General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy is it so freaking hard to get Democratic voters to vote
It seems like the other side understands the importance of all elections and they show up for an election in February for dog catcher .and its like pulling teeth to have our side show up for a Governors race .and dont say its because of voter suppression laws because when we dont vote we are giving power to people who will implement those type of laws so we are doing it to ourselves
Johnny2X2X
(19,066 posts)We took the House in 2018 and took the White House and Senate in 2020 and 2021.
GOTV in 2022 is everything, hold the House and Senate and Trumpism will be on the ropes.
dflprincess
(28,075 posts)Special elections, or "off year" elections
Johnny2X2X
(19,066 posts)They're going to show up in Virginia in a couple weeks and Keep the state blue.
a kennedy
(29,658 posts)regnaD kciN
(26,044 posts)Yes, Dems turned out for him in 2008 and 2012, but what happened in 2010 and 2014, when he was POTUS? This highlights my main problem with Democratic voters -- they seem to think that only presidential elections are important, and don't show up for midterms or other off-year elections, while Republicans show up every damn time. Is it because we think it doesn't matter, because a Democratic president will veto any moves by a Republican congress? Think of it: if we had gotten decent turnout in those two midterms, and held on to at least the Senate, even a fluke like TFG's election in 2016 (while losing the popular vote) would have had little effect, as we would have been able to block everything he tried to do, and especially prevented him from packing SCOTUS.
Fullduplexxx
(7,860 posts)So some dems wanted to show them by sitting it out
And we ended up with the tea baggers
gab13by13
(21,336 posts)the past 10 years in Pa. and because of gerrymandering Democrats have lost Representatives every election year since then even though more people voted Democratic.
I have a question for the next election, can GOTV win out over voter suppression, over gerrymandering, over allowing Republicans to decide who won the election regardless of who got the most votes? Democrats had well better do more than GOTV if we plan to win in 2022 and 2024.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)this is always overstated. It's true that they are more united because basically their tent is the size of a phone booth while ours is the size of the Astrodome.
Our challenge has always been the wide swath of positions we hold in our party vice theirs.
But it's not the case that they always show up and we never do.
And the reality is both parties tend to show out in presidential elections and in off presidential elections where they are the party out of power.
Unfortunately, that means this time around they are likely to have the turnout advantage unless we buck the trend. Just like we had it in 18, and 06, and they had it in 10 and 14 and now looking like 22.
unblock
(52,215 posts)Why can't I say voter suppression has anything to do with it? That is the whole point of voter suppression, isn't it?
Republicans can engineer it so that voters in Republican precincts have short lines, no one challenges their ID or address, the pop in, they vote, they get a sticker, easy.
Meanwhile, voters in democratic precincts are standing in line for hours and hours, then get all their paperwork challenged, and may have to cast a provisional ballot, leaving them unsure if their vote will even count.
Never mind registration purges, etc. the whole point is they make it a difficult exercise for the people they want not voting and to make them think it's not worth the hassle and it might not even count.
Of course that crap matters!
Now, can we motivate our people to do what it takes? We can and we have. We had massive turnout for Hillary, a notch down from the even more massive turnout from Obama but still huge numbers. And obviously we got Biden elected along with both houses of Congress. Nominally, anyway.
We can and should do more, certainly. But remember that voter suppression is a key part of the Republican electoral strategy because they know they can't win a fair fight.
Their cheating (usually but not always legal, but still cheating) makes a difference .
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,853 posts)... is especially bothersome to me.
I live in a suburb with plenty of voting precincts, but I'd probably be tempted to leave without voting if I encountered some of the long lines shown in bigger cities during the last Presidential election.
I voted absentee in 2020 anyway, but I mean if I had to vote in person and I saw those kinds of insanely long lines!
And Republicans want to suppress absentee voting too, of course. Whatever it takes to make voting more of a struggle in Democratic areas!
unblock
(52,215 posts)They don't give a rat's patootie if the people don't support them and their policies. They'll just amp up the lies, distractions, and brainwashing and manipulate the voting process until it produces the result they want.
But the media insists on portraying voting rights as if it's just a partisan democratic agenda item.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,853 posts)... more often, indicating that it wasn't fair, that would be a step in the right direction.
Instead they'll have some smiling reporter standing close to the long urban lines, praising America's democratic traditions! Oh, it's just so wonderful, isn't it!
And that's just one aspect of voter suppression, of course.
SunImp
(2,224 posts)The older I get the more it all looks like a big charade.
Why bother voting if the people you put in power abandon their promises? As much as I hate Trump, he constantly tried to push his agenda forward despite largely legislative failures in doing so. That's why the cult is behind him 100%
This plus voter suppression and candidate likeability
Scrivener7
(50,949 posts)And candidate likeability? Really?
Scrivener7
(50,949 posts)budkin
(6,703 posts)If there was any silver lining to Trump becoming president it was that many more Democrats stay active.
maxsolomon
(33,338 posts)highest number in American history.
USAFRetired_Liberal
(4,167 posts)I am talking about the elections that truly matter where politicians effect peoples daily lives
Edit - I take that back
POTUS elections truly matter also, but they arent the only ones
colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)We better vote as if our way of life depends on it because it may be so. I mean all the way down to local issues and candidates. Its not hard to do.
Patton French
(756 posts)Metaphorical
(1,602 posts)all play parts, but I think that not understanding the constituencies of the parties may also be a part of the issue.
The GOP has in general been a small party with a very narrow agenda since at least the 1960s. It represents a very limited set of constituencies:
1. The old guard (petroleum economy) wealthy individuals and those people working in those fields.
2. Christian fundamentalists and social conservatives, not all of whom are white are white or male.
3. Rural (and mostly inland) constituencies which often work in agriculture, resource extraction (farming, mining, oil resources), the automotive industry and elsewhere.
4. The military, especially at the enlisted level.
5. Law Enforcement and security.
6. Those who generally have access only to a high school education.
7. People who are predominantly in older school sales, marketing and management.
8. Conspiracy theorists who are convinced the government is about to launch an imminent invasion of their houses.
9. GOP Team Players
10.Libertarians (loosely).
The Democrats are the larger party, but the party is also a looser coalition made up primarily of those who are not Republicans:
1. The young Turks (the electrical/electronic economy) wealthy individuals and those people working in those fields.
2. Religious liberals, agnostics and atheists.
3. Coastal urban and suburban constituencies, especially in high tech centers.
4. College-educated voters, especially in STEM, education, and artistic careers.
5. Government employees, outside of security and the military.
6. Social activists.
7. Creatives.
8. Most urban minorities.
9. Environmentalists.
10. Democratic Team Players.
The problem of course is that this is a group that is both diverse and not all that well united on all things. Moreover, many formerly Democratic stalwarts (such as unions) have become more and more entrenched in the GOP, especially in the South, Miidwest and Landlocked West.
It is clear from the above breakdown that the Democratic party today only marginally overlaps with the Democratic party of fifty years ago, and that the progressive agenda (speaking as a progressive) is largely the agenda of the coastal urban middle and upper class. This is where the country is going, culturally, but I do think a lot of Democrat activists tend to have blinkers on about what the party actually represents, and for many in the country that feel they are regressing its far easier to envision the Democrats having nefarious agendas when in general they are just trying to bring the US up to the same standards as much of the rest of the world.
There's another aspect here that I think is important. Democrats in general tend not to be that ostentatious. We value competence over confidence, which is part of the reason that having TFG in office grated so heavily on most progressives' nerves. The problem unfortunately, is that should the Democrats succeed with their agenda, it will be because the population will have tilted far enough into the urban direction that the petroleum economy will have withered away.
uponit7771
(90,336 posts)... EVER happen again.
Xolodno
(6,390 posts)...they have been showing up recently. With that being said, voter suppression does make things an uphill battle as others in this thread eloquently pointed out.
The real question, how did the GOP get to this point where they could make sure they maintained power? Well, they used to be a big tent party and took most of the leadership. Then they purged a lot while retaining that power. And not being inexperienced to trying to deal with opposition in its own ranks during the time they had a big tent, they play off the differences in the Democratic Party.