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On Being a Human Being
I had an interesting e-mail last night. It was from a lady who runs a private facebook group for those opposed to the defendent and his maga cult. The group is private, due to concerns that many members have had after being harried by cult members on the internet. Most of the group are females who are not interested in arguing, insulting, and/or threatening those who may think differently than them. Group members live in a variety of states.
It was a bit of a surprise when I was invited to join the group. This lady said she remembered me from parties when we were in high school, which I'd think would be grounds to to not let me join. In both 2020 and 2022, I encouraged group members to campaign for the Democratic Party's candidates. To get people they know registered. This lady, now a retired school teacher in the southeast and grandmother, is worried about the November election, and wants me to encourage and assist others in getting out the vote.
Two weeks ago, I was contacted by an old associate about getting the old group back together to work on this year's elections. We get activists from three local counties in upstate New York and coordinate with each county's Democratic Party headquarters. Some of us also volunterr at these headquarters, besides registering voters, making phone calls, going door-to-door and more. Some of us are old enough to remember when letters-to-the-editor were the essential way of reaching the public, and others are young enough to understand the internet.
I'm somewhere in between my two friends: I'm not anxious about our ability to crush the defendant and other republicans this fall, nor am I over-confident about victory. Rather, I like to assess the opposition's strengths and weaknesses, and think of ways to exploit each of those. In this context, it comes down to winning more votes in enough states for President Joe Biden to be elected.
Polls from nine months ago suggested that more than 70% of those asked did not want to see a rematch of Biden vs the defendant. These polls included Democrats, republicans, third party voters, and independents. At this point it is most likely -- though not 100% certain -- that this will be the main event on election day in another nine months. This does not mean that 70% of voters will stay home or not vote for one of those two. Concrete thinking is not a good foundation for winning elections.
What it does mean is that there was a variety of reasons that individual voters didn't want a return match. I will speculate that the majority were people who did not want to ever see the defendant involved in politics again. Yet no voting block has made any significant impact on the primaries in either party. Our job at the grassroots is to understand what the concerns of Democrats and those on the Democratic Left, as we need them to turn out and vote.
Thus, I decided to conduct a survey of two groups: those from the internet group, and those in the three county region I am active in. (I also do some work in a 4th county when my help is requested.) Like other polls, it is at best a snapshot of people's opinions at this time. More, there are no "right" or "wrong" answers. For example, if someone said they thought President Biden was too old, it wasn't for me to say otherwise. I do not need to do a survey to determine what I think.
Not a single person mentioned Hunter Biden's name. From the admittedly relatively small group of Democrats and independents -- including young and old, men and women, black, brown, and white, low- to middle income -- no mention of him.
About one third expressed concern about Joe Biden's age. Upon further questioning, they were more concerned about him in 3 to 4 years, as opposed to now. 100% said they would vote for President Biden in a contest between him and the defendent. This included several young adults who like Robert Kennedy, Jr., but recognize the need to defeat the defendant.
A quarter said they are concerned that republicans have set things up since 2020 to be able to cheat when counting votes in several states. More than a third think "voter fatigue" may be a factor. The fatigue is rooted in anxiety about the future and fear of political violence on the part of republicans. Some also spoke of the wars in Ukraine and Palestine. About half expressed concerns about the how the economy is for their household. Exclusively among independents is the position that while Democrats are better than republicans, the leadership of both parties represents the elites rather than the working class.
Less that one in ten said that they plan to do some public campaigning for the upcoming elections. Several said they did not know what they could do, or that they did not think they would be good at campaigning. Most, though not all, said they would try to get people they know -- family, friends, co-workers, and/or neighbors -- to register and vote. Some are willing to make phone calls, and fewer would be willing to go door-to-door this fall.
This is, of course, late January. The dynamics are significantly different, in my opinion, than any year except 2020, that I have been active in politics. At the same time, I've been watching a lot of the Senate Watergate hearings on youtube in recent days, and think that some things never change.
I'm curious what you are doing?
Thank you,
H2O Man
29 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
Deadpan humor is my favorite. Good OP, as usual.I guess I was thinking more of teen-age type parties, shenanigans, whatever, possibly involving alcohol.
