large apartments, houses & farms in large & small cities. A vital prelude to any political discussions will require a realignment of the profile(s) of Democrats. People don't join a club they revile & fear. #democratsareeverydaypeople
Point taken. A while back the Washington Post ran an article about home schoolers whose Christian family had convinced them of all sorts of evils of public schools. They had to enroll their kids, tho I forget why and whoa, they found out reality was the exact opposite of the lines they had been fed. It's a big job to rewire assumptions and expectations.
Thank you so much for the work you do, inspiring and connecting the rank and file. Question: In this hopefully new era, is there any conversation about ending the policy that keeps the DNC's national members secret? If that persists, I will have a much harder time trusting them with my time, money and faith.
We can only hope for that much needed transparency. To my mind, you will be able to tell a lot about the new leadership based on those kind of changes that are easy to make. We shall see.