A recent Bastiat’s Window post (“Electile Dysfunction”) asked why door-to-door presidential campaign canvassers exist in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, where residents are highly knowledgeable (and opinionated) about politics and nearly certain to vote without prompting. I offered two theories, and a friend wrote to offer a third, which I now suspect is the most important answer—especially when amplified by further assumptions.
“Electile Dysfunction” said:
“It is unlikely that a single undecided voter exists within a 50-mile radius of the White House. I live just five miles from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and yet, for mysterious reasons, at each presidential election, dewy-eyed young activists show up at my front door, literature in hand, hoping to present the case for one party’s nominee or the other. I have two theories to explain their motivations:
[1] These youths are naïve and narcissistic enough to believe themselves capable of persuading a DC-area resident to change his or her vote; or
[2] They hold no such delusions and are merely compiling an enemies list—cataloging who should be subjected to lawfare or doxxing once their party assumes power.”
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