Best of times for both ends of political spectrum, says political author William S. Bike

CHICAGO - March 22, 2015 - PRLog -- Some liberals, progressives, and Democrats are in despair because in November, conservatives not only took Congress, but a majority of statehouses as well. Yet some conservatives, Republicans, and Tea Partiers are in despair because Democrat Barack Obama still is in the White House issuing executive orders and vetoing Republican legislation, and because Democrat Hillary Clinton is the favorite for president in early polling for the 2016 race.

         "The worst of times? No, it's the best of times for people on both ends of the political spectrum," asserts William S. Bike, author of Winning Political Campaigns: A Comprehensive Guide to Electoral Success.

         "There is more interest in politics now than at any time since the 1960s," Bike said. "More Americans, 131.2 million, voted in the 2008 elections than in any other, and at the largest percentage, 63%, since 1968. The smaller 2012 total of 129.2 million was still about seven million more than in 2004."

         That 2008 election "energized young people," Bike said, "and although many of them stayed home in 2010, they came back to re-elect President Obama in 2012. The first-time voters in 2008 and 2012 can be expected to be interested in politics to some degree for the rest of their lives."

         Only a few years ago, the only political television shows "were broadcast in the hangover-recovery hours of Sunday morning," Bike said. "In the 1990s, Fox News brought politics into people's living rooms in prime time, and in the 2000s other cable networks such as MSNBC followed Fox's lead. More radio shows are devoted to politics than ever before. The internet has put thousands of political sites literally at everyone's fingertips and in their pockets on their cell phones."

         The 2008 and 2012 elections "elicited strong interest on both the left and the right," Bike continued. "In 2010 the Tea Party and in 2011 the Occupy Wall Street movement energized Americans who hadn't been active in politics for a long time, or ever.

         "For Democrats and progressives, things have not looked this good since the 1970s," Bike said. "Democrats in the latter part of the first decade of the century won elections in places such as Utah and the Deep South, which would have been unthinkable only a few short years ago."

         Combining the 2008 presidential vote totals for Barack Obama, Ralph Nader, and Cynthia McKinney results in a total of 70.3 million Americans who voted left-of-center—"The most ever," Bike said.

         "National Review magazine predicted in 2000 that if immigration and America's changing ethnic composition proceed at their current pace, the G.O.P. will not win any presidential elections again," Bike recalled. "In 30 years, whites will be a minority in the U.S. while the Hispanic and Asian populations—generally Democratic voters—will double."

         But things are looking good for conservatives, too, Bike said.

         "In the 2008 election, states covering 1,483,702 square miles voted for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, while states covering almost a million more square miles, 2,310,315, went for Republican John McCain, and the electoral map looked about as red in 2012 as well," Bike explained. "That is a lot of Republican territory."

         For Republicans and conservatives, the setbacks of 2008 meant that the party and the movement needed and had opportunities for some fresh ideas and fresh faces, so in came the Tea Party in 2010. "In 2010, Tea Party and Republican candidates won the Congress and many state legislatures and governorships, and they did pretty much just as well in 2014," Bike said.

         "The Tea Partiers only were following history," he added. "After a national Democratic sweep in 1964, the Republican Party needed new faces and new ideas too, and somebody like Ronald Reagan could go from private citizen directly to Governor in 1966, and to viable presidential candidate only two years later."

         No matter where you are on the political spectrum, the key is to have the will to fight and to not listen to the other side. "If you're feeling despair about your party's or ideology's chances, you're doing half of the other side's work for them," Bike said. "If you believe your side is going to lose, you'll be right. If you want your side to win, then work to make that happen."

         A tool for making that happen is Winning Political Campaigns: A Comprehensive Guide to Electoral Success, a how-to e-book providing information on everything a candidate, campaign worker, or activist needs to know to conduct a political race.

         Winning Political Campaigns was written by Bike, an award winning journalist, public relations professional, and political pundit who has appeared on many radio and television broadcasts, including CNN. Seehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhZYkyRx-C4.



         Winning Political Campaigns is available on Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/149191 and Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Political-Campaigns-Comprehensive-ebook/dp/B007U7C31K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1334443628&sr=8-2

         The two previous Denali Press print editions of Winning Political Campaigns were highly acclaimed. "From a practical, political operations standpoint, it is the best book out, yet," said reviewer Hank Landa of Political Book Reviews.

         Winning Political Campaigns "provides essential tools, practical pointers, and valuable advice about running campaigns successfully," writes Fran Ulmer, former Lieutenant Governor of Alaska.

         Covering everything from advertising to building alliances, proper business practices, campaign literature, candidate behavior, media, voter contact, debating, fundraising, strategy, and more, Winning Political Campaigns is extremelythorough and detailed, yet easy to use. Real-life examples are drawn not only form the political world, but from the worlds of sport, higher education, history, and more.

         For more information, contact Central Park Communications at (773) 229-0024 orhttp://www.centralparkcommunications.com.