Let's Go Viral. Yes, We Can!

Let me be clear about my objectives here. My major objective: I would like the largest possible number of Latter-day Saints to vote for Barack Obama and elect him President of the United States, in November 2008. Given that the President is elected, not by the popular vote, but by the votes of the Electoral College, my sub-objective is the following: I would like the states of Utah and Idaho to deliver their electoral votes to Senator Obama in the 2008 presidential election. (Incidentally, this is something you can help to accomplish, even if you live in Maine or Florida or Hawaii or Alaska, and do not know a soul in Utah or Idaho, as I explain below.)

Yes, I realize that, at first glance, it might seem unlikely that Utah and Idaho would vote Democratic. However, let me invite you to consider some things with me:

• A mere five months ago, it seemed like Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton was a shoe-in for the Democratic nomination. As Senator Clinton’s concession speech proved less than a week ago, much can happen in a few short months. A lot of people—a lot of people—changed their minds, even on some long-held opinions, in the span of just a few months, making Senator Obama the Democratic nominee for President. Now we have just a little under five months to go to the general election. Many more people can change their minds over the next few months; it has happened, and it can happen again.
• Latter-day Saints in Utah and Idaho can see what the policies of the current presidential Administration have done to the country, both domestically and in terms of America's relationship with other nations. What Latter-day Saints in Utah and Idaho suffer from is “the traditions of their fathers,” to use a Book of Mormon phrase. They are used to voting Republican. However, as the Book of Mormon itself demonstrates, people can come to see through the false traditions of their fathers (and mothers). This is going to take work—but it can happen.

So, how can we spread the word about Senator Obama as a viable candidate from an LDS point of view? There are some obvious things that can help a candidate generally: working as a campaign volunteer, contributing funds, and so forth—all good things that I would encourage you to consider. Here, however, I would like to focus on something else. It is my belief that addressing the LDS issues raised by Senator Obama’s candidacy is key to gaining the electoral votes of Utah and Idaho, and may well play a role in gaining the electoral votes of other states where Latter-day Saints form a sizeable minority.

This blog can play a role in addressing those issues in a positive way. Thus, I would suggest that Latter-day Saints can help to further Senator Obama's candidacy by ‘taking this blog viral’ (by which I mean, bring this blog to the largest number of people possible). Herewith, a few suggestions, positive and negative, about how to do this:

• Absolutely, positively, do NOT post anything about this blog on the bulletin boards at your church building. Political announcements simply have no place whatsoever on the walls of an LDS church building. Yes, I know that ‘the other side’ often squeezes in some inappropriate air time, as it were—but we have to walk the higher path here. This is true both for ethical reasons—this is just the right way to operate—and for practical reasons. (Let’s face it: the congregation can hear five messages about how awful ‘the liberals’ are, and hardly anyone will even blink; one single public comment in a church meeting in favor of a Democratic candidate, and someone will complain to the Stake Presidency. I say this only half humorously, at most.)
• Carry around the URL of this blog—“http://MormonsForObamaBlog.blogspot.com/”—written on index cards. As you have conversations with other Latter-day Saints about the Obama campaign, share an index card with them. (Note: You must be careful to write the URL correctly—"MormonsForObamaBlog"—so as to avoid confusing this blog with other blogs that have similar names.)
• Lots of people will be traveling to family gatherings—Fathers Day this weekend, Independence Day or Pioneer Day in July, perhaps other family picnics over the summer—and, if one’s family members happen to be Latter-day Saints, these would be great occasions to share index cards about this blog, if the subject of the Obama campaign comes up. (And how can it not?)
• Although posting such an index card at the church building is inappropriate, there are other places where it would be very appropriate to post some index cards: a bulletin board on a college campus, a laundromat or restaurant or supermarket—anywhere that political announcements are explicitly permitted.
• Send a link to this blog by e-mail to some of your LDS friends and acquaintances. A brief message with the URL above will do just fine. (Of course, you would want to do this from home, not from work.)
• You can send an e-mail from within this blog itself, if you want to send the entire contents of one single post to anyone: I have activated the "send as e-mail" feature for each post on this blog. This means that if you click on the 'envelope' icon at the bottom and to the right of any blog post, you can send that one post by e-mail to anyone you wish. Because most of the posts on this blog are about a specific topic, this is a great way to answer Aunt Jane's or Uncle Bob's question about, for example, "How can we as good Latter-day Saints support a candidate who is against the war?": you can send them the whole post on this topic, if you wish. As the list of posts grow, you will have more topics to send out in response to specific questions.

To reiterate, I receive no personal compensation or reward from this effort. I do not permit advertising on this blog, so directing web traffic here does not bring me any money. I have no relationship, formal or informal, with the Obama campaign, so there's no money for me there, either. I don’t even get ‘status points’ in the world at large, because I am anonymous. This is all for the cause.

Incidentally, I do not wish to leave any readers of this blog with the impression that I am only trying to address LDS voters in Utah and Idaho. Consider this:

1. Every vote for Sen. Obama is important, anywhere in the United States. This is ground truth.
2. Even from the perspective of trying to get LDS votes in Utah and Idaho, the fact of the matter is that the LDS world is small: between 6 and 7 million people in the United States. If there are "six degrees of separation" in the country at large—that is, a chain of six acquaintances between any two people—then certainly there are no more than four or five degrees of separation in the LDS world. Even a Saint in states distant from historic 'Mormon country'—states like Maine, Florida, Hawaii, or Alaska; heck, even a Saint who lives outside the fifty United States altogether—likely knows Saints in Utah or Idaho. You can reach these people.
3. Even if you know not one person in Utah or Idaho, many other Saints you are acquainted with absolutely do know Saints in Utah and Idaho: family, former mission companions, friends from college. Reach the people you know, and they will reach the people you don't know.
   

So, let’s take this blog viral. And, given that we have less than five months to do this, let's get started immediately. By doing so, we can help to gain the votes of Latter-day Saints throughout the United States, which is of course important in any state. In addition, we can gain specifically the electoral votes of Utah, Idaho, and other states with sizeable LDS minorities. Yes, we can!