Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

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Jon Green

How Did Jon Green Do?

June 9, 2021 /

Jon Green – former mayor of Lone Tree known to many locals as a Sanders-wing Democrat wearing a cowboy hat – won the Democratic nomination for Johnson County Supervisor. Sanders even endorsed him. And then he defeated Phil Hemingway for the special election victory.

I briefly mentioned Green last month in a post about the perils facing Iowa Democrats in the 2020s. In short, I think the Democrats stand little chance to win statewide the rest of this decade. Why? National demographic changes in voting leave them with a base that’s too small to win. I argued that Iowa Democrats should, in response, re-imagine and rework their base for the future. They should organize new voters and run new sorts of candidates.

Candidates like Jon Green. Or Stacey Walker, or Cathy Glasson. Were I to approach the topic in more detail, I’d suggest Mazahir Salih as a possibility. The point is that Democrats should run candidates who will focus on immigrants, low-wage workers, non-voters, POC voters, and other growing populations in the state of Iowa who don’t currently vote Democratic but whose interests align with the left.

So, how did Jon Green do? Did he help make the case that he could do some of these things statewide?

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Persist: Warren’s Campaign Bio

June 7, 2021 /

Persist Warren

Elizabeth Warren published a book called Persist. She said it’s not a campaign bio, but that’s how it goes with politicians. Persist is, of course, a campaign bio. Warren tells her story through chapters on her own roles in life – a mother, teacher, planner, fighter, learner, and woman. As with her campaign itself, Warren organizes the book around a tight theme. Warren builds Persist around a broader policy vision.

In this post, I’ll take a look at Warren’s book, building on some of the points in my own eBook on the Warren campaign.

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Left Foreign Policy (New Book!)

May 26, 2021 /

Left Foreign Policy An Organizer's Guide

I spent much of my Pandemic Year hard at work on a new book. And now I’m ready to announce its release! I called the book Left Foreign Policy: An Organizer’s Guide. You can buy the paperback version at the link above. Here’s a page where you can read an in-depth description.

But on this page, I’ll say a bit about the target audience. It’s a book on left foreign policy at a very 101-level. I wrote it for new leftists and for organizers holding discussions with new leftists. In the book, I lay out some general principles for foreign policy organizing, and I invite new leftists to see internationalism as a key piece of leftist strategy and work. So, from this starting point, we can do better organizing.

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