For Those Who Think GOTV Doesn't Work to Create Change:

[MineralMan]

In Minnesota, the 2010 election let Republicans gain majorities in both houses of our state legislature. The result was a same sex marriage ban amendment on the 2012 ballot, cuts to education and a huge budget deficit. We also elected a Democratic Governor that year by a very slim margin, but he was unable to get anything done. Election turnout in 2010 was lousy here, as it was in many places.

In 2012, Democrats led a huge GOTV effort for that year's election. The result was that the Democrats regained control of both legislative houses. The anti marriage equality amendment was defeated in that election, as well. In 2013, the state legislature passed a bill that made marriage equality the law of the land, and the Governor signed it. The budget deficit was erased and we now have a budget surplus. We also just passed a major increase in the minimum wage for Minnesota, along with a strong anti-bullying bill for our schools. Both have been signed by our Democratic Governor.

If you say that GOTV doesn't make any difference, you're just flat wrong about that. In Minnesota, it made an enormous difference...one that is being felt by a broad spectrum of state residents. There's more to come, too. The medical marijuana bill is still in play here, too. This November, we're going to turn out a record number of Democrats in Minnesota. We have an excellent chance of flipping two Congressional Districts, too. The changes will continue after the election.

Please don't tell people that GOTV doesn't work. It does work, and Minnesota is evidence of it. We turned the state around in a single election. Other states can do the same. But, it takes a lot of work on the part of Democrats to make sure voters come to the polls. That's GOTV activism at work, and the results are powerful.

We did it. We demonstrated the power of GOTV. You are incorrect if you think it doesn't work. It can work in your state as well.

GOTV 2014 and Beyond! It Works!

[riqster]

1. Wish I could rec more than once. Kick!

[NCTraveler]

2. Your point is excellent.

I still don't think I have seen someone say that GOTV doesn't matter. Don't really think I have seen that in significant numbers anyway. GOTV helps to win elections:common sense. Obama as an agent of change is better than Romney:common sense. I'm not sure if there are many people who would disagree with this.

[MineralMan]

3. My OP was prompted by just such a claim.

I posted in that thread, and decided to turn my post into a more general OP. Here's the other thread. GOTV efforts are being poo-pooed by several people on DU right now:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024824884

[NCTraveler]

6. I do get that and also like your op.

Just saying that "several people" on DU does not make an issue. Only three people total have even replied to the thread you linked to. Not a real hot one.

Edit: Your op is excellent and I am going to leave it at that. K&R.

[MineralMan]

8. I've been posting pro GOTV posts for some time.

In every one of them, some DUers have come into the threads and claimed that it would not work. I've seen it work, both here in Minnesota and in California, where I used to live. Elections where massive GOTV activism happened were won by Democrats. It is in our states where GOTV makes its most dramatic impact.

[Ichingcarpenter]

17. My OP was prompted by just such a claim.

Thank god GOTV did everything to answer my question in that thread.


you are right

...

Listen you want to play with me at least be honest.

[MineralMan]

19. I linked to your thread in this one.

The two threads are independent of each other. I'm going to stick with this one. Thanks for prompting me.

[Ichingcarpenter]

21. Thanks Grand Dad

will do.

[Rex]

26. The hostility toward you was undeserving.

But I guess straight forward answers are not to be yours today.

[2banon]

25. As I write this, I only found one individual that posed a question in your link

First, I want to congratulate you for your efforts in Minnesota, I think that's fantastic. But I'm in agreement with those who question that there's a preponderance of folks here who question GOTV's goals, efforts or results.

I might have missed those, but I'm not seeing the Left poo pooing GOTV activism. I just chuckle when I see the acronym.. "GOTV".. it looks like "Go Tv". Sort of a head scratcher at first glance.

[MineralMan]

27. I didn't claim there was a preponderance of nay-sayers

about the effectiveness of GOTV. There are some, though. My post addresses those. As you see, support for GOTV outweighs pessimism about it many fold.

My OP is addressed to "those who think GOTV doesn't work." Those who aren't in that group are not the subject of the thread.

[2banon]

29. Ok. my mis-read, then. n/t

[1StrongBlackMan]

33. Do Not be misdirected ...

engaging in "well it's not THAT MANY ... it's just a few" back and forths, it takes you off your message; which BTW is the purpose of their posts. Your claim stands as verified.

Stay positive /// Stay productive.

[FSogol]

4. K & R. n/t

[MineralMan]

5. Thank you.

This thread was prompted by another thread that asked whether GOTV did any good in states. It does, and Minnesota is proof of that. We changed the course our state was on, and the results speak for themselves. Here's the the thread that prompted this OP:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024824884

[FSogol]

16. I know what prompted your thread. That thread pissed me off, but I deleted my response to it.

I live in Virginia which is a prime example of how much every single vote matters.

I hate all the rat fucking that occurs on this site whether it comes from internet trolls, true RW operatives, or from misguided Eeyores.

The only way we will ever move this country to the left is by GOTV.

[MineralMan]

20. Yup. GOTV is the tool we can all use. It is local activism that

works. And only local activism can overcome the money advantage enjoyed by the Republicans at this time. We must use the tools available to us and follow paths that have proven to work. GOTV is our most powerful election activism tool.

[Maedhros]

7. GOTV only spurs change if the people we vote for are likely to change anything.

That is an open question.

[MineralMan]

9. In Minnesota, GOTV got voters out to vote for Democrats.

The results of that are described in my OP. What can you fault in those results? We elected Democrats to a majority in the State legislature and progressive measures became law. I'm not sure what more anyone can expect. Truly. We got out the vote, and now we have action on important issues.

GOTV 2014 and Beyond! Do it in your state. I live in Minnesota. We did it and it worked.

[Maedhros]

12. Then I guess you've proved my point.

It's not just getting out the vote that matters, but expecting results from the people we put in office.

[MineralMan]

13. It's all part and parcel of the same thing.

Not every Democrat in Minnesota is a progressive, but when Democrats have the majority, progressive bills are passed and signed by our Governor.

[Maedhros]

22. Oregon is similar. Republicans are almost a rump party here, which is nice.

There was a time when "Oregon Republicans" were a different breed from the national party. In recent years they took the express exit to crazytown, and surrendered a lot of their credibility.

[MineralMan]

24. Republicans are always a threat, and they're always watching

for complacency among Democrats. Every election needs and deserves a strong Democratic GOTV effort. It's how we will win and continue to win, despite the money spent by Republicans. If we don't have the money advantage, we have to use the people advantage, and GOTV is how that happens.

[JI7]

10. you know

i think some know this and they are trying to discourage it.

[MineralMan]

11. Yes, some are doing exactly that.

I post a lot of pro-GOTV posts, and all of them have replies in them saying that it won't work, can't work, or doesn't matter. I say bullshit to all of that, and present Minnesota in 2012 as my evidence. It did work, and change happened.

GOTV 2014 and Beyond!

[TBF]

14. Young people also do not know

that the hole we're in has taken awhile to dig. I spent the 1980s in high school & college. That was actually pretty formative because I saw the beginning of the "Reagan Revolution" first-hand. It set this country on a very conservative trend and even the 16 years of Clinton/Obama (arguably both pretty conservative themselves in terms of economics) has not been enough to show significant change. We now have a gap between the rich & poor that is startling - it hasn't been this bad since the 1920s. If we have any hope of digging out of it via voting we've got to not only get to the polls, but be sure we are running progressive candidates who will fight for change.

[MineralMan]

18. Yes, we need to elect progressives,

but not all Democrats who will win are progressives. My congressional representative is a progressive, though, and that's because the caucus and convention system in her district wants progressive candidates and won't endorse anyone who is not.

But, here's something to think about. Progressives are leaders. I can assure you that not every Democrat in our state legislature is a progressive Democrat. We have many Democrats in our state legislature who were elected in parts of the state that would never elect a progressive to office. But...and this is a big one, it is the progressive leadership that introduces bills like the marriage equality bill that passed in 2013 and the minimum wage bill that just passed. They introduce and champion those bills and the Democrats in the legislature vote for them, because we have good party unity here.

The result is that progressive legislation is proposed and passed because we have a Democratic majority in both houses of our legislature and a Democrat as Governor. That's how it works. We don't have a progressive majority. We have a Democratic majority and progressive leadership. That gets results.

The same is true in Congress. Get Democratic majorities, and you'll see progressive legislation brought forward, passed, and signed by our Democratic President. Every House election is a local election. GOTV efforts in states will result in the election of additional Democratic congressional representatives and the progressive leadership will introduce the bills we need and they will pass.

GOTV affects everything.

[2banon]

28. Hear, Here!

[jwirr]

15. That was definitely true of Northern MN. Hopefully we learned our lesson.

[MineralMan]

23. I think we did learn, but we need to continue to use

the tools that work in every election. The risk is becoming complacent and forgetting that every election is a new election.

[libnnc]

30. Yes. Yes. Yes. And LOCAL elections MATTER.

I'm talking everything from state House and Senate races all the way down to dad-jimmed Dog Catcher. Every election matters. These Tea Party turds aren't created in a vacuum. They are raised from the ground up. That means they show up in City Council, School Board, County Commish and Mayoral elections.

We have to KNOW who these people are. And believe me they are tricky little bastards. I've seen it with my own eyes. I was at a LGBT Pride rally here in Winston-Salem this past PRIDE season and saw a supporter of a Republican City Council candidate canvasing and passing out rainbow stickers to folks telling them to vote for her candidate - who was Anti-LGBT AND a Tea Party member! She was trying to get her candidate's name out there to trick folks into voting for her - purposely targeting voters who were unfamiliar with the woman's views.

The rat fucking begins at home. Know who these people are!

GOTV

[MineralMan]

31. Thanks!

Keep working on it. We'll win.

[IronLionZion]

32. People who say GOTV doesn't work, might be repubs

since rebubs want fewer voters. Saying no difference between the parties, helps repubs. Saying Dems suck, helps repubs.

Putting more Dems in office is a good thing. No matter what your local dems may be like, having more Dems is more likely to put long time liberals in positions of leadership who decide which bills to vote for. Plus the ballot initiatives. More votes statewide means more of a mandate for any Dems who do win statewide office such as governor or senator. More dems in state legislature, helps with redistricting to limit gerrymandering, and helps block repub initiatives when dems are a large minority or if the governor is a repub.

People who won't vote, don't have a right to complain.

[Jamaal510]

40. That's the thing

"Saying no difference between the parties, helps repubs."

that really makes me cringe. I see that it's mostly 3rd party supporters peddling the "Democrats=Republicans" junk, though, rather than Republicans. I posted a thread on this, but just the other day on MediaMatters, I encountered a self-described Libertarian who claimed that there was "no change" from Bush ll under Obama. I set him straight and refuted all his talking points there. Also in the 2012 elections, there were commercials from the Green Party and other long-shots making the case about not voting for the "lesser of two evils".
Both parties disagree on foreign policy, gay rights, women's rights, voting rights, tax policy, health care, education, the role of religion in politics, and so on. Job growth is far higher under Democrats than under Republicans, and the deficits shrink under D's compared to R's. According to many political experts, they are the farthest apart that they've ever been. All of this is why I think a person would have to be either intentionally dishonest or genuinely ignorant to somehow equate our two major parties despite all their differences and accomplishments over the years.

[TeamPooka]

34. K&R!

[MineralMan]

35. Thanks!

[Mister Ed]

36. I often think the Repubs did our GOTV for us in MN with their hateful anti-gay amendment.

They figured putting their marriage-discrimination amendment on the ballot would motivate their base, and it did. But it also motivated fair and compassionate people to get their butts to the polls and vote the damn thing down. And while they were there, they voted out the Republicans who had put it onto the ballot in the first place.

I entertain fond hopes that similar Republican overreach might work to our advantage in many places in 2014.

[MineralMan]

37. That helped, but there was very strong GOTV

from many sources, too.

[Mister Ed]

38. Definitely. And it would be disastrous folly to sit back and wait for the GOP to hand it to us.

But it sure helps our GOTV effort when those guys show their true colors the way they did.

[Mister Ed]

41. And one more thing I'd like to add, having thought it over:

That ballot-box backlash against the marriage-discrimination amendment didn't just happen all by itself. It happened, in large part, because human rights activists got organized, and worked their butts off for months to - guess what? - get out the vote!

[steve2470]

39. GOTV ! kick and rec ! nt