As you may know, earlier this year I began an initiative called One Hundred Million for America. The objective is to personally contact at least 100 million American voters. And by personally contact, I do NOT mean by phone or text. I mean face to face interaction, which research in political science tells us is the most effective way to win votes. My goal is to raise the Democratic presidential vote from 65 million in 2016 to at least 85 million in 2020. Moreover, I want all these people who vote Democratic at the presidential level to vote Democratic top to bottom. In order to achieve this, we must remind ourselves of something crucially important: It is a waste of time to try to appeal to hard core Trump supporters. They are cultists who are beyond any reach. They are lost. They are beyond hope. Perhaps 10% of Trump’s 2016 voters have buyer’s remorse and will either not vote in 2020 (the most likely outcome) or will vote for us (far less likely). So we cannot win by converting our opposition. We must win by overwhelming them. It’s just as simple as that.
Eighty-six million eligible voters did NOT vote in 2016. One hundred million eligible voters did NOT vote in 2018. This has to end. There are huge numbers of potential Democratic votes out there, and I propose to rally them. Let me be specific:
EVERY DEMOCRATIC ACTIVIST IN AMERICA SHOULD SET A GOAL OF GETTING TEN POTENTIAL DEMOCRATIC VOTERS TO REGISTER TO VOTE.
But it doesn’t stop there!
ONCE TEN VOTERS HAVE BEEN SIGNED UP, THE DEMOCRATIC ACTIVISTS SHOULD STAY IN REGULAR CONTACT WITH THESE PEOPLE FROM NOW UNTIL ELECTION DAY 2020.
Yes, I am asking you to “adopt” these people. We want as many of them to vote as humanly possible. Imagine the possibility: 3,000,000 Democratic activists registering 30,000,000 new voters, 2/3 of whom turn out and vote Democratic. Some 20,000,000 new votes right there.
KEY POINTS!! (From our friend Loyal Kossack 2thanks):
- Talk to campaigns of local Democratic candidates. You can work in a group, learn from pros.
- Go to events frequented by Democrats: Women’s marches, science marches, specific protests, etc.
- This is very important: Do NOT ask, “Do you want to register?” INSTEAD, ask a variant of “Would you like to update your registration?” The reason for this phrasing is that people do not want to admit that they’ve never been registered.
Now, if you would like to explore a variation on this, loyal Kossack Cerco53 has an excellent idea. This is his proposal, as he laid it out to me in our correspondence:
My idea is to promote an "Each One Bring One" campaign. This would ask each Dem 2018 voter to identify at least 1 person within each's circle of relatives, friends and acquaintances who did not vote in 2018 and persuade that person to vote. (All things being equal, that should be an additional Dem vote.) This initiative may involve assisting the person in becoming registered (which may carry financial implications) and taking and assisting that person to the polling station and voting.
My feeling is that campaigns and/or Dem institutions should be happy to subsidize or finance the provision of such assistance as they may be saving $ on GOTV efforts in other areas if this project is effective. It shouldn't be too hard for each of us to identify and succeed in taking along just 1 person with each of us. Theoretically this could bump up Dem support to 130mm (of course, this would not actually be 100% successful) without having to spend on ads, campaigning, etc., although such activities may be impelled by other necessary imperatives, e.g., developing enthusiasm, etc.
I think this is an excellent idea. I say, let’s try both!
I have BIG goals:
750,000 new Democratic voters in Ohio.
750,000 new Democratic voters in Pennsylvania.
500,000 new Democratic voters in Michigan
300,000 new Democratic voters in Wisconsin
800,000 new Democratic voters in Florida
400,000 new Democratic voters in North Carolina
400,000 new Democratic voters in Georgia
200,000 new Democratic voters in Iowa
900,000 new Democratic voters in Texas (Beto showed us it IS possible)
And 15 million other new Democrats in the rest of the country, with Arizona as a prime target and places like Kansas, Montana, and Missouri as possible surprises.
The future of our country is riding on the 2020 election. We are in a struggle we MUST win. The time to start was yesterday.
Sign Ten to Vote. Each One Bring One.
Sounds like victory to me.