Where does this enduring fantasy that 10% of the electorate is a sober “center” that can be swayed over to the Dem side come from? It certainly doesn’t come from paying close attention to recent elections.
My view is that every election of my adulthood has been a “base turnout election” won by the candidate that was most effective bringing in new base voters and getting established base voters excited about turning out on Election Day.
Republicans seem to understand this, while Democrats remain clueless. The GOP has been able to excited their base and turn out new voters even when running terrible candidates like GWB and Trump.
But while the Republican base is catered to, the Dem base is viewed as villainous spoilers by the press and corporatists Democrats like Chris Coons. We often read stories wondering if the Dem base “too far left to win?” That story is always being printed somewhere, and yet “is the GOP base too far right to win?” is question you never hear anyone asked. Funny, that.
The popularity of Sanders and Warren should prove that there is a hunger in the country for fairness and accountability. Sanders beat Clinton in the liberal bastions of Michigan, Wisconsin and EVERY FUCKING COUNTY in West Virginia. Every county. Yes there is a hunger, and if ever a Democrat ran a real base turnout strategy, I’m sure that candidate would win 45 states. But instead we get fearful tumbling. We fret that the Democratic candidate might not appeal to some mythic “centrist” moderates that only exist in legend.
That is not to say that there are no undecideds. Sure there are a few of them. We also call them dummies. They might be “persuadable” but they are never persuaded by the rational arguments and sober mediocrity expressed by the likes of H. Clinton and Kerry.
They are persuaded by the excitement of being on the side of energetic confidence and the thought that they are joining the eventual “winner” in his/her quest.
Fortunately we have a large number of great Democrats running for office this year who are not haunted by the ghost of George McGovern, and are pursuing a base turn out strategy.
On a local level that means knocking on every door and delivering a clear, energetically progressive message that brings in new voters and turns regular passive Democratic voters into participants.