The Ground Game

I generally find thoughts that are preceded by the phrase "In ____, as in football ..." to be unpersuasive, but here's one that's true:

In politics, as in football, the key to success is a good ground game. The "ground game" here is the last-minute, grass roots, get-out-the-vote effort that has been a fundamental part of electoral politics since our country was founded: you can't win if you don't get your voters to the polls. George Washington inspired his voters with free food and sour mash whiskey. Al Gore's GOTV effort allowed him to come back from a 13 point deficit to win the 2000 popular vote. Karl Rove saw the success of Gore's project and started the RNC's "72-hour project," which assured a Republican sweep in the 2002 midterms.

You know Karl has his eyes on this again - that's why he's sponsored such a concerted effort (e.g. the RNC's contract with Sproul & Assoc., Jeb Bush's felon list shenanigans, etc.) to suppress Democratic turnout in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada, Oregon, etc.

At this point in the election cycle, there is nothing more important than the ground game. And the ground game is all about volunteer effort. Wherever you live, there is an important election, and there is a campaign or GOTV group that can and will use your help. Do it. Join a phone bank, volunteer to drive people, stand on the street corner and ask people to vote .... This is not just a big deal - at this point, it's the whole deal. Call your local Kerry campaign office, call your local congressional candidate's campaign office, call your state's senatorial candidate's campaign's office, call your alderman, call MoveOn, it doesn't matter which.

Do it.

It's not too much to say that the fate of the free world is literally riding on people like us, and whether we're willing to get out and do this one small thing.