It has become de rigeur to blame the voters for Walker. Well,

[Jackpine Radical]

that is of course true in a very literal sense, but I think there were some messaging failures and other problems that led to the voter apathy that led to Walker (and to losing Russ Feingold). What follows is a rather self-explanatory note I wrote and circulated to whoever in the party would read it last October. I think events proved me right, though I take no joy in my Cassandra role.

I spent several hours on Saturday as a volunteer making phone calls in behalf of Russ Feingold and Tom Barrett.

The results of the phone banking were enlightening in a stomach-churning sort of way. I generally take my time with calls, and get into conversations with people if they are willing to do so when I call. I talked a few Russ-leaning people into agreeing to vote, and maybe did some good that way, but I heard a lot of desperation mixed with apathy out there.

Some were saying they weren't going to vote because they voted for Obama wanting change, and they didn't get it. One woman talked about how she just barely missed qualifying for Badger Care (WI's extension to Medicaid), and had a policy from her $8/hour job with a $3000 deductible, which was the same as not having insurance as far as she was concerned. It didn’t do much good to point out that the Health Insurance Reform legislation won’t swing into full effect for another three years.

Another woman said she has been out of work for 2 years, hasn't been able to make her house payments, and is about to be foreclosed on. She wanted to know why the billions in bailouts went to the banks. Wouldn't it have been better to give that money to the people who needed it and let them pay their bills with it?

The bailouts were a recurrent them. Jobs was another. People on the edge of personal financial disaster were simply not much moved by hearing how much worse things might have been under Republican rule.

I would summarize the afternoon of phone calling by saying that I think the Democratic Party is in deeper trouble than they recognize. People who voted for Obama have not felt much change in their lives except an increasing sense of desperation. They are demoralized. They feel burned. They are in "Fool me once…" mode. They're not just bitter at Democrats; I doubt that many of them will vote for Republicans.

They just won't vote.

[emulatorloo]

1. Sounds like they have changed their minds now

At least from the polling I've seen.

[jsamuel]

13. i don't know

most recent polls probably are not of "likely voters"

It could be the case, but I wouldn't want to assume it was so.

[villager]

2. well, that's it. The Dems clearly revealed themselves as diffident corporate tools, while Repubes

...used their fake populist rhetoric, metastasized over the body politic for them by corporate media, to seize on the correct impressions of disillusioned voters.

And lead them to an even worse conclusion.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. We lost the election to a mass Fit of Pique

The Democratic Circular Firing Squad did its job -- again.

--d!

[emulatorloo]

4. And the Koch Brothers and their ilk peddling lies

[jtown1123]

5. This has been my feeling for a long time. Dems must be bold and stand up to the banks & for stimulus

for the poor and middle class. Centrist right now isn't going to cut it. So what if you fail? At least you tried and got the attention of the voters. Force the Republicans to vote against extremely popular initiatives to the point where the voters will come out in droves in 2012 and vote out these tea fuckers.

[elocs]

6. A sign I saw in Madison that I think tells the story:

Choosing not to vote has consequences. Governments are formed, policies and laws are made as a result of those who choose to participate in the electoral process. Governments know no vacuums and if one does not choose Democrats, then Republicans and their laws and policies will fill that void.

The reality is that there are only 2 choices here: Democrats or Republicans. Even if that is Dumb and Dumber, if you don't want Dumber you had better choose Dumb.

Do people actually believe that if they choose not to vote that things will magically get better?

[Jackpine Radical]

8. I'm not justifying. I'm reporting.

Obviously, if I didn't think voting was important, I wouldn't have been on the phones begging people to vote.

The fact of the matter is that people are what they are.

No amount of wishing is going to make them different.

There was widespread apathy, a widespread sense that nothing they did made a difference.

Progressives need to combat those sentiments, not merely blame people for having them.

If the Dems had done some good things between January 20, 2009 and November 2010--and they certainly did!--then they did a really crappy job of claiming the credit for their victories and drawing clear distinctions between themselves and their opponents.

You don't blame a beaten dog for cowering; you don't blame a disillusioned voter for not voting. You recognize the reality of the situation and get your ass out there and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

[handmade34]

16. we too often

dismiss the immense power of money and psychological marketing


"...six powerful secret psychological tricks that you can use to increase the effectiveness of your advertising and marketing...You ARE selling something. Whether you are a Real Estate agent selling multi-million dollar homes, or a worker trying to sell your boss on the idea that you are a valuable employee, everybody is selling something (my words) ""EVEN POLITICAL IDEAS AND PERSONALITIES"". So it would be wise to learn these secret tricks and use them to achieve your own personal success.

The secret psychological tricks that I am going to reveal are not really secret. They have been used by shrewd salesman for millennium. Their existence was revealed back in 1984 by Dr. Robert Cialdini in his book "Influence : The Psychology of Persuasion"...You will recognize these tricks being used everywhere in advertising today..."

http://www.icbs.com/kb/marketing/kb_marketing-psychological-tricks-in-selling.htm

[elocs]

30. Sorry, I don't buy the notion that those who chose not to vote were like cowering and beaten dogs.

That's more than a tad dramatic to me. If Barrett had received even as little as 25% of the votes that Obama received but who didn't bother to vote in 2010 then he would have beaten Walker. You honestly mean to claim that 600,000 didn't show up to vote because they felt like beaten, cowering dogs?

You vote because that is what you are supposed to do. There have been times when I haven't felt like going to work but I do because not going has consequences. There are lots of things you do in life that you may not feel motivated to do but you do them because it is the right thing to do.

Voting is our right and by not exercising it you are clearly saying that right means little to you. Do we actually have to beg people to "please, please exercise your right to vote"?

[provis99]

12. well, voting didn't make anything better for these people.

why should they bother to vote if nothing changes, or things get even worse? the Democratic leadership did it to themselves, not the voters.

[elocs]

22. You mean the Democratic leadership here is Wisconsin?

I would hope that those who chose not to vote here last November clearly understand that their inaction in no way made it better for themselves.

Yes, Walker is what you get when you choose not to vote.

[emulatorloo]

23. That's pretty fucked up logic, but I guess that's how non-voters think

"I'm not going to vote because things will only get worse"

[roguevalley]

19. we are just this short of violence in this country. I am surprised that

shooting hasn't started. If you vote for 'change' and nothing happens, which is worse than the bad guys screwing you over. You expect if from them but our guys? I don't blame one person for their feelings and if voting for the lesser changes nothing, you are voting for shit.

[elocs]

21. You wouldn't find it so easy to say that if you lived in Wisconsin as I do,

living with the consequences of hundreds of thousands of people who chose not to vote. The odd thing is that Walker managed to capture 90% of the number of votes that McCain received. Evidently Republicans were motivated enough to get off their couches and show up at the polls.

We are talking about the Wisconsin gubernatorial election here, not to mention that the nonvoters aided in Feingold's defeat. Obama was not running here in 2010 and no Democrat who was running is responsible for Obama's actions or failures. So if Democrats cannot find enough motivation to vote in order to keep Republicans like Walker out of office then they and all of the rest of us get to live with the consequences of that choice.

[roguevalley]

37. I am not speaking of Wisconsin. I am speaking of the desperation

that people are in across this country, losing their homes and having no fall back when unemployment runs out. When they are seeing nothing happening to make change then things happen. Unfortunately.

[emulatorloo]

25. Are you saying that voters are going to kill Democrats?

[roguevalley]

38. No. I'm saying people will not be passive when their kids go hungry

and they have no homes while fat cats have it all.

[GeorgeGist]

32. Frankly the sign is childish and stupid.

[elocs]

34. Welcome to my ignore list. That's where I put childish and stupid people.

[Hannah Bell]

33. look, the obama admin has been in the forefront of busting teachers' unions,

and various dems at the state level -- such as andrew cuomo -- are attacking public unions & social spending just as ably as pubs.

things don't get better when we votes for dems, things don't get better when we vote for pubs -- what do you suggest?

the one good thing about walker getting elected is that it's sparked a massive push-back & focused attention on the nation-wide attack on workers. that is a good thing, maybe a better thing than the democrats' slow, stealthy attack on workers v. the pubs fast, blatant one.

[eilen]

7. The Democrats lost the confidence of the people

that put Obama in office. Bipartisanship, common ground, disgusting lack of negotiating skill, incrementalism and pragmatism was a recipe for failure. Adding a side of Who's Who in banking and corporate suck ass didn't help either.

[Bake]

11. +100000

I couldn't agree more.

Bake

[JI7]

24. Rahm got elected recently , Gabby Giffords and Harry Reid won

their elections.

[eilen]

35. Those are the big wins?

Rahm is DLC, Class A corporate suckass with a secret map of every chit to cash in Chicago.

Giffords is a Blue Dog. But otherwise what I would call a sane choice for Arizona, considering the alternatives. However, since her attempted murder and subsequent injuries, she is in rehab and the democrats are functioning without that vote. Ultimately her constituents are unrepresented at this time and will continue to be for some time in the future.

Reid ran against Angle, a fricking nutcase teabagger who was a master at spectacularly failing every media interview and interaction she managed to blunder into. And still it was a 6 pt. lead that won it.-- He got about 42,500 more votes out of approx 684,000 votes.

[disillusioned73]

9. This happened right before our eyes..

and the Dems put up little if not no fight to give the people a reason to come out. It's sad, but most people just don't pay as much attention as us DUers( some of us to a point of obsession), and this will continue to happen until the Dems find that fire... Wisconsin might be the spark needed

[Jackpine Radical]

10. Yes, that's my point.

And I certainly do hope WI wakes up the rest of the country.

[Horse with no Name]

14. Exactly.

When people get to this point, they really could care less about making it better for someone else.
They stormed the voting booths in 2008 HOPING for CHANGE. They got nothing for their trouble except some empty rhetoric and MORE and MORE money for the rich.

[coalition_unwilling]

15. I like this quote: "People on the edge of personal financial disaster

were simply not much moved by hearing how much worse things might have been under Republican rule."

I mean, if Katrina taught us anything, it should be that under Repukes we are always on the edge of personal disaster. What did the Dems do to diminish people's fears that they were on the edge of disaster? Nothing, zero, zilch. Buh-bye Dem majorities. Hello out-and-out fascism.

Whatever happened to the concept of a social safety net? For Christ's sake, it's not rocket science. You tax the rich to create a social safety net. Q.E.D. (Not that I'm holding my breath that the Dem Party will catch on.)

[hfojvt]

17. so Republicans were actually helped by the fact

that their policies wrecked the economy.

Unfortunately the bailouts were necessary or the recession would have been 1,000 or 1,000,000 times worse. So far, we have not even been able to rebuild New Orleans - just one city. And that is with a functioning financial system.

I don't think it would even be possible to rebuild our financial system.

Also, about the personal financial disaster. It is not so much that things "would have been worse under Republican rule" as it is that "Republicans were in charge when the recession began".

Not a good idea to put them back in charge just because Democrats haven't been able to completely clean up the mess Republicans created.


My experience with phone calls was worse though. I volunteered to make calls the weekend before the election. First, I could not get the robosystem to work at the Democratic headquarters on Saturday. Then on Sunday, the first woman I reach interrupted me two seconds into my spiel and said "take me off your list and don't call me about politics on Sunday" and hung up as I was starting to apologize.

At which point I felt like I might be doing more harm than good, and gave up.

[emulatorloo]

28. I don't think the news media did a very good job of actually reporting what was happening

Anything Republicans said was reported at face value between 2008 and 2010.

[Tatiana]

18. The Democratic Party needs to wake up. Votes are EARNED. You have to give people a reason to vote.

I don't want to hear this "President Palin" mess.

SHOULD people have stayed home? No. But the even bigger point is that if the Democratic Party had been taking care of its base and its constituents like the Republican Party does, we likely wouldn't be in this situation right now.

I know exactly where Jackpine Radical is coming from. In case y'all have forgotten, President Obama's old Senate seat here in BLUE ILLINOIS went to a REPUBLICAN. And I heard the same type of comments when I went door knocking and when I phone banked. Bottom line is that many Dems felt like they didn't have a reason to go to the polls because they went to the polls in 2008 and not much changed.

Instead of berating these people or threatening them, we need to be figuring out what we can deliver to them policy-wise to earn their votes back.

[emulatorloo]

31. Yes Russ Feingold needed to be punished for what he has done

????????

Seems to me that Russ did a lot for the state. Seems to me that it was pretty clear that Scott Walker was a teabagger who was out to destroy the state.

[Scuba]

20. Mirrors my experience last October.

[treestar]

26. You can't reason with the irrational

Messaging sounds a bit like we are just not good at manipulating people.

Sounds like these are people who can be manipulated, since they aren't rational. They aren't willing to look past themselves to the bigger picture, which is what politics is all about. I would hope they are few enough in number not to worry about.

If not, how should the Democrats manipulate them?

Figure out some nasty message, a la the Republicans, to cater to their worst instincts? What would that be?

If irrational people don't vote, they get the consequences of their actions, and if they are numerous enough, so do we.

[okieinpain]

27. wonder how they like it now. n/t.

[JI7]

29. there are a lot of stupid people , yes even teachers who voted for WAlker

[sendero]

36. Sometimes..

.... people are smarter than you think. These folks certainly get it.

[BzaDem]

39. If a voter is apathetic, that is ipso facto a problem with the voter. It isnt a problem with others.

If a voter is not going to exercise their responsibility, and therefore enable the greater of two evils (even from their own perspective), that is squarely the voter's problem. Eventually, the results of their apathy become apparent, and they come back and vote, but we shouldn't pretend someone else is somehow at fault here in the meantime.

[JoeyT]

40. K&R

Those of us that actually call people or knock on doors that have to deal with the public and convince them to vote for Democratic politicians have tried explaining this to people. We hear the exact reasons why people won't vote or won't vote for who we want them to vote for. Unfortunately we're shouted down every time we try explaining it.

nth dimensional chess arguments don't work on people that lost their jobs and houses. Especially since they remember the Ds didn't really do anything to help them, but were bang alongside the idea of handing over absurd amounts of money to bankers.