Hubby just brought up a good point

[NMDemDist2]

if we can mobilize 90% of the democrats to the polls, the independants and naderites and repubs are outnumbered

That's the real beauty of our two-party system. Neither major party is strong enough to win with just its stalwarts. The winner must capture a majority of independents, crossovers or newly registered voters. Estimated numbers this year:

204 million eligible voters (age 18 or older)
63 million registered Democrats
47 million registered Republicans
32 million registered as independents or with minor party
62 million not registered

Ok if we use the numbers from 1996 where 2/3 of registered voters actually made it to the polls, that gives us 56.7 million democrat votes at 90%, as opposed to 2/3 of 79 million at 53 million republicans and independants.

and there is no way the independants will all vote for Bush. One more time, let all work to get out the vote!

[Cocoa]

1. Bush strategy seems to be to depress the Kerry vote

all they do is dump on Kerry.

Right wing rags don't even write about Bush anymore, it's all the anti-Kerry stuff.

[NMDemDist2]

2. i smell the worm turning though

hang in there!

[billybob537]

3. Well you tell me

what could say about Shithead* that would be good?:evilgrin:

[LiberalFighter]

10. That has been the strategy since at least Reagan...

especially when Lee Atwater first showed up.

And it works!! Especially when campaigns don't fight back.

[library_max]

4. Awful as this may be to contemplate,

a lot of registered Democrats are going to vote for Bush, especially in the south.

Why? Because there are places all over the south where all local and county elections are decided in the Democratic primaries. Even the most primordial racist right-wingers run as Democrats in those elections because there is no Republican Party at that level in those areas. The town where I live (population almost 200,000) is like that. So the local folks register Democratic regardless of their state or national politics. This is, of course, a legacy of Reconstruction.

[NMDemDist2]

5. I don't believe the number is that high Library

and it will easily be overcome by "Naderites" who know better this time.

[library_max]

8. Well, I didn't actually give a number, because I don't know one.

My point is that it wouldn't necessarily help us to get all Democrats to the polls. We'd do better to get people there who are going to vote for Kerry, many of whom will probably be registered Republicans.

Out of curiosity, are you a southerner? Because I assure you, the phenomenon of Republicans registering as Democrats is very widespread down here in the old Confederacy.

[LabMonkey]

6. numbers are wrong

The numbers are way out of date.
9-11 changed everything.

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=750

"The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and Bush's response to the attacks, marked a major turning point in party identification. Republican party identification rose to 30%, while the Democrats fell to 31%, putting the parties into a virtual tie for the allegiance of the public."

[NMDemDist2]

7. thanks! I looked all over for those numbers

so I guess it's back to the drawing board for me :(

[Aunt Anti-bush]

9. Are there really 62 million people who are not registered to vote?

Well, we should work on them, too. I got a few this weekend to register. Anyone who comes to my house ends up on my computer filling out their voter registration. :)

[no name no slogan]

12. It's true-- and most of those lean DEMOCRATIC!!!

Most of those unregistered tend to be working poor, who tend to not have long-term addresses and who work more than one job just to pay the rent.

I've repeated this over and over to many people: if we could even get one-tenth of those unregistered folks to vote for Dems, we wouldn't have to worry about appealing to the so-called "swing voters" on the right.

If not for Jesse Jackson and his voter registration efforts in the late 80s in the south, it's highly unlikely that Bill Clinton would have won in 1992. Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition were registering these same voters in his 1988 presidential campaign and beyond, and helped Clinton carry many areas he may not have otherwise.

THESE are the people we NEED to get involved in the system. They are solid Democrats who support our issues-- all our candidates need to do is not be afraid to address them!

[no name no slogan]

11. This is what I and others have been saying for a LONG time!

Karl Rove has done a fantastic job of mobilizing the Republican base, such as it exists. Unfortunately, the Democrats have largely ignored their base in search of that 5% of the voting age population known as the "swing vote".

The DEMOCRATS are still the major party in this country, and we've done a horrible job over the last few elections of getting our natural constituencies out to vote. If we were to mobilize our base like the Repubs do, we'd win overwhelmingly every time.

Along with that, we need to NOMINATE candidates who are NOT AFRAID to be Democrats! Every four years, we create this lovely platform document that supposedly stands for what we believe, and then nominate a candidate who doesn't seem to even read it.

It's only common sense that if we run a strong DEMOCRAT, our own registered voters will come out in droves for this candidate. 98% of those 63mil registered Democrats will VOTE for the Democrat, not a Republican-- so why not run a DEMOCRAT who's not afraid to be different from the Republican?

Judging by electoral results of late, you'd be hard pressed to think the Dems were the majority party in this country. Of course, seeing the quality of Democrats that we've been selecting lately, maybe it does make sense after all.

:shrug:

[LiberalFighter]

13. 2000 Census

202.5 million eligible voters (age 18 or older)
73 million not registered
Source


Reasons for not Voting, by Sex, Age, Race and Hispanic Origin: November 2000 Source

[Nicholas_J]

14. Thats pretty much correct

And the percentages of polled democrats who have stated that they will vote republican is at the lowest level in over 30 years. On average about 10 percent of Democrats indicate that they will vote for a Republican candidate, but the latest polls show that srhining to around 3 percent while the percentage of REpublicans who will vote Democrats has also shrunk, it has not done so by nearly as much with about 6 percent Republicans going for Kerry right now,down from the average of about 10 percent. So Kerry will get more Republican votes than Bush will get Democratic votes. The minority communities who were disenfranchised by Bush all over the country are also coming out in very large numbers this season as well.