FL-11-- Is Taliban Dan's Day Of Reckoning Nigh?

There are 5 counties-- or parts of counties-- within the boundaries of Florida's 11th district north of Tampa: Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Marion and Sumter. Retirees from Indiana, Ohio and Michigan drove down I-75 and settled here, a different breed of the retirees from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey who drove down the I-95 to Miami-Dade and Broward counties. I-95 brought Democrats; I-75 brought Republicans. FL-11 went for McCain in 2008 (56%), for Romney in 2012 (59%) and in 2016 Señor Trumpanzee beat Hillary 64.8% to 32.5%. The PVI went from R+11 in 2015 to R+15 last year, the 4th most Republican of Florida's 27 congressional districts.

When longtime incumbent Richard Nugent decided to retire, Orlando area Republican Daniel Webster, sensing FL-10 was too blue for him to be reelected in again, moved his political operation (if not his residence) north to the 11th and beat Democrat David Koller 258,016 (65.4%) to 124,713 (31.6%). Koller had run against Nugent in 2014 with similar results, going down 66.7% to 33.3% to Nugent. Daniel Webster feels secure in "his" new district. Despite the numbers, he shouldn't.

Fast-growing Sumter is the reddest county in the district. It was the worst-performing county in the district for Bernie and in the general it gave Trump 68.8% of its votes, his best performance in FL-11. This week, in a review of Alice Marshall's book, The Precinct Captain's Guide to Political Victory, Heather Rabinowitz, a Sumter County Democratic Party Executive Committee member mentioned that she "made this required reading for all of our precinct captains." Why's that a big deal? Remember what happened in Virginia a few weeks ago? It was as if the grassroots made a collective decision to win the House of Delegates, and they astounded the professional pundits by taking seat after seat after seat that was deemed "impossible." The Precinct Captain's Guide to Political Victory was written in Virginia and the precinct level operatives were all reading it. When we hear that precinct captains are reading that book, it tells us that that committee has decided to actually win.

What does that have to do with a district as red as FL-11 and with the notorious Daniel "Taliban Dan" Webster? Some now think that even if Webster finds the cure for cancer and brings peace to the Middle East and even if the Democrats nominate a ham sandwich, the Democrat will have a real shot at winning. And there's been some talk-- I have no inside information here-- that instead of a ham sandwich, FL-11 Democrats are trying to draft Webster's old nemesis, Alan Grayson to run! Grayson-- the absolute master of grassroots campaigning!

Now, Webster isn't likely to resign, even though he is senile, because:

(1)- he has no other way to make $174,000 a year [his top earnings in his family air-conditioning repair shop was $50K, and no lobbying firm would hire him, because he’s an unpopular dope];
(2)- thanks to a very generous pension plan, for every term he serves, his pension goes up $6,000;
(3)- he has no one at home waiting for him but his unfortunate wife, and that’s certainly not much of a draw;
(4)- all of his staff would be out of a job and completely unemployable, just like his home-schooled kids;
(5)- the thought of his running for higher office is laughable.

Webster still hasn't moved anywhere near "his" new district but he's not likely to lose his primary, because... well, he’s a Man Of God, right? Republicans are confident that he'd win the general even if the Democrats nominated Jesus Christ himself. And the possibility that someone will cut through the mental haze that surrounds Webster and inform him that he is suffering from dementia, and should retire? Well, there's a reed of a chance that could happen but, alas, he likely would forget that conversation entirely, five minutes later.

Alice Marshall told me that in August 2004 the Kerry campaign decided that Virginia was unwinnable, and pulled out their staff. But in Fairfax County, where she was chair of the county's voter registration committee, local Democrats decided that Virginia WAS winnable, "and put their collective shoulder to the wheel. We carried Fairfax for John Kerry. He lost the state, because other committees around the state did not make the same decision, but Kerry won Fairfax, in part, because the local committee decided we were going to win and we did not give a damn about the Kerry campaign or the DNC. In 1999 I was chair of the voter registration committee (I was chair twice, 1998-1999 and 2004-2005). That was the year of the Cathy Hudgins vs Bob Dix race for the Board of Supervisors. Bob Dix was an entrenched Republican incumbent, white male in a district that was/is majority white. He was supported by then Congressman Tom Davis, who actively campaigned for him. Dix raised $320,000. Cathy Hudgins had never run for office. Hudgins is African American. She raised $80,000. Hudgins won. Hudgins won for many reasons, not the least of which the Hunter Mill Democratic Committee was tired of losing and decided to win. My voter registration effort played an important role in all that, but by no means decisive. The collective decision on the part of local Democrats was the decisive element. I regard this as the text book example of people having more power than they think. People have more power then they realize."

And in a wave year-- an anti-Trump/anti-GOP tsunami cycle? And if the candidate is Grayson, not Koller again? Last year Webster spent $1,005,000 to Koller's $57,243. This cycle Webster had a campaign war chest of $67,543 as of the September 30 FEC reporting deadline. Grayson's war chest on that day was $501,268. Fingers crossed the Sumter County precinct workers spread The Precinct Captain's Guide to Political Victory to the Democratic precinct workers in Lake, Hernando, Citrus and Marion counties. In retrospect, this seems ahead of its time:

The Anti-Trump Tsunami of 2017

OK, fellas, YOUR election is over, so... what about ours now?

-by Alice Marshall

I knew there was popular mobilization like no other time in my life, but I did not realize how great it was until I saw this comment at Daily Kos: "Organization is also a bottom-up thing starting with organizing at the precinct and county level. Our precinct meeting last month, which usually draws 5 or 6 people, had 20. We raised $200 on the spot to support the local party. People are itching to get involved-- they just need a small bit of organizing."

Whoever heard of 20 people showing up to a PRECINCT meeting? Most of the time there is a Democratic precinct captain and that is it. Now 20 people are showing up to precinct meetings?

A friend of mine forwarded this message from the Virginia House Democrats:

• so far we've trained over 60 Democratic candidates for the House of Delegates?
• we're currently running candidates in 80 districts (with only 34 incumbents)?
• Republicans, with 66 incumbents, have only managed candidates in 73 districts?
• so far 7 Republicans are either retiring or seeking another office rather than defend Trump?

My Democratic friend in Minnesota tells me that hundreds of Democrats are coming forward to run in this year's municipal elections. In fact, all across the country we hear news of thousands of people running for municipal office as Democrats, and they won't lack for volunteers. Millions of Democrats are joining their local Democratic committee.

The importance of this year's elections cannot be overstated. All across the country voters will be choosing their school boards, county boards, sheriffs, mayors, and a host of other offices. These officials have far more impact on our daily lives than any member of congress, or even the president. Whether or not you have charter schools, how your local jail is run, how your local public transit system is operated, all these kinds of issues are decided at the local level. If you want to stop fracking and protect your ground water, if you want pedestrian friendly development, if you want to prevent the privatization of the commons, these are the elections you need to participate in.

And these elections will be watched very closely by editors, news directors, lobbyists, political consultants, and the entire public opinion mafia. A shift to the left will have an immediate impact upon our national discourse. It will influence editors as to which stories are news-worthy and which are not. It will affect who appears on Sunday morning talk shows and what topics are discussed by syndicated columnists.

A shift to the left will also have an immediate impact upon candidate recruitment and funding. I don't suppose anything can convince the DCCC to refrain from sabotaging good candidates, but a shift to the left in the 2017 elections will make that more difficult.

A dramatic shift to the left will find every politician in Washington re-positioning themselves to the left.

A dramatic shift to the left, not just Democratic gains, but gains by progressive candidates will shift votes in Congress. Politicians will understand that voters are not kidding around and expect meaningful progress on our most pressing problems. A dramatic shift to the left will pull the rug out from under the Republicans and stiffen the spine of the Democrats. It will also shatter the talking point that voters are looking for centrism (which is newspeak for corporatism).

A shift to the left will also affect editorial judgment. It will persuade editors to run more global warming stories and fewer "let's go to war" stories. It may even, gasp, persuade editors to run labor stories. Voting is the one power we hold in our hands, the one thing lobbyists cannot overwhelm, if we will put it to good use.

Ideally, the Democratic National Committee would be pouring money into precinct operations and training THIS year to lay the ground work for retaking the House in 2018. Realistically, that is not going to happen. That is why I wrote The Precinct Captain's Guide To Political Victory, described by one reader as "clearly written, right to the point and will certainly drive political campaigns to victory." My book is not for candidates, campaign managers, nor consultant. My book is for every grassroots political volunteer who wants to win elections and is looking for practical guidance as to how to do so. My book assumes that the reader has little or no experience of electoral politics and little or no institutional support from the local party apparatus. I have personally tried every method I describe here and can guarantee the effectiveness thereof. You can buy it at the DownWithTyranny book store.

Resisting DeVos-- The 2017-18 School-Board Elections

-by Alice Marshall

In order for DeVos to carry out her plan to destroy public education she has to have thousands of collaborators. Therefore we must act to deprive her of collaborators. School boards and state legislatures are the first fields to be worked. (I prefer agricultural metaphors to sports and war metaphors, because agricultural metaphors emphasize the cumulative effect of grassroots political action.)

We need to elect school board members who are entirely committed to public education and reject the failed model of charter schools and privatization. Unfortunately, even at this late date there are Democrats who support charter schools. (Fortunately not a single Democrat in the Senate backed Trump's nomination of DeVos, not even long-time charter school advocate Cory Booker.) We need to replace them with candidates who are committed to public education. DeVos will use all the considerable levers of power the Department of Education offers to coerce local officials to go along with her train wreck schemes, so we need to elect candidates who are ready for a fight.



School board races are usually non-partisan; that is political parties do not field candidates but do make endorsements, which comes to the same thing. If you are a member of your local Democratic committee, and you live in a jurisdiction which is having a school board race, NOW is the time to question potential candidates about their commitment to public education and their opposition to charter schools. NOW is the time to examine their records to judge whether their promises match up with their past actions.

It is important to keep in mind that school board elections are very low turnout affairs. On the one hand this means that low income voters are unlikely to vote in school board elections. On the other hand it means that local activists can make a disproportionate impact on an election. The 1999 Hunter Mill Board of Supervisor's race in Fairfax County is a perfect illustration of this. In 1999 Cathy Hudgins, an African American Democrat, challenged Bob Dix, the white Republican incumbent. The Hunter Mill district (Vienna, Reston, and Herndon, Virginia) is overwhelmingly white, there are just a few black precincts, and a few precincts that are majority immigrant. There were no state wide races in 1999, so there was very little press coverage and very little awareness about the race. Dix raised $320,000, Hudgins succeeded in raising only $80,000. Yet Hudgins won. How? By recruiting a team of volunteers who knocked on every door in Democratic precincts and succeeded in identifying those Democrats who lived in Republican precincts and turning them out to vote. Hudgins also benefited from a voter registration project that targeted all the low rent garden apartment complexes in the district. In this sort of race, just registering and additional hundred Democratic voters across such a district is the difference between victory and defeat.

This illustrates the tremendous power of precinct captains in a low turnout election. The power to shift just a handful of voters is the difference between victory and defeat. You don't need much money. All you need is a decent walking list, conscientious volunteers, and campaign literature to hand out.

Winning the school board races THIS year will have an out-sized impact on the 2018 elections. We can demonstrate that charter schools and privatization are politically radioactive. We can also change expectations about which congressional districts are “winnable.” If the charter schools candidates go down in flames, progressive congressional candidates running in those districts will have an easier time attracting donations and volunteers.

33 states have jurisdictions with school board elections coming up. Of these, 26 are also electing governors-- Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Cororado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin). If we are to stop voter suppression we need to elect governors who will protect voting rights. Trump, Pence, Bannon, Ryan and the Republican party have made it clear that voter suppression is their preferred tool to cling to power. If we are to protect voters, we must do it at the state level.

Campaigning for progressive school board candidates will have a synergistic effect of bumping up the vote for the Democratic gubernatorial candidates. Usually, the top of the ticket leads the other candidates. But from  a precinct captain's point of view it is the other way around. Someone supporting a Democratic gubernatorial candidate might or might not know who to support for school board, but anyone sufficiently informed to have an opinion about school board will almost certainly vote in the governor's race. Pushing up from the bottom of the ticket is an extremely effective tactic to drive up the vote for the entire ticket.

My book, The Precinct Captain's Guide To Political Victory, is chock full of ideas how to push up the vote in these low turnout election. Buy it at the DownWithTyranny online bookstore.

Precinct Captains, Social Media And The 2017 Elections

Grover Cleveland is the only mayor (Buffalo) to become president. Will Eric Garcetti be the  2nd?

-by Alice Marshall

Have you ever wondered how it's possible for such rotten Republicans to get elected? Or how it is possible to smear good progressive politicians? Lack of information.

This is especially true of local elected officials. How many people could name their state legislators, even less discuss their legislative record? Very few. Social media can remedy that.

The Virginia House of Delegates and the New Jersey and North Carolina legislatures are up for election this year, as are at least a dozen races where special elections are already scheduled or in the process of being scheduled. So if you are an activist in these states you can use social media to publicize the work of those you support and soften up the opposition. Follow every twist and turn of the legislature, and every time the opposition betrays the public trust, use Facebook, Twitter, and your blog, whatever platform you use, to alert your followers to what is happening. Post news stories to the regional subreddits so that voters know in real time what is being done in their name. Long before Labor Day rolls around you can drive up the negatives of your opposition and protect those politicians you support.

[Also keep in mind that there are important mayoral elections this year in Atlanta, New York, St. Louis, Miami, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Albuquerque, Seattle, San Antonio, Buffalo, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Boston, Detroit and San Bernardino.]

Create news alerts on the names of every local politician you wish to track, and then share those links on social media whenever you think appropriate. If you are on your neighborhood or civic association's email list, that is a good place to share news articles. You could share press releases of your favorite politician on such lists, but I would advise caution in that regard. The same people who might be interested in a news article might not be receptive to a politician's press release.

Don't worry if your link doesn't receive any clicks or shares. The power of precinct work is in its cumulative effect. It is sufficient to make your point, it is not necessary to “win the internet.” What you are attempting here is to draw the connection between your elected official's actions and what is happening in your community.

Ideally the Democratic Party would have a team doing precisely this. But realistically that will not happen. Besides the whole point of being a precinct captain is not leaving this sort of thing to the party. If you take care of it, you know it will be done, and done to your liking.

Social media is a double edged sword; you can stab yourself if you are not careful. From my book, The Precinct Captain's Guide To Political Victory :  

Twitter-- use it. Reporters are on Twitter and do searches on hashtags. Twitter is an easy and economical way to influence the press.

Twitter-- don't be a jerk. Reporters are on Twitter and Twitter is an easy and economical way to make an ass of yourself and embarrass your campaign.

Do not join and/or participate in online mobs, even, especially if the candidate's campaign encourages it. Don't let yourself be used that way.

Don't get into a wrestling match with a pig.

Used with discretion, social media can be a powerful tool. Use it consistently, and by Labor Day your work will be half done.



UPDATE: A Little Addendum From A Purple County In California

A View From The Inside Of The Other Side
-by Anonymous, edited by DWT

Last night I attended a Pro-President Trump meeting... Last night 3 of us went to a group meeting. Two women and one man. What we saw and heard was both scary and informative. The meeting was led by 5 men and we counted approximately 70 people in the room including us. We counted 13 women.

They started the meeting with a pledge of allegiance to the flag. Then they jumped into discussions, the first being the Marches. It was a lot of WTF and why don’t they just shut up. They discussed the report that there were no arrests so that meant that the police and the media were lying. The leader(s) then gave them an “action item” to find anything to dispute the no arrests report and to put pressure on the police to arrest protestors. Several people in the group admitted to being at the March to try to interfere, but felt they were bullied by the Marchers and had to stop “for their own safety” (actual quote). They questioned why so many people “got away with it” (Marching). It seemed to be a hot point with them.

They moved on to reports from the teams. They have teams and committees with specific tasks, ie: daily phone calls and collect tally’s of who makes phone calls to their Reps. It appears they call throughout the day, and each call is either a different issue or their personal favorite.

They have a team that monitors the public blogs and event postings of the Liberal groups (specifically mentioned Indivisible and MoveOn.) They laughed at the Indivisible Guide when one leader said “the Liberals will never get organized and carry any of this out, the snowflakes give up too easily, "a little heat and they melt." They talked about the “visit your representatives office event” that was planned for earlier in the day which was posted on MoveOn and all over FB. They also were at their reps offices, and a handful admitted to going to the Democratic representatives office in their own district to have their voice counted.

They have a team who spies on FB posts. When the man who was with us asked how to do it, he was told that if he was a member of Pantsuit Nation it’s almost an automatic in into most closed groups, and then once you are in one, you can get invited to others. Someone on their team joins all the public and open groups. Their report included reading a few actual posts, in a mimic whining voice, where the members were posting their concerns and frustrations and why bother. They actually cheered this. One leader applauded the report and said, “we don’t care if they like what we have to say, we don’t need them to agree with us. We just need them to give up, shut up and stay out of our way.”

They discussed some of the issues and the recent signed orders from the WH. Some of this discussion sounded intelligent, as if they had researched not only the issue, but how to present it to get the buy-in from the group. It felt to us like a persuasion/programming tactic.

They broke into their teams and anyone not on a team was asked to choose one to sit in on. We each went to a different team. Each team talked about their mission and their strategy. The phone team assigned times for each phone call and a number to text after you called. They practiced scripts. The Anti-Abortion team talked about how to plan protests at Planned Parenthood and other clinics, to find the names of doctors who perform abortions and out them by protesting at their offices and clinics. The communications team discussed the content of their newsletter, the content they were borrowing from other newsletters and articles from Briebart that they wanted to circulate. We didn’t get the names of the other teams that we didn’t sit in on but there were 4 others.

We found out that this group used to be a young Republican group and after the election and seeing the actions of the Liberals, they changed to a support Trump group to stand up for him and against Liberals.

I don’t believe all groups are this scary, however, they appear to be organized. One of the members in one of my groups, changed her registration to Republican so she could see what they do from the inside. She gets phone calls from a phone bank, sometimes several times a week, about issues and actions she should take, she gets their weekly newsletter and she attended a local Rep meeting. Her report is similar only in that they are very organized, take daily actions and communicate often.

So knowing this, what do we do?

Our recommendations:

1.) Don’t give up.

  2.) If you marched, email your local police to write a thank you for their part in keeping the peace.

3.) Get organized. Even if you are not with an organized local group, you can organize yourself. Set aside certain times for certain actions based on what you CAN do. We are all under time constraints and work/family/life commitments, however, find what time you CAN give. We have found that being with an organized local group that you can see and touch helps us to stay focused and feeling our strength.

4.) Determine what actions you CAN take-- when and how many phone calls, emails, visits, protests CAN you do. Focus on that. 

5.) Limit your time reading all the comments on FB. Too many can become overwhelming and can end up feeling like you are carrying a larger burden.

6.) Find and cross post the good results that are happening, so we can all see the progress. It may be small steps like the postponement of a cabinet position approval/rejection, however, every step counts. If you have ever attempted to lose weight, you remember how some days feel like nothing is happening, and then little by little the results start to appear. Whatever goal you have reached in little steps, remember the little steps got the momentum started. Stay strong.

7.) Find support when you need it. It’s been shown that if you vent to someone who is also venting, you both stay in the same spot. If you can vent to someone who will HEAR you without judgement and without chiming in, you can both get through it faster and back to feeling stronger. If you both need to vent, take turns; 2 minutes each venting and really HEAR each other, then switch places. When the venting is done, take a positive action.

8.) Take a break. Do something positive for yourself every day (more a few times during the day if you need it) that doesn’t include thinking about politics-- exercise, spas, reading a good book, writing a love letter. Find something that bring you joy and shifts your energy.

9.) Don’t give up. We are Stronger Together.

The opposition may believe that a snowflake is fragile when the heat is on, however, although the snowflakes may melt, enough heat can also cause a boil. Together, we can be an avalanche, and if we can focus our boiling angry energy we can be the heat that they fear.

2017 Preview— Guest Post From Alice Marshall... + Battleground Virginia

If Democrats are to retake the House in 2018, they will need to start work now, in elections of 2017. In spite of gerrymandering, in spite of voter suppression, Democrats can make major gains in local elections that will set them up for success in 2018. And if Democrats are not interested in the job, that creates the opportunity for emergent parties to step forward and fill the vacuum.

I encourage progressives to take a look at the record of Virginia's Attorney General, Mark Herring. Herring is best known outside of Virginia for changing Virginia's ban on same sex marriage; but he also forced a settlement with a coal company to protect ground water, defended Virginia's ban on displaying a noose for intimidation, obtained debt relief and has generally run circles around the Republican legislature.

But the real opportunities like in the local races, state legislature and municipal elections. There is a real possibility that Virginia Democrats could retake their legislature, crucial for the upcoming redistricting in 2021. I know less about Kentucky and New Jersey, and I hope readers from those states will gives us the local outlook.

The political muscle that local parties develop in local races sets them up for victory in the federal races. It is easier to win as a congressional candidate if the local mayor and city council are members of your party. The people who volunteer in 2017 for local candidates are likely to volunteer again for congressional candidates in 2018. Moreover, they will know more about their community and will be more effective.

If you are an anti-fracking activist, you will want to be sure that your local city council will stand up to the fossil fuel industry. If you are a Black Lives Matter activist you will want to be sure that the candidates for District Attorney share your view of police accountability. If you support public education and oppose charter schools, you will want to make sure that your state legislators share your view.

Local elections are an indication of the shifts in public opinion. Electing progressive state and local officials will encourage candidates at the federal level to take a more progressive approach. It will encourage incumbent congressional representatives to “evolve” their views.

  Precisely because local elections are low turnout, individual volunteers have the opportunity to shift the election. If you are successful in identifying your supporters and getting them to the polls you have an excellent chance to win. It was with the 2017 elections in mind that I wrote my book, The Precinct Captain's Guide To Political Victory. Read it, put even a fraction of its methods described therein into effect, and you can win.

The Precinct Captain's Guide To Political Victory, now available in the DownWithTyranny Bookstore.

Alice Marshall
http://twitter.com/PrestoVivace


UPDATE: Virginia State Senate

Jim Dean sent a note out to DFA members this morning endorsing the campaign of Ryant Washington. It’s helpful and he points out that “we can win a victory against Donald Trump and the Republican Party on Tuesday.”

Ryant Washington is a progressive champion running in a special election for Virginia State Senate. If he wins on Tuesday, Democrats will take control of the Virginia State Senate. It would be a huge blow to Trump and the Republicans.

At a time when Republicans are attacking health care, voting rights, and civil rights, we need to immediately begin taking back control of state legislatures so we can resist Trump and his bigoted agenda. That's why Ryant Washington's campaign is so important.

Ryant Washington is running a great, people-powered campaign. He has deep roots in the community and a lifetime of public service. He'll fight to protect health care and fully fund public schools, both of which are under attack by Trump and the Republican Congress.

In 2009 Republicans began winning these crucial state elections, and used those victories to begin moving the country far to the right. But we can turn the tables on them. If progressive Democrats like Ryant Washington win these elections, we'll show that America is ready to rebuild at the state and local level and win against Trump and his party's extremist, hateful agenda.

Tuesday's special election will be a tough race -- but with two Republicans and one Democrat on the ballot, it's going to be won by the campaign with the best grassroots turnout operation. Ryant Washington is doing everything he can to build a strong, people-powered campaign. Now he urgently needs our help in this final weekend before the election.

How To Fight Voter Suppression, A Guest Post By Alice Marshall

On Wednesday Alice Marshall did a guest post about grassroots electoral organizing, riffing on the book she authored, The Precinct Captain's Guide To Political Victory, and the response was so overwhelming that we asked her to do a follow-up, which she did (below). When Harry Reid happened to mention the other day that under the chairmanship of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the DNC was a worthless organization (his word, not ours), this is precisely the kind of thing he probably had in mind. Apparently Wasserman Schultz was too busy doing something else to attend to her job.

The 2016 election was stolen via voter suppression. Greg Palast has documented that thousands of citizens across the Great Lakes were turned away from the polls because they lacked proper identification. Republicans have admitted that the expanded voter identification requirements are precisely for the purpose of suppressing the votes of African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities.

Now the Democrats have known, at least since 2014 that the Republicans were going to do this, so why didn't they devise plans to assist their voters to acquire the necessary identification to vote? If I wanted to run to Governor of Michigan, I would film myself driving people to the Division of Motor Vehicles to assist them to apply for identification. If they lacked funds, I would create an organization to pay their fees. If they lacked a copy of their birth certificate, my organization would help them get certification. Not only are voter registration drives in the interest of the Democratic Party, it is good politics. Unlike partisan politics, voter registration is regarded as a noble cause. People rightly regard voter suppression as dirty politics. Promoting voter registration drives up Democrats positive ratings as well as driving up Republican negatives. I do not understand why voter registration is not a high priority with Democratic committees.

It is only a question of time before some Green Party candidate works out that voter registration is a great visibility tactic. Michigan Democrats will look very foolish if Green candidates start putting videos on YouTube of their voter registration efforts.

In my book, The Precinct Captain's Guide To Political Victory, I devote a great deal of space to the question of voter registration, why people don't vote, how voter registration drives up the vote, and how to push back against voter suppression. The link above is to the Kindle version.

You Have More Power Than You Think-- Guest Post By Alice Marshall

A friend of mine in Fairfax County, Virginia recounted how this past election the Chair of the Fairfax Democrats had run her own canvassing operation because she was not satisfied with the one being run by the joint campaign. Every year Fairfax Democrats set up a joint campaign so that volunteers support every Democrat up for office rather than requiring each campaign to recruit their own volunteers. Fairfax Democrats win their elections, so clearly, this works.

However, this year it seems that the Chair, who is an enthusiastic supporter of Hillary Clinton, was not pleased with the joint campaign's operation. Since I no longer live in Fairfax I don't know whether then Chair's concerns were warranted or not, but Hillary Clinton roared out of Fairfax County with 63% of the vote, greatly contributing to her victory in Virginia.

Because Fairfax Democrats look to themselves for victory, there was no forlorn call to Hillary Clinton's national campaign begging for resources to expand canvassing and GOTV operations. Fairfax Democrats took it upon themselves to do what needed to be done. Imagine if Democrats in critical counties across the Great Lakes had done the same.

If we depend upon national leadership we are lost. We need to take charge of our communities. If local activists decide that there will be canvassing, and that it will be done in such a manner as to best deliver the vote, then it will happen. Even if the state or national party drops the ball, as long as local activist take charge of campaigns in their communities they can win.

Precinct operations is a lost art in much of our country. The big money is in advertising, polling, messaging, digital communications, and consulting. Field operations is not so well paid. Precinct operations on a continuing basis is an afterthought. It would be in the best interests of the Democratic party to do training in precinct operations in all 435 congressional districts. Or Democracy for America could offer such training, or Our Revolution, or Brand New Congress. Realistically, I don't see any of that happening.

This is why I wrote my book, The Precinct Captain's Guide To Political Victory, so that anyone, no matter their lack of experience, could acquire the skills necessary to deliver their precinct and not depend upon their state or national party.

I was Chair of the Precinct Operations Committee for Fairfax Democrats from 2000 – 2001. Before that I served on Democratic Committees in Arlington County and the city of Richmond in Virginia. I have tried every method described in my book and can guarantee the effectiveness there of.

In every speech Bernie Sanders tells us that we cannot have the change we need unless millions and millions of us get active. So what does that actually entail? It could mean movement politics, or electoral politics. While I think we need both, I will confine myself to electoral politics because that is where my experience lies.

Reviving the Democratic Party will require not only millions of new volunteers at the grassroots level; it will require them to acquire the skills and discipline of winning. I hope that Keith Ellison will win his race for Chair of the DNC. But even if he does, that, by itself, will NOT transform the Democratic Party.

If we take our politics into our own hands, WE determine what is going to happen, and we do not have to worry about a dysfunctional DCCC or DSCC. Since clearly they will continue to be dysfunctional, it behooves us to take matters into our own hands, but that can only happen if we master the skills necessary to win. Precinct operations are a lost art in much of our country, thus the necessity for my book.

Anyone who buys my book and puts even a fraction of its suggestions into practice will increase the vote for their preferred party by not less than 50 votes. It does not have to be my book, I am not the only one to know about these methods. However, unless millions of party activists acquire these skills by some means, there is no possibility of taking back our country.

The precinct captain's guide to political victory on Amazon Kindle or... at the DownWithTyranny Book Shop.