What _______ said

Russell Saunders 4 Comments

(Sorry to steal your schtick, Elias.)

From the same interview to which my esteemed colleague at Jubilee linked there comes the following quote from Barney Frank, with which I could not possibly agree more heartily:

I believe very strongly that people on the left are too prone to do things that are emotionally satisfying and not politically useful. I have a rule, and it’s true of Occupy, it’s true of the gay-rights movement: If you care deeply about a cause, and you are engaged in an activity on behalf of that cause that is great fun and makes you feel good and warm and enthusiastic, you’re probably not helping, because you’re out there with your friends, and political work is much tougher and harder. And I think it’s now clear that it is the disciplined political work that we’ve been able to do that’s won us victories. I am going to write about the history of the LGBT movement partly to make the point that, in America at least, this is the way you do progressive causes. [emphasis added]

A-fishin’-men.

Russell Saunders

Russell Saunders is the ridiculously flimsy pseudonym of a pediatrician in New England. He has a husband, three sons, daughter, cat and dog, though not in that order. He enjoys reading, running and cooking. He can be contacted at blindeddoc using his Gmail account. Twitter types can follow him @russellsaunder1.

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4 Comments

  1. You mean, you have to talk to people who don’t already agree with you and persuade them that your position is better than the one to which they currently adhere? But… but… That’s hard work, and it involves confrontation and the risk of failure!

    • Partially this but it also means running candidates in small boring local elections, intensely fighting every local issue and building a stable of candidates. That is more about being partisan and aggressive and building a strong team at every level. I admire the effort many social conservatives have put into working towards their goals even though i find their goals odious. But they haven’t been out there listening, they have been out there focused on winning above all else.

      • This is why I’ve had to have some grudging admiration for the Tea Party, certainly as compared to the hapless Occupy quasi-movement. The former knew how to actually achieve an agenda, instead of simply waving signs around.

      • Didn’t Ralph Reed say something like “I’d rather have 20,000 school board seats than the presidency?”

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