New Orleans In a tradition going back to her high school days, when everything comes together, we lure our daughter and sometimes our son over on one early morning every week when I’m in town to have a cup of coffee with us and a catch-up. The usual family topics were covered of course, including who would be watching whose dog when, how to navigate the Costco card, where there DEI commitment is moving us over big time, who is using the trailer when, how many pipes were broken in the New Orleans snowbanks recently, and similar subjects.
Today, the political conversation was triggered by our daughter. She and her friends have been talking a lot in the wake of Trump II. They are disturbed by the decrease in the Democratic vote. They know how devilishly difficult it is in the South to get a third party going. Fusion for the most part is blocked as well, so the Working Family Party option is less available. Nonetheless, they see an opportunity – and an urgent need – to mobilize millennials and GenZ folks to meet the moment. What could be done?
One idea she was kicking around that is still very much in formation is something I labelled as trying to assemble a “voting bloc.” Using their network of friends, acquaintances, allies, and more, as well as social media, they might be able to get a bunch of people to subscribe to a platform or set of principles who committed to vote for candidates that were willing to agree to uphold and advance those positions. Using “count-on-me’s” or something similar where their folks would sign something saying they would vote for candidates who agreed with their platform, they could attempt to organize a block of like-minded voters. With enough people making such pledges, they could easily convince candidates to appear before them in some organized forums or rallies. Once they made decisions, they could put out a slate to try to recruit others under their banner. If they were able to get a significant number of people to agree to vote collectively, and I’m thinking anywhere between 1000 at the low and 5000 at the top side, they could make a difference with their votes and their endorsements.
None of this would be easy. Getting the pledges might be the easiest. That’s a straightforward organizing problem where they would be engineering enough folks to recruit and deliver numbers from their networks, and getting it done. The harder piece might be building a big enough tent to pull everyone under on the issues, while making sure it was still broad enough to recruit and win candidate commitments, while still allowing them the ability to also appeal to the general public as well. Some of the hot button issues for millennials and GenZ might seem obvious within their constituency, but have now been polarized by others to such extremes that it might narrow some of their runway.
Who knows? It was an early morning wakeup call. Maybe I was too far on the sidelines or in the bunkers to be thinking about how first responders should meet the current political disasters. Assembling new voting blocs, here and elsewhere around the country, among voters being horrified by the radicalism of Trump II, might just be the path forward we all should travel.