Some fairly depressing news for Dems (via Digby):
Hart and McInturff then looked at the change among the most-interested voters from the same survey in 2008. Although 2010 is a “down-shifting” election, from a high-turnout presidential year to a lower-turnout midterm year, one group was more interested in November than it was in 2008: those who had voted for Republican John McCain for president. And the groups that showed the largest decline in interest? Those who voted for Barack Obama — liberals, African-Americans, self-described Democrats, moderates, those living in either the Northeast or West, and younger voters 18 to 34 years of age. These are the “Holy Mackerel” numbers…
And yes, I fucking told everyone so. (Notice that that post was left to die, because back then serious people knew that the Republicans were dead for a generation so it wasn’t worthy of front page space.)
Why are people so stupid?
During a base election year the smart thing to do is to demotivate the base. Really. Honest.
Assuming, of course, your main goal is to restore the rich’s wealth, push corporate profits to record highs and to continue war as usual. And you really don’t care that much what happens in elections, because you personally will be taken care of by the wealthy whose interests you served.
So maybe it’s not Obama and Dems who are stupid.
Tom Hickey
The plan is more cynical than stupid, I suspect. No party can win elections without the backing of the rich. You have to have more to spend on the campaign than the other party. Then you can shape opinion and get out the vote with the money. The pollsters and political operatives tell you what to say to overcome your won negatives, motivate voters, and scare them away from the opposition. That’s politics in the US. Real issues and perfomance? Not so much.
anonymous
“During a base election year the smart thing to do is to demotivate the base. Really. Honest.”
Is that a typo? I thought it was just being sarcastic, but then in context of the next paragraph it seems backwards.
If no party can win elections without the backing of the rich, then the liberals should just stay home. Even to a cynic like me, that sort of cynical conventional wisdom just drives me nuts. Basically it says nobody should even try, and when your team starts selling you out you should just suck it up and vote for them anyway. Here’s an idea, Dems: treat the rich like you treat us. Make them promises and take their money, if you can get it, but put those promises in the back seat to the interests of your base. Not that anyone cares. Later Dems. See you on election day (not necessarily this year though, unless you come up for a reason to vote besides being not as evil as the R’s).
Ian Welsh
Good point, fixed.
Scott R.
I think David Michael Green nails it here:
http://www.counterpunch.org/green07022010.html
Great piece…, read it.