No matter how you slice it on Tuesday, the key to victory is getting out the vote. The tragedy in this: the greatest democracy the world has ever know seems to have a pathological inability to get full participation in the voting process, and it's even worse during a mid tern election.
More people vote during presidential elections because they are sexy: big ideas, big money, big power. What many people don't realize is that the election affecting them most immediately is the election for city council or school board or the state house. These are smaller affairs, with less money, rather mundane ideas, without the news coverage and lets admit it, entertainment value, of the big show every four years for the presidency.
Now this Tuesday could very well be the exception to the norm. With the GOP self-destructing and a motivated progressive base, this mid term election could be nothing short of amazing. Ask the campaign professionals, and they will acknowledge the romance of a people powered and motivated electorate taking back the country; they must also deal in cold hard numbers and past performance. The facts remain: we, the people of the United States of America rarely get all that worked up over a mid term race, regardless of the circumstance, regardless of urgency, regardless of need.
So what can we do? Here's what we can do. We activists don't live in a vacuum. These faceless masses who choose not to vote unless they are voting for president aren't faceless...they are our friends, neighbors, and relatives. Each voter we can persuade to the polls on Tuesday is a voter that isn't on the radar screen, and as such, is the voter that can turn a narrow loss into a victory and a victory in to a right routing of the opposition. This is what GOTV is all about, getting people who wouldn't normally vote to the polls.
Now one might add the condition that we want these people we are getting to the polls to vote our way. We are still the majority party in this country and for many people, politics is not about big issues, but who cares enough to drive them to their precinct or knock on their door and give them some literature. Our actions, our examples are just enough to change a heart, steel a heart, sway a heart.
We want people to vote, not only to win back this nation, but because it is the right thing to do. The right to vote, the responsibility to vote is bedrock foundation of the Democratic Party. The exercise of one's consent to govern, regardless of who someone votes for, is the reason we fight and have fought, both here and around the world, with word and sword, sweat and blood.
We conquered the mightiest empire of the world, our own fratricide, the alienation of womankind, the blinding darkness of Hitler, the brazen stupidity of McCarthy, and the untold cruelty of Jim Crow. If we can overcome the worst and most vile, we can certainly prevail over these twisted schoolyard bullies and their Grecian chorus of talking points and folly.
Tuesday is Election Day. It's also Take a Friend to Vote Day. It's your right. It's your duty. It's how we will win the day.
www.votegutzmer.org