While Trump Was Dominating In Deep-Red Oklahoma, This Democrat Won A Landslide: Huff Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/democratic-party-future-rural_us_58b7089ee4b019d36d0fecb4?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009Huff Post..03/09/2017 01:26 pm ET | Updated 2 hours ago
by Zach Carter
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As precinct data rolled into his war room at the Aloft Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City last November, Joe Maxwell realized his team had a landslide on its hands.
He saw no need to delay the victory speeches, having been up since before daybreak orchestrating a statewide get-out-the-vote operation for what was expected to be a close contest. His team took the elevator to the rooftop bar, where about 50 small farmers gathered anxiously to watch the returns and, they hoped, celebrate.
For the previous 14 months, they had battled a so-called “right to farm” ballot initiative, with Maxwell serving as “the general” (to quote his friends) of that campaign. Corporate agricultural interests in Oklahoma hoped the measure would protect factory farming from environmental, food safety and humanitarian regulations. The deep-red state’s Republican governor and every member of its all-GOP congressional delegation backed it.
In response, Maxwell, who works for the Humane Society, had helped assemble an opposition force of animal welfare activists, environmental groups, Native American tribes and family farmers. Few political strategists would have picked that coalition to overcome the influence of the state’s dominant industry. But there Maxwell was, quietly enjoying a beer as he listened to former state Attorney General Drew Edmondson (D) deliver the news of their crushing victory to a cheering audience. The “no” vote had carried every congressional district in the state and defeated Big Ag by more than 20 points.
(later in article)
Maxwell’s brand of politics looks beyond the poll-tested analytics that dominate Washington. Even the best mathematical models — tools like Maloney’s current project — are only useful at a particular snapshot in time. They treat voters as static data points, rather than human beings capable of changing their minds. A model might focus on the number of Democrats registered in a district to predict the party’s performance in an upcoming race. But models can’t explain how to create more Democrats in that district.
Maxwell won where Democrats weren’t even playing, in a state where Trump carried every single voting precinct. When he convinced the Humane Society to get involved against the right-to-farm measure in 2015, independent polling showed his side trailing 64 percent to 15 percent.
________________________________________________________________________________________ Fascinating article about a man who took on the state's most powerful interests and most powerful party and won, not by a little, but by a whole lot. The man is a Democrat who won this battle in Oklahoma in last years election.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Years ago, I wrote a letter to the Daily Oklahoman newspaper (aka "The Daily Disappointment"
, in response to requests from the public for opinions on what to do with a large area in downtown Oklahoma City that was a wreck of dilapidated buildings, which had been reclaimed by the city for demolition. So then, what to do with all that empty space in the heart of OKC?
I suggested that, since farming was the second largest industry in the state, that we establish a "farming center", where people could come to experience what family farming was like. Also a farmers market, where people could buy fresh produce, meats, etc.
To my surprise the newspaper published it, and I got a lot of "likes" (yes, pre-Facebook era) from all sorts of folks I met.
Needless to say, that never happened. Now there's a Cox Communication-owned convention center (empty most of the time), a Chesapeake Energy sports arena (city-subsidized basketball team), a "botanical tube" (apparently a bone tossed to the more egalitarian-minded of us, and barely open, rented-out for weddings semi-private "trust entity" now), and finally the Devon Energy Center, a tower which looks like it could be placed in Isengard. I imagine an evil wizard lives there, scrying into a crystal ball, while demons are unearthed from the fracked caverns below, with earthquakes portending Sauron's return.
The hollowing out of downtown areas across America took place at the same time as the demise of the family farm. The "financialization" of our nation for the benefit of, by, and for the corporation is apparently self-devouring, with all sorts of strange mushrooms sprouting from its rot. Now there is a whole different area in downtown OKC, called "Bricktown", full of bars and restaurants, a minor league baseball stadium, a "river walk", a few more prestigious corporate headquarters, and a smattering of upscale loft-like condominiums. I guess some call it "progress". Most of us call it "gentrification". There is not much there that isn't everywhere else. But time will tell, I suppose. Time will tell.
Someday, perhaps, we'll aspire to the same "culture" as Paris. In 400 more years or so. That's if the wind doesn't blow it all away...
