The early voting numbers are strong. It seems like Progressive are getting their voters out early. This Houston activist warns us, however. We have not completed our job until we get the last possible voter at 7:00 PM on November 6th, 2018.
Houston Activist Nisha Randle warns against complacency and euphoria
Houston Activist Nisha Randle did not mince her words as to what Progressives must do if they want to win. The mission is clear.
Asked if she was concerned about the outcome of Midterm 2018 given the early vote numbers we are seeing, Nisha, while impressed, was taking nothing for granted. She seemed visibly concerned about complacency.
“I don’t think you need to, ever feel confident about any election,” Nisha Randle said. “I was reading something yesterday that is; you always need to look at it is a 50/50 shot. You vote, and then you go get out the vote. And that’s all we need to be focused on; I mean I see people being obsessed by the numbers coming in every day and the enthusiasm. And that is great. That’s what we want. But we still have voters to talk to and until those polls close on at 7:00 P.M. on November 6th, you still need to be talking to voters.”
Nisha said that she is seeing equal levels of enthusiasm between both Democrats and Republicans on the ground. She said that for the foreseeable future elections are going to be who can turn out their base. She said she has been with the resistance for two years and that it isn’t going to be the resistance that wins the day but getting your voters out.
Nisha believes that we are in a state where no one is persuadable. She is probably right in the short term. We will have to run base elections for the next few cycles. That said it is incumbent upon Progressives to cater their message to the masses to whom their policies provide the most support and positive outcomes. People still ultimately have their self-interest at hand. That Progressives have been inept in the aggregate to sell it is on us.
Nisha agreed that more voters are seeking Progressive values than Conservative values. In that light, all else being equal we should win most elections.
“We have to engage our base, and we have to talk to them,” Nisha said. “And I really believe especially in Texas with our abysmal rates of voting here, a lot of that is is kind of institutionalized and how we think about voting here — because on the Democratic side — because we believe this is a Red State, we don’t talk to voters. There’s like so many votes that are just left on the table just because we don’t think these are our people or they haven’t voted or we don’t know their voting history. But I feel like if we figure out how to engage everybody this is a completely different story.”
Nisha hits the nail on its head. And that is why she along with many activists throughout the country are redoubling their efforts to talk to those who have been ignored for decades.
Here is an important note about the early votes. It is imperative that we ensure this is not just the front-loading of votes. In other words, we must ensure we are searching for new voters and not only getting regular voters to the polls early.
Viewers are encouraged to subscribe and join the conversation for more insightful commentary and to support progressive messages. Together, we can populate the internet with progressive messages that represent the true aspirations of most Americans.
