This is for every blue voter in a red state who has every said “We need Stacey Abrams to come to [fill in name of red state] and do here what she did in Georgia.”
No, you don’t.
You need to organize and do it yourselves.
She and her co-author Lauren Groh-Wargo laid out all the steps as clear as day in their February 11 column: How to Turn Your Red State Blue (It may take ten years. do it anyway).
In the name of fair use, and because I want everyone to read, mark and inwardly digest the entire article, I won’t quote much from it.
I will only list the six subject areas they cover, with a little commentary of my own, because the subheadings in the article say it all:
- Understand why you’re losing. Don’t assume you already know. Look at the data. Talk to people. Figure it out. The reasons are specific to every area.
- Take Action to create a clear message. Three words, seven syllables or fewer, or just use some other Democratic slogan. “Together we can” is coming around again. “Build Back Better“ will still be relevant for this year and next—it will take a long time to fix the mess left by the previous administration. “Fired Up, Ready to Go” will never get old.
Then repeat it every time you talk to anybody until people think it is part of your name. Put it on your business cards, say it in every television and radio interview, mention it in every newspaper article, put it on buttons and bumper stickers, include it in ALL your printed materials.
Have back up to explain what it means in terms of policy, exactly what Rcon policies you will fix and which new intiatives Ds will promote once in office. But the slogan should be enough of a hook for the low information voters to pay attention, and enough to make other voters want to know more.
Jon Ossoff said “Health, Jobs and Justice” EVERY... SINGLE... TIME… he gave an interview. He featured it in tweets and printed material. I heard him say it at least a hundred times, and I still had to look it up just now to make sure I had it right. I am paying closer attention than the average voter, so if I had to look it up that means there STILL hasn’t been enough repetition! Good framing has to be repeated until people hear the first word and say the rest of it along with you either out loud or in their heads, even if they also complain that you say it “too often”. If they complain you are saying it too often, you are doing something right.
- Organize! There is no substitute for this. Fortunately, this is something we are good at. We even got a community organizer elected president. Step number one of any long-odds long-haul campaign strategy is organizing. Find the like minded people and bring them together. Knock on doors. Make calls. Send direct mail/email/texts. Make lists. Compile data. Have virtual and in-person meetings. Hard work. No way around it.
- Breathe life into the state party. Howard Dean said this 18 years ago. There are places, whole states, where Democrats lost for so long that they gave up. Money, time and resources need to go to areas that have been neglected for a long time, so they can have offices, and staff, and data collection.
- Play the long game. You’re not trying to win one election. You are trying to transform a whole area, a whole state, a whole party, a whole country. That doesn’t happen overnight. Stacey Abrams spent ten years organizing Georgia, and while that sounds like a long time, where will your state be ten years from now if you DON’T do it? Plus there is the possibility that an even bigger Blue Wave is establishing itself, and the work may go faster now that people have seen with their own eyes that “the impossible” happened in Georgia.
- Surround yourself with smart people. This is our main advantage right now. The red team is burdened with a lot more people who are primed to just accept what they are told without question. We have the thinkers, the innovators, the dreamers, the ability to think outside the box. Where others see nothing but a thicket of impenetrable thorns, we will make a way where there is no way and create a path to victory. Set ego aside and realize that only the mediocre fear being outshined. A key marker of leadership intelligence is the willingness to surround yourself with people smarter than you are, and the ability to recognize them when you run across them.
- ORGANIZE. There is no substitute for this so I’m glad they say it twice! This is a time to get creative. Don’t assume you are starting from zero with zero. Look around and discover the organizational structures that already exist. Indivisible started from zero with zero and is now located in every Congressional district. MoveOn is still involved with political advocacy. Progressive veterans groups such as About Face have active national networks. Social media is bigger than FB and Twitter. You’d be surprised who is reachable on Linked In and Next Door. And I heard about an exciting website with orange banners called Daily Kos or something similar (I’ll have to look it up) where political organizing and fundraising has been going on almost 20 years now. Maybe they can be helpful?
Look for neighborhood based organizations where people who know each other personally gather and talk one on one. Parent groups, flea markets, bingo games, bowling alleys, farmer’s markets, the taco truck on the corner, whatever. Some events are still happening and groups are still meeting even during the pandemic, and as more people get vaccinated, the summer opens up interesting possibilities. A lot of organizing work is just finding out what people are interested in, where they get their information, and who are the influencers folks listen to. The only way to find out is to ask, and asking in an organized fashion produces data future campaigns can use.
LBNL, there’s a lot of complaining on the blue team that conservatives have a built in organizing network through the churches, as though every church were conservative and no church resources are available to us. Many folks my age who remember first-hand how active churches were in the Civil Rights Movement are pushing back on this misconception, especially since we have the very same civil rights at stake now.
In addition to being a good place to get the word out (and yes there are ways to do this legally), progressive churches and similar houses of worship are a great and relatively inexpensive source of office space and telephones for a start-up organization. Somewhere near you there is a progressive church that would be thrilled to have even a small amount of income from a tenant working on non-partisan issue-oriented advocacy such as voting rights, voter registration and/or civics education.
Anyway, please go read the whole article for yourself, especially if you live in a red state.
Then send it to five people who are likely to read and respond to it.
Do it now.
NOW is the time to find good candidates for state-wide and local races that happen in the off-off year. It’s almost too late. Yes, there are races this year—2021. #VoteEveryYear.
NOW is the time to make sure there are no uncontested seats for the legislative districts and congressional district races of the 2022 midterms. Tell candidates they are a success whether they win or not if they are honest, get the Blue message out, and generate helpful data for the state party to use in the future: volunteers, donors, helpful local businesses, organizations willing to host speakers or offer meeting space, names of local and regional influencers who have the ear of large numbers of people, etc. etc. etc.
NOW is the time to figure out what voters you need to reach to make up the ground between your 2020 turnout and your 2024 turnout or your 2028 turnout or your 2032 turnout.
Go long, think big, persist.
You don’t need Stacey Abrams to do it for you. YOU can do it. Even if you think you are the only Democrat in your area (you aren’t), mighty movements can begin with the drive and determination of one person. Stacey Abrams is one person. You are one person. Take the first steps NOW, even if you do feel as if you are all alone, because you will quickly find out that you are not, and that will give you the fuel to keep going.
Get the word started NOW, especially if you currently live in a red state, and by 2024 you may be living in a purple state.
Or even a blue one.
link to other diaries in the TRUE BLUE REPORT series