Important!
Dr. Hughes shared this with me after I posed the following hypothetical question to some folks determined to vote for a third-party candidate:
Assume you have 3 candidates. First candidate will kill A, B, and E. Second candidate will kill A, B, C, D, and E. Voting for third candidate, who has no chance of winning, will help candidate #2 win. Explain to C and D why you’re voting for third candidate…
She wrote it for for people who were calling/walking a part of their neighborhood in Natchez, Mississippi, but her reasons for voting Democratic, and urging others to do as well, should be read by anyone who feels like they’re drowning in a sea of red.
– Monsieur d’Nalgar
Why are we doing this when Mississippi is a safe red state?
By Casey Ann Hughes PhD, October 3, 2012
National Reasons
Mississippi’s 6 electoral votes are definitely going to Romney, no matter what we do. Therefore, some people feel like their vote doesn’t count – but it does. It contributes to the popular vote. Even though the popular vote doesn’t have anything to do with who wins (except in very rare circumstances), it has a lot to do with what happens after the election. Let’s assume Obama wins – because the alternative is too scary to contemplate. Then he has to go back and try to work with Congress, and we don’t know if it will continue to be split (most likely), controlled by Republicans (possible) or by Democrats (unlikely). The higher his popular vote, the more power he will have to negotiate. For example, if Obama received 47% of the popular vote in Mississippi, it would scare the dickens out of our Republican members of Congress, and they might think twice about towing the Party line and offending that large a segment of their constituents.
Republicans are well aware that the minority population (which tends to vote Democratic) is growing, and at some point, Mississippi will be blue. That’s why they’re trying to pass all these voter suppression laws all across the country. If Obama gets a strong popular vote, Republicans will assume minorities are growing faster than they thought. They have no idea how many white Democrats there are.
So a strong popular vote may help Obama actually get something done.
State Reasons
You may not be aware that the Republicans totally took over the State during the last election – for the first time since Reconstruction. The House and Senate are both majority Republican. We only have one state wide elected Democrat – Attorney General Jim Hood. As bad as Mississippi it, it’s about to get much worse. It is crucial that we regain some control of the State Legislature and elect more state wide candidates. How do we do this?
We do it through the State Democratic Party, which used to be in a sad state of affairs. However, just this year, there was a big turnover in the people elected to the Executive Committee (I’m one of them). We have a new Executive Director and new officers. There is a LOT of work to be done, but the top priorities are raising money and building a statewide precinct organization. The Adams County Democratic Party, along with other counties across the State, is working hard to develop a strong precinct organization. Of course, I’m trying to make my precinct the best – and a model for others. We have three years before the next state elections, and this is the beginning. We have developed goals for all our precincts in this election, so we’ll be able to measure our success.
So those are the two reasons why I am asking you to be a part of the best Democratic Precinct organization in the county – and even the state.
Photo by Bruce Davidson: http://bessemeropinions.blogspot.com/2010/06/time-for-change-in-bessemer.html