I should have written this a month ago. Life sucks and I got busy so I’m writing it now.
I donated to the dems running for Senate and Governor in my state way earlier this year. I signed up to canvas. I only managed to canvas once, but it felt really good. What felt less good was that there were two of us volunteers from my entire county who showed up to canvas that day. Yikes. Oh well.
But I also joined the sorta-official FB groups of superfans of the dems running for the governor and senate race to keep up to date.
Boy was that both illuminating and a waste of time. There were a couple of posts with surveys we could take, a couple posts about organizing, and 9 million posts of useless crap.
Now, I get it. Keeping morale up is HUGE for elections, especially in swing states like mine. You want these online groups to share memes and show they donated and brag about polling numbers, but that’s not supposed to be the ONLY thing.
I, too, enjoyed when John Fetterman trolls Dr. Oz on Twitter. I, too, am appalled by basically everything Doug Mastriano does. But there wasn’t anything of substance to the group.
No one shared stories of convincing their swing-voter friends to vote for a candidate. Only a few posted about canvassing. You know what a solid 85% of the posts were? Some variation of “where can I get a yard sign?” and “hey look, a yard sign!”.
I believe flooding the zone with your party’s candidate signs is a good thing. It can boost morale. Rachel Bitecofer on Twitter actually said “If you have a CD saturated w yard/commercial signs, people realize election is imp. More people see candidate's name. It can create a sense of momentumI. n areas like the 'burbs it can have social impact”
Though it’s impossible to research any of that, I take it at face value that a national organization like the Democratic Party should be able to cough up some of its moldy money to fund its candidates yard signs.
But people. It’s not a true popularity contest. It’s not about having more grass taken up by your signs than the other guys. It’s about winning. We dont live in an Aaron Sorkin show. Good doesnt triumph because you debated your opponent in the marketplace of ideas and won. Good triumphs when you put in the work.
I was a Liz Warren stan in the 2020 primary. Pretty liberal, but without that scary socialist label to turn swing voters away. Donated twice. Watched her lead in the polls and fundraising. Watched her fill football stadiums. Didn’t matter. Money ran dry and she got her ass kicked in every primary/caucus. Turns out crowds really arent votes.
I got so sick of the people posting “I just dont understand why someone would vote for this person”. Get over it. They do, you need to move on.
”I saw a big throbbing sign across from the supermarket and it made me feel so good”. That’s great, I’ve been texting my friends for the last week making sure they have a plan to vote.
”Where can I get a sign?” It’s your county democratic party. It’s ALWAYS your county democratic party. If yours all died than go to the next county over. While you’re at it, ask them what you can do to help them win the NEXT election.
Democratic voters are still for some reason obsessed with top ticket stuff. Like electing a democratic governor in a state with rock solid GOP majorities in both houses means much. Like making John Fetterman your Senator will stop trans kids from being attacked by religious psychos in your own town.
Now the GOP is flooding swing state election officials with conspiracy theorists. They’re wielding the club of transphobia and “critical race theory” to put lunatics on school boards. They’re parking themselves outside polling places to intimidate people. They’re going to win because they’re trying to run the country from the ground up. Wisconsin and North Carolina have Democratic governors? No problem, they’ll just make their legislative majority veto-proof.
One party is focused on vibes and being all righteous and showing how awesome we are, and the other is committed to winning. Doesnt matter if most voters dont want them, they’ll find a way to win. That’s true from your county commissioners all the way up to Mitch McConnell. Right and wrong dont matter. What matters is being the one to *decide* what is right and wrong.
You would think after the gerrymandering shellacking the Democratic party received in 2010 AND 2020 they would be more focused on these little races. On doing the work. Holding the rallies, knocking on doors, bringing their states back from the brink of democratic collapse. Republicans show up. Dems donate and vote for the top of the ticket and go home. “Why is everything worse I VOTED for a Dem governor! He should be able to make my life unilaterally better even though every level of government between me and him is held in a death grip by the GOP.
Or donate only to senate and governor candidates. Grab some signs. Dont talk to your family that is trump-leaning but persuadable. Maybe it will work out this time.