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Purity versus diversity
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“After all, that’s how the Democrats returned to power on Capitol Hill – by recruiting anti-abortion, pro-gun, fiscally conservative candidates who fit their states and districts.”
So we should combat that by running Republicans who are pro-abortion, pro-union, etc? Those Democrats won by acting like conservatives. We will win by being conservative as well.
Liberal or conservative, what’s more important is to present solutions. Presently, Republicans are a party against everything, and no solutions.
And Democrats won because they decided to play local, opening their candidacy to people who actually represent the local establishment. I overheard a joke once about Alaskan politics: “What is an Alaskan Democrat? Someone with a .37 gun.”
Even the joke has a grain of truth: running an anti-gun Democrat in Alaska is political suicide. The opposite is true: running an anti-abortion Republican in California is political suicide. You can’t expect that all states share the same values and views. Heck, you can’t expect *districts* within the same state to share the same values and views. Therefore, running a template candidate on all districts and states will only win* those districts and states that are most similar.