By Nick Rabkin
Welcome!
This is the first edition of a column for deep canvassers and allies in Jefferson County. We’re off to a great start, but this is challenging work. The folks we talk with are fire hosed with MAGA messages and biased coverage of Democrats here in Wisconsin and nationally. This will be a place, where we collect stories of success and surprise, reflect and improve our ability to engage people at the doors, and to win hearts and minds. This will be a place where we can report on what “works” and what we need to work on, access thoughtful advice from national experts on the status of the race and how to frame our discussion of the issues. We hope you’ll find it interesting and useful.
The Elephant in the Room
We all hoped Joe Biden would throw a knockout punch in the debate last week, and we were more than a little upset he didn’t. Trump buried him with a torrent of incorrect, irrelevant, idiotic, pernicious, hideous, and malign arguments, a debate tactic known as a Gish Gallup. It is hard to defend, and it worked. Biden, not at his best at all, was sometimes reduced to incoherent mumbles. Though he gathered strength over time, the media is now ablaze with stories about replacing him at the top of the ticket.
This is not an election for the faint of heart! But let’s remember: since the Dobbs decision two years ago, Democrats have been building the strongest grassroots organizations across the country (like ours in Jefferson County), and overperforming and winning elections, while the MAGAs have consistently underperformed. Most recent polls show Trump’s lead has shriveled. A Morning Consult poll, taken after the debate, shows Biden gaining a point and taking a small lead since their poll a week earlier. Biden may have “lost” the debate in most voters’ views, but an Ipsos poll of the same voters before and after the debate showed no change in their intentions.
In addition to voter suppression, Trump’s best hope is to scare us, convince us that we’re fighting for a lost cause. He hopes to stall our momentum and crush our hopes. Knowing that is Trump’s goal is our best defense, and deep canvassing has proven to be the single most effective way to change the hearts and minds of people who may disagree with us. That’s what we need to do in Jefferson County and across Wisconsin now. If the debate proved nothing else, Joe Biden will only win in November if we don’t write him off. Let’s grow our effort! Who can you invite to join it?
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