I wrote a series of diaries on ways that we, the participants on Daily Kos, can work to make 2014 a winning year for Democrats. I concentrated on the US House, because that is where my heart is -- and partially because I'm in IL, where Democrats dominate the legislature and hold more than half, and the more important ones, of the state-wide executive offices.
I do not, by any means, wish to restrict others to those offices, however. (If you want to go after a Republican candidate for some other office who is currently a sitting congressman, you might look at the list of ammunition I posted Friday and Monday.)
Local and, especially, state Republican office holders also have done their damage. Some of them have done enough visible damage that they can be held accountable.
Then, too, there are senators, although only in some states are they running this year. Most of what I said about congressmen holds for Republican senators, only not so strongly. There are two special complaints. The first is blocking judicial appointments. The courts are in crisis, and your state's federal courts may have experienced that crisis. This is a special issue, but it might resonate with lawyers. The second is like unto it: the filibuster. For decades, the filibuster was used sparingly for issues which mattered greatly to a minority of the states. Then the Republican senators decided to use it all the time until it wore out.
We can act now to persuade people. I use this diagram of voters to understand how persuasion works:
A B C D E
F G H I
J K L
M N
O
Where A has decided to vote Democratic, E has decided to vote Republican, O has decided to not vote, and the letters in intermediate positions have intermediate opinions.
Persuasion is moving people not only along the top, but up the left side of the triangle or down the right side. When you get people conscious of how the actions of their elected Republican worked to their detriment, then you have started the process of persuasion.
You probably know about issues which are hot in your area that I don't know about. Below the fold, though, are some issues of which I am aware. I intend to spark your decisions, not to restrict them.
The states which didn't expand Medicaid should take their revenge on the numbnuts who made that decision. Every time a local hospital closes, you should point out that it closed -- endangering everybody's health, not just the health of the poor -- because it couldn't tap into the new federal money which would have been available if governor and/or the legislature had simply accepted the federal largesse.
Maine is a special case. The legislature is not to blame. Certain legislators share the blame with the crazy governor.
Then, too, your locality needs spending, and other states are getting spending from the federal money which is flowing in -- federal money which would go not into the pockets of poor people but to local doctors, nurses, hospital workers, and druggists. They would spend their money locally, on groceries, food, and entertainment. It's happening in Kentucky. If it's not happening in your area, that is because the governor and the local state rep were assholes -- which should probably be expressed as "put their political interests above the interests of their constituents" in your LTE or Facebook post.
That issue runs across most red states. Others have special concerns. North Carolina, for example, has areas deeply affected by the spill of coal ash into its rivers. Duke power has had cozy relationships with the people supposed to regulate them and with the governor. I would expect that you could focus that resentment against the governor.
Michigan has the usurpation of local control. Wisconsin has the Guv's promise to grow jobs, among a slew of other issues.
Every state, almost every locality, has particular issues. Any that you think would move people in your locality should be mentioned in the comments.