Most American's are not reading what we are reading or what we are writing.
Most of us who lurk and blog here are political junkies who crave political
news and analysis.
We are not however representative of mainstream America. It is not that
our politics are different -- I believe most Americans want what we promote,
e.g., world peace, equality, the rule of law, protection of the Constitution,
healthcare for their families, education for their children, etc.
In short, we spend a lot of time "preaching to the choir", but if we want to
impact this and future elections, we need to have a coordinated outreach
program.
They will not come to us, but we can go to them.
Most Americans read newspapers and many rely on newspaper stories,
editorials, and even letters to the editor when trying to make up their minds on
various candidates and issues.
Lucky for us, many newspapers have local blogs. It can be tough to get
LTEs published because they only publish a few a day, but newspaper blogs are
far more open. That gives us two routes to the public -- one through those
who read their news online and may check out the news blogs, but also, many
newspapers are now publishing some of the more enlightening and interesting blog
posts in their hardcopies.
For example, I've been blogging in my local papers and frankly, I find I am
almost alone in promoting progressive positions. I am up against dozens of
very right wing and very militant Republicans. In fact I'm certain that my
most frequent "adversary" in the local paper blog is the state chair of the
Republican Party.
My paper has now requested to use some of my blog responses in their printed
paper. Hopefully more of us can get involved this way.
The Republican's have a coordinated campaign to post in these blogs. As
usual, the Dems are way behind, but here is where we can pick up the slack.
10 Practical Tips for Influencing Your Neighbors & Winning This
Election
1. Find the blogs in your local paper. The NYU
School of Journalism has a
list of
papers and their blogs.
2. Encourage the Use of Blogs. If they don't have
them, write and encourage them to start. Meanwhile, try blogging in papers
and magazines with national readership (e.g., NYT, WP, USAToday, etc.)
3. Keep it Simple. Write in short sentences and
provide key points. Skip the detailed analysis. If they are
interested they will look into it further.
4. Be Credible. Write the truth and cite the truth.
5. Keep going Back to the Blog. Keep going back to the
blog so that if others are responding, you can counter their points (but don't
reference their comments directly). Also, I assume most people just read
the first few responses so if I get a lot of adverse or contrary comments, I
just repost my original comment or some version of it so that it stays on the
top of the list for the next set of readers.
6. Don't Participate in an Argument. No one will read your
arguments back and forth with one or more critics. The only ones reading
those will be yourself and whomever you are arguing with -- and that is not your
target audience. I suggest responding, but without mentioning them or
their posts.
7. Don't engage in Name Calling. I can't count how many
times I have been called anti-American, a commie, a dolt, etc. in just the last
week on various newspaper blogs. Ignore them. If you respond in
kind, you are giving them credibility. Take the high road, don't take the
attacks personally, and just move on. I suggest using a nom de plume.
I like to use my dog's name because it doesn't bother me when they
call him a dolt. In fact it is kind of funny.
8. Be Creative. I get annoyed with the Republican bumper
sticker slogans, e.g., cut and run, but I recognize that they can be effective.
For example, if your local Congresscritter or Senator was involved in the
Abramoff scandal, you can start your response off with "Lawmaker or Lawbreaker"
and then list the corrupt activities and conclude he is a lawbreaker and that
the voters deserve a lawmaker.
9. Don't hesitate to go off topic. For example, in a blog about
Pluto being "demoted" to a dwarf planet, I wrote "After six years of the Bush
Administration, even a planet has lost its job." In a blog about Plan
B finally being approved, I wrote about the FDA using politics in place of
science. I wrote about how the religious right was trying to impose their
religious beliefs on me by trying to keep it off the shelves. I noted that
most religions have bans on various things, but that they don't try to force
their beliefs on me by outlawing things banned by their religion.
10. Don't stop until we win. If we all participate --even just a
little -- it will shift the balance of comments from almost exclusively right
wing to at least having some progressive slant. We can make friends and
influence people, but we all have to work on it. Our candidates may not
have a lot of money, but if they have us we can help promote them and
progressive ideas with the cost of just a few minutes per day.