Democrats need to get fired up about 2010! I'll begin with this classic message from Harry Truman to organized labor. At the time, organized labor was mad at Truman and was threatening to stay home - all but guaranteeing a Republican win in 1948.
In 2010, the Republicans are looking to take back at least one house of Congress. They have a legitimate shot at the House and a puncher's chance at taking the Senate. What will they do if they win? First, they will continue to block any attempt to further reform the dysfunctional government that the Contract With America and Bush saddled us with. For examples of the consequences of that see the failure of the financial regulations in 2008 or the BP oil spill and other disasters in the extractive industries in the last several years.
Second, they will use their subpoena power to initiate a series of trumped up and fabricated scandals against President Obama. It's their strategy for winning. It doesn't matter if there is nothing to investigate, they'll make it up and lie about it if they need to. And Fox News and the Drudge Report will there to whip up the frenzy.
If you want this to happen, stay home. If you want continued progress in the right direction get out and vote for Democrats! Get your friends to get out and vote! We need something on the scale of the get out the vote effort we had in 2006 and 2008.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Democrats Must Turn Out!
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 10:13 AM
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6 comments:
My policy is to support anyone of any belief, racial composition, sex or education that is running against the parties of filth - Democrat/Republican or Republican/Democrat.
Anonymous 2:49 expresses a commonly held - and tragically erroneous - belief. Namely that there is no difference between the two major parties.
Any serious and thoughtful examination of the policies pursued by the two parties shows dramatic differences.
At the risk of poking a hornet's nest, I'd ask Anonymous 2:49 to explain why (s)he opposes both parties. Please make this explanation without resorting to childish name calling like "party of filth."
Whether the Dems can run the same GOTV effort and out in the Fall will depend on a lot of things. There's a reason that Obama is sounding warnings: it's good for fundraising. The bottom line is that if the economy doesn't improve in the third quarter, the Dems main chance at winning will be to vilify Republicans as right-wing bigots, and jump on every scandal possible. Since the reverse is the GOP's SOP, it's going to be a bitter fight.
I'm an optimist, though. I think the economy is going to improve, and that Obama's popularity will move from about even with his unpopularity upward.
Ironically, Obama may be lukewarm about re-electing Dems in large numbers. Smaller majorities make his 'reaching across the aisle' rhetoric better. And if he can position himself as the guy in the middle trying to help, he will win big in 2012. Running in 2012 as an activist Democrat with a big Dem Congress doing his bidding is, well, a much harder sell.
I think there's some real angst on the Hill about whether Obama is more interested in an easy reelection in 2012 or enacting a real liberal agenda.
Interesting point about Obama's incentives. I think you are possibly correct.
I'm worried that with all the negativity and cynicism about the economy, turnout will be remarkably low this November. In that event, it will be base vs base and the Republicans have the enthusiasm advantage.
Midterm elections, unlike presidential electisons, start quite late in the voters' minds. While presidential election polls don't usually have much predictive value until June, and the race doesn't start for real till September, midterms are really all about September and October. It's still too soon to tell where the electorate is going to be.
Right. Like the old joke... "If the election were held today, 70% of Americans would be surprised."
I hope your right about late opinion formation. Because if opinions are forming now, they're going in a bad direction.
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