Longtime reader Alice Marshall wrote a book that anyone doing grassroots politics should have.

Poor and middle class people, the 99%, have no control over their rent

or mortgage, no control over their bank, their utility company, their

insurance company, children’s school, place of employment, or a host of

other institutions that shape their life. Political parties are asking

people to believe that once a year they can go into a booth, press some

buttons, and materially affect their life. Nothing in their experience

in life suggests that this simple act will have real consequences. So

how can party activists at the local level change that?

Non-voters will respond to personal appeals to vote. We saw that in

Fairfax County, which is how it went from a swing jurisdiction to a

solid Democratic one.