it’s been a very depressing few months for those of us who are any combination of smart or empathetic. it’s bad news all the time from every angle. it feels like the bad people are winning (and they are, right now, because the country let them) and there is no way back. it doesn’t help to see what feels like everyone gleefully taking a blowtorch to the only political party in the country that forewarned of all of this and took enormous steps to prevent it from happening.
it’s too early to tell for sure - but to me in this moment, 2024 is 2004, not 1980. john kerry ran against george w. bush and lost the popular vote, and the deciding state (ohio…) by the tiniest margin. the party was demoralized, and everyone wrote our obituary and tore us apart. ...but does anyone remember what happened in 2006? then in 2008?
apart from the historic election of President Barack Obama - 2008 saw the election of a meaningfully blue congressional and senate majority. among them was Kathy Dahlkemper, who was the first democrat to win the pa-3 (now pa-16) congressional district in 32 years.
because of that election, democrats saved the economy after a major republican-led crash, passed the affordable care act, the most meaningful healthcare reform in history, and a slew of other era-defining legislation.
I got to sit down with the former congresswoman and Erie county executive and go through just some of the ‘greatest hits.’ of her career, the larger causes to which her presence in those positions contributed to, and the political courage it took to accomplish all of the above.
apart from being so refreshing to hear about the details of policy - it is quite the pick-me-up to be able to look into the face of a person who contributed so much to america’s comeback after such a disastrous era, and through it - believe that we will again.
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