E P I L O G U E

electoral politics. Combs told reporters, �śWe just finished step one�"

getting people engaged. Step two is to build an infrastructure around the people we’ve engaged that will help us continue in our mission to educate people about the power they have.”

If the hip-hop movement learns anything from the 2004 election

it should be that the business of politics is serious. Whereas most of the political activity in hip hop was devoted to rallies, celebrity ap-pearances, and voter registration drives, the two major parties in-

vested enormous resources into what political professionals call the

�śground game.” Both parties understood that despite the millions of

dollars spent on TV ads the diĆłerence between winning and losing

hinged on the ability to enlist an army of paid and unpaid activists to do the real work of politics, identifying and then connecting with real people. Using tactics ranging from knocking on doors to making

phone calls to specific voters the ground game is based on the science and principles of market research. The goal is precision�"identifying a base of voters and then targeting them relentlessly with a message tailored just for them.

According to Republican party consultant Frank Lutz, winning

and losing in electoral politics is driven by emotion, the idea that knowing how voters feel is more important than knowing how they think. Lutz believes, �śHow you feel is something deeper and stronger, and it’s something that’s inside you.” It is this kind if thinking, many believe, that has enabled Republicans to surge past their Democratic opponents. Republicans, simply put, do a better job than Democrats

of exploiting voters’ emotions�"particularly anger and fear. Target-

ing evangelical Christians with a precise message and vision of Amer-ica was a major element in Karl Rove’s strategy for getting George W.

Bush reelected. By making cultural issues like gay rights (gay mar-

riage) and stem cell research (abortion) crucial in the election Re-

publicans managed to tap into a bed of anger and fear that motivated the evangelical community to vote in large numbers, thus providing

a crucial bloc of voters in a tightly contested race.

Before the hip-hop movement can have any real impact in elec-

252