Conventional Un-Wisdom: Dirty Hippies Must Fake Being Moderates to Win

Beyond the numbers above, one must further understand the dynamics of cyclical elections on communities. If there is no competitive candidates from one side for a number of cycles, the other side gains ground in both the numbers and the rhetoric projected by the community, inserting strong candidates to counter that for one or more consecutive cycles can neutralize that effect and create a very competitive district where it appeared impossible previously. The numbers can also be overcome with a very emotional action or event, from personal scandal/corruption to a devastating blow to the community like a natural disaster or economic strife.

The long term effects are more pronounced and dangerous – if today’s candidate avoids progressive symbols and rhetoric, they reinforce the negativity of those symbols and positions, making it even harder for the next candidate. If you win eschewing the party, you make your re-election harder and you make it harder for candidates above and below you on the ballot. While you should not blindly support anyone who carries the same party identifier as you, you should support those who share the bulk of your beliefs and you believe to be honorable and decent. In the end it will foster a stronger opportunity for you to effect the changes that motivated you to run in the first place.

In short, be proud of your Dirty Hippie values, speak about them with passion and confidence, and your supporters will step up and do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.  Play the middle like a sissy, and you’ll be all alone election night, feeling like a hooker that took a bad check.

Mario Piscatella is a political consultant with extensive experience campaigning all over the country. In addition to general consulting and strategy, he is focusing on improving the quality of campaigns through training of candidates, staff, surrogates and volunteers.  He is the founder of MPA Political, LLC and does trainings for Democracy for America and other organizations around the country.

Conventional Un-Wisdom #2 published — shar.es/0cgLB #p2 #dem #dfa or read it at mpapolitical.com

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