A friend of mine, knowing how much I advocate for Democrats running for local office in red America sent me a pic he came across on Facebook.
My bet is he is a Republican too. I mean, all the locals knew him and he seemed to be popular.
How do I know he is a Republican? Well, he refused to listen to the advice of experts in both protecting the citizens of Amity Island and on the particular threat they were facing. Instead, he looked after the monied interests to dupe victims, I mean tourists, to keep coming to the island.
He even coaxed the locals, who were also scared, to put on a show for the victims, I mean tourists, into getting into the water. All for a quick buck. It all seemed to be working well until…
Poor Alex Kitner, sacrificed for the profit of the monied interests in town. More deaths followed, many attributable to bad decisions made by the mayor, the final one, the result of sending out an under-resourced team to deal with the threat.
After all that tragedy and gruesome death as a result of Mayor Vaughn refusing to first listen to the counsel of qualified individuals and then refusing to provide adequate resources to deal with the actual threat (sounding very Republican to me) here he is, 4 years later, still mayor and refusing to listen to the advice of his expert in protecting lives.
I know the movie came out only after 3 years, but the official movie timeline is that Jaws 2 takes place 4 years after the events in the first film. Dude got re-elected!?
The problem is, looking at real-world politics, it is actually easy to see how. He probably is the only person who ran for that office, most of the town officials are probably from the same party as him as well (pretty sure Republican given the behavior). I am sure Democrats live on Amity Island too, but individual Democrats probably don't know that other Democrats live there in any numbers, so no one steps up to challenge for the seat.
This happens in red America all the time. We just do not field enough candidates in these local races. I know there has been a huge upswell this year, and thank god for the people stepping up, but there is more work to do.
The good news is, Democrats are everywhere! Everywhere I tell you!!!
Even in deep red America, and the most important thing we can do for them is to respect them and support them as they try and change their area. If they move the needle even a little bit that is a big win for us. Don't believe, consider this; 49.3% of popular vote winner Hillary Clinton's vote total came from states Trump won. That's nearly 32.8 million of her 65.9 million votes. Democrats are everywhere, even in deep-red territory.
HOW the amity island example plays out in real life
Consider this. If you lived in small town rural Nebraska, you probably see the local sheriff (republican on the fall ballot) eating in a diner you go to every week or two. Your candidate for Mayor (Republican on the fall ballot) might buy feed for his pigs at the farm supply store you work at. Your state legislative rep (republican on the fall ballot) comes to the local arts and crafts fair and harvest festival each year. Your county commissioner (Republican on the ballot in the fall) might run the trucking company that brings goods to the farm supply store you work at. One of the women on the town council (Republican on the ballot in the fall) might host a weekly coffee or brunch for the neighborhood wives once a week. Your daughter maybe went to prom with your neighbor's brothers son, the brother being a judge (republican on the ballot in the fall).
Meanwhile, no one you associate with do you ever see or get to meet has a Democrat by their name on the fall ballot. Hell, no one with even a Nebraska home address is appearing on your ballot, not one Democrat knows you as far as you know even. Who are you likely to have an affinity for? Democrats? Republicans?
I bet if you answer honestly, you would concede the point here. Relationships matter in politics. If you don’t see Democrats on your local or state section of the ballot, or see Democrats in your towns interacting and living within the community or if you aren’t even asked for your vote by a Democrat except for in maybe a TV ad, a mailer or possibly a phone call from some hipster scrolling through a call list in Starbucks in Portland Oregon (I made many of these calls in prior elections), who are you most likely to trust has your best interest at heart?
“ WAIT A MINUTE, I DON’T KNOW ANYONE ON MY BALLOT”
I know, I know, in our densely populated urban areas you might go your entire life without knowing any of these officials or interact with them in any way, yet you still vote for them. Small town America is different in that way, they tend to know more about the people in their community, it is part of the nature of rural life, they are more interdependent on each other since there are fewer of them per square mile.
So these folks know all these people that are Republicans in person if not personally and know of no Democrats even living in their area. These are the only people these folks actually know that has ever personally asked for their vote as well. Is it a realistic expectation for them to have ANY affinity with us Democrats in that environment?
WHICH PARTY DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD TRUST MORE TO HAVE YOUR INTEREST AT HEART IN THAT ENVIRONMENT?
The New York and Virginia Democrats who haven’t likely even been to your state,
OR
The Republicans asking for your vote from your hometown, and are people that contribute to the local economy directly, and interact with your children and your workplace. Oh yeah, and a couple more Republicans from New York and Indiana are asking for your vote as well.
THE SAD REALITY IS THIS
That neighbor, whose brothers son went to prom with your daughter, you know where the brother was a Republican judge, remember him? Well that neighbor may well themselves be a Democrat, but you don’t even know it. They have never had a local candidate to support, someone they knew from childhood is not running as a Democrat for your town council in order for them to even talk to you about possibly supporting them.
That neighbor may think she is the only Democrat within 100 miles for that matter. Of course, we get multiple presidential votes from every state and almost every locality across the country so intellectually we know Democrats are everywhere, but I can imagine many people feel like they are living on an island when the party does not field a candidate for them to get behind in their locality, even for state legislative seats.
Frankly, I am amazed we get as many votes as we do from red state rural America given this reality in some parts of the country.
THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO ORGANIZE AND RUN EVERYWHERE
So voters see us engaged in their community.
So Democrats know we care about them too, maybe they will feel comfortable revealing themselves to their neighbor and be excited to talk about our great candidate for mayor.
Electoral politics are about people feeling like they have a relationship with the party, or some deeper shared value at the very least. We have got to be present in these areas to gain that relationship and demonstrate that shared value with more people on a more personal level.