If you all will allow me, I'd like to take a break away from our typical discourse of daily events to think about the big picture of party logistics. While working today, I began thinking of the different levels of party activism. They are as follows:
1st Tier - Elected officials, senior aides, paid campaign workers; these are the real movers and shakers of party politics. They are the ones that shape policy and sleep and breathe politics. To call them the most influential group would be a gross understatment.
2nd tier - Party activists. This is the bread and butter Raising Kaine/blog reader. They are educated, opionated, and committed to their causes or candidates. They spend their election days passing out literature and working phone banks, donate a spare $25 dollars here and there to their candidates, and persuade (or harass) their friends into voting.
3rd tier - The educated voter. This is the voter that has partisan preferences and spends their mornings pouring over newspapers for important national events. Either due to other committments or distrust with the political process they do not devote a significant amount of spare time to party activism.
4th tier - The leaners. These are the voters that certainly have partisan preferences but are not well informed on the issues. They vote for each candidate for fairly basic reasons, such as desire for low taxes on the right or for social opportunity on the left. They will vote in most elections unless it is deemed unimportant or they find the candidates unappealing.
5th Tier - The dreaded swing voters. These are the voters that in any given election can vote D or R, or not vote at all. They are the voters that decide every competitive election.
*It should be noted that a 5th tier swing voter could qualify as a 3rd or 4th level voter, but due to a fierce independence they do not devote themselves to either party for a consistent amount of time.
Why do I break down and discuss each group like this? Because I think it should be the long term and never ending goal of the Democratic Party to move individuals up each tier in the party activism pyramid.
By moving swing voters into the leaners category, we broaden our party's appeal.
By moving leaners into the educated voter territory, we expand our base.
By moving educated voters into the activist branch, we give strengthen our grassroots.
By moving activists into the elected official/professional worker branch, we make sure that we have a deep bench for future elections and that our party's leaders are accountable to our party ideals.
I know some Miller trolls out there would like to point out that Webb has jumped into the first tier. The only reason this was allowed to happen is because Webb is an extraordinary candidate and we have a rather weak bench, although our bench is certainly expanding and it is largely depleted due to gerrymandering that limits Virginia Dems to three congressman.
If we keep the goal in mind of constantly expanding our party's strength and appeal, we can regain majority status.
How about you?
I think that one important thing politicians must confront is the complete frustration on the part of many (possibly most) activists that their candidates take the easy way too often. And I think that's the real reason turnout is so low most of the time.
James Webb doesn't (take the easy way). He stands out for his courage to speak up and stand tall. That's something many consultants don't seem to get.