General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 'That's terrifying': Anderson Cooper shaken after hearing Harvard scholars' 'dark' predictions on US [View all]SpankMe
(2,957 posts)It lies purely on the shoulders of the 83+ million eligible to voters who didn't vote in the last election.
Swing states were won and lost by a few tens of thousands of votes. If a few million more of these non-voters spread throughout these close states would have voted, I believe there would have been decisive Democratic majorities in office that would be currently strengthening and stabilizing democratic norms.
Republicans are leveraging this "anomaly" with reckless abandon, and they're winning.
Polling of all sorts points to broad public support for Democratic policies across the board - health care, LGBT rights, guns, abortion, foreign relations, the environment, women, people of color and more. And this isn't weak support, either. Most of these poll from the low 60 to low 70 percent region in favor of the progressive side of these issues.
The general public skews more toward Republican policies on things like law enforcement (tough on crime) and illegal immigration (keep 'em out). Maybe on taxes, though weakly. But not much else.
If we could do something to transform voting into a true civic duty and public obligation - like watching the Super Bowl - we'd solve a lot of problems.