@benroyce@mastodon.social @RegGuy@mstdn.social so much of this is GOTV.

Pointing to AOC or Mamdani or etc hides their campaign’s effort & the complex of processes they successfully ran. We can’t just agree ‘gotta vote’ - that neglects how hard it is get voters out. And how well they executed. Heck, fam in midtown Brooklyn got canvassed 3x this year, and couldn’t recall the last time anyone knocked on their door.

Pointing to Mamdani glosses by how easily media ownership and money can and does crush weaker campaigns. Cori Bush and Omar and Sanders and Dean’s scream and etc…

I grew up in a union town pre-Reagan. Blue county in a red state. And we had pro leaders, call trees, flyers, rallies, pot lucks, letter-writing, sign teams, etc. then calls day-of, aunties driving folks to polls, a known roster per precinct, and then a fun party after. These orgs were union. When unions got nuked by RightToWork and closures/offshoring, the area’s become reddish-purple. Hell, religious wedges mean even the ~15% in unions tend red. Fucking nightmarish.