I had been doing a lot of GOTV. With that in the very front of my mind, I've written a lot about voting - particularly about all the barriers that the GOP has erected to keep "the wrong kind" of voters out of polling places.
But that's not what I'm talking about tonight (yeah, that was just a little tease). Join me under the cheese curl to find out more about stupid campaigning.
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Campaigns have increasingly been dumbing down, creating nifty sound bites and repeatable memes, and too often twisting themselves into pretzels trying to appeal to "the average voter". Everybody tries to play moderate.
Screw that.
Appealing to "the average voter" has been a miserable failure, made candidates into cardboard characters, and dismayed much of the electorate into staying home on election day. To "the average voters" both sides sound alike, talk alike, dress alike, smile alike, and have about as much appeal as a 6 month old cookie that's been laying on a cabinet shelf.
No one is elected by "average voters". They're elected by the voters who show up.
If Democratic candidates realized that, they'd be campaigning loudly and long on populist values and go to work hard on that agenda each and every day after they were elected. They'd be electorally unstoppable. Why? Because liberal/populist ideas are popular and delivering on the promises made is important to people who take the time and inconvenience to show up to vote.
Check out Elizabeth Warren. Totally populist message, hard at work trying to deliver on her promises, and sought out all over the country to campaign for Democrats even in red states like Kentucky. Yes, even candidates carefully campaigning with milquetoast moderation want to be seen with her. Why? Because she creates passion, support, and, better yet, voters, wherever she goes.
Harry Truman got it right:
Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time.
Somehow, our Democratic candidates and office holders have forgotten how true that is.
Barack Obama understood it. That's why 2008 was a game changing election. People who had never voted or hadn't voted in decades were lining up.
Sadly, the "delivery" part has been missing in the quest for moderation, obsessing over the illusion of bipartisanship, and bare knuckled obstructionism of the GOP. Failure to deliver and the zombie-like resurrection of milquetoast moderates led directly to the Red Tide of 2010.
That Republican control of far too many states and the House of Representatives has led us to today complete with voter suppression and extremism. And, naturally, far too many milquetoast moderates trying to appeal to "the average voter".
Screw "the average voter". They don't exist except as campaign mythology. Reality TV show watching Joe Schmo isn't getting out of his easy chair when slick politicians look, talk, and act the same. He's not going to decide on which smiling, meme-pouting, flag-pin wearing candidate he wants. He doesn't want to search for the nuance that might exist between candidates. To him it's all blah, blah blah unless he starts hearing about things he cares about.
Fox News (Scare TV) "gets" this. It's why they're outraged all the time about phonied up fake news. It's why they keep trying to scare their viewers with hoards of invading Mexicans or Muslims or Ebola.
You want to scare Joe Schmo out of his lazy boy and into the polling place? Scare him about being chin deep in water or fire if we continue to do little to nothing about climate change. Scare him about the future of his kids in a country that puts enormous and everlasting debt on the backs of college students.
Make him think about how little Johnny is going to support himself with a minimum wage job because everything else is outsourced and the minimum wage keeps not being raised. Ask him if he enjoys McDonalds and Wal-Mart taking money out of his wallet to subsidize their workers food stamps, health care, and other poverty programs in order for their CEOs and stock holders to have more in their own pockets.
Scare him about toxic or contaminated food if we continue to underfund regulatory agencies and inspectors. Remind him that unless he works for a really good guy, his employer won't mind having him hurt, disabled or dead because they'd rather save a nickel than to put safety measures in place. After all, even if they're negligent, they can't be sued and a small fine might be all the consequences they face.
Create passion with populism, deliver on promises and voters will show up. Democrats need to learn that. Fast.
One final thought, from a comment by Crashing Vor containing his video:
Well done.
Give 'em the finger.
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