Question of the day: How would one model how much money was spent trying to convince conservatives to vote for the Democratic party, and what would happen if more of it had been spent on Black and Latina organizers?
I'll be upfront: I'm not qualified to do this work. But I'd like to know if anyone is doing it or what the process of inquiry would be. Here's why....
I was on a private panel with a credentialed white political scientist. He said that "the only way" to win the elex and reclaim democracy was to persuade white conservatives to abandon Donald Trump.
I told him I rejected that out of hand because it stripped me of all agency as a Black woman, and I could never wait for anyone to save me.
A lot of money went into persuading white conservatives that doesn't seem to have moved the needle. At the same time, in other private conversations (these are off the record panels of various types), Black/Latina organizers talked about Texas.
They were seen as tilting at windmills and underfunded. I asked who their surprise allies were, and they said establishment political strategists and donors, but only at the last moment.
One woman said: We got tens of millions of dollars late in the game when all we could do was run ads. If we had that early enough to knock on doors, we could have won Texas.
Who is doing what types of analyses that I should be paying attention to... knowing most of those are probably not completed, and the data may not be available.
I'd like to know. Either way, I'm not waiting for anyone to save me. And I think the argument that persuading white conservatives -- or liberals -- is the only way to save democracy is profoundly undermining of democracy itself.
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