{"id":172,"date":"2012-11-27T22:33:55","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T22:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dave0.nfshost.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2012\/11\/27\/does-cash-rule-everything-around-me\/"},"modified":"2012-11-27T22:33:55","modified_gmt":"2012-11-27T22:33:55","slug":"does-cash-rule-everything-around-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2012\/11\/does-cash-rule-everything-around-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Cash Rule Everything Around Me?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sorry for the late heads-up; we were traveling for Thanksgiving, and I’ve since had a congested baby (which is, bar none, the *worst* kind). At any rate, I continue to write a monthly column for the Ann Arbor Chronicle<\/i>. This time around I talk about why I voted for Obama, how he expanded the electorate, if you can buy an election, and what we should maybe consider focusing on at the ballot box (*hint*: It isn’t just the economy).
\nThe Ann Arbor Chronicle | In it for the Money: C.R.E.A.M.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n. . .
\nPerhaps what\u2019s most emblematic of the progress embodied by the Obama\u2019s re-election is how he pulled it off. Often elections seem to focus almost exclusively on first solidifying support among the party faithful, and then with wooing \u201cindependents\u201d (i.e., registered voters who show no party affiliation). What was extra-special about the Obama Campaign \u2013 and resulted in both a tidy majority in the popular vote and pretty stunning chunk of the Electoral College [5] \u2013 was how deeply it focused on expanding the electorate instead of wooing the independents. The campaign sought out citizens who were likely to support the president but had never voted before, and brought them into the conversation. From a marketing perspective, this is an entirely different activity from traditional campaigning, because you aren\u2019t seeking to shift an existing behavior (\u201cBuy Coke instead of Pepsi!\u201d) but to create a new behavior (\u201cGo to the gym instead of standing around drinking pop!\u201d)
\nSo, that\u2019s one last nudge away from sanctioning bigotry and assisting persecution: Bringing the disenfranchised into the national conversation. I can think of nothing that better exemplifies what our democracy should be about than dropping millions of dollars on convincing people who don\u2019t think their voice is valid or valuable that they need to join the conversation.
\nIn the days following the election, as I heard both the Romney\/Ryan campaign and Mitt Romney himself bemoaning \u2013 and even demonizing \u2013 this project of expanding the electorate, I was left to wonder what the hell country he thought we were living in. Just to review some basic American Civics: If you\u2019re running for an elected position in a democracy and your opponent can rally more citizens who agree with his views than yours, it\u2019s your views that are fucked up, not the People.
\n. . .\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sorry for the late heads-up; we were traveling for Thanksgiving, and I’ve since had a congested baby (which is, bar none, the *worst* kind). At any rate, I continue to write a monthly column for the Ann Arbor Chronicle. This time around I talk about why I voted for Obama, how he expanded the electorate, … Continue reading “Does Cash Rule Everything Around Me?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_share_on_mastodon":"1"},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}