ACT Didn't Fail... Kerry Did.
According to Farhad Manjoo 2004 was supposed to be the year of the activist. Activist groups like ACT and other third-party movements were supposed to team together with the Kerry campaign and defeat Bush, only the Kerry campaign did not live up to their end of the bargain. Kerry lost, but ACT and other activist groups managed people to get involved in the democratic process.
ACT successfully managed to engage otherwise non-political people to get involved in the election and successfully turned out many first time voters. Sure some of these non-voters turned voters came out to support Kerry but the fact of the matter was Bush simply had more votes. He won fair and square and that was not the fault of ACT or any other activist group - it was the fault of the Kerry campaign.
Bush inspired volunteers, Kerry asked for money. While ACT tried to tip the political balance in favor of Kerry, there was simply not enough support behind him. I believe that the Kerry campaign was not coordinated enough with these activist groups. The Kerry campaign had a very hard time connecting with the voters because I believe they were asking people the wrong questions.
While ACT and MoveOn.org attempted to get people involved, the people did not vote for Kerry. Bush had more support and made more of a connection with the critical voters in swing states like Ohio. Instead of working together, activist groups and the Kerry campaign were not synchronized. Instead, they acted as separate components and thought each other was handling something like voter registration when neither was.
ACT successfully managed to engage otherwise non-political people to get involved in the election and successfully turned out many first time voters. Sure some of these non-voters turned voters came out to support Kerry but the fact of the matter was Bush simply had more votes. He won fair and square and that was not the fault of ACT or any other activist group - it was the fault of the Kerry campaign.
Bush inspired volunteers, Kerry asked for money. While ACT tried to tip the political balance in favor of Kerry, there was simply not enough support behind him. I believe that the Kerry campaign was not coordinated enough with these activist groups. The Kerry campaign had a very hard time connecting with the voters because I believe they were asking people the wrong questions.
While ACT and MoveOn.org attempted to get people involved, the people did not vote for Kerry. Bush had more support and made more of a connection with the critical voters in swing states like Ohio. Instead of working together, activist groups and the Kerry campaign were not synchronized. Instead, they acted as separate components and thought each other was handling something like voter registration when neither was.
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