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1/ A little thread on voting.
Working on a local political campaign confirmed something I had long suspected: candidates base their campaigns on who is likely to vote, and make those estimates based on who reliably voted in the past.
Working on a local political campaign confirmed something I had long suspected: candidates base their campaigns on who is likely to vote, and make those estimates based on who reliably voted in the past.
2/ In other words, at no point does a candidate say, "who didn& #39;t vote?" or "why not?" It& #39;s just not worth their time. They need votes. They& #39;re going to have an easier time getting those votes from people who already voted.
3/ Then, the candidate identifies things important to those voters. In my (aging) district, that means talking about senior citizens, small businesses, etc. Initially, we talked about a campaign to reach younger voters but scrapped it. The data showed we needed reliable voters.
4/ To which you might say, "hey, if you spoke about issues important to young people, they& #39;d vote!" But I hope Bernie& #39;s primary puts that myth to rest. He said everything you could possibly say to get young voters, and their turnout was still low.
5/ Not voting or "protest" voting then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. You don& #39;t vote, a candidate sees that and focuses on other voters, then you don& #39;t like their message, so you don& #39;t vote again, so they don& #39;t see you as important, and they focus on other people.
6/6 If you really want to get their attention, here& #39;s what you do: vote in every single election. Vote for your town& #39;s dog catcher. People do this, and politicians notice. Vote every time, always picking the best possible candidate. That& #39;s how you get a voice in our gov& #39;t.
A final thought here: not voting is a lose-lose. If the bad guy wins, congrats, some bastard is gonna spend the next 2-6 years using endangers species for target practice or something. If the better candidate wins, congrats, they got there w/out you and don& #39;t care what you think.
