Translation of excerpts from Robert Heinlein’s book, Take Your Government Back - part 17

And now let's analyze the data characterizing the pre-election situation.

Suppose the congressman we want to replace is not from your party. You may want to change your own party leader as well, but this is not a typical situation. and it’s worthwhile to engage in a party colleague’s advocacy only if there are good reasons. In such a case, first make sure that you accurately imagine the number of its supporters in the district. In addition, try to influence a party colleague by other methods, before nominating a competing candidate. Do not be drawn into the fight just because someone from your environment wanted to get into power. The reasons for internal party rivalry should be, at a minimum, a level of seriousness such as the complete lack of principle of your colleague, or the constant refusal to support party politics.

For simplicity, suppose that there are exactly two candidates from your party, Jack Hope and your candidate, Joe Chestnyag. There are more candidates, but in this case, with this number of votes, you still win the election, so consider the simplest in terms of the number of actors, and at the same time the most difficult to achieve an election victory.

Dividing 13,000 votes into 100 volunteers you have, we find that, on average, each volunteer needs to collect 130 votes. In fact, you need even fewer votes, because in a contest with a party colleague your candidate will share with him the votes of your party’s supporters approximately equally, receiving at least 10,000 votes. Each of your volunteers should have 130 votes. But a hundred of these voters will most likely vote for your candidate in the primaries. Therefore, each of your agitators must find another 30 voters - supporters of your party and ensure their attendance at the elections - perhaps by a simple reminder by phone, and perhaps by their personal delivery to the polling station. This task is simpler: one person for every fifteen voters to be delivered, in order to win elections in a district with a population of a third million people and hold its deputy to Congress, in which it happens that bills are passed by a majority of just one vote ( this was, for example, before Pearl Harbor).

So, as you can see, in essence, it is not difficult to win the election. That is why volunteers can take power in the country, or in any part of it, and manage it as they see it right. If you are one of the agitators, your part of the work is not difficult, just a desire to change your country for the better. If you want to participate in the nomination of candidates, then for success you will need intelligence, diplomacy, and all your best human qualities. But with this work you can cope, it was possible to many.

Candidate Selection

Often the choice of candidates for the nomination is very limited. In our country, people who are ready to work for the good of society are not valued. Payment of this hard work is so ridiculous that an honest person, working in power, suffers a loss. In addition, to our universal shame, rotten eggs and rotten tomatoes fly into it much more often than words of praise for good work. Sensible and active citizens, such as we need in the government, are well aware of this, and very few of them are willing to sacrifice themselves to the public good. It’s happiness that there are such people among us, and only thanks to them our Republic continues to exist.

Surely you will have to convince your chosen candidate to run for the post, because he will not be so keen on the post if he is smart enough to take it. However, if this is a suitable person for the government, then he understands that some of us, in order to maintain democracy, have to give up the natural desire for the inviolability of their personal life, peace of mind and financial security. The motives for such self-denial are the same as those of volunteers who, during a war, put their lives at risk in order to protect their country, but to wake this feeling in a person in peacetime is somewhat more complicated.

Most likely, at first your candidate will behave hesitantly, but will gladly give in to your convictions to run for the elections, because in his heart he believes that his efforts will not be wasted. And you need to visually show him that he can really win the election by demonstrating statistics like the ones above, describing the situation in the constituency, demonstrating the availability of sums in the campaign fund, and future income to it, presenting the campaign budget to it, and introducing with your organization and its members is perhaps the most important. After all, your candidate - not some dupe, and versed in politics. He understands that the main guarantee of success of an election victory is a competent organization of the election campaign. And he will agree to participate in it only if you show him that you can win.

You will be besieged by other candidates: those who want a cavalry assault to get to the elective office, smiling tenderly, beating their fists in the chest, screaming that they are ready to serve the people. These are political losers, whose only desire is to occupy an elective office and receive salary on it. They will find you, and they will bother you like fleas.

You need to handle them diplomatically. First of all, you shouldn’t tell a person’s eyes that you don’t find enough intelligence and strength of character in him to hold a government post. Secondly, you may be mistaken, there have been cases when people who were completely unsuitable at first glance worked successfully for the benefit of society. Therefore, it is better to ask such a candidate: is he ready to refuse to run, if your organization chooses another candidate for nomination. Ensure that he agrees to work in support of the campaign of the selected candidate, and take this agreement in writing. Of course, such an agreement will not have any legal force, but at least it will keep the future applicant from subsequently putting sticks to your wheels. Do not promise him anything, except that he will be allowed to personally nominate his candidacy in a closed meeting devoted to the election of candidates - caucus, unless, of course, he joins it. And the essence of caucus is that no one should participate in it without signing its terms - such is the fair essence of the democratic process.

So if your shouter visitor fails with his nomination, then he will take up arms not on you, but on caucus. And you will quite rightly leave to the members of the caucus, who are much more influential than you, and able to call him to deal with him. Because in its essence, caucus is a kind of contract, and, therefore, must have legal force, although the law does not provide such opportunities. So, you have the right to use any means, even the most brutal, but not beyond, of course, beyond the law. For example, try to convince in this spirit: “You see, Joe, you promised that you would agree with the decision of Caucus, you gave your word. And if now you do not keep it, then your reputation will suffer. And we will make sure that you break the agreement by everyone. If you file a libel suit against us, it will be worse for you, then the publicity will become even wider, everyone will know that you are not keeping your word. This will be the end of your political career and your business will spoil you - no one will deal with a person who does not keep his word. ”

By the way, the candidate you are nominating, like you yourself, will also have to agree to support any candidate nominated by the caucus. This, of course, is not very pleasant, but democracy is a mutual thing. So ask your chosen candidate for a written agreement that he will support candidates from the final party list, and at least once will make a public statement in support of them, and most importantly - in support of his more successful opponent, if he falls into party list instead of him. If your candidate does not sign such an agreement, then this is not the person you need, even if you thought he was a suitable candidate. Do not waste time on individualists who place personal ambitions above common interests.

Pay attention also to the fact that when you bind yourself with the promise to support the candidacy put forward by the caucus, this does not mean that you have pledged to conduct a campaign of a successful candidate. Surely, you are ready to shoulder this heavy burden only for your carefully verified candidate. If you nominate another candidate, then there is nothing wrong with you in refusing to lead the campaign, and return to the work of a regular voter agitator, if you think that the nominee does not suit you. Thus, you will support the party in the elections, keeping your promise, but you will have much less work and it will not be as exhausting as if you yourself were running the election campaign. However, at the same time, you must keep your promise to publicly support the candidacy elected by the caucus, at least at the level of the polling station entrusted to you.

I foresee your doubts and concerns that the commitment you have ever made may force you to choose whether to violate your word, or support an unworthy candidate, in your opinion. It will not happen if you act reasonably. And, first of all, because in politics you act together with your friends and colleagues, right? So - you can rely on them! If this is not the case, then you need to carefully select your political allies.

But suppose all the same, that you are among friends, and some group in your organization has nominated its candidate. You are convinced that the nominee is not suitable for the post in terms of his human qualities, but you cannot prove it. In this case, the applicant is extremely charming, and your loyal party members-friends are fascinated by it. This can happen, and in my practice it happened. Then you need to insist that before accepting the terms of the caucus a list of all nominated candidates is made, and the choice of the caucus is limited to this list, which gives you a chance that until you promise to support the decision of the caucus, you will achieve that not satisfactory you were not included in the list.

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