Hmm. As it turns out, both Markos and Jerome are real people. Real people with Treos attached to their thumbs, but real people nonetheless.
A packed crowd of about 200 showed up at the Labor Temple last night, and a smaller group went out for drinks afterwards. Andrew has the details.
Everything went incredibly smoothly yesterday, which I guess validates the concept of a volunteer, netroots organized book tour. Kudos to Nick for organizing last night’s event, and a big thanks to the SEIU for footing the bill. (Local 775, Local 925 and District 1199NW.
I had the privilege of hearing Markos and Jerome repeat their message to a number of different audiences and respond to a variety of questions, and I was struck by how commonsense — even obvious — some of their criticism of the Democratic Party really is. Crashing the Gate may be an intentionally provocative title, but my hope is that if party officials read the book and take the criticism constructively, that gate will swing wide open, and they will welcome the help of the netroots in revitalizing our party.
As both Jerome and Markos pointed out repeatedly, the Republicans have all these huge infrastructure advantages… and yet they just barely win. It won’t happen overnight, but if we can manage to overcome the institutional inertia and shove our party into the 21st century, we really can achieve a Democratic majority.
UPDATE:
Fixed the post to recognize all the SEIU locals who supported the event. My apologies.