The left is having a sad day after losing in Georgia despite the $23 million that was squandered to buy an election for a lefty rich kid from outside a Republican district.
At the Washington Post, where democracy drowns in its own hateful saliva, the lesson is that Ossoff was just too "civil".
How do you get more civil than "Make Trump Furious"? And what better template is there for winning, what was supposed to be a stealth election in a basically Republican district than a lack of civility.
Here's the actual lesson. The Bay Area poured a fortune into a special election in another state without having a clue about the district. Its bright boys and girls poured their anger into organizing. And it backfired.
The Ossoff gang decided that the path to victory lay in targeting the demographics most likely to go for him. That was reasonable. But it meant non-stop door knocking on the homes of parents trying to reach their voting age kids.
And having the police called on them by the parents.
Swimming in money, Ossoff's people quickly managed to get themselves hated. National lefty media types poked fun at the anti-Ossoff ad showing lefty riots and San Francisco. They never really get it. Local voters felt like these same types of people were invading and harassing them with the Ossoff push. They even alienated their own target demographic.
"I have received non-stop calls, texts emails for two months solid. It's harassment honestly," local artist Sydney Daniel told Business Insider. "I liked Ossoff before but now I don't want to vote at all because of how obnoxious and ruthless they have been."
"Phone Calls, junk mail, emails, and guys coming up to my door banging for a vote," Rebecca Honness, a lifelong resident of the district, said as she described the aggressive campaigning. "That was truly scary... having someone knock on my door about an election. ... I've never had that happen before."
Monet Jackson, a local car saleswoman, said she's been inundated with campaign materials.
"I've had mail coming to my apartment door almost every day last week," Jackson told Business Insider. "Received multiple texts and phone calls to see if I've voted. I voted and still received a text the next day to see if I had voted."
This is what happens when you give a campaign a lot of money, but have no clue about the district. The aggressive GOTV tactics backfire.
Hunter Murphy, a local car technician said he sees election materials "everywhere" and described the ads as "downright childish."
Murphy's criticism of the election echoed what many told Business Insider — that not only the volume, but the nature of the election has tried their patience.
"I see ads nonstop," Murphy said. "My favorite one to hate is an ad that is done in a sort of lifestyles of the rich and famous parody, complete with shoddy Photoshop animations. It contains no information about the candidate whose campaign is attacking the other, and comes off as a high school prank meant to embarrass. And I get to see it multiple times a day."
That was a DCCC ad. Its goal was to make voters hate Handel. Instead it made them hate the DCCC.
For Daniel Lim, a local student, the ads are repetitive yet confusing. After a deluge of calls, targeted ads on music streaming services, and outreach from separate organizations, Lim questioned the tactics and money spent.
"I support Jon Ossoff but I definitely think that a more coordinated marketing campaign could have saved a lot of the campaign's money and time," he told Business Insider.
Sure, but it was as much about getting paid as anything else.
The special election boondoggle took liberal donors for a ride. It's delivered nothing but defeats and infuriated activists. But it funneled money to the right people. Meanwhile the Bay Area backers have discovered yet again that they can't just buy an election and that the organizing tactics that the activist left loves can easily backfire.