We Democrats are way ahead in the House anyway; we don't absolutely need to win this seat.
It doesn't matter if the Republican Party gets a shot in the arm by taking away a Democratic House seat. Even if they have reason to celebrate, they're doing so badly otherwise that it won't help them.
It's much more important for us to use Daily Kos as a site to express our snark about political issues and backslap each other about how good our snark is and to import articles and commentary from elsewhere and to form a progressive community for its own sake than to use the tool we have here to encourage each other to do some actual political work in a tight race. We're not here as political actors, after all, but as political observers. Isn't our commenting enough?
The notion that virtual phonebanking can help decide a close election is pretty tenuous anyway. We don't yet know which way the election will break, but chances are the margin won't be just 357 votes, the way it was in the LA-04 election last December when Kossacks overwhelmingly showed no interest in who would win (let alone in phonebanking) until the polls had closed.
(More after the fold.)
In fact, with the election on March 31, less than 2-1/2 weeks from today, that means that most people will read the results on April 1. If the results say that the Republican won, most people will assume that it's a joke, right?
The forty-seven people who recommended a diary on Friday that was trying to organize collective action are quaint. Thankfully, it didn't make the Rec List. The five people other than the diary's author who commented in that diary, some pointing out how critical virtual phonebanking is in this spread-out district where the Democrat's main obstacle is low name recognition went beyond quaint straight into weirdsville.
The twenty-four people who recommended yesterday's action diary were being ridiculous. Daily Kos is not the place for action diaries, certainly not when it comes to House elections. These things take care of themselves. Que sera sera.
The nine people besides the diary author who commented yesterday, some describing their experiences or offering constructive feedback or pledging later work were being beyond ridiculous. Some of them do not even live in the district! Where do they get off being concerned about the result of some other district's election? That makes sense for the Republican candidate, who doesn't live in the district, but surely not for the rest of us.
Worst of all, one commenter admitted that they were a beginner at phone banking, and that they wished that DKos had compiled a "Beginner's Guide" to phonebanking, as had been suggested in the Friday diary! Can you imagine starting out your phonebanking efforts in a low-turnout, tightly fought special election? Where are that person's priorities? They probably think that taking on an unfamiliar and uncomfortable (at first) new task makes they brave or something! Do they want a cookie? (Heh -- note the deft use of snark there?)
Seriously, folks -- lighten up. It's Sunday. It's no time for politics. The sun will come up the morning after Election Day whether the Democrat Scott Murphy wins or whether the Republican obstructionist Jimmy "Disco" Tedisco wins. What does the sun care about what we puny mortals do?
Surely only a sucker would click this link to start phonebanking. Would you want to be a sucker?
Update: someone thinks it's NOT OK if the Republican wins! Check it out! Da noive!
Update 2: Check out this latest ad from Murphy. Oof! This is a jab we can believe in.