Utah Democrats, afraid to preach to the choir

Reading some of the commentary surrounding the UT1 Democratic nomination race, arguably the first time in a generation Utah Democrats have had a green flag to fully flex, snippets of some mostly forgotten essay I'd read kept coming to mind. I finally found it in my embarrassingly long list of good think piece notes. 

It's by award winning author and activist Rebecca Solnit, and it's extremely relevant as words like "unity" and "bipartisan" and "nice"  "alienating" and have been thrown around by candidates and supporters in the Dem's nomination race. TL;DR: Utah Democrats have been talking only to moderate Republicans and the (imagined?) gettable unaffiliated for so long, they've forgotten what Utah Democrats even are. 

So, in defense of, and on rediscovering the importance of "speaking to the choir," Solnit:

One of the most excruciating rites of recent presidential elections was the debates in which “undecided” or swing voters were brought in to ask questions of the candidates. The premise behind the spectacle is that candidates win by competing for those not sure of whether they are for or against civil rights, tax cuts for the rich, and so on. Yet much evidence suggests that political organizations benefit most from motivating those who already agree with them, and that the Democrats in particular find the most success by pursuing people who don’t know whether they’ll vote, rather than how they’ll vote. This means reaching constituents who, historically, have been less likely to go to the polling booth: the poor, the young, the non-white. Republicans know this, which is why they’ve worked hard to perfect voter suppression tactics that target those populations.

Centrist Democrats (not to be confused with moderates or idependents) nationally demand wooing Republicans. It's coded into their dogma and ideology. Because most Centrist Democrats are actually just very moderate Republicans. But in Utah, Democrats have had to embrace a similar tact, necessarily, in many parts of the state, where only moderate Dems might win. A reality that has become so ingrained in, it's completely erased, outside of yearly conventions and fundraisers, any broad public narrative about what it means to be a Utah Democrat. 

The UT1 race presents an opportunity for Utah Democrats to rediscover an identity not defined only by what the party, paid consultants, and reactionary donors think moderate Republicans or unaffiliated voters want to hear. It's been encouraging to see party chair Brian King appear to understand this more than predecessors. But UT1 is an unexpected, and urgent opportunity.

I urge Democratic candidates and voters and party leaders to read Solnit's full essay (and, unrelated, find time for her books A Paradise Built in Hell and Men Explain Things to Me), then not be afraid to have public conversations about who they are, in this nomination race and beyond. Because a few things are are always going to be true, either way:

Politics, especially campaign politics, is narrative, story telling. There is no such thing as identity free politics. Centrism is boring. And the number of unaffiliated Utah voters who've been inspired to vote for a Democrat over a Republican because that Democrat sounded like a bored moderate Republican wouldn't fill a UTA bus. All voters need to be inspired to show up, and all voters will be, eventually. In all political environments, parties and candidates are either selling a narrative or responding to one. 

Preach to the choir for a while. Explore your identity and figure out what your story is. We all know what it has been, and that hasn't been working.