I’ve been thinking about the deeper meaning of the effort to bring in so many voices at the Democratic National Convention.
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Heidi Li Feldmanreplied to Heidi Li Feldman last edited by
I think that Harris is looking beyond the election itself and realizing that if she wins, her administration will be the first step in rebuilding the American ideal. She wants, I believe to restore our politics to one where we have normal political disagreements. These can be fierce but they are not about the primacy of popular sovereignty and democracy; rule of law and rejection of dictatorship. 2/
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i hope it's a first step to getting them either into the democrats or at least willing to reach across the aisle and start having more bipartisan legislation.
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Heidi Li Feldmanreplied to Heidi Li Feldman last edited by
We have been enduring a national political trauma, a mostly cold civil war. We are going to need a decades-long reconstruction of our secular, pluralistic, constitutional democracy. This is an effort that will have to take place at the local and the state levels as well as the federal one. Harris gets this, it appears. Her Dem Convention featured mayors, state executive and legislative officers, and members of the federal government. 3/
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Heidi Li Feldmanreplied to Heidi Li Feldman last edited by
More profoundly even, is that Harris seems to be running as the embodiment of a reconstructed political normalcy. This is why she can coherently appeal to firm progressives, to self-labeled Republicans, and to independents. It is also, frankly, why her campaign is going to incur unprecedented expenses. She is not only trying to win the presidency, she is trying to lay the cornerstone of a restoration of the American project. 4/
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Heidi Li Feldmanreplied to Heidi Li Feldman last edited by
Harris is running so that we can fight over policies and programs, but can agree that America aspires to have a government by the people and for the people, where the law binds everybody including the most powerful and prominent, where the vote is accessible to all, and we use voting —not a rogue Supreme Court or an autocratic executive —to decide the course of our polity. 5/
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Heidi Li Feldmanreplied to Heidi Li Feldman last edited by
In sum, Harris is running to refound our country, to rededicate the American union to its most distinctive ideals. That is both a necessary and a daunting project. It is going to take every conversation, every postcard, every phone call, every plan to vote, every actually cast ballot - and yes, every dollar we can muster. 6/
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Heidi Li Feldmanreplied to Heidi Li Feldman last edited by
If you can spare a buck or two or more, please donate at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mastodon-for-harris. For information on phone banking and postcard writing see the feeds of @PamelaBarroway. For information and morale building follow @KamalaHarrisWin. 7/7
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@paul_ipv6 @heidilifeldman It's a commendable goal, and I think she's done an excellent job walking the tightrope. I'm just hoping she doesn't drag the party further to the right in the process.
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@nazgul @paul_ipv6 @heidilifeldman Bear in mind that the whole “she’s a cop” thing turns out to have been someone talking shit who didn’t actually do the research, but had a lot of followers.
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Excellent thread @[email protected] ... you can clearly see the influence of Obama 2008 campaign in her approach (and I mean that as a compliment!).
And @[email protected] I agree with the basic concern, although I'd phrase it differently -- not so much in terms of her dragging the party to the right as reinforcing "political normalcy" as it's been since the 1970s: centrists and corporatists in both parties working together against progressives (and often siding with conservatives in the process). It's sobering looking at the Dem's platform on immigration and policing as it compares to the Dem platform of four years ago. That said this was as much or even more of a risk with Biden running -- and there are a lot of issues where I think Harris has a much deeper understanding than Biden, including some important ones where she's clearly more progressive than he is.
@[email protected] No, actually, Harris described herself as "California's top cop" in 2016 when she was California's AG (the state's chief law enforcement officer) and running for Senate. And for many people, her law enforcement background as part of her appeal. So bear in mind that there's a lot of misinformation and disinformation floating around on all sides., and be careful about accepting claims like "it was just someone talking shit" without doing your own research.
@[email protected]
#uspol