It's closing time for this midterm election. Former President Barack Obama, a perennial Democratic superstar, has hit the trail to add his special sauce to the final week of voting. He's already sliced and diced in Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, with upcoming events in Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.
On Daily Kos' The Brief last week, founder Markos Moulitsas and I spoke with Way To Win co-founder and political strategist Jenifer Fernandez Ancona about closing messages that Democrats and voters alike can use in their day-to-day interactions. Ancona, whose firm produced a suite of closing ads, believes that focusing on both freedoms (e.g. abortion) and the economy (gas price gouging) is a must to combat the notion that voters must choose between prioritizing their money and their rights. "It's a false choice," she says, noting that Democrats are better for average Americans on both counts.
Among the ads the group generated was this one, which equates the GOP to "Gouging Our Prices."
This week, Way To Win dropped its final closing message, which reminds us that voters will be—and always have been—the heroes of the American story.
The opening of the ad reminds voters: "America was founded on the dream of freedom—one that has yet to come true. It was freedom for some, freedom for the few, until ‘We the People’ rose up and came together. From the Underground Railroad to Standing Rock, from Stonewall to Selma, we pushed American toward that dream of freedom again and again and again."
Eventually, the ad reminds us, “Progress often seem impossible. But the truth is, we decide what’s possible.”
It’s up to voters, once again, to be the heroes of this era in American history—as they always have been in our enduring fight for freedom. Watch it, get inspired, vote, vote early, and then make sure everyone you know and love votes, too.
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