Progressives or, indeed, anyone pointing to a new direction in political life, often find that as they get close to victory, some of their supporters begin to have doubts and fall away.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. pointed to this phenomenon in his account of the 1960 presidential election in A Thousand Days. Kennedy was ahead of Nixon in the campaign’s internal polls for much of the race. But then in the last few weeks the gap closed. Schlesinger’s explanation was that Kennedy was not only offering something new and different to the American electorate but was younger than the typical presidential candidate. And that combination ran up against the inherent conservatism of human beings.
Most of us find change hard. We find new idea, new approaches, and new directions challenging. And that’s true even if we are dissatisfied with much of the status quo.
We know what to expect from things as they are. Our problems are familiar. We know they are coming. We have found ways to deal with them.
But we don’t know what to expect from a new direction or even new opportunity. We don’t our lives might change. And while we my hope for something better, we are often more worried about what we might lose than what we might gain.
I’ve never had that problem. I’ve never feared changed. I’m with John Cage, who once said, “I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” But I’ve had enough experience through out my life of having to cajole, push, and drag people to try something new to know that Schlesinger’s observation was fundamentally right.
The 3rd District Congressional Election is a choice between a candidate who is bold and different and one who will tread the path that others have taken. And in the last week or so I’ve seen the fear of change—the concern that something new will go off the rails—rise among some people who want to support the agent of change, Chris Rabb, but are now unsure.
The US badly needs a new direction. And Democrats must point to it.
- Our economy does not work for most of us.
- The lives of anyone but white males are threatened by a resurgence of white supremacy and patriarchy.
- Global warming is upon us and creating problems faster than even the experts expected.
- Trump’s MAGA movement is violating our constitution, threatening our rights, and undermining our representative democracy every single day.
And those of us who care about Israel should recognize that it’s government, like our own, is embracing fascism internally and endless war externally, pushing peace further away and giving antisemites permission to rise up against us.
Despite all this, despite the horrible record of Donald Trump, despite the inflation and unending war, the Democratic Party is distrusted and unloved.
To deal with our problems Democrats need a different way of talking to the public, a different vision for our future and a different way of leading.
Frankly, I’m not exactly sure what that looks like, although it is something I and many others have been thinking all year. (I previewed some of my ideas that Chris shares the other day.)
I don’t think Chris Rabb is entirely sure what it would look like either.
But I know one thing. If Chris Rabb is our member of Congress he will not be afraid to join in a conversation about a different direction for Democrats and the future of our country and world. He will be listening for new ideas and contributing his own. He will just us in the collective rethinking of what we Democrats want for our country and what we offer to the public.
And while Sharif Street is a good and decent man, I fear he will be far less open to those conversations and the ideas and directions that come out of them.
Chris’s readiness for a new approach to politics, public policy, and communications is, I fully understand, threatening to many people. It rubs up against our all too human fear of change.
I urge you not to give into this fear.
I urge you to recognize that we simply can’t keep going down the path we are on.
I urge you to vote for something new and different, even if we can’t quite see more than an outline of what it looks like
I urge you to elect a member of Congress who will join in and help lead the immensely important effort to make a break with the past and embrace a different future, one that leads to justice and inclusion, democracy and peace, here and abroad.