Posted on 01/29/2016 10:28:45 PM PST by 20yearsofinternet
The personalized letters target individual Iowa voters and identifies them as having failed to vote in prior elections. They are admonished and then encouraged to vote this year. In addition the letters identify the neighbors of the voter, and provides their voting history.
The text reads:
"You are receiving this election notice because of low expected voter turnout in your area. Your individual voting history as well as your neighbors' are public record. Their scores are published below, and many of them will see your score as well. CAUCUS ON MONDAY TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE and please encourage your neighbors to caucus as well. A follow-up notice may be issued following Monday's caucuses".
In an effort to shame the recipient, the notice also informs the targeted voter their neighbors have also been notified of the recipients poor voting record.
*snip*
(Excerpt) Read more at theconservativetreehouse.com ...
Hmmm, ‘nasty and ‘creepy and now just ‘creepy’.
Are these the ‘words’ for the day?
“you get more flies with vinegar than sugar”
What attracts the MOST flies is a pile of $hit.
“These types of mailers are nothing new. I think Iâve received similar âvoter alertsâ before. Itâs not worth giving a cheap campaign advertisement so much scrutiny, unless youâre a Trumpkin desperate to smear the biggest threat to your campaign with phony outrage. Since when did these tough-talking Trump fans suddenly become such fragile flowers with such delicate sensibilities? LOL”
It’s amazing that you don’t realize that you continually engage in the same futile shaming, underhanded insinuations that everyone is taking such offense at getting from Cruz. Thank the heavens that you don’t have a database!
However, something has occurred to me from your posts that everyone here should stop and take note of because this is what has been planned, instigated and implemented by a much more vast plan to destroy us than we could ever imagine. Even a good number of people my own age have been swallowed by it.
You, perhaps beyond your control, are a product of decades of conditioning to be just what you are. The shaping of your ideals has been carefully orchestrated by an educational system and a media that have all but stamped out individual responsibility and thought. In their place, allegiance to the hive, the crowd, the hierarchy, and the absolute importance of the approval of the group has become a part of your thought process.
For this reason, you see nothing wrong with “shaming” individuals who don’t or won’t conform, be it with mailings, advertising, education or even dress.
Heads up, all those who have vested interest(children) in this nation’s future. You may not have realized just how much influence has been brought to bear on the malleable while they “learn” in the institutions that teach these opposite of American values.
You, JJ, seem not to realize that your freedom to follow the herd is in no way diminished by a Trump candidacy or even by denigrating remarks about your candidate. But being free to do as your conscience leads you just isn’t enough somehow, nor, it seems, is it for Mr. Cruz. If Cruz can’t stand on his merits without resorting to these smarmy tactics, then he isn’t much but is rather an example of just how far this nation has fallen and why.
BTW, my outrage isn’t phony. It’s from a person who grew up in a much different climate and atmosphere in America than the one that would foster Cruz and his mailers. My Dad would have blasted the ears of anyone who even dared to ask him what his politics were much less get the information on the sly and tell it to the neighbors. I’m glad he’s not here to see this.
The narrative of the Trump folks is to shame people into supporting Cruz. Standard ad homonym attack practices, just like Trump himself does.
You get a few really loud people screaming about he some thing in unison and then it seems like “everyone” is saying the same thing.
We are talking about arguably the most conservative person to run for President since Ronald Reagan, and the Trump people are at the point they are ready to litterally crucify him. Possibly on 5th avenue...
You have them screaming bloody murder that long time fighters to the conservative cause are somehow elitists part of the establishment, since they dare not like wannabe Emperor Trump.
What’s truly amazing is they say this, when their candidate has a VERY long record and history of supporting the policies of the establishment both in public discourse, written works, and campaign donations.
Quite disingenuous if you ask me...
Again with the shaming. What is it with you?
No it doesn't. With that kind of approach Trump would have been bankrupt on his first development unable to sell a single condo.
Cruz just called every voter a loser!
“So you are looking up the voting records of random people you meet on the sidewalk and stuff like that....no wonder you have no problem with this mailer. I gotta ask...how many cats in the house?’
I first read about the “cat theory” right here on FR. Upon much reflection and considering some people I know personally, I’ll have to reluctantly concede there must be something to it. Thanks for the laugh.
Haha they do ask on the US census if there is a dog in the house.
Okay...by contrast, I can't imagine a single thing done by Trump's people not planned and approved by Trump.
One of the best results of a primary campaign season is that it shows who can run a campaign...IE, hire good people and monitor what they do.
Fail.
Wow Jedi! I’m getting really, really curious about you.
You are lost.
Dreadful...
You see, that is your problem. State it even more loudly how "conservative" Cruz is. So what? What do I get from arguably the most conservative president since RR? What does the brand mean? What does Cruz stand for? What will he do? Be conservative?
Trump is talking about DOING and you are talking about BEING. Yawn. Wake us up when you have something real to say about something that interests me.
I predict we will hear. . . CRICKETS.
UPDATE 5:00am: It looks like Howie might have found the culprit within the Ted Cruz campaign. A guy named Christopher Larimer works for Ted Cruz, and previously put a stunt like this together in Alaska. As outlined in a 2014 PBS article:
[...] “Why would they think that shaming would make people comply?”
Because, well, it does. That’s according to Chris Larimer, associate professor of political science at the University of Northern Iowa. And he’s done the research to prove it.
“We found that when you make people aware of the norm of voting and that somebody else is going to observe whether or not you vote, people are more likely then to vote,” he said.
The letter from the so-called Alaska State Voter Project is nearly identical, word for word, to one that Larimer and other researchers tested in Michigan, right down to the typography and punctuation. In that 2006 research, Larimer and colleagues sent voters one of four different letters.
The softest message just urged people to do their civic duty and vote. The most aggressive letter matched the Alaska mailer. It included the addressee’s voting history as well as those of their neighbors, and contained something of a threat by promising a follow-up letter to show the results of the upcoming election. Larimer says they got complaints, but the technique worked quite well. (read more)
That emboldened segment describes the current Cruz Campaign mailer 100%. Also, Chris Larimer is noted in this recent Texas Tribune article about the controversial debate:
[...] For Cruz, the No. 2 candidate in many polls, Trump’s snub could make him the center of action at the Iowa Events Center, a role that comes with both risks and rewards.
“If Trump’s not there, it affects the strategy other candidates take toward Cruz,” said Christopher Larimer, a political science professor at the University of Northern Iowa. “Do they treat Cruz like the frontrunner, or do they talk about Trump?”
At the same time, Larimer added, the debate could be a “lost opportunity” for Cruz to challenge Trump on his conservative credentials in what’s likely their last meeting before the caucuses. (read more)
Looks like another one of those ever brilliant political consultant types sold the Cruz campaign on a version of their already extensive “psychographic analytics”. Wouldn’t be surprised if billionaire Phd Robert Mercer, via Cambridge Analytica targeting - isn’t involved in the engineering of this too.
By all accounts, Cruz has a phenominal ground game in Iowa. I don’t understand this tactic. It’s absurd, obnoxious, and antagonistic.
Bingo1 Cruz is supposed to run a country and he cannot run a campaign. But he IS conservative - whatever that means.
Because nothing says happy warrior like a shaming letter. LOL!
Ugh. phenomenal.
nice. good move by DT.
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