Bob Altemeyer says @ 30 percent, similarly How Democracies Die authors also say @ 30 percent. But really whatever the number -- 20, 30, or 40 percent -- it gives the right a helluva head start.
There are so many prongs to address it can be overwhelming. First, the people who want to vote but can't because of suppression. Then the devaluing of votes for Democrats from gerrymandering. Then the Orwellion language and lies of the Right Wing media machine, and since the MSM is so utterly useless in the face of repub machinations, we might as well throw them in with the right wing media cabal. The 4th estate is a joke. They work for access, not voters. And they are so afraid of the right wing, they use false equivalence and false balance to obfuscate just how radical the right has become.
Which leads to (but isn't the sole cause of) apathy. The apathetic masses of reasonable people need to vote. Every single time. Because as noted, authoritarian followers do. Otherwise, we are deeply fucked. Like with Obama, there must be overwhelming numbers so the Grand Old Party of Putin can't rig elections. Certainly, the strategies employed by the right will never work on the left. We've got loads of data to support that conclusion. But what about the center? What works on the apathetic moderates? Scare the shit out of them? Piss them off? Appeal to aspirations? Stage ridiculous stunts ala Newt so the media has to pay attention? Or will we NEVER be able to count on them?
I am continually flabbergasted at the disinterest of people. How come everyone isn't running around like their hair is on fire? How come we're not in the fucking streets? How can they say "meh" and shrug their shoulders at the Russian attack? If the media would report the truth and stop soft-peddling it with "collusion" or "interference" etc. Call it a fucking act of war. Call it an attack. (I realize the media isn't the sole cause of anything, but it is a particular point of outrage for me, so I always end up ranting about it.)
Similarly, one would expect people would be motivated to vote if they knew how a well-organized minority has successfully usurped the will of the nation. If they knew how religious zealots and extremist libertarians have and will continue to legislate private morality and deregulate everything that protects people and creates a civilized society?
But they don't. Or maybe because we don't have an echo chamber, it doesn't sink in.
I think I wandered away from my point. But in so doing, made my point? (with that sort of shoddy reasoning, I might be an authoritarian follower too.) The point is, it's a huge problem. A unified strategy that addresses each prong of the attack is needed, a means of disseminating and repeating it is also needed, but since Democrats aren't authoritarian followers, and since the majority of American's aren't authoritarian followers (thank be, and also fuck, there goes democracy) we're never gonna see the left distribute daily talking points and marching orders that the faithful will carry out.
Everybody has an opinion and in a Democracy, you get to have it. Democracy is slow and messy. Authoritarianism is single-minded and its consequences swift.
So the question is then, what can I do? And will it be enough? (And did I wander away from the point again?)
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