In response to Mister Jones’s question about what’s next for this blog, I’ll share what’s next for me now that my preferred candidate is figuring out what’s next for him (much less interesting than the future of the blog, to be sure, but I can see why he cares).

My headspace includes the following thoughts:

1. Since 1988, with the exception of 2008 and 2012, all of my presidential votes have been against the Repbulican party.  I’ve accepted other people’s math that I can’t vote for what I want, that I must defeat the enemy.  I’m doing it again, but I want more.
2. Sanders 2016 has proven:  1) you can succeed in national campaigns with many small donations from human beings; 2) people will come out in shocking numbers for political ideas and politicians that conventional wisdom declares DOA; 3) you can fill venue after venue after venue with shocking numbers – even if you haven’t flown in on a private jet funded by a reality TV show.
3. Key issues, like the $15 minimum wage, can become national requirements for a democratic candidate with enough local, grassroots pressure.
4. Local power and popular pressure can move national candidates (and maybe keep them there).
5. FDR’s challenge to Sidney Hillman – “that’s a great idea, now go out and make me do it” – has renewed importance.
6. Mass media and advertising in presidential elections no longer holds the sway it did during the heydays.
7. Partly because of the declining efficacy of advertising, money in general seems to be holding less sway over voting and voters, even as it increases its power over elected officials.
8. “The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and when they can pick it up. Armed uprising by itself has never yet led to revolution.” (I’ll use the Arendt version rather than Lenin. Both are inferior to John Hodgman’s keen observations about the subject, but I haven’t read enough of his work.)  We need to make sure there’s someone with resources (people rather than money) to pick up the anger in the street.

So, I’m focusing on 2018 in two ways:  1) The Personal Democracy Forum, a conference about technology, organizing, and campaigns; 2) the pipeline and things like Brand New Congress, both of which are identifying, and cultivating, progressive candidates at the local, state, and Congressional level.  All of these initiatives are trying to work alongside, with, and occasionally the existing two parties, but are focused on helping develop progressive candidacies outside of the existing party systems.

I think this is relevant to the Inn – I put in the bullets up top to justify it as an observational post.  And I think the pipeline issue has been hinted at by CVFD in multiple posts.