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11/5/2004
The Republicans own. They have a political organization unlike any other. MoveOn.org, the DNC, the DLC, everyone else pales in comparison. They run it from the top down. What’s the advantage?
They start with the local state races. They get their people in to state office. This lets them set districting patterns that will give them their congressman and senators. They have the governors mansions. They spend a lot of money to get this done. Why? Because these people are the core of the ground game for the national elections. They set the tone and the volume level of the message. They gear it to their own people who they know and who know them. Then when the national candidate comes in and talks values, talks morality, talks about abstract concepts he’s talking straight to you. He’s talking to you about the values your congressman talked about, the values your governor talked about, the values your city councilman talks about.
The fact is, Bush didn’t campaign in a lot of states, but he was able to make enough noise in national television spots and the debates that gave him the overwhelming popular vote (with respect to the last campaign). He got everyone out to the polls to vote for the values their local representatives have campaigned on. The only Republican strong enough to disagree with him is Arnold, and well, when you’re George Bush you don’t argue with Arnold, you use him as much as you can and realize you’re not getting California. Bush (nor I) are ready to get pumped up by Arnold.
So what do the Democrats do? They need to define the core values of the party. They need to spread that message. Then they need to decide what each local politician and representative is going to be responsible for selling in their area and have them sell it. That way when the national candidate comes in to talk to voters people already know what to expect. They know what they are listening for, and they get it.
Why is this? I believe it’s because it’s too easy to attack a national candidate. Once you run for President you’re skeletons are coming out. They are going to find every way to attack you and they will. On the other hand it’s nearly impossible to find ways to attack 200 congressman, 45 senators and thousands of state and local level politicians. These are the guys building the trust for the message. The national candidate then comes in and says “What he said! Yea!” and flies away.
And the crowd goes nuts. They know where he stands on every position. The trust they have for their local candidates is transfered magically to the national candidate. There’s a warm glow everywhere.
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