(And US!)
This diary is a reply to kos’s fine FP diary earlier today, in which he laments (and emphasized the reality of) the challenge of getting ‘our’ voters to turn out, particularly in the mid-term elections. Please take a moment to read that. It is good. And important.
Quoting our favorite host (from the diary linked) ...
If our people turnout, we win. But our people don't like to vote, and Republicans will do everything in their power to encourage that non-participation.
It really is that simple, but that's easier said than done given the poor historical mid-term participation of our strongest-performing base groups: African Americans, Latinos, Asians, young voters, and single women.
So, how do we make the case to those groups?
More below! But, first, a word from our sponsor ...
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When I started to ‘engage’ with that question, I thought first of Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor who died of pancreatic cancer in 2008. In his famous “Last Lecture,” Pausch said (about to describe his terminal cancer diagnosis to his audience):
So, you know, in case there’s anybody who wandered in and doesn’t know the back story, my dad always taught me that when there’s an elephant in the room, introduce them.
Well, there is an elephant in this room. In the next 13+ months, we Democrats will have a lot of direct contact with the five groups of voters kos mentioned. We need their votes. And they need us to GET those votes. They need us to WIN those elections. So, in these contacts with them, perhaps we need to introduce the elephant in the room. We want to help them with the many things in our world trending badly. We want to help them with positive momentum where that already exists. Without their votes, things are guaranteed to get worse.
That reminded me in turn of a movie clip I saw some years ago, Many of you will know it, from a popular movie, that has gone into our culture to a degree. I tried to do a form of time cropping on the video, to restrict it to the specific moments I was thinking of, but that has failed, so here is the clip in its entirety. (I would have limited it to 1:12 - 2:12.)
In the clip, Tom Cruise is begging his client, Cuba Gooding, Jr., to help him with the contract negotiation process: "Help Me Help You!" Because, of course, the agent, Cruise, cannot negotiate a lucrative contract out of thin air. It’s an unusual moment. In the universe of professional athletes and their agents, it’s outside the box. Neither one really knows how to deal with it.
In the film, Cruise leaves the scene frustrated and rebuffed, very pessimistic that he did not ‘reach’ his client, to be able to get the contract they both need. And yet, his client DOES come around. He does CHANGE. He does help his agent. He changes his behavior in critical ways, he PERFORMS when it matters most, and the result they both want and need comes to pass, with them helping each other.
That is what we need, too.
Might voter turnout for the mid-terms be positively influenced if, when we engage with our voter base, we ask them for their help?! Even with a touch of (very honest!) desperation?! Help me Help You!
Because, in absolutely real terms, it just isn’t going to work any other way. They MUST help us help them. I think we should ask them explicitly for precisely that.
On to tonight’s comments, once again professionally collated and formatted by brillig, our top-most Top Commenteer! (Exactly right!!! She helped me help her!)
BeninSC helps me every time I help him, I just don't know if he knows it :).
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From lineatus:
Though the context of sagesource's comment is about a political candidate, the underlying statement is something we should take to heart in all of our everyday encounters, too.
From Pam from Calif:
This comment thread begun by MinistryOfTruth describes Sen. Ted Cruz perfectly.
From Land of Enchantment:
Holy cow! UID #6123, also known as liandro, just made their first comment, almost ten years after initially signing up for a Daily Kos account.
From Puddytat:
While it may be out of date for recs (brillig's note: not until 12:53am EDT Thursday!), please don't miss Unitary Moonbat's incisive comment. It was one of those which makes us want to be able to rec more than once.
From BeninSC:
Flagged by Youffraita, this comment by The Geogre is ONE way to skewer a book you don't like! ::wink::
Top Mojo for yesterday September 24th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary FAQing Top Mojo.
1) And the texts weren't just racist, by Chacounne — 110
2) I'll say it, and really mean it... by WakeUpNeo — 93
3) Love it. The ugly truth actually acknowledged by psnyder — 91
4) In a few years by Randomfactor — 89
5) Maybe he WAS Romney? by citizenx — 88
6) Scientists and Scholars: You Can Run But You Can't by Gooserock — 85
7) It's somewhere near our oil. by xxdr zombiexx — 77
8) Nor do they know that we are the main cause by slippytoad — 77
9) if i was a betting man, i'd put my money by Deep Texan — 74
10) Went to make some by trumpeter — 74
11) Most Americans don't understand how important by Horace Boothroyd III — 69
12) "apology tour" yada yada......nt by merrywidow — 65
13) Most Americans don't even know that Iranians by AlyoshaKaramazov — 64
14) Cheap and rather shallow by sagesource — 63
15) Ted Cruz is either too stupid to by Ianb007 — 62
16) Just for the record... by Meteor Blades — 62
17) If you're on food stamps by Land of Enchantment — 59
18) It brings to mind that old bumper sticker: by Eileen B — 59
19) This story should be sent to every Republican with by zenbassoon — 58
20) That's a facebook page by Alice in Florida — 57
21) They wouldn't care at all. No empathy whatsoever. by Floyd Blue — 56
22) Racism and misogyny seem to go hand in hand... by Shockwave — 53
23) Brilliant. Thanks for this. N/T by SixSixSix — 52
24) I might have stopped at understand.... by LaFeminista — 51
25) You left out by undercovercalico — 50
26) I cannot believe by ferg — 49
27) Poor Ted. He's like Marco Rubio without the by darthstar — 48
28) I was training a lady at work the other day by miracle11 — 48
29) Holy God by Lilith — 48
30) Far far worse this time, you just wait by LaFeminista — 46
31) The gov't relies upon people such as yourself... by bobswern — 46
Top Pictures for yesterday, September 24th. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you jotter for the image magic!