Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

2016 Postmortem

Ken Burch

(50,254 posts)

7. Tip O'Neill actually had a story about why "stroking" voters is a good idea:

Reply to radical noodle (Reply #4)

Thu Dec 22, 2016, 01:25 AM

Dec 2016

In his memoir, he wrote about an early campaign he was in. He won the race, but noticed that in one precinct, he got one vote LESS than he had in his previous campaign.

He started asking people in the precinct and and one woman admitted that it was her vote he had lost. He asked her if she no longer supported him. She said she still did. So he asked her why she didn't vote for him this time. "You didn't ASK me", she said "people LIKE to be asked".

If making voters feel personally valued gets us more votes, what's the harm? It doesn't take THAT much effort to do that.

Edit history

Please sign in to view edit histories.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

21 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

"More outreach to rural areas of purple states" and "Change the message" are 2 different arguments. [View all] Garrett78 Dec 2016 OP

Outreach is fine. Changing the message is non-negotiable. Also, Iowa is no longer purple. It's red. LonePirate Dec 2016 #1

Will be a long time Truth321 Dec 2016 #2

That may be. Iowa was super close in 2000 and 2004, whereas Obama won it with relative ease. Garrett78 Dec 2016 #3

Meanwhile, states like AZ and TX may turn purple or even solidly blue. LenaBaby61 Dec 2016 #16

The ONLY change anyone has suggested is to make it more economically progressive Ken Burch Dec 2016 #5

Clinton's economic message was the most progressive ever in terms of major party candidates. Garrett78 Dec 2016 #10

In any case, nobody is calling for the party to be LESS antiracist Ken Burch Dec 2016 #11

Agreed. Absolutely. Justice Dec 2016 #18

I think just about all Democrats would welcome a more economically progressive message. LonePirate Dec 2016 #15

I suspect that you're right. Iowa has gone dark Vogon_Glory Dec 2016 #17

I wonder how many white Iowans are for that methanol subsidy but against gov't assistance for others LonePirate Dec 2016 #20

I guess there's some validity in that feeling radical noodle Dec 2016 #4

Tip O'Neill actually had a story about why "stroking" voters is a good idea: Ken Burch Dec 2016 #7

There's no doubt some need GOTV and some don't. Garrett78 Dec 2016 #8

also, the dems should be considering focusing on areas that have more people who would vote dem La Lioness Priyanka Dec 2016 #6

There are a lot of people in rural areas(particularly in the South and the Mountain West) Ken Burch Dec 2016 #9

Yes, the new coalition maybe more south and south west La Lioness Priyanka Dec 2016 #12

If Texas goes blue, Republicans are in deep trouble. Garrett78 Dec 2016 #13

She lost Texas by smaller numbers than in a long time La Lioness Priyanka Dec 2016 #14

Great OP but so many replies just keep making same old arguments Justice Dec 2016 #19

Much of the conflating is done by those who want to change the message. They call it outreach. kcr Dec 2016 #21