The Great Coalescence: You are an influencer
From “Bowling Alone” to coming together to make things better
Kamala Harris filled the North Carolina Greenville Coliseum’s 25,000 seats. WHY?
It’s more than the fact that she’s extremely qualified. She has touched a nerve and ripped open a need … a need common to so many of us who want to hope for a better future, a need to believe in our country, a need to feel like we are part of something bigger and better, and a desire to connect with each other.
We’re tired of hate. Conversations are important.
While the pandemic resulted in the Great Isolation, this election is inviting everyone to participate in the fall festival of democracy … a Great Coalescence of everyone doing something to make things better.
As the graphics below show, conversations with friends, family, associates and neighbors are the most trusted source of information. FFAN Conversations. What you say matters.
Each of us … every one of us is an influencer, whether we’re phone banking, writing post cards, donating, talking to our neighbors, sharing information on social media … or doing nothing … we’re influencing people around us. For too many years now, we’ve let MAGA dominate the conversation, spew their hate and conspiracies and lies. In this election, we’ve been empowered to stand up and fly our flag again. The results of this sea change are amazing.
From USA Today: Taylor Swift encourages 405,999 new registrations
“As of Wednesday evening, a custom URL shared by Swift on her Instagram story that expired after 24 hours had directed 405,999 visitors to vote.gov, according to a spokesperson from the General Services Administration (GSA) speaking to USA TODAY on Thursday.
By comparison, in the week leading up to the debate, from Sep 3-9, 2024, vote.gov received about 30,000 visitors a day.
93 year-old Burt Holmes, founder of QuikTrip in Tulsa, OK, creates a billboard to encourage women to vote Democrat.
Postcard and Phone banking … parties
When I did phone banking in a previous election, it was a frustrating and solitary activity, now people are gathering in phone banking Zoom groups with trainers, cheerleaders and sophisticated dialer systems to make calls where they can share their experiences at the end of the session. I also wrote a lot of postcards at home alone … now people are gathering in groups, again, sharing their experiences.
Thousands of people in special interest groups are joining together in Zoom gatherings to meet and hear their heroes and talk about actions they can take. One of the ones I’ve attended has raised around $5 million … twice!
Axios reports: roughly 67 million people watched former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris' first presidential debate, per Nielsen — a significant uptick from the 51 million that watched the debate between the GOP nominee and President Joe Biden in June. (Although fewer than the 84 million who watched the Hillary Clinton debate with Trump in 2016.) Interestingly, the vast majority of those who watched the debate live on television were over 55.
Although he says he won the debate by a landslide, Trump now refuses to do another debate. (Note: the Harris/Walz campaign received $47 million in donations in the day after the debate.)
Other Voices:
Citizen journalist, George Cummings reminds us in his newsletter What Did Joe Biden Do Today? that President Biden marked the 30th Anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) announcing $690 million of funding.
Dan Rather on the debate: ‘Tip of the Stetson to ABC News and moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis for fact-checking (some of) Trump’s lies in real time. But (and maybe not a small thing) Trump got five more minutes of air time than Harris. On the other hand, it gave Trump more time to flail about.’
Irrelevant but interesting: HuffPost reports “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was seen Tuesday coming to the rescue of a congressional staffer who needed help jump-starting his car’s battery after it died outside the U.S. Capitol.”
Down Ballot Race: Jon Tester, Montana
Jon Tester, three-term Democrat Senator from Montana is being challenged by Republican Tim Sheehy who is backed by Mitch McConnell and $90 million from big money donors. This race could flip the Senate red. Here’s how you could help … phone bank or write postcards for Montana or donate.
If you love Pete and want ideas about how you can get involved in this historic election, join this call.
Doing something. The small step of participation deposits hope into our account for the future. How fortunate we are to have a solid candidate who inspires action.
I shared your excellent resources with a friend who feels hemmed in with red neighbors.