DL Open Thread Wednesday August 18th 2021
The Delaware Call’s KARL STOMBERG knows his shit. He won in the suburbs when conventional wisdom held that the suburbs are a bastion of timid Democratic Party moderation. But Stomberg can’t be everywhere. Knowing that, can (even more) progressives win in the suburbs? Read the Delaware Call and find out:
Building a Progressive Base in the Suburbs
It’s necessary and it’s possible, but how do we do it?
While the margin was narrow, the strategy seemed to work. 56 percent of our identified supporters had never voted in a primary before, and 16 percent had never voted in a general election. When the votes came in, we had increased turnout by over 60 percent from 2018, and we were able to confirm that many of the new people we had talked to actually did end up voting.
The inside the bubble DC Press corps REALLY wants Biden to come apart over the fall of Kabul. Even as they rent their garments non-stop, and show pictures of mayhem, actual Americans give leaving “The Graveyard of Empires” a +12% approval rating. Josh Marshall says it better: DC Press Hits Peak Screech over Biden Defiance
Related: It must be killing Coons to not be pissing on Joe right now alongside his buddies on the panel at Morning Joe.
While talking about Americans remaining in Kabul, Sean Hannity managed to plug Mypillow on yesterday’s episode of “The Sean Hannity Show”:
How would you like to be in Kabul today, as an American, and you can’t get to the airport? Where are you thinking your life is headed? If you’re one of those family members, I bet you’re not sleeping. I don’t even think My Pillow can do it. MyPillow.com. That’s where I go. I fall asleep faster, I stay asleep longer. These are going to be a lot of sleepless nights for so many of our fellow Americans. We’ve got to get them home.
Afghanistan is the new Viet Nam, question remains how to avoid yet another debacle, other then slaughtering numerous politicians.
Finally, a solution I can get behind, so long as we don’t stop at Republicans.
Karl’s key insight (stop spending all your time and money on “super voters” and increase turnout among non-voters) is a drum this blog has been pounding since the very beginning.
I was always too lazy to do anything but talk about it, so it is very gratifying to see it being put into practice by hard working heroes like Karl.
The other key to Karl’s insight is to actually give them someone to vote for. If you’re engaging voters who have traditionally stayed at home, then you have to give them a reason to leave those homes to vote. Marie, Madinah, Eric and Larry were just such reasons.
I’m telling you, find the right candidate to challenge Our PAL Val, then employ this strategy, and you can win that seat.
Yep, it’s not magic. Just takes courage and hard work.
Side note (since you mentioned him), I spoke with Larry L. yesterday about a project I’m working on. Guy is an absolutely delightful man. The People’s champion.
Also, I remember when Eric couldn’t win because he did mean FB posts. And Madinah was a practicing Muslim in hijab. And no one knew Marie, etc.
The game has changed. Change with the game…. jump on board. More big wins coming.
We are so lucky to have Larry Lambert as our state rep. Yes, he has tremendous empathy and is committed to helping communities facing great challenges.
But he also knows every slab of concrete in the 7th RD. Sarah and Kyle just love working with him. He’s special.
“The inside the bubble DC Press corps REALLY wants Biden to come apart over the fall of Kabul. ”
The worst part about losing the House in 2022 will be the endless Afghanistan hearings.
Let’s not join “the House is lost” chorus, shall we?
Actually, I’d be up for endless Afghanistan hearings, because that would keep them out of other mischief. What are they going to do, impeach him and put Harris in office? Yes, I know they prefer to run against women and minorities, but at this point it’s not going to help all that much.
Defeatism leads to defeat. Prove me wrong.
Let’s see if the Senate can pass voting rights protection.
I don’t think that matters as much as many people think it does.
Delaware’s voting restrictions are worse than anything any red state is trying to impose. They toss you off the rolls? So re-register — how fucking hard is it? The worst turnout suppressant they have is too few voting machines, and that didn’t do the trick.
If Americans are too lazy and afraid of inconvenience to spend the time to register, we get the government we deserve. And, yes, I’m saying we deserve exactly what we’ve gotten.
“So re-register — how fucking hard is it? ”
I think the point is you don’t find out you are purged until Election Day when you try to vote. Good luck with same-day registration.
Even if you get advance notice you have been purged, a significant percentage will put it off until they forget about it.
If the purge lists are public and timely, then advocate groups can go direct to the purged voters and encourage them to re-register.
Racists have 1001 ways to suppress the vote. It’s a game of whack-a-mole, so you have to keep up with it with periodic legislation, especially since the Supreme Court has removed the guard rails.
A lot of those purged are no longer at their last address, so they have to re-register no matter what, which was the point of letting them do it at DMV, which is something else they’re supposed to do but a lot of people put off.
Look, I get it — people don’t want to have to think about this stuff. That’s no longer an option, but I can’t give people a sense of urgency they don’t possess. From what I’ve seen — things like very high turnout in the last school board elections when the RWNJ threat was detected — people will act when the wolf is at the door.
Not that these “red ” states are not looking for ways to suppress turnout of those not likely to vote for trumpite candidates, there is nothing new in purging registered voters who have not voted. The general rule was that a voter who has not voted in two years will be sent notice that they will be removed from the voter list unless they respond that they are still at that address. Political parties were also sent the list of voters facing purge. The fact is that voters facing removal from the registration lists did NOT vote in the 2020 Presidential Election. In Georgia it also mean they did not vote in the Senatorial run-off elections.
While I support same-day registration and recognize the success in engaging non-registered voters, I find little to be gained in expending precious resources on people who register to vote and then do not do so.
Yet it demonstrably beats expending precious resources on political advertising.
I’m more concerned about gerrymandering and state legislatures making themselves the determiner of the outcomes.
There’s nothing we can do about the former, and we have no idea how the latter will work in practice.