It’s been a bit since I last wrote about politics and the happenings in the world. I mean what is there to say? Second-place is a looming buffoon. McConnell believes he has it all under control and he hasn’t. The Republicans have shown they have no backbone and the Democratic House is in danger of backlash because they won’t do what the people want, impeach.
Is there any light of day? Any wise words to unite the country again, getting us to move forward? Any way we can recover our status in the world, let alone our self-respect? I have no words of comfort for you. I wish I did. But doing so would be blowing smoke up your bum. Who needs more confusion and lies than we already have?
What we have is a lot of work to do. For better or worse, mostly worse, Second-place has done one thing for us, create chaos. He has definitely ripped the norms apart mostly through sheer ignorance. The best part of chaos is we get to rebuild as we see fit. We also don’t have to include the buffoon and his minions that tore the structures apart. So let’s get started.
First, don’t try to ‘educate’ or ‘understand’ the trumpets. It is a waste of time. More than one theory has been proffered why the trumpets keep standing by ‘their man’. Each is right in their own study, but none explain it all. Let’s just go by the understanding that they felt and feel like they have and are being left behind in the great American Dream. They believe the immigrants, poor, disadvantaged, disabled, and socially abnormal (they mean you LBGQT+, or whatever you call yourself now. Seriously, you have to get a better name.) are cutting in line and not paying your dues. You are using your differences to move unfairly to the head of the line and making them pay for it.
Simply put you aren’t following the rules. You know, ‘THE RULES’. The ones everyone gets when they are born in the United States. Rules like work hard and you will get ahead. Or work hard and anyone can be President. (Well, that turned out to be a lie didn’t it. You really don’t have to work hard.) Another one is wait for your turn, because everyone gets a chance. Best one so far is that everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Protestant work ethics, Christian rules that have been embedded into our psychic since we began Kindergarten. I don’t want to complain too much. These rules have been good for the United States in general, but not all of us.
But you aren’t following these rules. (Rules, by the way, trumpets adjust, adjudicate, and execute as they see fit.) These are simple, black and white rules. So, the trumpets, the true patriots, have to restore order. And whatever you think of Second-place, he is restoring order to the system. At least the trumpets defined system. All of those cheaters are being sent back, told to stand in line and wait their turn. The results show the trumpets, that this restoration is good. The economy is booming, and jobs are plentiful. Soon he will make those bad ol’ companies return back to the United States and bring the good paying jobs with them.
Except they won’t. He can’t. It isn’t. And they can’t and won’t understand why. Their world is black and white with simple rules relying on yes or no answers. So is Second-place’s world. That is why he resonates with them. He is simple. His solutions are two dimensional and so are his followers. So you will not change their loyalties. Quit trying. There are better things to do.
First, get good candidates. Ones that think. Candidates for dog-catcher to President need to be found and supported. Next get funding. Lots of it. Work on it and dedicate yourself to getting funding. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Anyone, any good woman or man, was supposed to be able to run and be judged on their merits. Money was supposed to be secondary. The one percent took that away from us so quit bitching about it. It is what it is. So, let’s out raise them. Let’s get more and better candidates than they do and support them.
After getting the funding and candidates, quit campaigning the way we did it before. Even campaigning like we did in 2008 isn’t working. Newspapers are not the primary source for even local news. Television and radio ads don’t do it anymore either. Neither does Facebook, Twitter, or Snapchat. There is no one reliable media campaign venue. Having a candidate walk door to door in districts with a million voters and 400 square miles is impractical and a waste of time. Also realize that most voters don’t even engage until the last 8 weeks before an election, only activists do, and they already chose their candidate.
So what then? What works? Truthfully, all of it and none of it. You have to do it all. But do it where it will do the most good. How many actual voters will follow a local candidate’s Facebook page or Twitter account, twenty or maybe forty? Will that win an election? No? Then do it, but don’t waste time on it. Will building a web page drive votes or bring in donations? No? Then put a simple one up for a quick policy discussion and move on.
What works is ripping the people from their comfortable medium and engaging them where they will respond. You need to talk to the people. Make them pay attention. Podcasts, online interviews, radio interviews, newspaper discussions (not articles laying out positions, but discussions). Put information in their mailboxes and driveways and let them see your name wherever they look. Billboards, yard signs and banners waving on a pole. Does it sound like the same old same old? It isn’t
How many of you make phone calls or knock on doors from lists created by obscure databases that you have been told have the latest information? How many of you have tried to regiment, dissect, manage the election cycle? Scientific campaigning, wave of the future, targeted voting, do they all sound familiar?
Now how many of you have participated in it? How many have gone next door 8, 7, 6 weeks before an election and asked your neighbors if they are going to vote and would they consider voting for your candidate? Have you engaged them, asked them, talked with them? Have you given them a podcast link to look at? Have you invited them to a tea, coffee or even a rally to meet your guy or gal? Or just knocked, handed a brochure or two, or hung one on the doorknob?
Databases were the savior of politics. They were going to identify voters, like minded people, and make campaigning efficient. But that was then, BT, before Second-place. Databases are a good starting point but have to be regulated to the tool they have become. Volunteers and candidates need to engage with the voters.
The lines are not as delineated as we would like to believe. The two parties are shrinking in membership while the non-partisans are growing. A lot of the remaining Republicans are trumpets. But a lot more want to hear the merits of the arguments. They want to engage with the discussion and those supporting the candidate, their party’s or the opposition. They will split tickets if given incentive.
Democrats are the same. If you doubt it, I point out the 2016 election in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. You can argue voters didn’t turn out, but you know Democrats crossed Party lines.
You want to win? Then don’t be so tied to the past, even the recent past. Chaos has entered the political arena. You feel betrayed by your neighbor, friends. Get over it and get them behind you. There are other votes to chase. Our country depends on us winning the next election. Change is here. So engage, talk, advertise, and raise funds. Try something new. Life is not as we knew it. Get used to it. We have the gift to make a new campaign paradigm out of the chaos of ruins. Let’s build it.
Douglas Courtney
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