Coalition for The Sane: How I Decided, In My Own Small Way, To Get In The Arena

 

I've spent a lot of this on this site and others – probably far more then is good for me -  haranguing the loudest and angriest voices for their nihilistic diatribes disguised as political commentary. To be fair in almost all of them – at least 90 percent I'd argue – much of it is meant as constructive criticism. I'm well aware that the watchword among the left ever since at least the 1960s has been that doing so has always put you in the same camp as the enemy. (In fact I've been making that argument in that criticism more than once but that's not what this article is about.)

Even at my most vitriolic – and if you're part of the coalition you know how obnoxious I can be when I get passionate – I've always been sincere.  As I said, I'm in agreement with them about their causes and I want them to succeed. I understand their frustration at how things are and the desire to do something. So I always ask what their plan is. The best case scenario is I get no response from the authors; worst case – well I think everybody reading me knows what the worst case is because they've experienced it themselves.

It's for that reason in recent years I've expressed an increasing amount of frustration with so many of the most prominent left wing voices elsewhere, whether they write for prominent magazines, are members of the Hollywood or academic circle and yes certain members of my own party. If you've read my articles about the upcoming midterms or many of my articles on New York politics you know where I stand on who I think the Democrats should listen to going forward – and possibly even some Republicans. (As I said, they're not going anywhere.) I've made clear in quite a few articles the difference between the activists and marchers and those who do the grass roots work at a political level and I've made it very clear who I know is more effective.

But there comes a time when one has to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. And while I felt these articles are providing a contribution, however small, to where I thought America should go in a post-Trump world I actually want to see if there was something I, as an American, could do beyond the usual voting and occasionally donating to the DNC and some candidates.  So earlier this year I decided to really step out of my comfort zone in the biggest way possible.

If you've read my columns on the midterms or if you know anything about Democratic politics you may be aware of how the Senate race in Alaska might be competitive this year. In January Mary Peltola who in 2022 became the first Democrat to represent Alaska in half a century in Congress announced that she was going to run against Republican Dan Sullivan for the Senate.  Considering that she had been a member of Blue Dog Democrats and that if the Democrats wanted to be competitive they needed candidates like her to be running in red states, the political establishment knew this was a big get.

I'd been a fan of Peltola's since reading a New York Times Magazine piece on her Jared Golden and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in the spring of 2024.  In the fall elections Golden and Perez kept their seats but Peltola narrowly lost, a blow for the Democrats when it came to holding Congress but a cause for rejoicing among progressives like David Hogg, who found her endorsement by the NRA a sign that she was a DINO. He bid her good riddance when she lost.

Peltola spent much of 2025 decided whether she would run for the Senate and this past January began her campaign. As I've written she's the kind of Senator, Democrat or Republican we'll need in the post-Trump world and while I wrote about her I spent much of the next few months wondering, could I do something? Not move to Alaska for 2026 but something besides giving money.

The thought stayed with me throughout the spring. Finally in April when Peltola's campaign sent me a fundraiser I did something I haven't done for a very long time. I clicked on a link to see if there was a way I could do something to help. Not sign a petition. Not give money. Help.

I ended up going through a series of forms and eventually led me to some options. Since door to door campaigning or anything that was at the PURE grass roots level was not something I was willing to commit to, I finally found something I could do from the relative comfort of my own home: phone bank and try to get undecided voters to vote for Peltola in November.

So I signed up and waited for the call. The first call came last month. It asked me to engage in a webinar involving voter safety. This I figured was something you had to deal with in Alaska considering how much of the state requires voting by mail. But there was a catch: it was at 5:30 PM Alaska Standard Time.

Now I'm not naïve enough to not have realized the time zone difference but I wasn't sure whether it meant Alaska was four hours ahead of me or four hours behind me. A google search gave conflicting information. I assumed it was at 1:30 pm. And then I learned it was actually 9:30 PM.  In either case I didn't have anything big planned so I agreed.

9:30 Wednesday came. I was looking for an email. It didn't come. I spent the next hour waiting for it to come. Finally I checked my email. It had come – at 6 PM. Sigh.

Undaunted I actually sent an email to the Peltola campaign explaining my situation and asking if they could send a tape of the webinar. Then I looked at the site again and they sent me to Alaska Democrats.  This was more promising. I immediately did some more signs ups for several volunteer phone banks including one for this past Saturday. I should mention by now I'd cracked the time zone. There were two options. Thursdays at 1 AM to 3AM EST and Saturdays 6pm to 8pm. I wanted to help the cause but not to stay up until the wee hours. I was willing to sacrifice some Saturdays.

The campaign, I should mention was very understanding – and efficient. I expected to hear back from them at the earliest in a few days. They got back to me within 24 hours and were very understanding. Then last Wednesday at 7:30 PM a campaign worker called me to verify if I would be available on Saturday. I said so definitively.

So last Saturday I attended my first virtual campaign event. The exact details of what was discussed I will lay out in a different article down the road. (This will serve as an introduction  of a different series of articles.) Suffice to say I learned quite a bit about Peltola, campaign issues in Alaska and what to say and what not to say in a phone call.

Then I was directed to a virtual phone bank and a list of Alaska Democratic voters who had not voted in the last election. I made somewhere between 45 and 50 calls my first day. Let me say upfront I now have a healthier respect for telemarketers then I've had in my entire life.

I actually talked to six human beings the first time. Two told me to go to hell, with one of them saying they'd moved to Canada after the 2024 election. One said no outright. Two said they were interested but were busy and asked if someone else could call back later. And one agreed that he would be willing to vote for Peltola. As you'd expect most of them either went to voicemail or I didn't reach anybody at all.

Am I discouraged? Not in the least. Do I have an overinflated opinion of myself? Not really. But at the end of the session I felt a sense of accomplishment that I don't know if I can describe well to anybody: the feeling of having contributed, of being part of the process. There might be some of you reading this that know what I mean; I'm actually hoping there are more of you then I want to think.

After being horribly cast aside by the voters in Tuesday's primary John Cornyn quoted Theodore Roosevelt's famous 'In The Arena' speech.  While I've never been thrilled with Cornyn (that doesn't mean I'm happy he lost) I've always been a fan of TR and I've always admired the things he said.  This speech made in 1909 has always been about the difference between those who stand on the sidelines and comment and those who get on the field of politics and fight for what they stand for. Cornyn was willing to do that and for that reason I will have a certain respect for him that I just won't for so many of the activists and Hollywood celebrities whose politics I theoretically agree with more but who spent their lives on the sidelines looking down rather than getting down in the dirt and actually fighting for what they believe in.

If Stephen Colbert loses his job in Late Night because he was too anti-Trump, it's not as big a loss as if John Cornyn lost his Senate seat. The former never had any real skin in the game besides mistaking his audience for America. The latter represented his state in the Senate for 24 years and while you might disagree with his politics, he had an effect on American policy far more than Colbert ever did. Colbert's disappearance from late night changes nothing in American politics. Cornyn's defeat changes a lot, and that's besides giving the Democrats a chance to win in Texas.

Similarly if you go to  a No Kings march in a few weeks' time you may feel like you are accomplishing something in the fight against Trump and for democracy. But it doesn't change the fact that Trump was President before you protested and he was President afterwards. It may give you immediate satisfaction but it hasn't changed anything.

Now I don't know that my phone calls have changed anything. I will never know  for sure even if Peltola wins in November. But I don't need to know for sure if any of the people I call actually vote for her. The point is I got in the arena. I did the work. I fought the good fight. She may win or lose, even we do everything right: I have no control over that and I won't pretend it doesn't bother me a little. But I'll be able to sleep a little easier in my bed.

Yes I will be hundreds of miles away from the field of battle the same way that Colbert and his colleagues were when they made jokes against Trump and called it a win. But unlike them – unlike nearly every single one of the activists and academics and Hollywood celebrities and social media hanger-on's – I will be giving my time and my energy trying to help in a very small way make America a better place.  I'm not going to virtue signal and call it a day. I'm going to fight bit by bit, in the small, incremental ways that democracy works and progress really happens. In my own small way I will be in the arena and I can work with that.

I recommend that to all those who have spent their lives writing diatribes or posting squares or signing petitions and thinking they've contributed to 'the cause' when all they've done is promote themselves.  This is what I'm willing to do for the cause. You're willing to do that then we can talk about the bigger things.