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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSo Here's A Weird Idea... 2016/2018... No Matter Who The 2016 Candidate Is...
What I mean by that... is to use a Presidential Election Year to get commitments to turn out for the following Mid-Terms.
Get every Democratic contender of every stripe to put 2016/2018 at the end of every ad, the bottom of every lawn sing, and bumper sticker.
And have an ad campaign, not for any particular candidate, but for the party as a whole.
The point being that we are all tired of a step forward, to be countered by a step or two back...
We have a great Democratic turn-out during Presidential Elections, and fall flat during mid-terms.
Now if we were to do this, the GOP would scream bloody murder, and accuse us of not seeking bi-partisan solutions...
But that's easily proven wrong.
The biggest obstacle to bi-partisan-ism has been the GOP over the last couple of decades.
We need to... IMHO...
Hit the GOP over the head with their lying bullshit and get people angry at them in 2016... so we can knee-cap them in 2018.
An Article on point:
The Democrats are getting populist, which is nice. But will it be enough to lure the millions who dont vote to the polls?
Monica Potts - DailyBeast
1/15/15
The Pew survey asked people questions about their overall financial security, including whether theyd ever received food stamps or Medicaid and whether they had retirement savings, and then about political preferences.
The most financially secure participants were strongly Republican, which is no surprise. The least financially secure were much more likely to prefer Democratic policies. That included the mythical white working class, a group liberals have worried about the Democrats losing because of social-justice issues like race and gender relations. Even though white voters overall were more likely to tilt Republican, support for the GOP declines as we move down the income scale, and the poorest whites were more likely to say they liked Democrats better. Will this finally end the myth that the nation is full of poor whites voting against their economic interests?
The least financially secure group was more likely to say that the government should do more to help the needy, which might indicate support for a proposal like Van Hollens. But the bigger problem is that people who were the least financially secure were also the least likely to vote. On top of that, few of them ever wrote to their Congressperson or knew much about the current Congress or the current political field.
This is a big group of votersat least 20 percent of Americanswho could be swayed by Democratic policies. Yet both parties leave their votes on the table.
Why might lower-income and lower-wealth Americans be so disengaged? The Pew survey didnt make any claims, but noted that the least financially secure surveyed were less ideologically consistent than the better-off participants, so maybe they dont strongly identify with a party and that keeps them from feeling moved to vote. Indeed, the least well off were more likely to say they had no preference between the Democratic and Republican candidates in the 2014 elections.
It could also be that, until now, the Democratic Party seemed as friendly to the big banks at times as the Republicans. See above: Warren challenging Obamas Treasury nominee for being a Wall Streeter.
I think this group doesnt see Democrats doing much to enhance their economic security. Even these voters know the game is rigged against them and dont seen many politicians of either party rising to be their champion. Democrats seem ready to cede lots of ground on policies that will hit Americans with the lowest incomes the hardest, like raising the Social Security retirement age and cutting benefits.
The lives of low-income, financially insecure Americans are busy, insecure ones. They are less likely to be well educated and more likely to have a disability that keeps them from working full time. They are more likely to be women who have never been married, which means many are overwhelmed single mothers. The least well-off financially likely includes men who have spent some time in the criminal justice system, which means they are literally disenfranchised or believe they cannot vote even if they live in a state where they could.
More: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/15/how-the-democrats-could-win-every-election.html#
Does this make any sense ???
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)in this context: Learned helplessness. People on the bottom have learned over time that nothing they do matters much to their welfare. They get a job, their kid gets sick. They start in vocational training but can't get a babysitter & their car dies. They vote, nothing changes. They become apathetic and withdrawn.
That's what you have to battle.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)was in some measure the result of all those who got out for Obama in 2008 just not seeing anything happen in the next 2 years. You can argue about the realities of those 2 years, but those subtleties are lost on the marginal voters.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)until Obama's lame-duck phase.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)... Dems try to make government work.
So they seek compromise because if they simply allow the GOP to shut everything down, the government ceases to function, which again, is the GOP goal.
The dems are stuck.
They can do nothing, which is what the GOP wants. Or, they can try to govern imperfectly, which pisses off the dem base.
To make the dem base happy, the dems have to do what the GOP wants most, nothing.
djean111
(14,255 posts)it might be, you know, bad for American people. The actual electorate seems to become invisible, once all the politicians get to DC and immediately start running for the next election. And I don't think the words "Dem base" have much meaning any more, really, since being a Lefty or a liberal or a Progressive is now different from being the base, just some sort of fringe group now.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)Any good thing the Dems do, will also end up including something we don't like.
Given the current make up of the country, the only way this gets better is if Dem vote in huge numbers.
When Dems stay home, or bemoan each and every step forward because it isn't 2 steps forward, it doesn't help.
djean111
(14,255 posts)Anyway, I figure the TPP and TTIP and other agreements will pretty much finish off the middle class, and it will be pointless to even pay attention.
And that may be why Dems do not turn out in huge numbers. I don't think Obama is doing - or not doing - anything he is unhappy with, anyway.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)to keep at it during the mid-terms.
Cosmic Kitten
(3,498 posts)A Democratic Tilt, Undercut by Low Participation
January 8, 2015
Financial security is strongly correlated with nearly every measure of political engagement. For example, in 2014, almost all of the most financially secure Americans (94%) said they were registered to vote, while only about half (54%) of the least financially secure were registered. And although 2014 voting records are not yet available, pre-election estimates suggest that 63% of the most financially secure were likely voters last year, compared with just 20% of the least financially secure.
http://www.people-press.org/2015/01/08/the-politics-of-financial-insecurity-a-democratic-tilt-undercut-by-low-participation/
