Let's Drive!

A cruise through the election wreckage of 2024

The Wednesday before election day, I was headed out of Sacramento, ready to cross the Tower Bridge, when I nearly fell into a Trump vehicle caravan. About twenty trucks, SUVs, and cars – festooned with Trump flags and banners – slowly took the corner at 3^rd Street, onto Capitol Ave, on their way to the appropriately nicknamed Old Sac. The lead MAGA had Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” on repeat, Dee Snider’s bleating punctuated by honking horns. I had a few reactions:

“What assholes.”

“Jesus…”

“How quaint.”

“Will they hurry the fuck up.”

Impatient, I pulled a hard left and exited Sacramento via P Street.

As I wheeled west, over the Yolo Causeway, my irritation started to fade and I started thinking critically:

·       A twenty-automobile caravan seems insignificant, but as a pack, it creates a spectacle of solidarity and support.

·       As annoyed I was over the spectacle, it was a beacon for closet Trump voters, a sign of strength for the wishy-washy, and a tonic for Trump’s troops.

·       The caravan was a constructive way to engage Trump supporters and give them something to do, which, in turn, gives them a stake in the campaign, which makes them work harder and give more. Participation is gold in a number of different ways.

·       I never saw one caravan for Kamala Harris or any other kind of public spectacle that seemed to be organically organized by her supporters, not even in San Francisco. Perhaps there were some – and I am not talking about campaign-organized rallies – but, if so, they were so rote and unremarkable that I didn’t notice, nor did the media.

·       The Harris campaign asked nothing from me other than my vote and my money. They made no attempt to make me feel part of a movement or even a community. I felt like I was expected to vote for Harris, as I was expected to vote for Biden and Clinton. And they wanted my money.

·       I started to resent the Harris campaign for taking me for granted, while shoving some very shitty shit in my face, like the campaign’s unwavering support for Israel’s war on the Palestinians, parading around with some very despicable Republicans, refusing to make wealth and class a central part of the campaign, handwaving issues like queer and trans rights like everything is okay, and so on.

So, this pre-election, pro-Trump, twenty-vehicle caravan through a city where Trump stands no chance in a state where he stands no chance led me from anger and annoyance at Trump and his MAGAs to anger and annoyance at Harris, her campaign, and Democrats in general.

Rather than a quaint and useless spectacle, that caravan accomplished a hell of a lot of things…and it was such a simple thing to do. People, autos, festooning, noise, and drive. Hell, its not like the vehicle caravan is new or unique. Dial up footage of election campaigns in Latin America, Southeast Asia, India and Pakistan, and there’s caravans for candidates and political parties. It is a standard low-tech organizing tool that is easily thrown together and effortlessly carried out.

Trump’s people figured this out some time ago. Aside from some local caravans for local candidates in Latino-majority neighborhoods or cities, Democrats don’t even try.

What Democrats do is look at screens and organize people to look at their screens and send text messages to others to read on their screens. Somewhere inside the party are still people who are stuck in 20^th Century tech optimism, 21^st Century social media hype, and the idea that digital is a replacement for people-to-people contact. I know that the Dems talk a lot about door-knocking, but that’s not what I see happening and it isn’t where I am asked to plug in, and what I perceive is my reality, a reality shared by many people who also feel disconnected from the Democratic Party.

When a campaign’s interaction with the public is perceived as being primarily about sending them money and giving them our votes, and it is conducted mainly through screens, the public gets nothing. So, we are invited to rallies, rallies full of energy, with organizers playing the flesh game for a day; but if everything defaults to the god damn screens, so what. The campaign is just another social media “friend,” which is a frightening distance from true friendship, as we all know, all of us except for the Democratic Party.

The turnout for the 2016 election between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump was 59.3% of the voting-eligible population. In the 2020 contest between Trump and Joe Biden it was 65.5%. Votes are still being counted, but the 2024 total is projected to be 64.5%. That’s only one percentage point less than last time around. But if you look closer at the projections, you see that Trump gained voters – mostly non-voting White men, people that Trump targeted heavily – and Harris lost them – no single demographic much more than others. Why?

Two things dictate voter turnout: Access and enthusiasm. While Republicans try to limit ballot access, Democrats are very good at nullifying their attempts. With 2024, right now, it looks like access played out as usual. Which leaves us enthusiasm, the responsibility of the candidate and campaign and only them.

Trump has always been able to generate enthusiasm. He and his people are also good at making that enthusiasm contagious and funneling it into things that his supporters can do, things like “organically organized” vehicle caravans.

There was no enthusiasm over Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. After Biden dropped out, there was high enthusiasm over Kamala Harris – or the absence of Joe Biden – but it was short-lived, something that Harris’ campaign and Democrats refused to admit, at least in public, and did little to counteract, at least effectively.

Meanwhile, Trump’s people laid into Harris hard and never let up. They had the money. They had social media networks. They have no problem with spreading disinformation and lies. They are experts at framing and perception. And Harris was ripe to be framed – not totally her fault – and ill-prepared to respond. Part of that lack of preparation is that the campaign had directed too many people to screens, which, again, does not create the strong and intimate connections that are needed to cut through digital bullshit and create genuine enthusiasm which also acts as a defensive shield.

Take these organizational failures and add them to Harris and the Democrats’ near silence on class, not just the White Working Class or Working Class, but class, in a society that becomes more and more in tune with class identity and divisions, and where class – coded as “the economy” – is the primary issue for most people. Doubt me?

Go grocery shopping. Look at what your money buys and compare that to what you spent five years ago. Try to figure out how you are going to make it to retirement, if you are able to retire. Hell, think on how tight it’s going to be at the end of the month. Look at how much money the tech barons, Wall Streeters, and hedge funders make. Look at how easy they have it. Look at who speaks strongest about all that: Bernie Sanders, AOC, Donald Trump. Only one of the three was running for president and, even if he is a pig liar, he’s talking the talk. That means a lot in country that pays little attention to politics.  

Ignore the pundits, anti-Trump Republicans, and right-wing Dems who are blaming “left-wing pressure groups” for “making the Democrats” push “trans issues,” and who say that the party needs to shift right. Not only do the same critics always say that the party – win or lose –  must ship right, did any of you hear more than a mention – if that – of trans rights, gay rights, identity politics, defund the police, or any other establishment bogeymen? Didn’t think so.

If you want people to vote for you, you better engage them in a way that they feel like you are listening to them. You better get them out from behind screens and into rooms with other people. You better have something that makes them more than voters and cash machines. You better give some concrete reasons to vote for you, something besides fear of the other guy and what he might do, something that is easily understood and relentlessly messaged. And you better make people so enthusiastic that they will let go of their embarrassment, festoon their cars with campaign crap, and go on a drive.  

Talking about driving: There’s no better driving song than the Modern Lovers’ “Roadrunner.” Don’t argue. That’s a god-given fact. But I’m not going to talk about that. Instead, I’m going to turn you onto this 1978 Top of the Pops special featuring Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers playing live. Enjoy!