General Discussion

(Sorry, I'm about to wander off to work for the rest of the day).

Your last point is so crucial. The status quo increasingly doesn't work. I've seen a lot of good arguments that this really began in earnest during the financial collapse of 2008, and the avalanche has just been picking up steam on its way down the mountain ever since.

But our politics have been very status quo. We set ourselves up as the status quo. Quite proudly, I think. Which is an understandable impulse in the face of Trump crazy. We very much want to say, "Look, we're not that."

But the status quo doesn't work. Certainly not for young people. Definitely for Millennials on down, where it's been a shitshow from the word go. Social politics can only go so far. At the end of the day, people have to eat. I take care of four nieces and nephews aged 18-23. I see the costs, their wages, their debt, and their prospects. I didn't see prospects that daunting even 20 years ago.

"Who wants more of what we've been doing for the past 20 years?!" is not a great campaign slogan. We have to somehow thread the needle between status quo and Trump. "We're not crazy, but yeah, we hate all this shit too."

Put that on a bumper sticker.