Aww look, little people talk.
A sad commentary on we, as a people, and our viewpoint of our freedom can be summed up like this. We have liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, yet those very people look at Constitutionalists as radical and extreme.................so those liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans must believe that the constitution is radical and extreme.
christiefan915 (11-14-2017)
christiefan915 (11-14-2017)
Again, no shit. How self important of you to make sure I know all about your thoughts on sex trafficking and the plight of women, as if I am not familiar with it. Yes that is vanity. And you go there.
Don't you feel self self important now? Changing the subject, making it about you, it's so about you now. You feel special?
hahahahaha
christiefan915 (11-14-2017), evince (11-14-2017), Stretch (11-14-2017)
I wonder if Moore's character is more appealing to Trumptards than Douchebag Donald? Probably not, because of his lack of marital rape, and no appearances on Playboy.
"It [the draft] is duty rather than slavery. I part with the author on the caviler idea that individual freedom (whatever that may be to the person) leads to nirvana, anyone older that 12 knows that is BS."
-(Midcan5)
"Allow me to masturbate my patriotism furiously and publicly at this opportunity."
-(Ib1yysguy)
"There is no 'equal opportunity' today unless the government makes it so."
-(apple0154 )
"abortion is not killing Its birth control"
-(Desh)
Phantasmal (11-14-2017)
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison has been poring over election turnout data around the country to find a solution to a maddening problem for Democrats.
Potentially bedrock Democratic voters in the inner cities sit out off-year, midterm elections in massive numbers. Despite strong turnout when President Obama was on the ballot, Democrats nationally have lost 910 state legislative seats since 2008 and occupy the governor’s mansions in only 18 states.
Ellison is launching a new voter effort that Democrats around the country have high hopes will lead to more victories in nonpresidential elections, particularly in races where they have lost by razor-thin margins. Even nudging up voter turnout a few percentage points could have massive implications for legislative and statewide races. As a fifth-term Minneapolis Democrat who routinely wins his elections by more than 65 percent, Ellison is increasingly convinced that the future of Democratic victories is hiding in apartment buildings and low-income urban areas across the country.
“Where are they going to come from? Trust me, there’s 3 percent in every congressional district in the United States,” Ellison said. “If we had a good turnout strategy across the country, you could really turn things around.”
To do this, Ellison has workers fanning out to apartment buildings and low-income communities to reach potential constituencies in more personal ways. His idea is that through more one-on-one contact, Democrats can drive more people to the polls and cement lifetime allegiances to the party.
Enter Artiste Mayfield — a part-time employee at an Amazon warehouse and a college student who grew up in north Minneapolis. With streaked red and pink hair and glasses at the end of her nose, she doesn’t look like your typical hardened political operative. Last year, she knocked on more than 200 doors in the neighborhood. This was different from conventional political door-knocking, however. In this case, she knew many of the people behind the doors.
Mayfield also was part of a “SWAT” team — composed of blacks, Spanish speakers and Oromo speakers — who descended on apartment buildings and knocked on doors together. The idea was that no matter who was behind the door, there would be someone on the team whom he or she could relate to.
Earlier this month, Mayfield knocked on another 66 doors. Many times, those responding were friends, acquaintances or people she knew from the community — the kind of people Ellison hopes are more receptive to a conversation.
“Most people say, ‘I don’t vote,’ and then you begin to tell them why it’s important to vote,” Mayfield said.
Her message is simple: “Do they know about Social Security, about food stamps, about all the things [some politicians] want to take away?” Mayfield asked. “Their eyes be like, ‘For real?’ ”
Ellison is doing this without the enormous investment of television ads. He also pushed to get the polls open on Sundays and launched a “souls to the polls” effort to bus people to polling places after church. In 2014, some 450 voters showed up in Minneapolis on the two Sundays ahead of the election and another 124 voted on Sunday in Ramsey County.
National model
Ellison can point to his own Fifth District in Minneapolis and parts of adjacent suburbs as proof that the system works. His was the only one in the state where turnout numbers grew significantly between 2010 and 2014 — both off-year, midterm elections. More than 13,000 additional voters in the district showed up in 2014 than in 2010 — by far the biggest spike seen across the state.
The results in Minnesota are gaining the attention of campaign managers nationally heading into 2016.
Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District is more suburban and more affluent than Minneapolis. It stretches north of the nation’s capital into the well-heeled suburbs of Montgomery County and north into some of the state’s more rural stretches. It is also a reliably Democratic stronghold: There are seven Democrats running for Congress in an open seat next year.
One of those hopefuls, state Sen. Jamie Raskin, hopes to adopt Ellison’s get-out-the-vote program.
“It’s an interesting case study in this approach,” said Raskin’s campaign manager, Marshall Cohen. “You have Maryland, a safe blue state in the Senate and presidential races, but just last year elected a Republican governor with record low turnout. I think at the top of people’s minds is that every vote matters and getting more people to participate will be a better outcome for the state of Maryland.”
Andrew Virden managed the apartment program for Ellison in 2012 and took it statewide in 2014. The crew knocked on doors in about 275 apartment buildings out of about 500 in Minneapolis. Virden said that compared with TV ads, an in-person visit is much more effective in getting people off the couch.
“By the time it’s October of an election year, every other commercial is a political ad, and that’s the time to go get a sandwich or a glass of lemonade or a cup of coffee,” he said. “You’re not actually paying attention, and if you’re not paying attention, the money is wasted. But you’re not wasting money if it’s a person standing at the front door having a conversation.”
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison has been poring over election turnout data around the country to find a solution to a maddening problem for Democrats.
Potentially bedrock Democratic voters in the inner cities sit out off-year, midterm elections in massive numbers. Despite strong turnout when President Obama was on the ballot, Democrats nationally have lost 910 state legislative seats since 2008 and occupy the governor’s mansions in only 18 states.
Ellison is launching a new voter effort that Democrats around the country have high hopes will lead to more victories in nonpresidential elections, particularly in races where they have lost by razor-thin margins. Even nudging up voter turnout a few percentage points could have massive implications for legislative and statewide races. As a fifth-term Minneapolis Democrat who routinely wins his elections by more than 65 percent, Ellison is increasingly convinced that the future of Democratic victories is hiding in apartment buildings and low-income urban areas across the country.
“Where are they going to come from? Trust me, there’s 3 percent in every congressional district in the United States,” Ellison said. “If we had a good turnout strategy across the country, you could really turn things around.”
To do this, Ellison has workers fanning out to apartment buildings and low-income communities to reach potential constituencies in more personal ways. His idea is that through more one-on-one contact, Democrats can drive more people to the polls and cement lifetime allegiances to the party.
Enter Artiste Mayfield — a part-time employee at an Amazon warehouse and a college student who grew up in north Minneapolis. With streaked red and pink hair and glasses at the end of her nose, she doesn’t look like your typical hardened political operative. Last year, she knocked on more than 200 doors in the neighborhood. This was different from conventional political door-knocking, however. In this case, she knew many of the people behind the doors.
Mayfield also was part of a “SWAT” team — composed of blacks, Spanish speakers and Oromo speakers — who descended on apartment buildings and knocked on doors together. The idea was that no matter who was behind the door, there would be someone on the team whom he or she could relate to.
Earlier this month, Mayfield knocked on another 66 doors. Many times, those responding were friends, acquaintances or people she knew from the community — the kind of people Ellison hopes are more receptive to a conversation.
“Most people say, ‘I don’t vote,’ and then you begin to tell them why it’s important to vote,” Mayfield said.
Her message is simple: “Do they know about Social Security, about food stamps, about all the things [some politicians] want to take away?” Mayfield asked. “Their eyes be like, ‘For real?’ ”
Ellison is doing this without the enormous investment of television ads. He also pushed to get the polls open on Sundays and launched a “souls to the polls” effort to bus people to polling places after church. In 2014, some 450 voters showed up in Minneapolis on the two Sundays ahead of the election and another 124 voted on Sunday in Ramsey County.
National model
Ellison can point to his own Fifth District in Minneapolis and parts of adjacent suburbs as proof that the system works. His was the only one in the state where turnout numbers grew significantly between 2010 and 2014 — both off-year, midterm elections. More than 13,000 additional voters in the district showed up in 2014 than in 2010 — by far the biggest spike seen across the state.
The results in Minnesota are gaining the attention of campaign managers nationally heading into 2016.
Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District is more suburban and more affluent than Minneapolis. It stretches north of the nation’s capital into the well-heeled suburbs of Montgomery County and north into some of the state’s more rural stretches. It is also a reliably Democratic stronghold: There are seven Democrats running for Congress in an open seat next year.
One of those hopefuls, state Sen. Jamie Raskin, hopes to adopt Ellison’s get-out-the-vote program.
“It’s an interesting case study in this approach,” said Raskin’s campaign manager, Marshall Cohen. “You have Maryland, a safe blue state in the Senate and presidential races, but just last year elected a Republican governor with record low turnout. I think at the top of people’s minds is that every vote matters and getting more people to participate will be a better outcome for the state of Maryland.”
Andrew Virden managed the apartment program for Ellison in 2012 and took it statewide in 2014. The crew knocked on doors in about 275 apartment buildings out of about 500 in Minneapolis. Virden said that compared with TV ads, an in-person visit is much more effective in getting people off the couch.
“By the time it’s October of an election year, every other commercial is a political ad, and that’s the time to go get a sandwich or a glass of lemonade or a cup of coffee,” he said. “You’re not actually paying attention, and if you’re not paying attention, the money is wasted. But you’re not wasting money if it’s a person standing at the front door having a conversation.”
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Bookmarks