Ferguson Proves: Your Vote MATTERS.

[global1]

41. It Needs To Go Both Ways.....

I agree with you it is up to a/the candidate to motivate the People - but the People need to be motivated as well.

In the case of Ferguson - it took that shooting incident to get the People involved and motivated to do something. They learned that their apathy in past elections didn't provide them with adequate representation in their city government and because of that - they were up against a system that worked against them and further demotivated them.

Once the Ferguson thing reached national attention and the community of People actually took charge and became motivated - they were able to mount a GOTV campaign that resulted in getting back some representation for them based on last nights election.

It took national attention. The MSM. The community activists. The national activists to get that accomplished.

In Chicago - I don't think the Rahm/Chuy election got that level of attention. Also - the money was heavily weighted toward Rahm and Chuy wasn't able to mount a campaign such that it could get the People more motivated. Also - given machine politics in Chicago - that has a tendency to demotivate the People because they don't feel like they have a chance against the machine. It's been that way for so long that many Chicago voters feel that their vote doesn't count.

So I believe it needs to be a two way street - the candidate for sure needs to be a good candidate and needs to motivate the People - but the People in the community need to motivate themselves and the others in the community as well. They need to realize that they have a shot at changing things and they need to believe that.

Take Barack Obama's first election. The People in the Community really felt that he could be a change agent. They rallied and Got Out The Vote. Though Barack Obama did win a second election - the Repugs used every trick in the book to sandbag him and make him not as effective as he could have been. The result is that this demoralized the People in the communities to think that nothing that they can do can change things. This might have been the reason for such a poor turnout in the recent midterms.

Going into 2016 is going to be interesting - because GOTV is going to be critical in this presidential election. Will Hillary - who seems to be the anointed Dem candidate be able to generate as much interest as President Obama did - or will they continue to be demoralized and demotivated because they now think that after 8 years of gridlock that - nothing they do will change things. That is what the Corporatists, the MSM and the Repugs want them to believe if they think the Repugs think they have a chance at taking the presidency in 2016.

Will the first woman president stimulate as much interest and excitement as Barack Obama - the first black president did? That is the question?