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Ideas primary

There is only 18 months to the next US presidential election so naturally the campaigning is already in full swing.  😒

The Democrats are doing something right now called an Ideas Primary, which I kind of love the idea of.  One of the things that America as a whole needs is a an open stage to throw out ideas and have a robust conversation about the direction of the country.

The trouble is that a lot of the new progressives that have been elected back in the midterm election last November are being treated as fringe candidates with fringe ideas and those ideas are not getting talked about in this ideas primary.  If it wasn't for Bernie Sanders we probably wouldn't even be talking about Medicare For All, and it is troubling for me that there isn't much talk about a Green New Deal.

I think what I would really like to see in an ideas primary is a town hall where organizers from the Black Lives Matter, The Parkland Students, Greta Thunberg or someone like her, someone that is in charge of border security and someone that can represent the people stuck in the Dreamers program all get time to talk.  I want to hear what intelligent people with first hand knowledge of the problems have to say about what they think would work or not work and why.  Then I want to hear each candidate respond to these people.  I want to see 19 Democratic candidates look survivors of a school shooting in the face and tell them what they think is achievable and how they can do it!

That would give us what is missing from this "Ideas Primary"..... IDEAS.

I also think that if the Democratic Party came up with a strong platform of ideas that came out through public debate over the course of 18 months they would be unstoppable in the general election.  It would engage the entire liberal side of the electorate in the process and bring out more voters when it matters.  It might make getting cooperate donors and Super Pac money a little harder but I think Bernie proved you can win with grassroots donors and don't need the dirty money.

But seriously, a three hour townhall special with representatives from Black Lives Matter, March For Our Lives, an environmental alliance, Latino groups, Teacher Unions, and lets have a debate about what needs to be done and how to do it.

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