Talking to neighbors

One way to get votes that the other side is willing to try.

Neighborhoods like my old one will be the places that decide our election and our fate.

I’ve likely said this before, but for years I used to work the polls on Election Day. Perhaps I changed a mind or two with my presence representing my chosen candidate or party, but in the three decades since I started doing it the whole electoral process has changed: a modest but significant percentage of voters now cast their ballots in the days or weeks before the actual dawn of Election Day, and others make up their mind weeks in advance. Seldom do you find a person anymore who really hasn’t decided before they walk up to the polling place.

While America is seemingly dividing itself into entrenched camps of red or blue, I know the other side is going to try and convince people well before the fact, and I think right-thinking people like us need to be ready, prepare, and cut them off at the pass.

Between their appeals to loosen some ducats out of the wallets of unsuspecting liberals, the folks at Indivisible think they’ve hit on a good idea, and I have to agree - otherwise I wouldn’t be writing about it.

We’ve developed a GOTV tool right here at Indivisible that appears to be the most effective form of direct voter contact in existence. It’s called Neighbor2Neighbor (N2N). We believe it’ll be an absolute game changer in some of the closest House, Senate, and presidential battlegrounds, and we need your help to start deploying it where it’s most needed. 

Essentially the idea behind N2N is to regurgitate leftist talking points to those they consider their most receptive people in one’s local neighborhood. Again quoting, since blockquote doesn’t work on a numbered list:

1. A volunteer signs up on a simple web page. 

2. They are given a script and assigned ten doors of target voters in their neighborhood 

3. They knock the doors on their own time and have 1:1 conversations about the stakes of the election 

As they say, “We help activists find neighbors who share their values but might not vote every election, and they have a pleasant conversation.” Most likely it’s a walking list gleaned from voter registration records and other information they have been able to compile from publicly and privately acquired information. (For example, if you subscribe to the New York Times or Washington Post, purchase certain items like an EV or hybrid, or have a list of social media likes that include the regressive pages (I can think of one that I contribute to in the comments right away) then you would likely be considered a voter that can be convinced to pull the lever for Joe Biden and/or the rest of the Democrat ticket.

Their claim is that this approach, which is targeting what they call “double haters” (who can’t stand either Biden or Trump) is “twice as effective as traditional canvassing, and more effective than TV ads, yard signs, phonebanking, or any other tactic tested.”

More importantly, they claim, “The analysis showed it has a 1.1% effect on voter turnout.” But while they presume that these voters will vote for the liberals, my question is: why can’t we on the side of right just do the same thing? I’d love to see more voters, so I figure my job here is to make sure they vote the proper way, in their best interest.

The old adage of “you shouldn’t talk politics or religion” is routinely violated here. I also do it to some extent in public if the topic comes up, although I’ve been known to steer it that way a time or two.

For example, here is a talking point Indivisible wishes to use regarding taxes that I gleaned from a different e-mail:

Last month, Biden released his plan to make the rich pay their fair share so we can invest in our communities and fund the programs that lift up working families:

• Raising the corporate tax rate

• Creating a 25% billionaire minimum tax

• Ending tax breaks for excessive CEO pay

• Closing tax loopholes for offshoring jobs and profits

Creating a fair tax code as Biden proposes would raise trillions of dollars so we can fund things like:

• Free pre-K for millions of kids

• Expanding the Child Tax Credit

• Expanding the Affordable Care Act

• Free community college

• 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave

It’s obvious to me, with their appeal to class envy and use of the word “invest” as a code for more spending from Uncle Sam, that they are trying to secure the single female vote, since that is the most loyal Democrat voting bloc (when compared to males or married females.)

So the counter to these may be as follows:

• Raising the corporate tax rate just means higher prices for everyone because corporations don’t “pay” taxes, their customers do. Why do this at a time when inflation is already a big issue? You can go on to address the higher prices we’re all enduring and how it’s tied to excessive government spending - not “corporate greed.” Your local business is trying to stay afloat, not be greedy.

• A “minimum” tax on billionaires won’t be enough to address the deficit, and we know, based on past history, that it will become a tax on millionaires and thousandaires (like us) soon enough.

• Who defines “excessive” CEO pay, particular when much of that compensation comes from stock options and is not actual cash? The vast majority of CEOs, like those of a beloved local company, would qualify as high-middle class. Should they be socked with excessive taxes?

• Even the partisan Washington Post said the “offshoring” claim was Half True, and the Trump tax cuts brought billions back already.

Moreover, at a time when the government engages in deficit spending already and can’t account for billions of their own dollars, these giveaways like tax breaks and “free” college have to be paid for by someone - and billionaires aren’t the ones who will pay it. Instead, that wealth transfer will come from small business owners, those who invest in local real estate and create local jobs, and so forth.

After all, we’re talking about an entity that pays itself before you get a dime of the money you work long and hard hours for. Can they be trusted to be as good of a steward as you are?

Control the narrative and you control the vote.

Until next time, remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.