This isn't good.
"58 percent of white registered voters say they’re “almost certain” to vote, compared with 50 percent of black registered voters and 43 percent of Hispanic voters. And just 38 percent of registered voters who are 18 to 34 years say they’re almost certain to vote, compared with 62 percent of those over age 65."
1
What Resistance Democrats don't seem to get is that the key issues they have pursued to two years from Russian collusion to relitigating the 2016 election to fighting Supreme Court nominations have no traction outside half of their own base. Many lower class people don't see any reason to show up for a party whose top priority the last two months was to dissect what happened at a prep school party thirty years ago. The mob confrontation tactics of the Democratic Left are scary and unappealing to most moderates of either party and might also convince more Blacks and Hispanics to stay home or even to vote Republican. Impeachment does not have widespread appeal. The 15% of the population that support open borders, Antifa riots, Russia investigation, Government obstruction, impeachment, "men need to just shut up", socialism, and street fighting can't win an honest election, even if they all show up. However, they can sure antagonize their opponents and repulse lots of people who might otherwise support the more moderate balanced parts of their policy agenda.
3
If my students, many of color, are any indication then I would say you are wrong. They are all politically interested and see voting as their duty
21
This is all well and good, but where are the in-depth studies on gerrymandering and ruthless purging of voting roles that threaten to skew the election in favor of the GOP?
16
The defeat of gerrymandering has been quite a battle, still undone.
Adding in voter registration denials that attempt to skew vote tallies, this is a significant victory.
6
If the voting process was expanded to include online voting via the internet or as an app on cell phones, the imbalance of the old folks over the young ones would be erased.
With all the technological brilliance of Silicon Valley, surely each state, each voting district, could make these changes to an antiquated system of voting while also guaranteeing the sanctity of voting.
Seriously, getting to the physical polling locations shouldn't be an impediment but it is. Moreover, voting on a Tuesday that is not a holiday tilts toward retired old folks, not young ones with jobs or school or children.
21
In many countries election day is a national holiday. As a result, voter turnout is typically much higher in these countries. If the US adopted such an approach our participation rate would rise markedly, especially among younger voters who are otherwise "too busy" to vote.
13
I am an middle aged white man. I have never known poverty, never been sexually harassed, never known the fear of being unfairly stopped by a police officer, or never been told by the future president that my people bring crime, drugs, are rapists, and that some "I suppose" are good people.
I favor the ACA, not because I benefit personally, but because I believe that medical care is a foundational right for everyone in the US.
I believe in Medicare and Social Security because I want seniors to get the medical care they need and to avoid living in poverty. I can afford my own health insurance and have enough savings to last me the rest of my life.
If a middle aged white man, who does not have as much to lose with GOP control of our government will vote, why can't the young and minorities, who have much more to lose, vote?
It's frustrating.
49
Thank you for caring about other people less fortunate than yourself. I don’t share your demographics but do share your frustration. I guess the main explanation is that they feel that their vote won’t matter at the end of the day. It’s not true, but it’s what many seem to think.
11
@DBman Seems like the status has treated you ok. Maybe others don’t see things the same.
I have been waiting to see the new year of the game and the newest version of my new version of my game
1
In other words, if red shows up in larger numbers, blue stands no chance.
Too bad for blue that youngsters can't vote via Pinterest.
3
@AutumLeaff
Youngsters do not inhabit Pinterest - its for yummy mummies.
3
if Republicans who voted for Trump and the GOP folks who enable him, are still excited about voting the same way, after 2 years of this sham and shambles of a presidency, I only ask one thing: please, refrain from waving either your cross or flag at the rest of us.
I'm a grateful Christian and American, who stands in fervent support of LGBTQ, Muslim and immigrant fellow Americans of all colors, & a woman's right to follow her conscience as guaranteed by the Constitution. (It dismays me that so-called GOP Christians will rush to the polls to defend a aborted fetus, but remain callous about kids once they're born. so easy to love the imaginary (white) ones.)
if you don't see the face of evil in Trump's usual slick side-stepping and waffling, as he attempts his routine con act in response to the torture & slaughter of a journalist and permanent US resident, please stay home.
Nov. 6th is critical to redeeming our national soul- tattered as it may be- by putting some constraints on this shameless man. Please think twice before voting for more of this.
26
Trump must go.
But so must the corrupt Democrats who, through their failure to enforce the laws, helped embolden the Russians to cyber invade this country. They have betrayed the trust of the American people and trampled on the Constitution. Any hope of remaining a democracy where there is equal justice under the law lays in bringing those who put preserving their own power above national security behind bars.
2
Put down your iPhone and be a citizen. Vote for universal heath care and repeal of the $800 billion tax cut for the GOP patrons. Be a patriot.
Answer the question America ..... you are better than the Trump-Kushner crime family ……. aren`t you ?
19
And, this is a big big problem. We can’t win if Hispanics and Blacks don’t turn out to vote. They can think it makes no difference but it does and things can get worse.
9
As a 31 year old, leftist voter, I'm hopeful that my generation will turn out in key districts and States to vote for Democrats. I'm exhausted with the GOP "leadership" ramming unpopular legislation, crazy policies and disastrous judicial nominees through Congress. Please: If you're a young voter who's equally fed up with Trump and his GOP lackeys, vote and get your friends to vote. I've already made a video about the importance of those of us under 34 to vote (we are consistently to the Left of other demographics), and I've recruited everyone I know to vote. This is especially important in North Dakota, Missouri, Texas, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Florida. Let's push back against the madness, our futures depend on it. From healthcare to climate change to voting rights to college tuition to the next potential Supreme Court seat to foreign policy to Trump's corruption and the need for a countervailing force in the Congress, these and many more (LGBTQ rights, women's rights, etc), so much is on the line. Take the time. Vote.
18
At this point it is all too late. Whatever is to happen has already in large part happened and it is irreversible. We just don't know what it is yet. But some are more clueless than others. These would be mostly people who were hired because they and are paid highly because they and are completely unaware that they don't, have a clue. I would caution people to be wary of anything playing to your biases, as you are probably being played. But whatever, you are all going to do whatever you are going to do and no one will ever listen to reason in these matters.
But for the record I advise you it is highly unlikely Warren will be elected president of the USA in 2020. Pretending otherwise merely makes you look ridiculous. And if you are ridiculous, no one has to take you seriously.
1
I suspect you are correct. On the other hand, many things are unlikely until they happen.
6
@krnewman
Agreed!
Until the current political power of aggrieved white males and their female enablers is neutralized, Democrats must put forth a firebrand white male, preferably with blue collar roots. That leaves Joe Biden or another like him. I don’t care about his “me too” issues. Those who care don’t vote in enough numbers to neutralize agrieved white male voters. Right now, we must face political reality! The winning ticket would be something like a Biden/Kamala Harris team. That’s how we can get the party together.
4
@krnewman Much more likely that Harris will be elected in 2020!
1
Nearly two thirds of likely voters are over 50. Nearly 80% of likely voters are white.
Old, white people are voting. So old, white people continue to get elected.
6
@Sparky
Young people of all colors can't stop posting on Pinterest.
The have to look up and make the walk all the way to the corner to vote.
While you're at it, tell them to look up while crossing the street, hailing a cab, cutting off a truck and talking to people, If you can convince them to do that, you're my hero.
4
@AutumLeaff
I think you mean snapchat or instagram. Pinterest is not a youth site, its a craft and hoppby site
This is bitter moment for Democrats all across the spectrum. It looks as though the Democrats may take the house, though this is certainly not guaranteed, and are unlikely to take the senate. And of course, Trump is not on the ballet.
Learned helplessness is hard to undo -- there are lots of would-be Democrats with a bad case of learned helplessness; this election brings out the worst in them.
If one takes a longer view their are bright signs for Democrats:
* considerable gerrymandering has been undone
* it looks like Democrats will make ground in state elections
* demographics continues to be on their side
* Trumpismo is driving a lot of people, mostly women, out of identities as automatic Republican voters. Probably this will be a generational loss, and that plus demography may end the GOP as we know it.
Moderate Republicans are going extinct -- this is bad for the nation, even worse for the Republican party, though the crazy people running it don't understand that, or care.
There aren't any moderate Republicans left to run to get moderate voters back, if the party realized it needs to.
The problem for America is that the GOP is turning into a more extreme neo-fascist/white-revanchist party as Trump consolidates control, and moderates bail out.
Trumpismo is headed for a Maduro moment -- seize power extralegally or die. If the nation avoids that the GOP will become a dwindling white-racist blood+soil fringe, and some new party will fission from the Democrats.
8
The good ole Schroedinger Uncertainty Principal.....The more precisely you attempt to define one quantity, the less precise becomes the related quantity. Mr. Cohn (and his ilk..of which there are many)......propose to finely define just how many voters there are(Let every vote count).....and by doing so, we create larger errors in the actual vote count.(ie....we introduce greater risks of VOTE FRAUD). Early voting. Absentee Voting. Provisional Ballots(already simply a fudge factor used by the losing party to attempt to win anyway). If we instead simply validate thru Voter ID who is voting....it may not count every single possible vote....but it should exactly match the number of ballots cast. And that, I maintain is the only way to ensure "fair elections" regardless of which narrow agenda you support.;
2
@Wherever Hugo Ooops. Schroedinger had a cat. Heisenberg was the one with the Uncertainty.
4
While you’re correcting things, it’s principle, not principal. You might be here but you’re not all there.
2
"If Democrats can lure additional young and nonwhite voters off the sidelines and out of the undecided column..."
Kinda hard to make that happen with aging, uninspiring Dem party leaders dampening their enthusiasm with quotes such as Nancy Pelosi's "we will never have single payer in this country", Feinstein's apologizing for the protestors to Kavanaugh during the hearings, DNC Chair Perez announcing that the DNC will support Democrats who vote for Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court, and Charles Schumer's anti-worker sentiments, “For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.”*
* https://theintercept.com/2016/11/14/chuck-schumer-the-worst-possible-dem...
5
One of the other problems I see with a nation like the US,(whose voting records cannot be compared to most other ethnically homogenous European nations), with millions of legal and illegal immigrants and the politics of keeping them as such,(both parties are responsible for making it harder to attain citizenship not only through laws but fiscal cuts, long waiting periods and costs), is the fact that while they are an integral part of the fabric of our nation, economically and culturally, they don’t have a vote.
Before everyone jumps down my throat that this sounds anti-immigrant, -it isn’t- my point is that we are becoming a nation with more and more immigrants but where only US citizens can vote, and from the data here it looks like US born young people and people of color are abdicating that civic responsibility, while older white citizens are not. This means that older white people are, while slowly becoming a smaller demographic, making all the decisions for the young and people of color and this has slowly led to the huge economic inequalities and backlash towards civil rights we are now experiencing. Basically we are being governed by a small minority.
I urge the youth and people of color in America to spend just one day registering to vote and researching online the candidates in their districts and vote for the ones that align with their beliefs.
Our future depends on it.
11
Pain is the inevitable motivator. So long as the young and non-white are not feeling it as deeply, they will abstain. Once it becomes too great to bear -- lack of medical care, lower and lower wages, no unions to protect them, higher and higher rents, etc. The Great Unwashed as Menken used to say, still control the vote. Most have fallen for trump. So will the great blue wave wash the unwashed? Let's wait and see...
9
@ron cutler - You are so right! I would hate to see things get worse before our young people, particularly our young black people wake up and realize that the change starts with them. It can't happen without voting!
If you don't vote, you have actually voted whether you like it or not.
The independents will make a difference if the Republican and Democrat baskets are equally filled with voters. So independents show up in force and vote for the best.
6
Just going by population , in the united states 194 million people live in states with a democratic Governor, while 135 million people live in States with a Republican Governor. In reality Donald Trump was elected President by a stark minority of the electorate. He was elected solely because of antiquity provision known as the electoral college. A majority of the population is against him. Further aggravating the political situation is the fact that States such as WY and Alaska as well as SD send two republicans to the Senate to block important issues like universal healthcare, even though their states have less than a million people each, put the three states together and you hardly get 2 million people, yet they can block important legislature that can affect 330 million people, none of this is right, and if the situation continues where the majority of the American population feels they have no voice in Government because of antiquated rules, then big trouble is coming, a minority of States with low population cannot stand in the way of the progress of the majority of people in America without serious ramifications.
18
It's amazing that so many of our twenty year olds have strong opinions about our current political environment, but so few vote. In previous mid term elections as few as 1 out of 5 Stanford students voted. Maybe the schools should throw a keg party for students, but you have to show evidence that you voted.
20
Unfortunately, potential voters are more likely to respond to negative than positive political ads, even if manifestly untrue. All it takes are emotional salience and repetition. Generalizing from a particular negative factoid to a general truth about a candidate or issue is politics 101. And messages just need to work at the margins when races are close.
Depress enthusiasm, as was done relentlessly against Hillary Clinton, and enough voters may not show up. House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, said publicly that the sole reason behind endless Benghazi hearings was to drive up Hillary’s negatives, and it worked. It’s inconceivable Hillary deserved negatives nearly as high as Donald Trump, but it led to his election.
24
Democrats have two main problems: One is that they generally don't turn out in large numbers, especially in midterms and the other is that Republicans are doing everything that they can to keep them from voting.
Democrats have only themselves to blame for turnout but Republicans are to blame for the latter. Voter ID laws are nothing more than a way to keep low income and minority voters, who often lack the "proper" ID, from voting. Perhaps the most egregious example this year is in North Dakota where the Republican led state house passed a law requiring street addresses on all IDs because they know that Native Americans there mostly live in homes without street addresses.
Democrats want more people to vote> Republicans only want their voters to vote.
14
@Dave in Seattle
How are Republicans trying to prevent Dems from voting, pray tell? Requiring an ID? Like when you:
buy booze, cigarettes, a house, a car, a gun, a phone, a plane ticket, open a bank account, go fishing, go hunting, get married....basically stay alive in the 21st century?
4
@S The problem is that not the rules are adjusted so that some ID that are accepted to "buy booze, cigarettes, a house, a car, a gun, a phone, a plane ticket, open a bank account, go fishing, go hunting, get married" are not accepted for voting. Instead, we manipulate the electorate by excluding certain types of ID.
3
@S
The difference is major. The list you mention are privileges. Voting is a constitutional right.
Here in Washington, my ballot arrives in the mail today. I have over 2 weeks to make a reasoned and informed decision. Oregon does the same.
Why this has not been rolled out nationwide would be a mystery to me but for the fact that Republicans want to prevent as many people as possible from voting.
Makes you wonder what they are afraid of, doesn't it?
44
@Logic Science and Truth
In case you vote democrat today and mail that in, but find out tomorrow your candidate is going to jail for corruption. You already voted, and there are no take backs.
Maybe super smart people like you would wait until the last minute, in case you change your mind. But regular folk, they would just mail it in and forget about the whole thing.
And when the democrat loses, you would go on to march claiming 'my vote was not counted' and there would be a long process to show you that you did in fact had voted but lost anyway.
To avoid this drama, we all vote the same day and live with the results.
Remember, in our highly inequitable American "democracy," it requires two Democratic votes for each one cast for the GOP in order to win an election. These long odds are no excuse for not voting.
Get out to the polls on or before November 6th.
34
And Clinton is going to win the presidency by a landslide
5
@NYC Dweller,
There is no electoral college in this election.
6
@NYC Dweller Apparently you don't understand the difference be a poll and an election.
1
With gerrymandering and voter suppression (as approved by the Roberts Court), Democrats must exceed the one man, one vote requirement needed to win elections. Republicans remain super voters, as their vote counts more than those of Democrats.
Thanks Judge John Roberts! Keep calling those balls and strikes!
10
@bobdc6
Thanks Justice Roberts for keeping obamacare alive and kicking.
2
Voters that will suffer the most under a Republican one-party government are non-white voters and the Millennials. Voter suppression, anti-immigrant laws and repression of hard-fought civil rights are guaranteed under the new Supreme Court majority. Denial of climate change and destruction for the planet's environment for generations to come are Republican mantras.
It is shocking that those who have the most to lose cannot find the motivation to get out and vote for their own interests.
30
A whole nation, the most powerful in history because of its rule-of-law democracy, can easily and rapidly self-destruct through apathy, lassitude and default. This has happened before to other great nations.
Democrats and non-affiliated progressives had darn well better get out and vote unless they're happy ceding their glorious Republic to forces that have proven themselves beyond a shadow of doubt hell-bent to destroy it from within.
VOTE! (Please!)
26
Vote Democrat, vote Democrat, vote Democrat.
42
@Walt Sisikin Sorry, Dem's are only allowed to vote once per election.
3
@mark lederer Seriously? Did you even bother to read the comment?
The one place I can think of to encourage young voters is at the work place, where these younger voters spend most of their time. Put voter registration forms out, make it practical, give them time off on voting day to get them out there. A little group momentum and peer pressure could go a long way.
9
WHAT will it take for Millennials and Gen Yers to learn that voting matters? What rights that they take for granted will they have to lose?
26
@Lona
Very simple.
Their Pinterest is locked, it can only be unlocked by using a QR code they get from voting.
Simple, instead of the little stickers the senior citizens proudly wear for a week after the election that read 'I voted', give them bubble gummers a QR code and their Pinterest does not work until unlocked by this code.
If that is too much work, then have a QR code at the voting location, and they get to scan that at the place once they voted and then their Pinterest is restored.
And have Taylor Swift post in Pinterest 'vote and get your QR code' for weeks prior to the election.
It would work.
2
@Lona
I think young folks mostly don't think much about the future. They consider themselves indestructible and their possibilities boundless. To the extent they pay attention at all, they take in more consumer and social news as opposed to hard news. They also think their elders will bail them out if they get in a big enough jam.
Now, if we had a prolonged war, say with Iran, along with a substantial draft, I guarantee many would take to the streets and probably vote, but only after the fact.
1
Since america elected a man who mocked war hero's, women and disabled citizens, I've thought long and hard about what I could do to save the America I loved. There are two things I will start with. One is to vote in every election even if it is only for town dogcatcher, and two, I will never, under any circumstances ever vote for a republican again. That makes my life easier related to voting. All I need to know is when is the election and the location of my polling place. Thanks republicans for making it easy for me!
71
Well. This is seemingly good news. But the last time I trusted national polls I dutifully voted, went to bed early, slept soundly and woke up to a nightmare. These days I’m wary.
84
@BigG,
Exactly
And I’ll go further - I bet many people read the polls and skipped voting or voted for a boutique candidate like Stein
Polls are inescapable but are also corrosive to the process
17
@BigG......that tells it, you woke up to a nightmare---and it worsens daily. Now every morning I wake up and ask, do I really want to turn on the TV cable news and see the latest outrage? This from a veteran watcher of public affairs programs.
5
The polls in 2016 were anything but reassuring; what happened was well within the polls' margin of error. Most of the analysis and punditry was a disaster, but that's another story. This year, you shouldn't be truly surprised by anything from modest GOP gains in both the House and Senate to big Democratic gains in the House.
4
I guess this is interesting ("atta boy!") to those who tend to vote (older and whiter demographic) and want to feel better about those more like them, who failed to do so in 2016, and may vote this time. But it doesn't take into account or even address the suppression of a much more important demographic (less white and younger). Repubs can do little about discouraging those guilty and more motivated (older and whiter) who are most easily recruited to vote this time, and so, as seems to be their MO, behind the scenes they enact legislation and install machines that they can manipulate, (or at least see no need to make more "secure" the voting process) while making it as difficult as possible for the deciding segment to vote.
6
Yes, it's just amazing how honest reporting like that of Rachel Maddow (MSNBC 9 pm ET weeknights" helps people understand how essential their participation and voting are.
Major media has always pretty much ignored primary elections and midterms because there's not as much money there. They exist to make profit and, with few exceptions, make the news that keeps people in fear and chaos so they'll sell more and get higher ratings.
Most of them get a D for keeping WE THE PEOPLE informed.
Thanks, Ms. Maddow, and all other "news" journalists who understand that making money is only half the reason for your existence.
WE THE PEOPLE believe it is your responsibility to keep us truly informed and hep us preserve/restore true democratic governance in OUR United States of America.
If you don't do that we can easily do without you, as facebook is finding out as people abandon it.
14
The real question here is what will republicans do to limit the vote. I remember in Fl. where the lines were 4 hours long. How much resolve democratic voters have to wait to vote will have an impact on the mid-terms.
Vote by mail, it is time to help those who are on the boarder of whether to vote to use an absentee ballot! It's easy!
6
No non-white, young massive turnout = no win.
Sorry.
Soccer moms won't hack it.
Ironic that when Trump has declared war on Hispanics they refuse to even vote in many cases.
The Dems should have been on this months ago.
Too little, too late.
Don't blame the GOP; blame yourself for giving them continued control of the Congress.
And with no real candidate that can win middle America in 2020, we may, thanks to you, have four more years of Trump.
6
One of the basic precepts of English (and American) common law is that "silence is consent". Of course, in many jurisdictions recent statutes have eliminated that principle as it relates to sexual assault issues (except in Donald Trump's world, where consent can always be presumed so long as one uses a breath mint), but in other matters the rule still stands. As in politics, where a failure to vote (barring unfair or onerous restrictions) constitutes silence, and therefore consent.
So, sad to say, if the visible minorities of America fail to show up at the polls, then they have demonstrated that they are content to be governed by a self-serving bigot like Trump, From that, they must also accept the pervasive persecution and repression of visible minorities which is a distinguishing feature of the Trump "movement".
In short, people (as usual) are going to get the government they deserve.
5
After seeing police brutality resurface again against unarmed people of color, tax breaks for the top 0.1%, then the White House public statements that we as a nation can no longer afford care for the elderly or poor, interspersed with racism/ bigotry/ and misogynism in full bloom, the public support for nativism, white nationalism, and support for other dictators - one might think very carefully about not getting involved. Complacency became complicity in pre WWII Germany.
The young, non-white, and other voting demographics may want to consider that you get what you harvest. "You get the government you deserve." Can't blame others for ones efforts or lack thereof. Attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville short of two centuries ago, it really is from farther back with French philosopher Joseph de Maistre.
9
While I hope that it is the case that Democrat turnout exceeds Republican turnout, how many Democrats will have been expunged from the voting rolls, or not allowed to register, or have had their polling place moved so far away from their residence that they cannot vote? Or, had so many polling places closed in their region that they have to wait hours to cast a vote? The Republicans are playing dirty pool and it could guarantee them a big win.
9
The surge in Democratic voters will have little bearing on the election outcome. Republicans have been preparing for this for a long time. Republicans, as white old males, know they are dinosaurs and have put in place measures to continue their control as long as possible.
a) Gerrymandering
b) Creation of obstacles for minority voters (closure of voting places, more restrictive voting requirements, and limited voting hours in those minority districts)
c) Purging of minority voter rolls
d) Russian meddling and hacking of voter systems
In the meantime, Democrats are wasting precious time spending all of their energy and money campaigning for and OVER REPRESENTING illegal immigrants, LBQTs, and gender politics.
Trump didn't win because he was Trump or male. Trump won on the single most important policy platform for USA. Immigration enforcement. Trump successfully tied every Democratic complaint about the economy and social issues to illegal immigration.
If the Democrats continue to run on a platform of little or no immigration enforcement, we will have Trump and a Republican majority in Congress for another four years.
I don't understand this thinking. The Republicans have no immigration plan; if they did, why haven't they implemented it? They control literally everything
4
Think they learned a little something from the disaster of 2016?
15
A sobering and all too true analysis, Nate. Has the rest of your newsroom and editors ever read your stuff? The choice of articles and emphasis has been on identity politics heavily freighted with a subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) disdain for older white voters.
When over 75 percent of likely voters nationwide are 50 and over in age and heavily white, pandering to groups who almost never turn up historically in off year contests is no way to win an election of such great importance for our values and indeed our republic. The GOP has now gone completely off the rails and white nationalists are routinely invited to speak at some gatherings and run for local party officials.
A president who has abandoned dog whistle hints in favor of outright chumminess toward white identitarian groups. Can someone explain to me how and why Hispanic Americans support the Republicans in surprising numbers or stay home on election day?
3
Have you watched the turnout for a single Trump MAGA mid-term rally?? Where is a single Democrat or Dem Proxy generating anything close to that interest?? I think your premise is flawed. #RedWave
1
You might wanna read Twain and Lewis; this country’s always had a fair passel of suckers who’ll show up for the Royal Nonesuch, the tent revival, the Nuremberg Rally.
We generally figure it out, though. And Toto’s already yanking at your Wizard’s white robe.
7
@whoiskevinjones Fifty-five thousand people showed up for a Beto rally in Austin, TX. Trump rallies average fewer than ten thousand participants.
6
Vote, vote, vote, everyone. It is the only weapon we have in these dark times.
12
VOTE!
-- Polls don't matter. ** Only VOTES matter. **
* Form CARPOOLS to Multiply your voting power !
* Set up a CARPOOL Club with many cars to take voters to the polls.
* Push kids and friends to register and come to vote.
* Only YOU can save democracy in America.
10
The swing districts/states are very tight with single digit
differences. If young and nonwhite
voters in those districts do not turn out in large
numbers, much larger than before, then these districts
will not flip, that is, swing away from the trumpican enablers
who currently represent them.
This reflects the deep, deeper than deep, alienation
from the political process and civic engagement within these groups of eligible voters and citizens. These groups
either are too distracted or low info to care one way or the other who wins, or are so cynical that they see absolutely
no difference in their lives resulting from whoever wins.
A society with large groups of people holding such
beliefs is already much too sick and enfeebled to defend itself
from those who are intent upon transforming the
country into an authoritarian, white-christian dominated
government with all the symbolic, but purely decorative, trappings of its former self as a representative democracy.
None of us can really hope to change the inevitable in that
case. That is, neither chamber flips in November. This
will give tweeter in chief free reign to impose his brand of
willful deluded idiocy everywhere. We will never fully learn
what Mueller has discovered.
Moreover, the looming budget crunch will be solved on
the backs of those who did not vote. A convenient
but painful way to solve the problem.
And those who will be in the most pain will still not have learned their lesson.
5
What a shame - and what irony - that the groups that most of us liberals try to help, to protect, don’t worry about or vote for themselves.
8
The only way to show that Trump and the 2016 Republican Congress was an aberration rather than a trend is for Americans to get to the polls in November and vote to make America great again by replacing failing Republican policies with a Democratic Congress that cares about all Americans and not just the Fat Cats. Let's make affordable health care for all, superior education for all, decent housing for all our first priority as a nation. Let's make the re-training of those who lose jobs because of advances in technology a priority rather than shore up industries like coal mining and other fossil fuel industries that are should be left to die. We can switch our priorities so that all Americans live the "American Dream", not just Republican Donors.
7
If Democrats recognize there is less enthusiasm among young and non-white voters, what are they actively doing to address it? When you have evidence, you develop a strategy? Hire buses to go to college campuses and latino neighborhoods on Election Day? Make it a community event? Democrats need to step up and get creative.
4
Instead of asking people whether they intend to vote or not, why not look at the actual data? Virginia has had a surge of young voters requesting absentee ballots this year. See https://results.elections.virginia.gov/vaelections/2018%20November%20Gen...
8
Does the term "voter suppression" mean anything to you?
That's why Republican voters turn out more ... they're "allowed" to!!
17
Democrats continue to run races as if they were stuck in the year 1895. Their natural constituents never come out to vote, because the Democratic party doesn't have any institutional systems to reach them, and when the Democratic party does try to reach these groups, they fall completely on their faces in an attempt to communicate.
Technology appears to be a four letter word for Democrats. They just can't exploit the social media technology to get their topics unmanipulated out into the public.
The Democrats' electoral incompetence is the real culprit destroying America.
4
@Uptown Guy: Really? How do you think we got Obama elected? Twice?
8
@Uptown Guy
Reluctantly, I agree with your points. I spent three full years (2003 - 2006) attempting to - from ground up - change the same old same old local Democratic Party apparatuses in South Florida. I learned the meaning of the oft repeated phrase “it’s like trying to herd cats”. Gave up, and faded back into a Super Voter. The current right wing Occupation of our beloved country appears to have (finally!) ignited the grass roots enough to overwhelm the so called old guard of the Dems, who had a strong predilection for placing personal ambitions over all else. It is my belief that the Democratic Party lost its way because they failed to continue their unequivocal support for organized labor, which - warts and all - served to energize the Working women and men of America, away from corporatism and toward a socially responsible version of Capitalism. The myriad of legit societal issues that must be addressed cannot be adequately addressed unless and until Democrats control Congress & state legislatures. First things first.
1
I've recently watched PBS programs on DVD about Reconstruction and the Chinese Exclusion Act. I was struck by what a huge difference it made when control of Congress flipped, even more important than who was president.
In 1968 when I was young, Martin Luther King was assassinated. The presidential candidate I was enthusiastic about, Robert Kennedy, was assassinated. But 40 years later in 2008, their vision was fulfilled in the election of Barack Obama. How I rejoiced, and how I was dismayed by the subsequent backlash because young people underestimated the importance of who controls Congress. Then there was 2016. 2018 is the most important midterm election in my lifetime. The narrators of the two PBS programs marvelled that their forebears had fought for so long for their rights, in the face of so many setbacks. They said it was because they believed so strongly in America's ideals that they didn't lose hope. My dear young people, let us do something amazing together! Please, please, vote!!
71
It is time for mandatory voting.
Democracy truly is imperiled by the non-voter. Plus with gerrymandering, the gaping inequality of representation in the Senate, the electoral college and voter suppression, to name just some of the systemic biases against the majority will, mandatory voting is essential.
An op ed published in the The New York Times eloquently made the case:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/opinion/voting-should-be-mandatory.html
All patriotic Americans need to vote, and we need to reclaim the will of the people. Mandatory voting is necessary and essential. If we're not fighting for our democracy, what are we fighting for?
32
If you want change, it will not be sufficient for "Democrats fight[ing] back to parity". When will the Democrats learn that engaging and brings to the polls that 18-34 demographic is critical? Instead they continue to make the mistake of exclusively plumbing the most likely to vote. It's like someone trying to find the car keys they dropped in the middle of a park by searching under the street lamp on the corner...because the light is better there.
31
They love Bernie Sanders but I think Democrats would rather lose to the right than win with the left v
2
Come on kids. You can take selfies while standing in line! Just make believe you are waiting to get into some cool ice cream or doughnut place.
26
This attitude won’t win young people. Young people flocked to Sanders’ rallies in unprecedented numbers. I bet you can’t figure out why—and neither can the DNC.
4
@Zejee Perhaps the threat of a military draft would help.
2
If theoretically young and non white voters tend to vote Democratic, I don't understand this headline?!
4
Problem is most seem to be planning to skip voting, as they either don’t understand or don’t care how important it is.
5
They want to vote FOR something. “I’m not Trump” isn’t going to do it.
4
This is great news! Vote Democrat if your truly love what America stands for!
11
Democrats never fail to disappoint. I'll believe it when I see it.
10
Just bringing out the old white Democrats won’t be enough. Democrats need to start asking young people why they aren’t excited about corporate candidates anymore.
The motto of the millennials was paraphrased quite nicely when their parents were young by The Who: “We won’t be fooled again”.
Dylan: “Get out the way if you can’t lend a hand.”
8
I remember all kinds of predictions prior to the 2016 elections...
4
Young nonwhite voters don’t realize that they are exactly the people Trump wants to self deport. Make those in your life aware so that they do vote.
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@SW
Fear mongering is all "progressive" democrats have. Young non white voters have seen their opportunities expand under Trump and likely don't want that to end with socialist policies.
3
Oh. So basically, your theory is that losing their health care, getting shafted on student loans, having their mom’s food stamps cut, having cops chase their working dad down the street so they can toss him out of the country, and chopping at public education and worker protections while amping up racists, is an opportunity that no right-thinking young woman or man could possibly fail to appreciate.
5
@jaco
Since when is racism socialist?
My daughter, 19, is voting for the first time during these midterms. I credit several high school social studies teachers for reinforcing her sense of civic responsibility. Not enough of our youth are exposed to the importance of voting, whether by parents, teachers or other influencers. All the protests and social media memes don't do anything unless they get out and exercise their right to vote. I'd like to think that if we had an app for voting their participation would be 95%. When it comes down to it, if you don't vote, don't complain. I don't want to hear it.
54
There are something like 25 million college students enrolled in private and public institutions each year. For them, it's a difficult process to enroll and then vote. You have to enroll, then request absentee ballot within all the different dates each state requires for both. I know, having managed the process for my daughter at George Mason University. Why is it so difficult? As part as the fall enrollment process why can't colleges automate the process? In the fall when you arrive at college a simple 1 page form given to each student and signed by them could automatically register them to vote and send a request for absentee ballot. It would be hard to abuse the system, because each student who enrolls each fall is most likely paying thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to their school. Can somebody tell me what is wrong with my logic?
74
@Sam ... Republicans DEPEND on young people and minorities failing to vote. It's one of the necessities for them to win.
15
From your mouth Nate to God's ears!
If it occurs there should be cheers,
Our two years of suffering
Needs fervent buffering
It's been an awful two years!
18
With already enough damage to last decades!
1
@Larry Eisenberg
How has it been an awful 2 years? Possible war with NoKo is over, your 401(k) is at an all-time high and your college grad sons and daughters have jobs.
1
@whoiskevinjones It's not about the economy for me (though I do believe that it was on this trajectory anyway, and it's just that so far, Trump hasn't managed to mess it up). It's about the destruction of our democratic republic. I hope you're happy when you wake up one day in a full blown fascist state. That's where it's heading.
Voting is an act of citizenship. Standing at attention during the national anthem may often be an effort to avoid embarrassment. Also, think of voting as good physical exercise. Walking, fresh air. Every woman should vote. Women worked for seventy years to get the right to vote. The men said they were not fit. Vote.
73
What Democrats call a surge Republicans call voting. Dems need to vote in this "most important election". But they also need to vote in 2020, 2022, 2024, 2026 and in all of the primaries and other elections in between with equal fervor.
106
I find it hard to believe that Latino voters would consider voting Republican, especially under this administration and Congress. However, turnout enthusiasm among these voters might be low because they recognize that neither party is going to support them. They watched Chuck Schumer and other Dem leaders get played by Trump and McConnell on the DACA issue.
18
@Dario Bernardini well they do, I work with many PR doctors and they are Latino.....
1
@Dario Bernardini There are a lot of people, of all colors, who think "I got mine, so everyone else can go screw themselves." People of all colors who came to this country, or whose ancestors came to this country, achieved success and prosperity, and then desire to pull the ladder up behind them so that nobody else can do the same. There is a large Cuban population in Florida that consistently votes Republican; they are the descendants of those who fled or were driven out of Castro's Cuba, and it is easy to see why they fall in line with the Republicans who are constantly whining about the evils of communism and trying to portray Democrats as such.
9
@Sam Rosenberg
Right you are, Sam.Margaret ,and her stooge St Ronnie, told all that the only true litmus of Democracy was "what's in it for me"?