Inspirational candidates fare poorly among Democratic voters

[ProfessorPlum]

I don't know if this is a phenomenon just of this year, or something generally true. But it is weird.

There are some candidates who seem to really have the ability to garner genuine support - real, enthusiastic support from active, well-informed people. (Actually, all of them have that ability to some degree, as is evidenced on this board. But some really have the ability to inspire people to action and financial support).

HEre is just one visual example: In my small corner of the world, I noted that in the week leading up to the primary, there were signs all over the place: Clark signs, Kucinich signs, one or two Edwards signs, and most of all Dean signs. I have yet to see a sign anywhere for Kerry. Not one.

But he won Delaware with something like 51% of the vote.

Obviously, a vote from someone who campaigns hard, writes letters, makes phone calls, canvases neighborhoods, and spends one evening a month strategizing with other supporters only counts exactly as much as a vote from someone who is less enthusiastic. And that is democracy. At least people are voting.

But why is it that very strong support doesn't translate to broader support among fellow Democrats? It almost seems like the more a candidate is liked by a subset of people, the more the bulk of Democratic voters are wary of that person. As if they'd rather have someone who doesn't inspire strong support (no offense to the Kerry supporters here - obviously you support him strongly and I respect that, but I certainly didn't see any signs of support for him where I live).

What's up with that?

Sorry, I hope this post doesn't come off as too bitter or anything - I'm just really discouraged here. Our group of Dean supporters has been working our butts off for him for months, and we couldn't even garner one delegate for him out of DE.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. I find Kerry inspirational

apparently I'm not alone. To each his own.

[bigtree]

20. Me too

John Kerry inspired me from the start. I'm sure that it's that way for all of the candidates and their supporters. He speaks my thoughts, over and over. I'm inspired by his service and committment.

[democratreformed]

2. Isn't it frustrating?

It's like not matter what you do, an ordinary person can't make a difference. Only if you're SOMEBODY do your feelings and beliefs count. I feel increasingly manipulated and pulled toward apathy. To me, that is the exact opposite of what SHOULD happen when someone gets involved in the process to the degree that many of you have.

[Forkboy]

3. Tell me something I didn't know

[parasim]

4. I know what you mean...

... I'm just as befuddled on that. Until Iowa, I kept forgetting that Kerry was even in the race. His speeches always leave me wanting, and to me he always just seemed to be "same old, same old" type politician.

I know it's unfair to Kerry, but during any of the debates, I found myself going to make a sandwich or something whenever a question was directed towards him or Leiberman. Whereas Kucinich, Sharpton, Clark, and CMB always kept me riveted because they were saying stuff that you don't normally hear from politicians. And I always dug Dean's fire.

For me inspiration counts and I never found Kerry to be very inspirational. But, yeah, to each his own I guess.

[Julien Sorel]

5. I made a couple of posts about this already.

TV has killed the power of grassroots movements. The real value of grassroots movements seems to be to raise money, so the candidates can go out and ... buy TV ad time. The bottom line is, people are more willing to trust what they hear or see on TV than their neighbors, or friends, or family.

I made phone calls for Clark locally, and I know how to talk and sell on the phone -- it's what I've done for a living for several years now. But I honestly don't believe, out of all the countless phone calls I made, that I personally closed more than a couple of people on Clark. The vast majority of people were making up their minds, or had already done so, based on TV, while the rest of the folks were already self-educated, and weren't interested in being sold. The margin for grassroots campaigning, where the personal touch can change opinions, is quite low now. You have absolutely no credibility next to Peter Jennings, and very little next to a slickly produced TV ad. I don't know about you, but that's the biggest lesson I've taken away from this whole election cycle, because the one thing about Dean's campaign that I found interesting was the passion of his followers, and it turns out to be almost meaningless compared to what the local talking heads were saying in Iowa, and the national talking heads were saying everywhere else.

[ProfessorPlum]

6. I think you've hit on it

grassroots movements have little to no power. How strange.

[redqueen]

10. IMO it's not strange at all... it's by design. n/t

[ProfessorPlum]

11. how sad. n/t

.

[BootinUp]

21. Not quite

change it to be "less power."

Less power than 24/7 punditry on the tube. This should not be a surprise. The answer IMHO is that we need some additional regulation on election coverage on TV. I am very pissed off at the power of the pundit and the mega-media corporations right now.

[pmbryant]

7. Kerry fits your description of an 'inspirational candidate'

There are some candidates who seem to really have the ability to garner genuine support - real, enthusiastic support from active, well-informed people.

Kerry is not my top choice and never has been, as he hasn't inspired me personally (yet). But based on my reading here he certainly fits this description.

There are plenty of Kerry supporters here who are extremely enthusiastic, extremely active, and incredibly well-informed people.

--Peter

[ProfessorPlum]

8. I already made that point

this board is certainly not representative of Democrats at large, however.

[pmbryant]

14. Lack of Kerry signs where you live may be merely an indication...

that he did not bother to campaign in Delaware because he already had such a gigantically huge lead there. His campaign perhaps distributed their signs to other locales where he was more worried about his chances.

This is of course speculation on my point. But just as it is hard to generalize from this board to Democrats at large, so it is also hard to generalize from signs you see where you live to the enthusiasm of Democrats at large.

:shrug:

Kerry is clearly an inspirational candidate by your definition, as you agree.

:-)

--Peter

[Jerseycoa]

9. Kerry obviously does inspire a lot of people

But he also has the strongest, most experienced organization behind him and they know how to work it. I have to give them that.

[CWebster]

12. Mediocrity rules

Art, for example. Look at Van Gogh, his paintings sell in the millions, but in his lifetime he sold one. He had a sad and lonely existance with only a brother who believed in him. He took his own life.

It is the human condition.

[Nadienne]

13. I wonder if the mostly-uninvolved

just don't have a clue. They don't know, and they don't want to know.

I watched PBS last night, the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and he had a guest (sorry, don't know his name, and I tried to find out at the website, but they didn't say) that had a wise comment. When you vote for someone who is "electable", you are making a guess as to what people - particularly swing voters - will have as a priority, when General Election time comes.

It's a guessing game.

I thought it was an excellent point, worth taking into consideration.

This gets compounded by all these people with secret agendas telling us what to think. (That would be the main-stream media.)

If "electable" means he will do or say whatever will get him the most votes, then no wonder the people here are dissatisfied with the front-runner. We want someone to represent us.

Ironically, that is the same thing that swing voters will want during the General Election. Hence, the only clear victory will come from a candidate that does what he says and says what he does.

(PS, if Kucinich can't beat Bush, no one can; if Kerry or Dean or Edwards or Clark or Sharpton can beat Bush, so can Kucinich. Bush's smear machine is well-funded.)

[Faygo Kid]

15. I worked for McCarthy in '68. Same experience. Don't be embittered.

There is no Santa Claus. There is no Easter Bunny. Sometimes, despite all the passion and all the effort, it just doesn't work. That's the reality. The other reality is George W. Bush, and the most radical, most wrongheaded and probably most evil administration in American history. Please remember that when you are tempted, as are so many Dean supporters here, to give up. Our future is at stake as never before.

[ProfessorPlum]

17. oh yeah

I'm not going to let Chimpy off the hook just because my candidate is not the nominee. He has a special place in my personal "Inferno".

[rucky]

16. Just look how Activists are portrayed

fanatical, out of touch, selfish, unwilling to compromise - on the fringe. Or they're talked about nicely by people, with the clear indication that they would never become one, but they're glad they're here.

It takes years for a movement to gain mainstream acceptance. No election cycle could accomodate enough time for it.

[Nadienne]

19. You're right

and it makes me sick.

It's what makes the government of "We the People" unbalanced.

...the people slept, and their nightmares ruled them...

[Armstead]

18. My response is on this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=274809

I wrote the above seperately, but it seems to apply to this too.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. We political junkies

are not typical of the population as a whole. Note that Kucinich has been nearly blacked out of the mainstream media (especially in comparison to the other candidates), Sharpton is treated as having mostly "entertainment value," and Dean is treated as the candidate for the college students, a latter-day McGovern.

Kerry has two advantages among the less-informed: 1) an experienced and professional organization, with deep connections in veterans and public safety organizations, 2) name recognition.

Remember how Lieberman was "the frontrunner" a little over a year ago? It was pure name recognition.

We can only hope that the people who were activated by the Dean, Kucinich, Clark, and Sharpton campaigns will remain interested and start engineering takeovers of their local Democratic parties.