has always been a big one for me. That has a message that really sticks.

It is not something that would work around here. Frothing rhetoric is laughed at here. We also don't 'pull a lever' nor do we need to leave the couch to vote. We elect Democrats.
What State do you vote in, Fred, where you feel your sort of methods would work to motivate voters?

vote overwhelming liberal?

But where are they. Do you really think the pathetically underfunded and passionless GOTV thing will work, because history tells me it is pathetically ineffective.

We are on the same side, a healthy debate is what we do.

I'm wondering if your State's election results support your theory that anger is some key to victory, or if your State has low turn outs and lots of Republican victory. You are advocating a methodology, I'm asking you to support that advocacy by citing your success with that method in your own area.
And what is it you mean by 'this underfunded GOTV' thing. GOTV means motivating people to vote, which is what you are advocating as well. There is not a single 'GOTV' thing. What group and what funding are you even talking about?
Without some specifics, your entire diatribe is meaningless.
How do you apply these principles in your own home district, State and county? Since you feel so strongly about them, you must have lots of real life experience in using them to great results. Please share.

I have no idea where you are. You want me to detail a strategy tailor made for your area...on a comment thread.....no thanks.

suggested methods work in YOUR area. I do not need advice for my area, we know what we are doing, have better than average turnout which increases each cycle, we elect Democrats and pass some of the nation's most liberal policy.
I did not ask you for any strategy for us, I asked for you to cite examples of how your methods work for you in your State or district. I asked the very opposite of what you claim I asked.

What bugged me about you, Fred, was a thread in which Unions and reproductive choice was being discussed, and I asked you to tell us yes or no, if you support Unions and a woman's right to reproductive choice. You also refused to answer those direct questions, you typed up dozens of words to explain you were too busy to type 'yes' or 'no' and then made a hasty exit claiming you had pressing TV sports shows to watch. Your I/P stuff is not the issue, it is your general avoidance of direct questions. You use the word 'liberal' but I don't know that you are a liberal. Don't know if you support choice, Unions, 100% equality for LGBT people, strong social safety nets, a separation between government and religion, don't know how you feel about affirmative action, none of it.
So when someone who may or may not share my objectives in domestic policy says it is silly to attempt to increase turnout and asks us to rage and scream, I ask again for specifics. How and where does your method bring you strong results? What reason would anyone have to take this to heart, to stop trying to motivate voters, to simply express unbridled anger at others?
Unless your State gets better results than Oregon, I have no reason to give you my ear on this at all. We are doing fine, thanks. Turn out will be strong this year. We make voting easy and give people reasons to vote.
I wonder what sort of place would thrive under your methods. I assume you have no examples, no citations, not factual basis for your diatribe. But thanks for playing.

Did you check out the linked article, it is the basis of my frustration?

in your statements. I asked you about how your methods work in YOUR area, you pretended I was asking you for 'detailed strategy' for my area to evade my question. When asked direct questions, you very often go to great lengths to avoid giving an answer.

I assume that people who consider my human rights to be not worth commenting upon are people who oppose my rights. It is a fair assumption. When a person repeatedly dances around direct questions there is a reason they do so. I think you avoid actual dialogue because you know that if you speak your views you will not have many people in your corner here to support those views.
A person who claims to be a Democrat and a liberal who says choice and labor are not worth talking about will always be taken with a grain of salt. Add to that the hesitance to support equal rights for LGBT peoples and that grain becomes doubled.
A person giving shitty campaign advice to Democrats who thinks Democratic issues are not worth mention might have a hard row to hoe around here.

I also note your dismissal of the issues most Democrats see as important. If you came to me trying to persuade me to vote for something and refused to answer any basic questions, I'd assume you were a Republican and ask you to leave. That's the fact.

I read the article These people are harder to reach and most campaigns do not have the resources. In my county, we sent block walkers to a small community of Katrina refugees who have been ignored. It was very productive. We registered a number of voters and found some volunteers.

Everyone wants to get more people to vote. You have to be smart about it because resources are truly limited

In my county we have identified 40,000 voters who voted in 2012 and 2008 but who did not vote in 2010. We are contacting each and everyone of these voters and explaining why it is important to vote. The program seems to be working. We have pledge cards from 10,000 or so voters where we have a separate piece from the pledge card that we can mail to these voters during the start of early voting.

We are also trying to motivate voters with pieces talking about GOP voter suppression. There is some good polling that shows that Hispanic voters are more likely to vote if they think that people are trying to suppress their vote. In Texas, motivating Hispanic voters is a major goal.

maybe too much. I think GOTV only scratches the surfaces there is a deep well filled with Unlikey
Voters, it has to be all brought up to the surface....desperate times in this new age of Citizens United and unlimited secret money.

This is a group that we should be able to vote. We have to be smart about our efforts. We are also registering new voters. There is a community of Katrina refugees who have never been visited by either party. It is compact area and we had block walkers hit every house and let these people know that we want them to vote. In addition to a good number of newly registered voters, we appear to have recruited some additional volunteers.

Again, we have to be smart. GOTV is important if done right

It's not cute ads urging people to vote.

It's a very specific, time-tested organizational practice that campaign staffs use to get their known supporters to the polls: which is all you need to do to win. It occurs in the very last days of a campaign, after a much longer period spent identifying—"I.D"ing—who your supporters actually are. Months of door-to-door canvassing and phone banking creates detailed lists of people who say they support you or are "leaning" to support you. You then use these carefully crafted lists in the days that lead up to election to make individual calls or visits to remind those people (and never any of the people who don't support you) of the date of the election, make sure they know where their polling place is, determine if they need a ride to get to the poll, etc. Then, on the day of the election, you call them again to see if they actually have voted, and you keep calling to harrass them until they say they have. (I worked on one campaign where--with only ten minutes to go till poll-closing-- we were given the lists of voters in specific buildings that had polling places within the building and instructed to phone them to tell them there was still time, and get them downstairs to cast a vote: because if you could get even 50 or 100 more voters in the last ten minutes it could be dispositive.) GOTV should rightly be called "get EVERY vote."

The first rule you are taught when you train as an organizer or campaign volunteer is that you never, EVER argue with voters: it never works (it alienates rather than convinces) and is a waste of precious resources and time. And you don't ever waste time on people who are disinterested or oppositional to your cause. The successful campaign is focused like a laser beam on getting the people who already support their positions or views to get to the polls. It's hard, boring work; it's specific; it works.

Your suggestion to get people mad will ... just get people mad at you.

that there is a huge and generic pool of Unlikely Voters that as a group will vote overwhelmingly liberal, they just need to get to the polls, you do not have to ask them to vote liberal.

They just will.

And if we ONLY get our own supporters to the polls, we win automatically. Young people, Hispanics, and African Americans will determine the results. There aren't enough old, white yahoos to get the Republicans the numbers they need--UNLESS, of course, the young people, blacks, and Hispanics don't come out to vote. So yes, all we need is our own side.

How do you think Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary (or won against Romney in 2012?). It wasn't because of anything he said or arguments he made: it was because he had a crack organization filled with trained volunteers who did exactly what I described above, and got people to come the caucuses and polls.

Try working on a real campaign once instead of thinking up in your head what works. You will see that the results are obtained from these boring, arduous, time-honored techniques in the end, not from riling up deadbeats. If you have ever done door-to-door electoral work, you will understand why some of these non-voters are never going to be convinced to vote. Honestly, you can't learn these things from behind a computer.

It's something I've been doing since the 1960s. I talk to people in my own districts and precinct, wherever I live, in advance of elections. Before I do that, I inform myself of the positions of any candidate I will be recommending to other voters. Then, I ask people I talk to what their most important issues are. If they tell me, I'm able to tell them how the candidates I support intend to deal with those issues.

I've been doing that, formally for Democratic party organizations and informally, on my own initiative, for decades. Here's what I can tell you from that experience: In every election where I've done door-to-door canvassing, I've spoken to many people who have told me that I have convinced them to go to the polling place and cast their vote.

GOTV works. It's not bogus. It is one of the most powerful form of activism that an individual can use to influence elections. It works, because it's one-on-one. From door-to-door canvassing to manning phone banks, it's a proven method.

productive.

As others have pointed out to you, GOTV activism is a proven way to win elections. You dismissed it out of hand in the title of your OP. I disagreed with that dismissal. I will always disagree with dismissal of GOTV efforts, since I know that they work.

the government shut-down a while back; the lack of anything being done on a real jobs bill (and this is a no-brainer if we do it in concert with upgrading our infrastructure); the inaction on immigration; the attack on women; closing of Planned Parenthood clinics; the continuous attacks on the LBGT; etc - need I say more - If the electorate is not 'fired-up' or 'angry' - then there's no hope for us.

One thing I always say to people that say to me that their one vote doesn't count - won't mean anything - I turn it around on them and say look at all the money being raised and spent to 'get your one vote'.

They think your vote counts and they are willing to spend their money to get your 'one vote'.

So don't devalue your 'one vote'. It counts!!!! If it didn't count there wouldn't be so much money floating around to get your 'one vote'.

I've said it here before - the Repubs are on the wrong side of most every issue. They've pissed off just about every voting bloc out there except the racists, the gun toters, the banksters and the rich bigots and I believe we outnumber them.

I've talked to many staunch Repubs that are fed up with their Party and are going to vote against them in 2014. This 2014 election should be a watershed election that will change the path this country will move in going forward towards the 2016 Presidential Election.

I'm convinced that the talk about Dems losing the Senate and not taking the House is just that - talk. There are so many people already fed-up and angry that they can't wait until Nov to change things.

The MSM wants to make this 2014 election close so that they can continue to generate audiences for their claptrap. (crap for short)

Congress is there for the taking by the Dems in 2014. I'm convinced of that.

Talk to them re local national issues
Organize with others
And instead join an angry mob or finance negative ads!

Yes, the way GOTV is pronounced hereabouts is a dunce. What? We want the republicans to go vote? I tell them (R) they are so lucky that they get to vote on Wednesdays when we Democrats are not allowed..

Your ideal is to use emotion as a lever to get people to vote. Love, hate, or fear, or one of many other emotions as a motivator is a common and well financed marketing scheme.

Pull the lever, everyone. More will be pulled for liberal candidates because there are more liberals refusing to do it. Just read the linked article for proof.

from the non-bastards.

You can tell the difference, just follow the money...if we can any more.

What does your domestic agenda look like? A street fight? A theocracy? A buffet dinner dance? Does your agenda support a woman's unfettered access to all forms of reproductive health care? Does your agenda support full equality for LGBT people in marriage, employment and in housing? Does your agenda stress a strong wall between religion and government? Does your agenda support Unions and labor in general? What are your ideas about promoting greater economic equality and more equality of opportunity for minority members?
Anyone who asks for my support who can not answer those questions will be asked summarily to leave my door and never return.

Attack the evil of not wanting people to vote. Let them know the GOP hate them voting, tell voters
the GOP hates all voters, they hate you for voting, they hate your "rights", they hate your mother and children for voting, they hate your democratic rights, they hate the troops for preserving your right to vote, they hate the brown people the most because they vote the most, turn their hate into our hate.

"Now what ya gonna do about it, sucker?", the final message.

Why is that wrong?

tool? I don't think so. People respond to positive messages, to policy goals and aspirations. I note that once again, when asked what you support in terms of domestic policy you did not answer. Simply being energetic and having nasty things to say about the other side is not going to win any elections for anyone, potential voters, those who rarely vote, respond to specific issues and candidates, they will not be convinced that it is all about hate, it is not all about hate.
Republicans are opposed to choice. If asked if you support a woman's right to reproductive choice and full equality in society, what do you tell them?
Republicans are opposed to LGBT equality. If asked if you support such equality, what do you say?
Republicans are anti Union. If asked about that, what do you say?
Republicans want to merge religion with the State. What are your views on that?

not voting is voting for them. Fight the evil, hating evil is OK, vote the evil out. Passion.
Delving deep into individual issues and fighting one issue by one issue battles is good enough, but it is not good enough, it bores the Unlikely Voter, it turns them off, get them aroused, whatever it takes...fight the fire with fire....it is time.

Just my opinion, just saying.

'Evil' is a subjective term. Republicans think Obama is evil, that gay people are evil. Running around shouting hate and evil is a terrible toxic thing to do. And I'm asking you directly what you say when asked about these issues. Do you say 'stop thinking, just hate'? Really?
I don't give credence to anyone who does not take any policy positions. I assume their agenda is the opposite of my Democratic agenda because they will not even say they support basic elements of the Democratic platform. Why come to a Democratic discussion board if you can't discuss Democratic policy positions?

My guess is that you have never once done any grassroots campaigning for a Democratic candidate or legislative issue in the US.

That's what GOTV does.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

bastards out, they will vote liberal. See link.

Just show up and do it.

There is such a huge pool of liberal non-voters licking themselves in the wrong places.

an advertisers dream, as well as the Republicans dream come true.

It looks like Sara (or is it the OP? I'm confused by the formatting) may have never worked on GOTV for a campaign herself, since she doesn't seem to know how it works.