IN THE UPCOMING ELECTION, the Democratic Party appears to resemble the Vegas gambler who bets his or her entire savings on a single throw of the dice.  This worries me as a concerned Democrat who desperately wants to see the House held, the Senate flipped and Trump toppled.

I see no additional supplemental attempts, like side bets gamblers use to avoid disastrous losses.  Win it by traditional means, or lose all, seems to be the entire Democratic Party strategy — especially after the trauma from the valiant attempt to impeach Trump which was blocked by the Senate.  Almost all the supplemental efforts to avoid losses appear to be left to outside parties such as Eric Holder, Stacey Abrams, Indivisible, The Lincoln Project and all the others.

Just look at what’s happening now: I don’t see the current investigation of Barr as part of any comprehensive multi-faceted strategy; it’s an effort without a focus except as “an investigation” with no end point. If it were part of a strong, well-thought-out comprehensive strategy, the plan would include a subpoena, not a request, for Barr and his associates and those who were replaced in the D.C. office, to compel him to testify under oath and to show that Dems weren’t kidding by doing it in the traditional way.  And, yes, it could set up a confrontation that would highlight Barr’s illegitimate stance.  Don’t such confrontations highlight how urgent this is? Similarly, as a show of strength, why wasn’t Gomert reprimanded or even thrown out by a Sergeant-at-Arms?  Why isn’t there a team of savvy outside legal lawyers to back up the Democratic majority with sharp questions that really get to the heart of the matter when Barr and others in the AG’s office will be questioned?  And why isn’t there a gigantic megaphone in place as part of the strategy (including a social media and TV ad project) to amplify the testimony in the social media?  Do the press and social media, as outsiders, have to fulfill this vital part of publicizing the hearings?

What I’m saying is Democrats don’t yet seem to understand — in addition to the old traditional way of running campaigns — that there are newer, more modern ways to make side bets to ensure achieving the success of the ultimate goal of holding the House, flipping the Senate, and toppling Trump.

 It’s well-known that social mediaTV ads, plus innovative alternative approaches can supplement old-fashioned, traditional ways of running campaigns at election time.  These type of side bets bolster the traditional ways of working for re-election.  Yet the idea of using such means BEFOREHAND to condition the voting population seems foreign to Democratic thinking.  (IBM used to teach that In effective marketing, using only a direct mail piece gets you far fewer responses than a comprehensive campaign including direct mail, plus telephone calls, followed again by ads, plus another follow-up direct mail campaign — works to get far more responses.  They called this a “sandwich,”  piling up efforts rather than a one-shot attempt.

I’m hearing, from too many friends who are Democrats, that it’s too late for the Party to act, to do anything but go the traditional route.  Well, the Lincoln Project showed how to start up relatively quickly. They have a single focus.  They use video spots to make their point. They aim to influence public opinion to vote for Biden and topple Trump.  All beforehand to condition what people think.  And it is having its effect. So there’s still time for the Democratic Party.

It’s as if the Democrats believe they can’t more things at the same time without endangering the all-important effort to flip the Senate, keep the House and topple Trump. I heartily disagree with them about this type of thinking, but not about the long-term goal. Meantime, the Republicans have been busy showing it is possible to work on many fronts at once, by: gerrymandering, disenfranchising voters, discrediting Biden, bringing lawsuits to achieve their ends (e.g., destroying the Affordable Care Act)., as well as using traditional means to re-elect their Republican Senate majority and working to flip Democratic House seats.

I’m suggesting  the Democrats need a comprehensive plan with supplemental efforts to oppose this recent Republican effort. Here’s an article from the Guardian that can serve as an example of what I’m talking about:Here’s an article from the Guardian that serves as an example of what I’m talking about.

In brackets I’ve suggested what the Democratic Party might do as part of a comprehensive plan:

(1) “The Republican National Committee has allocated $20m so far to oppose Democratic lawsuits across the country seeking to expand voting. [The Democrats could install a centralized team of lawyers to attack the variegated groups bringing these lawsuits across the country? Why are Stacey Abrams and Eric Holder each doing their own separate thing? Why isn’t the Democratic Party deeply involved in this?]

(2) “Republicans are also seeking to recruit up to 50,000 people in 15 key states to serve as poll watchers and challenge the registration of voters they believe are ineligible, according to the New York Times [The Democrats could create their own group of poll watchers, organized and ready to go to combat this. There could be a massive Democratic legal effort mounted to stop this nationwide]. The new effort is the latest in a high-stakes battle over voting laws that has shaped the last two decades in US politics. Republicans have consistently supported voting restrictions citing voter fraud. Democrats have pushed to make it easier to vote, saying the focus on voter fraud is just an excuse Republicans use to disenfranchise certain Americans, particularly students and minorities.”

I’ve talked about innovative alternative approaches and lamented: Where is the Democratic Party’s understanding of the use of such tactics?  Here I’m talking about such alternative tactics as:

K-Pop fans and TikTok teens captured attention these last few weeks for their ingenious online actions. From requesting tickets to a Trump rally with no plans to show up, to taking over white nationalist hashtags to drown out hate speech, all as internet activism?  [The Democratic Party could enlist (and gain respect from) such groups as these teens by applauding them and joining with them to fund and expand the use of such tactics as well as engineering wonderful new ones.]

To give you an idea of what might be done, and to prime the pump so to speak for others to contribute their ideas, here’s another suggestion:

Democrats could start a “Stupid Governor” Project, showing just how pro-Trump governors like Patrick in Texas and DeSantis in Florida have been stupidly following Trump, with the result that their actions have spread the CoronaVirus COVID-19 in their states and ended up creating more cases of the disease, ultimately killing innocent people in those states.  For too long, Democrats have ignored how public opinion about actions of downstream Governors can help to defeat them, as if all that matters is at the last minute running against them at election time. This type of supplemental on-going project could have the ancillary effect of turning voters in these states Democratic at election time.

In short, it’s not too late.  I believe the Democratic Party can become a party that employs powerful new tactics as part of a comprehensive plan to help ensure our goal of holding the House, flipping the Senate and toppling Trump.  We need to get those ideas out to everyone, open our minds to it, and let the creative juices flow so it can become a reality.

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Lawrence Michael Light’s Facebook page has 4800+ friends and discusses the Daily Outrage created by Donald Trump and the Republican Party.  He also created eJobCoach.com to help people find, and get jobs. Previously, he worked for Xerox, IBM, CSC and AGS Software as V.P. of Sales, Marketing and Consulting Services. His email is [email protected].

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1 COMMENT

  1. Thinking you are referring to Dan Patrick, who is the Lieutenant Governor in Texas, and in all candor, is a piece of work all on his own. It was he who thought it would be grand altogether for older folks to take one for the team so the USA could open up. This guy was located here, where I live, and was a sportscaster for WTTG, the ahem, Fox News Station in Washington, DC. Now, in Texas, he foams red at the mouth for Trump and all bad things aimed at us “libruls.”

    • I sometimes type way too fast and meant Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. So maybe we could start a category of “Stupid Lieutenant Governors”, too. But you get my point, I hope.

      • I know. Me too. Fingers moving too fast for me to keep up with them sometimes. Thinking we are so pissed it is fueling our energy and even our rapid typing 🙂

  2. It is not too late, but it night be too much for Dems to do, as their traditional meal-mouthed approach to problems has shown. We are that group under the big tent, and for this, the party movers and shakers are mired in the idea that to try lockstep tactics with the party would be like herding cats, or trying to teach pigs to sing. We saw this with the fear the party had of Bernie Sanders in 2016, when he could have won the election. We saw it this year again with the over cautious approach of Biden and the hesitance to come down hard on slackers during the impeachment hearings. And I agree about always sweetly “inviting” rethugs to do the right thing. Where is San Irvin when we need him? IT’s time to go all out to take back our country from the robber-barons who have worked ceaselessly to restore the gilded age status quo that Roosevelt chipped away at but, without sufficient support on his side, was unable to strengthen to withstand the destructive onslaught of the Reaganites and all rethugs who have followed.

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