Phish Tank wrote:You made good points on 2). Email lists and nonstop targeting is a must.
As for points 5-7:
5) I understand the frustration when it comes to negotiating certain items into a bill. Schumer's a bigger softie than Pelosi on that regard (which is why I mentioned in my previous post how I want more tv hosts and reporters to grill him on being a softie, but are too scared and "protective of their profession" not to do it). However, I had those same issues when it came to impeachment. One thing I'll say is that I talked to my cousin - who works as a legal counsel for a prominent US Senator (and former presidential candidate - I can PM you if you're curious) - that there's a lot more behind the scenes (from grandstanding, et al) that people like myself don't really know (mainly because we're not in DC all the time) which is why things don't always happen the way we want. He made me understand the process a bit more and not to oversimplify things.
6) Yea the Latinx outreach is an interesting quandary in my opinion. To be quite honest, it's a tough area to reconcile because many in the community were not fans of the Obama Administration. I honestly don't know how Biden can win them back, but I understand Bernie because he has the outsider mentality in that regards. But when it comes to Latinx outreach, what campaigns fail to realize is that the Latino population is very different across regions. One approach can't work everywhere.
Agree wholeheartedly with 7)
Definitely interested to hear an inside perspective from someone based in DC. I've heard some cases made for some of the legislative fights going in bad directions but I think there is a layer of convenience or lack of will power involved (watching the NY and NJ political machinery has made that seem like a foregone conclusion locally and I definitely project it federally moreso than have absolute proof of folly).
For 6, I co-sign most of the sentiment except that I think reaching them is easier than you might expect. Trump has been terrible at the Southern border, backed multiple coup attempts (Mexico rumors leaking now too) and his handling of Puerto Rico has some interesting comparables to what's happened with the COVID response (like data manipulation to downplay the pain and response needs). Biden is counting on that being enough, but I think presence is needed. We saw that with the Southern Black vote in the primary and a lot of the "he's been here and talked to the people" logic for Biden support. Building that kind of faith is definitely an uphill battle after Obama sold us out for a majority of his admin but at least there was DACA and an attempt at opening up to Cuba. Those are steps that Biden could try to reaffirm...
The other bit I think is worth mentioning is that there are certain ways we can address specific issues that make a lot of sense. Voters not getting the mail-in ballots they request is an issue where we should probably focus on resources. Provide more resources to hire more people and there won't be so much confusion. It'd also help to not have states where they wait to tally the mail-in votes, just have a rolling count so the results don't take as long and confusion isn't an issue. This sort of stuff is small and not world changing but it does improve efficacy which would in turn improve perception of the steps we could and should be taking as we go forward. So if we drill down to specific types of suppression, we may even be able to pick out some smaller solutions that wouldn't face such dramatic opposition.
