When Democrats turn out -as we saw in the 2012 and especially the 2008 presidential elections - Democrats win. Simple logic, right? Unfortunately, the last two midterm elections saw a big drop off in the number of Democratic voters. I blame this on three things:
1) Democratic voters being disproportionately working class/poor, lower-income, and as a result, having a lot less time to even think about politics, or pay attention, because of the stresses of daily life - especially since the Great Recession and the deeeply uneven recovery.
2) Republican lawmakers in many states being acutely aware of who votes for them - and who doesn't (What do you think all those Voter ID and other restrictive voting laws were about? 
).
3) Intense negative media attention directed at President Obama - and by extension, the Democrats. A lot of Democratic candidates for office last time around weren't even willing to say that they had voted for the Democratic President. Pathetic!
That's how I see it. Furthermore, we can't just go home once the elections are over. Elections are but one part of the democratic process. And the right-wingers have been pulling no punches, and are showing us no quarter.
All of this is why building truly grassroots social movements, organizing, agitating, etc. is the only way forward. You can't just passively rely on politicians to "do the right thing." That never happens!
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