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MCD's avatar

Hi Christian,

I'm a D65 parent, lifelong Democrat, blah blah blah. I am not at all surprised that Trump won. The writing was on the wall for anyone who bothered to read it.

I know that you're running for the school board, so perhaps you're open to feedback. I commend you for running - it's a hard job right now, and we need smart people to do it.

Respectfully, the vibe you're giving off in the comments is, IMO, not the vibe that Evanstonians want to hear right now from a potential board member. You sound like an angry incumbent defending himself against...well, it's kind of unclear...and blaming the weather to boot.

We want a board who will actually listen to us, not yell, hide, or make excuses. As Ezra Klein recently said, if Dems want to get out this (shit)hole they dug themselves into, they need to show curiosity, not contempt.

Thank you, for listening.

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Tom Hayden's avatar

From now on, I declare the party to be run by Ezra Klein and John Fetterman

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Tracy's avatar

The issue is Fetterman & Klein think that when volunteers go to a door and they talk to someone who is an undecided voter, we get to fill in the blanks and promote policy, etc., and hopefully persuade them. Instead, we are going to the door of someone who just watched a six part TikTok series about Kamala & Diddy with Biden as a supporting character and wants to educate us.

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Tom Hayden's avatar

Okay maybe the party should be run by Ezra Klein, John Fetterman, and the dude that makes Skibiti toilet analysis vidoes

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JE's avatar

Not sure if you are joking but I think that Ezra Klein and John Fetterman are a core part of what they need to win going forward. And before this election, I would wager about 20% of Dem party's most progressive members were ready to boot Fetterman out if they could.

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MCD's avatar

I think (hope) he’s being serious…?

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Tom Hayden's avatar

I was 100% being serious

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Christian Sorensen's avatar

I tend to like Governors because they get things done, so I'll go for Whitmer/Evers/Pritzker et al. Not a fan of the pundit class, I always think its hyper reactive and I can't imagine them having their conversations at actual canvasses with real people and real problems.

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JE's avatar

Yes, any future D65 candidates who bill themselves as progressives need to admit the terrible mistakes of their predecessors and tell how they would operate differently (such as valuing the quality of Supt candidate experience over a candidate's ethnicity, recognizing that valuing education fundamentals is needed even for progressives, pledging open search processes and town halls to actually seek out feedback rather than just holding forums to push decisions down the pike, valuing fiscal responsibility, etc.).

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Pablo's avatar

Thanks for speaking up on this. We've had plenty of smart people on the board in recent years who might seem to have relevant experience, but look where it's gotten us. I don't even know how much they can claim credit for getting Foster School over the line as a key accomplishment, other than a suggestion of "we took a by-any-means-necessary approach". Good luck getting people to trust you if you're pointing at circumventing democracy and the people you volunteered to serve as a win.

I hope more of the community who is starting to pay attention appreciates the nuances you touched on: curiosity, intent to listen, a desire to (re)build a connection with the community, and absorbing the collective ideas to shape the vision vs. coming in convinced yours is "right".

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Christian Sorensen's avatar

Hey Megan, I have no contempt! But I was at the point where the election was won or lost, both here and out of state. I am expressing what just happened - not what I think happened nationally, but what just actually happened on the ground.

I am angry we just lost nationally! But certainly trying to draw a realistic line on what is a growing narrative that somehow Illinois is on watch for rising Trumpism or something - we aren't, we won't be, we won lots of local races. I think Tom made a political analogy which is heading into my profession (note I do far more listening than posting on his many other posts) so I gave a qualified personal opinion and defense of what I see as an unnecessary analogy.

I have plenty of national curiosity, but there isn't enough data to start drawing quantitative solutions yet. If we are dealing in qualitative analysis, I can count mine as pretty solid.

I'm certainly not yelling about education policy! Just the politics I sweat and bled for is all. I am a yeller though (a hearing defect in my right ear leaves me at 60% so I have always been loud) so I often apologize for being loud and I certainly apologize for any contempt vibes - I'm frustrated too and I'm in about eight places helping get a legislative agenda together.

I also find Ezra Klein usually contemptibly smug and often out of touch with the solutions he advocates for directly, my hope for the direction of the party hasn't emerged yet. I'm reading The Black Book by Adlai Stevenson to see if I can get some help there, and if I find something I'll bring it up.

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