This Thanksgiving, don't have a political argument, have a "structured organizing conversation"

Union organizers don't have arguments with workers, they have "structured organizing conversations" -- conversations in which the organizer asks someone to think about what change they want to see, what the obstacles to that change are, and then asks them to think about whether that change will come about unless they form a union.

There's a Thanksgiving political version of this, too. Your relations who are contemplating neoliberal or centrist Democrats -- or even Trump -- for president in 2020 are doubtless upset with how things are going in their lives. Maybe they're one of the 700,000 workers who went unpaid last January thanks to Trump's government shutdowns, or maybe they've seen their medical insurance costs skyrocket even as their coverage shrank, or maybe they despair of ever moving out of their parents' home or finding steady employment at a living wage. Or maybe they're terrified of the looming climate crisis.

A structured organizing conversation with that person -- someone you're already on friendly terms with and are genuinely happy to see and vice-versa -- starts by drawing them out on these concerns, gently redirecting them away from glib answers ("I want a million dollars") and snarky responses ("Me too! Let's go rob the Koch brothers!"). Get them to repeat these concerns several times, going over them in detail.

Next, ask how their issue relates to the platform of each of the candidates, and whether they're likely to get the things most important to them if they vote each one. Directly connect the facts of the person's life with the candidates' promises. Read the rest