Last year was a great election… well for some of my friends it was a great election. I spent the evening at the Ramada in Topeka with my other political friends who all lost their jobs that night. That night I went back and forth between the bar, the diner, our swanky room, and whoring myself to media to talk about young voters and everywhere I had a conversation with someone where they said “man… we just can’t be stopped!” My response then was: “Yeah… if we don’t screw it up…”
Democratic opinion nationally has shrunk to a pretty sad state. When the President rang in a new administration he pledged to work with both sides… bring everyone together … clean up Washington… change the way things are being done.
Anyone who has spent the last 8 years watching Kansas politics knows bringing people together is a pipe dream. No disrespect to the White House or to the Democratic Party, but what you learn when you watch heartland politics is that when the GOP sets its compass to north it doesn’t matter which way you turn they’ll always say its north.
I watched the battle over the stimulus package and shook my head. The Democrats made so many concessions the result was everyone came together in a warm and fuzzy bipartisan way that the GOP voted against.
In the words of George Bush… “Fool me can’t get fooled again…”
Democrats aren’t getting a bad wrap because they aren’t moderate enough, they’re getting a bad wrap because they’re breaking their promises to us and they’re allowing the GOP to run the message machine.
One of the biggest problems I saw with the way Nancy Boyda ran her campaign in the Kansas 2nd was that she ran as an incumbent in 2008. Many democrats who get elected run that way… Push a lot of legislation, bring a lot of money back to the district, help a lot of people, come back to the district all the time, yada yada.. Its all well and good, but the way you run a legislative office isn’t the way you run a campaign… and the way you run a campaign isn’t the way you run a legislative office. If you want to win, you can’t stop running until you can make it through the tough elections. For Boyda that was going to be a Presidential Election Year… for Obama and the other Democrats that’s going to be the Midterms.
Tonight AC360 brought this up and the talking heads said that traditionally young voters and African American voters – who elected Obama don’t typically show up in midterm elections. If you actually look at the 2006 percentages more 18-29 year olds voted than 65+ voters …. but beyond that I have to say if you build it… they will come.
Here’s another “I told you so…” only it’ll be in advance, and I challenge you to prove me wrong. If the Democratic Party doesn’t do outreach to the young voters in their district, they will lose.
Kansas is in a unique position to do youth outreach. In the 4 years between the last presidential elections Kansas went from red to blue with one demographic… here’s a hint… it wasn’t seniors. Doesn’t it seem like a good idea to get out the vote for the most democratic voters in your state?? Yet the one constant I hear from the Kansas democratic establishment is how very little young people in Kansas matter. If Democrats want to do well in 2010 I suggest they begin an investment today. Whether through leadership, mentorship, financially, buy a tighter fitting cardigan, or otherwise …. afterall your future depends on it.
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