To follow up on an organizing meeting I attended the other night for NJ’s “Fighting Fourth” District, I was asked to put down on paper some ideas to help us move forward together to win back the district in 2018.
While what I have written is, in part, specific to #NJ04, I think that the general ideas can be used to help all the new political activists out there who are just starting to get their feet wet.
As a Monmouth County resident who has been in the trenches for 20 years on both electoral and issue politics, it is so exciting to see so many new faces and to have new blood pumping through the veins of our grassroots community here in the Monmouth/Ocean/Mercer area.
We have momentum. We are on the right side of the issues. We are ready to stand up and be counted…
Now, let’s get down to business.
In response to our current political reality, many people are finding themselves adopting the role of being a “political activist” for the first time. People who have never protested before are marching in the streets. People who didn’t know the names of their elected officials are now calling their offices every day. People who “didn’t talk about political stuff” now cannot shut up about it.
Along with being awesome, the day to day grind of this kind of political engagement can leave you exhausted, overwhelmed and ready to pull your hair out.
You are not the first person to have the blinders come off and to go through a political awakening. This is good to know for two reasons: number one, you’re not going crazy, despite what some of your friends and family may think; number two, people just like you have been through this and we can learn from what they did, how they did it, and how they won some incredible issue-oriented and electoral campaigns.
2. WHERE CAN I LEARN HOW TO BE AN EFFECTIVE ACTIVIST?
As I mentioned above, you are not the first person to become politically active, so there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Here are a handful of suggestions to help us all become better activists so we can win in 2018.
Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky
Don't Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff
Politics the Wellstone Way
Connect with groups that are working on building a movement to win the Fourth District in 2018:
District 4 Coalition for Change
Action Together Monmouth County
Indivisible Monmouth County
Realize that we are not going to Tweet or Facebook post our way out of this. It's going to take our time, effort, and sacrifice in real life. I know there is a lot going on these days and that you cannot be at everything - that’s ok. Just try and schedule as much stuff as you reasonably can into your week. Make the time and put in the effort to actively be a part of organizing meetings, demonstrations, call-ins, etc. Get off your butt and get in the game! Don't expect/hope that other people will do it. That's how we ended up with this mess.
3. HOW CAN I BEST ENGAGE PEOPLE?
To win the election on November 6, 2018, we are going to need 250,000 votes in our favor. This is totally doable if we put in the effort. The first step to reach this goal is getting out there and talking to people.
There is a danger in times like these that people can get pulled in a million directions when trying to change hearts and minds and win people to our side. It’s one of the things I admire about Republican political operatives/activists – they have a tremendous acuity for message discipline and staying focused. We need to stay focused as well.
In my experience in the past few weeks, there are three issues that seem to really resonate with people from our district whether they are Democrats, Republicans or Independents.
1. Voters want a Congressperson who lives in our district. (Smith lives in VA.)
2. Voters want a Congressperson who holds town halls and listens to them. (Smith never holds meetings.)
3. Voters want a Congressperson who is an outsider. (Smith is as much a Washington-insider as it gets with 37 years in the same office.)
How do you engage on this stuff?
YOU: Do you think our Congressperson should live in our district?
YOU: Did you know that Chris Smith hasn’t lived in our district since the early 80s? He’s been living in Virginia for so long that his kids get in-state tuition at Virginia schools.
NEIGHBOR: What?! That’s crazy.
YOU: Yeah, he keeps a small apartment in Mercer County so he can have a NJ address. A news outlet did a story about it years ago and the neighbors there didn’t even know that a Congressman lived in the complex, they were shocked.
NEIGHBOR: That’s just wrong.
YOU: Along with him not living here, did you know that he never comes back to the district to hold open, public town hall meetings?
YOU: Yeah, some friends and I have looked into it and we cannot find any reference of any town hall meetings on record since he’s been in office. Some people think there may have been one in 1991 or 1992, but we can’t find anything about it. We keep calling and emailing his office to get an answer and they won’t tell us when the last one happened and he refuses to commit to a town hall meeting
in 2017.
NEIGHBOR: What?! That’s crazy.
YOU: Yeah, isn’t it? Our tax dollars pay this guy’s salary, the least he can do is meet us face to face a few times a year, right?!
NEIGHBOR: Yeah, that’s the least he can do.
YOU: Do you think that there are way too many people in Washington who have been there far too long? Don’t we need some new blood?
NEIGHBOR: Absolutely. That’s why I agreed with Trump that we should “drain the swamp.”
YOU: I hear you. Did you know that our Congressman has been in the same office for 37 years.
NEIGHBOR: What?! That’s crazy.
YOU: Yeah, 37 years. My friends and I think that’s long enough and it’s time we get someone new in there to shake things up. Someone who’s an independent thinker from outside of Washington.
NEIGHBOR: I am down with that.
YOU: I am involved with a group that is working on bringing people together who agree with us that
we need new blood in Congress and that at a minimum, our Congressperson should live in our district and should hold regular town halls to listen to the concerns of taxpayers. Would you like to join us one night?
YOU: Cool. Why don’t you give me your email address and cell number and I will shoot you a message about the next meeting. If you need a ride maybe we can go over together.
NEIGHBOR: That sounds great.
This last part of the engagement is REALLY important. If we are going to be effective political organizers, we need to be able to get in touch with people. Getting someone’s contact info is as important as it gets. So never, ever, ever skip this step. Even if they aren’t yet interested in coming to a meeting, ask for their info and tell them you would like to reach out to them in the future. Getting email addresses and cell numbers is gold in political organizing.
4. WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES?
As I noted above, in my experience in the past few weeks, the basic issues outlined above are resonating across party affiliations and ideologies when I bring them up with voters. But, you know your neighbors best and what is important to them and what issues you might talk about where you can find common ground. If you are going to engage on any of the following issues – women’s rights, union rights, Main Street vs. Wall Street, the environment, racial justice, poverty, working families, immigration, etc., I recommend the following:
If you can, during your first engagement with a neighbor, don’t get into the myriad of important issues listed above. I know they are important. I know they are really important. But our goal out of the gate is not to change someone’s mind on every issue. Our goal is to find the most basic common ground and invite them to join our conversation and movement. Stay focused on the basic stuff that we ALL have in common. We can build out from there on other issues as we get new people on board and move forward.
If despite what I have written above, you do choose to get into any of the other important issues listed, practice what you are going to say. To persuade people is an art and any artist will tell you that they became a master at their craft by practice, practice, practice, practice.
In the same way I put together a sample script above, you can put one together for any one of the issues listed. When you do this, keep these parameters in mind:
1. Keep it focused on three things you want to hit home.
2. Frame stuff in the form of a question. Example – Do you think protecting the incredible beaches we have at the Jersey Shore is important?
3. Anticipate worst case scenario answers and think about how you can keep probing for common ground.
5. DID I MENTION THAT YOU NEED TO BREATHE?
I know it seems like the world is ending. It isn’t. I know it seems like Trump is the anti-Christ. He’s not. Our nation and our global community have faced difficult and tumultuous political times before. We can handle this. We have the good will, we have the passion, and we are all committed to leaving the world better than we found it for the next generation. We must keep our eyes on our goals (ex. winning the Fourth District in 2018) and have some fun fighting the good fight along the way.
We are all in this together. We will not only survive these times, but we will thrive as we transform ourselves, our communities and our nation to be the best that we can be.
I hope what I have written is helpful. If you have specific questions you want answered, please post them and I will do my best to offer my thoughts and insights and I hope others will do the same.