If one listens to the news, one would believe that the outcome of the 2014 midterm is a foregone conclusion: Democrats will lose the U.S. Senate and many House seats. The reality is that many times the narrative feeds the reality instead of the other way around.
There are, in fact, many head winds for Democrats. The corporatized media has an intrinsic bias against Democrats and as such minimizes their successes. It is a big story that even with Republican obstruction and intransigence, policies that were put into place in the first two years of the Obama administration remain the catalyst for today’s economic expansion (the government has been practically devoid of substantive policy since the 2010 Republican takeover).
The traditional media never touts the reality. America has climbed out of a huge hole dug by Republican policies—the stock market is at all-time highs, gas prices are at multi-year lows. Unemployment is at a multi-year low, and health care is now affordable for most Americans. Those who could not get health care now can. The student loan burden has been improved (although much more is needed that will be unattainable under GOP rule). Women no longer pay more for health care than men.
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One could enumerate many more accomplishments. The problem is that there are more on the other side augmenting and lying about what is wrong. There are too few in the blogosphere and on TV informing Americans about all that went right. This is by design, and it's coming from the right. But it is all about complacency on the left.
Poor reporting by the traditional news media has sent Americans into a panic about Ebola. Influenza, measles, and irresponsible parents opting not to vaccinate kids are a much bigger threat, yet Americans perceive Ebola as the existential threat.
The same type of reporting could have an effect on the 2014 election. When some believe their candidates have no chance of winning, based on the reporting, they may opt to save gas or time or money. For many, voting costs them in many ways. If they think their vote is irrelevant, it may feel like the correct economic choice not to bother. And many other potential voters are not willing to be inconvenienced for a lost cause.
The American plutocracy finds many ways to suppress the vote of those who they fear. Their political stooges have implemented voter-suppressing voter ID laws. They have modified or confused early voting dates and times that have been shown to increase voter participation. They have misinformed the voting population via the corporate media on many voting issues. In fact, the major Houston, Texas, TV station ABC13, reported an incorrect early voting terminating date that could have an effect in the 2014 election in Harris County and throughout Texas. It is suspicious that this occurred, especially given that the Republicans are falling behind in the county, as reported by the Quorum Report:
Houston up for grabs in the race for governor?
Conservative stalwart Hotze and others warn that Davis is outpolling Abbott in Harris County, potentially ruining the GOP’s chances in down ballot races
As we've said from time to time at Buzz Central, if Texas is a battleground, Harris County is ground zero. Perhaps never before has that seemed so true. Conservative activists, including the local GOP's new and old leadership, are said to be waging all-out war to try to keep Sen. Wendy Davis’ performance in Harris County from affecting their down ballot candidates. There has been much grumbling in recent weeks from local Republican judicial candidates who feel that not enough has been done to turn out the GOP vote.
It is not hard to infer that this subtle assist to the plutocracy is prevalent throughout the country. It is not hard to infer that the
negatively biased questioning of Wendy Davis (D-TX) versus the positive affirmations given to Greg Abbott (R-TX) in the Texas gubernatorial race isn’t modus operandi nationally.
The real left cannot remain complacent. Activists on the left must form a well-organized, loosely affiliated and permanent "Be The Media" campaign to get the message out. It is certain that the corporatized traditional media will not.
GOTV does not begin during an election. It is something we must learn to do throughout the year. We must carpet bomb with information, we must be planting seeds. That is what makes Fox News effective with its base—its misinformation is constant and unrelenting. Our information must be just as constant and consistently correct.
In the short term, everyone can have an effect now. Whether you sit all day behind a computer, spend all day tweeting on your cell phone, or simply just exist in many spaces, you can affect this election.
Simply asking and helping someone who is hesitant to vote or who has not voted to vote is our task. Asking them to pass it forward and do the same is our task. Replication of effort is our task. Calling up our local Democratic office to help phone banking is our task. Giving a ride to a needy neighbor to the polls, and maybe a little grocery shopping, is our task.
Many of these things can be done from the comfort of our home on our mobile phones, behind our computers, or at our churches, mosques or synagogues. Let’s all do this now. Let’s have an ever-so-stronger GOTV effort now.
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We still have a couple of days to win.