I was recently asked to talk to a group of new donors to help Democrats get more help and was asked to help set up the function. As a political strategist, this is one of my functions of any group I am “hired to help”. I say it like that because I volunteer my help and not work for a base pay. Also why I always use NDA’s for all my work in case they do something stupid, I am covered. But back to the “party”, I read the list of food and music and immediately handed back and said “No!” because if we wanted them to start getting on the bandwagon, we needed them to understand who they needed to support and it wasn’t the party of champagne and shrimp on a toothpick with classical music in the background.
A week later, I had guests showing up to an outdoor event with classical rock playing like Queen, Three Dog Night and more with entrees like mini pizza slices, assorted sliders, wine coolers and assorted high-end beers available on tap. Then when Demi Lavato played the song “Confidence” (the theme song from Lucifer) I walked out on the mini stage and started talking.
Why did I do this? Because I needed to make a point that the Democratic Party is missing. It’s the appeal to what Freddie Mercury called oddballs, miscreants and the ones who felt left out and didn’t fit in with anyone else. These are the ones who would listen to Queen and they did. Queen became one of the largest bands since the Beatles. Their Bohemian Rhapsody became #1 4-5 times after they released it, even after Freddie died, who sang the lead. That song was dedicated to all the fans who truly felt left out.
I made those donors hear the music of the voters we needed, eat the food of those donors and realize that someone was thinking of why the Democratic Party was not winning in certain red districts. I showed them why being in harmony was needed by the local districts if the local Democrats had any hope to win and what they had to do to make the changes. Having money is one thing, but knowing how to spend it, well that is a whole different situation and many of the Democratic donors have not organized as well as the Republican donors have.
Now let me help and explain my Bohemian Rhapsody politic theory to you, the reader. I live in Oregon. In the NW, the Democrats have that territory under control but on the south and east, it is Republican because it is rural and not larger cities with the exception of the Jackson County and Deschutes County which are the only bluer areas because of the Ashland/Medford in Jackson County and Bend in Deschutes. CD2 is the congressional district in the eastern portion with CD4 in the SW and CD5 on top of them in the of CD2 so a larger red swath of the state. Much like many of the Midwestern states in politics since I worked in several counties for Democrats so have samples to compare.
I would say that the Democratic Party of Oregon has written off much of this area has feasible to gain any territory from my contacts and friends but I must also say they are flat wrong because working in this area, it is a prime plum to be plucked as is much of the Midwest. You see, I do what so many people don’t, I stop and listen to what people bitch about. Yes, bitch. Asking questions sometimes work but as my father liked to say, people also like to lie to poll questioners to screw with them because they are like me, assholes and smartasses. But someone like me can sit with them and shoot the shit with them over a beer and hear what they want to get off their chest. You can’t do that over a glass of wine.
The other thing is many of these same people are not Democrats, they are Non-Affiliated Voters or NAVs as we shall call them from now on. They have left both parties because they got tired of the shit that both parties shoveled and never did like raising the minimum wage, fixing drug prices, or helping veterans. A lot of seniors have also joined these ranks as well because of poorly they have been treated by Social Security then by government not fixing it. I can sit in diner and listen for five minutes and then be “dragged” into a conversation without trying to insert myself. I just have that type of personality and it allows me to hear and ask without hard feelings what is needed. This is the human side of politics we need to win because winning primaries is easy but if we can’t present what these communities need for a general win, then why are we running these fools?
This is why I talk about being in harmony with your communities. To do this, you have to not just listen to them but also be a part of them. This means getting out of yourselves, walking the towns, eating at the local watering holes where many of the townspeople gather and joining their clubs and gatherings. If people don’t understand you, then they won’t like you.
Running for office is like creating a song and trying to get people to listen to it. If you write a song that people cannot get into or has music that does not match the lyrics, then it will sound like the nuns in the first Sister Act before Whoopi Goldberg helped them to sing. Well, the same goes for politics when you run. if your platform works for your party but not for your town and community, then why would the nonparty members vote for it? The NAVs in many nondemocratic areas are in control of the votes as they are in Oregon’s CD2, CD4 and CD5. Win their hearts and you start to win elections again. This can be as easy as pushing and following through on minimum wage hikes to a living wage, rental controls on how high rent can be compared to wages, helping small businesses Vs corporations, and standing with unions again.
Then there is the lost people who are on fixed income that control almost a third of the vote. From Social Security, Disability, Veterans and more who all feel like their government has swept them aside with a broom and poor services to help them and computers to ignore them. As a disabled person myself who is also transgendered, I can attest to being in this group. Nothing like 2-3 hour waits on the phone waiting with nothing but a computer playing elevator music interrupted occasional by a “We will right with you as soon as the next representative is available” and then hoping they don’t accidently disconnect you after 2-3 hours of this. At least I have multiply ways to occupy myself with work and other means while I have this playing on a side table, on speaker phone. But like them, I know how many on Social Security and others are growing frustrated by the system, leaving us further and further behind in financial distress, as well as society. This is making them a growing disgruntled crowd of voters that will grasp for any hope for a possible chance in voting for someone that could help, even for some as bad as Donald Trump and the Republicans.
I have warned many different Democrats about this but as we can see, as Democrats, we still sound like batch of out of tune cats bellowing at the moon on the fence in many of these red districts and in districts like I have shown in CD2, CD4 and CD5 in Oregon, I am still predicting losses by Jamie Mcleod-Skinner in CD5, in CD4, unless they can get Eugene and the U of O college kids voting, I can’t see how the Republican who almost beat the incumbent Peter Defazio last time in presidential election year can lose this time around against a lesser known Democrat candidate, and CD2 doesn’t have a candidate running for the Democrats with any prestige or money or platform that is of note, so they won their primary and wasted the time and money doing so and is why I didn’t run again after losing last year's primary myself because the local Democrats only wanted a climate candidate, not someone who knows the community’s needs.
I am not writing this as someone who is doing this as getting even or as sour apple because I lost pr even because my own county I live in is not even trying to do things in a way that is ethical and works with the community. I will be honest, I was a NAV back in the late 90’s till I was shown some material by a friend from the Republican Party that finally made me decide that it was time to quit sitting on my butt and act. Eventually, everyone will need to find that moment when they look in the mirror and discover that this mess of government is not anyone else's fault but the person who turns in and even those who doesn’t do their ballot every time we have calls for people to step to vote. Because without our votes, this shitty government wouldn’t be possible and we would not have the polarization that has stagnated our nation today on so many policies from abortion rights, voting rights, Equal rights which still hasn’t been added to the constitution, and so many more items we take for granted that have been eroded since the 70’s by lobbyists and others that wanted better laws for their businesses instead and lower taxes.