National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) GOTV canvassing team in Miami-Dade.
If our base turns out, we win. You've probably heard that line quite a few times if you read this blog. After all, the guy who founded the place says it often. And he ain't wrong. The key question: How?
Over the next few months, Night Owls will be frequently posting excerpts from essays and articles written by a variety of activists on this subject. Both theory and practice.
You may disagree with some of them. Or all of them. They may spur you to discussion, to write your own diaries, or even to generate your own manifestoes on the matter. All well and good. The conversation matters. Tonight, it's Eveline Shen's turn with this piece from TruthOut:
The morning after the midterm elections, many on the left wondered, where was the Rising American Electorate (RAE) - youth, single women and people of color—who delivered victories for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012? Of the 33 percent of registered voters who turned out, the majority was white, older and married.
As someone who was part of a nationwide grassroots effort to mobilize the RAE to turn out in states such as Florida, Georgia, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon and Texas, I have five key lessons to share with those of us in it for the long haul. […]
1. Lead with uniting values to get the RAE to vote together. Last fall in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with less than 12 weeks to Election Day, a coalition led by grassroots women of color and reproductive advocacy organizations did the unthinkable: They helped defeat the first municipal ballot measure in the country attempting to ban abortion by a whopping 10 percentage points. Fueled by members of Operation Rescue, early polls showed that the abortion ban would pass by a wide margin. The Albuquerque Journal reported that 43,900 New Mexicans cast ballots, more than the 26,208 who voted in the previous month's mayoral election. The defeat of the ballot measure was nothing short of amazing in a "purple" state where Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, the nation's first Latina governor, was elected on an anti-choice and anti-immigrant platform. […]
2. Do Civics 101 because they need to know what they're voting for. "People don't participate because they don't feel it matters, and they feel so disconnected from it," explains Adriann Barboa, Forward Together's director of Strong Families New Mexico, who set out with 17 partner organizations to create the "Conozca Su Voto" or "Know Your Vote" voter guide that lays out in Spanish and English what each elected office does and how it impacts the potential voter. […]
3. Invest in mobilizing communities long after the election is over.The Respect ABQ campaign partnered with local organizations throughout New Mexico working in rural communities of color. […]
Unlike most electoral campaigns that just move into a community and run their GOTV operations, Strong Families New Mexico is building capacity and leadership across the state so that after November 4, the community isn't left with a bunch of clipboards and pens, but an organization and leaders they can turn to about how they can continue engaging civically. "It's exciting to think about the potential of getting folks mobilized to start seeing their involvement at a bigger level and exercising their power," Barboa says. […]
4. Focus on irregular and new voters. "Unlike partisan campaigns, our desire is to have more people come out in larger numbers and get them to feel why their vote matters," says Barboa of Strong Families New Mexico. Most electoral campaigns don't think about how to increase the voting participation rate, but how to win that one election. "If we got another 200 people to turn out in Gallup, then we could literally rock that vote." […]
5. Generate materials that speak to them, literally. The Respect ABQ Women campaign spoke to women of color in a way that was culturally appropriate to their lives, explains Barboa, a 16th generation New Mexican at the center of the campaign. They used language focusing on the importance of women and families making decisions for themselves: "We are parents, tias, ninos, brothers and sisters. We are neighbors, friends, people of faith—We are New Mexican families." Our allies also ran radio ads—created by local New Mexican organization Young Women United and supported by NLIRH and NARAL—of beloved New Mexican heroine Dolores Huerta encouraging voters in Spanish to turn out on Election Day.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2012—President Obama can and must take serious action on climate change with and without Congress:
After a presidential campaign during which "climate change" was almost never even whispered by the candidates nor a question asked about it during their debates, the term finally made an appearance at President Obama's first post-election press conference Nov. 14 when Mark Landler popped the question. The president responded at some length, hinting that "climate change" would be paid some serious attention during his second term, starting out with an "education process."
Unfortunately, as A Siegel illustrated in a spot-on critical essay analyzing the subtext of what Obama said, how it related to the president's first-term record on climate change and the mess that White House press secretary Jay Carney made the next day of the president's comments, that education process needs to start in the White House with Obama's senior staff.
So far, "encouraging" is an optimistic assessment of Obama's reply to Landler's question. Lots of crossed fingers among environmental advocates.
At Mother Jones, Chris Mooney has done what many of those advocates will be doing over the next couple of months, laying out what Obama could accomplish even with a Congress that is brimful of climate-change deniers and policy delayers.
Tweet of the Day
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show,
Greg Dworkin spends 12 seconds on Gruber, then moves on to the KXL vote, immigration, and the Republican Love Boat starbursts for Scott Walker. Explaining the "painless filibuster" KXL vote. Mainstream breakout on the Bill Cosby story. Uber's PR implosion grows worse.
Joan McCarter offers insights on the lame duck agenda, continued Gop obstruction, and the price paid for Landrieu's gambit. Constitutional law war gaming over recess appointments. Shutdown strategery speculation. Elizabeth Warren wants banks to prove they're protecting customer data. And finally, some hot scoop on net neutrality from
Vice.
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