I like how your post differs from the pessimism of most HN posts when it comes to politics, and how you have a well thought-out strategy i.e. put the emphasis on explicit public goods and for things. Do you have any other examples aside from Medicare for All? I'd be interested in learning more.
Hey, I am way late on all this. Got blitzed and really only have a brief time to put info your way.
People break down into a few types, conditions. To a majority of Americans, there are three big issues most of them will express interest in:
Health Care
Living Wages
Debt, college and or personal.
Vote for is all about positive conversations surrounding those. What CAN we do, and how much sense does it make? it's also about not blaming or shaming or using fear.
Truth is, they feel fear already. They might not make it, or they might lose their house if they get sick. Slapping on something ugly like, "those people are going to make your life worse, unless you vote for X" turns people off big time. That is probably the single largest reason for anti-politics, not voting, the topic being taboo.
Judging people sucks. Scaring the shit out of them sucks, unless the scientists do it. That's OK. People get that.
Shaming them sucks too.
They feel shame because they either work hard, or can't find good work, or something basic, and they struggle. They need help. They don't want to need those things, but they do not know what to do either.
And blaming them? That's a core tenet of positive politics. Senator Sanders does a great job of this. He's worth watching, whether we agree on his policy prescriptions or not. That style of politicking is powerful.
The rest is in my comment.
Now, how to get going on this stuff?
Start local. In your town, there will be common issues. They will work like health care, living wages and debt do nationally. Examples:
Flu Shots
Getting rid of some traffic. (huge in a lot of places)
Parks
Crime
Preserve the landmark.
Land use planning.
By talking to people, you can get a sense of what the local heartbeat is.
Then you contribute and encourage others to do the same. I once was part of a group that got a park made on an old abandoned site. It started with a couple of us realizing there wasn't one to serve the large number of kids in our region. Chatting with other parents didn't take long for consensus and momentum to pick up.
The city had a program for activities like this, and we got into it and got the work done. There is a little park somewhere with my name on it, right along with the core people, and we built the play things, did a lot of the basic work to contribute.
Common public good helps everyone, and it inverts the story. Often, we are being told we need to be concerned about matters that do not impact everyone equally. Couple that with fear, blame and shame, and it's all sort of ugly.
Rather than get sucked into that, it's much better to be about specific mutual good things and work to get them done.
Many issues are not even partisan. The park wasn't, and I found myself in a group with a diverse set of people. A couple of us were told we had to be mortal enemies. We laughed and had beers instead.
Hope this helps.
Specific ideas:
Run for a position in your party. These do not cost you, and you get to go to the party meetings and meet lots of people. It's networking for politics.
Seek out action groups. The better ones are positive, and are looking to get a specific thing done. Same story, networking for politics.
Identify positive candidates, and phone bank, text bank, donate, and all of that. Those people are winning races, and it's over 1/3 now easy. Each one helps dilute the mess we've got going on right now, and replace it with explicit, positive politics.
Have fun. That's no fucking joke. I laugh with my political friends and fellow advocates / activists all the damn time. I won't participate where that is not true.
