Winning Elections - The Power of the Post Card

Time to Kiss the Girlfriend

Okay, all you Democrats who are now sitting at home being ex-politicians, this is for you.  It's also for all the Democrats who are making plans to face election or re-election in November of 2012.

Think about us for a change.  We're not running for office.  We live here.

If you run a fouled up, half-ass campaign, those of us here in Middle American are going to be faced with the prospect of suffering through another two -- or worse, four -- years of GOPCon mayhem.  Even those among us who "stayed home to send the Democrats a 'message' in 2010," are now painfully aware of exactly how it feels to be "gang raped."

"Gang raped?"  Yes.  Gang raped by a bunch of GOPCon losers who should have never been able to get even as close as winning a primary, much less, all the way to the House of Representatives.

And, all you Southerners who think it's "jest fahn" to perpetually re-elect GOPCon throwbacks because they keep "delivering" the "bacon," you can all start to think about us, too.  Those hill billies and bigots you keep sending to Congress hurt us.  They make wars, wreck the budget, and worship at the altar of wealth redistribution -- upward.  The "good ole' boys" you keep electing are determined to change this country into a third world sludge pit.

Where does all this go?

Here's Where It Goes

Democrats.  You are losing elections, but you're not losing elections to the GOPCons in the freak show. 

You are losing elections to the media.

Now that you've "kissed the girlfriend," how was it?  After the cheesy stage show which has unfolded in the House during this session, the GOPCons shouldn't be able to elect a dog catcher in Olathe, Kansas.

Yet, when the television's running, this train wreck is -- over and over and over -- painted as some sort of valid political position.  The poor thing has so much lipstick on it by this time that its double or triple chins are practically dragging on the floor of the House Chamber.

It now looks like a pig lots more than it looks like an elephant.  If you don't like the "pig" analogy, try the FOX analogy.  News Corps' (FOX) infamously famous Australian fascist, Rupert Murdoch, took control of the US House of Representatives in November of 2010.  He and his cozy, cozy Saudi Wahhabist royal buddy have been "running" things since then.

The quivering remaining remnant of the corporate media has now also succumbed to the same ghostly, gaseous doppelganger of what used to be news.

The lies of these medieval fear mongers have "convinced" enough Americans to dig deep into their pockets and turn their money and their futures over to the oligarch class who are Murdoch's masters.  Meanwhile, with the media under their control, every tid bit of news which can be biased, misdirected, misreported or otherwise purloined toward the goal of making this "con job" even more permanent is religiously soiled before it ever hits the air waves.

Americans who are consumers of this corporate media garbage are flying blind.

So, how can you run a campaign, "allegedly based on issues," when 90% of the potential voters have absolutely no idea what's actually going on in Washington or with the country?  That is, no idea beyond the comic book version being promoted as reality?

Facts Mean Nothing

The search for examples won't even require so much as a doleful glimpse of yesterday.  The President gave a speech this afternoon which should have, reasonably, delivered both houses of Congress and the Presidency to the Democrats in a landslide all on its own -- that is, even if no additional  "politicking" were done between now and November of 2012.

However, American opinion remains stagnating in the "death grip" of the latest round of GOPCon deceptions.

"You'll believe what we tell you to believe."

If the ridiculously fickle Independent voter block had heard the President speak -- and by "heard," we mean "heard," not as regurgitated "fixed up" blather vomited out by some heavily soiled pundit -- 70% of Independents would go to bed tonight ready to "throw the bums out" and sweep the board with Democrats in the next election.

Oooops.

Theoretically, the "news broadcasts" of the "American, First Amendment, Free Press" would have handled this little task as a matter of course, but not in this day and age.  The President's speech will not reach these voters, and both the poll results now and the ballot count later will reflect that.

This disastrous lack of knowledge is an educational problem.  Worse, thanks at first to the perfidy of FOX and News Corp, then later to the complicity of the remainder of the denizens of the public air waves, voters will have only a carefully managed misdirection upon which to base their opinions.

So, what, exactly, would MeanMesa propose as a means to educate all these voters now that the media has utterly forsaken its responsibility?

Post Cards, my friend, Post Cards

Since almost no credible information is able to seep out from this corporate media monstrosity, the wing nuts think they can now safely enjoy the benefits from all the cash and threats they've invested in subverting the system.  Without any possibility of actual information being spread by the public press, this leaves the Democrats without any options.

It won't matter how much sense they make, how good their policies are or how promising their plans for the country might be.  It won't matter because American voters will never hear about any of it.  Instead, they will continue to be flummoxed by an endless stream of nerve-wracking "reporting" of "both sides" of issues which simply must be utterly confounding, that is, which must be doggedly driven to a state of desolate indecisiveness before being broadcast.

The "news" media won't be able to peddle enough Viagra, otherwise.

All is not lost.  MeanMesa has turned a fairly effective hand at this job of voter education in this neighborhood during recent elections.  The same approach will work nationally in the 2012 election -- at least, it will work if we begin early enough.

And, right now is still "early enough."

The proposal is simple.  MeanMesa prints a few hundred index cards with a very direct, yet tasteful Democratic Party message on them and places a copy on every door in this neighborhood every Sunday morning for months before an election.  Folks get educated, not with both sides of every conceivable "burning question of the day," but rather with a nice, crisp, single topic message which is directly relevant to the upcoming election.

The cards are not about name recognition.  The cards are not about election platitudes of "a better future for our grandchildren" or the like.  The cards are about issues.  Plain and simple. Straight talk.  And not "disguised straight talk," masquerading as "fair and balanced," either.  

In this tiny microcosm of the plan, every card clearly states that is from a neighbor who is an unabashed Democrat.  Also, every card has MeanMesa's personal signature on it.  (MeanMesa's actual name, of course.)  If anyone wants to talk about the contents of a card, they know exactly who to talk to about it.

The results are astonishing.  These folks vote, and they almost all vote for Democrats.  We register them to vote.  We take them to the polls if they need a ride.  We say that we'll do these things on the cards, and we do them.

In the macrocosmic, national model, we Democrats can do a very similar thing.  We know the names and addresses of the Democrats in our area from the voter registration records.  The post cards can be printed in bulk and mailed once each  week.  Voter education can be accomplished one issue at a time.  It usually takes less than three minutes to read the contents of each card.

As the weeks roll along, voters get a chance to hear from Democrats on  a series of general matters, but also on specific issues which are emerging in the campaign.  By the time election day rolls around, we have had a chance to "discuss" all sorts of issues with potential voters, at least, a chance to present the ideals and ideas of the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates.

If we intend to defeat the "media death grip" on information, we have to move around the problem, out maneuver the information controllers.  This plan will accomplish that.

When the campaign "bean counters" start totalling up the cost of printing and stamps, we're talking about a serious investment.  When Democratic candidates start getting elected in groves, we're talking about some serious results.

Some Sample Topics For Educational Post Cards 

From previous campaigns:

There are more samples (and clearer copies) of neighborhood "voter education" cards at this October 2010 MeanMesa posting: 

"It's Time To Talk To the Neighbors!"

Of course, that was then, this is now.  However, considering the veritable "news blackout" of most of the important Democratic ideas-- not to mention Democratic accomplishments -- for the nation's future, the possible "topics list" for 2012 post cards is wide open.

Here are a few possibilities.

1. An explanation of why spending cuts are not the same as job creation.

2. An explanation of what Republicans want to do with both the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and Medicare.

3. The record of middle class wages and top 2% income since the days of Ronald Reagan.

4. The origin of the US national debt, including which currently seated Republicans voted for the deficits which created it.

5. The Center for Budget and Economic Policy's review of the Ryan $5 Tn spending cuts.

6. The list of bills the Republican House has passed instead of what they promised -- creating jobs.

There are plenty more.  That is, plenty for a new weekly message from the campaign every week from now until November, 2012.

MeanMesa has already run this idea by the local OFA (Organizing for America) leadership, folks already familiar with the approach after this precinct voted for Martin Heinrich in his successful run for the House in 2010.

Maybe it's time for MeanMesa visitors to "get on the band wagon."  Is anyone else sick and tired of losing elections to, well, losers?