That critical 3%+1 - political action - what works

L

labgrade

Member In Memoriam
Went to an invite-only political wranglings class put on by our state affiliate w/GOA a couple weeks back. I've had some pretty good dealings with activism & personal meetings with politicians, etc. & thought I was pretty savy to a point.

I was & I wasn't - moreso not.

Won't go into the whole ins & outs of it all but one point stuck in my mind more than any other so I'll pass it on for your information & comments (please).

The manin gist of the class was how a politician thinks & why he/she does, what motivates 'em, etc. & most importantly, how to get what you want out of 'em.

I always though that if you could get the information, the truth, out to enough folks, the whole issue re gun control would be a moot point & we'd sweep away all the bad laws, etc. Pretty naive in many ways.

Politicians react to two simple things: pain & pleasure. They get pleasure from the public "celebrity status" as being a pol, the $s they get to dole out & the power that all weilds + some more stuff.

They get pain out of being publicly (moreso than in provate ;) ) humiliated & more than anything, losing their job = being unelected. In most every instance, their entire driving force is to be re-elected.

Politicians could give a rat's patutity about your views if you are not registered to vote because you cannot un-elect him & who cares what you think.

The masses do not matter one whit in the political make-up & educating the masses is pretty much a waste of time (besides being extremely expensive & time-comsuming).

Your time can much be better spent by working hard on any politician you have access to (a bit about that in a few).

This breakdown is %s of everybody - not %s of the %s, if you catch my drift. & it's not super-accurate - only a "kinda average" across the country & political districts. YMMV. It appears to hold pretty close in most though.

Of all the people in the country (100%), only ~60% are even eligible to vote.

Only ~40% are registered voters.

Only ~24% actually vote.

8% vote the straight Democratic ticket, while ~8% vote the Republican ticket.

Leaving ~8% outstanding with 2% doing the third party bit.

That leaves us with the 6% "undecided" which actually ever swings the deciding vote.

Of that 6%, one only needs half +1 vote (that 3% +1) to elect whomever you want.

Obviously, that "whomever you want" should be one that you have researched (possibly even encouraged to run for election), stand fast for your cause & won't falter.

It is much more effective to put your energy into electing "your guy" (& Ladies, do forgive for the "he, him" stuff - it's just easier than typing he/she. transpose as you see fit.) than it is to attempt to sway, educate, argue, etc. the masses. For one thing, you won't sway them, you won't educate them & to that old quote, " .... & it annoys the pig."

Mobilizing those that already think as you do to get that one person elected is THE singlemost effect tactic.

This class was one of the most eye-opening 8 hrs I've spent in many a year.

Comments, critiques, etc. most welcome.
 
You think "educating the masses" is a waste of time and effort?

The reason we're in this pickle is because the masses have been mis-educated against us. The only way we'll again be secure in our rights is to re-educate enough of them. Otherwise we'll be at the mercy of politicians who are, as you point out, more interested in getting re-elected than doing the right thing.

Yes, it's a lot harder and more expensive than lobbying legislatures and backing one's favorite pretty boy in the bi-annual popularity contest. It's also something that lobbyists have no role in, which is why they always dismiss it when they host these little "political strategy" workshops.

I'm kind of disappointed that GOA played a role in this.

--The Beez
 
Beez,

No disrepect/flames, etc. - all in most reasonable voice ....

Educating the masses is all well & good.

However, they don't count in that they do not vote in your state or federal level to enact laws, etc. The legislators do - they are the ones who make the laws & at them is the most effective place to place pressure to have your biggest bang for the buck.

That was the thrust of the GOA seminar.

If you "control" one out of 100 Senators at the federal level - how many of the "uneducated" does that equate to?

Focusing energy at that one Senator will gain you much more political power than attempting to educate, perhaps, a million ++++ of the "unwashed."

As far as time, money, resources, etc. where do you think one may have the most impact with the least amount of effort, etc. expended?

The labor unions have known this for many years & have worked it to a fine art. They, however use money to pull it off. We don't have to.

As an example (and nothing to approve/disapprove of this group), the homosexual activist have made huge inroads for their cause in the past few years because they have, for the most part, a greater amount of disposable income & time to work theior agenda at the political level. They could care less what the mainstream wants or believes. Nonetheless, look at the gains they have made.

How so?

By working the politicians & who cares what "we" think? Any poll would most likely state that homosexual rights & perks are way down on the list for "what need be done," but still, look at what they've accomplished.

Have you seen any "education campaign?" Not a one I can think of. But they're still getting what they want & they are perhaps 1% (& I'll be way generous & call 'em 5%) of the population.

I was pretty astonished at what went on at the class. However, stepping back & looking at the hard realities of how the political games are played makes much more sense than wishing to believe the way it should be.

One way works while the other doesn't.

& I'll tell ya what. We have "played the game" here in Colorado to some pretty good extent. Two years ago we blew out a sitting county Sheriff who wouldn't issue CCW & replaced him with another Republican who would = sent shock-waves across the state & a huge statement to all else = that if you don't give us what we want = you're history.

We slammed the living $#!+ out of our own Republican Governor at his own state convention & all else took a real hard look at our political activism. All are on notice that if you screw with our rights = you will be replaced. Period.

I'm working 2X Repub hopefuls, for my state level district congress-critter primaries, against each other right now. The best one (what I want) will win. He will represent ~10K voters when he casts his vote for/against legislation in next year's legislative session.

Quite frankly, I could care less what his constituents want, think, believe, feel because he has the only vote & he (that only one with a vote) will be educated by me & mine.

It does take thinking out of the box.
 
I have to disagree with labgrade. Educating the people is very important. After all, they're the ones who vote to put the politicians in office. And they'll continue to send the Clinton's, Gore's and Schumer's to Washington until enough become better informed. The politicians (pols) could care less about your lobbying efforts, unless you've got enough informed voters supporting your position to throw them out of office. There are hundreds of pro-gun lobbyists in Washington, representing dozens of groups. If all it takes is lobbying the pols, why are our 2A rights going straight down the toilet? There has to be enough informed voters in the pol's district or state putting pressure on him with letters, calls and e-mails. The only way to do that is by educating the people.

It's true that some people waste alot of effort by attempting to educate others in a haphazard, unorganized way. The key is organization.

Educating voters and lobbying the politicians are both important and complement each other. It's not an either/or thing. Forum members should find the following links helpful:
http://www.conservativeusa.org http://www.constitutionparty.com http://www.phillips2000.com http://www.jbs.org http://www.thenewamerican.com http://www.trimonline.org http://www.aobs-store.com





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Stop The New World Order!
 
The key is mobilization of those who do feel as you do to get them to pressure that politician.

Sure educating the great unwashed is all well & good (& I do particpate in that as well), but it takes much more time, money & energy to do that en mass as it does to affect just one politician (who does have the vote that counts). That's exactly what those lobbyists are doing on Cap Hill.

& I'll tell y'all one thing. It is so very much more difficult to attempt to sway the "uneducated" our way than it is to not.
Look at the "success" that SAFE has had in CO with this rediculous ballot initiative. & too, the MMMs are on a roll. They've got a big bankroll (which we don't come close to matching but, for the life of me I can't imagine why).

Much easier to push an agenda that says the guvmint will solve your problems than to push for people to take responsibility for their own actions & safety.
 
Mobilization of those who feel as we do is important, but not the key. Especially if there aren't enough people who think like we do to win an election. 2A activists are some of the most mobilized people in the country, but anti-gun politicians continue to be elected and re-elected. The hundreds of pro-gun lobbyists in Washington have been completely unable to stop this.

We must gain enough new converts to the cause to WIN elections. We do not have enough supporters at this time to keep the Clinton-Gore-Schumer types out of office. We must educate and bring in new blood.

We must EDUCATE people so they will UNDERSTAND why they need to take responsibility for their own actions and safety.

Relying only on lobbyists and our current supporters will ensure that we lose our freedoms. New converts must be brought in through organized education efforts.

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Stop The New World Order!

[This message has been edited by Randy B (edited August 06, 2000).]
 
Just saying we need to get pro-2A candidates elected to office is putting the cart before the horse. We need to educate voters first, so they'll go out and elect pro-2A candidates. There are currently not nearly enough voters who are informed enough to put the required number of pro-2A candidates in office. We've only got a handful of staunch supporters in the U.S. House and Senate. Remember that we would have to elect a majority to both houses. With the election only 3 months away, our chances of that are about zero. The great majority of state and county parties around the country, whether Repub or Dem, are controlled by liberals. They will virtually always support the most liberal candidates in the party primaries. The local news media will do the same, while completely ignoring our guys. How are we going to get enough of our supporters elected when they usually can't make it past the primaries?

Please don't think that ol' George Dubya and the current folks in congress will be our saviors. The liberals can attach a totally unrelated bill to any pro-gun bill in order to get ol' George and congressional republicans to oppose it.

Many times I've seen staunch conservatives like Jesse Helms fail to support a good bill because the liberal Senate leadership waved a very choice tobacco subsidy under his nose.

As I said in an earlier post, educating people shouldn't be done with a scatter-gun approach. There has to be organization and planning. Alot of 2A activists are opposed to public education efforts because they haven't done it the right way in the past. We don't have to reach everybody, but we do have to reach ENOUGH. And right now, we haven't reached nearly enough.



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Stop The New World Order!
 
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