Bernie preaches about a revolution. About getting low income voters, young voters, disenfranchised voters into the political system to help bring about a change. I see this as a worthy cause, because we all know that a low percentage of the eligible voting population actually votes.
The problem is that you have to wonder if any of this is happening or going to happen? While Bernie did have record breaking percentage of people voting for him in the New Hampshire primary, more people voting for him in the primary then any other democratic candidate past and present, it was not a record breaking turn out of people participating in the primary process.
Will later states break the record turn out set in 2008? One has to hope, but the reality, if you consider Iowa and New Hampshire turn out, does not seem likely. I don’t think it fairs well for either Bernie or Hillary without record turn out, as the Republican side has had more turning out to vote this year so far then Democrats and if you project that into November numbers, the Republicans win the White House and control both the House and Senate unless the Senate is flipped this year by the Democrats.
Bernie reports he is receiving record donations online from small donations, but is it really record setting? In 2008, Obama raised the same amounts of donations after winning contests and chose in 2008 not to take part in the public financing option when it came to the general election.
So, Is Bernie or Hillary for that matter registering new voters, looking for voters that voted in 2008 but not in 20012 or voters that voted in the past but stopped voting because they felt their votes did not change anything? Or are they taking the voter registration rolls and just contacting registered voters and people who show up to their rallies?
My thoughts are money is wasted on ads in today’s era of technology, for the most part. Majority of the money should be spent on voter contact, potential voter contact, and building a database of potential and likely voters to mobilize. When door knocking, are the volunteers seeking information for contact with future voters? Do the websites ask for possible leads into others who may be listen to the messages of the candidates?
The Hillary campaign should especially be turning out more voters considering they hired quite a few Obama campaign workers from 2008 and 2012. Since Bernie is predicating his campaign on mobilizing better then Obama did in the past, he should be doing the same thing and not let off the hook.
Why is all of this being said? Because of the message or promises being made. While Hillary is promising less then Sanders, she is not let off the hook on how much is needed to build on Obama’s legacy.
To pass tax reform, taking to the pulpit and calling for change is not enough. You have to mobilize the voters to vote against those that resist change. Obama has already called for a living wage of $15, 2 year community colleges and tech schools being free, and tax reform, and yet congress has not acted on any of it. No one in congress is worried about being voted out of office for going against such ideas.
And so, turning out the voters to get rid of those blocking progress must happen, but it does not happen by just standing up, giving a speech and presto, changeo, done. If that was the case, Obama would have already accomplished such and more.
So candidates stating they will push for and vote for such ideas if they get to congress must be recruited, voters must be turned out to vote for them and they must receive more votes then the current congress member that the revolution is looking to replace. Replacing congress only gets you tax reform, a living wage and grants or loans for education.
In order for free higher education, you actually have to change leadership at the state and local level. So you need to replace 30+ governors and tens of thousands of state legislators and local leaders. The same would go for medicare for all or building on ObamaCare you also need to replace state and local leaders. Those like Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Snyder, and many others.
Until you start to actual build the structure to mobilize, nothing will change. So what is Sanders, Hillary, their campaigns and others doing to mobilize the change?