This will be brief. I am originally from Northern Michigan. I keep up on the local news in my neck of the woods via the internet and engage in hand to hand warfare on a regular basis in comments on local news items as well as a constant barrage of Letters To The Editor that challenge the lies present in so many letters and simply call them out old fashioned style: by using "facts". Its really NOT that hard to argue with the dittoheads and Fox News crowd that lives via modern media in the conservative beltway bubble, despite the fact that they vote against their own economic interest on a regular basis. I have been rewarded in my efforts by countless thank you's from the locals when I am home, MANY of whom are afraid to speak out for fear of loss of business and social stigmatization. They are the closet progressives that are everywhere. But no one engages them. No one gives them energy to believe that they really can make a difference!!
Yesterday while reading the paper, I had to laugh when I saw a picture of a "anti Obama rally" at the local fairgrounds that attracted get this..... less than 10 people! This is an area that is nearly all white, older, conservative, gun loving, church going, federal government hating, represented at the state and federal level by Republicans (formerly by Bart Stupak, one of the deciding votes in The Affordable Care Act). If this is the best the astroturf right wing can do HERE, they have problems.
THIS is an area that should be over the top FOR Romney. But it seems like they are not making the connection. But this has important implications up and down the ballot. Romney is generating so little energy it could be a death knell to many of the down ballot races at EVERY level.... in every state, no matter how red it may be. This is GOOD NEWS. BUT, it needs to be taken advantage of!!
If you know people in small town America, wherever it may be, NOW is the time to put the foot on the gas and really work these people. WRITE letters to the editor of the local papers. Even if you dont live there. They will take it from someone they may know (even if they only know your parents) far more than they will ever hear it from a phone bank caller. The personal connection is KEY!! Contest comments in local blogs. DONT stay silent. We have an opportunity here to really make some progress and dare I say..... perhaps make significant gains in the House!
Check out the Mitt-mentum here in one of his "home states". A state where his father was a much loved Governor.
http://www.dailypress.net/...
Check out Tim Skubick, one of the most prominent Michigan political reporters (in fact, the last remaining full time reporter in Lansing) with this observation decrying the lack of participation in politics at the local level at the most recent Economic Club gathering:
This could be a problem for Mitt Romney, who is often seen as being "stiff," according to Skubick. Skubick highlighted Romney's stiffness by comparing him to his father, George Romney, who was the governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969.
"He doesn't have the same drive. He doesn't have the same passion," said Skubick. "For those of you who knew George Romney, you knew where he stood. You may not have agreed with him but by God there was nothing wishy-washy."
http://www.dailypress.net/...
NOW is the time to press. We all need to do the dirty work of politics here: hand to hand voter recruitment! Its hard. Its frustrating. But if we want to do ANYTHING to change the course of things NOT only in Washington but in all of our state capitals, we MUST do our part.