Platner and The Purity Trap
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Unfortunately, every race matters and the Maine Senate race is absolutely crucial because control of the majority hangs in the balance. Harris losing the presidency certainly was a catastrophe. Unfortunately we don't have the luxury of just moving on when the choices are both bad. That's what politics almost always is. The least bad of two bad choices.
So choosing to move on, to not vote, is a choice. And one with consequences.
@mastodonmigration @badtux We did this dance in 2018 and 2020. The end result was 2 years of tenuous control, Dems who could not even pass a voting rights act, and who empowered a genocide, and a loss of congress and the return to power of the fascists.
Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results is idiotic. We either establish who we are, JUST AS THE REPUBLICANS HAVE, or we get at best, very temporary gains.
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@reflex @FIAR_Light @mastodonmigration There's another front to fight this war on, and it's within the party.
We're stuck in a two party system. So until we take ownership of one of those parties, we have the same shitty choices. It's actually pretty simple if you look past how frustrating it is.
@liquor_american @FIAR_Light @mastodonmigration I absolutely agree with this. In WA state where I was a chair and vice chair for six years, I worked with other new leaders to gut the Dems, removing every 'broken stair' from the county and LD orgs. Once we had eliminated the abusers, volunteers more than doubled. We ran candidates to the left, always and ended up taking more seats than ever before in the county, even in red areas.
My friend Shasti Conrad took over the state party afterwards.
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@mastodonmigration @badtux We did this dance in 2018 and 2020. The end result was 2 years of tenuous control, Dems who could not even pass a voting rights act, and who empowered a genocide, and a loss of congress and the return to power of the fascists.
Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results is idiotic. We either establish who we are, JUST AS THE REPUBLICANS HAVE, or we get at best, very temporary gains.
This line of argument is effectively that it is better let the fascists win than compromise on principles, and we see very clearly the result of that.
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@liquor_american @FIAR_Light @mastodonmigration I absolutely agree with this. In WA state where I was a chair and vice chair for six years, I worked with other new leaders to gut the Dems, removing every 'broken stair' from the county and LD orgs. Once we had eliminated the abusers, volunteers more than doubled. We ran candidates to the left, always and ended up taking more seats than ever before in the county, even in red areas.
My friend Shasti Conrad took over the state party afterwards.
@liquor_american @FIAR_Light @mastodonmigration Her run as state party chair has led to a supermajority in the legislature and Dems in every single statewide office. And turned out more votes for Kamala in 2024 than for Biden in 2020.
To do this we boxed out and removed 'visionary' and 'inspirational' and 'need this questionable person to win this purple district' candidates regardless of short term consequences.
But it won us the state, and continues to do so.
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@mastodonmigration @badtux My position is we must actually BE better to win elections sustainably. Compromising our principles for short term gain costs us in the long run, and the past 30 years are proof of that. If we don't rebuild now our losses will only become more catastrophic.
Continuing to pretend we can hold back the tide while compromising on our values increases the cost of doing the real work needed for a sustainable party.
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@liquor_american @FIAR_Light @mastodonmigration Her run as state party chair has led to a supermajority in the legislature and Dems in every single statewide office. And turned out more votes for Kamala in 2024 than for Biden in 2020.
To do this we boxed out and removed 'visionary' and 'inspirational' and 'need this questionable person to win this purple district' candidates regardless of short term consequences.
But it won us the state, and continues to do so.
@reflex @FIAR_Light @mastodonmigration That's really awesome, and I think you should tell that story every chance you get, especially in settings like this where a lot of like-minded people might not have a unified vision of how to succeed within this messy system.
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@mastodonmigration @badtux My position is we must actually BE better to win elections sustainably. Compromising our principles for short term gain costs us in the long run, and the past 30 years are proof of that. If we don't rebuild now our losses will only become more catastrophic.
Continuing to pretend we can hold back the tide while compromising on our values increases the cost of doing the real work needed for a sustainable party.
Right, so for you it is better to lose than compromise your principles, even if the opponent is worse. That is a logically consistent position.
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@reflex @FIAR_Light @mastodonmigration That's really awesome, and I think you should tell that story every chance you get, especially in settings like this where a lot of like-minded people might not have a unified vision of how to succeed within this messy system.
@liquor_american @reflex @FIAR_Light
Agreed.
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@mastodonmigration @badtux Again, it is my position that taking short term hits builds a long term movement. And we need a long term movement, not one senate seat this one time.
Most of the time these men turn out to be pretenders anyway. Do you *really* think a privileged white boy who talked online about joining the military rather than going to college to kill people, has an active kik account and is a sex pest is going to be better than Fetterman? He won't.
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@reflex @FIAR_Light @mastodonmigration That's really awesome, and I think you should tell that story every chance you get, especially in settings like this where a lot of like-minded people might not have a unified vision of how to succeed within this messy system.
@liquor_american @FIAR_Light @mastodonmigration This is the 'inspirational young leader' that united us to clean things up. We were told repeatedly we were kneecapping the party by fighting to remove him and his allies.
https://www.kuow.org/stories/chair-king-county-democrats-resigns-amidst-harassment-investigation/
Instead it lead to a party renaissance that is still growing, even if it made our party completely broken for a while and cost us some elections that year.
It was an investment in a sustainable future.
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@liquor_american @FIAR_Light @mastodonmigration This is the 'inspirational young leader' that united us to clean things up. We were told repeatedly we were kneecapping the party by fighting to remove him and his allies.
https://www.kuow.org/stories/chair-king-county-democrats-resigns-amidst-harassment-investigation/
Instead it lead to a party renaissance that is still growing, even if it made our party completely broken for a while and cost us some elections that year.
It was an investment in a sustainable future.
@liquor_american @FIAR_Light @mastodonmigration This was the team that we organized to rebuild:
Shasti is now state party chair and the leaders we developed have taken over many local party orgs, several seats in the legislature and many other positions where they continue the values we stood for, again despite the temporary losses our initial takeover resulted in.
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@mastodonmigration @badtux Again, it is my position that taking short term hits builds a long term movement. And we need a long term movement, not one senate seat this one time.
Most of the time these men turn out to be pretenders anyway. Do you *really* think a privileged white boy who talked online about joining the military rather than going to college to kill people, has an active kik account and is a sex pest is going to be better than Fetterman? He won't.
Understood. In this case you think it is better in the long run that the Democrats do not win the Senate majority than elect Platner. In 2024 it was better that Trump win than elect Harris due to her support for Israel. In the long run these defeats will make the party better. Again, that is a logical position. A lot of people will suffer for it, but it is not an inconsistent stance. It is also precisely why purity traps are so effective.
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Understood. In this case you think it is better in the long run that the Democrats do not win the Senate majority than elect Platner. In 2024 it was better that Trump win than elect Harris due to her support for Israel. In the long run these defeats will make the party better. Again, that is a logical position. A lot of people will suffer for it, but it is not an inconsistent stance. It is also precisely why purity traps are so effective.
@mastodonmigration @badtux It's not about electing Platner or not. It's about putting our resources into candidates who uphold our stated party values. It's about those values demonstrating the importance of the humanity of each and every person we claim to be representing, in full.
Again, it works, it can cause short term pain, but you know what we don't have in WA now? Back and forth districts. We have gained every single election, even ones where Reps were ascendant nationally.
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@FIAR_Light @liquor_american @mastodonmigration I posted this in another part of the thread, but this was required reading for the board of any org I ran (Julia Reed, former third vice chair of KC Dems and now state leg representative sent it to me) to understand how broken stairs and moral compromise ruin organizations: https://truthout.org/articles/why-misogynists-make-great-informants/
It's not really about 'informants' per say, it's how misogynists/bigots/etc are indistinguishable from informants in the corrosiveness of their impact.
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@mastodonmigration The Purity Trap is enabled primarily by the Purity Ponies, single-issue persons who will spend hours arguing with you that issue X totally disqualifies a politician. For example Kamala didn't come out immediately saying that Jews were Nazis exterminating Palestinians so that totally disqualified Kamala from being President. Despite the multitude of other reasons she would have been a better President than the orange underwear skidmark. #PurityPony #fail #politics
@badtux @mastodonmigration I wouldn't call them single-issue persons. Because it's not just a single issue with them. They will switch to whatever is the only important issue as the reason to not vote for the Democrat in the next upcoming election.
And also, this single issue which is supposedly so important will NOT apply to the Republican opponent. It doesn't matter how much worse the Republican opponent is on this supposedly important issue.
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Platner and The Purity Trap
Feel like these last few days in Maine can be a teachable moment. What we are seeing play out is political information warfare that could be branded a "purity trap".
Purity trap tactics have their roots in the swift boating of John Kerry and the destruction of Al Franken. Purity traps were run effectively against 'Genocide' Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
So, let's talk about 'purity traps'...
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@mastodonmigration I'm just replying to show support for the fact that this Purity Trap stuff is true and a problem.
Looking at the replies ... I see the usual denial.
I don't have anything interesting to add to your explanation. I'm just chiming in support and agreement.
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@mastodonmigration @badtux It's not about electing Platner or not. It's about putting our resources into candidates who uphold our stated party values. It's about those values demonstrating the importance of the humanity of each and every person we claim to be representing, in full.
Again, it works, it can cause short term pain, but you know what we don't have in WA now? Back and forth districts. We have gained every single election, even ones where Reps were ascendant nationally.
Applaud your experience in reforming the party, but this is not an intra party matter. This is for control of the Senate.
That's what is at stake here. Your position seems to be losing this fight is worth it in order to achieve reform. That is a valid position, but it comes with a consequence. Unchecked GOP fascist power. Continued ICE raids. Destruction of science. Another two Supreme Court seats.
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Applaud your experience in reforming the party, but this is not an intra party matter. This is for control of the Senate.
That's what is at stake here. Your position seems to be losing this fight is worth it in order to achieve reform. That is a valid position, but it comes with a consequence. Unchecked GOP fascist power. Continued ICE raids. Destruction of science. Another two Supreme Court seats.
@mastodonmigration @badtux 1) Yes, because backing abusers costs us in the long run, we've been swinging back and forth because we keep backing 'winners' rather than backing people who live by our values
2) There are other races with better candidates
3) Dems are the party of ICE and Obama still holds the record for the most deportations. That's just a fact.
4) Elect Dems who will expand the SCOTUS.
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@mastodonmigration @badtux 1) Yes, because backing abusers costs us in the long run, we've been swinging back and forth because we keep backing 'winners' rather than backing people who live by our values
2) There are other races with better candidates
3) Dems are the party of ICE and Obama still holds the record for the most deportations. That's just a fact.
4) Elect Dems who will expand the SCOTUS.
Just so we are clear. Yes, above means go ahead and lose the Senate rather than elect Platner. That is your advice.
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@mastodonmigration @badtux Again, the party has choices it can make. What we don't do to support an abuser like Platner could go to win another seat. Maine is not the only option.
Why not divert to Talarico in Texas? Unlike Platner he won't stain the party, harm women and polls give him a damn good chance.
