The enemy is named Cathy, and John and Adam. The enemy is James and Kay and Alfreda. The enemy are the disaffected, the distainful and the disenfrancised. They are the reductionist, the good christian and the well mannered.
And you are not winning the fight when you harangue, pick nits, tut tut and generally make them feel squidgy and uncomfortable. There isn't a swing voter in the bunch. At most you might get a grudging "I'm an independent" if they didn't find you almost too rude to comtemplate.
If you want them to vote for your guy you have to give them cover, not lectures.
Cathy doesn't like conflict. She is not going to tell you her opinion on abortion. For all I know, she doesn't have one. She has a rigid code of behavior and as far as she is concerned anyone who has entered politics has violated it. I've known her for over a decade and have no idea who she's voted for. She finds politics distasteful. She tolerates a certain amount of political talk in her close aquaintance but is quick to change the subject. Her code of behavior requires that she vote. But she doesn't have to like it, and she doesn't like you. She doesn't believe in political solutions. She doesn't think you'll do a better job than the cockup happening right now. She believes you're deluded and your guy is untrustworthy, and if he isn't now, just wait three months after he gets to the city council room, or the state house or D.C.
John's dad was a professor who probably slept around or something. No telling why he's at once so well educated and so anti intellectual. If the anarchists weren't so stupid he'd probably vote for them just to personnally piss you off. He thinks most of you are too stupid to live. And, well, speaking strictly from a Darwinian point of view, he's probably right. He doesn't want much and doesn't expect much. At bottom he wishes you'd just leave him the hell alone and fill the fucking potholes. Sometimes he confuses libertarianism with republicanism, but you can hardly blame him. He loves metal music.
Adam's 29, but his brain is still wet. He likes his parents. He has a cute girlfriend. He's terribly skinny and when he's too much time folded up like a pretzel in his chair he has a tendancy to fall out of it. His parents are Republicans. He writes code. It makes good sense to him that he should keep more of his paycheck. After all, he works all kinds of hours and gets paid a lot less than other folks on staff. His parents have always had healthcare. His recent slide into second base tore all the ligaments, but he's not due for degenerative arthritis for another five years. Bush isn't really relative to his life, so you must be exagerating. He's known a lot of folks who rattle on just to hear themselves talk, and besides all the women at work tell him what to do all day long anyway. He thinks liberal is a dirty word.
James is a bit slow on the uptake. He works at a menial job after retiring from the Navy on a medial after 16 years. The love of his life married another man. Money slips out of his hands like water and he doesn't sleep very well, what with the graveyard shift. He tries to keep up, but it's mostly a blur of he said, she said. He wants to believe in them all, but he was in the Navy for 16 years. He does know deep down that life is not fair, and the bologna sandwich probably has mold on it somewhere. You better be the last to talk with him before he goes to the polls. He just wants to please.
Kay has two little kids. She's fit and pretty and unselfconscious. She doesn't buy a lot of clothes or spend too much on lunch out. She's thrifty without being parsimonious. Did I mention she's Catholic and her children are slated to go through the local Catholic school system. She'll do without so her children get a good education. Faith is important to her, but she's quiet about it. She was adopted as a child. She's a blonde who's biological mother is a Choctaw Indian. She has only begun the process of integrating that side of herself into her world view. She has her mother's eyes.
Alfreda works in a call center. She occasionally blesses the callers in good bye. She brings her lunch to work every day and four dollar a gallon gasoline ate into her food budget. She hardly makes enough to keep body and soul together but has bought groceries for coworkers who were having a hard time. Alfreda sees the world through the lens of her faith. She is going to pray over her choice, and seek the guidance of the minister who brings her such great comfort.
Cathy, John, Adam, James, Kay and Alfreda have full lives, but in any pollster's eyes they would be likely voters. Three or four would have to be pushed to give an answer to the question: "If the electon were today, who would you vote for." Though you aren't likely to get any of them on the phone. Cathy screens her calls. John, Adam and Kay only have cell phones. Alfreda works two jobs and James sleeps during the day.
John and Adam have to get past their relationships with their fathers to vote your way (or at all). Kay and Alfreda have to reconcile their self view with a choice that their faithful peers are not likely to make. Cathy reacts very poorly to negative campaigning. Did I mention you need to be the last to speak with James before he goes to the polls.
They are going to vote the way that makes them feel good about themselves, picking the winner, making the moral choice, holding their nose for the lesser of two evils, unless they are driven to stay home, vote the third party to assert their independance, vote for the other guy because it's all gotten too complex.
None of them care about NAFTA. Not a jot. If they cared, they wouldn't care for the right reason. They would care because someone they knew got laid off. Perhaps twice.
None of them care about Valerie Plame. It's taken too long, the waters are muddy, they aren't that familiar with the consitution and by pointing out that deficit you are likely to offend.
None of them are strident. They are circumspect, polite, eager to please or go along get along. They don't rock the boat. They don't make waves. They don't own a soap box and if they did, they would only stand on it in the shower with the water up high, when no one else was home.
How do you get Cathy, John, Adam, James, Kay and Alfreda to pull the lever for your guy? You reinforce their good opinion of themselves. You make your story simple. You give them cover.
And you forget about the hard core Republicans who aren't going to vote for you anyway. They don't matter. The real enemy is Cathy, John and Adam. The path to victory is through James, Kay and Alfreda. You and I just have to keep each other interested long enough to make it possible for these folks to either stay home or vote 'the right way'.
I've met the enemy. And he is us.