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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOnly 36.6% of people voted in this past midterm
DISGUSTING!!!! http://www.electproject.org/2014g
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GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)going nowhere and they ignore it rather than participating feeling their participation is so minute, obscure and overrun by shenanigans it is not worth the anxiety and bother. Plus many others are just trying to survive and voting falls to the bottom of their list of priorities.
And these endless political ads, damn, that's enough to turn anyone against the entire process. They are garbage ads, seldom portraying facts and intelligent information other than smearing and mudslinging. The entire process/system needs to be cleaned up. Out forefathers never envisioned today's cluster fucks IMO.
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)It is like getting to tell the system what we think. If we don't vote we don 't have anything to say to the system. repukes get to fuck things up for two more years now not so much because they voted but because we didn't. We out number them!
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)don't get it.
TBF
(32,067 posts)of THEIR system when you boycott it. As in, don't vote - it only encourages them.
I'm too old and female to boot. I feel like I owe it to the women before me to go turn the wheel even though the choices I'm given is maddening. Where is my button for "end capitalism now" or "vote out anyone who makes more than 1 million per year"? I get carefully vetted pro-corporate candidates no matter where I look. I did get to vote for some greens this time and that was mildly exciting - although I knew darn well only a few of us in the state would even make those choices.
It is the midterm so you are going to get more older folks than younger just due to that alone. But we are dealing with more than apathy on the greater scale. In terms of economics many of the people feel they are not seeing a great deal of difference between the parties. Yes they still do on social issues - but not on economic issues.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)"in several key races, the margin of victory came very close to the likely margin of disenfranchisement."
He cites N.Carolina, Kansas, Virginia and Florida examples, where the margin of winning was a few thousands votes.
And the 600,000 voters in texas who did not have the new voter ID.
http://billmoyers.com/2014/11/05/much-difference-new-voting-restrictions-make-yesterdays-close-races/
Orsino
(37,428 posts)...keeping away additional voters who might well have been allowed to cast ballots.
But there's the lack of progressive messaging Dems must address. I think that's still the more significant factor.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)Dawgs
(14,755 posts)Not voting because of not having confidence in the system means it will only stay that way. And it will still impact everyone, not just those that voted.
It's the dumbest reason to not vote.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)When your problems remain the same regardless of the letter after your senator's name, what's the incentive to vote? When you don't see any change, why bother?
You don't see change because the Republicans are running against it, and the Democrats are terrified of trumpeting the changes they did bring about.
Dawgs
(14,755 posts)Republicans would NEVER raise the minimum wage. In fact some want to eliminate it. Are you saying that people that will get a raise because of minimum wage increases in this election won't be affected by it?
Same with Gay Marriage. Are those peoples problems the same?
Same with new Marijuana laws.
Same with stimulus and infrastructure spending.
etc.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Only deep-blue state Democrats have been running on minimum wage increases. A North Carolina voter isn't going to think Kay Hagan would get them a minimum wage increase. Because she ran away from that. Hagan's ads were all about Tillis cutting education spending. And those young people don't have school-age kids yet.
First, homosexuals are only a small percentage of the population. But much more importantly, which bill did Democrats pass to bring about Gay Marriage? They didn't pass any bill. They let the courts do it. And "Bill Clinton appointed this judge 21 years ago" isn't a very effective way to get a voter to the polls today.
And which Democrats ran on legalizing Marijuana? In this election, one senate candidate did. Every other Democrat ran away from the issue in terror.
Which Democrats, again, failed to actually accomplish - the 2009 stimulus is long gone. And again, which Democrat ran on "hey, the economy's doing much better since Obama took over"?
Dawgs
(14,755 posts)You said there's no reason to vote for Democrats because peoples problems remain the same.
And sorry, it's not the politicians fault that people are uneducated. It's not just up to them. Millennials should be able to use new media to quickly find out where politicians and parties stand. It's not that hard.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)And pretending it's irrelevant because you don't like the implications does not make it irrelevant.
Actually, it is. That's why politicians campaign - to put forward the argument for why they deserve your vote.
If they don't put forward that argument, it's not up to the voter to guess how they'd actually vote. Especially with so many Democrats running away from change - it was Democrats who killed Clinton's health care reforms, and lead to the much more milquetoast Obamacare.
And where does the Democratic party stand on marijuana legalization?
Obama says no. Hell, he could legalize marijuana today by rescheduling it.
Other Democrats? All of them say "no", or avoid the issue.
Your other examples have similar results.
Dawgs
(14,755 posts)I showed how they peoples problems change for the better and your argument was, 'well, politicians don't tell me what they do so why should I vote for them'.
So, you agree that Democrats do some things that affect peoples lives in a good way, which is the opposite of what you said in an earlier post.
Actually, the states where Democrats are running everything, marijuana legalization is going quite well. But, of course that doesn't matter to you. It's up to politicians to treat voters like children and explain exactly why things that Millennials would want are better under Democrats. Because, apparently Millennials are too stupid to find out for themselves.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)which shows they have failed to do so.
No. I said they either don't get the job done, or they run away from the jobs they did get done.
Did you miss the part where Obama could legalize it today? Without a vote from Congress? The DEA gets to schedule the drugs. Reschedule it and it's legal.
Also, the state with the most Democrats running everything, California, is not doing quite well.
Lying is a really bad way to make an argument. Especially when the posts are still up there.
When a politician campaigns, they tell you the best reasons to vote for them. If something is so unimportant that they do not mention it, why on earth would you believe they'd fight for it?
Especially when there's a long history on these issues. For example, it was Schumer who pushed through the massive H1B expansion.
How is "or they run away from the jobs they did get done" not admitting that make things better. Those "jobs" you say they run from are raising the minimum wage, getting marijuana laws passed, and getting gay marriage passed. Are you now saying those three things aren't making peoples lives better, or that they don't matter to Millennials? WTF!!
Jesus Christ!! Obama was not on the ballot this time. He's wrong on this, but that's no excuse to not vote for other Democrats. All politicians aren't perfect, but Jesus. WTH!!
How was I lying? You said it's ONLY up to the politician to educate people. ME: "And sorry, it's not the politicians fault that people are uneducated." YOU: Actually, it is." My last sentence was just guessing, not lying. That's why I said apparently.
So, you expect Democratic politicians to be able to mention every position they have on every issue, and also somehow get that message to each voter. You realize most voters aren't paying attention AT ALL, right?
And, you really believe that it's not up to voters (who aren't paying attention to politicians and campaigns) that they don't have some responsibility to educate themselves? Wow!!
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)The cowards were running away and hiding for fear of upsetting fox news viewers!
Marijuana legalization was a big winner, how many democrats ran on record for that??
Raising the minimum wage, also a big winner, how many dems ran and championed that issue?
Lets see...ZERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The voters saw baggers and bagger lites so they went with the real thing of course!
The democrats gave no working class person in this country a reason to vote for them so they DIDN'T!!!!!
Try this shit again in 2016 and its lights out for this country! It feels like the beginning of a new dark age to me after that horrible election.
When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross
And I'm saying this as a believer in Jesus Christ, the one who healed the sick for free and fed the poor for free, told the rich to give all their wealth to the poor and drove the capitalists out of the Temple! You know the REAL Jesus! The same one that motivated MLK and many other freedom fighters. All people of all faiths or no faith in particular that love freedom better wake the f*** up now!
These corporate capitalist mega church "christians" do not worship him. Their god is ayn rand and $$$ she/it is a hateful and unforgiving god, as we are all going to be finding out soon!
There had better rise up another FDR fast in the democratic party and I mean NOW before the next election or this country is doomed.
HoosierRadical
(390 posts)I think it is a cop-out, you know who I don't have any confidence in? The American people. Non Voters are just as bad as people who vote against their own interests, abdicating one's responsibility is not going to miraculously restore confidence. Is it really that much of a burden to "inconvenience" oneself every two years to cast a ballot? Many of these non-Voters think nothing of standing in line for hours every Black Friday in November.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Standing in that Black Friday line solves a problem - they get gifts (or something for themselves) at a deep discount. It solves the problem of not having enough money to buy gifts, or gifts you want to give.
What problem does standing in that voting line solve? For a whole lot of people, the letter after their senator's name has no effect on their problems. The R's don't want to solve them, and the D's are terrified of solving them.
And when the D's do manage to step up and fix a problem, they don't shout it from the rooftops. Instead, they run away from the fixes so your "Black Friday" voter never hears about how critical Kay Hagan was in getting them to the doctor. Or how Thom Tillis was critical in keeping them away from a doctor.
HoosierRadical
(390 posts)too bad people are so ignorant and clueless. We know the importance of voting, we are no better than those that don't vote, we have the same information, yet we manage to vote. I put being able to go to the doctor when I need it above getting consumer products.
BeyondGeography
(39,374 posts)The information is there for people to make sensible decisions and vote accordingly. Too many just don't.
ballyhoo
(2,060 posts)scaffold about to be hanged. Not yet blindfolded, he looks around the crowd and sees poor people wearing ragged clothes screaming obscenities at him, crumbling buildings with broken glass, and giant policemen waving billy clubs. Unaided, he shakes his head sadly, walks his head into the hangman's noose and jumps.
What is left to saved? We are told our God is a piece of shit, the bible is all crap, religion is crap, women have no rights, we can only do that which the government run by oligarchs say; we break some kind of law every 42 seconds; we have no money to go on vacations because the jobs we are now working pay zilch; we see constant wars every day from the minutes we are born to the day we die; we have choices for elections we wouldn't even let in our houses...etc, etc. Our escape is cute cats and cartoons...
But by all means, voting is paramount...When I picked up my ballot, I recognized maybe three names and one proposition. Now where is that rope?
ballyhoo
(2,060 posts)election debacle was over that today will be remembered as the first day of the neo-serfdom. Once the next debt ceiling bill is voted down unless there are certain provisions, ie, cutting SS or Medicare--or both, we will know for sure we just became serfs.
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)Many believe US elections are just a scripted sham to give an appearance of Democracy and nothing more. Polls show that Americans overwhelmingly support Liberal ideals, yet when it comes to elected officials, only the antithesis of those ideals need apply. Odd isn't it?
ballyhoo
(2,060 posts)Kind of strange. I was just riding home from the store and Russ Limbaugh came on the radio. (I usually switch channels but he said something funny and I paused...). He said at the time of the elections--while they were voting Republican--the voters who voted Republican almost to a person hated Republicans. He said the Republicans did not run on any agenda except one: stopping Obama. And the people were pissed off because --EVEN THOUGH THEY LIKED SOME OF THE STUFF OBAMA DID--other stuff they did not like at all. He went on to say the best thing Obama could do for Republicans is veto everything they put on his desk to sign.
Does anything of this make sense--even though it is Limbaugh? Or is this part of the script like we talked about in our last post to one another? One other question? Do you think some Democrats did not vote because they did not like some of the progressive issues Obama helped out on. I have had a few people tell me that.
Getting hard to see the forrest for the trees....
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)our elections are certainly manipulated in some way. It is no coincidence that there was such a big push for states to adopt EVM's during the 'help America vote' act, and that those EVM's had no paper trail. Nothing makes sense right now because the script is so absolutely contrary to the will and desires of the people.
When you talk of the "Progressive Issues" Obama worked on, exactly what would those be?
-ACA was not Progressive legislation in any sense of the word. It was re-issue of GOP legislation that was passed by Romney (aka Romneycare) and I sure don't consider Romney to be a "Progressive".
- It wasn't all that long ago he was still spouting that marriage was between a 'man and a woman'...hell the rabid anti-gay Rick Warren was his choice to speak at his inauguration...then miraculuously he had an 'epiphany' (probably in the form of an email message from god) that told him he could now start to advocate on the behalf of the gay community in time for the 2012 elections.
- He offered up Chained CPI for Social Security to the GOP in exchange for a budget. Not a very 'progressive' thing to do in my book but I'm quite sure he'll get the Chained CPI now that the GOP controls both houses of Congress.
- Backs TPP and other trade agreements that further line the pockets of the 1% but are absolutely detrimental to America's already fast dwindling middle class. He'll for sure get those trade agreements now...won't he? Funny how the 1% ALWAYS seems to get what THEY paid for...the rest of us can suck eggs
- Keystone Pipeline...DONE DEAL now. He was for it before he was 'sort of' against it. I'll bet he'll be eager to be 'for it' again now though.
There's more, but what's the point? TPTB control everything from the media outlets, the candidates permitted to run, to the voting process itself. Talk of supporting Liberal candidates on a web bulletin board and they'll have their crew of flying monkeys harass you with pre-drafted canned talking points extolling the futility of your thoughts.
We exist in the bubble of a giant propaganda machine that would have no doubt made Khrushchev envious.
ballyhoo
(2,060 posts)answering my questions. I am turning 69 soon; my wife is going to be 70 and is still working as a DON. We have to decide whether we take our money and leave the country before TPTB steal it all. Or stay and fight-- The decision will be made clearer by the end of the first quarter next year. Obama's NPD has carried him a long way at the expense of everyone, including himself.
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)on the kudos (ie $$$) he will get from his Wall Street benefactors for a part well played once he leaves office to make way for the next slated figurehead to occupy the oval office for 8 years.
ballyhoo
(2,060 posts)pick, someone who had a inborn defense. The most likely next pick has one too. She will be like Obama on steroids.
Martin Eden
(12,870 posts)Mike Lofgren (Republican staffer who quit after 28 years) wrote after the Debt Ceiling debacle in 2011:
A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress's generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.
A deeply cynical tactic, to be sure, but a psychologically insightful one that plays on the weaknesses both of the voting public and the news media. There are tens of millions of low-information voters who hardly know which party controls which branch of government, let alone which party is pursuing a particular legislative tactic. These voters' confusion over who did what allows them to form the conclusion that "they are all crooks," and that "government is no good," further leading them to think, "a plague on both your houses" and "the parties are like two kids in a school yard." This ill-informed public cynicism, in its turn, further intensifies the long-term decline in public trust in government that has been taking place since the early 1960s - a distrust that has been stoked by Republican rhetoric at every turn ("Government is the problem," declared Ronald Reagan in 1980).
The media are also complicit in this phenomenon. Ever since the bifurcation of electronic media into a more or less respectable "hard news" segment and a rabidly ideological talk radio and cable TV political propaganda arm, the "respectable" media have been terrified of any criticism for perceived bias. Hence, they hew to the practice of false evenhandedness. Paul Krugman has skewered this tactic as being the "centrist cop-out." "I joked long ago," he says, "that if one party declared that the earth was flat, the headlines would read 'Views Differ on Shape of Planet.'"
Inside-the-Beltway wise guy Chris Cillizza merely proves Krugman right in his Washington Post analysis of "winners and losers" in the debt ceiling impasse. He wrote that the institution of Congress was a big loser in the fracas, which is, of course, correct, but then he opined: "Lawmakers - bless their hearts - seem entirely unaware of just how bad they looked during this fight and will almost certainly spend the next few weeks (or months) congratulating themselves on their tremendous magnanimity." Note how the pundit's ironic deprecation falls like the rain on the just and unjust alike, on those who precipitated the needless crisis and those who despaired of it. He seems oblivious that one side - or a sizable faction of one side - has deliberately attempted to damage the reputation of Congress to achieve its political objectives.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)30 years now. And when a R gets into the government they are working to make it fail. The result of these two items is the economic problems we are having and a lot of people are unsure of the system. The MSM usually has nothing but government failure to talk about.
Is there anyone cheering for government?
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)In my view all modern democratic political systems have been corrupted and suborned by corporate interests. As a matter of principle I don't participate in corrupt systems.
I'm quite sure there are others like me out there. Maybe not here, because this is a political board, but the sentiment is definitely out there and spreading.
ballyhoo
(2,060 posts)think. We have no democracy anymore. We are a fascist oligarchy living in constant fear of everything.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)out.
One of the reasons I have not is because for many many years I have been lobbying for social causes and have had quite a few successes. Not lately unfortunately. Not since Reagan. That is why I think you are more correct than I am. They are not listening any more. The Rs do not want to help and the Ds do not have the courage to fight for those less fortunate. But my heart will not let me stop trying. If there is any chance of getting through I cannot let the people I work to help down.
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)control. Owning a country via the government is far more powerful and profitable than other venues.
BeyondGeography
(39,374 posts)
Rex
(65,616 posts)
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)That's embarrassing.
fredamae
(4,458 posts)One county in Oregon had a 74% turnout and the state avg was 69.5%...I don't get it.
http://www.opb.org/news/blog/newsblog/secretary-of-states-office-generally-pleased-with-consistent-midterm-voter-turnout/
Cosmocat
(14,566 posts)nm
fredamae
(4,458 posts)Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)and make efforts to make participation easily accessible to all.
fredamae
(4,458 posts)as an ballot observer this year and I must admit-they Do Everything by hand...corrections etc double checked, bi partisan...they go to extraordinary measures to make Sure your vote counts Before the ballots are run through the counter.
I had No idea how much work went into each ballot.
I commend Oregon's Voting System. It is as it should be everywhere.
neverforget
(9,436 posts)
Baclava
(12,047 posts)
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)a country.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)don't have permanent jobs that pay a living wage. How about instead of blaming them we ask why they are swimming in debt and have no jobs and ask the politicians who are responsible for this how they are going to fix the problem? I am so sick of DU blaming voters and letting the politicians off scott free.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)then why aren't they voting?
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Protecting grandma's Social Security check isn't much of an incentive for the young to vote. They don't know her finances.
However, they are extremely familiar with their massive student loan debt, and how they can't find a decent paying job.
When Republicans are in power, they pass policies to hurt the job market and slash college grants and raise tuition while shredding the safety net that they are one unlucky event from falling into.
When Democrats are in power, they pass policies to hurt the job market (Ex. massive H1B increase last year), and slash college grants and raise tuition (gotta balance that budget). Yes, Democrats managed to drastically cut the interest rate on student loans. Try to find me a candidate that bothered to mention that. Meanwhile, Democrats are also slashing the safety net (Welfare reform was one of the things Clinton bragged about, after all).
So your young voter is left with this choice:
Republicans won't fix their problems.
Democrats either won't fix their problems, or will do whatever they can to not talk about what has been fixed. So that young voter doesn't hear about the fixes.
That leaves very little incentive to line up to vote.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)that college debt.
This sounds very much to me to be a total lack of understanding the process used to get change in government. The last thing you do is quit. For 50 years I have lobbied for persons with developmental disabilities. I did not get what I wanted even the first 6 years. But I kept working for it. And finally in many states there is a good program in each county to help. And now it is again under threat.
My millennial is upset about net neutrality and NSA spying. I agree with him. He is mad at Obama so he was not going to vote. I can guarantee he is not going to have much of an impact on changing this by not voting.
What the above is saying is that there is great value in uniting to fight for the change we need. The worst thing we can do is have a generational battle that says what I want is important but what you want is not.
Hopefully we can find ways to help each other toward our goals.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)I held up two fingers
"Two weeks? she says...
"Two years", I say
"Can't wait to vote for Hillary, huh?", I quipped
I couldn't help it, it just came out
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)It is stupid to complain then not do the thing that could change things for the better.
Millinenials have their future in their hands. Get involved.
Now for two years the repubs get to make it worse. Way to go!
Baclava
(12,047 posts)The new iPhone is here!
HoosierRadical
(390 posts)fix things? Non Voters deserved all the misery the GOP is going to rain down on them, it is just too bad we will all suffer. The millennials and other non Voters abdicated their responsibility in '10, but have the nerve to whine
?
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Young GenX are liberal, as are Millennials. As a young GenXer, I've been waiting for Democrats to actually address my problems since I first voted in 1992.
Still waiting.
Golly, wonder why so many in my generation think the letter after our senator's name really doesn't matter much. 
jwirr
(39,215 posts)fixed?
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Like much of my generation, I was moving around a lot before now. As a result, not much of an ability to get involved in local politics.
Now that I'm an old fart, and more settled, it's far more feasible to get involved in the local party.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)Democratic this time. We can organize under our state and local governments to try to protect our way of life as much as we can when the Rs start destroying everything in sight.
HoosierRadical
(390 posts)It doesn't help when their voters don't have their back. Think of all the wonderful changes we would have in this country if President Obama had a majority of real progressives in the house and senate. He would have had to be more progressive than he is inclined to be, but now here he is getting ready to cut deals with the GOP. Who's fault is it that?
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Fundamentally, Democrats have failed to capitalize on their victories. Both Obama and Clinton had Democratic majorities for two years.
The party ran terrified from the idea of large-scale changes. So Democrats killed Clinton's health care reform efforts. They almost killed the much more milquetoast Obamacare.
The voters have their back. They do not have ours.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)voted for Democrats en masse in 2008.
I can relate, to a degree.
Most of them are probably not old enough, aware enough, to really understand the inevitable tragic consequences of allowing republicans to assume positions of power.
Basically, I vote Democratic to get whatever positives I can, but primarily it is to prevent republicans from assuming positions of authority from which they will most definitely do stupid or corrupt things, things that will negatively effect me, and everyone and everything else in the universe.
I am fortunate to have understood this from an early age, and pragmatic enough to take every opportunity to make at least some progress.
Millennials, by not voting, just shot themselves in both feet, and they won't ever be able to walk again without the pain of their mistake of not voting reminding them of how stupid and lazy and naive they were for not voting in this election.
Too soon old, too late smart.
Here's some tried and true advice for any young people who don't already get it:
When you get any chance to vote against republicans, just do it, early and often. Because if you don't, it's 100% guaranteed that republicans will make you and everyone and everything you know suffer because of your careless stupidity.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Bold strategy, Cotton.
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)The belief that turnout helps Dems more than R's maybe out of date.
PA didn't have great voter tunout but knocked down their republican governor
WI had better turnout than most, and re-elected Walker for the 3rd time in 4 yrs
The old belief doesn't account for the reality that the tea-party is a populist manipulation that contributes to big turnout.
In WI, it's clear that Walker has benefited by large turnout of that group.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)The cause for the low turnout may be up for debate, but as long as people don't vote, this mess is what we get.
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)The one place where our effort could be really different and successful is the message.
All of America wantd what the dem base wants, but the Dem politicians don't often put that on the menu.
Instead the pros get into trying to move right to get THEIR voters.
If my party's candidate want's to attract THEIR voters more than people like ME, then there is something really gone wrong in the planning department.
Kaleva
(36,310 posts)Mississippi-29.7%
Texas-28.5%
Tennessee-29.1%
Oklahoma-29.8%
Utah-28.8%
Indiana-28%
aikoaiko
(34,172 posts)worst participation since WWII
http://bluenationreview.com/2014-saw-lowest-voter-turnout-since-1940/
aikoaiko
(34,172 posts)Triana
(22,666 posts)lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)citizen, unless there is a compelling reason or inability.
Cosmocat
(14,566 posts)The shit the republicans have pulled the last decade or so would get them hung by their nails in a lot of other countries.
Here ... People don't even care.
Amonester
(11,541 posts)Or that new awsomely cute Ariana Grande latest hit bomb sounds like?
Hey! 
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)And will never happen.
People have the right to protest a corrupt political process by not voting. Or simply disengage from the process altogether.
Coercive participation in democracy is antithetical to the concept of freedom.
bobGandolf
(871 posts)Anyone who says something different is full of shit. We let a little more than 1/3 of voters decide the election. So much for the Dems get out the vote push. You knew the Repubs were going to get their voters out.
We deserve every thing we get.
Historic NY
(37,451 posts)There goal was to stop Obama..too bad people didn't listen
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025775140
You would have thought this was a Presidential election yr by me. Old people barely able to get out of cars and the votes cast by early afternoon was more than the last election.
bobGandolf
(871 posts)dilby
(2,273 posts)If you think a majority of people will show up to keep Republicans out of power then you are dreaming, too many independents who don't care which party is in power. Want people to show up on election day, put measures on State ballots that will get people off their coaches and into the voting booth.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Even if you factor out people that for whatever reason, cannot vote - we should still be riding in the 70s or 80s IMO. This country deserves what it gets if that many people are apathetic toward their future.
Canada has turnouts in the 60s, 70s and 80s! COME ON PEOPLE, if our neighbors can do it - we can too!
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)If we would have had a larger turnout - some of those states would be blue now. 
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)That is HORRIBLE. No way to excuse this.
The historical average for the mid term elections is 40%. Had turnout been 42%-43%, we would have had a 50/50 Senate, a few more seats in the house and a majority of governorships.
drray23
(7,633 posts)it was the worst participation since WWII (in the middle of the war!) . Why did the media let us believe that somehow
the GOTV efforts were huge and above average participation was anticipated ?
drray23
(7,633 posts)For some reason the graph in is french, but still it shows clearly what went on.
It is shameful. They should make voting mandatory like jury duty. Thats the case in many
countries.
redheaddem
(3 posts)I live in Alabama and while I always vote it's easy to become discouraged. Of the many races on the ballot, the majority were republicans running unopposed. I could not convince my 20-year old son to vote by absentee ballot from college because he just didn't see the point.
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)These lazy idiots will be shocked at the shitstorm the right wing is going to dump on their heads in the next two years if not more.
They must have believed the corporate news media lie..both parties are the same.
Wait till Cruz, Ernst, the dictators in Wisconsin and Michigan, the koch bros., Brownback, etc get going you stupid, stupid, stupid people!
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Yet the Establishment Dems keep on trying, angerily lashing out as people who refuse to vote for Republican-light, this depressing turnout even more.
It's almost as if the DLC rat-fuckers WANT to lose.
TBF
(32,067 posts)and that wins the thread.
We know there are many dedicated and principled dems on this board who are FDR in spirit and care for their fellow humans. And then there is the DLC (Third way) which was originally funded by groups like the Koch Bros ... and this is why we are in the situation we're in. I give your generation credit for not buying into their BS.
ctaylors6
(693 posts)In several, particularly competitive states, the turnout was about the same or higher as the 2010 midterms. For example -
Florida
Iowa
Louisiana
Nebraska
Wisconsin
New Hampshire
Maine
Wisconsin VEP was 56.9% for these midterms!!
Link to article & map: http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/11/05/midterm-turnout-decreased-in-all-but-12-states
This is not excuse the many, many who did not vote, but I think the numbers are interesting for the competitive states.
Amonester
(11,541 posts)I mean, pay them a reasonable amount... I dunno, 50 bucks? Or more? (By law).
No?
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)They cost us another election.