How do Democrats increase midterm turnout?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Make voting compulsory, adopt automatic voter registration, and make election day a national holiday.

Make elections either a holiday or a weekend. Tuesday voting at this point is inane.

Voting day being on the same day as a working day with polls closing sometimes before people get off work is a feature not a bug.

What a reprehensible thing to say.

[Simfan34]

Make voting compulsory, adopt automatic voter registration, and make election day a national holiday.

Make elections either a holiday or a weekend. Tuesday voting at this point is inane.

Voting day being on the same day as a working day with polls closing sometimes before people get off work is a feature not a bug.

What a reprehensible thing to say.

"Junk country", you said, and yet here you want more people voting.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Make voting compulsory, adopt automatic voter registration, and make election day a national holiday.

Make elections either a holiday or a weekend. Tuesday voting at this point is inane.

Voting day being on the same day as a working day with polls closing sometimes before people get off work is a feature not a bug.

What a reprehensible thing to say.

"Junk country", you said, and yet here you want more people voting.

The pathetic rate of participation in the political process is a large part of what's making it a junk country.

[Sbane]

Have Marijuana legalization on the ballot.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Have Marijuana legalization on the ballot.

But after that passes, they'll be too stoned to vote.

/joking

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Have Marijuana legalization on the ballot.

I was going to say that they need to bring up a sensationalist issue like that.  The Dems just never get it that the GOP are the salesmen of American politics.  The Dems think it'll all just sell itself.  No, no, no... that's not how it works here.  Half of the country, and a huge chunk of the Democratic base in Presidential years, doesn't even know that there is a election in midterm years.  Bring up marijuana.  Bring up internet censorship.  Bring up police brutality.  Whatever.  Something that the youngs and minorities will get riled up about.  Get them engaged and THEN they'll look into the meat-n-taters economic issues, and will be rightly horrified at what the GOP proposes.  

As of right now, the GOP plays a game and the Dems never even leave the locker room.

[angus]

Bring up marijuana.  Bring up internet censorship.  Bring up police brutality.

I thought we were trying to help the Dems.  You sound more like you're trying to get out the Libertarians.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

1. Defend yourselves and your policies. Do we really think Grimes or Nunn would have THAT much worse by not running away from Obama and what the economy is doing. There's no point being Republican-lite, they'll just vote for the Republican.

2. Give your base something to vote FOR, not just against.

[Person Man]

Bring up marijuana.  Bring up internet censorship.  Bring up police brutality.

I thought we were trying to help the Dems.  You sound more like you're trying to get out the Libertarians.

Well, I've heard 3 things-

- Push to the center to win back older, whiter voters in places like Missouri, Ohio and Indiana
- Keep trying to improve turnout
- Try to reach out to voters we haven't yet but might be interested by pushing in a more libertarian direction.

[angus]

Bring up marijuana.  Bring up internet censorship.  Bring up police brutality.

I thought we were trying to help the Dems.  You sound more like you're trying to get out the Libertarians.

Well, I've heard 3 things-

- Push to the center to win back older, whiter voters in places like Missouri, Ohio and Indiana
- Keep trying to improve turnout
- Try to reach out to voters we haven't yet but might be interested by pushing in a more libertarian direction.

All jokes aside, if I were a Democrat and wanted Democrats to win, I'd push forward with the chicken in every pot agenda.  I'd talk about government revenues and streets and schools and hospitals and roads.  I'd talk about workers and their dreams and desires and also about their hardships.  I'd also give a nod to the "Great American Middle Class" and I'd do so unflinchingly.  I'd stay far away from homo marriage and pregnancy termination and marijuana legalization.  Avoid those like the plague.

If I were a Republican and wanted Republicans to win, I'd talk about ISIS, ISIL, the free market, and I'd emphasize personal responsibility.  I'd talk about the state of public schools and of the public infrastructure.  Of course, I'd also give a not do the "Great American Middle Class" and I'd do so unflinchingly.  I'd stay far away from homo marriage and pregnancy termination and weed legalization.  Avoid those issues like the plague.

What I wouldn't do, in either party, is talk about how hard the other ones suck.  This only serves to depress voter participation.  If I were President Obama I'd talk about how much I want to work with the Republican congress.  If I were the House majority leader, I'd talk about how much I want to work with Obama.  I'd start now, and I'd make sure in my speech to note that some will try to use my words against me in future campaigns, and I'd make sure that the news medium records this bit too, the part where I'm saying that those who edit my speech have more interest in their own futures than in the people of the United States.  

If I were a Republican I'd say that Barack Obama is my President and I will do all that is in my power to help him succeed, because if he succeeds then the American people succeed.  If I were a Democrat I'd say that the Republican leadership in congress is my leadership and that I will do all that is in my power to help them succeed because if they succeed then the American people succeed.  I'd say that I want to increase turnout, but not only among those who support me but also among those who oppose me because that is the best way to ensure that the will of the people is represented at the polls.  I'd look deeply into the camera, and therefore into the eyes of the American people, and clearly state my agenda and admit that I might be biased and that I want to hear from those whose priorities differ from mine.  I'd also attempt to start a dialogue on peace in the Middle East, deteriorating infrastructure, education, terrorism, immigration, and caring for an aging population.  I'd do that by reminding them of our common goals including full employment and a contented population.  I'd ask for reasonable and mature debate on all issues affecting us.  

This is how you get more Democrats to support you.  This is how you get more Republicans to support you.  This is how you get more Americans to support you.
 

[Indy Texas]

Have Marijuana legalization on the ballot.

I was going to say that they need to bring up a sensationalist issue like that.  The Dems just never get it that the GOP are the salesmen of American politics.  The Dems think it'll all just sell itself.  No, no, no... that's not how it works here.  Half of the country, and a huge chunk of the Democratic base in Presidential years, doesn't even know that there is a election in midterm years.  Bring up marijuana.  Bring up internet censorship.  Bring up police brutality.  Whatever.  Something that the youngs and minorities will get riled up about.  Get them engaged and THEN they'll look into the meat-n-taters economic issues, and will be rightly horrified at what the GOP proposes.  

As of right now, the GOP plays a game and the Dems never even leave the locker room.

You forget that "getting riled up" is something that young people, particularly non-white young people, just don't do.

Republicans can motivate their older, whiter base with fear and anger - they did it in 2002, 2004, 2010, 2014. Fear of terrorists and illegals and foreigners. Anger at lazy welfare mooches and elitists looking down their nose at them.

Young people don't scare easily - maybe it's because we're naturally less risk averse; maybe it's because we don't have as much to lose. No kids to worry about. No property values to have to protect. And non-whites, even when faced with poverty or discrimination, are fairly optimistic and resilient. A Latina hair stylist who can barely pay her bills still knows she's doing better than her grandmother who had to pick lettuce on a migrant farm. A black woman earning minimum wage may be poor, but unlike her ancestors, she can sit at the front of the bus and when she watches the president on TV, he's a man who looks kind of like her dad. It's a very different mentality from, say, a white part-time forklift operator on food stamps in Ohio who's stewing in anger that 50 years ago his grandfather could give his family a middle class life on a single income with a 9th grade education.

[Sbane]

Marijuana legalization doesn't actually poll that well among core Democratic constituencies. IIRC there's something like a 20-point gender gap in support, and in - from the Dems perspective - the wrong direction.

I didn't say Democrats should run on the issue. Just get it on the ballot and get people out to vote for it. It can be a great way to get young people out to vote, especially young males.

Also, women range from soft supporters to soft opponents of Marijuana legalization. If anything, more Democratic politicians endorsing it and making it seem mainstream will change minds. Whenever Marijuana legalization does well, it's because women voted for it or at least didn't oppose it in large numbers.

[AggregateDemand]

How about requiring that voters pass an empathy test?

It seems you lack empathy for people who lack empathy so I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve.

[RI]

Push for more vote-by-mail.

[AggregateDemand]

All jokes aside, if I were a Democrat and wanted Democrats to win, I'd push forward with the chicken in every pot agenda.  I'd talk about government revenues and streets and schools and hospitals and roads.  I'd talk about workers and their dreams and desires and also about their hardships.  I'd also give a nod to the "Great American Middle Class" and I'd do so unflinchingly.  I'd stay far away from homo marriage and pregnancy termination and marijuana legalization.  Avoid those like the plague.

I'd talk up the economic aspects of government investment, but I wouldn't shy away from social policies that are rapidly gaining popularity.

Whether Dems want to admit it or not, Republicans clinging to SS/MED is the best thing that could ever happen to the Democratic Party. Playing the SS/MED card has been a loser for the Democratic Party, and now that Republicans are expanding spending and begging seniors for votes, it may drag Republicans down as well.

Democratic Party should:

1. Reduce SS/MED spending to kick out all of the middle-class Republicans who are bilking the US Treasury while they enjoy their tax subsidized IRAs and 401k's. Reduce Medicare spending further by stopping doctors from experimenting on seniors in their final year of life (30% of Medicare budget).

2. Do not raise minimum wage. Expand the EITC by at least 300% ($160B/yr), and focus more benefits on young single workers to reverse the crashing labor force participation numbers in the U-24 demographic. Use the EITC to get people off of Welfare, SNAP, and unemployment.

3. Push forward with single-payer catastrophic coverage for all Americans without raising government spending. Kill the employer mandate. Reform ACA policy rules to reflect non-catastrophic services.

4. Eliminate the separate-but-"equal" tax code. Create one bracket and one filing status for all Americans. Use the personal exemption rules to make the code equitable.

5. Stop antagonizing the military. It is a government spending program with a history of building the middle class.

Democrats run against people who don't believe the government should do anything. Democrats work really hard to lose elections, and it starts with the bunk programs they support.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Push for more vote-by-mail.

This. Oregon is all vote-by-mail and Democrats did fine both in 2010 and 2014.

[Citizen Hats]

social issues shouldn't be avoided like the plague, as one poster put it. But, at this point, the General public isn't really motivated by them, and unless the Republicans really do say something reprehensible, you're only turning out the particulars, and if they do something reprehensible it will speak for itself.

what needs to happen is focus on the issues that matter to the largest chunks of the population - a shifting cocktail of the economy, education, and national security, and in broad strokes, health.  Every things else is a motivating issue for increasingly tiny slices of the electorate who can be messaged in the small scale. 

[IceSpear]

If I were a Republican I'd say that Barack Obama is my President and I will do all that is in my power to help him succeed, because if he succeeds then the American people succeed.

You'd get primaried for being a Hussein loving RINO.

[Yelnoc]

Running candidates that actually excite the base is necessary to increase turnout. Take Georgia for example. Who the fuck honestly was *excited* when they heard Jason Carter and Michelle Nunn were running. Michelle Nunn.

[Citizen Hats]

Running candidates that actually excite the base is necessary to increase turnout. Take Georgia for example. Who the fuck honestly was *excited* when they heard Jason Carter and Michelle Nunn were running. Michelle Nunn.

There is no "base"

The Democratic party is not the Republican Party. There is no hard core of voters committed to a rather particular vision of the country, rather a coalition of different, narrow issues and interests.

[MaxQue]

Lose presidential elections. It did wonders for Republicans.

[MaxQue]

Lose presidential elections. It did wonders for Republicans.

[DS0816]

This isn't going to sound pleasant.

Given that a number of states' voters passed ballot initiatives for increasing minimum wage, and rejecting fracking, and they did so in Republican states…the Democrats didn't have to suffer quite the degree of losses with [Tuesday's] 2014 midterm elections.

They chose that outcome.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

This isn't going to sound pleasant.

Given that a number of states' voters passed ballot initiatives for increasing minimum wage, and rejecting fracking, and they did so in Republican states…the Democrats didn't have to suffer quite the degree of losses with [Tuesday's] 2014 midterm elections.

They chose that outcome.

It almost seems like it. I mean the DNC chair seems to be more interested in using the DNC to expand her wardrobe than try to convince anyone to vote Democratic.

[angus]

social issues shouldn't be avoided like the plague, as one poster put it.

I assume that you are talking about this poster, and it is a clear misrepresentation.  I'll thank you not to put words into my mouth.  Or, as it were, onto my fingertips.

I did not use the phrase "social issues" for a number of reasons upon which I don't feel the need to expound now, as I have explained repeatedly in the past why the phrase is misleading.  I did say that things marijuana legalization and pregnancy termination should be avoided ("like the plague").  People get too hung up on things like that, and about things like same-sex marriage as well.

Anyway, I like to hear about sound economic policy.  I assume that other voters do as well.  I also like politicians that are willing to work, to negotiate if necessary.  I assume that other voters do as well.  In fact, I know that they do.  A Democrat who says that he'll work with the Republicans is being pragmatic, and suggests to me that he has good judgment and values reasonable debate and negotiated policy.  I say the same about Republicans who say that they'll work with Democrats.

IceSpear makes a good point about primaries.  Those aren't attended by reasonable people, by and large, but by partisans.  Reasonable candidates are often ousted in the primary elections of both parties, unfortunately.  It's part of the problem really, and probably deserves mention in this thread.  But that's a little off-topic, since this thread only asks about increasing turnout among Democrats.  Democrats will turn out if they are inspired to do so, and I think that reasonable candidates who have plans to solve the pressing problems of the day can inspire them.