A Little Cloud About the Size of a Man's Hand

 

Finally the seventh time, his servant told him, “I saw a little cloud about the size of a man's hand rising from the sea.” Then Elijah shouted, “Hurry to Ahab and tell him, 'Climb into your chariot and go back home. If you don't hurry, the rain will stop you!' "

--I Kings 18:44-46 

A week or so ago, we published Jack Yordy's report, "Election Excitment," because I take seriously any on-the-ground, in-the-trenches reports on "Democratic performance" upcoming, i.e., enthusiasm for voting and getting other people to vote. "Enthusiasm" can be gauged by registration drives, door-knocking, phone-calling, lit drops, and other voter out-reach -- all of which takes numerous volunteers willing to spend their time on a cause.

I'd like to get more such reports, especially from Democratic parties in Franklin, Nash, Vance, New Hanover, Buncombe, and Cabarrus counties, where the great Chance of 2024 seems to lie, the Democratic goal of breaking the veto-proof Republican majority in both NC House and Senate. I've done some looking at specific county DemsParty websites and their social media presence, and done the inevitable but odorous comparison to the WataugaDems website/media.

Some counties have far more to look at than others -- more info, more evidence of activity, more links for volunteers. Not so surprising that some county parties offer no detailed calendar, or only anemic "events" pages. Watauga's, for example is skimpy and clearly not up to date. Doesn't look like much going on, but here's what you have to realize if you're judging voter enthusiasm by a county party's outward appearance: Some counties, like most certainly Watauga, do not share their ground-game activities outside the bubble of the volunteer base.

Another reason for skimpy info/evidence of life: Most Dem web masters and social media admins are volunteers, whose other lives often limit their daily postings for the Party, or they don't think strategically about PR.

Any county party, especially in this Year of Our Lord 2024, should always have more going on than meets the eye, mainly because of what Party Chair Anderson Clayton (the great) identified as her goal, which ought to be our side's motto: "I don’t want anybody to see me coming." In glaring contrast, we see very clearly the Trump mechanism coming for us, like a D-10 dozer. But we have ways to take the tracks off that  contraption. And we benefit from seeming a mere blur of rainy weather on the distant horizon.