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I’m very happy for the wins we got even if the federal prizes are still out of reach.

If there’s one things history can give us that brings hope is that we implicitly learned, ironically, from the Tea Party is local and state elections are the best way to create and maintain power. It’ll be a matter of time before this bottom-up work bares fruit.

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I love your optimism, and it’s important that more pieces like this come out. Perception is everything, and many people who I talk to have no idea that progressive candidates are making headway, and I live in NYC! I feel the despair of knowing progressives are the answer, and watching people just have no idea what the difference even is.

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I'd love to believe this is the case, but I'm skeptical that it's not just a blip--anti-Trump fervor bringing a temporary instinct for voters to back the most oppositional candidates they can, not unlike the Tea Party in 2010. But here's hoping it's largely pushing the party as a whole to the left.

My other idea is that, like gay marriage and pot legalization, this shift leftward on economic policy is largely driven by generational shifts in voter demographics. Again, here's hoping that will continue as more baby boomers *ahem* leave the voter rolls and more young people register. Maybe someday we won't have a thousand-year-old multi-millionaire as the Democratic Speaker of the House. Maybe someday.

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