dagblog - Comments for "Playing Defense and Still Losing "

Better than I could have said

Michael Wolraich — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 00:19:00 +0000

In reply to Thanks for this, David. We

Better than I could have said myself.

Thanks for this, David. We

Michael Maiello — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 03:33:02 +0000

In reply to Playing Defense and Still Losing

Thanks for this, David. We're headed into midterms as Obama has had his ambitions, foreign and domestic, derailed by international events. The idea of a long game has, sadly, long eluded the left event while the right has, since the 1970s, been building the foundations of movement, after movement, after movement.

Since you brought up, Unreasonable Men, I'll also bring up Blowing Smoke -- the common themes in both of Michael's books is that long dated movements work, but only if the party behind it can withstand the shocks of temporary losses. Some of those losses, by the way, will seem existential, but they aren't.

The Republicans show us this again and again as the Tea Party unseats incumbent who would surely win, only to replace them with long shot candidates. Most of the time, their long shot lose. They do not apologize for that. Sometimes, their long shots win. They dance in the endzone.

The Democrats and the people who back them are a cautious bunch. We're always trying to do the rational thing here and now (politically) while not building a long future. The irony is that conservative thinking is all about the here and now in a practical sense (what can we get?) while it jeopardizes everyone in both the short and long term.

The party of a two term

Flavius — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 02:32:35 +0000

In reply to Playing Defense and Still Losing

The party of a two term president always loses seats in the sixth year's election. We can hypothesize various explanations but why bother.That's a fact with which the candidates of the presidential party have to deal.Probably by pretending that if elected they'll be independent of that guy in the White House.

I wouldn't advise them otherwise.

Wonderful to see you back at

Michael Wolraich — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 19:07:00 +0000

In reply to Playing Defense and Still Losing

Wonderful to see you back at dag, David! Great piece, and thanks so much for the discussion of Unreasonable Men.