• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

BillBrasky Memorial Political Chat Thread

For me it's honestly so much less about ideological purity and more about finding people who know how to organize a modern political campaign.

AOC's backlash from shitlibs has been so antiquated and dumb, e.g.,

 
In other happy news from around the world, Evo Morales returns to Bolivia today.
 
Thread:

 
Cooke's thread is poignant when I think about beginning a diagnosis of Forsyth County Dems during the '18 midterms. Checked out and organizing was left to the whims of whatever district was interested - no push.
 
Last edited:
I was working at flipping an NC House seat - so not as glamorous as other races - but it was a huge disappointment. Most of our organizational support came from outside the party.
 
I briefly looked into volunteering with the Forsyth County Dems back in the summer but they kept giving me numbers of zone/precinct chiefs to contact myself, instead of sending them my information. One of them did call me back but didn't have anything for me to do but phone bank on a random weekend. Then I get bombarded with calls the two weeks before the election asking if I can do a myriad of things, and it was too late. With work and baby and everything I couldn't commit at the last minute.

What I wanted to do was door knock or set up a table or something somewhere but they had no plan for that at all.
 
MHBDemon said:
I see what you are saying. And media and even politicians like AOC and Bernie muddle public discourse around the definition of socialism. But i still think “socialist” has a more limited definition than “progressive.”
Click to expand...

Yeah. I think coming up with a new term makes sense. The "Tea Party" astroturf movement worked to make white supremacy and fake populism mainstream in the GOP. Something similar backed by grassroots fundraising could work for the left. Did someone here suggest taking back the "Bull Moose Party" moniker? That's something that could work.

Funny story. My wife and I are buying a new car and I had a phone call with the auto advisor from our credit union. We talked about the loan and buying process for about 20 minutes. Then she ended with a personal questions because she saw a friend of hers respond to a post I made in an area progressive group. She told me she was an early member of the local progressive caucus and a member of the local DSA chapter. We ended up talking for another hour about politics.
 
Also they had elections back in the spring for 5 or 6 local party offices, and they sent emails soliciting people to run for different positions, but when you went to the page they already had profiles up of the people who were clearly already handpicked to win. And there was no information about when the vote was taking place and who was voting. It was ridiculous and definitely discouraging to anyone (like myself) who was mildly interested in becoming more involved.
 
TenaciousKory said:
I was working at flipping an NC House seat - so not as glamorous as other races - but it was a huge disappointment. Most of our organizational support came from outside the party.
Click to expand...

yeah the races we supported in cumberland county all failed to flip; at least there was a huge improvement in support for the top of the ticket (vs clinton)
 
the cumberland county Dem HQ was so fucking sad when i went in there a few times to get signs or ask about organizational question

it was pathetic
 
I posted this rant on our local Invisible page. I'll throw it on here. Apology for the parts I've posted here before.

----------
Republicans run a 24/7 messaging operation. It's actually a constant campaign. They have Fox News, national conservative radio shows, local radio, churches, social media, and even clothing with the MAGA hats. All of that makes Republicans feel like they are active participants in a vibrant community that speaks to their concerns.

Democrats don't counter any of that. My wife was telling me about the radio stations in Miami that cater to Cuban immigrants with a signal that reaches into Cuba. It's a constant anti-"socialism" message and Democrats have nothing to respond to it.

Notice how when any event happens, within a few hours every elected Republican or pundit is tweeting the same thing, saying the same thing on cable news, and writing the same thing in op-eds? And within the next 24 hours, your friends from high school and neighbors start saying the exact same things. And often they think it's an organic idea they developed with their friends. And they think they're smart.

Democrats don't do anything like that. We laugh at their "original ideas" and counter them with facts. So we come off like the know-it-all bullies.

Democrats passively farm out messaging. Democrats expect network and cable news, NPR, education, and policy discourse advance Democrat goals because facts have a liberal bias. But Democrats don't do anything to control the messaging. They don't build a large community around people's existing interests. So regular folks on the ground are doing the intellectual work, the grassroots work, and forming communities like this one or podcast fandoms or getting TikTok followers with no financial help or frameworks from a national party. I don't know but I suspect there are key state and local volunteer positions on the left that correspond to well-paid full-time positions on the right.

Democrats seem to trust people to be critical thinkers and come up with informed decisions. Most aren't. They believe what they're told. So when Republicans say "we're fighting for life and freedom" and "Democrats want to steal your hard-earned money" people just believe it because they keep hearing it and Democrats have no real answer.
 
TownieDeac said:
Thread:

Click to expand...

Yeah. A friend of mine in Miami said he and other organizers were trying to alert the DNC to the problems they were having there but to no avail.

It speaks to what I said about volunteer positions on the Dem side being well-paid full-time positions on the Republican side. Our local Dem chapter is basically just retired white women doing the best they can. Nothing at all wrong with retired white women. A lot of them bring a lot of skills to the table from their former careers. But it's a limited pool of people with the time to lead efforts across a large metropolitan area.
 
Another good thread.

 
PhDeac said:
Yeah. A friend of mine in Miami said he and other organizers were trying to alert the DNC to the problems they were having there but to no avail.

It speaks to what I said about volunteer positions on the Dem side being well-paid full-time positions on the Republican side. Our local Dem chapter is basically just retired white women doing the best they can. Nothing at all wrong with retired white women. A lot of them bring a lot of skills to the table from their former careers. But it's a limited pool of people with the time to lead efforts across a large metropolitan area.
Click to expand...

It's astounding it's still happening in 2020 after 2016. Organizers in Michigan and Pennsylvania and Minnesota weren't getting phone calls returned from the party.
 
TownieDeac said:
Thread:

Click to expand...

Yep. I know I've posted about this issue before, and so have numerous others, including just on this page. It's ridiculous at how much better organized Republicans are at the state and county levels. It really does seem as if the go-to strategy for many Democrats now is to raise gobs of cash and blow most of it on endless television and social media ads, like carpet bombing. It doesn't work, yet they keep doing it over and over. AOC is definitely right about this one. If you're going to win, especially in purple or swing districts, you've got to put most of your money into building an organization from the bottom up, going street-to-street if necessary. It is interesting that it's often the younger pols - the AOCs and Jeff Jacksons - who see this and actually aren't leaning entirely on social media, while it's often the older pols who want to use it and not much else.
 
TownieDeac said:
It's astounding it's still happening in 2020 after 2016. Organizers in Michigan and Pennsylvania and Minnesota weren't getting phone calls returned from the party.
Click to expand...

They're still amazed at the grassroots fundraising, when people are donating because they want to do something. Give them things to do!

I realize that the campaign was reticent to canvass due to COVID, but there are some people you will not talk to if you don't meet them where they are. And we know enough now that we should be able to interact with people safely as long as we take precautions. My local state house race had so many volunteers, many who had never volunteered before. For a safe race. They were there to help turnout for the presidential election.
 
Dems learned nothing from the tea party take over of the gop.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top