The November election is existential: if MAGA Republicans win, they will steal the 2024 election to make Donald Trump our dictator.
But Team Blue is not yet mobilizing with the urgency and passion we need to stop MAGA Fascism.
We felt the urgency in 2018 because Trump shocked us every day with a new assault on our fundamental American values - and we created a Blue Wave that elected Democrats everywhere.
We felt the urgency in 2020 because we could not imagine another four years of Trump - and we helped Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by 7 million votes.
So why aren't we mobilizing with urgency this year? I have three theories:
First, thanks to Joe Biden's successful policies, we've returned to our normal lives. We're mostly vaxxed, our businesses and schools have reopened, and we're making up lost time with family and friends. We no longer feel an urgent need to "resist" Trump 24x7x365.
Second, Democratic politics has also returned to "normal" - meaning TV ads which waste vast sums of money to mobilize exactly nobody. And the unrelenting fundraising emails to pay for these useless TV ads have the perverse effect of demobilizing Democratic activists.
Finally, our GOTV methods have become tiring.
- Doorknocks remain the Gold Standard. But few voters are home, and fewer will speak with strangers due to COVID. When we converse we find Biden voters are supportive but not excited to volunteer. And accidental encounters with MAGA Republicans are rarely polite.
- Phone banks are great when an actual voter answers, but few voters under 70 take calls from strangers. Pretty soon we'll give up on phoning altogether.
- Text banks were great when they were new and different, but now they are overused and increasingly ignored.
I think this is why SwipeBlue is catching on as a new and exciting way to GOTV.
SwipeBlue combines the best of two worlds: old-fashioned relational organizing with powerful new digital tech.
- Users match their phone's contact list to the voter file to identify all the Democrats they know - that's relational organizing.
- Users "swipe" each friend to send them a personalized text encouraging them to vote - that's the powerful new digital tech.
We designed SwipeBlue to be fun and easy to use, like Tinder for GOTV. But it's also incredibly powerful because we're mobilizing our Democratic friends who will listen to us.
And we have a lot of Democratic friends! SwipeBlue users average 680 cellphone contacts. And most of our friends are Democrats - that's why we're friends!
In our 2020 pilot, over 10,000 users swiped 36 contacts each for a total of 364,000 relational voter contacts. We proved it works, and kept adding features requested by our users.
So we're aiming higher for 2022: our goal is 100,000 users and 3.6 million relational voter contacts, focusing on swing races at every level: Senate, House, Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, and State Legislator.
The key to our 2022 program is partnerships with Democratic campaigns and PACs, progressive advocacy groups, unions, and grassroots networks who have significant volunteer programs.
And we’re thrilled that DailyKos was our very first partner.
SwipeBlue is especially suited to communities that use cellphones heavily, which include crucial Democratic voters:
- Youth (including high school, college, and working)
- Latinx
- Black
- AAPI
- Gig workers
- Young parents
- Suburban moms
We're keeping SwipeBlue FREE so every Democratic activist can join us and help create the Blue Wave we'll need to stop MAGA Fascism.
Give it a try and share below what you think!
Bob Fertik, President
Democrats.com
