One thing I noticed this election, as have all of us who have seen and felt it, was the amount of anger and fear on both sides. Now, fear is difficult to fix, as is anger. But there are ways to use anger to our own advantage. Of course, some of what I'm going to suggest falls dirty tricks territory, but I know democrats do them to, just in less quantity. And most dirty tricks are stupid or hurt those they try to help (stealing lawn signs, electoniering primaries and caucuses, urinating on absentee ballots.... ya know, that stupid stuff). So, why not figure out which help and which hurt... But that's not what I want to talk about today. These are some suggestions for non-illegal dirty tricks.
- The Angry Call Back: Parties purchase voter lists from state auditors and such. So why not purchase a voter list for each party, and call both. One before the election (yours) to get out the vote. And the other (the republicans), after the election, questioning those voters why they didn't vote for candidate X, posing as a 'concerned member of the Republican party'. And to avoid fraud, get a buddy to register as a Republican and do the calling. Thus he really is a Republican who is concerned about their vote. And be real petulant and such. Especially to funadmentalists and social conservatives. Make sure to drop the f-bomb at least once.
- Start the 'Coalition for Growth': Start a 527 or PAC that aims to help republican candidates. Work hard to get the money. And then only use it in districts were it won't matter in swing states. Thus you can get away with saying, "our mailing campaign in Iowa has been seen as an overwhelming success!" when in fact you spent the money sending poorly done photocopies to a few select counties, such as Sioux county which just went 84% for Bush. The people there won't join our side until Jesus pops up and cracks their heads open to put their brains back in himself, as many people I know have described them as. Basically legally waste thousands and millions of the republicans money to constantly reconvert their core fundie base.
- Caucus for Cuck: This one can't be used very often, but can be very effective if it is pulled off. When the republicans have an uncontested primary season ahead of them, take over the Iowa caucuses. This will force a number of us to sit out on our own caucus, so lets hope we have a sane primary calendar when we have the chance to do this. But get a large number of Iowans to switch to the Republicans to caucus for a not the incumbant candidate... like a democratic candidate. In some precincts, a dozen switchers can do this. In others, hundreds might be needed. But if both parties come out of the caucus with the same (democratic) candidate winning both, then that could destabilize the entire republican system. "How could the Iowan'd reject dear leader? Has dear leader failed us?" If we could pull this one off, then it would be an event of historic proportions. And will likely lead to tighter election laws in Iowa or the end of the Iowa caucuses. And as an Iowan, I won't mind so much on the second part.
But let me know what you think. Am I a bastard? Or am I onto something with skirting the system and using the mechanism to our own advantage?