A Plan to Retake Congress in 2018 Midterm

[FredZim]

I would like to propose a “campaign” for Democrats to retake Congress in 2018. This campaign is less to do with finding a new hot button issue to motivate voters or discovering a more motivating candidate. This campaign is a way for everyday Democrats to reach out to our fellow Americans to show up to vote in the 2018 midterms. This is still a rough idea so there will be ways to improve upon but I would like to get my fellow Democrats feedback if this is a good idea.

The campaign is based on the fact that 3 to 4 million American jobs are based on tips. This number includes restaurant wait staff, Uber and Lyft drivers, pizza delivery etc. The majority of these employees are millennials or gen-Xers, a demographics that leans Democratic but has poor voter turnout, particularly in midterms. Democrats are known as both good tippers and regular consumers of these services. The fundamental goal of this campaign is to teach Democrats how to engage these employees in a brief and positive way of the importance of registering to vote and following through with voting. I see Democrats “evangelizing” these employees on voting, to briefly explain this campaign and then follow through with generous tipping at 20% plus.

Creating a campaign brand may help with the conversation. I was thinking of something like TipTheVote.org. And possibly encourage the use of buttons and stickers of “I Will Vote 2018”.

I see the conversation as brief, asking if they voted and/or are they registered to vote. And if they plan to vote in 2018. No need to talk about parties or issues unless they want to. But also ask if they heard of the campaign. Of course giving a generous tips helps with your likability.

There are 72 million registered Democrats. If we assume this campaign was popular, say 5% would become active in the campaign that is 3.6 million or roughly 1 to 1 with the number of employees. If we also assume 2 conversations a week and it would be a nice frequency to reinforce the conversation without being overbearing. The exact number of impressions is hard to predict but if this ran for most 2017 and 2018, I believe almost all these employees would be engaged numerous times.

Note: The “I Will Vote 2018” may also be a conversation starter in other social interactions we have.

I’m not sociologist or marketing expert but I would think that if Democrats were mobilized to reach out to this important voting contingency and motivating them for the midterm it could have a powerful results.

Again this is just a rough idea but your thoughts?

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[radical noodle]

1. I'm not sure if it will get them out

but it might if they hear and see it enough. I think if something like that was started, I would spend a few bucks to get some cards printed up to leave with all our tips. We always tip generously so it might be met with a positive attitude from our server.

You are right, though. Younger voters are notoriously difficult to get out to vote. I don't see that it could hurt anything, but I'm not familiar with campaign strategies.

[ismnotwasm]

2. At this point I like anything that is proactive

Service workers are indeed tend to younger and less politically engaged. I think what we need is a mosaic of actions, reaching a mosaic of people --this would reach at least a few in a certain segment of the population, and it can be easily done through social media.

[DrDeUrquiza]

3. How to regain Congress: address the issue of job loss and focus less on identity politics.

I think it is crucial to have more democrats in the House as well as in the Senate. However, in order for that to happen I think we need new ideas that include what to do about the jobs lost to the inevitable globalization trend that affect many former middle class people. Those jobs are not coming back (even if Trump says he is going to bring them back) as the loss has to do not only with factories moving abroad but with technology and robotization. I think that retraining workers and educating them about the job market of the future is very important. I also think that we need to focus less on identity politics and more on issues that affect all Americans. Identity politics tend to divide more than unite. I think we need to focus more on what we all have in common than on the way we differ from each other.

[Adrahil]

4. So, ignore racism and sexism? No thanks.

I am not willing to kowtow to racists and misogynists.

[DrDeUrquiza]

5. It is important to debate ideas rather than labeling those we disagree with.

Adrahil, I respectfully disagree with you about using labels to address disagreements. I am not the only one who thinks that the job issue associated with the new economy and the overuse of identity politics has produced an unfortunately disconnect between the democratic party and large sectors of the population. Using the label racism or misogyny it is not only disrespectful (you don't know me) but it disqualifies the individual rather than debating the idea. By the way, I am not denying that racism is a sad fact of American life that needs to be appropriately addressed.

[herding cats]

6. The labels such as racist and misogynistist do apply at times, though.

To decide that they shouldn't be applied when warranted is an excellent way to lose Democratic voters. We are their champions, and their only consistent ally.

If you're arguing against intellectual discussions on the topics which point out how those who aren't effected, can't realate to the biases, I'll counter most American voters have never encountered such an argument. They react to their actual biases, not discussion of the topics. It's through discussion that people grow, and evolve their social thinking, if they're capable.

Frankly, if a person isn't able to evolve beyond their racial and misogynistic biases, we don't need them in the Democratic Party. We need to focus on bringing in the much lager amount of the population which agree with us on these issues, but simply doesn't vote, yet.

I hope Trump will be a catalyst for that with the Democrats. Many people who never bothered to pay attention to politics before are speaking politics now that he's been inaugurated thaOf them I've yet to see a one who feels safe, or comforted. This is the only tiny bit of hope I've been holding onto.

What we cannot do is be marginalized by dividing ourselves at this point. It will be the end of us, as those in the RW hope we will do.

[Disruption]

7. take some tips from the GOP

the biggest problem I see with our party is that old saw, "Republicans fall in line, democrats fall in love." We need to get our big boy pants on and vote for the democrat, regardless. Those protest votes didn't work

[Rhiannon12866]

8. I also support making election day a national holiday

It might not result in a day off for everyone, but it will help, and Democrats always do better with higher turnout.

[techindustry]

9. Speaker Paul Ryan Takedown

David Yankovich to announce that he is going to run for congress to take down Paul Ryan.

Currently, he is taking donations via crowdpac to launch his campaign.

We MUST take down Paul Ryan, he does NOT listen to the American people or his district.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to get the word out??

[link:https://www.crowdpac.com/campaigns/236355/david-yankovich-will-beat-paul-ryan-in-2018|

[Rhiannon12866]

10. DU is a good place to start.

With a few more posts you can start your own thread. We have a Wisconsin Group here, but considering the national profile of Paul Ryan, you'd certainly get support from most everyone here no matter where they are. Welcome to DU and good luck with this!

Wisconsin (Group)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1084