"Temporary" Democrats ?

[kentuck]

In the last election, Barack Obama brought out millions of voters for the Democratic ticket. The Republicans were annihilated.

But less than two years later, we seem to be having a problem getting those same voters to the polls? Why can we not make these folks more permanent and consistent voters?

Every election cycle, we have to beg our side to get to the polls? Why is that? Do they have to be excited or promised something spectacular in order to get their attention?

Is it not enough that our nation is threatened by tea-baggers and extremist Republicans who would destroy everything we have done to make life better for most Americans? Why can they not understand that?

Are they so easily disappointed?

[ibegurpard]

1. probably because they ELECTED "temporary" Democrats

disillusionment will do that to you

[daleanime]

5. Ding, ding, ding....

another winner, :banghead:

[DailyGrind51]

16. Yeah, that DLC crowd from Chicago, Rahm and Axelrod, and those Goldman Sachs alumns.

[jaxx]

2. I know a lot of people who don't vote in non-presidential elections.

I'm driving them nuts this year trying to let them know how important this election is for all of us. Most of them pay little attention to the campaigns, only complain about the ads on tv.....or if they get a political phone call.

Disappointed? I don't think that's it, they're just not informed.....by choice.

[Liberal Insights]

3. Promise you won't tell . . .

Promise you won't tell snyone else about it,
but I've got a web page that addresses the very issue you raise,
not just at the level of voters, but at the party level.

You (alone, LOL) will find it at http://Liberal-Insights.org/Dinos.html .

[uppityperson]

4. Suggestion for you. It might go over better if you put more in your reply than link your blog

There are people who won't click on unknown links like this because of malware crap. Also it assists in the discussion here.

[leftstreet]

6. Why not? The Democrats ran as temporary populists. n/

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pyrzqxgl]

11. Been voting since 1960. Mostly Democrat.

Everytime I have ever voted third party it's only result was to see the Republicans get in. I'm convinced that the
answer is to get a majority of Democrats elected to make it impossible for Republicans to have any influence whatsoever. That means we all have to vote and vote the straight DEMOCRAT ticket.

[pnwmom]

13. Promoting 3rd party candidacies is against the rules here. n/t

[pnwmom]

14. Conservatives circle the wagons when it comes to election time. They don't

urge votes against the Republican party, even if they're not thrilled with their candidate.

[spin]

8. Promises were made but not kept ...

Obama promised transparency.

What happened to Obama’s ‘government transparency’ pledge?

As a candidate, Obama said healthcare reform negotiations should be televised on C-SPAN. But now that House and Senate are hashing out their differences, the White House is backing away from that pledge.

By Brad Knickerbocker, Staff writer / January 9, 2010


As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised “transparency” in government. The impression was left that we’d all be able to pull up a chair and watch administration officials and lawmakers hash out their philosophical and policy differences as they make laws that affect our lives.

Specifically, Obama said, “we’ll have negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so the people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who is making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies.”

But now, the White House seems to be pulling back from that pledge, and that’s rankled some Democrats as well as Republicans, not to mention news analysts and opinion makers always eager for a squabble – especially if it hints at a broken promise.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, backed by the White House, has said the House and Senate – each of which have passed versions of healthcare reform – were putting the final bill together “behind closed doors according to an agreement by top Democrats.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/0109/What-happened-to-Obama-s-government-transparency-pledge

“You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention—it’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s going to be very, very exciting.

“But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.” – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking at the 2010 Legislative Conference for National Association of Counties, 3/9/10

Obama should have been out front leading the effort to pass heathcare. Leaving the effort to Pelosi and Reid was understandable but allowing them to hide the process in smoky back rooms was a bad idea.

Many people actually believed in Obama and what he promised. Today they feel like they were treated like fools.

[ismnotwasm]

9. I think

It's disillusionment with politics in general, a species of 'they're all the same' kind of thinking. It's easier to see and blame individuals and the letter after thier names than the political process behind them. Folks tend to have better short-term memory than long, plus we usually WANT or even need, someone to blame.

For me, Ronald Reagon burned the reality of conservative politics in my brain when I was quite young, but even then, it took that asshole Bush even making it to the primaries to make me understand how bad it could get. I've voted Democrat ever since.

[stray cat]

10. DU is certainly easily disappointed and they may be temporary as well

[TheKentuckian]

12. It ain't easy. They work John Henry hard to disappoint.

The people are getting drilled. Multi-decade asswhoppings with promise of more of the same shit in a choice of two flavors leads to desperate thoughts and reactions.

Of course we don't dare tell them it is their fault for accepting the free market/trickle down fairy tale as a governing philosophy and reject the unholy official state secular religion and in that way basic questions and obvious solutions never even come into the mass consciousness and inevitably piss poor decisions are made by enough to make a mess of any effort or idea.

That said, much of the gap is a media concoction that was decided months and months ago and driven home with purpose. Also, since when does enthusiasm trump obligation? I might be a demotivated but I'll be at the polls no matter what as I have for decades now.

The Reich is rabid and not even fear can inspire zealotry in response because our hands are tied behind our backs, we aren't being whipped up to turn them back and kick their asses back to Cheney's bunker but rather to set the terms of our surrender to their madness. To seek compromise with ignorant hate, domination of fellow citizens. To find a compromise with unmitigated greed. To abandon our principles and ideals to seek a middle ground with dark age minded social darwinists.

It should be no surprise that spirits are difficult to light a fire under when the battle is to lose less (we hope) rather than to at least hold the line of literally generations of creeping advancement in so many areas.

Even worse is we cannot even offer better than today to inspire and plant little seeds of hope instead of things are less bad than they could have been and they suck worse than we do.

I don't know, man. I think the expectation of consistency requires faith of a proper heading being set but the belief that folks lack sticktoitiveness to see it through when the heart of it is the ship is still heading for a wreck and the captain and crew are bragging about making minor adjustment that will lead to the exact same graveyard.

I'm voting but I'm not only unenthusiastic but actually in a near Hulk like rage

[kentuck]

15. Here is an interesting history of midterm elections...

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/22/other-midterm-defeats-for-democrats.html