Okay. It’s the day after Labor Day. It’s the official start of the midterm campaign. I asked people to get serious about the midterms in early July, but no one can deny that it is campaign season now. If you’ve been reading this site you don’t need me to tell you what kind of hell this country is going to face if the Republicans do as well as currently predicted in the midterm elections. If you haven’t already, go to Organizing for America and register with them. They will link you up with all the other motivated organizers in your community. They will put you to work where you can make a difference. If you’re not motivated, get motivated. The worst thing that can happen is that you make a lot of good friends. This isn’t pattycake. The right-wing in this country is incredibly aggressive, well-funded, and malevolent. If you are reading this, you were alive and conscious from 2001-2009, and you saw what happened to our country. Well, the new breed of Republican is more conservative that the old. If we don’t beat back a slew of whack-a-doodle Senate candidates, we can forget about confirming another judge. I am not kidding about that. That is not hyperbole.
I’ve been frustrated with a lack of focus on the main threat to our country. I’ve been writing about my frustrations for a long time. But it’s indisputably election season now. There are no more excuses. It’s admirable and necessary to lobby the Democrats and the White House for progressive policies, but lobbying season is over. It’s time to pick up the banner and fight against this wave of insanity that is building up and threatening to swamp us all.
Let me make this clear. In the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal: poll:
Among all registered voters…both parties are tied on the generic ballot, 43 percent to 43 percent, suggesting that Democrats could potentially blunt GOP gains in November with high turnout at the polls.
Got that?
But…
With the Labor Day holiday marking the traditional starting point of the campaign season, Republicans have a nine-point edge among those considered likely voters, plus a near 20-point lead among those expressing the highest amount of interest in the midterms.
You have to stop assigning blame and take your responsibilities seriously. Get in touch with OFA and get to work. The network is in place to get our vote out. It just needs people to help execute the plan. You can do something, or you can sit around moping while Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, Pat Toomey, and a bunch of other radicals get elected to the Senate and put an end to the process of legislating in our country. House members need help, too, unless you want to sit back passively while John Boehner becomes Speaker and a bunch of aggressively stupid and venal people take over the lower chamber’s committee chairs.
Do you have to donate to sign up? I can’t seem to get connected without donating.
I’d rather work with OFA than through Boucher/Perriello’s campaigns; I have far too much work to do and I don’t have a car.
of course you can sign up without donating. That’s ridiculous.
You never have to donate money to get involved with OFA, and once you get in touch (or are contacted by a local community organizer), you can probably even get rides to phonebanks, canvasses or other events if you don’t have a car.
You can also usually make calls from your own home via “MyBo” (my.barackobama.com) which is where you sign up and create an account so that you can search for nearby events and communicate with others working for change. Sure, you’ll get a “please donate” screen now and then (if you’ve clicked on an email sent to you by OFA that has an interesting video to watch), but you never have to donate money to be a volunteer.
I was heavily involved in the ’08 campaign and gave the max I could in dollars, but since then I’ve given time and volunteer effort almost exclusively. It feels GREAT to stay involved and active even when I can’t cough up any more money. Sure, we’re going to lose some races, but I know I’ll be going down fighting if that happens and not sitting on the sidelines.
Yeah, that’s why I’d rather work through OFA than through Boucher/Perriello. I can do it from home.
I wasn’t sure if it changed because it took me directly to the donation page.
I worked directly with a lot of campaign directors (one from Pennsylvania (Colin Hicks) and another from Las Vegas (she prefers to remain anon). Usually they needed some help so I’d pick up their slack lol.
As a regular recipient of OFA e-mails, I clicked through the signup entreaty and had to poke around to even find the donation page. It is first and foremost about activating the network of volunteers.
By the way, you’ll never see this in the mainstream media, and frankly you won’t see it in the left-wing blogosphere too much either, but I’d love to know more about grass roots Latino and African-American GOTV efforts. My hunch is that many races around the country will be profoundly affected by Latino voting due to their demonization in Arizona and elsewhere. I suspect that churches, television and especially radio will be key in this effort. I’m more concerned about complacency among the black population, but the same route to turnout is the ticket–churches, TV and especially radio.
Does anyone honestly think the current polling reflects the possibility of robust Latino turnout in key states like California?
Current polls measure “likely” voters, and the samples are drawn on the basis of the three past elections. If African-American and Latino voters turn out this year like they did in 2008, it could be huge. Even in North Carolina (Richard Burr started the anti-immigrant campaigning to win against Erskine Bowles in 2004).
If you are in the Cincinnati area, the best way to ensure the John Boehner doesn’t become Speaker of the House is to work for the victory of Justin Coussoule.
If you know folks in the Winston-Salem-to-Boone NC area, get them supporting Billy Kennedy (running against Virginia Foxx). Also in NC, don’t forget the Senate race, Elaine Marshall against Richard Burr.
In the Atlanta-Athens area, the key race is a longshot. Russell Edwards is running against Dr. Paul Broun. An upset here would be extremely helpful.
I expect that Minnesotans already know about Tarryl Clark (going against Michele Bachmann) and Iowans know about their two marquee races (Roxanne Conlin against Chuck Grassley and Matt Campbell against Steve King).
Defeat these Republicans and the national narrative changes. Unfortunately, there will still be Louis Goehmert of East Texas and Pete King of Long Island because Democrats couldn’t find a candidate to put pressure on them. And Howard Katz doesn’t look quite up to taking out Darrell Issa.
And of course, make sure that we don’t lose a lot of Democratic incumbents. We can clean house after folks wake up to the what has been going on. Right now punishing Democratic incumbents delays rather than hastens that day.
Listening to Obama’s Labor Day speech made me realize how much he is the make-or-break factor in this election. He’s the one who can rev up Dem voters and shake them out of their paralyzing despair, or not. I don’t like that because top down politics seem like part of the problem, but there it is. Except for places where there are overweening local issues, it will be Obama who provides the sense of possibility that we can still save ourselves as a society. Right now that hope seems to animate the Right while the Dems/liberals see no light at the end of the tunnel.
There is no question that turnout and GOTV will be the key to turning this election around. For that to happen we need to drive home the horrific consequences if the crazy people control Congress, as Boo has been trying to do. But that’s not enough. We also have to have an alternative vision that convinces us that the present is not the best case for the future. That’s the part that is up to Obama. His speech was a promising start. I hope he inspires once again and shows Dems nationwide what they have to do to win back the hope and trust of battered, betrayed-feeling voters. I’m glad I’m not Obama.
I’m 8 freakin’ months pregnant and just signed up for 4 phonebanking shifts.
OMG! Congratulations! When are you due?
Thank you! Halloween. Gotta order her an Obama 2012 shirt:-)
Congrats!! That’s excellent news.
thanks BooMan
Fuck OFA.
I’m volunteering with my local Dem Congressman who needs help against his GOP challenger.