the other frustrating thing is that Slotkin - & she’s not the only one - consistently confuses tactics with strategy & vision. https://twitter.com/noboa/status/1327328520742133760

Briefly: STRATEGY is a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim; VISION is what you’d ultimately like to achieve; TACTICS are much smaller, specific, concrete actions that help achieve your strategy.

Too many folks confuse tactics for strategy/vision.

We Democrats have no unifying vision; which means we have no strategy — & as a result we spend way too much time on short-term tactics. These excerpts from the Slotkin article illustrate what I mean:

I’m all for insulin subsidies! They’re fantastic. But they’re just a tactic. They don’t build up to a larger, overarching strategy or vision of where Democrats want to take American society.

The whole article, Slotkin struggles & pushes back at this: we can’t do bold stuff!

Say what you will about M4A or GND, but they are broad statements of what those Democrats want US society to be: a fairer, more equal & just society made so by a robust gov’t that delivers justice & welfare for the many, not the few.

Is that what Slotkin believes? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

She’d say she believes in that, too. I disagree; we can’t achieve that kind of society by doing things at the margins. Moreover, we can’t achieve that kind of society unless we’re bold & forthright about it, & we make the arguments for it, boldly & forthrightly.

You can’t run away from making that argument. That’s what they’re doing. The other side is going to charge you with making it, so you might as well fucking make it.

You might lose. That sucks, but at least you lose on your feet, standing for something.

the other thing I’d point out is that as @pareene laid out here, the policy specifics don’t really matter. Something like M4A or the GND is really a tactic, or a set of tactics, to achieve a goal. My fellow lefties get hung up on this on the regular! https://newrepublic.com/article/160094/democrats-message-just-doesnt-matter

The best thing about Bernie’s runs in ’16 & ’20 (& the rise of The Squad™, &c) is that *now* we’re having the argument we need about what Democrats stand for.

If this is something that makes you pause, ask yourself why. You should want to fight this fight. If not, why?

I’m going to think some more about this, but the time for equivocation is over. You’re either in the fight, or you’re not. You either believe in justice for all - even if it discomforts you - or you don’t. Bending the moral arc of the universe can’t happen without a fight.