Thanks Scott for your comments and the little plug for the TDG.
I’m having another conversation with another Medium contributor who somehow believes that his musings on Medium will convince soft-D supporters to cast a vote against Mr. Trump.
I told him that if we really wants to bring in these votes, the best use of his to is get his butt to the local D campaign office and start canvassing neighbors, looking for that soft-D support. But, no, he insists that his calling is to write more articles and responses an Medium, a place where most minds are already locked.
The difference between being on Medium and working for a campaign is that the latter requires one to engage with a community: you have get out the door, walk to the campaign office, say hi to organizers, ask them for something to do, take their poll list, listen to their instructions in how to canvass, spend 3–4 evenings knocking on doors trying to identify who are the soft-D supporters, AND face more than a bit of negativity along the way because a D canvasser is going to run into a few strong R supporters.
Canvassing is so much harder than writing Medium articles. But one good canvasser can bring in 100 votes on election day. But he won’t do that, which then shows the true level of his commitment to his cause.
I have just launched a novel about how average Americans can start building the TDG. As I was finishing the second draft, I came to the conclusion that building the TDG will be similar to canvassing. The early builders will have get their butts out there, talking to neighbors and working with people they would not have worked with before. Canvassing is more intensive. If a canvasser wants to be out there 7 days a week, the party will make use of that person’s time. But after the election, canvasser is back to regular life. The TDG is a slower pace, but more on-going. I still figure about 10 hours a month is all that is needed by 1% of the population to get this TDG started.
But if people want real change, they have to get their butt out there. The D’s and R’s (and the other parties in other western democracies) are not going to save us.
