Unmaking the Leviathan Part VI: Ballots, Not Just Beliefs

Philosophy is not enough. Good ideas are not enough. White papers are not enough.

People with good ideas and bad political organizing will almost always be beaten by bad people with good political organizing. What if we were to actually wed our good ideas with good organizing?

We need a powerful political machine that is focused on the right things 24/7, 365 days a year, year-in-and-year out. We should absolutely be seeking political power in the hands of the right people making the right policy decisions. Because you cannot enact the right policy unless you’re in political power. 

This means playing to win—on the ground, at the ballot box, and in the data, focused on the right numbers that lead to numbers. Restoration will not come from speeches alone. Of course people need to be inspired to catch a vision for bringing about change. Absolutely. We must speak to the heart to inspire the hands and feet to go into action. But the hands and feet must go into action to organize for political power. This will require permanent infrastructure: year-in-and-year out voter registration, absentee ballot generation among mid-to-low propensity voters, absentee ballot “chase” programs and early voting mobilization in the election years.

The Florida Republican Party did it. That’s why it’s no longer a swing state. Why? Because for the last six to seven years the GOP inside Florida has been annually investing in voter registration, cleaning voter rolls, doing absentee ballot generation and AB/EV projects in election season. Even through the 2020 elections, Democrats had nearly a six-figure partisan registration advantage over Republicans. Now five years later there are over 1.3 million more Republicans than Democrats in Florida. That didn’t just happen. It was the result of investing enough resources in the right work and it has fundamentally changed the battleground map for Presidential elections.

This is why we need to, before 2028, make Arizona Florida, Nevada into a Florida, Wisconsin, and every battleground state. We have to stop acting like political work is seasonal and every six months before an election. Politics is year-round. So our work must be. We’re up against Progressive zealots who are determined to conform you into their image of “progress.” You must meet their passion with your own. Again, the only way we get back to normal in this country is to beat the Left into unconditional surrender on the political battlefield.