We started working on our app well before Trump because the problems in our government have been festering and getting worse for decades. The root of the problem is money. But we're not going to be able to deal with the money problem until we get voters to engage regularly and turnout at elections. https://votercapital.org
3
The democrats blew it by dumping Bernie. The young people were not going to vote for Hillary and certainly not Trump so they did not. We have to give them someone they can relate to. Oh yes, and Gloria Steinem insulted them by saying the girls only want to vote for Bernie because he was the boys' choice. Pathetic.
Bernie had the magic energy and the Dems blew out his candle.
2
"Americans under age 30, for example, lean notably left. They are socially liberal, worried about climate change and in favor of higher taxes on the rich."
well, of course they support higher taxes for the rich - they haven't worked long enough to become rich themselves, so they figure that they *deserve* anything they can pry out of other people.
The problem with this thinking is that it is amoral.
Just because someone has money does not mean others have a right to it.
Selfish cretins.....
4
How can progressives have a viable economic message when progressives (see Obama and DeBlasio) view businesses, both small and large, as intrinsically evil. Remember that Obama actually said that if you had a business it was built by someone else. that tells you all you need to know. progressives will never be more than the equivalent of a whiny spoiled brat of a well heeled family.
2
But 30+ years of holding your nose voting is what gave us a President Trump.
30+ years of a Republican Lite “Opposition” Party is what gave us a President Trump.
Use your vote, or risk losing it.
2
It is nihilistic to say a pox on both houses. One party is better for the other party for ordinary Americans, and it is the Democratic Party. If you have issues you want addressed, do it within the party and not by washing your hands of it. Even former Republicans who feel abandoned--take your votes and your interests to the Democrats--they will listen to you, where the GOP has stopped listening to anyone who doesn't pay them.
2
And what, exactly, is the left voting for?
Do the Democrats actually have any policies?
The silence is deafening
6
What if a bunch of top of the line rock bands, hip hop acts and pop groups had a massive concert the day after election day, in various cities, with free admission, as long as you had a voting sticker?
There are several ways to get out the vote, but if someone is running under a particular party's banner, then the information for their voters needs to be shared.
I worked on all 3 of the past presidential elections for the Democratic candidate. I made phone calls, knocked on doors. In 2016, surprisingly, nearly every person on our call list was over 40, yet Bernie won the Michigan primary. Where were his voter lists? We had no chance to reach out to them because I believe they were not shared (I have no independent verification of this, yet it seemed odd since he won the Michigan primary). I was told this was true, but again have no indication of it's veracity. He ran as a Democratic but didn't share his voter outreach with the Democratic party in the presidential election?
Democrats can't hold out for the "perfect candidate". The Greed/Guns Over People party did an autopsy after 2012 to try to build their base, yet changed nothing based on Trump's evident "base" that won him the election in the electoral college. Evangelicals are supporting a cheating, harassing cretin the White House who is going against everything he promised them or they have alleged means something to them as Christians.
Party loyalty has to survive platform topics and differences or we will be stuck in the same never ending deja vu on election days.
Timing is not on the side of the left.
The tax cuts continue to gain in popularity as folks see more and more money in their take home and understand they will also have greater personal exemptions in 2018.
The Russia silliness is beginning to boomerang, and combined with another gun ban if Democrats win - that will energize conservatives in the right states for the GOP at the wrong time for Democrats.
3
Yeah, now give us something to vote FOR, like Single Payer; a living wage; a fair tax system; free college tuition; ending the wars; Net Neutrality; etc.
6
Trump's win should have been a massive wake-up call to Democrats.
And it has been to many progressives who are energized and have mobilized, mostly despite the efforts of the Dem establishment.
As despicable as Trump and the Republicans are, the Dems and their media cronies such as MSNBC have been duplicitous, hysterical, and irresponsible since Hillary lost.
Refusing to confront how the DNC & Hillary screwed Bernie Sanders out of the nomination and how Hillary was a terrible candidate who ran a terrible campaign, they now resort to manic Russophobia/Putinphobia, heedless of the existential stakes in this foolish, dangerous game they are playing.
HRC barely edged out her know nothing, racist clown of an opponent while losing the votes of a very large share of the working class white vote that had been the base of the Democratic Party prior to the creation of the Democratic Leadership Commission in 1985. You know, the good old DLC—not to be confused with the equally hateful DNC which we all have come to know and hate—that Hillary's husband and Al Gore gave whole hearted support to in the nineties and that sidelined minority and working class interests in favor of an alliance with the same corporatocracy that has always supported the Republicans.
It's 2018 and McCarthyism is back with a vengeance and anyone who threatens America's kleptocratic system of corruption is the new target - Bernie, Jill Stein, and - of course - true progressives.
Not a great strategy for voter turnout
7
Chris:
How about looking FORWARD and not backward?
Hillary is gone.
Jill Stein? REALLY?
You must have forgotten about Ralph Nader in 2000, who sucked of 97,488 Votes in FLORIDA which Bush "won" by 537 votes out of 6 million.
You must have forgotten H. Ross Perot in 1992, who got 19% of the popular vote and ZERO Electoral College votes. His campaign was a total bust.
No third party candidate has a snowball's chance in ... wherever. Voting third party may give you a one day "protest high", and then you get to live with the results, which you did not want. Brilliant. Genius. (Nobody else cares one whit that you protested, and nobody even notices.) Better to vote for the less bad of the two major candidates, one of whom is going to win.
2
Obvious coda to my last post. I mean to write cannot, instead of can.
Where is the next Obama, male or female?
nowhere. It will not be Obama, it will be somebody else, somebody different. It's 2018. We don't need heroes, we need a country of people willing to work together and work hard for the common good.
However, I have to admit I'd vote for Stoneham Douglas's David Hogg in a heartbeat. He's got a few years to do, but that's the spirit, the patience, the intelligence I want to see.
1
Where is the next Obama? Don’t worry. Lobbyists from Wall Street, Big Pharma, and the Military Industrial Complex won’t rest until they find him/her.
3
Debra:
Obama got my vote twice. He is miles ... no, LIGHT YEARS ahead of His Emprerorness Donald the First.
However, he was unwilling to "break any dishes" and his "no drama" was rational but not *compelling*.
What we need is a person with Obama's smarts, and Bernie Sanders' guts and willingness to "break dishes" if needed.
Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris come to mind.
1
Bravo!
If you are spreading doom and gloom and sniping at Democrats and relitigating 2016, it's time to wake up and stop supporting Republican opposition work and trolling. And if you are reading these discouraging posts and agreeing with them, ask yourself if they are not trolls. Putin's stated goal, setting aside Trumpian corruption, is to make us distrust each other and stay home. His people have done a good job when all you can do is snipe and snipe.
Vast numbers of new candidates (local and national have taken fire, and they're running for office somewhere near you. Stop saying they don't exist and look for them.
Beto O'Rourke is doing well challenging Ted Cruz. Dianne Feinstein is in trouble. I got a call today from Katie Wilson in New York: she's great. This paper published this a few days back: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/nyregion/women-nyc-council-public-off...
Like science? 314action.org - Shaughnessy Naughton and others are working hard; help them out.
Virginia happened, and without vote cheating, we'd have a majority and could roll back the nested cheating that turned a 10% victory into less than a majority allowing the cheating to continue.
Monbiot said: "I should confess that sometimes the left drives me round the bend. The meetings, the posturing, the infighting: it can be infuriating. The old adage that the right looks for converts while the left looks for traitors is all too often true."
http://www.monbiot.com/2018/02/22/wheel-of-fortune/
4
@Susan Anderson,
Yeah, progressives should just forget the organized corruption and lies that torpedoed Bernie and continue supporting a party that loves foreign wars and the military industrial complex and, as such, is indistinguishable from the "opposition" party.
# # #
Susan Anderson
Boston 7 minutes ago
If you are spreading doom and gloom and sniping at Democrats and relitigating 2016
5
@Senate27
If you cannot distinguish between Republicans (all of whom are Trump enablers and alternative fact purveyors) and Democrats, you need a new pair of glasses.
I am a Bernie Sanders supporter. When the choice came down to a totally unqualified incompetent and liar like Trump, and an uninspiring candidate like HRC, I held my nose and voted for HRC. In general, no third party candidate has any chance to win an election, so a vote for such a candidate is no better than not voting at all, and conceding the outcome to the choice of other voters.
3
Voters understand that while there are two parties, on most issues there is only one option. Too many Democratic candidates are DINOs - they are actually to the right of most Republicans of 30 years ago. The Clintons are DINOs. Many progressive voters understood that and did not show up at the polls.
The only solution is an uprising during the primaries in which the DINOs are replaced by progressive candidates.
Then the progressive minded voters will turn out in huge numbers in the actual election, defeating both the DINO party and the GOP.
6
For whom and what does the left need to vote?
Who are the messengers?
What are their messages?
5
Wake up and look around. There are thousands of new candidates, and they're winning. Look what happened to Dianne Feinstein today!
It's time to get unstuck from 2016, and stop letting trolls and opposition work dictate your opinions. If you wake up you will see them, they're everywhere.
Here's one good resource: 314action.org
NYTimes had an article about the new women's organization: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/nyregion/women-nyc-council-public-off...
3
So far, all I can see is that their message is Trump is Hitler so you must vote for anything with a "D" next to its name.
Look up the video clip of Jimmy Dore live in Burbank on Dec. 4 talking about Bill Maher and tell me the D's don't have a problem:
6
Jimmy Dore is over the top, and does not speak for a lot of us. We live in a Democracy, and that means that there are lots of us with varying viewpoints. I'm pretty far left, but there are those to both left and right that can say they care about all the people, not just the rich. Please stop cannibalizing your allies and helping Trump and his enablers. This is not about Hitler, it is about taking our country back from kleptocrats and haters and otherblamers and the NRA and the Kochtopus.
1
Further to what I posted this morning, it's imperative that the Democrats do the following soon if they desire future electoral success: The Democrats must find young leaders in earnest haste. While it's perhaps comforting to some that Donald Trump symbolically represents GOP voters as angry old WHITE males who can no longer get it up, what could be said for Bernie and Hillary?; can one imagine the spectacle of any of the aforementioned appearing on TV or You Tube, saying they were POTUS and use Depends?
Humor aside, all 3 also have another commonality---they are seniors. As a member of Generation X, I'll say that my generation has abjectly failed in producing political leaders. The ramifications of this, furthermore, are felt now with Trump's presidency. Seriously, America, or any democracy for that matter, can afford to perpetually have seniors running for highest political office.
1
All excellent points, but what if Russia continues to vote Republican in the coming Midterms, and beyond?
2
As a liberal, the most vicious political arguments I have are with other liberals, not Republicans, who I don't even bother talking to. Republicans are much more strategic and more disciplined in their voting behavior. They're willing to throw their support behind a candidate they don't personally like because they realize they can't get anything done if they aren't winning elections. They know politics is a long game. Liberals are not that way generally. They have to really be inspired by a person and by a message, or they won't show up to vote no matter how bad the alternative is. That's exactly what we saw in 2016.
4
When was the last time you saw an actual liberal in American politics?' don't you realize that Richard Nixon was to the left of Bill Clinton? That said, you're absolutely correct that liberals respond best to an inspiring candidate and message. Funny how when someone proposing a return to the New Deal was ardently rejected by those proclaiming real change one could believe in.
The rest of the world is curious: where are liberals in America circa 2018?
1
As a liberal, the most vicious political arguments I have are with other liberals, not Republicans, who I don't even bother talking to. What I tell them is I wish they voted more like Republican voters. Republicans are much more strategic and more disciplined in their voting behavior. They're willing to throw their support behind a candidate they don't personally like because they realize they can't get anything done if they aren't winning elections. They know politics is a long game. Liberals are not that way generally. They have to really be inspired by a person and by a message, or they won't show up to vote no matter how bad the alternative is. That's exactly what we saw in 2016.
1
When people complain to me about politics, or problems in society, I ask them whether they voted in the last election. If they say that they did not vote, here is what I tell them:
On the ONE DAY when your opinion would be counted and would matter, you sat on your hands and did nothing.
What do you think that I, as a private citizen, can do for your now?
I do not want to listen to your bellyaching about something that you had the opportunity to try to fix, and did NOTHING.
If you do not vote, DO NOT complain to me later. I can't help you. End of sermon.
VOTE on November 6, 2018. Preferably, vote a straight DEMOCRATIC ticket, and let us vote out Cadet Bone Spurs' Republican enablers.
Nobody ever hears (or cares) about a protest vote for a third party candidate who has ZERO chance of winning, and most definitely, nobody notices a "protest" expressed by not voting at all.
4
A reminder of just how creepy Republicans have become enabling this lazy cowardly greedy unthinking demagogue, from The Borowitz Report:
"Trump Orders Parade to Celebrate His Hypothetical Act of Heroism in Florida School"
"WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Shortly after he declared that he would have run into a Florida high school unarmed to thwart a mass shooting, Donald J. Trump announced that he was planning a parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate his hypothetical act of heroism.
"“Anyone can act with bravery in the moment,” Trump told reporters in the White House. “But it takes a very special kind of hero to tell people about the incredibly brave thing he would have done weeks after the thing happened.”
"He added that it was one of his greatest regrets that bone spurs prevented him from serving in the Vietnam War, “because the really courageous things I would have done during that war would have been off the charts.”
"“As soon as the Tet Offensive happened, I would have run unarmed right into that mess,” he said. “We probably would have won the war right after I did that.”
"Trump said that the parade he was ordering would honor not only him but all of America’s “last responders.”
"According to a new poll, Trump’s assertion that he would have run into the Florida high school unarmed was believed by his daughter Ivanka."
3
I like your other comments here, but you do realize the Borowitz Report is satire?
1
Meanwhile, the DNC is busy rigging the primaries and its agenda (Laura Moser being railroaded by the DNC, and the medicare for all agenda being jeopardized at their behest).
I am not sure I will vote for a DNC candidate again.
2
I call your nonsense, Susan. You keep supporting these sorts of parties, and you get what you sow (what an awesome economy, amazing health care system, and spectacularly amazing higher education system we have!). The DNC loves people like you, who will support them religiously, without criticism. The GOP loves you too, for your extremely religious support of the party of Nancy Pelosi.
I am tired of the DNC roping us in with the social issues and screwing us over with the economic ones. You can take your awesome stories about the DNC and tell it to people who will listen and fall for it.
I voted for HRC in the general and stood by it; but anyone who still won't call the DNC on its massive rigging in the 2016 primaries is part of the same problem that got us Trump. You are part of the reason we got Trump.
I am voting third party if I see even a hint of rigging with the DNC _anywhere_ in any state. No amount of calling me names is going to make me stop.
The democrats need to listen to people, instead of calling people names.
2
FurthBurner:
I am a Bernie Sanders supporter who voted for Bernie in the primary, and then held my nose and voted for HRC in the general election.
You have four choices:
1. Vote for a Republican - all of whom are Trump enablers
2. Vote for a Democrat - possibly not a candidate with whom you are in 100% agreement.
3. Vote for a 3rd party candidate who has ZERO chance of winning.
4. Stay home, and do not vote at all.
So what should you choose? How about the ONE choice that is closest to what you would like?
The Republican? Not even close.
Not voting gets you nothing and lets others make the decision for you, as does voting for a 3rd party guaranteed loser.
So what is left? How about make your desires known by participating? How about voting in a Democratic primary?
And then how about voting for the Democrat who wins the primary in the general election? (Because that choice is likely to be better than any Republican enabler of Trump.)
Cutting off your nose to spite your face does not do very much good. Neither does being such a "purist" that you will never vote for any candiidate that does not conform to every single one of your positions. The only such person is ... YOU! And chances are very good that you are not running for office.
2
Joe, your point is well received. It shouldn't surprise you that I took the same route in 2016 re: Bernie.
But should we take such a low bar for the DNC? Should we be OK with them rigging the primaries and lopsiding the think tanks with miquetoast nonsense? When should we hold them accountable? Should we hold them accountable at all? Are they accountable at all?
In a comparison between the rotten, festering cesspool that is the GOP, the DNC is a fetid pool of corruption. A distant one, but a fetid nonetheless. Should we not call out the corruption in the DNC? When do we get to fix the party? When is Nancy Pelosi leaving and taking Chuck Schumer with her? You think they won't stop spending more, more, more on the DoD budget? They will stop the wars? The mollycoddling with the corporateers, the health care cabal and the prison industrial complex?
Trump and the NRA want to arm teachers because they think it is a clever way to sell hundreds of thousands more guns in a slumping gun market.
Don't be distracted. The NRA is about selling more guns. Period. Make up controversies. Feed fear. Lie. Whatever it takes to sell more guns.
1
Thanks for this well stated column on the necessity of the Democrats getting out the vote. The truth is that even in red states, well the majority of the people vote the Democrats almost always win. That's because polls show that our issues and concerns are most in line with the ideas and goals of most Americans.
We need to clearly state who we are and what we stand for, and then do all in our power to get out the vote.......especially the young people's vote. If we do, we will and win big.
Great column, thanks David! "Ruthless" getting out of the vote is just what's needed.
I remember reading in some interview with the late great Jerry Garcia in Rolling Stone, back around when Nixon was president, that Garcia didn't vote because doing so was just playing "the system's game," or some such--it won't make a difference, so why bother? Jerry said a lot of intelligent, insightful stuff too (some of it in songs!) while he was here, but that comment on not voting sure hasn't improved with age!
Registering to vote and getting to the polls can be a true challenge for people living on the economic and social fringes. But in my personal experience, there are also a lot of folks who seem to have a lot to say, but can't be bothered to just go do their civic duty. I sadly have some family members who seem more concerned with maintaining their ideological purity than to cast a vote which will have an effect on their family, their neighbors, their country, and the whole world. They will expound on the various failings of both political parties. But really, since they don't vote, their opinion is not worth anything in the final equation.
2
The days of American democracy may be few indeed when citizens feel no duty to vote. They need to "inspired" before they can get to the polls. It is a fundamentally backwards view of the duty of the citizen - it shouldn't be incumbent on somebody else to lure you into doing your civic duty. Part of that duty is to make a choice even when neither choice is ideal, because choices always have consequences. Perhaps countries like Australia and Belgium are onto something with compulsory voting.
2
Mr Leonhardt, could you write about organizations that are doing a good job registering voters and getting out the vote nationally, or strategically in areas that are winnable with enough turnout (as Alabama proved to be)?
1
The importance of voting - especially during a midterm election - cannot be understated, especially on the left, but I would argue that the emphasis should be put on millennial left-thinking voters specifically. As the piece notes, the elderly are often motivated to vote, and ought to be even more motivated this fall with Paul Ryan floating Social Security and Medicare cuts as a signature part of the Republican agenda. Additionally, the strong turnout of African-American voters is recognized, and there is no reason to doubt that the rising tide will be stopped, especially in the wake of Doug Jones' shocking victory in Alabama last December. What we must focus on in order to secure the more prosperous nation proposed in this work is ensuring that left-minded youth are motivated to vote. That motivation, to me, will be based on the candidates on the ballots this November.
Ideas are important, it is true, but equally as important are the candidates that serve as vehicles for these ideas. The standard, run of the mill, milquetoast Democrats that are often put forward by the DCCC are rarely inspiring, especially not to young, sometimes first-time voters. To ensure the success of leftist positions, exciting candidates must be embraced. All the factors described in this Op-Ed are true- the stage is set for a Democratic wave, with young progressives leading the way. However, the size of that wave is dependent on the enthusiasm generated by Democrats nationwide.
"The movement is “pervasively pragmatic,” write the researchers, Lara Putnam of the University of Pittsburgh and Theda Skocpol of Harvard. It spans “the broad ideological range from center to left” and (despite media coverage to the contrary, they argue) spends little time on Bernie-versus-Hillary fights."
I really hope this is true. It is would refreshingly sensible and sane.
1
After Mrs. Clinton's loss to Trump, Democrats didn't like the Electoral College. Will they try to move up the timing of mid-term elections to late spring? Good luck. In the meantime, play by the rules of the game.
To someone who isn't wed to either party, I suggest the Democrats return to basics. Rid yourselves of Mrs. Pelosi. Attract more capable leadership to the DNC. Stop trying to be everything to everyone who has a sad story. This has never worked. Never will. Understand what is genuinely important to the majority of people who vote. Separate yourselves from the Clintons, for once and for all. Stop caring what Hollywood thinks. Apparently, this does little to help you win elections.
2
After the Brexit vote, many young people protested that 'the old people had stolen their future' - most young people in the UK are pro-EU. Too bad so many of them didn't bother to vote.
Let's hope this time is different.
Yes, the left needs to vote. They also need to actively work to rectify a broad and vexing number of voting issues, starting now.
For instance, the states, especially the caucus states, need to address the unreasonable and unfair obstacles that older Americans must overcome in order to vote.
I was a precinct captain and visited every home in the precinct. Of the many folks 60 and older whom I talked to, only about one in 25 arrived at the caucus site and participated.
The yelling and physical exuberance of the other side frightened them. The caucus facilities were inadequate, which resulted in considerable physical hardship. For example, they would have been compelled to stand in hallways for hours.
Almost all of these older voters supported Sec. Clinton.
This is, however, the most progressive zip code in the country. Senator Sanders was expected to win by a landslide. In the end, however, Clinton carried the day. We attributed the victory to the door-to-door approach.
Had a representative proportion of older people attended, they would have moved one delegate from Senator Sanders to Clinton. A comparable effect state-wide would have changed the outcome significantly.
1
Offer incentives to people to vote as is done in some other countries. For example, allow people who vote to reduce their income taxes by a certain amount, or to apply for additional benefits, or to reduce student loan debt, etc, etc. That ought to work! If all else fails, make voting mandatory, like paying taxes.
Until the Democratic candidates come forth with a coherent, easy to understand economic message, they are in deep water. While climate change, immigration, gender equity, gun controls, Russia-gate, etc. all are winning issues, collectively they pale in comparison to the economic message. Over the first 14 months of the current presidential term, there is little to disagree with on the economic front. Like it or not, most citizens vote primarily around pocket book issues.
7
State Republican officeholders will be busy behind the scenes trying to suppress Democratic votes in 2018. They have a well worn playbook that includes onerous voter ID laws (to protect against phantom voter fraud), dishonest cleansing of voter rolls, limited polling hours and sites in selected neighborhoods, insecure voting machines with no paper trail, and poll watchers to intimidate minority voters.
Unfortunately, that's not all we're likely to face. The Russians probed many state voter lists, supposedly with limited success and no apparent intervention. The real opportunity for mischief could occur if sufficient numbers of voters in key heavily Democratic districts had their information changed or deleted such that they could only cast a provisional ballot (if that was allowed). Or if they hacked into voting machines and created enough confusion or delays to clog the polls with long lines that discouraged others waiting in line. Working class and middle class people have busy lives and many can't spend hours if that's what it takes to vote.
It's also plain to see why Republican lawmakers don't seem enthused about protecting our election system. They're not real big on the whole democracy thing anyways.
5
The extent of the hacking and vote switching by Russia has been minimized by the national media because republicans control state elections. There was vote flipping in Georgia in 2016 with one of the least secure computer systems among the 50 I would anecdotally wager. The SOS preferred suing Feds to protecting Georgia voters. Dude is running for gov now! Criminal fraud, dereliction of duties, malfeasance of office are career enhancing traits for republicans. Anyone that knows republicans and their abhorrence of democracy, working with their Russian allies to destabilize and diminish western democracy and global leadership would be naive to think that electoral fraud on a massive scale did not occurred in 2016 to flip the election to the rabid orangutan.
https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/state-looking-re...
2
In recent elections gun control has been an issue that the right has used successfully to bring out its vote. The fear, they are coming to take away your guns' has been a strong motivational factor. The left focused on other, less emotionally-driven issues. No more. Parkland has made a difference. 'Vote as if your kids life depends on it -- because it does ' is a knee-jerk issue with parents. Too many parents live in fear each morning when they send their kids to school. This is the issue that will galvanize the left. Finally.
3
I used to be stridently liberal, but the subject raised by this article made me less ardently left. I got fed-up with poor and minority people blithely ignoring their duty to participate and, consequently, became less interested in their predicament
3
No. The left will vote. That is neither an issue nor a problem.
I am a member of the Silent Majority - A furious, frothing at the mouth, mad as hell and won't take it any more Moderate.
If most of us come out, we can begin to take our country back from rule by the Kochs and Mercers, who have successfully lied to and purchased the votes of a minority of ignorant, poor, white, intolerant rural people. For how long will Californians accept that their votes are worth 1.5% of the vote of a Wyomingite in the United States Senate? This is not something foreseen by the Founding Fathers.
Dan Kravitz
2
Statistics on the voting patterns of the younger generations are discouraging. Shame on them for their 16% voting performance during the most recent mid-terms. All the voter suppression in the world could never have brought such a turn-out so low.
That said, the only two nationally viable political parties offer nothing, nobody inspirational to vote for. Shame on us for that! The GOP has hurtled totally beyond the pale. The Democrats stumble inexorably into their tired geriatric unit, bereft of substantive ideas and out of touch with the intelligent millennial and post-millennial idealists on which their Party depends.
Does anybody seriously believe for a second that the #MeNext gun violence prevention activists or the Sandernista armies of 2016 resonate with the likes of Hillary Clinton, Steny Hoyer, Diane Feinstein, Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi? Bless their dear hearts for past service, but I don't think so.
I am blessed with bright young progressives in my family and among their friends. At the mere hint of the above-cited folks, they roll their eyes and mutter "Give me a break!" After all, Hillary, Madeline Albright and Gloria Steinem condemned young women to hell for their temerity in supporting Bernie Sanders.
Let's give the country a break and find a way for us to get out of the way and bring our progressive juniors into political leadership roles. If we fail to do that, they'll eventually seek recognition outside the system, and the results won't be pretty.
6
One word about your article: DUH.
2
One can only pray this fall’s election will not be determined by the whims of out-of-touch liberal, echo chamber commenters here or equally clueless op-ed columists from the New York Times.
Because, moderate folks like me are sick and tired of dogmatic extremists, whether it comes from Donald Trump’s GOP or self-serving leftists represented by the likes of the Sanders and Stein crowd.
This means that we in the middle do not want a damn, elitist revolution, but something more much more basic.
We in the middle want a government that moves forward by promoting the interests of the majority of our citizens through common sense solutions which come from consensus and not hot-house ideological dogma.
3
Low hanging fruit. Vote vote vote these idiots out of office !!
1
The leftists crazies all vote. There are not enough of them to turn the election. Hence, the open border and the legalize felons to vote push. You are killing all your future underclass democrat voters with abortions. The ranks are thinning.
1
What lefties are you talking about. We haven't had any "crazy lefties" anywhere in the country since the Vietnam War days and the furthest out of them were delusional Leninists like the Weathermen. There's nothing crazy about Social Democrats except that we don't have any South of Ottowa. Democrats have lost touch with their labor roots and a witless skunk like Trump was still able to capture disenfranchised rust-belters because the Dems had nothing to offer them but identity politics. I have nothing against LGBT rights but unemployed steel workers need something with more relevance to their lives and livelihoods. What about free state & community college tuition and technical skills re-education while getting serious about infrastructure investment? And not on a non-existent local-state dime, but good ole fashioned Federal investment in highways and bridges and schools.
@Steve:
You live on Long Island, in NY, which always goes BLUE. Do tell me more. Republicans do SOOO well in NY, and in MA.
Yes. This is a country at war with itself. 1865 brought us a detente, but the war still rages cold, warm and heated in our politics. It's not North/South anymore as it was, but it's the same dichotomy: Progressive/Regressive. Yes, I know it's not all that simple, but it's damned close. No one from the Regressive side of the equation is going to be persuaded to the side of reason, given that it's largely made up of 2 kinds of people: those who can't hear the truth, and those who won't. Our best and only hope is fight this war instead of thinking that they'll somehow come to their senses. They won't . They can't. And they'll have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the future. The good news is that they only make up about 30% of our population -- mostly the lower end of the bell-curve, whether they know it or not.
You criticize the young for not voting yet when a candidate is offered who is enthusiastically endorsed by the young as well as real progressives, and yes Im referring to Bernie Sanders, the D.N.C. pulled the rug out from underneath them. Put up someone as a candidate who is not a clog of the status quo Democratic machine just because it’s “their turn “and really represents the interest of the young as well as the working class and you will see the young turn out, Bernie proved it’s possible to beat these bast—- of both parties with his millions of small donors. Keep the current agenda and this nation will flame out in anarchy and rightfully so, it is beyond corrupt as the destruction of the working class since the seventies clearly illustrates and in case no ones noticed a sizable number of our inner city citizens have been killing each other for decades, you will only be able to keep them walled off in the ghettos of Chicago or L.A. for so long.
4
Not to vote unthinkable when we vote unsinkable
this Kool-aid is contemptible, undrinkable
so get up at a gallop it's patriotic and you call it
go and cast a ballot like whacking with a mallet
Be like Godiva or Shallot just be sure you go
to let the people know what you're standing fo'
There is no time for shy -- in silence democracy dies.
1
Every American should have to watch the speeches given by the high school kids from Parkland, or consider how many parents had to explain to their pre-kindergarten kids why there were policemen at their schools the day after the shootings. THIS is why we need to vote. If you don't water your garden, it will not survive. If we don't protect our democracy, work to make it better, and make the effort to educate ourselves enough to make either the decision to vote or who to vote for, our democracy will die. It is currently being wounded, with some very serious destructive actions by this administration. It may not survive for our children and grandchildren. China's president is slowly turning his country into a dictatorship. Is that what you want for us? Vote, and use your vote wisely!!!
4
There is no "Left" in the US. That's a term frequently used by right-wingers to further divide America.
There are only the crazy right-wingers on Fox news and Trump supporters who don't know better. The majority of Americans are normal everyday good people who don't support extreme far-right wing politics.
4
My son turned 18 in January. You bet your bootie he is voting in November. He and many of his friends.
5
What a joke!! Liberals love to talk big about "Getting out the vote" and then, as usual, have no follow up! the young people will not go through the process to register. It is that simple. The PC culture has forced liberals to pick candidates that sound good, but are functionally never going to be considered as serious candidates(Oprah)!!!
Good luck you dreamers!!!
9
We elected Barack Obama twice. While he is a once in a life time pol, when progressives are motivated, we vote. 2018 will be a reckoning for the Republican Party. It will be the beginning of the end of trumpism and end of faux conservatism in America.
1
"The PC culture has forced liberals to pick candidates that sound good, but are functionally never going to be considered as serious candidates(Oprah)!!!"
People said the same thing about some guy who was famous for hosting The Apprentice and doing pro wrestling cameos.
1
It doesn’t add up: what’s your interest here? What do you have in common with working class Whites, African Americans, Latinos, or Asian Americans?
2
Gee perhaps the fact that we all need clean air and water, we all want to live in safe neighborhoods, we all want safe roads, bridges etc. and we're all supposed to be treated equally.
3
I had a Facebook friend. She was a black woman, under 30. She told me she voted for Jill Stein because she didn't like Hillary Clinton. When pressed, she couldn't say why, only that Hillary Clinton was "No friend of America." I'm sure it was the Russian Blacktivist posts she had been reading. Even if you get progressives to vote, with the Russians meddling in our elections, there's no guaranteeing that they won't throw that vote away because of Russian disinformation.
6
Vote.
Donate to progressive candidates.
Call Congress.
Write letters to the editor.
March.
Tweet.
Talk.
Repeat.
5
The Dems need to put more oomph in their message. New younger politicians might help as well as a more rah-rah delivery . When Trump yells out (still! ) “lock her up,”the Dems need to counter with “lock him up and traitor Don.”
As Leo Durocher noted - “good guys end up last.”
5
It's got to be 'cool' for young people to vote. It was in two elections here, one to get rid of an inadequate mayor of Toronto (Rob Ford) and the other to unseat an almost alt-right political party that had strangled the country for nine years. The young people at the downtown coffee shop I frequent were all energized to vote in both instances and actually seemed surprised that voting was an interesting thing to do.
It seems to me that young people in the US have discovered that voting is worthwhile. If they do it, I don't give much for the GOP's chances. Get out the youth vote and changes will come faster.
5
A substantial liberal win at all levels is critical to the next two years. It is much more important than getting Trump impeached. If Trump is impeached and Republicans retain their majorities, their right wing destruction of the institutions of government will continue under Pence. The pace will probably be faster, because there won't be nearly the dysfunction and chaos in the White House. They will push the hard right agenda very hard. Worse, if they gain any more state houses, we could see a disastrous constitutional convention where all bets are off.
If the Democrats get overconfident and blow this election, too, the scope of the disaster is almost mind blowing. We could end up with a single party State and the kind of authoritarian government that only the oligarchs want. This may seem hyperbolic, but just look at how much the GOP has tried to undo in merely a year of Trump's presidency. No one, even his supporters thought that this much could be done and undone.
I used to think that "nothing is ever as good as you hope, or as bad as you fear." The state of our government right now is far worse than any of my fears when Trump was elected.
7
We had a local election in Fall 2017 where a candidate won by 1 vote. Yes, your vote DOES count!
5
Only 16% of the 18-29 year age group voted in the last midterm. Wow.
Talk about good news bad news. Obviously the bad news is that they have not been exercising their right to influence the process.
The good news, for a savvy candidate, is that a huge majority of a demographic, including the 30-44 year old group, is "in play".
Focus.
4
The progressive Left’s problem is not elitism per se, at least in the sense that it’s now the party of wealthy people, investors, professionals, academics, the media, and celebrities. Rather it’s Left’s grating habit of lecturing America on its shortcomings; particularly middle America and the white middle class. To be sure, this gets a lot of media attention and, to some, probably feels good. But will elite vitriol really drive young voters to the polls? How motivating is white privilege or amnesty to the broad electorate? I get the sense progressive are reading their own press clipping.
4
Who is doing this lecturing? I mostly see the right wing complaining about the Democrats and lying about them.
6
This kind of ignorance is terrifying. None of the liberals I know fit your description. My friends and co-workers are business owners and middle class people of average income trying to raise families and maintain a basic standard of living.
1
Is that a Faux News talking point? Or, did you get it from a Russian bot from your Breitbart feed on Fakebook.
1
Nice article David. Yes the left is energized. Now we just need the democrats to join the left.
5
Here's one for you: college-aged man requests absentee ballot but does not receive. Calls county clerk who then requests, from some out of state outfit in the Pacific Northwest who has a contract with the county to print and send ballots, that another ballot be printed and sent. It does not arrive. Many more calls to the county clerk's office— they counsel patience because the records indicate ballot has been printed and sent. This continues until just a few days before the election when the power to print the ballot reverts to the county and they print and send another ballot. This one does arrive. Vote is cast and returned immediately.
THEN, around the time the "president" is being sworn in a ballot arrives at distant College— USPS, in pristine condition. How many of these stories are there? Where was the (now cancelled) ballot all this time? How is this okay?
2
Yes!! Remind the young that it's more important than demonstrating.
2
Actually, it's just as important. Demonstrating can keep the momentum moving and Trump shaking in his comfortable, well padded, bone spur protecting shoes.
Know this is snarky, but I heard the President tell us today that he would have rushed into Stoneman Douglas High School and stopped the gunman. I suppose the idea was to sit on the kid? Somebody's been watching way too much TV.
Now is a time made ever more critical to vote.Be encouraged by what a better turnout resulted in the recent Alabama dethroning of Moore.
If we want to begin defeating the puppet-masters like the Koch boys , the Mercers, the Murdochs then the rest of us must cast a ballot.
The Parkland shooting has energized a group of young people who are demonstrating their concerns , thankfully many of them will be eligible to vote in the coming midterms and certainly by 2020 to unseat the most vicious, corrupt syndicate to ever set foot in the White House.
2
Election Day in American should be a holiday that allows everyone to take a day off from work with pay so they can visit their local voting establishment and cast their vote.
I am 100% in favor of making voting mandatory, as it is in other countries. As a citizen of the United States, it is your DUTY and RESPONSIBILITY to vote for your elected officials. Take the time. Put down the remote, get off the couch and go vote. It'll be there when you get back.
5
I agree, voting is a duty as is civil disobedience to tyrants.
And here are the younger generations blaming boomers for the problems in our country! Good one, that. As a boomer, like commentor M.S. Shackley I've voted in every election, from dogcatcher up, since I turned 18 in 1973. I guess my high school civics class had an impact. Or maybe it was to honor my uncles who gave their lives in WWII, or just the idealism of the recent 60's.
Our younger generations now have a chance to claim and transform our country as their own. Do it this year, guys and every election from now on. We will be honored to pass the torch, but you have to stand up and take part. Voting counts.
5
Yes, the Boomer blaming gets old. If you want Boomers out of government, vote in younger politicians, Nov 18 is your chance.
3
https://www.rockthevote.org/resources/online-voter-registration-tool/
Is this a viable/legitimate organization to recommend to young non-registered-yet people?
Can you use it in your column or recommend other specifics to encourage this demographic to vote and make a difference!
I believe that Oregon has shown that mail in ballots work. Let's take that idea national. What better way to make it easier to vote -- not to mention safe from the threat of hacking and the other problems with online voting (such as, sometimes, a lack of a paper trail)?
2
I love our voting system. If you live in a state that you can get signatures for ballot measures I suggest you do this. That is how Oregon got vote by mail.
Paper ballots everywhere. They are the one thing that can't be hacked!
The missing piece in this article: Democratic politicians effectively advocating and enacting progressive policies, so left-leaning voters actually have a reason to vote.
The Clinton and Obama failures to enact universal health insurance are exhibits A and B for why so many progressives are politically disengaged.
3
Millenials can’t be bothered.
2
So you prefer trump taking away the meager insurance we now have?
1
Mechanics of New York State is like a transmission stuck in gear, attempting but failing to shift into progressive gear, and permanently dropping into low gear for Trump, their hometown child. New York has played too big a role in the past presidential race to continue that in 2020.
Nothing in recent years has been more exciting and inspirational than the eloquence and energy of the teenagers in Florida. They are articulate and sensible. No baffle gab. No nonsense. Just dignified common sense. Coupled with the women's march and all that enthusiasm one can anticipate change in your fall election.
That is, providing those slithery snakes who snuck into your last election have disappeared.
In the meantime middle America might start funding a few of the young persons who seek office. They could not be any worse than what you have now. Immobilized government. Fractured at the top. Cheers.
4
if we don't support the youth we will be denying the many real opportunity to advance beyond their social station at the cost of enriching relatively few. This is not hard to understand as it is happening now.
March in Washington next month and vote in November
2
If the DNC had nominated Bernie Sanders we would have seen a huge voter turnout. Nominating Hillary turned off a lot of voters. Voters want substance and vision, if we get another lackluster, status quo candidate I'm afraid we'll see a repeat of the last election.
4
And then old folks like me couldn’t have voted for the spitting demented Sanders and Trump would have won outright.
1
Sorry but the Midterm elections are about state and local and legislative selections not the last or next presidential candidate. Get your heads out of your posterior and figure it out. Who do want in Congress and the Senate? Who do want in State and local government? That's where the action is and Democrats just don't get that basic fact. The Repugnant-cans did. That's why back in '10 they began a long slog to take over the statehouses so that they could redistrict the states and build a minority election machine. Look at PA and Ohio and swing states all over the country. Dems outnumber R.s in every one of those states and yet the latter now have significant statehouse majorities and governorships. You have to vote and you have know the issues and argue like hell for the right things.
Water under the bridge, get out and vote.
Register with your driver license. Voting day is a holiday. Voting is mandatory by reward and penalty. Online voting with a secure receipt and log in is a possibility and probably safer than any Diebold machine. If true democracy is participation then everyone voting might restore the nation. Certainly in a fair and open election there would be no Trump.
Progressives usually don't vote for mainstream Democratic candidates who they regard with disdain for not being progressive enough. This hurts Democratic candidates big time in the general presidential election. Ralph Nader siphoned enough crucial votes to deny Al Gore the presidency in 2000. Bernie Sanders' supporters rejected Hillary Clinton. If Bernie Sander wasn't going to be president then neither was Hillary. Blame Progressives for Bush 43 and Trump 45.
2
Progressives had a Democratic candidate, McGovern. They are looking for another.
The two examples you mentioned is exactly the reason that young people in this country have yet to earn the right to have a significant say in our political process.
Because, they view the political process through the eyes of a tween who has to figure out the world is not black and white and that progress is not revolutionary, but incremental.
1
I hope progressives aren't looking for another George McGovern. Even with Watergate beginning to gain momentum Richard Nixon still had no trouble trouncing George McGovern in 1972.
Another excellent op-ed, David. Maybe it would motivate the 18-30 year olds if the Democratic party offered them all Starbucks cards—but only after they voted.
3
Voting isn’t a privilege. It’s a responsibility. It’s the responsibility of eligible voters to cast a ballot and it’s the responsibility of government at all levels to make it as easy as possible for eligible voters to cast a ballot.
Many red states suppressed the vote under so-called “voter ID” laws. But to me, even that’s not the real problem. The real problem is voter apathy and cynicism. “Why bother? The system’s rigged anyway,” they say. And their failure to vote allows moneyed special interests to influence legislators, further separating voters from the people and confirming the nonvoter’s conviction that it’s all about money and power. Red state legislators strive to perpetuate this attitude with so-caled "voter ID" laws that suppress the vote. And they were successful, at least up to the 2016 election.
So, God bless Donald J Trump! He’s showing people what happens when they don’t vote. He’s forcing voters to go out and learn the issues themselves and not depend on politicians and special interests to do their homework for them. Trump is showing people just how bad things can get when we fail in our responsibility to vote.
2
You can thank that belief in a “rigged” voting system and its subsequent voter apathy not only due to the actions of Donald Trump and his GOP, but self-serving leftist demagogues like Bernie Sanders who do just as much harm by spewing this nihilistic garbage.
1
No logical person votes because of a belief that his/her voting will make a difference.
It doesn't. I am 70 and have voted in every election. None of my votes mattered. The result would have been the same regardless of whether I voted.
So why do people vote? Why do I vote?
I don't know the answer. This is the best I can come up with: I vote because my self-concept includes the idea that "I tried." I can't influence the outcome, but I can influence the belief that I am someone who "tried." That is something I have complete control over.
Attempting to get people to vote because the outcome of election is important to them may be going about it in the wrong way. Perhaps, instead, attempts should be made to influence how people feel about themselves. Ask people to consider such questions as: "Do you want to look at your children and say to them: I didn't even try?" "Do you want your children to be people who don't even try?"
We need to change self-concepts, not try to change something that isn't true, which is that our individual voting affects the outcome. When we try to do the latter we will fail because it is the nonvoters who are actually more logical than are the voters.
2
They turned out for Bernie Sanders in the Primaries. They would have turned out for him in the general election. The Democratic Party needs to return to its progressive roots, to remember it is the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
4
And African Americans would have rejected Sanders as they did during the primaries. Sander’s ambition is getting the better of him. Blaming Clinton for Russian interference is outrageous.
3
African Americans, according to polls, are the group that give the most popular politician in the US the largest support of any group. And Clinton ran the worst campaign in recent history, losing to the worst candidate in history.
2
Americans need to learn that when push comes to shove, you vote for the candidate you have, not the one you wish for. That's reality. Otherwise, we end up with an unbelievable, horrendous, lying, idiotic, blowhard like Donald J. Trump.
Perhaps if the Republicans had had a rational person running, say John Kasich, we might not be happy, but we would not be in danger of being blown off the planet, nor would we be watching our Democracy being eroded. Both sides need to re-think their priorities. This is crucially important in the coming election this November. Do you really want Mitch "we can't allow Obama to pick a Supreme Court Justice" McConnell and Paul "oh my gosh, the deficit is out of control - wonder who we can get to anti up" Ryan to return and drag us further down?
230 million eligible voters in 2016.
63 million, Trump.
66 million, Clinton.
100+ million, "What, Me Worry?"
I remember reading a Gloria Steinem essay a couple decades back regarding the pitiful U.S. voting rate. In the essay she argued that the "all politicians are alike" idea gained widespread acceptance only after the Voting Rights Act and women's movement energized African-Americans and women, respectively, to become a lot more engaged in voting.
At that point, she argued, Republicans knew they could never win over a majority of voters, as their policies were anathema to most Americans. They could, however, convince the majority to NOT vote for the alternative.
In this, they have been spectacularly successful.
67
Don't sell Gloria short, she did her bit too. Because what better way to get the female millennial vote for her candidate than to tell them they only supported their own candidate of choice because that's where the boys were.
1
The Republicans were successful this time because the Democrats also had a weak candidate. In fact, Mrs. C. was too well known. Obama won in 2008 because no one knew him. He hadn't yet soiled his reputation and fomented hate. Mrs. C. had remained with a man who had soiled his reputation while he held the highest post in the country, and he had humiliated his wife. Yet she remained with him. Even before Me, Too, this did not speak well for her, as far as millions of voters were concerned. She was a mediocre Secretary of State. Own your candidate.
By the way, Obama never soiled his reputation during his two terms as POTUS, because as it turned out he was unremarkable and could never figure out what to do. So he did almost nothing. Maybe he's on to the new normal to winning national elections.
You are right. If progressives want change they will have to vote to make it happen. Getting young people, Blacks, Hispanics, and others to the polls will only happen from the grassroots level. Organizers will have to help people get registered and in some cases, help them get to the polls.
I like the term "progressive" versus "the Left". Calling a political movement "Leftist" brings to mind communism or socialist. It is not descriptive of progressive ideals which have to do with giving everyone a fair chance, gender equality, climate change policies, the right to health care, safety for our citizens, equitable trade, and being a beacon of democracy in the world among other things.
7
Try more contemporary methods to vote. We are still in a 1950's mode of expecting folks to either get up early and vote before work, or be sure to get into the polling place before dinner time. Most young people's lives are not like that. A couple of ways to address this fact have already been applied such as early voting at multiple locations, and voting by mail which is more prevalent in the West. This also provides a paper trail which as we now know is likely to be needed once again. The North East is particularly way behind these trends and for what reason other than nostalgia I can't understand. .
5
I am heartened by the activism of the Florida students. Many of them will be eligible to vote in 2020. What is being done to focus their efforts on voter registration and education on the crucial part they - and others their age - could have on the outcomes of those elections?
12
Is it true activism or is it some rich guy with a gun control agenda paying for everything?
Progressives don't vote because the Democratic Party does not offer them the policies they want. Progressives will not vote for Republican Lite candidates just because they have a (D) after their names.
And the Democratic Party does not mobilize progressives to act, but instead discourages protest, and just asks for $3 every twenty minutes. When the Wisconsin workers mobilized to force Walker's recall for example the Democratic machine did more harm than good. Occupy, which drove the discussions of wealth and income inequality in the media, and made things like increases in the minimum wage possible, was treated with derision by the party.
There is no center base. There is a right base and a left base. If the Democratic Party wants votes from progressives, it has to treat the left as well as the GOP treats its white supremacist base.
And if you want people to vote, the best way is to get them involved between elections. Telling people that protest is a waste of time, and voting for progressive candidates is a waste of time and just send us money and we'll do the rest is not the way to get people to polls.
Engaged citizens vote. Marginalized citizens do not.
10
They say you get what you vote for and we sure did. One reason for voter demise,especially among young people is that they no longer teach "civics"in school. Students don't know what a township is, a board of supervisors or even that we have 3 separate but equal parts of government. They are not taught what democracy is, socialism, fascism, white supremacy is. For the most part, they have their faces stuck on a cell phone, I-pad, etc,. Schools and parents have an obligation to teach children about our great country and our obligations toward it. Parents need to set the example by getting out to vote and know the issues. If you don't vote, don't complain when you get what you did not want. Wake up America, the extremists want to take over.
@ McGloin
Frankly, folks like me in the center do not want burn-down-the-house, no compromise leftist ideologues in the Democratic Party, because we want progress for our the country not by elitist revolution, but by evolution from adult that listen, even to those “GOP-lite” folks.
A ray of light in a grim and darkened landscape. It’s not your latest FB rant or letter to the NYT-“it’s the vote,stupid!”
2
It has been the norm for decades now that people think it makes little difference who we vote for. That is perhaps the biggest reason they choose to not vote. People are tired of the status quo and have been for generations.
Bernie Sanders finally ignited a segment of the electorate that normally would have remained on the sidelines. As did Donald Trump. This should tell us something and those who ignore it and continue to play a phony centrist game do so at their own peril.
Above all, we need sincere candidates who don't regurgitate a bunch of goobly gook that the majority of the electorate knows is nonsense. Agree or disagree with Bernie's policies, he cannot be legitimately accused of misleading or pandering to voters. Alternatively, his baggage heavy opponent would continually shift or confuse us with her meandering diatribes. The issues themselves become marginalized if candidates are not perceived as leaders who have our best interests at heart.
Today we have a unique opportunity given the corruption and insanity that has encompassed the Republican Party. But what will be our alternatives come November? Voting against the status quo won't be enough if voters perceive more of the same.
2
But many BernieBros voted Trump when they didn’t get their way. They gave Trump the election the three key electoral states. This is inexcusable. You may not agree but voting chaos over a viable party candidate now seems like a kind of functional treason.
3
Of course Comey delivered the blow.
But Clinton chose not to go to Wisconsin and Dems did not try to protect Wisc, Mich, and Penn...
Plus, too many women, blacks, and young people did not vote.
David's column was too long coming.
5
"...Dems did not try to protect Wisc, Mich, and Penn..."
WI and MI went for Sanders in the primaries, PA had a closed primary so we'll never know. You'd think a party and candidate who for some odd reason think of themselves as the smart ones would maybe realize that they didn't quite have in in the bag and ought to put in a bit more effort. Nah, that's no fun and the voters are icky. More fun to party in the Hamptons, Vinyard, and Malibu after the primaries instead.
My husband and I canvassed for Hillary in a poor neighborhood in Philly. Every person we met said they were Dems and had voted for Obama. His name brought big smiles. All said they would vote for Hillary.
That said, the obvious poverty of the area and its high crime rate made it seem unlikely that most would make it to the polls for Hillary because she drew little enthusiasm. Many were unaware of the rest of the ticket or the issues.
I wondered if free transportation were provided to the polling place with a good hot meal afterward, it might have made a difference to people who were hanging on by their fingernails to some kind of life.
Better yet would be some kind of hope for those who lived there...where were we Dems for those people, except for asking them to vote?
39
Same in Texas. Couldn’t get the party to even consider bilingual signage. I finally made my own. Ridiculous.
2
"That said, the obvious poverty of the area and its high crime rate made it seem unlikely that most would make it to the polls for Hillary because she drew little enthusiasm....where were we Dems for those people, except for asking them to vote?"
Sharon, bless you, you are a thousand times right. We need better Dems. We had a decent chance with Senator Sanders. But the voters we so need will not be inspired to come out on election day by more Clinton-style triangulation.
Give us, and everyone, a new deal. Give us a New Deal.
4
It seems odd that you canvassed for Hillary and yet do not remember her policy proposals, which were designed to help those people, and her history of helping just such people.
Instead, the discouraged simply let Republican opposition work and foreign trolling dictate their opinions, without seeing for themselves what is in question.
Meanwhile, you will be happy to know that thousands of engaged candidates, especially women, the young, and the previously disengaged, are running for office - and winning.
3
Will there be anything left by the time 11/6 gets here? If we blow this one, we're toast!
7
The NYT Picks are a wonderful demonstration of the centrist ideology that works against true progressivism in this country.
2
Mr. Leonhardt fails to grasp the important changes in the US political landscape.
Left. Right. Liberal. Conservative. all are antiquated, obsolete terms. they simply have NO relavance in todays politics.
Bush endorsed Hillary Clinton! Doesnt anyone grasp the signifigance of that??
The Immigrant Debate is obviously misguided....and it seems to be the only superfulous issue the Democrat Party has left with which to brow-beat the public. Sometimes, I guess, maybe one or two mexicans who drove across the Rio Grande, might some day drive all the way up to NYC and look at the Statue of Liberty...........Poor Ole David Leonhardt just cant understand why they dont bother. sorry....but the Ellis Island frame of reference is laughably out-of-date with modern times.....in which Chinese Couples fly to SF in order to give birth to a baby, that thru some incredible stretch of imagination, is granted automatic "citizenship" and "in-state tuition" in California....yet will grow up safely nutured inside a Chinese mindset.
...
why are we not making OTHER countries more like the US and accepting of immigrants?
The DNC,Inc....a corporation devoted only to profit and power for its Stockholders(NOT the citizens)......needs votes............thats why.
2
And the answer is? We do not have a viable third party.
Really, there's all these Chinese couples with the money to fly to California to give birth? What are you smoking? It was rural Brits who were hornswaggled into voting for Brexit because they might see foreign (Polish or other E. Europeans) collecting garbage or harvesting turnips. Here we have rural folks buying the baloney about immigrants taking their jobs. Maybe in cutting up chickens and meat packing...maybe. If you live in a mixed urban environment you meet hard working Mexicans and in our city Bosnians and Vietnamese and Iraquis the latter refugees from wars we started. And the mindset I see is home-grown capitalism. Because it turns out these folks make good, start businesses and create jobs and pay taxes. We get nothing but benefits from immigration. Wake up, fool, and vote against mindless and self-destructive bigotry.
1
Sometimes you just have to vote against liars and criminals and not so much "for" the "slow of foot." I'll take a dull but honest centrist over a flaming zenophobic oligarchist any day.
Voting drives policy—to bring about change, first vote. The essay states the question rather well, progressive voter VOTING apathy has consequences.
1
I would urge progressives to adopt an upbeat national policy that says this is the America we believe in: It is compassionate, it helps those in need, it is respectful, we listen to those with different ideas, it is responsible, we believe in good government and getting things done that help all the people (this will be a stretch since you idiots shut down the government twice). We believe in helping our friends in the world and not sticking our nose in where it is not wanted. We do not believe that endless war is a good thing for our country.
We believe in the fundamental goodness of the American people and reject the anger, suspicion and exclusion of other, that is championed by some (this means you will also have to get along with centrists and conservatives).
For too long a group of people have been telling us our best days are behind us, it is time to retreat behind walls and view with suspicion all others. We reject that and think that through inclusion, good government, and helping our friends in the world, out best days are still to come.
2
I've never shot a gun in my life, but I just bought a three year membership in the NRA because I can't believe that the Left is letting the narrative be driven by a bunch of HS kids who a week ago were eating Tide Pods! This is going to be good for the NRA.....keep it up!
It is not the left, it is Americans with common sense. Americans who don't want their children killed at school. I am so proud of those children at that high school, they are bright, articulate, empathetic and have more common sense than many adults. Who needs assault rifles, what hunting can we do with those weapons, whats wrong with background checks. I worked for a major law enforcement agency for 35 years. Our police were mandated to shoot at a range quarterly, most were average to a little better than average shooters. Who will pay for the training, who will pay for the staff at the shooting range. who will pay for the bullets,and who will pay when some teacher because of inexperience shoots a child or another teacher accidently. I don't want my grandson who is in 3rd grade seeing his teacher packing a gun. Most cops thing we have too many guns already.
3
Too bad for you to be a member of a death club.
2
The kind of noise a Russian troll makes. If you're not, you're a heartless expletive who could spend their money more wisely. The school mates of murdered children deserve better. Small wonder they're bringing out the trolls.
2
During his campaigns, President Obama often said "don't boo, vote!" I'd like like to tweak his expression slightly: "boo, then vote!"
7
.... “now it needs to vote.”
It won’t. No worries Trumpsters, while the left vastly out numbers you politically, they don’t vote. Oh, some of them do, true enough, but not most of them. They complain and shop and do whatever else they do, but they don’t vote.
So the bottom line is that you can continue to destroy the constitution, the environment, education, common decency, morals, women’s rights, and focus your hatred on brown people with accents. And all the while the left will cringe at your vileness, but it will not depose you.
4
I half heartedly joke that the Right literally votes religiously but the Left votes emotionally. A little existential ennui and they stay home and pout. It’s sad.
"Elections are precisely what progressives should be emphasizing."
Do progressives really almost exclusively support Democrats - or only the Democrats who fit their stringent requirements? Remember 2017?
*The progressive Democracy for America group opposed Virginia Democrat Ralph Northam's (winning) campaign. From McClatchyDC: "(DFA)...went on to say the Northam campaign was running 'the same old, broken, and racist playbook that lost Democrats over 1000 elected offices since 2008.' The statement, issued Thursday night, drew a swift and strong rebuke from many Democrats and liberals, including its founder, Howard Dean, who blasted the statement as 'incredibly stupid' and one that 'discredits' the group."
*Bernie Sanders - who backed another candidate in the VA primary - didn't endorse Democrat Northam until the very end after he was criticized for not doing so: https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-sanders-sits-out-a-tight-race-in-vi...
*Sen. Sanders also publicly declined to say in the Wall Street Journal if he thought Congressional candidate/Democrat Jon Ossoff was a progressive, and didn't endorse him until criticized for not doing so. (See a pattern here?) Ossoff narrowly lost trying to flip a Republican district.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/04/20/bernie-sanders...
Young adults, minorities, and Republican moderates who temporarily vote Democrat are going to have to counter the "progressives".
9
Voter turn out is important. I think we are at a turning point in turnout, thanks to the shock of Trump. I worry as much, or more, about Democrats falling for divisive ideological positions, or absolutism. Russia obviously recognizes this weakness in a free society and will continue to exploit it. Beware purity! Do not let “perfection” be the enemy of “good”. Because there is no agreement anywhere on perfection, and a significant number of Democrats are take-no-prisoners purists.
5
I have never understood why Congress has not mandated a day off for Federal
elections. A Federal holiday is the one thing we can do to make it easier for every citizen to vote. Or is the opposite the point?
2
One big difference I am noticing this year, as opposed to 2014, are the voices in the Media and Press that are finally getting over their "both sides are the same" meme. A poll in 2014 showed that 60% of voters didn't know which party controlled the congress. So those who were thinking "both sides are the same" were not very concerned with electing progressives or democrats.
I am hearing a lot more from main street press about the corruption and venality from republicans this year. That may help convince voters, especially young voters, to vote and vote for Democratic politicians.
It shouldn't matter to US whether those democrats are progressives, moderates, conservatives, or right to life. Any democrat is going to be more easily impressed by their constituents to do what is right and in the best interests of the Nation than any republican, anywhere.
We must overwhelm gerrymandering, the Russians, voter suppression, f(alse)ox not news and ignorance. Vote this year like your life and the lives of your children depend on it. Because they do.
5
You make some excellent points.
1
Yeah I read a ton of feel-good articles like this one just before Trump was elected. Trump's poll numbers are going UP, not down. Read fivethirtyeight. And remember that wishful thinking is why the Times blew the 2016 election prediction so badly.
1
This doesn't really help until there are some "youthful" leaders for the Dems. I mean come on....Chuck can only look down his nose to read some mish-mash prepared script and Nancy takes forever to spit out a full sentence. And Bernie and Liz? I love you, I really do but get out of the way and support someone 1/2 your age. I was watching MSNBC a while ago and some youthful commentator was very passionate and articulate on Dem positions. And the host said "why can't we hear this from the leadership?"
Chuck, Nancy, Bernie, and Liz need to make way and support a younger generation. I don't want you to go away (only Hilary) just cede the limelight.
1
Odd. Hillary was and is one of our most worthy statesman.
Pay attention. Kamala Harris, Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, Tammy Baldwin, Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Maria Cantwell, Tammy Duckworth, Kristen Gillibrand, Martin Heinrich, Heidi Heitkamp, Doug Jones, Amy Klobuchar, Chris Murphy, Patty Murray, Ben Sasse, Brian Schatz, Tina Smith, Elizabeth Warren are all relatively new and young. All Dems, who are impressive in their dedication and deliberations. I included Repubican Ben Sasse, with whom I'm impressed as a more independent thinker. There are other Republicans who are young and will grow less conservative - maybe. The "old" guard has some stalwart citizens who love and care about this country. Check out the lists on Congress.gov. Watch CNN broadcasts of committee hearings. All in all we're not without good people who love and care about this country. Unfortunately, some of the leaders have a vice grip and seem unable to separate themselves from the mad man in the White House. Better to use your energy asking that they put the country before their party.
Then get out and work to get the swamp rats out.
1
This is not about Left vs. Right. It is about putting down a fascist coup and restoring decency to our nation.
Trump thinks he is a dictator and his mindless adoring fans and the Republican anti-patriotic non-leaders go along. They all spit on our Constitution and the rule of law with pleasure and must be replaced to save our democracy! Germany and Austria of the 1930's is here in the USA now.
It is crunch time. Get out the vote ...or else.
7
The fact that blacks vote in higher numbers than young people, Asians and Latinos is testament to the work done by so many volunteers to get out the black vote. A similar effort needs to be made with the young, Asians and Latinos.
3
It appears that the fuse has been lit that will cause a blast of activism in our youth not seen their grandparents took to the streets to end a war. This kind of activism can spread like wildfire. Most of today's Seniors should be able to vote in November....this is an important group to focus on. They're fired up, so get them registered & determined to vote, ready and able to spread their enthusiasm to friends & family. Then by 2020, most of today's Juniors & Sophomores can join in. Let them lead. They have the most to gain as well as the most to lose. And they can help save us all.
1
I have never not voted, EVER! I vote, I am a Democrat. I volunteer on campaigns and every campaign I have worked on the majority of volunteers are women. They work the phones, they block walk, they make the signs, they march. They are young and old. They do more to advance Democracy than any one group. They carry your water.
Every person who could not be bothered to vote because the candidate who won the primary was not perfect or your choice. There are no perfect candidates.
I grow weary listening to those who would bash my party, complaining that the Democratic party hasn't done enough to suit their fantasy candidate or what they consider "progress". Look up the New Deal, the Great Society, the Brady Act, The Affordable Care Act. The things that most enjoy but take for granted were fought for and passed by the Democrats. So get informed, get involved or get out of the way.
4
Mr. Leonhardt says "They [the left] should be ruthlessly evaluating what works and what does not," but he restricts his advice to getting true believers out to vote. I believe this is terribly shortsighted.
Both in the near and long term, liberals/progressives must learn why so many people have drifted away or have become alienated — why, for example, the ranks of registered Independents, Unenrolled, etc., have grown so markedly — and adjust policies as well as messages to bring them back into the fold. Only that way can liberals build majorities that *endure*.
Liberals/progressives must learn to listen to electorates, not to continue treating them as demographic abstractions to be manipulated (leave that to conservatives). They need to *evince respect* for voters, to foster *loyalty*.
It's hard work. It's also the right way to treat people.
Is today's "left" up to the job?
2
If everyone really cared about representative government, the entire country would follow the Oregonian model where everyone eligible to vote is automatically registered and notified as such by mail. Then 20 days before the election they are mailed a ballot that is submitted by return mail.
4
This is truth.
Young people not voting may be international. Brexit may be happening because young people did not vote. When I canvassed Obama voters in Ohio in 2010 many were indifferent. The result was Kasich, and policies that hit locally such as damage to libraries and public schools.
1
The selection of a young person on the Democratic ticket might help to drive younger voters to the polls. It would help if that person is a person of color.
2
This isn’t a game show. We need mature qualified candidates. With experience.
1
Everything this article says is true and important, but it laves two things out: The progressives need to enter attractive candidates, and they need to have a clear message for We the People.
1
Mr. Leonhardt, I wish I cold share your optimism, but there is a real possibility that Mr. Trump may be the last president of the United States as we know it.
1
David, your upbeat and essentially optimistic piece addresses many of those problems exacerbated by Mr. Pumpkinhead. Thank you for offering us a light in this dismal situation.
I read many comments from your readers, and, as usual, I learned a lot from them, too. Many are perplexed that their issues remain unaddressed, but don't seem to know that "progressive" is not a synonym for "Democratic". At least I found no one who thinks "Republican" is not an antonym for "progressive." I read one comment that complained bitterly about laziness as an obstacle to voting, with not a word about hours-long lines and intimidation faced by many would-be voters. (I'm lucky; I don't have these problems.) I read a sensible comment noting that "words matter" and that it doesn't help to call these "mid-term elections" as that diminishes their importance.
The thing I read most was a longing for progressivism: for a recentering of our political dialog substantially leftward, after having been hijacked and wrenched far to the right by the lunatic fringe. Progressives are rare among candidates. Everyone seems to have a narrow focus of issues about which s/he cares, when everything that matters seems to be done willfully wrong by those in charge. When will we have candidates with the courage to say that our would-be emperor has no clothes, none at all?
It's hard, personally, to muster interest for people who need to be spoon fed the reasons they should vote.
2
If you want to save the planet and yourselves, then vote out the republicans and vote in more progressives. It truly is that simple.
1
I consider myself a Blue Dog democrat, highly dissatisfied with Trump and the GOP. My problem is, the Democrats are woefully uninspiring on just about everything and difficult to get excited about. I'm just not seeing the pro-middle class, pro-working, pro-small business, and fiscally responsible platform. In short, all that the Democrats seem to have to offer is "Hey, at least we're not as bad as those other guys/gals." There is an over-reliance among Democrats of listing reasons NOT to vote for their opponent, but a lack of emphasis on offering voters tangible reasons to to vote for their own candidates.
I think people are ultimately going to vote with their wallets now and in 2020 (not primarily on social or moral issues), and simply put, I generally look to the airwaves day after day hoping, pleading to see some kind of vision from the Democrats. To name just a few: A middle class/small business oriented tax relief package to combat exploding costs of living, a detailed plan how make Medicare and Social Security solvent without cuts, Medicare price negotiation and imports, an infrastructure plan, combating costs of health care, a vision for jobs/skills etc.
I'm just not seeing the vision for how specifically they're going to protect and support the middle class, other than being the party that simply won't do what the other party will, but I am telling you this is not enough. This doesn't motivate a general electorate to turn out and vote.
1
Status up is so boring until you get a Trump led administration.
Conflating the word progress with progressivism is like saying Venezuela has made progress and eliminating income in equality.
1
I may have missed it but I find nowhere in this column any mention of why so many young people and otherwise progressive Democrats may not be voting: they are frustrated to observe that the slate of candidates offered to them by the Democratic party consists of those who take campaign contributions from wealthy corporate and individual donors who expect something in return for their donations: loyalty. So, why bother to vote?
Bernie Sanders showed that winning is possible without stepping onto this treadmill of seeking corporate PAC funding and then spending the rest of your career as an elected senator, congressperson, governor, etc. begging for more of these donations-with-strings-attached. Recent egregious examples of this insanity include 2018 Congressional campaigns around the country where the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has directly and indirectly thrown its support behind candidates willing to accept campaign funding from these big corporate and individual donors over progressive Democratic candidates unwilling to do so - even BEFORE these 2018 primary elections - thus abandoning any concept of neutrality.
1
He got fewer votes than Hillary.
The Democratic Party is reliably progressive on social issues, but is as woefully dependent on Big Money as Republicans are. For that reason it cannot excite young people: they see the backstage corruption and, not yet jaded, cannot abide what is obviously a corrupt system.
The fact that we are now permanently locked into that cash-driven system by Citizens United and a Republican Party that will subvert, lie and cheat (the shameful, unconstitutional supreme court nomination travesty in the Senate, Trump-worship by so-called Christians, the TrumpoRussian poisoning of our electoral system, continuous assalts on voting rights, the plain absurdity of the Electoral College...there are a thousand examples) to keep power means it's very unlikely that idealistic young (or old) people can be motivated to do what they perceive as futile.
Eight years of a Democratic administration under a consumately decent, honest, compassionate, semi-progressive (in attitude if not always in practice) was not enough to change the arc of America toward those qualitites; the deplorable embodiment of their opposites and his party of miscreants was awarded full control of the government! What young person, witnessing such an attrocity, would think voting is anything but futile? Given a chance, even the Democrats rejected an actual progressiven and remain weak and dithering now.
The young and other habitual non-voters will need more and better to put faith in a corrupt and corrupting system.
How ironic it would be (I'm scientific: I refuse to say "will be." The evidence doesn't support a prediction.) if Fake-President (Many offices are occupied by Frauds.) Trump actually did Make America Great Again.
By getting "liberals" "leftists" "progressives" "independents" "Democrats" - and most of all, Real (not Fake) Capitalists, off of their behinds, and to the polling booths.
Yes to:
1. Become energized
2. Vote
But also:
3. Finally finally drop the absymally dumb and long obsolete "left" and "right" categories. There are two political parties of consequence in America: the Wimpocrats and the Hypocrites. Both have become horrific colossal disasters very richly deserving of permanent extinction, albeit for different reasons.
4. Learn basic American history, including the history of how progressive reforms actually come about. Hint: feeling good about always failing, "standing up" with no goals except "standing up" and being politically correct, and slavishly worshipping the two-party duopoly of two political parties, by far a worse scourge now than ever before, has rarely been and is certainly not now any kind of effective path to actual tangible political reform. Read what the nation's founders had to say about political parties, and wake up to the urgent relevance of their warnings.
5. When in doubt, and doubt about current political office holders is very heavily and widely deserving, vote against incumbents.
1
Vote yes, but also together.
I think the reason some people don't vote is because they believe their vote doesn't really count. But it does, and it can count big time. We vote is districts (many people don't know this) and the difference between your vote and someone else's may be only one, but the whole district will be counted as the one vote that won the district. Now if that isn't your vote, and you chose not to vote, you just gave the whole district to the opposing party. That's how important your single vote is.
4
We have had much higher Democratic turnout than normal in early voting in our primaries here in Dallas County. That gives me hope, and so do the politically active high schoolers, many of whom will be old enough to vote by the mid-terms. I hope they are getting registered.
4
Democrats did it to themselves in 2016, and I say this as a lifelong Dem. They--we--are still doing it, and will lose in 2018 and 2020 if we don't stop it. "It" is demanding that all candidates be sufficiently "progressive" if they want support from party leaders. "It" is now happening in California, where Dianne Feinstein failed to receive the state party's endorsement because she is insufficiently progressive. What will the state party have to say for itself if she is replaced by a Republican? Claiming the moral high ground does not win elections. And we really, really, really need to win the next one, and the one after that.
15
The electorate must demand real and significant gun law reform. Any person running for political office on any level must stand first and foremost on that platform. The media has a role to play in keeping the public focused on the goal and in moving public opinion toward that end. The electorate must not be distracted by the machinations of the powerful forces which feel otherwise.
1
Yes, the biggest problem with democracy in the US is shockingly low voter turnout. The problem of people choosing not to vote is far more important and far more difficult than the handful of people who are impacted by restrictions such as ID requirements and the like. The sad truth is that many people pay more attention to football than politics.
3
David,
yes, they pay more attention to football because it is exciting!
I think this is the problem. Trump is exciting. Almost anything he says and does is exciting, as it is threatening. On the other hand, Democrats have been boring. Obama was no drama, and Hillary was blah. Democrats need excitement, too.
Perhaps super stars, like Oprah, can get involved in generating voter interest.
Oprah might run for Congress, or what have you.
Boring campaigns = low voter turnout = Democratic loses!
============================================
1
The problem with 'progressives' at the local level is that they've never seen a tax they don't like. You want to pay $13K property tax on a house worth $220K? Vote for your local progressive.
2
A good chunk of the value of my home is due to the great local school system enabled by property taxes. As a progressive I'm quite pleased to see my tax money benefit the community I live in. On the other hand, if you don't want to be taxed move to Somalia and see what it's like to live without government.
4
Or live in a red state like Texas.
Jonathan
Move to Kansas. They cut taxes to the bone.
(They are also going bankrupt, can't pay for schools and roads, but ... LOW TAXES.)
It wasn't the Russians, or the Republicans, or the media, or the Democratic candidate, that elected Trump. It was my fellow democrats, who under-supported Hillary.
I was raised by Republicans, who taught me that i was my civic duty to vote, in every election, at every level. I don't agree with many Republican policies, but I give them this: they vote.
22
I voted for Hillary despite her weaknesses, and always vote. But it is impossible to say why she lost by a few thousand votes in a few states that cost her the electoral college. It was a combination of factors, and Russian influence played a role.
2
@ Steve: Correct, except that the failure was OVERsupporting Hillary Clinton and turning a blind non-objective eye to the myriad of other candidates who could have whipped the orange haired obnoxious clown.
2
@Steve:
This Bernie supporter held my nose and voted for Hillary in 2016. MA went Democratic. We have a 100% Democratic delegation to the House and the Senate.
Remind me again how well you guys in Kentucky did. Talk to the people in PA, MI and WI while yoou are at it.
After the election in 2016, there were far too many people who mostly identified as liberal or Progressive, who bragged about not voting. They presented their decision as some sort of morally Superior protest against what they saw as a corrupt political system. I don't agree with their decision and feel that the right to vote it's something far too many Americans take for granted. However, I don't think the left is as energized as it is infuriated or outraged. And while that's a good start, we need commitment and consistency to change the trajectory of where our country is going. Republicans control more than half of the state governments. They are stacking courts with conservative judges. It won't be enough to convince progresses that they need to turn out for the midterm election. We all need to turn out for every election and do the hard work of researching candidates so that we can make Intelligent Decisions at the polls. Voting for your local judge, city councilman, assemblyman, state senator should be just as important as voting for the president, Congress, or governor.
17
When i began teaching in a NJ high school in the 70's, the history department organized a simulated voting day with real voting booths so that the students could have the experience without any awkwardness. It was a great success but for some reason ceased by the 90's. I remember speaking with students in later years about voting and being told that I was just like their grandma? What happened?
16
Noam Chomsky in an interview with David Barsamian essentially says many people fail to acknowledge that in our system voting is following a 'simple arithmetic', like it or not:
(my own transcript):
"The business about ‘voting your conscience’ is: Do you really just care about how you feel, or do you care about what happens to the world? If you care about what you feel you don’t have any conscience, you’re not a moral agent at all, so stop talking about conscience, you don’t have any. If you care about the effect on others, then you’ll ask: Well, what are the consequences of voting for Trump, which is what you’re doing if you refuse to vote for the alternative in a swing state. Again: arithmetic. So all of this is basically elementary rationality. And frankly, this entire discussion should maybe take five minutes of our time, period. You think it through, in fact it’s pretty obvious, then you go on with the things that matter: constant activism and organizing these popular movements we’re talking about - that’s what people should be engaged in."
95
The reality is that the American voting populace has been duped with decades of GOP propaganda of hatred of the other. Unfortunately it has resonated and has been embraced by a large part of the electorate. Your goals are on track and achievable but will take an awakening of the humanity in your citizens. I wish you the best.
1
I dont vote my concience....I vote my own best self-interests............Noam Chompsky is misguided....but he is so adept at using 50 cent college words....we just gotta grant him Tenure at Harvard!!
The Real Old Ben understood the problem: "We will hang together or we will hang separately." The truth wrapped in ironic humor.
The Hard Right is out to get us, to brand us traitors and usurpers. Don't take my word, see NRA Wayne LaPierre's speech to CPAC.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?441475-3/conservative-political-action-con...
We are their enemy and they know it. Together or separately.
We must stop accepting the lies, the biggest LIE is:
"You're vote doesn't matter!!!"
That is the key strategy behind gerrymandering - convince people to not vote. If, and only if, you do not vote, effectively you have cast a vote for them:
the liars, the plutocrats, the abusers, the gun sellers, the Oxycontin/fentanyl sellers, the off-shore money bunch, the financial Gods of Wall Street, the Big Carbon companies,
the Trumps.
If you do not vote, you have voted for them.
The Real Old Ben was revolutionary. And he had a lot to lose.
I have grand children and great-grand children.
#MeToo
8
In my office I see young people criticize Trump day in and day out, but when you ask them if they will vote, I get a non-answer. They have never voted before and have all kinds of flimsy answers about why they have never voted. I am not convinced that they will vote in the coming election, no matter what they say.
65
You must keep working at it. Little by little, nudge their thinking around to seeing voting as a viral social activity that can actually bring about lasting change for the better. Whatever it takes to overcome their apathy. They can be part of the tidal wave of change that is already gathering force.
November Is Coming.
5
I am so tired of those many self-centered American "citizens" who do not realize how profoundly well off they are relative to the rest of the world, yet do not vote. Voting is not just your right, it is your obligation. If saner heads than the voter-suppression-Republicans running things now ever have the opportunity, our country needs to make sure the act of voting becomes much easier.
Some countries impose financial penalties for not voting. Some countries vote on weekends, when most people are not working. But no, not in America. The typical American votes on a working Tuesday either before or after having put in a long, hard day of paid work. And there are more Americans who do NOT vote than there are who do vote.
Just think of all the wars we have fought; all the blood shed; all the misery endured, all in the name of moving our unique democracy forward. We Americans inhabit the most powerful, most influential country the earth has ever known but the majority of us are jaded and feel our individual votes make no difference. That is simply disgusting, so shameful and self-involved. And then, after the election, you can count on these jerks to complain vociferously about how bad things are!
We are becoming a nation of fat, lazy, uncaring, completely self-involved, non-voting idiots.
21
I've spent my entire life leaning New Deal left and associating largely with lefties, and there are several things I can say with total certainty:
1) If the existing regime is grossly, obviously, overwhelmingly odious to everyone other than extreme right-wingers, they MAY turn out to vote that regime out of office. But they won't stick around to consolidate any gains.
2) In any other case the alternative to the right-winger will lose the vote of any progressive who disagrees with one of that alternative's positions.
I was born on the eve of Nixon's re-election. I have spent my entire life watching the United States alternate between right-wing wrecking crews, followed grudgingly by centrists who can barely clean up about 3/4 of the mess before being replaced by another wrecking crew thanks to progressive vote-splitting and refusal to turn out. Now we will have Trump or Pence until 2024, whereupon we MAY get four to eight years of emergency cleanup. The year I turn 61, American progressives will again decide that whoever replaced Pence isn't good enough, and "send a message" by staying away from the polls.
Progressives only turn out to vote AFTER someone has destroyed everything they care about. And, empirically, they never, ever, ever, ever learn. Ever. EVER.
24
Two words: Remember Alabama!
They show that change can be made and perhaps our society can be taken back from the predators if people pay attention and come out to vote.
96
What happend in Alabama was a total fraud. A National Shaming of one man using an incredible amount of outrageous rumor mongering, libel, and mud-slinging.
Now that Moore has been crushed.....no body outside alabama cares what happened.....none of the accusations have ever been proven, most were demonstrated to be outright fabrications.....but hey, thats Dirty Politics.
The Oligarchs crushed the maverick. thats all that happened in Alabama.
Meanwhile, the other unpproven child molestors get re-elected every day....probably ones in YOUR district.............
Weak candidate. The Dems had one for POTUS in 2016.
Remember that.
Everyone who is able to vote should vote. Trump and family seem to think that they are royalty. Apparently in the Trump administration loyalty to Donald is all that counts.
Ivanka Trump says she has a right to “believe her father”. If a person is a senior adviser to the president they should know that the constitution isn’t the law of the land.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ivanka-trump-donald-trump-accusers_...
3
Correction: I meant to say the Constitution is the law of the land. Trump seems to value loyalty to him over anything else including the Constitution.
Leftists, oh yes, please be even more leftist. You will get Trump another term. Thank you.
22
I hadn't known that participating in our democracy and voting was "leftist," but given how hard the Right's worked to suppress voting, I cannot say that I am surprised to find that you think it is.
3
Where did the article say anybody should "be more leftist"? And: efforts to increase engagement and voter turnout among younger and progressive voters will get Trump another term?
3
Yes, this is beginning to look like another McGovern campaign.
Come November, vote with a vengeance!
5
Between #MeToo and the Women’s March, the outrage in the aftermath of Parkland about gun laws and overall disgust with Trump and the Republican Party and their efforts to trash so much of what’s good about our country, it seems the time is ripe to rally the troops and see some real change.
Now the Democratic Party needs to step up and show some leadership and have a clear message and help translate all of the emotion into action to make sure voters show up for the mid-terms.
7
If the ethically challenged and pathologically lying Trump and his sheep aren’t enough to get people out to vote, god help us!
6
Pushback, tweet, use "fake news" every time the media is around and VOTE. Oh yeah, and carry a 2x4, its legal under the Constitution.
I can't wait to vote!
1
In Alabama, black women may have been the voters that saved Doug Jones and the Democratic Party from a humiliating defeat. Now it will be up to African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, young people of any color to save all of us in 2018 and 2020 if the old guard democratic party hacks don't get in the way.
4
Progressives must never forget the lessons of 2016, and how many of us were hoodwinked by trolls and bots into unwittingly serving Trump's neofascist coup. The left and the farther left must never again allow themselves to become so alienated from each other that they end up serving the interests of white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Our first priority is to decisively neuter Trump and his enablers in Congress (and remember, something like 80% of Republicans actually approve of him!), so as to contain the damage they're doing to the country. After we take back the Congress, then we can have a necessary and spirited debate about the future of the Democratic party. My hope is that the first-time voters who at this moment are cutting their teeth in the student-led gun control movement will be a very constructive force in that effort. In the meantime, tell every 17 year old you know who will be 18 on Tuesday, November 6, that they can register to vote immediately.
7
I decided when he became president that I would not vote again. If Russia or any other country is meddling/fixing our election,I'm finished voting here.
Your reaction only helps them win again. VOTE!
2
Oh, yeah. That will *really* help. (Where's the sarcasm font?)
4
Huh? No logic whatsoever!
2
It’s not just “the Left”.
A growing number of sane, principled conservatives and moderates have awakened to the reality that true conservatism and good governance have NOTHING to do with Trumpism’s clownish bigotry, corruption and servile fealty to Putin and the NRA.
I’m not a Democrat, but I will vote Democratic up and down the ticket until a respectable right-of-center party emerges in America again someday.
10
@evangelos Thank you!!
2
The vote that Counts---
" By Joseph O’Sullivan 2/26/2018
Seattle Times Olympia bureau
OLYMPIA — Forget everything you ever learned about how a bill becomes a law. Forget those public hearings, floor debates and deliberations.
With breathtaking speed, Washington lawmakers passed a bill Friday that removed themselves from the state’s voter-approved Public Records Act — keeping years of emails and other documents off-limits and making the Legislature its own gatekeeper when it comes to secrecy.
Senate Bill 6617 passed the Senate, without debate, 41-7. Minutes later, House lawmakers approved it 83-14.
State representatives listen to testimony on the house floor, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2018, at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash., during the 2018 regular session of the Washington State Legislature.
We asked every Washington state lawmaker to comment before Friday’s quick vote to keep their records secret. Most weren’t talking.
Legislators passed the bill only 48 hours after it became public.
Legislative leaders would not say who drafted the bill, why it came so late in the legislative session and why it didn’t go through the traditional lawmaking process.
After The Seattle Times emailed all 147 lawmakers for comment in anticipation of a Friday vote, only a handful responded with their thoughts.
That all added up to what Toby Nixon, president of the Washington Coalition of Open Government called “an abomination.”
6
“I think progressives’ best hope is an economic message that focuses the white working class on the working-class part of its identity, rather than the white part.”
Wow. I guess white people really are the untouchables. Can’t even be mentioned by a progressive.
2
American left, young people, blacks and Hispanics will not vote, because "not voting" is the default option. Because it interferes with the narrative of: "I am a victim, I go to candle light vigils." It is part of their sense of entitlement: "Why should I have to vote? Why can't good things happen to me anyway?"
Out of touch, smug, self-satisfied, self-righteous, entitled, weak, whining, disorganized, and an altogether sorry bunch. They have very good, very carefully argued intellectual reasons for not voting ("OMG, our voter registrations were lost - again.") Every year since 1960, Blacks cannot vote because their registrations disappear. And they will again every year from now.
The American right feels victimized by Obama, women, science, intelligence, and decency. Their default option is to lynch someone, or vote for someone who will. They have anger, vigor, hate, loathing, fear on their side.
The American left is weak because it has no interest in controlling anyone; they just want common coffers to pay for every hard luck story. The American right feels entitled to rule (because this is their country), and want the common coffers to pay them directly, and bypass all the people they don't like.
As such, the American right has vim and vigor necessary; and hence own everything local, county, state, and now the Congress and WH. Why wouldn't they given the whining ninnies that is the American center and left.
2
Voters on "the left" were energized in the last election by Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein, whose candidacies were abetted by Russian trolls. Even in the Times comments sections, I encountered Bernie Sanders "supporters" whose vituperative, slightly ESL-sounding arguments against Hillary Clinton were so over the top that I wondered who was writing them. Now, of course, we know.
Others on "the left" chose to sit out the election, influenced by Russian trolls who told them that there was no difference at all between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
The right can be pretty stupid.
The left has proved to be no better.
Hillary Clinton was too "moderate," was she? A little moderation would do the country good.
8
Yes. Even if even if you don’t agree 100% with the person running for office, go vote for the person who most closely espouses your views. As the old expression says, “half a loaf is better than none”.
5
@B in Brooklyn
Former Goldwater Republican Hillary Clinton was not too "moderate."
She was too corrupt, dishonest and arrogant.
With a choice between between two appallingly unappealing candidates in the general election (thanks to the insanity of both mainstream parties), many voters, being ignorant or in denial of the rich tradition of independent and third party movements achieving real progress in America, opted for destructive change rather than disgusting continuity.
3
"Two appallingly unappealing candidates," Sage?
Exactly my point. Thank you.
1
If progressives "spend little time on Bernie-versus-Hillary fights" how do the researchers explain what just happened and is happening in California... and if Democrats want to capture more seats at all levels they need to decide what they are FOR... running against the POTUS will only energize his supporters...
2
Spot on! Right on! Go on - and vote! THIS is where progressives will win or, once again, fail at the most important hurdle. We progressives, we "coastal voters", talk, mostly with a patronising tone, about how the Republican Party hoodwinks the working class into voting against their economic interest. Republicans get working class votes with "dog whistle" cultural messages and then plunder them economically. Well, progressives, we are no smarter. We get angry about how bad Trump policies are. We get outraged about how bad the Republican Party is. We get worried about the damage Republican-nominated judges are doing to causes we care deeply about. AND THEN WE DO NOT VOTE. Those working class voters get something we don't get. For many progressives, voting isn't "cool". It's much more intellectually fashionable, perhaps, to be able to say we didn't vote because both candidates are bad - as though bad is an absolute rather than a relative description. Progressives need to remember two things. One perfection is the enemy of the good and two, IT'S THE BALLOT BOX, STUPID!
71
It's absurd to think that progressives will ever hold significant power at either the local, state, or federal level. In survey after survey the majority of Americans both Democrat & Republican identify as either liberal, moderate or conservative. This fact can't be emphasized enough. Progressives are a small minority of our electorate...with good reason...they go out of their way to alienate people. They drag us into culture wars we can't win. They are self-righteous, denunciatory, & obsessed with trivial issues that have made Democrats a national laughing stock. They never stop mocking the working class. You're bad for eating factory-farmed meat, owning a rifle, & driving an SUV. You're bad for speaking the language of micro-aggressions, patriarchy, & cultural appropriation. Are you kidding me? We shouldn't tolerate this. Democrats can't & won't win over working class swing voters if they allow a wing of the party to persist in ridiculing their cultural values.
9
Huh. You seem to know an awful lot about progressives. Have you met every single one of them? No? Then why do you believe you can make sweeping statements about all of us? I have never mocked any member of the working class, having been such a person myself until I retired. I drive a small SUV. I don't eat meat at all, but I don't tell others what to eat. And I don't tell others they can't own a rifle - in fact, I have friends who are hunters. You know what I am obsessed with? Climate change. Threats to air and water quality. Universal access to affordable health care. Universal access to quality education. In my book, these are not trivial issues.
Yes Bill Brown, you are so right- progressives were abolitionists, anti-segregationists, unionists, female suffragists, pro-gay marriagists- always going out of their way to alienate people by having the audacity to consistently being on the right side of history.
Progressives are those insufferable folks who make progress happen.
.
Two things may be a harbinger: 1. Doug Jones victory in Alabama; they figured out how to get the black vote out. 2. The new, anti-gun movement by teens (mostly eligible to vote by 11/6/18). They are angry and well organized; these two things are powerful motivators. Here's hoping and working to get out the vote!
7
American democracy is in crisis. Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression and of course, the Electoral College installed a minority government ruling on behalf of the oligarchy. They love Trump because his crudeness appeals to working-class voters who were fed up with the status quo.The majority of Americans who despise Trump have to be able to work together. I'm one of these newly energized progressives and that is what I am seeing. I voted for Bernie in the primaries. But while I would have loved to have him be my President, the assumption that he would have won where Hillary failed is a big mistake. Do you really think Wall Street would have sat back passively and watched him win? Of course not. And the Trump campaign, as it has turned out, was far more corrupt than any of us could have imagined. Republican slime could just as easily have destroyed Bernie. And we would have had the spectacle of the Russians trying to destroy an American socialist!
2
“The left is energized,” reads the headline. That’s a significant sentence. Shouldn’t it read, “Centrists are energized”? The United States has not had anything resembling what Europeans would consider a “left” since Franklin Roosevelt. What we had was a “center.” It was a place where people like Richard Nixon and John Kennedy coexisted. Nixon today would be an apostate in the Republican Party; they probably would take away his membership. Let’s remember that Nixon as president favored single-payer. That was being in “the center,” not on the “left. But the “center“ has now moved far to the right, dragged there by an increasingly extremist Republican Party. The Times legitimizes the Republicans’ use of “left” by calling anybody reasonable a leftist. It’s time for all of us, including the Times, to reclaim the word “center” and stop painting reasonable people as extremists. We’ve already allowed the right to rewrite the English language permanently. If you were “anti-choice,“ you became “pro-life.“ Thus being in favor of the death penalty became “pro-life.” Let’s not do this again. Let’s reclaim the word “center” as a place where reasonable people reside. If thought can corrupt language, Orwell wrote, language can corrupt thought. That’s what the use of “the left“ has done to American thinking. Could the Times please lead the way toward stopping language from corrupting thought? It could begin with a headline that says, “Centrists are energized.”
7
Well put.
In that spirit, I suggest also replacing "gun control" with "gun sanity."
WHAT "Left"?!? This is the United States of America. There hasn't been a "Left" since Mitchell Palmer was Attorney General.
1
They will not vote. You'll see.
1
>
Recent polls show that the Right is also energized. Dem margins are shrinking
Whitelandia votes. Not to mention all the GOP shenanigans that will take place as to voter restrictions.
This 2018 race is far from being secured by the Dems, moreover, the 2020 race is even more problematic due to the 1950's, one note, doctrinaire Marxist professor Bernie Sanders. The Dems will not be unified, which plays right into the GOP game plan, i.e., introduce multiple party(s) into the race...... DJT wins with 45%.
The gerrymandering case in PA will mostly be overturned when it goes to Fed court this week. Source reporting out of the Pentagon is saying that the US is much closer than the public thinks to some kind of limited strike into N Korea, look for this to happen around or after Oct 15, 2018.
N.b, I've nothing against 1950's doctrinaire Marxist professors, but this is a rightwing country and pigs will fly before they let a socialist into the WH.
Norway is a country; Germany is a country......; America is a business.
"This guy wants to tell me we're living in a community? Don't make me laugh. I'm living in America, and in America you're on your own. America's not a country. It's just a business. Now [ ] pay me."
Jackie Cogan in Killing them Softly
3
Someone asked why the focus on college students for registration. This article supports why. Get registered and get out the vote (GOTV).
4
The left has been marginalized and weakened. It's impotent in the face of such a strongman such as trump. It's reactive and unorganized.
Much needs to change.
Absolutely. We all need to vote to help right the ship of state. This is an emergency.
But The Left? Did you say the Left? The Left left long ago. It was replaced by marketing and convenience.
If a company man like Obama, or Clinton, (either), represent the 'Left' it's time we pull down old dusty old history books and read about real 'radicals', like Roosevelt and Johnson. Gods have pity on us.
As Gore Vidal said: 'There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party … and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat.'
A bird with two right wings can fly only in circles.
8
Don't begrudge bottom up change. It is more ffective than top down.
2
It seems that “Energized” is an overstatement
Not only Democrats needs to vote. Disgusted Republicans like Mona Charen also need to vote against a party that has abandoned all its conservative principles to become soiled by Trumpism. One former GOP congressman has gone so far as to advise fellow Republicans who want to save their party: "Vote Democrat and flip the House."
6
I highly respect Mr. Leonhart's writing and reporting skills but I must call him out when he exclaims that only "One in six!" citizens between the ages of 18 and 29 voted in the 2014 midterm elections while seeming to set that pathetic turnout against the more desirable "more than half of people aged 60 or older."
More than half?! That too is pathetic. When the US can barely scrape up a voter turnout of not even 55% of all registered voters in total — and this in popular election years like 2014 or 2016 — this means our country is effective governed by only about 25% of its voting population.
No wonder we have government that so many people say stinks. We really must consider mandatory voting if we truly hope to live under and with a representative government.
3
If you want progressives to vote, we need to have an inspiring progressive candidate. The democratic party has disdain for progressives and Tom Perez's purge of his committees is not helping.
1
As the old expression says, “half a loaf is better than none”. You should vote for “the better of two evils”, if that’s the way you look at your options.
1
Yes and yes, and we have to keep hammering the point home again and again. Because the young people from Florida who have given all of us a course in citizenship and moral courage in these last days deserve nothing less. The Republicans have shown what they are: everybody knows, as Leonard Cohen sang. But let us mourn with purpose, weep but act, vote vote vote, and drive the political cowards of the right back to AM radio.
2
Now, if the "left" could choose its own candidates, we could win elections. Currently, that power belongs to the neo-liberals because the Democratic party is a closed club.
It would be better to call ourselves Sensitives and force the right-wing be accept the label Un-Sensitives. Those that try to destroy the benefits of Society.
3
it is beyond maddening how we dance around this self evident truth. vote. show up. wait in line. take the entire day off. get the needed id. in retrospect, would it have been worth it to miss a day of work to have not elected this guy? to have lost your job to cast a vote in '16? vote
5
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
--Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4,1777
3
David....the left needs a lot more than energizing. They need a new vision. They need to find a leader who can work with the other party. They are. as Amazon says, "out of stock."
The Libs have the same problems as the other party: there's no vision and there's no leader. Worse, there's no plan to get them back in stock.
3
There is no Left in the USA.
1
VK, I beg to differ: there is certainly a Left in this country. You'll find them at various protest marches, shouting into bullhorns, penning letters to the editor trashing Democrats, and virtue-signaling about "white privilege" (never mind they themselves are overwhelmingly white).
Where you won't find them is in a voting booth.
Vote as if your life depends on it.
2
Yeah. Let’s go back to the Obama years. Stagnant economy. Low wages. Unemployment. Can’t wait!
1
....oh yes, right you are, thanks to the economic meltdown just as he took office. Now we're seeing the fruition of his labors to save the economy, and the guy that arrived on third bae is trying to claim credit for an rbi.
1
Of course, Obama’s policies had nothing to do to rescue the country from the recession of the H Bush years after Bush inherited a robust economy from Clinton.
2
To all the republicans out there, do you remember this? Perhaps it's time for some real soul-searching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbErkUE3Az0
Will McAvoy on what being a real republican means. I'd say that's pretty decent.
1
Everyone needs to vote and that vote must be an informed vote. I don't ask that everyone agree with me, but I do ask that they understand the implications of who and what they vote for. There are too many charlatans.
1
In Brazil there is a compulsory voting. Wouldn't that be nice here. If you don't in Brazil there is a little fine.
2
I am inspired to vote to eliminate Republican control of Congress and to minimize the impact of the Trump Presidency. Other than that I don't know what I would be voting for because the Democratic Party is doing such an inept job creating a cohesive message and providing leadership. To really get voters to the polls, most voters need to have something in the their interest to vote for, not just to vote against. I am 73, and I am most inspired by the passion of the students of Parkland, not by the geriatrics who control the Democratic message.
1
They also have to stop trying to outflank each other to the left until they become unelectable. Bernie and the bros were pushed by Russian trolls so far to the left successfully it made Hillary, with a 86% liberal rating seem republican.
10
You can add to that less bigotry, less racism, less sexism and, less nativism. Remember in November....
4
Voting is meaningless if the candidates put forward are flawed.
Regardless of popular delusions heard from the left, Hillary was the worst candidate that the democrats fielded since Mike "How do you drive this thing" Dukakis.
I hear rustlings about Cuomo from NY. Good luck with that. He is the leftie version of Christie: crooked and repulsive.
They must find someone who is a populist (like Bernie) but who does not fall off the deep end (Hugo Chavez is a hero? Really Bernie?)
They must find someone who can put americans ahead of illegals and who can recognize that bumper sticker demands for gun control will not help the victims in Chicago who, probably because they are not attractive white kids, are ignored by nice white liberals.
The left can win but not by remaining a caricature of itself.
4
“Admittedly, the Democrats need to do a better job of conveying what it is that they stand for.”
That’s the understatement of the millennium. As long as we have Schumer and Pelosi conveying what we stand for, we ‘re doomed.
3
It really does seem silly to describe anyone's Democratic leanings as "leftist" when nobody even knows what the party stands for. Clinton's mega-donor fueled candidacy in 2016 was designed to slow-walk any progress, under the specious banner of "incrementalism". Identity politics was supposed to bring out the base in droves. How did that work out? Now, the party seems to be hoping to put in effect the exact same game plan, this time banking on outraged voters from the very same demographics to make up for the deficiencies of 2016. Once again, completely absent is any economic message, one which they've had over a year and a half to prepare. How difficult could it be - if they actually wanted to? Having tried their best to stuff Bernie down the memory hole, it's quite clear the cynical leadership, Chuck, Nancy and their Wall Street buddies still look upon Democratic voters as reliable chumps, that can be hoodwinked time and time again, receiving nothing in return for their loyalty.
2
Democrats lost a good percentage of white working class Obama voters to Trump last time around. If Democrats keep pushing the social issues over the economic, they'll lose again.
People spend the majority of their wakeful lives at work. This is how they live. Find a good candidate who can speak for them & they'll return to the Democratic fold. And if you want the Millennial vote, give them a candidate.
3
It seems open, free and fair elections are good foreign policy. But bad domestic policy. Get out and VOTE!
2
Progressives will vote. They just won’t vote for an electable candidate.
7
Now the left is energized. Now it needs a few programs to back, like the issue of the Tax Scam, and universal health care, just to name two. Being anti-tRump is not enough. Even Republicans are anti-tRump, but they will still vote for their corrupt congressional "representatives." So, make a plan, THEN vote.
5
I think many lot of progressives don't vote because they know they are in the majority So they don't think their vote is needed. After all, most peoipkle are reasonable, so most voters will be reasonable, right?
Wrong. It's hard for progressives to understand the mindset of political extremists, because they aren't extremists themselves. Adopting the tactics of the extremists seems like gaming the system, and surely honourable people won't do that? No, they won't, and that's why the extremists win.
"If you do not imagine how your enemy can defeat you, you have already lost the battle." (Sun Tzu)
2
Everybody needs to know that the Republicans have worked night and day to come up with ways to keep people from voting! We must reverse their evil ways and destroy those laws that make it more difficult to vote. It is unAmerican to try to stop citizens from voting! For goodness sakes, when are voters gonna wake up and realize that the GOP is destroying our country?
2
Dems and Pubs continue to amaze by their cluelessness around unity and purpose and by a staggering failure to seize any advantage.
Regardless of politics, Americans with a fundamental grasp of decency and common sense can speak forcefully from a greater power base to the shameless manipulation of Trump, Congress, and the GOP by the NRA, and what do Democrats do but withhold endorsement of Feinstein one of the staunchest most vociferous opponents of the NRA and give a nod toward a kid from southern CA for whom progressivism and lip service seem indistinguishable.
The timing and choices couldn’t be more self-delusional.
I always get a kick out the passionate NYT progressive columnists rallying the equally passionate progressive core readership to vote. Of course, the low turnout voters they need don’t actually read the New York Times, but, to be fair, a good pep rally doesn’t often include the actual players, either.
2
I have faithfully voted in every election for over 50 years.
I have become extremely cynical. Our upcoming state candidates are a sham. I will for the first time probably NOT vote.
Why vote when we have the great and wonderful Electoral College?
Why vote when we have superdelegates influencing the elections?
Why vote when we have gerrymandering?
Why vote when we have voting law restrictions?
Why vote when the candidates are all the same? (Wealthy people who are really only interested in helping themselves).
Why vote?
1
....because people have died to preserve your right to do so!!
2
I forgot the Supreme. It has selected at least one President. One Supreme Court vote selected the president of the United States one who did not even get the plurality of the vote.
And then of course, there is corporations who throw in tons of money.
Oh and people didn't die so I could vote. People died to support big business.
It's absurd to think that progressives will ever hold significant power at either the state or federal level. In survey after survey the majority of Americans both Democrat & Republican identify as liberal, moderate or conservative. This fact can't be emphasized enough. Progressives are a small minority of our electorate...with good reason...they go out of their way to alienate people. The the far left is dragging us into culture wars we can't win. The left has become self-righteous, denunciatory, & obsessed with trivial issues that have made Dems a national laughing stock. Remember when we stood for the dignity of hard work, family, faith & coming together around basic "kitchen table issues? Sadly, over the past 10 years the DP has abandoned those core values in a desperate attempt to please the strident advocates of identity politics, who find it easier to insult mainstream Americans rather than build coalitions. The far left never stops mocking these people. You're bad for eating factory-farmed meat, owning a rifle, & driving an SUV. You're bad for speaking the language of micro-aggressions, patriarchy, & cultural appropriation. Are you kidding me? Dems can't & won't win over working class swing voters if they allow a wing of the party to persist in ridiculing their cultural values. The coming battle will be between the working class & the leftist elites who purport to posture as their will on earth. I'm with the working class, not those who take cheap shots at them.
3
Does anyone remember when Springsteen and other musical performers held massive free concerts to encourage young people to vote? Does anyone remember Madonna wrapped in an American Flag on MTV telling young voters to "Rock the Vote?" And men and women in their 20's still couldn't be bothered to vote? I'm hoping and praying this generation turns out for the mid-term elections. Perhaps the very poised and very impassioned students of Parkland will succeed where the Boss and the Material Girl failed. As a fifty-something, I hope to see you there, guys. We don't need snowflakes, we need hail stones to vote these self-servers out and save our environment, our Dreamers, and our school children.
4
The message is simple, Democracy is NOT a spectator sport! Get out and VOTE!
3
Even if even if you don’t agree 100% with the person running for office, go vote for the person who most closely espouses your views. As the old expression says, “half a loaf is better than none”.
7
Yes vote. But if you are going to get all tangled up with your two left feet and pull the lever for some hopeless and hapless third party “candidate”, it’s probably better to stay home and save your energy. Because that is pointless.
4
Keep dreaming.
‘Progressives’ are a tiny portion of the electorate.
Good luck campaigning for higher taxes.
1
Progressives weren't pragmatic enough to renominate Diane Feinstein. Remember what Adlai Steven said to someone who gushed "Don't worry you will be elected. Every thinking person will vote for you."? He said "That's not enough. I need a majority."
1
Good article, I sure know a lot of fired up folks-I hate to wish away my life but I can’t wait for Election Day in November 2018-It will be a day of celebration in this country and the start of sending the GOP packing back to the rock they crawled out from under-I’ll be out there registering folks all spring through the fall-
2
It is extraordinary that barely a week into Trump's presidency the cries for impeachment were heard and they have never stopped more than a year later. Then the Republican Cancer, oops Congress, passed that dismal tax bill and called it "reform", and now its refusal to pass gun laws that might actually protect us feels very much like a slap to my face. There is much reason to take our concerns to the poll and vote in 2018 and 2020. I'll be there and I know every one of my fellow Commenters here will be too.
Take Back America 2018!
5
Get involved. Reach out to friends and colleagues. Organize. Spread the word.
November Is Coming.
5
Thanks for the mansplaining--or is it libsplaining?
1
Yes. I've already commented that the key to progress for progressives is *both* identity politics and the "economy, stupid." The latter means addressing those middle class people, largely white and rural, who've been scared and frustrated and then manipulated by the Trump snake-oil sales. Yes, many may well be bigots, too, but many are not and can turn the tide again toward deliverance. Others have commented here in ways that reflect Dr. Wolin's ideas about "inverted totalitarianism," which hinders voting for progressive policies, along with the more blatant attempts, such as voter suppression. The hope is that with more progressive victories, the power behind those vile strategies will also be gone.
I wouldn't vote if my life were dependent upon it. And support this subterfuge, malfeasance and massive corruption? If these kids were smart, they'd boycott voting until the laws were actually enacted. Force the politicians to stop buying votes but rather EARN THEM! It's comical claiming getting more people to the polls is going to fix this. Remember that guy Obama who had both houses and still couldn't get anything passed even after Newton CT? Those children were savagely murdered, beyond recognition. Name one campaign promise that's ever been kept. Don't destroy this moment for these kids. Demand action not words and ONLY then will they vote. You don't need a wall on the boarder there's already a fence around the entire Country. You people are the prisoners of these politicians and keep going back to the polls! Now they're sacrificing your children and you still allow it. Like minions. Fight back (not with guns which is what the 2nd amendment was for - revolution tyranny) and withhold your vote. They spend billions of dollars trying to exploit you, and all you have to do is withhold your vote. If 40% vote Republican it nullifies the 40% vote Democrat leaving 15% who decide after the margin of error. Withholding a mere 10% of the votes can turn these elections into sheer chaos. Take back your Country. How many years have you been voting and it's only gotten worse. It's the biggest farce in this Country. YOU VOTE THEM IN - don't complain!
1
The Democrat's biggest trick will be to bring along moderates as it transforms itself into the party of open borders.
1
They might be energized, but have they learned from Hillary‘s defeat. She obviously has not. If they think they were swindled or that only racists voted for Trump, then they have learned nothing. Get it together, guys! Stay away from these elite, connected candidates will you will see four more years of Mr. Trump
1
During the past three elections in Southern Arizona, of the 23,000 registered Democrat voters in Congressional District 3, 9000 of them failed to show at the polls. If they had, we could have elected a Dem Governor and a bunch of state Reps and Senators. Instead we got some of the conservative baggage now running, ruining our government, all because 9000 Dems couldn't tear themselves away from beer and football for a half-hour to do their civic duty. We should make voting mandatory, like Australia and Russia. Otherwise we will just get more of the same.
1
Today's aging boomers were made politically active young by civil rights, women's rights, and the Viet Nam war. Nixon & Watergate sure made a difference too.
Getting shot in high-school, or getting shot by the neighborhood vigilante while you are walking to a convenience store to get some Skittles -- these things do tend to make people want action.
Only in 1968 did American war deaths in Viet Nam exceed the gun murder rate at home. Think about it.
3
The answer is in plain sight within the article: while saying younger voters favor more progressive political stances, the fact is, voting for Dems, who have stifled for years truly progressive ideas and movements, leads nowhere. Thus, voters are not stupid, they vote with their feet and stay away from a system rigged against them.
1
The Achilles heel of the left has always been its haplessness at actual hardcore politics, which Conservatives have been so good at. When the Tea Party suddenly appeared at town hall meetings nationwide to quash Obamacare in 2009, the wimpy progressives just sat there like cowards. They neither outshouted the Tea Party rabble rousers, nor organized huge rallies in DC and across the country to show America their own power in the face of Tea Party demonstrations from the capitol steps to the rest of America. Conservatives are excellent, gutsy street fighters. Progressives, by contrast, act like pacifists from Amnesty International. Obama and his backers lost lots of points with the American masses for seeming wimpy, not just for being black. Admittedly, the Obama machine was great at getting out the vote when HE was on the ballot. But otherwise, the Obama years were a total disaster for the Dems nationally, because blacks, Hispanics, young people, and liberal women just weren't up to the challenge of getting out of bed and VOTING. You have to give Conservatives credit for having much more gumption, realism, and sheer drive than the left has had overall for the last decade plus. Let's hope the left finally gets its act together and can finally go toe to toe with the right, where it counts, at the ballot box. The blacks in the Rust Belt who failed to turn out for Hillary the way they'd turned out for Obama were, all by themselves, responsible for electing Trump.
1
Anybody with half a brain should know by now that the upcoming midterms might be the most important election in our history. If President Voldemort is able to continue with the damage he is doing to our country, there ain’t gonna be no second chance.
2
"The mechanics of voter turnout aren’t exciting."
I think this is the problem. Trump is exciting. Almost anything he says and does is exciting, as it is threatening. On the other hand, Democrats have been boring. Obama was no drama, and Hillary was blah. Democrats need excitement, too.
Perhaps super stars, like Oprah, can get involved in generating voter interest.
Oprah might run for Congress, or what have you.
Boring campaigns = low voter turnout = Democratic loses!
============================================
1
Sure, some of the left is energized... but by what?
Aside from loathing Trump (understandable), what does a vote for a leftie candidate get me?
A party that goes the to the mat for illegal immigrants and still fails to protect them?
A party that talks about all kinds of inequality except that which would offend donors— income and wealth inequality?
A party that inevitably sides with banks, pharmaceutical companies, and hedge funds?
A party so obsessed with identity and oppression that it prefers to characterize me as the enemy rather than appeal to me as a voter in the second largest voting demographic in the country?
A party whose leadership is entrenched, ancient, rich, and hasn’t pulled out a big win in nearly a decade? Who thinks another rich Kennedy kid is a “fresh face?” Who was so clueless that they thought (insisted, in fact) that Clinton was a great candidate? A leadership who (for the most part) supported the Iraq war, offered to cut Social Security and Medicare, and didn’t insist on prosecuting bankers?
Yes, Trump is awful and the GOP repugnant.
But what have Democrats got for me?
2
smug complacency is the enemy here.
in column after column,cable tv commentator after commentator,
I notice an assumption that a progressive
victory is inevitable. Mr.Trump did not
get where he is by accident. he is a shrewd,
reality show operator who will use the media,
even the liberal media, to his advantage,
especially if it appears "biased" against
him.work hard and get out the vote.
don't treat his supporters as ignorant
yahoos who are a mortal enemy. that is
a sure way to guarantee a victory for
Donald Trump.
2
There's no more powerful method -- by far -- to increase voter turnout, especially among young voters, than simply mailing every voter their ballot before each election. Oregon, Washington, and Colorado do this now for every election (and more than 50 counties in Utah and North Dakota). Active registered voter turnout in Oregon in 2014 midterms was 71%, vs 48% national average (according to EAC data) -- and OR was NOT a battleground. Registered 18-34 year old Oregon voters turned out at 45% -- vs 20-25% in most other states. More at www.voteathome.org
It would be nice to vote for something, not just against something.
One thing Republicans are very good at: messaging. Short and strong slogans.
"A Better Deal" is far too insipid, it references bad old deals, and it means nothing.
I want to see positive, strong new ideas being promoted.---and if Dems don't have any, they are in trouble, because Progs have lots.
1
Check out New Era Colorado (http://neweracolorado.org/voter-engagement/#.WpQjCiJMGEd), who has developed a proven model for registering and turning out young voters. Their registrants vote at 86% rate (!!!) and they are a big reason CO stayed Blue in 2016.
2
I decided when "evil" was elected this would be my last vote. If this country will allow Russia to decide our presidential outcome, why bother. Might as well live in El Salvador.
Rallies are fun, but nothing will change until the NRA puppets who hold public office lose elections. Does anyone remember the Occupy Wall Street "movement"? What was its lasting achievement? I rest my case.
Now we just need good people to vote for...
1
American voters on the whole aren't really looking for much anymore from their Presidents. They are largely accepting of the fact that this country has serious problems on many fronts, some of which are already impossible to fix, the gun epidemic being one example. Trump's crazy clown show succeeded largely because he gave the country something new to talk about and be horrified by every day. The next Democrat to run for President must be an entertainer. Sound policy prescriptions from our future presidents are out. Twittering and outrageous behavior are in.
2
Why would young people vote leftist progressive Democrat, when they know full well when the enter the job market the Dems will steal their hard earned money via confiscatory taxes?
The Democrats offer nothing but misery and totalitarian rule. They’ve been exposed as the party with zero ideas.
1
Liberals vote, there just aren’t as many as you think.
15
We know liberals outnumber conservatives by close to three million, exactly because they did vote in the last election. Perhaps you were unaware of that fact.
4
Bravo. A truth that few Times editorialists acknowledge. If you just read the Times, you'd think we live in a society of leftists. The trick is to get a decent fraction of those who voted for Trump in 2016 to vote for a Democrat in 2020, and the odds against that are staggering.
1
Dream on.
3
While I think banning assault rifles is a good idea generally -- assault weapons are not the cause of our high homicide rate. For example, according to the FBI, in 2016 we had 15k homicides, 11k were by firearms. Of those, roughly 8k where the type of weapon used was identified --of those 8k only 374 were by rifles of all types. Our homicide rate is a problem, but assault rifles are not the cause. And since the linkage is between NRA-Republicans-Assault rifles--gun violence -- that argument is not supported by the data.
And as far as the notion that if we elect dems we'll have fewer gun deaths -- Leonhardt should actually do some research. According to the FBI, in 2008 (last year of the Bush admin) the % of total homicides caused by firearms was 67%. In 2016 (last year of Obama admin) it was 73%. Overall -- starting in about 1964 the overall murder rate was 4.6 per 100k -- it rose dramatically until 1980 when it peaked at over 10 per 100k -- that would be 8 years of repubs and 8 years of dems. It declined during the early Reagan years then went back up, but since 1990 it has steadily declined through all admins -- to around the level it was in the 50's and early 60's before it peaked. So there's really no data that supports the notion that dems will somehow keep people safer from gun violence than Republicans. Please.
I just want to add that the younger progressive voters who wore out their shoe leather for the Obama campaign, need a reason to vote. Thus, the lower turnouts in 2014 and 2016. After they were thrown under the bus after 2008, that took the wind out of their sails and it's been hard work getting them back. Progressive candidates in the 2018 midterms and 2020 general will re-energize them. And we need them!
2
The Republicans win elections by trickery, deception and massive amounts of dark corporate money (thanks to Chief Justice John Roberts).
Remember that Nixon cut a deal with the Vietnamese to stay out of peace talks before the 1968 election. Reagan cut a deal with the Iranians to keep the US prisoners until the election of 1980 was over. Floridian voter fraud and the Supreme Court put the un-elected GW Bush in the White House.
Since then the GOP has counted on systematic gerrymandering and wide scale voter suppression to stay in power. They have been assisted in these schemes by the Koch Brothers, the Mercers and their kind through huge contributions to finance the capture of local governments that manage the electoral process (Red Map gerrymandering directed by Karl Rove).
Republicans depend on typical US voter apathy where Republicans can play small margins to their benefit. However, now many are working to get out the vote because of the outrage they feel after the ignorant, vulgar clown Donald Trump was placed in the White House by low voter turnout and Republican chicanery with Russian assistance.
Forty million registered voters (actually registered!) stayed home in 2016. Trump was handed the Slave Era Electoral College with the thinnest of margins in a few (Russian-hacked?) states. We must truly get out the vote on a massive scale to save our democracy. Every election is critical.
2
A lot easier to tell progressives to vote when they have a viable option that actually represents them. Help end the stranglehold of our two corporate parties: www.fairvote.org
1
To the Bernie supporters who wouldn’t and didn’t go vote for Hillary; it’s likely you’re the reason 45 is in the White House.
5
The solution is easy: Allow online voting. You can do almost everything else.
I have a niece bemoaning that she cannot afford a house, and was startled when my husband told her that it was an uphill battle. She was unaware that a person living in Westchester County NY or Greenich, CT could have a major tax hit as the result of losing the deduction for taxes and mortgage. REal estate just became a lot more unaffordable unless the change tanks prices, which is a whole different set of bad outcomes. I can't even say whether she will still be able to deduct her student loans.
When our working 30 somethings don't have the time or energy to understand how Congress has affected them, we are not going to see them vote.
Democrats have not yet reached her to tell her what happens ot a working couple in a very expensive area. They are not rich, but they will be affected by the determination of Congress to punish blue states and fund red.
Being apolitical right now cab cost you your health care, your ability to save for a house, your house's contribution to your retirement, your a bility to pay off school loans.
But working to keep your head above water costs you so much time, you an't think.
Figure that one out, Dems, or die.
6
I hope the outrage fueled by the courage of the students from Parkland infects the two younger younger voter demographics. After all, it THEIR future that is being determined by the legislators that now are in office. They CAN make a difference! As to those over 45? Turnout there is also abysmal. Without the participation of people privileged to vote, WE THE PEOPLE has no meaning.
2
This focus on getting the vote from “the left” is exactly what got Donald Trump elected along with both houses of Congress and a supermajority of state houses and governorships around our country in GOP hands.
What we need is not to pursue the vote of leftist non-compromising ideologues of the Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein set, which played an oversized part into leading us into ruin in 2016, but those in the middle that have more than narrow, ideological rigid interests who want to take back our country from those my-way-or-the-highway extremists in order to make our government work, once again, for the majority of people in this country.
In addition to this, there is also another very simple reason why we need the votes from middle much more than we need votes from the “left.”
There are far more people who occupy the middle than either political extreme.
A simple fact that the Democratic Party and the elitist and out-of-touch New York Times apparently continues to ignore.
2
Thank you, Mike. I was saying the same thing all during the campaign.
I'm not sure what I would do if a Jill Stein or Bernie Sanders went up against Donald Trump in three years. I suppose I would have to hold my nose -- lest a non-vote once again give us Trump. But their ideas give me the willies.
In Australia, voting is mandatory. Failure to vote will result in a small, but significant fine. As a result, groups like radical gun owners and climate change deniers who are in the minority among voters cannot hijack an election. If you want to know the reason it was so easy to enact strict gun control in Australia, this is it. The US, and by extension, the world would be a much different place if we adopted mandatory voting.
181
At the least, we should make it much easier to vote, perhaps by adopting mail-in ballots or by making voting a national holiday. The reasons for Tuesday voting no longer make sense.
4
I heard a report about Australia on NPR. The advantage of their system is that candidates don't have to spend their time throwing red meat to the base to get them to come out and vote -- both sides KNOW their base is coming to the polls. So candidates can be more nuanced, trying to reach independents.
The fine is not large, $55 in NSW but if you refuse to pay your driver's licence or vehicle registration might be cancelled!
There's one other important voting system in Australia: preferential voting. This stops a candidate getting in with only (say) 28% of the vote. There is no "first past the post" as in the U.K. (and in the U.S. it seems).
In a three horse race, the candidate with the lost number of votes gets their votes distributed to the other two, according to the voter's second preference.
Think about that for a moment: If this system was in operation in the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton might have just got across the line with the Electoral College system.
Thank you, David, for stating the obvious. After all the folderol, all that's left is getting out the vote. Expressing opinions, attending rallies, writing your representatives are all worthy endeavors. But voting is the most important one of them all. Without exercising that right, all other things are moot. Remember, come November, vote.
DD
Manhattan
2
Start the young off by talking early and often about the value of your vote. start giving kids the idea that voting is what we do in democracies. It makes us different and better that non-democracies. If a 12 year old has an understanding of the value of their vote, when they become old enough to cast it they may think long and hard about the mistake of wasting their vote by not voting.
Time to start writing those songs about the value of your vote. Time for corporations to include the value of your vote in their ad campaigns. We need to put the right to vote front and center so each day we are reminded that once an individual has lost the right to vote it takes a long time to reinstall democracy.
We in the USA all grew up in the amazing liberal democracy of the last 70 years. If some Democrats made the wrong policy decisions it does not mean that democracy itself is flawed only some of its protagonists. Under strong men and political thugs democracy is starting to fail - Russia and Turkey for example. We should not let it fail in the USA.
1
My two great hopes:
1) Voter turnout will be over 90% this November...
2) the Democrats will organize themselves and come up with a platform, an agenda and a plan to resuscitate our democracy. They seem to have none of the above and it would appear that their focus is still all about them not about us... nor about the US...
3
This is a lesson for the long-term...yes, we had a flawed candidate, and yes progressives wanted change immediately and moderates not so fast...however, by not voting in all elections over time we deserve the government and the laws we get. We are on a path to fascism and totalataranism in this country. It needs to be halted.
I just turned 65 and history serves as a great teacher...we can fight over policy but we still need to vote vs. staying home and being angry!
Parkland hopefully serves as a wake-up call not just the younger folks but to all of us.
I tried to be optimistic about voters doing the right thing....with election of Trump I have become a skeptic...low informationism is the scourge of our time. All of us need to do a better job of being informed and understand what is truthful. I realize it is a tall order but this country's future depends on it.
1
When it comes to voting many Americans, have come to believe their votes don't matter. Their APATHY, is understandable. They think both the Republicans and Democrats only work in the best interests of their RICH donors. We need to remind all Americans what George Jean Nathan said "Bad officials are elected by good people that DON'T VOTE." If Trump has done anything to "Make America Great Again" is he is proving this correct. If we want to make a change, we need to VOTE in every election Local and National. EVERY VOTE MATTERS!!!
I do not identify with the Democratic Party at all. I am disgusted by its flaccid fecklessness as is mimics Waldo in the "Where's Waldo" game. The Democratic Party is the GOP's best and greatest gift. Without it, Republicans would be so deeply lost in the political wilderness that it would never again be fount.
But the GOP both disgusts and outrages me, as it had systematically dismantled the pillars of constitutional democracy brick-by-brick for decades. It has zero interest in governing, as demonstrated by its rank incompetence while in power and it's single-minded comment to obstruction while out. Republican "leaders" have fallen slavishly in line with a vulgar demagogue for no other reason than that he is perceived as key to their hold on power.
Power for what? we may ask. Power for perpetuating and increasing their hold on power is the only discernible answer. This is why I vote "D" with my nose clothes-pegged, yearning desperately for another alternative committed to the democratic principles that build our country and flexible enough to understand that the world has changed since 1776.
2
These are powerful groups who have been energized. Roles have flipped. It was taken as a truism that angry white men and wealthy donors would dominate elections. We have now seen and experienced the enormous harm that results.
They have gone too far--both Trump and Republicans. They think there is no line they can't cross--insult people daily, attack almost everyone constantly such as the traumatized students now or the FBI or the Dreamers. At the same time Trump praised white supremacists and Putin and a child molester and sheriffs who tortured prisoners. Scandals and indictments abound; tweets poison the news daily; corruption seeps throughout the administration and GOP Congress; and treasonous actions are dismissed.
The young people have gone through formative generational experiences now--school massacres, bigotry, the overthrowing of basic decency and ideals. They will not ignore this. Women and minorities too have had enough. Many men are outraged as well.
Voting is the voice not of wealthy corporations but of real people who will no longer stand for the present large atrocities and the continual micro aggressions against true American democracy and values.
2
It's a continuing issue. I'm 68 and have been a Democrat all my life and voted in every dog catcher to Presidential election since 1970, except for the first one when I was in Vietnam. A case from New Mexico puts a fine point on the value of voting. In the 2014 mid-term, the fewest Democrats voted in 60 years, and we had the first Republican led House in 60 years. The relationship doesn't get any more linear than that. Only 6% of the 18-29 group voted. In the Presidential election the 20-somethings decided to vote, and the Democrats took back the House. At my age I have much less to lose than the young, but they are so wrapped up in the un-real digital world, that "it doesn't affect me" attitude is very dangerous for their future, not to mention the world. I provided security at the Women's Rally here in Albuquerque on that cold January, and I asked some of the very boisterous young women if they voted in the November election - not one of the dozens I asked had voted. I was livid, and told each one that they were responsible for Trump winning the Presidency. About 1/2 walked away, and one called me an old man. Take it from there.
164
The truth hurts, and you took the flack for saying it - good for you! Because I'll bet at least of few of those who walked away got the point and, hopefully, did something about it, namely register. Perhaps there's something onerous sounding about "register" that puts people off, but in any case, you did the right thing. We may have to get a bit pushy and in peoples' faces to get our fellow citizens to also do the right thing.
4
That rude young woman heard you--her anger was really at herself.
2
We elected a majority Democratic government in 2009 and got exactly one Heritage Foundation corporate welfare plan for our trouble while being called disparaging names by the President's Chief of Staff. This was not lost on the traditional Democratic voter so perhaps the Democrats should try giving the electorate something to vote for rather than relying on the Republicans to provide something sufficiently unthinkable to vote against each election cycle.
1
I don't care for the Democratic Leadership (or lack thereof,) but I vote for Democrats because they are the best way forward. No high-minded protest votes for candidates that can't win, no votes for the worst candidate by "abstaining." Pragmatic is exactly right. Take the best deal offered, every time, at every opportunity, and enjoy the luxury of being able to vote to shape future. I've stopped thinking of myself as a Democrat. I belong to the group that isn't particularly well represented by either political party - the 99%. But eventually, if we all vote for the candidates who oppose it the least, we can have a decent educational system, good health care, and a thriving middle class.
2
Progressive. You keep using this word, David, but I don’t think you know what it means. Suburban centrists upset by Trump tweets are NOT progressives. At best they’re centre-left. Are they fighting for universal healthcare, publicly funded elections, free tuition at public universities, and a $15 minimum wage? No. They are fighting for none of these things (and in fact are most often fighting against them!). How upset are they about the $160 billion a year extra added to the DOD budget? Do they even know this happened!?
The centre-left will not be allowed to co-opt the progressive title and use it to further enrich the oligarchs while feeling good about themselves for gently fighting back against Trump. No way.
2
I’ve been a poll worker the last bunch of years. I see people’s ages listed in voter sign in book. Almost No one under 30 voted in any election including the trump travesty. You can argue correctly that in wonderfully progressive NYC, it doesn’t matter; the results will be the same. But, as so eloquently argued in DLs column, it DOES matter elsewhere.
I say to 30 and unders; think about if you want to be ruled by old people with old ideas. If not, you I have the power. Use it, before those fogeys take it away from you.
186
From an old fogey, GET OUT AND VOTE!
7
How about making it easier to vote? My son works 6 days a week, 10-12 hours a day, and that includes Tuesdays. Not much I say will convince him to get up at 5:30 in the morning to vote after working until midnight the night before. And he is not alone by any stretch.Why are we one of the only democratic countries that limits voting to a workday and does not give workers the day off? Voting days should be national holidays. Or voting should be expanded to Voting Weeks not one day in November. Simple changes like that will expand voter participation hugely. (Yes, I know that is not what the GOP wants, but the Dems should make it an issue and let the GOP defend voter suppression.)
9
Work on that in your state. Yes, there technically is a single "election day" but some states (not including New York, but including Ohio, which is not known as a hotbed for progressivism) have multiple opportunities for early voting and no-excuse absentee voting. Voting rules are state issues, not federal.
2
Meh. This is an old saw, and turnout cuts both ways. It has been a bugaboo of the left for generations, the central concern going back to the Vietnam War era being the resiliently low rates of the 21-29 and 18-29 cohorts. Only such unicorns as Obama effectively energize that cohort, and even then the effect is fleeting. By the 2012 election rates were returning to the norm. The lack of discipline explains most of this, whether it was internal motivation or external pushes by unions and other Democrat-aligned institutions. The Republican assault on unions is rooted in this reality. Conversely, the relatively low rate of voting in the last two elections (2014 & 2016) is a concern for Republicans as well; Trump has disaffected a lot of older, more reliably Republican votes. Thus the turnout problem is not just a story about Progressives, and the efforts described by Leonhart might be offset by the boost the Republicans are getting from the tax bill.
1
We'll see. Your analysis, while historically relevant, ignores the evidence of Virginia (high turnout due to high stakes by all cohorts), and AL which is more nuanced but still reflected higher than historical turnout as a state wide special election in an historically single party state. Perhaps the most important lesson that transcends time is that good candidates that "pragmatically" relate to issues of their constituents matter regardless of the type election being held. The inflection point may be that pragmatic newly aroused patriotic citizens realize that elections do have consequences, there is a difference between candidates and the better candidate is only a choice of a lesser evil if you the voter allow it to be.
1
The failure to vote is the suicide of democracy. We have only one chance left.
226
Resist.
Organize.
VOTE!
5
Once chance? Really?
Then what? Will the U.S. never hold elections again?
What drama.
1
I couldn't agree more, I took my children with me to the voting booth every time there was an election so they would understand the process. When the 2016 election came I was pleased that each of them voted even though they were in the 18-24 year demographic that is prone to low voter turnout. Young people often feel removed from the issues or that they will have little impact. This attitude needs to be turned around by addressing issues that are important to their age group.
6
I became a US citizen in 1999, before then I had never voted in a political election in my native country. There was no need to vote as the outcome was pre determined in advance. I don't think I missed a single election in the US since I became eligible to vote. Even though I live in an overwhelmingly democratic county, I made sure to vote, it was -and continues to be- a joyous occasion, it is a right I only gained by becoming citizen of this country and I knew how precious it was to be able to vote freely in an election where every vote is counted. I hope that my fellow Americans will realize how precious is their vote is and never take their democracy fore granted again.
34
"The crucial point is that the Trump presidency has created an opportunity to jump-start progress — "
Yes, and, as you point out, this is starting to happen. But something else has happened, and it may be one other facet of the movement of which you write. I am even more energized by Elon Musk's rocket launch, by word that Jeff Bezos is thinking of doing the same, by the newa that Bezos, Dimon and Buffet are starting up their own health care companies. To me, this last, especially, is a spectacular end-run around stagnation solution toward goals we all want and need. We are truly evolving and this evolution may be salvific for us and for the world. It surely justifies the wealth of the 1% if they can save us from would-be tyrants, whether in Congress or the White House, who are merely soliciting votes for the next election rather than exercising any muscle for the people.
I'll vote. I am a voter. I think I stopped voting only during the Vietnam War. But I know there are even better methods than voting when so much is rigged against the people, better ways to jump-start our world.
8
Trump has certainly energized the progressive vote in a manner Hillary couldn't; however, one must note that this is more a reactive expression of discontent, than a proactive articulation of hope. Many on the center left, myself included, were troubled by Hillary's nomination because we feared she wouldn't inspire youth voters in 2016. Sadly, this scenario came to fruition.
If Democrats wish to make significant gains in future elections, they must give people reasons to vote for them, instead of voting against Trump Cynicism, after all, has become the proper realm of the GOP, not the Democratic Party.
14
Timberwolf--Pro-active is the key word. The students in Florida are excellent examples of this. Proactive, not just reactive, which is what Republicans are. Get behind the issues.
1
Maybe the apathetic and the anti-establishment people should dwell on the fact that there are groups that don’t want them to vote and have engaged in active measures to convince them not to vote.
The apathetic and disillusioned have been manipulated. And twice in the last 20 years, their decision not to vote has resulted in dire consequences.
Vote and vote wisely. The voter is the best line of defense against tyranny.
37
labels are misleading and can conjure up wrong images: liberals bring up image of a free for all socially and a socialist economic order; the right brings up image of all white, older, less educated group who want to turn the clock back to the Eisenhower years. I suggest using the term progressives - people who want to progress to a safer, inclusive world and regressives for people who want to turn back to clock.
22
Ike was a Liberal by today's standards. Regressives want Reagan back, and Trump is a good substitute for them -- a president that disdains government, taxes, and dissent, especially from minorities and women (women are a majority).
Many people fear change. They prefer the hell they know over the hell they may be forced into. They've been told over and over that progressivism is evil, and they believe it; in fact, now they are selling it to others.
The Democratic Party, liberal or progressive or whatever they wish to call themselves is headless. The Party is without National leadership. Who or what is the Democratic Party? Clinton left the organization in shambles. Titles are useless without direction. The GOP can remain the Party in power because they have an identity. The Democrats do not. At this point, their chances at making a difference in 2018 is out of the question.
8
...Clinton left the organization in shambles...
---------- the party was in a shambles before she had to run. what kind of party doesn't count the electoral votes and take action ahead of time to make sure they aren't blind-sided ? . . .
1
The New Democratic Party must be the strident voice of sanity that returns America to an emotionally stable government and then forges ahead with striking new proposals including massive gun control and a fully funded national health plan .
Gun control legislation must include disarming the civilian population with whatever devices work including buy back of guns.
A final and permanent national health plan could be a lifetime Medicare program from birth to death including hospice care for those terminally ill and full coverage for those who are permanently disabled.
These humanitarian programs will return the soul of democracy to Americans with a permanent restriction on aggressive capitalism and the greed that it spawns!
20
Yes, but you will have to somehow convince Americans to vote in their best economic interests and that is extremely difficult to deprogram Americans my age (72) to see how they have been brainwashed for about the last thirty years.
The Democratic Party or Progressives, whatever the term, probably should probably focus mostly upon a younger generation who aren't fooled by a con man like Trump and the Republican stooges for the rich like Ryan and McConnell.
2
Gary....I'm 73 and I believe that our generation can see the mistake we made by being sucked in to meaningless aggressive capitalism and the soulless America it gave birth to.
1
Left-leaning is hardly left. Liberal or "liberal" is hardly left. Sympathizing with various ideas of the left is not left.
Many of those young "left" non-voters realize that they are future Republicans or conservatives, when they grow up. For the moment they are just spoiled. Words are cheap, but let others do the work, even if it is simple like voting.
1
Although I'm sure the Democrats will pick up seats this November, because the President's party typically loses ground midterm, when it comes to long term mobilization, I'll believe it when I see it.
The economy is going well, and this is the primary driver of voting behavior. Will the economy continue to perform well to 2020? That's actually where Trump's fate rests.
#MeToo has mobilized many, but let's keep this in perspective. #MeToo has benefited from the fact that it deals with issues that make mega-clickworthy stories on gossip pages and other mainstream media. Further, it only takes some noise--and not a majority--to knock down a career like Louis CKs. But election day is about majorities.
The recent Gun Control activists don't have the luxury of juicy gossip to advance their profile. Just like Harvey Weinstein killed the gun control zeitgeist after Vegas, there will soon be another major story that erases Parkland from public memory. And when the next mass killing happens, this will play out again.
2
Oh I think they'll be
plenty this cycle.
4
A I agree that people need to vote. But right now our country is literally like a house on fire and no one in power is doing a thing about it.
Why isn’t the fact that the Russians manipulated the election to go Trump’s way being taken seriously?
23
The Republicans are doing PLENTY about it! They are pouring gas on the fire!
3
Can you say, treason? If Cali defeats Nunez maybe he can be the canary in the democratically derived Constitutional rule of law jail cell for the Putin kleptocracy.
1
David, if we can reform who finances our elections then our votes will make a real difference and voters will be motivated. But if the media columnists, like yourself, don't even talk about this underlying blockage to democracy, then we get the same old, same old. We'll stand in long lines to conscientiously vote ---but only for the nominees the wealthy mega donors approve to stay within policy limits.
Trump/Repubs are so awful, it makes even mediocre Dems look better than they are.
We didn't hear much from the 2016 campaign about true universal health care we badly need, or climate change. gun laws to keep us safe, decent college tuition, or sensible regulations on Wall St banks, etc.
Sure, America has low voter turnout compared to democracies that don't turn their elections over to the corporations for financing.
Maybe Americans are tired of being manipulated by bilionaire paid political ads swamping the media for years b4 elections. Our media profits from this.
Europeans don't have to put up with those ads--they ban them, and use free TV time for all candiates in short campaigns. What bliss! And they learn more reality about their candidates then we learn about ours. Trump is proof of that.
Why do NYT columnists avoid discussing who pays for our elections and what that causes? What is the downside, David?
20
These high school people have a great cause in gun control however the best bet for change is to work on getting out the vote at all levels to put people who will vote for change in place.
14
The people (in House and Senate) who will vote for change are -- Democrats!
4
Republicans understand that they don’t really have the votes for their agenda, hence the focus on gerrymandering, limiting voter registration, and immigration “reform.” In my district, we have an ineffectual Republican who could easily be replaced if 16-29 year olds came out in force.
17
To rephrase: ". . . we have an ineffectual Republican who could easily be replaced if all Democrats came out in force."
3
Very good article. Thank you for writing it. Your suggestions, I think, could work.
4
Leonhardt seems to have difficulty connecting with reality. He strongly suggests that electing dems will lead to fewer gun deaths, less climate change, less inequality, higher living standards. But correct if I'm wrong, but Obama's admin didn't do anything about gun control when they had the chance. The only action on CC was the Paris Accord which is and was a meaningless piece of paper. Income inequality has grown over the last several decades during at least 2 democratic admins -- the issues that cause income inequality are global and technological in nature, not political. Higher living standards? Really? Is Leonhardt suggesting that somehow under democratic administrations that living standards go up. Does he have any evidence for that?
And to suggest that a government run by democrats would better reflect the views of all its citizens is a rather progressive centric statement don't you think? Obviously a large portion of the population does not support progressive views.
2
The Clean Power initiative is one example, and higher CAFE mileage standards another, of Obama actions on climate change. There were others. Don't forget your constitutional right to incandescent light bulbs. Remember, the Bush EPA decided it simply didn't have the authority to regulate carbon emissions.
Prosperity? More jobs have been created under every Democratic president than under any Republican one. That's right: the best Republican did worse than the worst Democrat.
Perhaps you don't remember the Clinton boom, the last time in decades that wages inched up.
Income inequality has been rising for decades, and it's true that's happened under Democrats and Republicans alike. Only relatively recently has it become clear that it's a persistent trend. Democrats have failed to respond forcefully; I credit that to Clinton's loss to Trump because Trump at least promised to do something. But as policy, only Republicans have persistently reinforced the income inequality trend by making the tax code less progressive 3 times: under Reagan, Bush, and now Trump. We also have Republicans to thank for eviscerating what used to be welfare, and coming within 1 vote last year of doing the same to Medicaid.
So, yeah, there's a difference. To see it, you have only to pay attention.
2
Progressives should show up and vote for genuine progressive candidates. That’s excludes any of the corporate suits endorsed by the DNC or Emily’s List devoted to the status quo and the agenda of rich donors.
We don’t need anymore Republican Lites who support the wars, tax loopholes, or take money from Wall Street, Big Pharma or Silicon Valley. We don’t need the Axis of Pelosi, Clinton, Kennedy, Schumer, Feinstein, Obama, Reid and their ilk: careers politicians who parlayed their terms in office to amass great personal wealth. We don’t need the parasitical armies of self-serving consultants and think tanks feeding at the trough. We need warriors who will fight for the 90%. We need representatives who understand the ACA wasn’t the solution, nor was forgiving Wall Street crooks and CIA torturers. We need to reform the party that thought running Clinton in an election cycle where voters voted their contempt for the establishment was a good idea.
11
We must address the insular nature of American consciousness. Americans are laggards in understanding the rest of the world, and embarrassingly so.. And yet their companies are global and fetch disproportionate wealth from the rest of the planet, think Amazon, Google, Facebook, Boing, Caterpillar, etc...
By not understanding what happens in other Western nations, not even in next door Canada, many Americans cannot draw lessons to help make better decisions.
Help now comes from the young and progressives who are more inclined to see the world as a united place and globalization as the potential to address crucial issues such as global warming, health and justice to women the world over, to mention a few...Trump gave a voice to the ignorant, jingoistic minded - the conservative voters with strong voting traditions. But ignorance cannot prevail, as common sense dictates.
Parkland teens are the proof that a spark of optimistic will can transform the general perception with lightning speed. The March on Washington and the approaching Midterm Elections will bring a landslide of sentiments. And sentiments prime interest in understanding issues and fighting for what is best for the nation. I can only hope to see that the road to democracy will usher a form of socialism in America that will bring more justice and create strong commons, of which the single payer health system, affordable college education and reducing economic inequality will be the most important targets.
12
I'm shouting into the wind here but I don't think the media realizes how much the word "progressive" has changed post-Bernie Sanders/Jill Stein 2016. It's been irrevocably tainted by the self-described progressives - because many of them have made their disregard of racial minorities blatant.
There really is no hard line between some hardcore Sanders supporters and "deplorable" Trump supporters on race, women's issues like abortion, and immigration. Yes, a few chosen women like Elizabeth Warren/Tulsi Gabbard are OK as long as they don't alienate Bernie, who they still look to as the leader. If Bernie says yay to a candidate, fine. If Bernie says no, they won't vote. Is that a winning strategy Democrats should accept?
"The leaders are most often suburban women alarmed by President Trump’s assaults on decency and the rule of law."
Take a poll; I bet you'll find that many of these women do not identify as "progressives". They're more likely to identify as affluent, educated former Republican moderates/independents who simply had enough and voted for a moderate Democrat. It was the combo of those moderates added to the overwhelming black/Hispanic/Asian vote which took Dem. governors Doug Jones/Ralph Northam over the top in recent races. Why is no pundit looking at that instead of looking at white "progressives" as the vital link?
P.S. Affluent progressives care nothing about white working class issues as long as they get their votes. Why is that not called identity politics?
8
If you're going to shout in the wind, you might want to know you'd be easier to understand if you stated your point clearly.
If you want to claim Jill Stein had some effect on the meaning of progressive, well, no. She got almost no votes and offered no coherent platform.
If you want to claim some progressives are racist: evidence, please.
If you want to claim liberals and progressives indulge in identity politics while simultaneously failing to make common cause with the working class -- white and not -- yes. That's the problem. Doug Jones is an apposite example. He won on the backs of black women despite, not because of, funding from the national Democratic Party. The party has yet to recognize them, much less organize around them.
2
Pay attention to the many former military that are running for Congress in parts of the nation as Democrats. They can be elected and prove to all Americans who the real heroes are. They are great leaders already.
6
Thanks David. The Trumpet call to action has a much better opportunity to get results than the General Election in most cases. Why? Because mid-terms are usually a knee jerk reaction to broken promises by the political party in power. This time, it’s more by both parties. I feel that many Republican women may vote Democratic without telling their friends and even their families because they are just fed up with no action by their party. While all of this may give the Democratic Party the edge now, 2020 is really the election that can change our future. Will the Democrats be smart enough to find a real new and fresh face to lead our country back to Sanity, or will the old guard with their wheel chair politics blow it once again?
5
Unfortunately, if there is to be a future it must change in 2018. The Democratic minority in both houses of congress must have the subpoena power and investigative powers to first and foremost protect our national security from ongoing acts of war by aggressive hostile powers. Second, protect our national security from the looting of the US Treasury for personal gain from traitors. And finally, protect our national security from a range of policies and actions that threaten our lives, liberty and pursuit of happiness in our daily undertakings.
Vote every time you can, for the most liberal candidate you can, and in five or ten years things will start to turn around. That's the best deal you are going to be offered. "Not voting," or a protest vote is voting for what you like the least.
10
There are so many reasons for Democrats to be optimistic about this November. They just have to drive home that there are an abundance of reasons to vote *for* them. From standing up for our innocent life to the NRA, to saving what remains of the ACA, to writing a more equitable tax code, and so on, our legislators have considerable possibilities for using their power.
We know what a Republican majority in Congress looks like, cow towing to the Bully-in-Chief. Let's show an appealing alternative. Oh, and let's have some engaging, visceral members of Congress, like Senators Warren and Booker, drum up voters. 2018 can be a decisive change of fortune - and set the scene for the White House to go Blue in 2020.
6
Trump flipped six states compared to 2012 to win the election, and overall votes by Democrats were down by almost a million in those states. Gerrymandering has no effect on the Presidential election, or the Senate or governors, and it is clear that voter suppression and the other typical excuses that Democrats want to bring up doesn't explain such a low turnout. They just didn't vote. Hillary couldn't even beat one of the worst Presidential candidates in US history, and that was just the tip of iceberg of losses going back a decade. And the mainstream media missed one of the biggest election stories in decades.
People pine for Obama but he left Democrats in their worst shape in a century, while smiling all the way to the bank.
If Democrats can manage to appeal to the working class without denigrating them they might have a chance. Democrats need to learn the difference between what their echo chambers on social and the mainstream media say and what produces votes.
8
Well said. Civics ought to remind us that voting is not only a right but an obligation...if we appreciate democratic values for which people have sacrificed and even died for in the past. One wonders if the apathy in reaching the voting booth has to do with the ubiquitous 'gerrymandering', when people don't believe that their vote will make a difference. If we do not become responsible in deciding about politics, the art of the possible, and vote for somebody with your best interests in mind, a charlatan may do so instead, with dire consequences, as the likes of thuggish Donald J Trump, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, so amply demonstrate. Their ignorance is by choice, as the corporate donors demand them to be subservient to their narrow interests and the bottom line. Enough is enough!
3
I still don't think you or the rest of the Democratic establishment gets it or understands progressives. It's not about being anti-Trump, it's more about anti-Democratic establishment. Why the heck do you think Trump is even in the office to begin with? It's because the Democratic establishment ran THE most establishment candidate (recall, she was soundly rejected the last time for a guy promising hope and change). If you want to almost guarantee apathy and disgust with the Democratic base, stick with the same strategy that has lost over a thousand seats from the state legislator to the governorships to the congress, and then the presidency. There are dozens of Democratic establishment figures that are in primary fights with Progressives this year from Joe Manchin in WV to Diane Finstein in CA. If the Democratic establishment wants a good turnout in the general election, give the voters a reason to vote.
11
The issue is not just getting progressives to turn out to vote, but getting them to vote for the better of the candidates running who can actually win. In 2000, George W. Bush took the White House partly because many progressives didn't like All Gore and voted for the Green Party instead.
Then, in 2016, progressives did exactly the same thing again, delivering the White House to Donald Trump by voting for Jill Stein of the Green Party. If the Stein voters in swing states had held their noses and voted for Clinton, we wouldn't be in the middle of a 4-year nightmare (I hope) of Donald Trump.
Clinton, of course, was a flawed candidate with many things progressives didn't like. But when they put in someone a thousand times worse, were they punishing Clinton or punishing the rest of us and themselves?
14
Chris,
Those 90,000 Nader voters were easily out passed by the 300,000 Dino's that flipped parties and voted for Bush don't you think?
Maybe the couple of million registered Fla. Dems that sat home should be blamed eh? No, never blame them. Always hippie punch, down and left.
It is what Dems do.
Same thing happened in '16. A few 3rd party voters get blamed when an overwhelming number of Dino (Obama) voters flipped and voted for Trump.
If you are discounting the 3rd party vote, then Trump still wins, cause the Rep. 3rd parties gathered even more votes.
Again you refuse to blame the millions of Dems that stayed home.
They (3rd, abstaining, protest vote) are trying to send Dems, (& Cons) the message that they refuse to be party to a political org. that doesn't help them.
One that commits fraud and lip service, while pandering to the very Corp. their constituents are fighting against.
Crabs in a bucket. Punishing? Most of the well off still have lots of money.
The rest are still fighting tooth 'n nail to survive. Under both parties.
Do the Dems hear us now?
Magic 8-ball says NO!
1
If we don't wise up to the reality that *every* candidate is going to be "flawed" we're toast! Let's get real, People.....
2
I am a liberal Democrat and I absolutely blame the Democrats who stayed home in their narcissistic sanctimony and white privilege. If anything, I have more contempt for those sellouts than I do for Trump voters.
3
For every middle-class, suburban housewife put off by Trump's crude bluster, there is another working-class laborer or technician benefitting financially from an economy finally unleashed from excessive regulation and corporate taxation. Stuck in their echo chamber of victimization, Dems cannot imagine the problems faster growth and higher wages will present in the November midterms.
1
In 2016 Americans elected the Keystone Cops to run the country in no small part due to a splintered and relatively poor turnout by Democrats. In 2018 Democrats have a real chance to slow down the social wrecking ball that is the Trump administration. If they don't do their civic duty and vote blue then America will cease to be the leader of the free and become the world's dark comedy. I'm sure that now in China and Russia there are jokes that begin, "Three guys walk into a bar - a Chinese, a Russian and an American.....".
4
I find the low voting turnout of the 18 - 30 years old both troubling and confusing.
Troubling, because they have longer to live with any consequences of failed American policies.
Confusing, because I've voted in just about every election since I was 18.
4
Find a friend or someone else, who is not yet registered, who will vote for reason and science as well as for the middle class and society at large and get them to register to vote.
2
I find it quite interesting that, in the wake of Bernie Sanders' impressive primary showing in 2015-16, a large number of his supporters pushed the following plan for the Democratic Party: to focus mainly, if not exclusively, on economic issues, while dismissing anything else as "identity politics".
Well, focusing on things like income inequality and job growth is fine. But we all know people vote with their hearts just as much as their heads. I mean, no one in Alabama expected Doug Jones to beat Roy Moore. But how did he do it? Mr. Jones didn't run his campaign as a referendum on Trump, but he touted his record as the man who prosecuted members of the KKK responsible for the 1963 16th St. Baptist Church Bombing. This helped him boost black turnout in Birmingham, Montgomery, and Mobile, without which he would have lost.
I fear that some on the Left would dismiss that type of strategy as "identity politics". Well, for the Left and liberals to refer to the "working-class" as consisting mainly of white voters in the Rust Belt or Appalachians who were formerly employed in factory and coal mining jobs is itself a version of "identity politics". In 1950, non-Hispanic whites made up 88% of the population, a share that has dropped to 62% as of 2016. Clearly, the national conversation about this has yet to catch up with the national reality.
The Democratic Party simply can't win without strong female or minority turnout. They ignore this at their own peril.
4
I worry that the recent school shooting happened too early in the year. If it happened closer to November, youthful protests might last long enough to be channeled into youths making the elections a single issue, i.e. legislators who either supported or opposed gun legislation and voting accordingly. This would be the way to defeat the NRA at its own game.
1
Mr. Leonhardt writes, "On persuasion, I think progressives’ best hope is an economic message that focuses the white working class on the working-class part of its identity, rather than the white part."
It is here that he errs. White working class voters vote their race. The 2016 election was overwhelming evidence of this. In every measure -- be it healthcare, education, job retraining, assistance for those with disabilities -- Democrats had much more to offer these voters. But Trump voters rejected them roundly.
Trump voters know that they'll never get their manufacturing jobs back. Trump voters know they're one medical bill away from bankruptcy. And Trump voters know that higher education is beyond their family's reach. But the fact is, they simply don't care.
As long as these white working class voters love to see Trump smear and denigrate ethnic and religious minorities, immigrants and others not like themselves, they will continue to vote for him and other Republicans.
Jobs, healthcare, education -- these are not white working class interests. Race is. And they mean to ensure that their race stays in power in this country, with the rest of us firmly settled behind them, as second class citizens.
Democrats who try to "reach out" to Trump voters on an economic message are wasting their time. It's about race with Trump voters. It was always about race.
10
Indeed, @Charles Dodgson. Every analysis of the data shows that you are right. Every poll asking Americans about their opinions on race shows that you are right. Nate Silver, in his acute analysis of post-election data, proves the assertion beyond out.
But nobody wants to hear it. Nobody wants to hear that more than 50 years after the Voting Rights Act half of Americans are racists to their core. We would need to fundamentally rethink how we feel about our neighbors and fellow citizens, and we’re not prepared to do that. We, and the country, will pay the price this November.
1
"Democrats who try to "reach out" to Trump voters on an economic message are wasting their time. It's about race with Trump voters. It was always about race."
Like the people in the Democratic 'firewall' who had been voting Democrat since the 80s, the ones who voted for Obama twice? Per your story they were informed, progressives but after on election night they turned into ignorant racists. A decade of this is kind of thinking is why Democrats are in their worst position in a century.
"an economic message that focuses the white working class on the working-class part of its identity, rather than the white part."
I hope that the get-out-the-vote movement is not getting corrupted by identity nonsense, which was invented by sociologists to make their analyses easier and has nothing to do with how normal people think. I'm retired now, but I never thought of "white working-class" as my "identity". My identity was ME. Telling people told that they're just part of a valuable voting bloc is not going to inspire them to vote. Telling them that Trump will take away their health insurance and allow important infrastructure to rot will inspire them.
7
Quoting the Op-Ed:
"The movement is “pervasively pragmatic,” write the researchers, Lara Putnam of the University of Pittsburgh and Theda Skocpol of Harvard. It spans “the broad ideological range from center to left” and (despite media coverage to the contrary, they argue) spends little time on Bernie-versus-Hillary fights. Above all, it is trying to elect progressives, including to oft-ignored local offices — and it’s now focused on the 2018 midterms.
"That’s smart. Elections are precisely what progressives should be emphasizing."
Here are a few more facts, showing that mid-term turn-out has been declining. It is now imperative that that be reversed - and in a big way.
Voter turnout rates expressed as a percentage of eligible voters
Year Total ballots cast
2016 60.20%
2014 36.70%
2012 58.60%
2010 41.80%
2008 62.20%
2006 41.30%
2004 60.70%
2002 40.50%
The decline from presidential turnout to midterm turnout has been increasing. 2006 was 19.4% lower than 2004, 2010 20.4% lower than 2008 - and 2014 21.9% lower than 2012. There's a lot of room for improvement
3
Yes, this is a major issue. If the 2008 and 2012 electorate had bothered to show up in (respectively) 2010 and 2012, Pres. Obama would have had a Democratic congress for 8 years. Those who criticize him for not accomplishing enough or not being "progressive" enough overlook the role of many progressives in handicapping the administration by not voting in the midterms. So many things would have been different - here are two: Justice Garland instead of Gorsuch, and continued federal aid to state & local governments, which the Repubs shut off in 2011 (that was a big deal, as state & local governments would have help lift us out of the slump sooner - instead they had to start laying off public safety, cutting infrastructure, etc.).
2
I thought it was senators Susan Collins and John McCain, both moderate Republicans, who broke with their party and saved Obamacare. Neither is known to be susceptible to the charms of "citizen activists".
Anyone who has ever been to a suburban PTA meeting knows the power of the suburban mother to get things done. We often create a cartoon image of the suburban mom driving her kids around town in between getting her nails done and visits to the grocery store. But, these women are smart and educated. They have often taken time off from engaging careers in areas such as law and marketing. They have strong convictions and are ready to mobilize when needed. Lock down drills, guns, attacks on public education, the mere existence of Betsy DeVos will be motivators to get these moms to the polls. But, never forget these are moms to both boys and girls making some identity issues a dangerous theme for progressives to play.
1
Amen, David. All this anger, all this energy needs a productive outlet. None better than voting for Progressives across the board in November.
3
I am willing to bet college campuses will be getting the vote out this time around.
4
That’s entirely possible. Unfortunately a lot of the student leaders on campuses getting out the vote will be doing it for Republicans. Hard to believe when you have fallen for the myth, perpetrated by Republicans, that American campuses are somehow bastions of progressivism. Ain’t so. We’re about to find out just how much it ain’t so.
It is no secret and hardly a surprise that voter turnout is the key to winning elections. But it is also no secret that voter turnout in the USA has been hovering around 50% in the recent past few elections. And that is during the Presidential election cycle. At the local elections, the turnout is shamefully lower.
Leaving aside Australia, where they are required to vote or else pay a steep fine, in the UK and India voter turnout is almost 70%, considerably higher than in the USA. It is a shame that in the world's oldest democracy people are too lazy to vote. I hope the presence of The Donald and the school shooting in Florida will give added impetus to progressives who are pining for change but too lazy to vote.
1
Words matter. Why do we still call these “mid term” elections. It implies “not a big deal” elections. The vote push should market a value to the people, simple and clear: “vote every two years”.
2
Apathy is pervasive in this country. The more I hear people tell me that both parties are the same, the more I wonder what they are smoking. If ever anyone can see a clear distinction between the two parties, it should be now. From Guns to Equality to Healthcare, the distinctions between the right and left are clear.
Admittedly, the Democrats need to do a better job of conveying what it is that they stand for. It’s not enough to be Anti-Trump. Tell the American people what the party is capable of doing and do it in populist terms that are easy to grasp.
And focus like a laser on GOTV efforts. Invest in canvassing, and target those under 30 as a priority. They are the ones who will suffer the longest if things don’t change.
1
Turnout hinges on what’s being voted for as much as who’s being voted for.
And in this regard, the Democrats are at a serious disadvantage. Their two third rails, immigration and gun control, are at the top of everyone’s mind now. Now they have the conservatives’ attention - they’re going for open borders and amnesty, but not hard enough for the radical left, while also going for a gun grab, complete with direct attacks on the NRA and calls for assault rifle bans.
So much for that economic message. It’s almost like the left sat down and thought of the two most polarizing issues to the right, that are also electoral losers for the left, and decided to lead with those.
And about that economic message? The tax reform package is literally paying big dividends, those Pelosi “crumbs” ads have already started to hit the airwaves, and unemployment and consumer confidence are at a respective all time low and high.
Combine all of this with the normal poor citizenship standards among cornerstone Democratic constituencies (a proclivity to not even vote among the young, Asians, and Hispanics), and it’s growing harder to see how they’re going to take one - let alone two - houses this fall.
The question then will be, how far left will they go for 2020. Mondale left? Dukakis left? Carter left? The ensuing blowout could be historic! And the nearer term question will be, when will the Democrats ditch Pelosi?
Ditch Pelosi? But she’s such a genius. She’s such a strong, powerful, and convincing leader. She connects so well with the average American. She speaks so eloquently and has such fresh approaches to the issues. Her grating, haughty manner is completely hidden, invisible to everybody. That’s what she and her supporters tell us.
I have a Tower in Paris to sell them.
Ditch Pelosi? Why? She gets so much guff from the Republicans precisely because she's so effective. This kind of talk from progressives who know so little about how The Congress works ticks me off. Ridding the Congress of these very strong women with their deep institutional knowledge guarantees McConnell and Ryan will remain in charge. We need to quit the circular firing squads. BTW Senator Feinstein led ALL the fights and WON, thereby saving the Mojave Preserve and vital Desert Aquifers, sadly,once gain under attack.
1
The Democratic Party would do well to focus on these potential young voters. And the way to energize them is to have candidates who can connect with them and champion their issues, just as JFK, and later his brother RFK, did when I was a young voter. Obama did the same. What is needed is a new generation of progressive leadership.
Insofar as Bernie Sanders was able to make that connection, it's obvious that chronological age has nothing to so with it. That said, it would really be nice for a Justin Trudeau-like Democrat step up and galvanize a totally dispirited electorate.
4
This is an exact and intelligent analysis, Mr. Leonhardt: thank you! Voting is, indeed, key. American progressives and all who lean left must realize that solidarity in resistance is more important than nit-picking on policy. I talked to several disgruntled progressives (mostly Bernie supporters) who did NOT vote in Nov. of 2016 because they felt there was essentially "little difference" between Ms. Clinton and Mr. Trump. I cannot believe they still feel that way now that they've had more than a year of the political carnage wrought by Trump in the White House. Let's not demonize Democratic candidates because they don't EXACTLY match our every progressive expectation on each policy issue. Democrats have seen how ineffective 'splintering' has been for us in building voter bases. How about cohering for the 2018 midterms and beyond?
15
This article points out the contrast between politics of Mobilization /Turnout and Persuasion. Turnout is important but has limitations. If the increased turnout is in already Democratic states and districts it does no good. Also mobilization based on anger and outrage tends to fuel a Counter Mobilization on the other side, leading to gridlock and more polarization. The dilemma then is how to energize the base for turnout and still persuade the middle to switch back.
"The entire progressive movement...should be thinking about how to lift turnout"...agreed...also, the Democratic Party needs to figure out how to develop a meaningful message, and articulate it in a clear, concise way...it should be easy (especially now), but they've managed to fail these past few years...
5
"Progressives don’t vote as often as conservatives do."
Democracy isn't self executing.
Hopefully the author's revelatory insight about the fundamental function of the democratic process will spread.
1
This involves mobilizing the minority vote, which means calling out and overcoming the history of vote suppression, which requires education and outrage, which requires strong minority leadership, which reminds everybody that the last time truly disruptive minority-rousing leaders emerged, during the 1960s, they were shot to death in public.
3
Part of me wonders if when Mr. Leonhardt says "progressive" he doesn't really mean "Neo-Liberal", a very different kettle of fish.
The Democratic leadership is woefully conflicted about that difference. And that lack of focus could sink their chances for a number of election cycles.
I hope I'm wrong.
2
It seems that the so-called "Left" continues to make the same mistakes, as this piece, although well written, accentuates. This continued hyper-focus on the so-called "white working class voter," and view that "Identity Politics" are anathema to electoral success cost the Democrats in 2010, 2012 and 2014. Not to mention the fact that this paradigm was eviscerated most recently in Alabama and Virginia. If the Dems don't learn who their most important voting bloc is and speak to their issues, the "Blue Wave" they are hoping for will be nothing more than a "Blue Puddle" that quickly dries up. It's time for political pundits and writers to heed the wise word of Stephen Phillips in his landmark book, "Brown is the New White." With opinions like this piece, there's no need for voter suppression.
5
The students in Florida may have had a big impact on young voters. Hopefully they will get out and vote in the next election. One would hope that it would be the law, to vote. People must vote and unless it is "ordered" they will stay at home and complain about the results and effects. Time for voters to get off their duffs and vote. If you don't like it, do something. Vote.
5
Looking from here I find it astonishing that only 16% of 18-29's voted in 2014.
(Although it makes me wonder what would happen here if we didn't have compulsory voting).
I strongly suspect that this low figure will rise considerably in 2018, given recent events (and of course the Trump factor).
A timely reminder that "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.” (John Philpott Curran, Dublin 1790).
"Eternal vigilance" includes voting. If you're not going to vote, why bother living in a democracy?
3
Reading here comments makes it clear that The Left is not actually energized.
A portion of The Left is energized, maybe 50-70 percent. And they are not energized by any positive developments on the left, only by Trump's blatant inadequacies.
The rest of The Left is quite disgusted that the unreformed Democratic Party (the only viable vehicle of the left at the moment) is the only option available.
Nancy Pelosi, worth 100 million, and whose accomplishments include losing the House and never getting it back? Chuck Schumer, who has the personality of a squeeze of lemon, and, let's face it, represents Wall Street far better than Main Street?
Let me know when Democrats return to being the party of the working classes, rather than the socially woke political club for the well-heeled and guilty.
I'll be in the corner.
10
The main reason Trump won is because a platform and an appeal was generated to make persons who do vote feel soothed and therefore encouraged to get on the bandwagon. No time was spent on addressing what was 'morally right' for 'the best' interests of the USA or those who need help but do not vote. The focus was and still is on what makes these Trump voters happy.
This is a lesson Democrats, Progressives, Liberals and Independents (DPLI) have not learned. For years, legislation's focus and appropriated moneys have been directed for the benefit of persons who largely do not, and apparently have not cared, what happened in the USA politically.
It is political suicide to foster programs for people who do not even deem it necessary to vote for your efforts, ideas or idealism. This is kind of apathy enabling that should not be rewarded and as we have witnessed the US is the laughing stock of the world with a current administration way below quality.
We can only hope the dismay of well-meaning citizens is enough to change the irresponsible course of leadership we are witnessing. However, without a kind of balanced approach to bring on board those who vote but who perceive the vast programs to assist persons who do not vote as excessive, DPLI's will founder again.
As for the suburban women you tout as leading the charge for voting, that group was largely responsible for electing Trump in the first place. Go figure!
1
I hope. I’ll believe it when I see it but frankly given the track record I have my doubts. If a rerun of The Voice is on, that will prevent people from going. If there is a high school ball game scheduled, that will prevent people. And Facebook and Instagram might have too many fun pictures to look at.
There is an old saying, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." I know too many people who did not vote in 2016 or did not vote the top of the ticket, because they found Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to be unacceptable candidates. I voted for Clinton, not because I personally liked her or supported 100% of her positions, but because I was fearful what would happen to America if Trump were elected president. The results of Trump's election have been a thousand times worse than I expected and the entire country is on edge. Please, please, please, vote in every election, state, local and national. We cannot cede our democracy to those who would sell us out to the highest bidder. We are better than this. We need two responsible parties, not one party that has been high jacked by haters, highly charged rhetoric, fear-mongering and opportunists.
22
Indeed,
To the Bernie supporters, I would have voted for him if he was nominated.
Hillary was not the ideal candidate but Trump has turned out to be a lot worse.
I worked for McCarthy and McGovern and got Nixon and Reagan.
The old saw about elections are won from the middle...I now understand.
We should stop fighting and started building.
2
....Wish I could recommend this more than once...
I've been saying this for years. All the Democrats have to do is motivate the non-voting 30% or so of the registered voters to vote. It they got only 1-5% of this group to vote, Trump would not be president. The bases of both parties will stick to their candidate, but how to get the non-voters to vote is key to winning. Democrats need to figure out this dilemma. and stop sitting on their hands waiting for the Republicans to self-destruct.
3
Young people are not excited to vote by Establishment politicians. They have woken up to the truth about the nature of both parties.
The last campaign that brought excitement was Bernie Sanders. Young people are aware that existing politicians are owned by Wall WallStreet in both parties. In a manner similar to Donald Trump who has kept his tax returns clandestine, Hillary Clinton for example could not release her Goldman Sachs speeches. Why? She knew the outrage that would occur with the transcripts out. It would have been like Trump. Once Trump's tax returns came out, his image as a populist would have been exposed as a fraud.
I also want to discuss the failures of the Democratic Establishment. For the past 16 of the past 25 years, a Democrat has been President. They have left a legacy of rising inequality and young people who otherwise might have expected the Democratic Party to fight for their interests have instead been hit the hardest by the recession.
Unless that changes, unless the Democratic Party takes a hard line and says no to Wall Street money, billionaire money, along with the influence of corporate lobbyists, nothing is going to change. Even if the Democratic Party wins 2018 and 2020, unless it is with a candidate who is like Bernie Sanders, I am skeptical that life will get much better for the bottom 90 percent of Americans.
Here's a hard fact. Obama's legacy is that many were so desperate for change that they became Obama-Trump voters.
4
We vote. We are out marketed, out lobbied, out regulated.
Yet we vote.
The right has most of the broadcast stations, 74% of which belong to the Sinclair Broadcast Group, many of which are not Fox affiliates, yet they tow the line of right wing propaganda. The lobbies, the strategically placed professors that profess the right wing line, the books of bad science that come out, the suppression of the African American vote with voter suppression acts and gerrymandered districts.
Yes,
we vote. We get no applause from the media, from TV, from the internet.
But we vote.
The coalition of the knowing.
3
The lack of passion to support candidates that better serve their interests, combined with the willingness of the desperate and angry to believe simplistic slurs and false promises of jobs & "winning", is what gave us the result in 2016. Now people who sat out and/or realize they made such a wrong choice need to atone with real action. I worry about folks who think all politicians are about equal or both sides play dirty, because that shows the misinformation campaigns have worked on them. It's up to those of us who know better to clear the muddied waters with truth and conviction, and turn the spur to action this (nutty) administration gives every day into a silver lining of renewed forward progress. History will not judge us well if this is not a tidal wave election in 2018 as big or bigger than the reverse one in 2010.
I find it is a little revisionist to suggest that real impactful change only occurs when people vote. Seeing as it’s still Black History Month, as we honor the civil rights era, lets not forget the price paid in blood.
3
Latinos and Asian Americans.
The op-ed piece points out that these groups vote at lower rates than Whites, yet offers no suggestions as to how those rates can increase. None of the commentators so far have addressed the issue.
Maybe this is a good thing, as pitching to one group inevitably turns off another. Whatever the reality, "Make America Great Again" was a very effective rallying cry, as it didn't differentiate.
This is a direct appeal to Bernie Sanders, who could singularly contribute to increasing voter turnout by touring the country campaign-style. Please Bernie, make the rounds and motivate the young, but not only, to vote. This could very well be the election of our lifetime. Shall it not go to waste!
4
Even better, Bernie can retire to Vermont, maybe to write his memoirs.
The last election was also an "election of a lifetime" and Bernie (an Independent) chose to attack and soften up the Democratic party frontrunner. Remember the Bernie bros chanting "lock her up"?
As the Russian bots agreed "Trump and Sanders are our guys". Bernie was a spoiler, supported by all working against a Democratic win. Absent Bernie Trump would not have taken the White House.
3
In the greatest marketing nation in all of history, it is time for the greatest progressive marketing campaign. It needs to be focussed, simple and supported by all of the progressive luminaries and celebrities available. OCCUPY THE VOTING BOOTH!
3
Apathy or cynicism notwithstanding, I think one reason the young cohort fails to vote is that they're more likely to be members of the freelance/gig economy, and missing work means forfeiting pay. And of course, Election Day is on a weekday, so if they have a long commute or get stuck in traffic, voting becomes a hassle. Not that that's an excuse, but...
I manage a largely lon-gterm freelance team, and while staffers are entitled by company policy to be paid for up to an hour's absence to vote, freelancers are not. But in my department they are, because I insist that they have parity on something this important.
Most of them prefer to vote on the way into the office in the morning, and I tell them not to worry about being late if there's a line -- I'll make sure they're paid. I'd pay them from my own pocket if I had to, but they always arrive on time after been to the polls. They're responsible, engaged adults who would vote regardless, but I believe it doesn't hurt to make the process stress-free for a group who might otherwise suffer a penalty.
I also believe Election Day should either be a national holiday, or be moved to Sunday.
20
I was at the Lebanon, NH Town Clerk’s Office as a poll watcher on the last Election Day. There was a huge line when the polls opened at 7 a.m. The clerks cheerfully and efficiently moved the voters through, registering unregistered voters who then moved to the head of the line. Lebanon and NH went for Hillary. I hope we can repeat this process in many polling places across the country this fall.
7
President Trump expressed his solution to multiple killings in the meeting he held on February 21, a meeting at which 7 students spoke (based on transcript published by The Guardian). He said "Arm teachers." Not one of the 7 spoke directly about Trump's proposal. To judge from the transcript, 5 expressed their support for Trump as a leader, 2 did not.
The author of the Times article on this meeting did not tell us how these students were chosen. Perhaps none are of voting age yet. They make me wonder, however, about student majority opinion at that school. Emma Gonzalez is the student leader to admire and to lead, but what would a survey show?
Suppose a survey were to show that in truth, a majority of Parkland students support a gun in every classroom? What then? We need studies. We need voters.
Suppose the NRA is more effective in getting out students like those who expressed open support for Trump than we can manage to get out those who support Emma Gonzalez?
Much work to do starting now.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
The GOP has trashed our voting system and it must be reclaimed. I live in a small town and voting is easy - never lines. I cannot imagine standing in line for hours to vote. I would need a job-johnny available! Riculous, of course and meant to dissuade voters from giving the time to vote. There must be more voting locations. While there are no lines, my district is a very gerrymandered PA district. The Supreme Court of PA used an outside firm to base legislative districts on population and proximity. Now the Republicans want to keep the gerrymandered districts and impeach the justices. It’s an abomination to our democracy. Yes, voter turn out is essential and ending voter suppression through long lines and misrepresentation with gerrymandered districts are desperately needed to repair our democracy.
16
Every community needs to run candidates who are right for their community. All politics are local. Rather than focusing on the Democratic platform candidates need to be sensitive to the needs of their community.
I've noticed that the Democratic candidates who have won so far aren't playing identity politics and that includes the white working class identity. Instead they tell their voters how they plan to make their lives better. My favorite candidate was the transgender candidate who refused to talk about anything other than traffic because that was an issue that united her entire community.
Be honest, be authentic, and don't be negative. The GOP has run some pretty noxious candidates lately. Democrats are going to need to vet their candidates so that there's no hint of scandal.
We also need to make sure that our young people know that there's no such thing as a perfect candidate. Many either didn't vote or voted for third party candidates after Bernie Sanders lost the primaries. If they keep voting like that the GOP is going to win. Our two party system isn't perfect but if you don't learn to play the game you're going to lose.
Trump may well be the best thing that has happened to our democracy. He's forcing us to get off the couch and get engaged. Hopefully we don't lose this energy once he's out of office. Our country does best when our two parties are forced to work together and compete with each other.
7
Everything Leonhardt says here is right. But there is a huge barrier that is less easy to see: the Democratic party, which is so tethered to wealthy donors that a severe limit is put on any economic policies it will advocate for.\
It's not that the party has centrist 'beliefs' that can be 'moved left'. 'Belief' has nothing to do with it. It's that the interests which control the party won't let much happen to wealth inequality -- which the Democrats have widened almost as much as has the GOP.
Remember, Bernie was hail fellow well met at the start of the 2016 campaign, but then was summarily pushed out before he could prevail. And look at what's happening now to liberal Larua Moser, who, along with her liberalism, are being eaten alive by the Democratic leadership.
I think part of the strategy has to be for progressive voters to lay down the law to the party before the processes in place destroy 2018. Tell them you won't vote Democrat unless they go left. Put the fear of God into them.
And advocate for political rules that don't effectively lock out third parites.
3
The left would benefit enormously if non-citizens, legal or illegal, were allowed to vote. A move in this direction is already underway in California, where drivers licenses that are available to all can also be used for voting. Giving the US vote to every adult human that wants it would be a breath of fresh air for democracy.
2
Why on earth should people here illegally, as you admit, be allowed to vote? Voting is a right of citizens. The trouble is that less than fifty percent of our citizens have the intelligence to understand that voting is a necessary responsibility.
Oh well. The Founding Fathers worried that democracy would peter out, and it looks as though it has.
1
I think a lot of people are realizing how much they have taken the right to vote for granted and will get out in a big way to create change.
However, those who think a far left candidate is going to win swing votes is mistaken - the 2020 candidate will need to move to the center to increase their chances of winning. Just like many who voted Trump in 2016 didn’t particularly like him the same will happen again if he faces a disliked far left winger.
4
'The Left' needs to vote? The people you refer to did vote (mostly for Hillary), but they are not very "left" or liberal (in comparison to our Republicans). If it's progressive politics you want, just convince the DNC to open up their primaries to the many non-establishment liberals who consider themselves Independents, these days. A small change to the process will result in a huge change in the pattern of nominated candidates. It's hard to deny that if the Democratic primaries were OPEN Bernie Sanders would have won the nomination AND the presidency (the same result would have likely occurred if the DNC didn't use the dirty tactics we now know, as well.) In short, the DNC and establishment Democrats gave us Donald Trump. Two other, procedural changes that would give us progressive leaders are: a) campaign finance restriction and, b) (pre)election news blackout periods, as nearly every developed nation uses. (This would reduce the degree to which mainstream media determines who lead us.) Good candidates will sprout like mushrooms with just a few democratic reforms to the campaign process.
3
Welcome to the land of Oz. To blithely assert Bernie Sanders would have won the presidency is to live in a make-believe world, one where Fox doesn’t exist.
Forget his wife’s financial problems. Just add Cuba and the word “socialist.“ Does anybody think American working class voters would vote for a man who labeled himself a socialist?
If the American media could participate in turning a war hero, John Kerry, into a coward, and turning a guy who wouldn’t even show up for his National Guard service, George Bush, into a hero, what in Lord’s name do you think they would’ve done to Bernie Sanders? As long as some Democrats believe Sanders would have become president, the Democratic Party will get nowhere at the polls. Wake up, folks, the Republicans are better at this. Watch the movie “Truth.” The Democrats haven’t a clue about how to avoid getting Swift Boated. Prepare yourselves for the slaughter of 2018.
2
Political parties have been successful, at least in part, by defining litmus test issues and motivating their voters to act on them. Some are economic, some are social, and some relate to national security.
Nonetheless, many potential American voters do not exercise their right to vote, because they do not feel an obligation to do so. In Australia, voting is mandatory, and failure to cast a ballot results in progressive fines and even a ten year suspension of the right to vote.
While I cannot foresee Republican law makers supporting such a policy, because it is probably not in their interest to do so, it’s shameful that so many Americans take their right for granted, and as an option rather than an obligation. Perhaps if we had elected leaders who took our democracy seriously by supporting mandatory voting, we could increase voter participation.
Protests are fine, and sometimes productive. The ballot box, however, is a far more meaningful statement of a commitment to salient American ideals, and should not be taken so lightly, either by citizens or our natoin’s leaders.
1
I think it's time to play the class card, not the race, woman, immigrant or any other card Democrats have played. Republicans win on emotion. Why can't Democrats use it to their advantage? Forget the collusion part of Russiagate and highlight how all of the Trump campaign players were making money hand over fist by working their political connections. Working folks just work. Run ads comparing the tax cuts millionaire and billionaires got with how much the median income paycheck taxpayer got, not just with numbers but with photos of their different lifestyles: the yacht vs. the outboard fishing. boat. On the gun issue, show Trump's family and Republican Congress members with their armed Secret Service guards in one frame and Parkland school children running for their lives. It's time for some real class warfare.
9
The liberal wing of the Democratic Party (often misnamed 'the left') needs to articulate an alternative vision to the Trump administration. So far it hasn't done so, and if this pattern continues, their prospects for 2018 and beyond may be limited.
The Democrats have spoken up against Trump. But that's not the same as presenting a clear alternative program. It is not just Trump, but conservative policies that are turning the country into a corpratocracy.
The "left" can learn a lot from the Obama years. President Obama ran on a fairly progressive platform, then governed to the right. Bill Clinton did the same and Hillary followed suit.
The average voter looked around after the excitement of the election had worn off and discovered that the neoliberal polices of the Democratic Party left them no better off than they were before the election.
If the "left" wants to translate anti-Trump sentiment into votes it has to break with its neoliberal orthodoxy and actually govern from the left, not the center right. It worked in 1932 with the New Deal and can work again, if they offer people a New Fair Deal.
If that doesn't happen then the largest voting block will once again be the disaffected voter who stays at home.
8
I absolutely don't get peoole who don't vote. A few hours, one day per year. Even if it were more, it is important enough to make it happen.
5
The Democratic Party needs to do two things it's never been able to do:
1- Win 10% more of the white middle class vote to capture 45-50% of that demographic.
2- Get the younger voter to turn out. In the late 60's via Ben Wattenburg it was only 25% then and less than that now according to this article.
To do that it needs to turn its back on Wall Street and Big Banks, maybe bring back the draft to focus the twenty-somethings minds. Good luck with all that. The current party reminds me of the Republican one in the 70's when reasonable conservatives ran it. Never thought this liberal would ever think of that as the good old days.
4
Altogether too much time and emphasis is devoted to the elections. This has the effect of wiring the voters with mantras and slogans both untruthful and truthful so the average voter is thoroughly confused. And in California we have as many as 16 to 20 initiatives to plow through. Then we have the money situation created by the SCOTUS decision of Citizens United.
The only solution to the whole mess is a nation=wide campaign to VOTE BY MAIL giving the voter privacy to make decisions, eliminating long waits at the polling places and above all, giving every voter a chance at casting it.
4
Fingers crossed that the GOP gets creamed in the mid-terms. But that would be just a beginning: The main obstacles are campaign finance reform, Super-PACS, generational re-education of the masses, cleverer foreign policy (China is about to take over the world without firing a shot), etc.,.
My immediate hope for the U.S. is that Mueller hits several home runs (so far he's doggedly hitting singles) to demonstrate that U.S. politicians and businessmen, no matter how powerful, can be brought to justice. Impeachment of Trump would give a massive boost to the U.S.A.'s unfavourable image across the globe by slowing and eventually reversing the effects of Robber Baron Capitalism and cronyism on ordinary Americans.
1
“Fingers crossed“ is about all the Democrats have. It won’t work. What would work is some real labor and a real message. What would work is getting Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi off the stage so they would stop turning off those who might vote Democratic, or vote at all. If “fingers crossed“ is all we have, the Democrats won’t even have 49 seats left in the Senate. More like 40. The House? Democrats will be lucky to hold onto the number of seats they have. Fingers crossed indeed.
Excellent points. While voting in presidential elections is important, one's vote has the most weight in the very contests younger, progressive voters tend to skip: local offices. In that runoff election for city council or state legislature, your vote could actually decide the outcome. If the 2008 and 2012 electorates had bothered to show up in (respectively) 2010 and 2014, Pres. Obama would have had a Democratic congress for eight years! Among other things, we would have Justice Garland instead of Justice Gorsuch.
I was raised to vote in every election, as it is a precious right which billions of people lack. Do it whether it is convenient or not. And don't stay home thinking "my vote won't matter". Thinking of yourself as a lone individual is the problem; we vote, with our neighbors, as members of a community - never forget that.
4
I wholeheartedly agree that turnout is and has long been the problem with the Democratic Party seemingly becoming the permanent minority. What I absolutely disagree with is that left-leaning voters stay at home because the Democrats run candidates that are not progressive enough. Perhaps this may be true to the 18-29 demographic, a group that talks more than it votes, but if you listen to the other people who don't vote, regardless of age, at least in the purple states like Ohio, you'll find that most disapprove of candidates who are so focused on social engineering that they ignore the needs of the working class as its own demographic,as David here suggests they should. If the far left continues to believe that Trump's arrogance and the Republican Party's obsequious devotion to the far right suggests that the public will suddenly embrace a radical social shift left, they will continue to lose and continue to insist that it's not their fault. This has got to stop being a war between far right and far left or else the right with its usual list of devoted voters will continue to hold the power. Simply because Democrats unanimously dislike Trump doesn't mean they will turn out to vote for their party's candidate for Congress. This is not blood in the water that is automatically going to draw voters. Democrats need to know the needs of the individual Congressional districts and act on that. Democrats need to win first so they can change the world afterward.
6
I'd say that the way to energize people to vote, is to point to the Jim Crow south. If a politician knows that he is protected from the people he hurts, he'll go on hurting them. The fear of being voted out of office is a great motivator. I remember how numerous politicians had to clean up their act when voting rights were finally enforced in the 1960s.
3
Yes, voter turnout is critical. And, having worked the phones and knocked on doors to help create that turnout, I’m keenly aware of the results that it can bring. But, much more important and the key element that Mr. Leonhardt fails to touch on is how much easier it is to get out the vote when there’s a attractive candidate who voters WANT to vote for. “Selling from an empty wagon” came to mind many times in 2016.
And, even more basically, the Democrats need to field actual candidates to vote for. Howard Dean’s fifty-state strategy when he was head of the DNC led to Democratic victories in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Democrat’s retraction into probability-weighted decisions of where to field and support candidates was not only been an obvious failure, it was not even good statistics.
Of course, those candidates should be people who show that they’re in tune with voter’s core interests, where economic opportunity and community stability are virtually always at the top of the list. Plus candidates must show in voter’s terms that voters' top of the list interests will be met before whatever is third on the list. And, if anything has been proven by the 2016 disaster, the candidate who tips the scales when the race is tightest is the one who’s most engaging . . . even, yes, entertaining. But, that’s not new. For the Lincoln-Douglas debates, voters came not just for the candidates’ thrusts and parries, but to be entertained by the regularly accompanying marching bands.
3
The election of Trump,should focus the mind in a laser like fashion on voter turnout.He did not win the popular vote and won by under 70,000 votes spread over several states.Everyone who is protesting needs to hold onto that passion and be sure to register to vote.They should be aware that some states have added roadblocks and be prepared to have proper ID and vote at more restricted times.Now we need certainty that voting machines will not be hacked.
10
A good example of what Mr. Leonhardt mentions is the disparate fates of the Occupy Wall Street versus the Tea Party movements. Occupy Wall Street garnered a lot of attention, had rallies, and banged on drums.
They also, for the most part, sat on their rears on election day while Tea Party members voted.
The result was the GOP takeover of congress, most state houses and most governorships.
I worry that the student activists, and the millions of young people who support them, who are fighting to change gun laws will demand action, hold rallies, garner media attention, confront politicians, inspire others... and then not vote. If so, their efforts will be wasted.
A second issue is that Democratic leaning voters are more likely to waste their votes. For example, in the presidential election of 2000, Ralph Nader easily got enough votes that would have otherwise gone to Al Gore to swing Florida, and thus the election, to George W Bush. In 2016, Jill Stein easily got enough votes that otherwise would have gone to Hillary Clinton to swing Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, and thus the election, to Donald Trump.
5
I guess it doesn't matter that the Democratic Party at the national level is broke, seemingly leaderless and without any coherent message - that is, until the next Presidential election. For this year's elections I am buoyed by so many progressive women being on the ballot and so much local enthusiasm and activity. But we will never have a Democrat in the White House again unless the DNC gets its act together and right now they are just seemingly nonexistent. We will also not maintain majorities in Congress unless the Democratic leadership there changes. I would never make an ageist argument about those leading the Democrats in Congress, but I would make the argument that the Democratic leaders there have seen their best days and are a drag on the entirety of the Party. We need fresh, bold, charismatic leadership in Congress.
2
People on the left have never seen any connection between voting and attaining the advantage (i.e. getting a majority). And they're notorious for not voting in mid-term elections. I predict this will continue.
I'm a lefty who gives the right total credit that if you want to prevail, it starts at the ballot box.
The left can -- and will -- crow that it has the advantage this year. That's another trait of my side of the spectrum. All show and no go.
I hope I'm wrong. I really do.
3
Alas, you’re not wrong. Once again Democrats will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. November 2018 will be the final blow to the idea of American democracy. May it rest in peace.
Yes, people should vote. But that’s not going to put the political system back together again. It is broken behind repair.
2
While the adage "all politics is local" is losing relevance, there's absolutely no substitute for excercising one's privilege of residency and voting in every election. Trumpism replacing conservatism offers the political opposition an opportunity to create a national unity coalition, an opportunity we waste at our peril.
2
I have seen so many old hippies give encouragement to the kids who are expressing their distaste for the World WE have given them. They also lament how they feel they failed in their challenges to the system 50 years ago. But there IS a difference. The kids in the Sixties didn't have the right to vote until they became 21. I have said more than a few times that I get disheartened when I see these kids today (and I used to work with a lot at a job I had at Starbucks) who "talk the talk" but don't walk the walk as far as voting is concerned.
1
At least until enough progressives are voted into office that changes can be legislated, progressively-minded voters will need to grit their teeth and work hard to overcome the Republican backed measures to depress voting turnout (such as voter ID laws, repeal of mail balloting, and the like).
That means going door to door to make sure people are registered. That also means making sure people turn out on Election Day, with phone banks and carpools and whatever else it will take. It also means being articulate and forceful when confronted with poll workers who try to keep some people from voting when there is question over ID's and eligibility, and it also means being social media savvy enough to post these incidents online where people can see them and galvanize around them.
Yes, it's going to be a lot of work, and there are numerous segments of the population that may feel it's too much, that they don't want to stick necks out, that it doesn't matter anyway. To those, I say in the end, it's the only thing that does matter.
For those who don't think election results have consequences, take a good, long, and non-denial look around you right now. And resolve never to be in this situation again.
4
Your definition of American "progressives" is nothing but political spin. Progressive democrats are NOT establishment democrats of their party. They are not even the liberal wing of the party faithful. Hillary's claim that she is a progressive who likes to get things done, i.e. pragmatic, is also political spin. Branding oneself "progressive" here is like wearing tie-dye shirt at a $50 concert. Would FDR have even considered Hillary a Democrat? Progressives have always been committed to economic and social justice for America's working class. The welfare of the median (not mean) income earners in this country, i.e. the "average citizen", is their focus. This often puts them at odds with those who use their wealth to acquire more wealth at the expense others without it. The financial sector, represented by the Democratic (and, to a lesser extent, Republican) establishment, comes to mind. More recently, EDUCATION, rather than wealth, has been the great divider of the "haves" and the "have nots" in the country. The success of America's educated/professional class, their prosperity, happiness, life expectancy, etc., is largely dependent on there being many Americans with less education (which the educated rarely appreciate, like conservatives who pride themselves for "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps".) Laissez faire capitalism drives this anti-social, regressive state. Look around, democratic socialism seems to be more the state of the art; it represents "progress".
1
I'm still arguing, gently, with Bernie Sanders supporters who feel strongly the Democratic Party completely let them down. They reel off the ways they think Bernie was cheated and I tell them it's a tad absurd to think Hillary wouldn't be the Party's first choice being that she's been a Democrat since forever and Bernie is and always will be an Independent. They usually reply what about the Clinton Foundation? And what about the paid speeches to Wall Street? I explain she was playing the rules of the political money game as they are now and If they'd backed Hill after the nomination as voraciously as they backed Bernie she had the deep experience in Washington to change the system and I think she would have fought to make the Platform they fought for a reality. I usually add that I've listened to Thom Hartmann's program over the years and for seven years on Fridays he had Bernie take calls and expound on his ideas about what was wrong with the country and what he thought were the best solutions. I tell them I agree with a lot of his arguments but after hearing him over the years I didn't think his ideas evolved and even though I'm agreement with much of his critique I don't think he will ever have the depth of Hillary. Inevitably the subject of Russia arises. On that score his supporters have a ways to go because they don't believe Russian interference had any influence on THEM and isn't a problem and I say it's a REAL problem. And so it goes….
8
I believe that the,way to get a lot of non voters to vote is to show you will help them vote. Slick TV ads are expensive and ignored by most voters. Advertising only works if the viewer buys your product. To most it is background noise. But offspring to hemp people register, get access to absentee ballots, get to the polls and then back home, would demonstrate a lot more caring about the average voter than any ad will. Mobilizing a sea of volunteers to help people register, drivers to take them to the polls, and paying for ID if they can't afford it (a one time expense) would be most unsettling to Republicans. The reality is if most people who could voters, did, in fact, vote, Republicans will quickly return to minority status as a party. They bank not on their message, but on the voters not voting. The message clearly isn't on the mark, but their strategy is. Because the voters allow it to happen.
1
Some fairly depressing statistics can be found at The American Presidency Project.
Turn-out as a percentage of those of voting age has been steadily dropping since 1960.
On the other hand, the percentage of those of voting age who are registered has increased -- with some caveats.
In 1968 I informed my family that I wasn't voting either of the "turkeys"! My family informed me that they didn't want to hear me complain for the next 4 years. Quite an incentive to vote, I never skipped another election.
4
How about having a longer period for elections? Like a weekend and a weekday? Also, voting really should be a mandatory process or opt-out process, like you need to file a reason why you can’t vote. That would make us all happy to ignore the alt-whatever people because they would be completely outvoted by the general population.
The right wing has the megaphone with its own TV station and very gifted plutocratic generals (donors) who have been pushing their agenda with bright and dark money more effectively than the left for 30 years.
The best hope for the left to enjoy a similar stretch of influence, however faint, is to stress fiscal responsibility instead of always falling on empathy for the oppressed.
The inefficiency of our health care system costs the nation over a trillion dollars a year when compared to other wealthy nations. Similarly, jailing 6X as many of our citizens as other nations squanders billions in prison costs alone- never mind the waste of human talent that could be contributing to the economy.
It is a heart breaking tragedy that children unfortunate enough to be born in poor neighborhoods are banished to an early education in sub-par schools with sub-par teachers- but the victim is also our overall economy, due to the waste of bringing human capital to its potential.
The left will always have the empathy vote, we need to also become the movement recognized for its fiscal sanity.
The problem that I see, Mr. Leonhardt, and have seen for decades (I will be 73 in five months) is that there aren't enough people who are invested in their country; in their communities; in one another.
Donald Trump and the Republican Party--at least the GOP we've known for 50 years--is a great white shark. This animal terrorizes anyone who strays near the water. These carnivores frighten away Democratic/minority/ethnic voters who aren't white to keep them dis-empowered and marginal.
They discourage participation at the elementary levels (school boards; zoning boards; police and fire oversight commissions, etc.). Their divisive tool is primarily race, not class antagonisms. They recognize that they're a clear voting minority but they engineer voting majorities for themselves by the use of gerrymandering and secretive commissions and committees who hold closed-door hearings and then announce, much to the surprise of Democrats in these groups, that a law or an ordinance or a rule or a regulation has been passed by a majority of those present and voting. And no notice was held.
Most young people are loaded down with academic or job pressures or they're in the military, often far removed from the sites where news explodes on a daily basis. There's a lot to think about and millennials have a tendency to turn over their lives to the next one in line. Cellphones, apps, etc., aren't going to cast a vote. Committed people have to do that. The monster can be defeated.
Vote!
1
“Fewer gun deaths. Less climate damage. Less inequality. Higher living standards. And a government that better reflects the views of all its citizens.”
In addition to continuing to call for progressives to register like-minded voters, I would urge you to write in more depth about *how* specifically to talk to low-turnout young and minority voters. The best ideas are never enough – persuasion is always the key.
Let’s hope the Mueller investigation works out for Democrats. The GOP is doing well with the economy and jobs, and Trump has offered up plans to help the Dreamers and to improve the nation’s infrastructure. Republicans have also been better at communicating their ideas. For example, why didn’t Democrats just leak their response to the Nunes memo right away? What are they so afraid of? And why do they generally seem so frightened and timid?
There are only two viable political parties in the United States. Those in blue states will vote blue, those in red states will vote red. So it all boils down to those in purple states. Democrats need to go for it with those voters.
I am reminded of the story of two people running from a bear. One turns to the other and asks: “Do you think we can outrun this bear?” The other replies: “I don’t know; I just have to outrun you.”
Is this concept too difficult for Democrats to grasp? They are fighting for their lives – and for ours. It is time to fight fire with fire, before it’s too late.
3
Excellent points. While voting in presidential elections is important, one's vote has the most weight in the very contests younger, progressive voters tend to skip: local offices. In that runoff election for city council or state legislature, your vote could actually decide the outcome. If the 2008 and 2012 electorates had bothered to show up in (respectively) 2010 and 2014, Pres. Obama would have had a Democratic congress for eight years! Among other things, we would have Justice Garland instead of Justice Gorsuch.
I was raised to vote in every election, as it is a precious right which billions of people lack. Do it whether it is convenient or not. And don't stay home thinking "my vote won't matter". Thinking of yourself as a lone individual is the problem; we vote, with our neighbors, as members of a community - never forget that.
3
Yes, I believe the Black vote here in Alabama had a higher turnout for the 2018 special election Senate race than the Presidential election which is staggering. Why, I surmise is due to fact of the current administrations appointments and policies at the Justice Department that negatively affect them and other minorities. In a semi rebuttal to Ed Watters below, it wasn't that the Dem nominee promised them any specific legislation that would enhance their economic security but rather they have seen what can happen when the far right controls all the powers of govt. and that affects their PERSONAL security. In fact many now have seen what can happen when all federal agencies from EPA to Justice are under control of the current occupants and why voting matters even if the so called "progressive" economic agenda of left in Democratic Party is not on the table.
4
The problem with the young left is that they haven't grasped the difference between whining on social media and actually standing in line to vote. That is going to be greatest challenge.
1
The outcome of every presidential election in my lifetime has hung on the decisions made by swing voters in swing states.
These voters are, by definition, neither Left nor Right. These are the voters that turn the few crucial votes in the Electoral College, which is all that matters in a presidential election.
It makes no difference if the DEM candidate succeeds in getting 100% of the vote in California and New York. What matters is what happens in PA, WV, OH, FL...
I'm hoping recent events in Florida might finally wake up young citizens to the power of their vote. If every one of those soon-to-be-18 high schoolers gets out and votes for a candidate in favor of sensible gun control they could change the country. 2016 voter turnout among 18-29 years old was barely over 40%. Nearly 60% of young Americans couldn't be bothered to vote. That's unforgivable.
3
But Mr. Leonhardt, don’t forget that even with a large voter turnout, we cannot make a change if the Russians continue to infiltrate our media, our voter registration, and our election results. Russian meddling disrupted our 2016 election, yet Trump has not enacted sanctions against them nor will he try to safeguard the vote this fall. Let’s energize to be certain that our votes count without Putin’s hands in our ballot boxes.
6
We attended a meet and greet Q&A in Washington State with four Democrats running for office. To our surprize, in our view three were leaning neo-liberalists "politicians". One was a progressive with the least money, that understood we are losing our Democracy. I doubt that person will win.
We walked away saddened by politics as usual. Democrats must not only win, our leaders must have a plan with specific ideals for all the people. When we bash the right at every turn, when we fight for rights of small groups harder than equality for all, we are no longer Democrats.
Our Democracy is on the Red Line. Be sure who you are voting for, attend speeches, listen for values, not political rhetoric.
There were few young people there, I hope this isn't the case
everywhere.
1
The Left, in continuing a difficult trend, will continue to lose on three main issues: taxes, guns and abortion. Voter turnout may increase but Republicans vote on those three issues. I don't see the Left making much of a case against the recent tax "reforms." Votes are easily bought during elections. Remember how GWB was able to gain the loyalty of voters by giving them a couple of hundred dollars? Also, there's nothing more powerful that the gun lobby. Abortion is loser for the Left today.
I'm not hopeful, even with some redistricting, that the Left will gain much in the mid-terms.
"Trump received 47% of the vote" and still won the election. Doesn't this tell you something. One reason you have low voter turnout, is because many potential voters would vote if the candidates were elected by popular vote, rather than an electoral college who completely shirked their responsibility in the last presidential election !
2
"Progressives don’t vote as often as conservatives do." And yes, Latinos and Asian-Americans are mostly liberal but it doesn't matter since they don't vote either. Almost nobody seems to understand why these statements are true. The groups that vote the most inherited more fear in their DNA from evolution than anyone else on the political spectrum. Since they were born this way, it is unconscious, automatic "thinking". It makes them more "engaged". There is literally nothing you can do about it and is a huge advantage. It takes special circumstances for progressives to vote as readily. Trump could do it however.
Why don’t young people vote today? I couldn’t wait till I turned 21 to vote and have proudly voted in every election since. I don’t recall if I was taught how important it was in my home or at school but somewhere I learned it was important.
In my younger years, I even eventually became an active participant, working for the people who supported the ideas I supported rather than voting for party.
Admittedly, I tend to vote for people in one party versus the other but that’s because they better espouse the ideas and positions I try to stand for.
2
Why why don’t young people vote today? I couldn’t wait till I turned 21 to vote and have proudly voted in every election since. I don’t recall if I was taught how important it was in my home or at school but somewhere I learned it was important.
In my younger years, I even eventually became an active participant, working for the people who supported the ideas I supported rather than voting for party.
Admittedly, I tend to vote for people in one party versus the other but that’s because they better espouse the ideas and positions I try to stand for.
1
The November elections are about more than making "major progress" on key issues; they're literally about saving democracy in this country. The Koch brothers and their billionaire allies are well-organized, well-funded and determined to bring about a single-party, authoritarian system. See the Times report only this week about the billionaire, Richard Uihlein’s devastating campaign to undermine public unions. http://tinyurl.com/y9opoo2b
On turnout, it needs to be repeated—and I’m sure Leonhardt agrees—that huge turnout in reliably blue districts will not win the House for the Democrats. They need swing voters, ranging from Clinton Republican women to working stiffs who voted for Obama before turning to Trump.
Many progressives are in denial about the need for swing voters. They have convinced themselves they can win the House with their own base only. Unfortunately, the electoral map tells a different story—as all the experts agree.
So, the key to winning in November and saving democracy, may depend on a change in the heart and minds of many progressive Democrats. They need to stop dissing these voters and begin to see them as fellow-Americans with values and grievances of their own—different, yes—but valid for them and the frame of reference in which they see the world.
2
We need to increase citizen participation at all levels. If I were king (perish the thought!) as we approach the heart of the tax season, I would add information to the 1040's most of us file. Add a section where the filer declares where he would like his tax money spent. When aggregated, this simple pie chart would stand in stark contrast to where our monies actually go and could at least inform legislators to get a closer match with the people's wishes.
I expect infrastructure would rank higher than tax cuts for businesses. Other differences would jump from the data but only if it is collected. A vote states a preference but the declared preference for distribution of dollars makes it much more real.
11
Great idea, Douglas!
Good luck.
@Douglas
And what you would find is, as in opinion polling, (1) a significant majority of voters preferring a Democratic approach to allocation of their tax dollars and (2) a slight majority preferring Republican candidates.
The tragic fact is that most Americans who vote do so not only against their own self-interest but also against their own self-professed values.
Better than encouraging them to vote is to hand them a voter registration form. Or show them how they can use their computer or phone to order a registration form. Resist.
25
"Better than encouraging them to vote is to hand them a voter registration form."
Can people do nothing for themselves?
1
If they're energized, what they need to do next is register. After that civic process is explained to them, they'll need to ask a responsible civic minded citizen, likely a Republican, where to register. Then, they'll need to be informed of their communities electoral processes, i.e., elections, when and for what. Then, know when elections are held. Where they are being held. How to read a map and find the polling place. Then, assuming they'll know their district, find the Registrar and ask for a ballot. From then on, behind the curtain, they'll be on their own; which is where most on the Left fall down. For government can not -- yet, enter the booth with them.
4
This is a snarky and somewhat ill-informed comment. First, you make the assumption that some citizens are not already registered to vote. In some states, applying for a driver's license results in related questions about the registration status of the applicant. This is "motor voter"--of which, clearly, and for clear reasons, some Republicans disapprove. With helpful and supportive legislation, the applicant does not have to seek; it almost finds them. Second, where is it a given that a "responsible civic minded citizen" is likely a Republican? In some cases, clearly, these "civic minded" Republicans have been engaged in efforts to DISSUADE certain voters, and confuse others with erratic jigsaw election districts. Read a map? Ask for a ballot? Where most on the Left fall down? Do you generalize much?
IF Republicans are truly helpful, they will ENCOURAGE voters--all of them--to show up. Let's fix this on a more level playing field, rather than with uncivic mind games, manipulation, misdirection and a condescending attitude.
2
"...a responsible civic minded citizen, likely a Republican..." seriously!
What have you been doing (fixing) the last 16 out of 24 years?
In my experience, there are generally three types of people who opt not to vote. The first is usually younger voters somehow convinced that not-voting is in some way cool and rebellious. I don't know where these ideas originate but they're already deeply ingrained by the time teenagers reach adulthood.
The second category are people legitimately too overwhelmed by responsibility to actively engage in political discussions on any meaningful level. Whether students, professionals, or parents, for whatever reason, these people opt not to participate because the effort of becoming informed is perceived as too burdensome to get involved.
The third category is something different. These are people who view political engagement as a negative influence on their lives. The reasoning varies widely but the general sentiment is almost always the same. These individuals are actively anti-political. For example, I once had a Vietnam vet spend 15 minutes talking me down for canvassing his neighborhood. The war had obviously impacted his politics in a negative way.
The third category is usually hopeless but you can work on the first two. The second is probably the easiest. Automatic DMV voter registration, mail-in ballots, and information mailers. Done. The first category is probably best addressed in school. No one wants to see aging politicians making bad jokes about voting. I'm looking at you Hillary. A good teacher and a civics requirement will probably do most of the work for you.
14
As a long time environmental activist, my contacts tend to be progressives. Anecdotally, i see that many more people, mainly women, I know are considering running for office, working for candidates, and getting engaged in bringing more progressive ideas to the local Democratic party.
It seems that this is happening in many parts of the country. If the energy of the Bernie campaign, the young people organizing for gun limits after the Parkland shooting, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the vigorous youth opposition to oil and gas pipelines all comes together in the coming election, we have the potential for a strong youth turnout. This will take work, but many of us can't do enough to make sure that we can fight back on a more level playing field for racial, social, and economic justice.
26
To overcome Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression, there will need to be a super majority of progressive voters. The numbers needed will be staggering and are probably impossible to achieve. If exit polls show clear and inarguably large wins for Democrats, and yet Republicans win, then we will know that Russia has again helped in some way, most likely this time by reaching into the machines themselves. Paper ballots are the only solution.
25
BINGO! Register yourself, register someone you know, and make sure to vote. Even looking at 2016, a presidential election year when turnout is higher than the mid-terms, 45% of the eligible voters didn't vote.
The stay-at-homes aren't a homogenous group and their interests don't perfectly reflect those that did vote, but they are not the 30-35% who support the current administration, nor are they the 5% of the populace to benefit from current policies.
All politics is local. It is not important to get prior agreement to progressive principles. We shouldn't adopt a Democratic equivalent to the Hastert Rule. Leave litmus testing to the chemists. Run the candidates that will win in that election. The winning platform here in Mass won't win in Arizona. But if we elect fair and open minded candidates who are willing to work towards progressive causes, they can get stuff done.
This can't just be a 2018 issue, we must hold at least every senator to account, so that makes this at least a 6 year mission.
Nor can it be done by spending just an hour on the first tuesday of November. Republicans have erected barriers to voting. Those will only be removed after they have been overcome. That includes money in politics, identification for voting, polling places and other barriers. Replacing these rules is too important to be left to the courts. That requires too much time and a fair court, which is at risk. Remaking the rules requires election victories at the state and local level.
42
In order for the Left to enjoy anywhere near the political influence in this country as the extreme right it (we) needs to lean less on empathy for the oppressed and more on plain old common sense and fiscal responsibility.
The importance of an equal quality primary education for all our children should focus not just on the unfairness of children of poor communities being unfairly forced into sub-par schools, but also on how this hurts the overall economy by squandering so much human talent. A similar argument can be made for the promotion of feminism leading to the better utilization of our feminine human capital.
When we talk about the criminal justice system being excessively punitive, it should be emphasized how expensive a vengeance based system is when you are putting 6X as many of your citizens in prison than the average wealthy nation, with each inmate costing taxpayers almost 30 grand a year.
The same thing goes for health care, where the U.S. spends 30% more per citizen than even Germany, which also uses a private insurance based system.
With the right wing ballooning the federal deficit by granting huge tax cuts to plutocrats, even as their wealth had been expanding much more quickly than that of the middle class, it is clearly time for the left to declare itself the movement for fiscal sanity.
58
Dude, well-said and bravo!
If you could but get your message out as who we are, we could win. But millions upon millions of Americans are brainwashed into believing that anything the government does is evil, too expensive, and unworkable.
1
"The importance of an equal quality primary education for all our children should focus not just on the unfairness of children of poor communities being unfairly forced into sub-par schools, but also on how this hurts the overall economy by squandering so much human talent."
True. But "sub-par schools" got that way because parents abnegated their responsibility as parents.
Plenty of poor parents rear good kids, so it isn't just poverty; and it isn't public schools, because plenty of poor immigrants who work two or more jobs rear kids who understand the benefits of a good education, and work hard to get one, and do; and it isn't the teachers, because all sorts of kids learn from those same teachers.
1
Good arguments, but please do not fall into the trap to call everyone left of extreme right wing, from moderately conservative to Communist, "the Left". We do need to vote out the extremists though, who invited a fascist to their CPAC this week - Marion LePen, the granddaughter of Jean Marie LePen, who considers herself the real heir of her grandfather's ideas and is even more fascist than his daughter Marine LePen. The Republicans are turning into a "Front Americain" under Trump. The French voters from moderately conservative to Communist, knew what to do, even if Macron was considered a neo-liberal by many at best. I hope the American voters do, too, when the time comes.
1
The factor that influences turnout seems to be overcoming the negativity surrounding a core belief that it does not matter if one votes, the sense that nothing will change and so expending the energy to vote is of no value. We can hope that the events of the last year will overcome that kind of inertia.
30
I think it is a fallacy to believe that because majority of the people support liberal causes, they will vote for the same causes at the ballot, and therefore conclude that the reason liberals lose elections is because liberals vote at a lower rate than conservatives. The reality is that people like to believe in causes that are considered noble and good, and therefore they will claim to support many liberal causes; when it comes to voting, however, they also consider other issues and often end up voting for the conservative candidate. For example, many support a path to citizenship for the Dreamers, but they also worry about illegal immigration overall, and therefore vote for a republican candidate, who can be reliably expected to support policies to stem illegal immigration, rather than the democrat one who would have helped Dreamers secure a permanent residency in the US. The point being, it is easy to support liberal causes in the abstract when there are no payoffs under consideration.
8
nah. and since when did this country become only liberals and conservative. if you think that NO liberal would vote for a fascist conservative. aside republicans lose the popular vote. 2018 with be a turning point. i believe that democrats and progressive independents and progressive democrats will be out in droves, and they have been in 2017. more that 50% of seats democrats have taken were in republican, tRump winning areas... it will be interesting. but we are out to rid this country of this fascist regime
I see so many people here in New York making clever signs for rallies, yet I hear so many of those people who did not vote when pressed.
The signs make for great Instagram posts and the rallies great channels to vent frustration but what matters is that they vote.
Even if you think your vote doesn’t count because you live in a state that always goes red or blue, still vote. The vote counts send a message more powerful than any rally sign.
80
You came attack people that are motivated enough to go to rallies, then expect them to vote for you. You attack motivated people in politics (making signs and going to rallies takes more work than voting and does change politician's votes) then wonder why they don't vote. Read the signs then aim policy in that direction and they will vote.
A significant part of the problem of low voter turnout in support of the candidates from the Democratic Party is the candidates. The establishment of the Democratic Party has systematically and unfairly excluded truly progressive candidates who would inspire those who have not historically voted. While the DNC's unfair treatment of Bernie Sanders is the most obvious case in point, the problem exists at all levels of the Democratic Party. The leaders of the Democratic Party, including Senator Schumer and Representative Pelosi need to step down from their leadership positions and allow younger more progressive leaders to emerge. The same change needs to occur at the state and local level. If the Democratic Party puts forward candidates who are truly progressive, who can articulate a message of justice - economic, racial, gender, environmental - those candidates will be the inspiration for more people to go to the polls.
49
I can see the validity of Schumer and Pelosi stepping down in favor of younger, stronger leadership. However, if these two Democratic warriors are too old, I suggest that Bernie Sanders is also too old and he is not really a Democrat and his policies are not generally as popular as his supporters would argue. But voting is the way we liberals and progressives can change the country's present abysmal leadership. By all means, get out the vote!
14
hold your nose and vote. perfect isn't an option.
115
Hillary got more votes than any other person running for president except for Obama. Bernie Sanders had the Republicans and Russian trolls working for him. He used the democratic platform to denigrate Democrats and Hillary and gave election to Donald Trump.
7
Absolutely correct. Voter engagement and participation is essential to changing the current political alignment of the U.S. government. Too often people find excuses for not voting, but the Democratic Party should be working on the theme of the social responsibility of everyone to express their views at the voting booth. Without higher levels of participation, we will have more of the far right-wing politics that has brought us Trump and his subservient GOP House and Senate. It is each of our personal responsibility to act as knowledgeable, involved citizens. Sitting by the side and bemoaning the world is not an option. Civic engagement needs to be discussed as an obligation of all of us.
61
You can’t nag or shame people into supporting your candidates. Civic responsibility! How about the responsibility of the party to have an appealing platform and uncompromised candidates?
November 6 2018.
Midterm Elections
1
We now have three identified factors that favor Republicans in elections -- voter id laws, gerrymandering and turnout. You can't simply add the effects of the three to determine their total effect. Obviously, there is overlap -- some people who don't turn out live in gerrymandered districts, for example. Knowing how much Republicans benefit from each factor is fundamental for setting priorities. Blaming Republicans is not a constructive strategy. The name of the game is voter empowerment, and it's time to get to work.
25
A good article. Voter turnout is critical to our democracy. It needs to increase in order to overturn the adverse effects of the Citizens United Supreme Court Decision.
But, David - the title of your article "The Left" is subject to criticism. I am a Democrat with a right leaning moderate outlook and I fully concur with your message. But, I shudder when the term left leaning (liberal) seems to include my outlook.
19
I always thought I was fairly "left" until the "Bernie" phenomenon. Never warmed up to him and voted for the pragmatic and moderate candidate, Hillary Clinton.
7
I agree, voters should not always be labeled right or left. I'm a moderate independent and I do not believe that New Deal policies are the solution to our problems. Both parties are stuck in the past with stale ideas. We need fresh ideas attuned to the rapidly changing world that we are living in.
1
Most likely David didn't write the headline. Newspapers employ specialists to do that. This one should be spoken to.
One of the barriers that result in low turnout by younger generations is having voting day on a Tuesday. Most people have to work or go to school and cannot make it to the polls at the end of a day. Even if they can make it, they may not be able to wait hours in line to vote at some polling stations.
We need to make voting more accessible, because it is one of our most important rights.
Mail in ballots should be accepted nationwide, polling stations should be open until midnight on a weekend or at least more than just one day.
We are seeing politicians fight to make it easier and easier to buy guns, but harder and harder to vote. What is wrong with this picture?
246
Voting should be on a Saturday when most people can get to the polls. In Britain it is on a Thursday so we have the same problem about time to vote. The big difference seems to be that we have vast numbers of polling stations. They are usually only about a 15 minute walk from your home. The result is that with fewer people for each polling station the maximum wait to get your vote registered is about 10 minutes. Postal voting is available for the disabled and retired.
20
We may need to determine to accept the inconvenience until we get representatives in office who work to make voting more accessible and not less. We may have to suffer a little to make the change we want happen.
14
Hi, do you not have advance polling dates in the US?
In Canada there are advance polling dates where you can go and vote in advance of the federal election day, typically 4 extra days to go to your polling station and vote.
I almost always use the advance polling days as it's easier to fit into my schedule than the one election day.
1
I agree with your counsel and the turnout chart points the way for what needs to be done prior to the 2018 Election. I am a grandparent and will urge my grandchildren to register in time to vote in the primaries and the general election.
It might be useful for the Times to publish the registration deadlines by State. I also think that Democrats should work with these under 30 age groups to define issues and also instruct them on why the Congress is important in the lawmaking.
The planks of the Democratic platform are not completely clear and I follow issues pretty carefully, so I am a little worried that our party has not jelled on the agenda of issues and positions that they would be voting for. This is good because I think we should put most of the effort into finding out what the voters think is important.
29
As a precinct committeeman, I sent letters to the Democrats in my precinct along with our county's election calendar, the purpose of which was to urge them to vote and educate them on the places and times in which their right to vote can be exercised. This is an off year election and the last off year election (2014), the turnout in the Democratic primary was miserable. I hope my efforts will improve the turnout in next month's primary. We'll see.
3
When I was a high school senior, the school had classes telling students how voting worked and helping them get registered. I've been registered ever since. Why doesn't this happen any more? It was a private school and that may have had something to do with it, but why can't public schools do the same thing?
3
Cooperate with the energized forces described in the Putnam/Skocpol article. Some may be supporting candidates in the primary, which you can't, but encourage them to turn out their voters for the benefit of all the other Democrats running for other offices too. Once your candidates are determined, get everybody out knocking on doors and educating any voters who will listen, as to why the lock-step GOP behavior portends goose-step dangers, unless they vote straight D.
1
Turnout is necessary but not sufficient. There must also be candidates who appeal to those new voters. Last time, the DNC refused to run him in a rigged process that led to Trump. Longer term, it turned off many voters who dropped back out of the process.
Parties can't do that to their voters and expect to win.
89
Bernie wouldn't have won even without the superdelegates. In my state he won the caucus but not the later, larger vote. He wasn't popular enough among the more moderate democrats to have won the national primary.
59
If Bernie had run in Alabama instead of Doug Jones, we'd have Roy Moore as senator now. The 2018 elections are not presidential elections, and Americans should understand that it is more important to look at the platforms of the parties than the personalities of the particular candidates. The DNC wasn't rigged by the way, they played by the rules that Bernie, not a Democrat but generously allowed on the ticket, was well aware of. Bernie lost, and it's counterproductive to rehash 2016 primaries over and over again.
42
I sat on the fence in the last national Dem primary. After Super Tuesday, the writing was on the wall. Until I hear a rational explanation for that result, which made it nearly impossible for Sanders to catch up with Clinton, and a renunciation of ALL caucuses, I won't listen to a claim of rigging.
The southern voters have a voice in the party and will support a Democrat. But they didn't support Sanders. Rigging doesn't support the outcome in 2016.
6
With just 50% turnout in the 2016 election, even with Trump on the ballot, it's pretty clear that progressives were not energized.
In that election, Trump received 47% of the vote. Which says that he only had the support of 24% of the US voting population. (This assumes, correctly, that everyone who supported Trump was rabid enough to go show up and vote).
What this says is that, at best, he had a small minority of the US voting population. If progressives or people who supported progressive policies actually turned out to vote, it would be no contest in local, state and national contests.
The only thing that galvanizes progressive and middle of the road voters to get out and overwhelm the conservatives is a major economic and social affront to their personal lives and ideal pictures of how our society should be.
While Trump is a good start, he may actually not be enough. It may take even more anti-progressive policies to go further to the bottom before critical mass is reached. Progressives need to steel themselves that more disasters may be needed before the general population agrees progressive advances must be made.
30
Low turnout was because of who else was on the ballot, and who wasn't. It was not entirely the fault of the other side. Donor driven Democrats who ran a neo-liberal war monger were at fault too.
36
Turnout was 55% in 2016 which is the average for the past 50 years for presidential elections. It's ranged from 50-60%. Not likely to change except within that range.
4
Well Mark, don’t despair: The Democrats will soon lose the donations from Unions if the Supreme Court decides in favor of “right to work”. They’ll be a lot less donor driven then, and you can enjoy four more years of Trump and Hillary bashing...
3
"The crucial point is that the Trump presidency has created an opportunity to jump-start progress — an opportunity that doesn’t come along often. People who don’t normally pay much attention to politics are doing so. For some, it could become habit. So could voting."
Let's hope so. Because there are people--many more than you think--whose entire agenda is about depressing the vote.
Or even, gasp, one day cancelling the vote.
Think about it: yes, please think about that every day until November. More and more pundits are writing what seems starkly obvious--democracy is under siege in a way this country has never seen.
Donald Trump talks like a Hungarian, Polish, or even Turkish leader. he doesn't even have to read about how democracy is turning out its lights in the above countries, and many more.
And it's only a steps from threatening to do something and actually doing it.
If you cherish the idea of free elections and the chance to have your say, please plan to vote. Don't leave it for the last minute or even second.
Put it on your calendar, now. If so motivated, volunteer to increase voting in your town. Do something--anything--but vote.
Your country will thank you more than you'll ever know.
254
Trump actually said during the election that he may not concede if he lost. McConnell told President Obama in October of 2016 that if he let it be known to the public that Russia was interfering at the level it was, he would call out the president for partisan meddling in the election. Democracy is most definitely under siege here so we need a huge turnout to turn this around.
12
Yes, I think this is also the best message to encourage people to vote. Remind them that republicans do not necessarily support democracy. I do not say this lightly, but rather after considerable study of the issue. There are many on the right who believe democracy can be a threat to freedom because the mob will inevitably vote for more and more government benefits and services for themselves, thus increasing government control and limiting freedom. The problem with that theory is that once you have traded democracy for an authoritarian system, you may have created a monster you can't control. We need to make it clear that this election is not just about issues but about the fate of democracy itself. Use the vote or risk losing it.
4
Give money to the democratic party.
3
Many commenters here seem to believe that Democrats need to move to the left in order to win the midterms. There are at least two big reasons that might be wrong:
First, there are probably now more disillusioned Republicans (and GOP-voting independents) than any year since 1974. These GOP voters may be more open to pragmatic centrist Democratic candidates than at any time before.
Second, the turnout stimulated by a turn to the left may not occur in the right places to help. It is not just gerrymandering that has Democrats overly concentrated in urban areas. The most liberal Democrats live in areas that already have surpluses of Democratic votes. A move to the left might not increase turnout in the Congressional and State legislative districts where it would do the most good.
122
I doubt these “disillusioned GOP” voters are going to vote for Democrats in big numbers. At best, they’ll stay home. At worst, they’ll vote fur obviously subpar candidates like Rump and Moore (Alabama) with R behind their name. The Democrats need minorities and the young to turn out. So this article’s main premise is spot on. The message for Democratic candidates should be tailored to the locality they are running in. Some places are more center left and some further left to that. Ultimately, winning elections and not hearts is what matters. The GOP realized this long ago. It’s Dems turn now.
6
Mark,
Was that not the same tactic used last election? The same tactic used before that? Election after election ad nauseam?
That was a major Liberal complaint. Always being used, but tossed incremental scrapes. Pandered to without the return investment.
It may not be right. It could be over blown. It could be applied to many different constituents in our herd of cats. But it was a factor repeatedly called out and asked to be rectified.
They should really think twice about leaning Right again.
The voters, are hungry for the Peoples Party. Not the Dino/Republican Lite.
6
A little confused about Democratic centrism: what are you opposed to that the "extreme" left is for, and vice-versa? Let's be specific.
3
Voter apathy equals death to democracy. We are given the right to speak out by our vote. Yet so many choose not to. Just think, the one vote that you make could change the whole course of history. One vote matters!
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In most elections, one vote doesn't matter. It is large numbers of votes that matter - we need to act collectively.
1
The ones who do not vote must feel ok with the direction of the country
1
Not only vote but vote to end Russian influence by voting against Republicans.
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Correct. Voters who might have voted Democratic in 2016 sat it out and if they do it again this year, Democrats will lose again. Even in my own state, there are 6 people already running for one position, giving the Republican incumbent a huge advantage of a unified campaign while the 6 candidates fight it out and waste time and money.
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I respectfully disagree. Primary fights will help in two ways: They will battle test the candidates and also hone the winning message. This will in turn give the democrats the best chance of having the best possible messengers delivering the most effective messages for that particular race.
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Agree somewhat but time is short. All too many primaries in some states are late (mid August or later) while the incumbent has already been campaigning for a year.
3
Oh yeah that last primary fight with Bernie really did a lot of good didn’t it.
Give the Russian trolls more time to do their work. Only the far left in the far right I susceptible to the Russian trolls.
1
Seems to me the opposite is true. The Bernie vs Hillary battle to redefine the party is only raging stronger among most people, given the election results, yet the media is doing its best to downplay it.
31
Mature people have moved on, friend.
1
“Progressives don’t vote as often as conservatives do.” It wasn’t always so. In Daley’s (Sr.) Chicago, when Dems weren’t stealing a presidential election for JFK they were buying votes of South Side drunks, taking them on a tour of wards to cast multiple votes for Democrats GENERALLY. They seem to have gone soft lately. My own favorite exhortation on Election Day, to “Vote early, vote often and vote Republican”, seems to work.
My concern is that all this socially responsible energy by liberals, if it fails to deliver results this year, may crush their spirit entirely; and that would be bad. It could definitely happen. If the economy continues to expand robustly, if the stock market on which so many middle-class IRAs depend continues to rise, if Trump can get Kim Jong-un to blink … the House may not gain many net seats for Dems and could lose a lot; and the Senate could ADD Republican seats. If this were to happen, what is there really for an activist liberal to live for?
And Trump’s not helping, either. Softening resistance to gun control could be just the beginning. Imagine if he signed budgetary guidance that bulked-up social spending, too. Could co-opt a lot of Democratic votes for Republican candidates. Oh … uh … he already did that, didn’t he?
We need a strong Democratic party, to balance excessive conservatism. But to depend on our historically least engaged cohort, young Democrats during Midterms (!) to do that seems like a stretch. You folks may need a Plan B.
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No, he did not, Ramsey Rick.
If you have to go back to 1960 to cite vote fraud by Democrats, you are quite desperate, indeed.
No mention by you of Florida, 2000; Ohio, 2004.
And Russia, 2016.
But why, oh Ramsey Rick?
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Consider the effect of Roe vs Wade, when the Supreme Court removed a major issue from democratic control and made the Democrat agenda the law. The message Democrats got was that government would take care of their wants whether they voted or not. The message Republicans got was that they had to vote in every election so that if Democratic control of abortion law ever cracked, they would have a lot of people in office to pursue it.
Which is exactly what is happening now.
1
What an awful post, trying to muddy today's choice with tales from machine politics of over 50 years ago and how great a strategist Trump is -- then trying to discourage dems. A foreign agent couldn't do better, but then your goal also is to try to blunt the message of this article and distract, you won't succeed.
3
There's a lot of encouraging news and sound thinking here.
I must say I don't share your belief in the efficacy of "an economic message that focuses the white working class on the working-class part of its identity, rather than the white part." The opposition will be hammering away at the white part, and they'll have demographic fear and other emotions on their side. One would like to think they'll go broke underestimating the rationality of their audience, but I'm not so confident.
However, I find your main thesis here absolutely sound. It's impossible to overstate the importance of maximizing voter turnout among progressives. I'd just add that in addition to encouraging people to register and vote, Democrats and other liberal activists should do all they can, without delay, to dismantle the machinery of voter suppression and intimidation that can defeat the efforts of low-income, non-white Americans to participate in the electoral process.
http://thefamilyproperty.blogspot.jp/2018/01/the-voyage-to-restoration.html
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To get the young to vote you need a candidate that EXCITES the young.
Bernie Sanders showed that it was possible. The DRC did everything in its power to squelch his quest.
To get the young to vote, the Democratic Party needs to switch from a party that is financed by the RICH (Wall Street, Hollywood, Silicon Valley)
to one that is financed by labour unions and small contributions from ordinary Americans
Ms Feinstein is a multimillionaire. In spite the CA Democrats voting against her she will win the election as she has a HUGH campaign cash advantage over her opponent.
Below are the top ten campaign contributers to Charles E. Schumer, leader of the Democrats, 1990 to 2017
Goldman Sachs
Citigroup Inc
Paul, Weiss et al
JPMorgan Chase & Co
Credit Suisse Group
Morgan Stanley
Deloitte LLP
Ernst & Young
UBS AG
Bear Stearns
Sullivan & Cromwell
Lazard Ltd
To really think the energized left young can vote for a party run by someone financed by Wall Street ???
119
Schumer is the main problem with the Democratic party. Until he goes, the Democratic party will continue to be the other Republican party. He won't have it any other way because his entire war chest is financed by Wall Street and he can't but do their bidding.
2
It amazes me we still have Bernie Sanders Kool Aid drinkers who think Sanders was a positive force in the 2016.
All Sanders did was to ensure those same young people who voted for him in the primaries did what young people have done in every election since we lowered the age to vote to 18 - stay at home and pout diring the general election if an ideologically pure candidate was not on the ballot.
What the Democrats need is a candidate to not only inspire young people to vote, but vote as ADULTS who realize the world not black and white and that you compromise in order to get a functional government that works for the majority of us.
19
Despite Schumer's support by the fat cats, he has an excellent progressive voting record.
12
Voting is about the future and no one has more to gain than the youngest generation.
Some of us older folks vote in the interests of the younger generations but come on, we could use a little more help here!
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Viewing the Democratic Party as "progressive" requires conflating social issues with economic issues. An accurate assessment of the Democratic Party is that it's liberal, sometimes even progressive, on social issues - but on economic issues it's center-right.
And it's that center-right economic record that lost them a big chunk of the working class vote in 2016. Unfortunately, the Dem party bosses are showing no inclination to moderate their economic platform, opting instead to distract with Russia Gate and a focus on social issues.
Good luck with that - there's no reason to think it will be any more successful in 2018 and 2020 than it was in 2016.
88
The question is why do the Democrats persist in this tactic? And the answer is that social issues won't cost their big donors a dime in extra taxes or wages. Plus, they get to feel all warm about themselves, while devouring canapes at Davos and Aspen. If the party was really interested in promoting a progressive agenda, it would crowdfund itself, a la Bernie, who proved it could be done, but then that would make them beholden to the people rather than a handful of patrons, who will fill their pockets by one means or another.
6
But what you are ignoring is that, in our 2 party (non-parliamentary) system, in almost every single case either a Democrat or a Republican will be elected to office. So the question you should be asking is not whether the Democrat is as left-wing as you would prefer them to be (and rejecting them if they are not) but rather, which of the two candidates is going to move the needle in the direction you prefer. I guarantee that if you are a progressive or left-leaning voter, the answer is going to be the Democrat nearly 100% of the time. Yes, there are centrist and "neoliberal" Democrats. There are also true progressives in the party. The Republican party has nobody fighting for labor unions, for fairer taxation, for regulating large corporations, for higher wages for workers, for environmental sanity, etc. The Democrats may not be perfect, but they are far and away the best option we have, and if we support them, we win and have the chance to advance our cause. If we abandon them for not being "pure" enough, Republicans win. Is that really the future you want?
18
You should stop thinking about the "ideological spectrum" -- it's simplistic and doesn't really explain much.
The Democrats are now the party of the professional class. Thirty years ago they were the party of the working class. If they want to win elections they need to be the party of the working class, or at least include them. You probably didn't notice Hillary in one of the debates supported a greater right to collective bargaining. But that fell on deaf ears.
1
Donald j. Trump, has done what no Democratic party candidate's been able to accomplish, since the government ended the Selective Service Act in the mid-seventies. He's inspired Progressives to get off their couches, and start organizing. Fear and anger, are great motivators, we need only to look at the rise of the Tea-Party, in 2010, as an example. The turnout will be strong, if Democratic candidates have the right message to motivate the voters.
341
AMEN. VOTE despite the GOP gerrymandering, VOTE despite the GOP voter suppression “laws”, VOTE because your grand parents may have died on foreign battle fields to give future generations their constitutional right to do so.
8
Progressives have been organizing. But while twenty five Tea Party protesters were covered by fifty reporters, progressive protests are ignored or insulted by the media.
This is because the media is owned and run by the 1%, and is lying when it calls itself liberal.
7
"The turnout will be strong, if Democratic candidates have the right message to motivate the voters."
Sadly, that's a bigger "if" than we'd all like to hope. Look no further than David Leonhardt's column the other day touting the new "Medicare Extra" plan from the Center for American Progress (whose chairman, Tom Daschle is a lobbyist for Aetna!) -- a plan not unsimilar to the current, privatized (and crapified) version of Medicare known as "Medicare Advantage." Another rent-seeking neoliberal end-run around the truely affordable guaranteed health care enjoyed by citizens in the rest of the developed world.
3