Okay, folks, I've been saving my first diary entry for a time when my thoughts could possibly be useful to the DKos community. Seeing that we are now less than a month away from the most important election in a generation, I think it the time has arrived to let it all hang out and give 110% for Kerry-Edwards.
Since the beginning of the primary season(and even before that, to some extent), this online community and many others like it have had a serious impact on both the media and the political process itself. However, as election day grows near, both the tactics and the stragety that have sustained the blogosphere will become incresingly marginal, at least as far as this election cycle goes.
Consider:
- Our highly successful fundraising efforts have ended. We can only hope that the resources we provided to candidates will be sufficient to carry them to victory.
- Any cohesive advice that emerges from our lively discussions is less and less likely to be taken by campaigns. At this late stage, campaigns are being forced to commit to a closing stragety, right or wrong, drawing on the best information and resources they have available.
- While the "media watch" function of the blog has applications up to and including election day, I believe that it's broadest use (fighting the Right-Wing spin machine)will be have dwindling influence after the end of the debates. Sure, we should still keep the pressure on the news channels and punditocracy, if only for our own internal sanity, but the campaign narrative wil be etched in stone by the end of the Arizona debate.
Now that I covered those issues, let me focus on what we can do to really help John Kerry and other Democratic candidates in the final few weeks of the election.
Step outside the blogosphere.
To those of you who have already being doing just that, keep up up the good work. To those of you who have been doing it only occassionally, time to start doing it more regularly. To those of you who have been waiting...well, stop waiting! THERE IS NO TIME LEFT FOR INACTION. Hell, I know probably three-quarters of you sit-and-wait folks gave more money in a month than I've given all cycyle, and I love ya for that, but this is the time of the year that the "soft" politics of money, publicity, and stragetizing gives way to hard, shoeleather, call-'em, knock-on-their-door, tell-'em-why politics. Here's a quick run down of things you can do:
- If you have a Kerry-Edwards bumpersticker, it should be on your car. If you have a KE yard sign, it should be on your lawn. If you have a KE button, you should be wearing it wherever it is appropriate to wear a political button
- Talk to people that you know who are undecided voters.
- Be outspoken, but not obnoxious, about your support of KE.
- Knock on doors in you neighboorhood. Say hello to your neighbors and tell them why your voting for KE. You don't need to be part of an organized canvassing effort to walk across the street and introduce yourself to kind, old Mrs. McReynolds.I've covered alomst my entire precinct in a little over a month by going to a few houses a day, a couple of days a week. Took me about an three hours a week.
- Have you been in contact with the Kerry campaign yet? No? Well, you must live in Idaho. If you live in a battleground state, however, you need to find out what the hell people are doing in your area.
- Drag along friends to do volunteer work. Coerce them. Threaten extortion. Bribe them. My group of reluctant volunteer-friends prefers domestic beer and cheap hookers. Your group may be a little less wild, so perhaps a bagel will do just as well for you. In all seriousness, by recruiting just one person you double your effectiveness.
- If you can afford to commit a whole day or weekend to nothing but the KE campaign, Do it. Honestly, when you approach an entire day with nothing on your mind but putting Cheney and Ashcroft out to pasture, the sun is always out, no matter the weather.
I know, there are many "Well, duh!" suggestions here, but it never hurts to reinforce the obvious. And if just one or two folks commit to spending more time this week doing the grunt work, so much the better.
Anyone have anything else to add?