You're absolutely right. Dems need to show up. To often, we don't, and Republican turnout rarely changes year to year. Did you know Republicans are more likely to win when it's raining? They still show up.
Republican politicians have proven time and again that they won't represent the disenfranchised. If you care about the poor and minorities, and you aren't one of those things, you have to get out and vote every damn time. Those people may not have the same opportunities as you, they may have work or have trouble accessing polling places. Get out and vote, people.
Start by making polling day a national/state holiday.
Then you don't have to work about swapping shifts out finding childcare.
You have the day off work, your kids are out of school. Take them to the polls and show them the Democratic process of voting.
My dad took me and my 3 sisters to vote with him every 4 years. And he told us how important it was. He also told me the first time I went behind the curtain "first look office all the people with a star by their name. They are there incumbent and we vote for them to stay. Then you look for the ones with an R by their name." And that life lesson has stuck with me.
Not in the sense that that's how I vote. But it helps me understand where party line voters are coming from. "That's just how we do it, son,"
Florida, too. I have been voting by absentee ballot for years now. We also have early voting so that people have more time and chances to fit voting into their schedule. I wish all states had those options in addition to requiring employers to work with their employees to make it easy for them to take time off to go to the polls.
It's crazy how much we take for granted something that people in the past (not just the US Revolution) fought and died over.
People lined up on battlefields and went to work murdering each other all because they wanted a voice in their system of government and now (in the US at least) the majority of us can't be bothered to drop by before or after work.
Devils advocate: they fought for the RIGHT to vote, that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone should vote. I'm heavily in favor of uninformed people choosing not to vote. I also think people that don't vote and aren't interested in politics would still fight for that right if it was taken away.
That's the problem. Many uninformed people are unaware and will vote anyway. I'm not trying to offer a solution. We shouldn't disallow the uninformed, just ideally they would choose not to. I know people with this level of self awareness.
Yeah it would be nice if people with an understanding of the issues and positions were the ones voting to give a purely ideological measure of the population split. Except politics is different to different people, and people have different reasons for voting different ways. There is really no way to say "this is how you should vote" because their opinions and reasoning is just as valid as anyone else's since voting is considered a function of free speech.
It's the same problem with self-selection of the gene pool and the slope towards eugenics. Just today Ohio is debating the legality of banning abortions for down's syndrome fetuses. You would think, when given the evidence that Iceland(?) has all but eliminated down's in their population due to early genetic testing of pregnancies, people would support the self-selection of people to terminate a pregnancy carrying genetic disorders. Except there are even parents of kids with down's that completely support the abortion ban. It's crazy.
When Dems start "showing up" to run candidates for every single office, voters will be able to vote for Democrats.
Too often, Dems just abandon ship, leaving an uncontested Republican candidate, so what's the point in showing up?
Don't blame the voters for that. That's the Democrat's fault.
When filing deadlines had passed in the first 27 states this year, one party or the other had failed to run candidates in nearly half the legislative seats -- 45 percent, according to Ballotpedia, an online politics site that tracks races and ballot initiatives. Nearly all incumbents can rest easy in Georgia, because 80 percent of the races there will be uncontested.
(from June 2016 http://www.governing.com/topics/elections/gov-uncontested-legislative-races.html)
I live in a blue state, but very red district. For a long time the state party hasn't bothered to even field dem candidates in my district for the state house of delegates. "Dems can't win there" so they focus on winnable/"competitive" districts.
But when I looked at the numbers for the last election for those state seats, it is ALL a turnout game. There are FAR more registered democrats in my district than republicans (and based on development and demographic changes, I'm willing to bet that registered dem numbers have gone up while Rs have remained static or only shifted slightly). In the last election, the R's had a 67% voter turnout. Dems around 50%. When I crunched the numbers, it looks like democrats only have to increase to about 55% to turn the district.
Taking into account libertarians and conservative independents would probably push up the number needed a bit, but those groups are pretty small.
Suddenly, all the R bluster opposing low income housing and public transportation in our district makes sense. They say it's about drug crime, but most of that is actually centered in long-existing blue collar white communities. They know how the numbers add up. All it takes is motivation in the right communities and they're out (and they should be - our R delegates are absolutely horrible, straight out of Trump radio, obvious, blatant, unapologetic racism, etc...).
You're absolutely right. Dems need to show up. To often, we don't, and Republican turnout rarely changes year to year. Did you know Republicans are more likely to win when it's raining? They still show up.
I hope you don't think this is just laziness. The Republican base is much more able to get to polls because demographically they have more seniors (who are retired and can spend all day voting) and people who are in jobs with flexibility to go vote.
This comment gets to the root of the problem, in that this way of thinking is part of the problem.
It's not Dems that need to show up; it's independent voters who care about their city, state, and country.
Democrats and Republicans tend to think the rest of the country gives a shit about their party. Most people -- particularly Democrats -- don't, even when they're registered as a party member.
I care about my country; I couldn't care less about either team. In fact, I find the idea of teams detrimental to society.
The democrat credo - vote early and often. When you remove voter fraud, Democrats lose. Note it is Democrats always opposed to removing dead voters and illegal aliens from voting rolls. Always opposed to SHOWING ID TO VOTE! What more do you need to acknowledge you KNOW you are committing fraud. This time they added outright Soviet-style LIES (that are 40 years old to boot.)
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u/MrEko108 Dec 13 '17
You're absolutely right. Dems need to show up. To often, we don't, and Republican turnout rarely changes year to year. Did you know Republicans are more likely to win when it's raining? They still show up.
Republican politicians have proven time and again that they won't represent the disenfranchised. If you care about the poor and minorities, and you aren't one of those things, you have to get out and vote every damn time. Those people may not have the same opportunities as you, they may have work or have trouble accessing polling places. Get out and vote, people.