Liberal lasses learning to lose and love it!
Liberals learning to listen…so we can lose…the primaries…and win the country!
Yes. This liberal lass would like to learn to lose primaries so I can be a big election big winner. Interested? Join me, please. I am Phonebanking with Swing Left and helping MA Flip PA.
To clarify, where I live (and where you most likely live) Liberals like me (and most likely you) are usually big winners.
Big!
75% of the county I live in voted Democrat in the 2024 presidential election. My congressional rep is Ayanna Pressley, a certified super-lib. I win!
Winning really big!, though, would be getting a Democratic majority in the House. But! In the Pennsylvania Congressional District that will get us super-blues like me (and most likely you) that big win – there are only three voting precincts that lean that far left In PA-7:
One ~1,500 voter slice from each of the little cities: Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown. Please hold those slim slices of hope in your mind when I show you how the counties voted that compromise the whole PA-7 congressional district:
Don’t let that last one scare you: adjust for population. These three counties have about the same square mileage; but, that last county, Carbon, only had 30,000 total voters. Even so, all added up, PA-7 with its 750,000 population had only ~200,000 Kamala voters – that’s less than my tiny MA county.
And, we all know Kamala doesn’t really count as a super-lib. She’s a centrist. I wonder if even in those super-blue slim slices of Allentown, Easton and Bethlehem those voters wanted a centrist, not the full-blown progressive that suits my current neck of the country.
“Just give me someone reasonable to vote for.”
She isn’t registered as Republican or Democrat, which is why she made it onto the Swing Left phonebanking list. We were calling the Allentown independent voters that will decide this election…and the balance of Congress.
“No more of these extremists!”
She said that sentence loud enough to earn an exclamation point.
…so…someone like Kamala? Ms. Harris is my definition of reasonable. In fact, I deem her so good at being reasonable that she has my full permission to call out “extreme” when she sees it:
For example, suppose someone suggests that migrant families… I don’t know… eat dogs…
That is the reasonable reaction to that claim; worry, concern, shocked laughter and calling it what it is, “Talk about extreme.”
I spent my first 20 years in central PA. I learned early that conversations are way way more interesting and influential in both directions if I don’t disagree out-loud. I just listen.
(I disagreed everyone, always. I mean always—a Democrat ≠ super-left-lunatic-level-liberal like me–I am the only one with my views from central PA.)
So, when I heard that MA Flip PA and Swing Left were doing phonebanking in the style that “Ground Truth” trains; I knew how effective these conversations would be.
Just asking open-ended questions like, “Do you like the direction the country is going in?” and waiting more than pair of seconds for a response did get me some very honest answers. This swing voter responded with a fast “No.”
When I asked if she would consider voting for a Democrat:
“Not someone endorsed by Bernie Sanders! A Socialist! Who wants Socialism?!?!”
Inner-mind me: “Me! I do! Please!”
Ground Truth-trained, PA-raised phone me: “So, you definitely are not looking for a Bernie endorsement. What are you looking for?”
Inner-mind me braced for a Trump nod.
Ground Truth-trained, PA-raised phone me waited patiently for this great answer:
“Just give me someone reasonable to vote for.” said with quiet exasperation and a little defeat.
Inner-mind me kvelled: “Great! You must have voted for Kamala!”
Ground Truth-trained, PA-raised me: “Any politicians from the past few years that have spoken about what you care about? In a way that you like?”
Kamala! Obviously!
“No. No one. Not for a decade.”
Inner-mind and outer-body disappointed slump.
Real voice perkiness, “If you have time I would love to hear more about … “
Does that count as a loss?
nope! It’s the beginning of a win! We just need to call her back…
That voter moved her likelihood of voting for a Democrat from a 4 (which was being generous, I bet it was actually a 2) to a 6 by the end of that conversation. Swing Left and MA Flip PA will host more phone banks to that segment of PA-7 voters again before November. Someone else will get her on the phone and listen to her further clarify those two titles, “extreme” and “reasonable”. She has the option to vote for a congressional candidate that aligns with Trump, or one that looks a lot like Ms.Harris. She already applies ‘extreme’ to Trump… and Bernie. ‘Reasonable’ is eluding her right now; however, I predict that a truly open-ended question, from a truly open-minded Ground Truth-trained caller will help her find some of those qualities in a centrist, probably Democratic congressional candidate.
An 8-out-of-10 Dem voter!
This voter and I agree on nothing! Not one idea expressed in our 10 minute conversation got an “agreed” from me. But! a Bernie-basher and super-centrist starting to lightly lean Democrat? This lib will take that as a win!
Voters like her need to talk to you. They need us Libs to listen. And lose…. Small. So all of us can win big!
Sign up for Swing Left’s next phonebank. Forward this to all the fun friends that want to win in November. It’s so possible, and so rewarding in the meantime.