[statecom-discuss] Re: Good Morning thoughts: Without the Fear Factor-from Grace

[Mike Heichman]

Mike Heichman wrote:

> This was written by Grace on 11-8.
>
> -------------------
>
>>> Without the fear factor, 16%?
>>>
>>> Don’t be disappointed: reading the polls
>>>
>>> Overwhelmingly, the word on the ground was that I was the most 
>>> sensible, the clearest, the most honest and that people liked my 
>>> policies in general the most. And this was true across the political 
>>> spectrum.
>>>
>>> Many people liked Deval Patrick, a fair number liked Healey. A 
>>> number of people just wanted to finally vote for someone who would 
>>> win. A number of people wanted to vote for me but felt they did not 
>>> know enough about me to cast their ballot outside of the familiar 
>>> realm of Democrat and Republican.
>>>
>>> But many, many people voted from fear – they voted ABH (anybody but 
>>> Healey) and ABP (anybody but Patrick). Over and over again, people 
>>> thanked me – for being the voice of reason, for raising the level of 
>>> debate, told me no matter what happened that this race had been 
>>> different, better in some crucial way because I had been there, and 
>>> that they hoped the media especially realized that. And then they 
>>> said “but I cannot vote for you”. Not they “won’t” but they “can’t”. 
>>> Something held the imaginary gun to their head and made it not 
>>> undesirable but emotionally impossible.
>>>
>>> But first, let’s look at the polls. The polling experts in our party 
>>> say that the real measure of my vote was the “down ticket figures” – 
>>> that is the Secretary of State and especially the Treasurer’s race. 
>>> Jill Stein and James O’Keefe garnered 18% and 16% of the vote – in 
>>> two way races without the fear factor.
>>>
>>> They are both brilliant and wonderful people in their own right. 
>>> They were also – very unfairly – almost invisible to the public. 
>>> Everyone who walked into the ballot booth and wanted to vote for me 
>>> but just felt they couldn’t, for sure, looked down the ballot and 
>>> voted our party. Well over 300,000 votes! We got our ballot status 
>>> back in aces! Millions know this party now as legitimate, understand 
>>> that we exist and something of the integrity and values we stand 
>>> for! And as predicted we drew from Republican as well as Democratic 
>>> basses.
>>>
>>> My leadership positioned not just me, but this platform, not just 
>>> our party but hundreds of thousands of people across the state 
>>> already committed to and working on these issues. Use your time now 
>>> to remind the media that my voice was important, that democracy was 
>>> better served by my inclusion -- whether you voted for me or not! 
>>> Tell your friends how to understand the polls and take heart! When 
>>> you talk to legislators and elected officials – point out that I 
>>> stood for your issues and against all the pundits and the fear – I 
>>> got over 2% and that in the races where people were not afraid that 
>>> translated into 16-18%!
>>>
>>> We won the moral victory of raising the level of debate. Don’t ever 
>>> believe that we have to weather the useless, numbing, mud-slinging 
>>> end of a race. My presence and actions pulled them out of the mud – 
>>> and the political analysts I spoke with know it. One strong moral 
>>> voice in the race that understands that it is not just about staying 
>>> out of it but is about standing up against it, can change that.
>>>
>>> We modeled a diversity of leadership that changed perception and 
>>> changed countless lives. Not only a person of color in the corner 
>>> office but a lesbian became the model and moral standard for the 
>>> political discourse in this state. Debate format was altered so a 
>>> person with disabilities could participate and perform beautifully. 
>>> Younger leadership reached younger voters and sparked them. And we 
>>> proved for so many that money while unreasonably powerful is NOT the 
>>> determiner of the best policies or the best and most experienced 
>>> leadership.
>>>
>>> I ran because of the sense of hopelessness and disempowerment I had 
>>> heard on the ground – and those feelings come with a huge 
>>> underground current of fear. These voters who hit the wall of 
>>> impossibility are, no doubt, part of the so many voters whose 
>>> feelings were expressed by three comments that will stick with me 
>>> forever:
>>> “Just, save our jobs!”
>>> “What will you do to let us stay in our own homes?”
>>> And about having messed up our environment, “I am absolutely 
>>> terrified!”
>>> These are the voices and issues that cannot disappear for another 
>>> four years. The voices that must be addressed.
>>>
>>> I showed the courage, so many of us are starving for. I modeled the 
>>> strength and conviction so many want but do not yet feel they can 
>>> have. I reflected back our experience which was refreshing and began 
>>> the process of giving people back their dignity. I reminded people 
>>> of the glory of our history of change for justice when we work 
>>> together. I gave people a concrete sense of what can be done to 
>>> really address our needs. I raised their expectations of leaders and 
>>> what they have a right to dream of and expect to be accomplished by 
>>> their elected leaders.
>>>
>>> My platform represented the majority positions of the people of 
>>> Massachusetts – real universal healthcare, local economic 
>>> development and living wage jobs, fair taxation, bringing home the 
>>> national guard, real safety for women. We must come to believe that 
>>> we are that majority and that we can lead together with all of us to 
>>> create the state we deserve.
>>>
>>> This campaign was a victory in many, many ways, but one campaign 
>>> which so many are hungry for was not enough to both break the glass 
>>> ceiling to the inner circle and shatter that glass wall of fear. But 
>>> a milestone has been reached and we must build from here.
>>>
>>> Dear friend – I share this now, more later when I have had more sleep!
>>>
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>>
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