Joe Biden adviser keeps tabs on Buenos Aires: What can an Alabama voter teach Argentina?

Joe Biden was the most voted candidate in the history of United States. He won more votes than Barack obama, What Bill clinton, than any of its predecessors. He is far from exceptional for his charisma and yet Biden ruthlessly dethroned the populista Donald Trump. The Democratic election campaign is now a subject of study for the social sciences. But the avalanche of wills that buried Trump is hiding a secret, an enormous and at the same time artisanal task of one by one convince the millions of Americans who were not part of the electoral system to register and vote.

It is not just an American problem. The search for the reconquest of unbelievers in politics, to reverse the satiety and skepticism that are spreading in society, will be decisive for the next election in Argentina, where the party in power and the opposition were able to reap the disappointments. There is a lesson to be learned from Biden’s rise to power. The Alabama voter can hide an answer for Argentina.

One of the most extraordinary keys to the victory of the Democratic candidate was to obtain votes beyond those who traditionally mobilize to vote, convincing and individualized follow-up work in marginalized communities large cities and the periphery. Vincent watkins did this homework for Biden in states like Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi or Louisiana, in big hopeless slums.

The work in the United States has been about gaining trust in African American and Latin American communities who feel “left out of the conversation,” as the consultant puts it, forgotten by concerns and the agenda. There are parallels. A few weeks ago, Watkins first had contact with Argentine political leaders. The return to personal and direct contact campaigns is a wake-up call for indigenous politics, so fascinated by social media and trolls for their microscopic wars. It’s a shift in the proselytizing paradigm, the certainty that Twitter’s wickedness isn’t the answer to give hope to democracy, to save her from the disbelief of the lack of social advancement and, now also, of vaccines for the privileged.

“We are not talking about campaign messages, spots, advertisements. When mobilizing new voters, rebuild respect and trust. Communication must be sincere. It cannot be seen otherwise. And it has to go both ways. It must be a direct dialogue between politicians and their community. It is the only way. Face to face. There is nothing more important that affects the vote. “From Atlanta, where his company is based, Vincent Watkins lists electoral tools that restore politics to its original character.

In the United States, hundreds of volunteers have come out to urge disbelieving voters to register and vote, in a country where it is not compulsory. What is unique about Watkins is that he historically worked for Republican candidates, such as George bush, or aspiring legislators. But Trump’s policies convinced him to switch to the Democratic side. “Our work on the Biden campaign actually began in June, advising various grassroots groups on how to get voters to rally. Our efforts included activities that covered most of the Southeastern United States, in areas that targeted voters of color, both black and Latino. Of course, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana were the main regions. ” The toughest political work in America has come about where the American dream is a bitter, broken promise. In Argentina, the marginalized are a growing population. Upward mobility has been replaced by decline, after the pandemic rose on recession.

The break with politics

Divorce from politics in the United States dramatically reduced the turnout. About 64% voted in the 2008 election between Barack Obama and John McCain, but the turnout has fallen to an unprecedented level in the past 20 years in the 2016 elections: only 55%. About 100 million people do not participate in the elections. Growing participation was one of Biden’s secret weapons. Georgia, for example, voted Republican 24 years ago. Biden, however, won in major cities across the state. Few countries have changed politically. But the turnout increased in favor of the Democratic candidate. In Atlanta, the capital of the state of Georgia, Biden has passed one million votes. Clinton, in one of his party’s best elections, won about 800,000 people. The same has happened in other urban centers in the region.

Reaching marginalized sectors appears to be one of the historical difficulties of the political groups that now make up the Argentine opposition. It is mainly aimed at the middle class, in a country where poverty has already exceeded 40%. In other words, your audience is reduced. La Cámpora, by case, currently exceeds territorial deployment to any other group. Direct contact, in your community, is a autofeature Menappreciated by a large part of the political forces. And the other limitation is the construction of an own identity, with proposals that feed expectations beyond anti-kirchnerism and anti-macroism, a problem that is expressed in the tensions of the two main political coalitions in Argentina.

He resides another parallel with the United States. “The last one was definitely an anti-Trump election –analiza vincent watkins-. Biden was a candidate in the 2008 primaries where Obama won, and voters weren’t interested in supporting him at the time. But 13 years later, with the impact of Trump’s tenure, the African American community had to get involved. Now Biden has a really big challenge, victory is no guarantee of the vote. Its challenge is how to implement the promised changes, because the community demands immediate results. There is not a lot of patience. “

Rebuild confidence with democracy, face the virulence of populism, restore expectations to the excluded beyond antinomies, overcome the cry; some lessons that sound like a known melody 9000 kilometers distance.

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