To the editor:
I read with interest that during the recent candidates’ forum for Democratic challengers in Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District, Dan Koh stated that Democrats need to fight harder, otherwise they won’t make it to the midterms. What does this mean?
Congressional Democrats don’t control the House or the Senate, so how should they fight? Front line Democratic activists have just completely out-maneuvered ICE and the Border Patrol in Minneapolis leading to the ouster of Greg Bovino and sidelining of Kristi Noem. But at the cost of the lives of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. How much more fight
can they provide?
Fighting is all well and good, but it requires a plan and I hear a lot of Democrats call for more fighting but no plan.
Here is my plan: win more elections.
Instead of waving our hand at the feel-good notion of fighting harder, which raises unrealistic expectations among the base of what we can achieve without control of Congress, let’s win more elections.
Rick Jakious nodded at this during the same forum when he said winning the midterms is what the Democratic Party needs, and that we do that by creating a bigger tent party. Precisely correct. This will be the worst year to run as a Republican since at least 2008. Stubbornly high prices. Americans executed in the streets. The protection of a vast pedophile ring. Graft and corruption stretching into the billions of dollars. These are stains that don’t rub out.
I still believe we can save the republic, but it will take more than a blue wave. It will take a blue tsunami. We only get that through a plan to expand the tent and be competitive in more places.
We need leaders who can find the candidate in Wyoming who believes in individual liberties, including for trans people, but sincerely believes those liberties extend to the right to bear arms. We need to find the evangelical in Ohio whose faith means they believe in healthcare for the poor, but also restricting access to abortion to promote a
culture of life. And we need the climate activist in Florida who wants to build a zero-carbon grid, but thinks we need to slash government regulation to do it.
Winning is the first liberal value. Without the Congressional majorities of FDR, LBJ and Obama we do not get the New Deal, Civil Rights Act or the Affordable Care Act.
True liberals want to win. In the Senate primary that is Seth Moulton. And in the House primary I think that is the man who worked for him, Rick Jakious.
Nick Ward
Rolleston Road
