My colleague Ed Kilgore is pretty consistent and persistent in his conviction that the best way to turn out Democratic voters in a mid-term election is mechanically, through field work, rather than through “exciting the base.” In his telling, it wouldn’t really benefit Michelle Nunn if she ran as a proud progressive. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem like Ed thinks that it would hurt her much, either. My take on his argument is that message matters very little, and organizing is king.
This certainly harmonizes with my general preference for “organizing” rather than things like “framing.” But I think there is debate to be had about base excitement tactics. On some level, the more you excite the base the more money you can raise and the more volunteers you will have for your ground game. So, the question becomes where the correct line is where you’ve excited your base as much as you can without allowing the benefits to be overwhelmed by the loss of persuadable voters in the middle.
If you’re running as a Republican in Texas, there is seemingly no line. You can go maximally crazy and you’ll probably never lose more than you gain. As a Democrat running in Georgia, however, Michelle Nunn needs some voters who never vote in midterm elections to come out to vote. And it would be preferable if some of them didn’t have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the polls by her aggressive field organizers. It would be nice if some of them heard something fresh and exciting and made the decision to go to the polls all on their own.
So, partly, it’s important to get your message out to politically disengaged voters. But, partly, your message has to motivate people. Someone making minimum wage at the Piggly Wiggly might be interested in a federally-mandated raise. A college student saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt might be interested in some loan forgiveness or better terms of repayment. Someone who feels like they’re getting ripped off by their cable company might be interested in more competition and some consumer rights. There are ways to get people’s attention. Many of those ways involve pushing progressive ideas. Very few of them involve “coming together to solve problems.”
I’m no expert on how to run campaigns in Georgia. But I know that there are some progressive, populist ideas that Nunn could put in her toolbox that would not alienate the middle but would excite people who don’t normally pay attention. Some of those people are part of the party’s presidential-year base, and some are just people who don’t normally bother to vote.
