When I go into my get-out-the-vote spiel to undecided voters, people don't hear a word I say about Iraq. Not because they're not listening; they are. For the most part they're polite, they're listening, and they're paying close attention. No, the reason people don't
hear a word I say about Iraq is because I don't
say a word about Iraq. Not. One. Word.
In these final days of GOTV, undecided voters have to be persuaded to vote Democratic. We're the ones who have to persuade them. That means we've got to understand what it is that they're undecided about. And believe me, people ...it ain't Iraq.
This election is all about the tipping points. This election is all about the straw that breaks the voter's backs. For millions of people, that straw is Iraq. They've had enough. They don't think it's going to get any better (and they're right about that). Whatever they thought in the beginning,
now they think we shouldn't have gone and we shouldn't stay. And they're not changing their minds about it between now and Nov. 7.
But the Iraq-straw got piled onto voters' backs a long time ago. We've been reading and discussing polls about the growing unpopularity of the Iraq war since mid-summer, and the polls aren't changing direction over this issue. Iraq is the one thing the msm is covering. It is ever present. Nobody forgets it. Iraq is not the 800-lb gorilla in the room that everyone pretends isn't there. For most voters, the war in Iraq is the room. It is crucial to understand something about the final GOTV: Voters are not undecided about the war anymore. They've already made up their minds.
So if undecided voters are still choosing a candidate, there's something else bothering them. I think I know what it is, and I think I know how to address it without changing the Democratic message, without distracting from the narrative we've been building.
It's the economy, stupid. More to the point, it's taxes. And there's only one message about that: we're not gonna raise 'em for the middle class.
I live in a red area. I've been calling voters and talking to undecideds, and I've been successful at getting people to listen to something that's entirely off-script. I won't go through my preamble, except to say that by the time I get to where I'm going, I've already clearly identified myself as calling on behalf of a Democratic candidate. I've made that crystal. So by now, they've either hung up the phone, or told me they're voting for my candidate, or they're undecided. I now have a few scant seconds to keep them on the line. This is how it's been going:
Me: Have you decided who you're going to vote for on Tuesday?
Voter: No, actually, I haven't. I'm still making up my mind.
Me: Well, can I tell you something? I think some people are really worried that if the Democrats get elected, they're going to get up there and raise taxes as fast as they can. And to tell you the truth, I think the middle class has already borne its fair share of the taxes.
The Republicans have just gone wild in Congress. They're just spending left and right. And they're borrowing left and right, too. The Republicans are borrowing from people we don't want to be in debt to. We don't want to be in debt to CommunistChina (that's one word ...at least, the way I say it). The Republicans are borrowing so much money from CommunistChina that pretty soon, CommunistChina gets to call the shots to America. CommunistChina gets to tell America what to do. But the Republicans are spending so much money and borrowing so much money ...and you know, somebody has to got pay for all that. And the Democrats think the middle class is already paying its fair of the taxes.
Somebody has to pay for all that Republican spending, and the Democrats don't think it should be the middle class. The Democrats think the ultra-wealthy, the multi-millionaires and multi-billionaires and multinational corporations -- you know, they're the ones who had their taxes cut. Well, the Democrats think they're the ones who should have to pay their fair share because the middle class is already paying its fair share. So if you're afraid the Democrats are going to raise taxes on the middle class, that's not what they want to do. They want to take back the tax cuts that the Republicans gave to the richest rich rich.
Because the Republicans can't have it both ways. You know? They can't just spend and spend and then think nobody is going to pay for it. And they're wasting that money! It's not like we're even getting good value for all the money they're wasting. We don't even have anything to show for it. Well, the Democrats don't want the middle class to have to pay for all that spending and borrowing. So the Democrats want to stop the tax cut that the wealthiest ultra-rich 1% of people got.
It's like the roles are completely reversed, now. The Democrats used to get called "tax and spend liberals," and now it's like the Republicans have completely lost touch with fiscal conservatism. The Republicans have completely lost track of what people liked about them in the first place, which is that they wouldn't spend. But they have just gone wild up there in Congress. And it's the Democrats who want to get us back to having sense about spending money.
I haven't been cut off once. Not once.
After awhile, when I realized that voters were not cutting me off and not hanging up on me, I began to say this:
You know, the Republicans have had their chance. They got the best shot at it that anybody could possibly have. They had a majority in the House, majority Senate, the White House, and the judiciary. They had a complete majority -- there was nothing ...the Democrats were in the minority, so there was nothing the Democrats could do to stop them. Whatever the Republicans wanted to do by now, they could have done it. The House, the Senate, and the White House; if they haven't fixed it by now, they're not gonna fix it. Now it's time to give the Democrats a shot.
One caller hung up on this; everybody else listened.
My sixth sense is that the 800-lb gorilla in the room isn't the Iraq war; for the undecided voters, it's taxes. The New York Times reported just today that Republicans are looking to economic issues to distract from Iraq. So raise it. Head on. Tell the undecideds who's fault it is (they know anyway, but they need to hear it said out loud); the Republicans have gone wild spending, borrowing money from CommunistChina, they've totally forgotten fiscal conservatism, and now somebody has to pay. The Republicans gave a tax cut to the wealthiest ultra-rich multi-millionaires and billionaires. Democrats don't want the middle class to pay. The Republicans have had their best shot at solving the problems. If they haven't solved them by now, they're not going to. Let the Democrats have a shot at it. Because the Democrats won't stick it to the middle class.
Let's KISS these Republicans goodbye. Whatever you do, Keep It Simple, Stupid. And whatever you say, sound like you believe it. I do.