Combating Name Recognition: One Key Aspect that I think the Progressive Movement is Currently Lacking
Looking at some of my local CA races after voting a few weeks ago, it seems obvious that many Bernie Sanders supporters had no idea who the other legitimate liberals in the downticket races were. Bernie got 45% of the Democratic vote based on official numbers, so I expected that the rare Democrats that supported Bernie would at least capture a decent amount of his voters in their respective areas. Unfortunately, that was the case (at least in my areas). There was a single Democrat running for the US Senate supporting Bernie (there was at least 1 non-Democrat as well); he netted a whopping 2% of the vote. The lion share was captured by two establishment Democrats with super high name recognition. The Berniecrat running in my House district did a little bit better (She received 9% of the vote. The incumbent Brad Sherman got 60% and a Republican beat the Berniecrat by a few percentage points), but she was unknown and was probably foiled by lack of name recognition. Just peeling off 10% of Sherman’s support would have meant that she would have made it to the November GE (In CA, we have top 2 jungle primaries where all candidates are on the same ballot. And yet for some reason, during Presidential Primaries, this aspect is completely thrown out…). The numbers are striking considering that just by their records and their support for Bernie, they realistically should have done much better.
Lack of name recognition has been fatal to many campaigns. That said, I had a thought recently about a way that I could try to fight this: starting a website/group/organization/e-mail newsletter that’s core functionality is to tell liberal voters who the liberal candidates on their ballots are well ahead of voting time. My initial thought was that interested parties could sign up to receive the information directly to their email (customized for each recipient based on given address), but it could also be presented on a website (searches would be conducted by voting address). I feel like now is a ripe time to implement something like this; Bernie groups are still afire on social media and there may never be another opportunity for this kind of momentum. Thinking on it, I really wish Bernie’s campaign had done something like this given how much information they had. I’m going to talk to a friend who works (worked?) in Bernie’s campaign in several states sometime this week since I know there are states where non Presidential primaries haven’t yet occurred. If they don’t seem too interested, my thought is to try and build something basic as soon as I can and try to get the word out as much as I can. Obviously going forward, the key to making something like this work is with volunteers from a variety of different places since in order to be a viable website it will need to cover major races all over the country.
Any thoughts or advice would be very welcome! I seem to have this tendency to bite off far more than I chew sometimes and there's nearly a million directions I could see taking this in if it got momentum.
Comments
Riffing on This a Bit...
What about a series of WANTED posters. With their "crimes".
I initially thought of the community bulletin boards on the walls at local stores and businesses or a donate bucket in local stores with a story of the slanted playing field and how the candidate sees change on it.
I'm thinking that irony might be an interesting angle to leverage. Using irony doesn't pull the "normal" emotional strings, and could, perhaps, avoid the kneejerk response to those strings being pulled. It could really muddy up the stark emotive lines that corporate messaging has created.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Name recognition is earned
Paul Wellstone was a college professor who decided to run for the US Senate.
He did the same thing Bernie did, he ran a grassroots campaign, and won.
Name recognition is built thru voter contacts, Candidate town halls and activity, earned media and the like.
FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.
How can media be earned when grassroots candidates
when the media is complicit in trying to keep grassroots candidates out? By poll numbers, Bernie "earned" for more media attention than he got and he was running for the most prominent office in the country. Not only do grassroots candidates need to fight against the establishment, but the media as well.
In a national campaign such as Bernie's
Bernies staff never expected to get any.
But regional media will cover the campaign, when its formulated like this:
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/04/02/new-york-p...
My earned media efforts started to pay off in January:
http://www.lohud.com/story/opinion/columnists/phil-reisman/2016/01/22/re...
Then I was a guest on a local radio show for an hour, got repeated coverage from 2 cable news outlets, coverage from the largest regional newspaper. Thats how its done.
All Bernie had to do was take part in the debates.
FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.
i can't tell you how many times...
...i have been fooled into supporting particular "liberal" Democrats only to have them drop all pretense of being "liberal" once they hit D.C. maybe some are punking us and others are sincere but the corporate reality hits them square in the face once in office. i don't know what to trust as a "liberal" candidate these days. i think, like Bernie, a liberal candidate has to have been walking the walk and not just talking the talk for a considerable amount of time. the people that are truly in the trenches don't get recognition because they aren't media hogs. at the same time, i don't thoroughly trust a liberal that is a media hog. quite the quandary.
If I did this, there would be no incumbent or party loyalty.
For most grassroots candidates, they may not have a historical record that we can judge; all we can really use is their rhetoric. However, if they get into office and the tune changes, they would not be supported the next election cycle.
My concept is to score candidates on a set number of criteria (which I would make known to anyone who signed up for the information), so any bad legislating would lower their scores in turn. If they need to walk the walk for a long time first, it will be very hard to even try to build up a bench.
the problem is incumbency
voters are lazy and tend to just re-elect the incumbent. the word "incumbent" is even listed with the candidates name to assist said lazy voters. once the false liberal gets into office it makes it harder to get them out. the Democratic party and big money will most assuredly block any efforts to primary them with a more progressive candidate. i know it sounds no different than what we are currently dealing with with regard to the structure of the Democratic party. it becomes a question of how to overcome the power of incumbency enough to influence lazy voters. that done, i'd still prefer a candidate with a standing record rather than liberal rhetoric.
People who have consistently turned down opportunities
to sell out, they should run.
How many people do you know that refused to work in a certain field at a certain level, cause it turns their gut? Someone who has the degree and skills, and could have doubled their earning power, but choose not to........
Those people should run for office.
Thats the purpose of brandnewcongress.org
FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.
As long as it includes 3rd Party and Protests
Just as long as it includes Green, Peace and Freedom, Party for Socialism and Liberation and, Freedom Socialist Party so on. I am pretty sure that I won't support anything whatsoever to do with the Democratic Party as long as Clinton and all those corporatists and war criminals are the people who run it. To be frank, I hope a large number of delegates walk out of the convention and join the street protests.
Green has a decent enough platform, but I will tell the truth, they need a speaker of the caliber of Nina Turner... Jill is so soft spoken she puts me to sleep.
Last night I made an effort to see what the different USA socialist parties are doing... https://www.liberationnews.org has a large number of active bloggers for the PSL.
Peace and Freedom Alliance news is here: http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/national/peace-and-freedom-alliance
Socialist Alternative (not a party) "We believe the Republicans and Democrats are both parties of big business, and we are campaigning to build an independent, alternative party of workers and young people to fight for the interests of the millions, not the millionaires." http://www.socialistalternative.org/about/
I believe that parties like PSL and P&F and FSP are much more effective leading demonstrations and protests than national level electoral politics, but see no reason they can't win school boards and sheriffs.
In Bolivia, MAS (Movement for Socialism) started with one "congressperson" (legislator), Evo Morales, who was banned from taking his seat. A few years and a lot of street protest later, running against the landowners and corporations and news media, against a rigged election board, he still won the Presidency with over 60% of the vote. No experience and not even a high school education.
The USA appears to be a hopeless case... electoral politics will get you, IMO, nowhere without constant street protests and strikes all over the country on every issue the people are getting screwed over by. The ruling class has to know that it can't get away with it anymore without the people standing up and making their governance inviable.
We need a younger leader outside the Democratic (Fascist) Party. Someone to compliment Bernie to get elected to Congress. Just one will do, if he or she has a oratorical flair and "eggs" of steel and a knack for getting coverage on MSM.
From the Light House.