"Hooray for Liberal Fear-Mongering!"

[applegrove]

Hooray for Liberal Fear-Mongering!

by Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/28/hooray-for-liberal-fear-mongering.html

"SNIP.......................


But for now I’ll say this. It has often been observed this year that Democratic voters don’t turn out in off-year elections. But why is that true? In part because they’re younger and they may be more likely to think about politics in terms of personalities who come along every four years (i.e. who’s running for president) than in terms of competing interests that are permanent.

But maybe in part it’s because the Democrats aren’t very good at giving them a reason to vote—getting them to see those permanent interests. In my adult lifetime, Republicans have run three good off-year elections: 1994, with the “Contract for America” business, which was new and galvanizing for their side; the aforementioned 2002, when Bush put personal political capital on the line and succeeded in preventing the usual incumbent-party losses; and 2010, when they fed off the tea-party rage.

The Democrats, in contrast, haven’t really run one good one in my lifetime. You might say 2006, when they captured the House and Senate, but it was right after Katrina, Bush was in the toilet, and all they had to do was say “Iraq” (in fairness, what they did well that year was to recruit good candidates).

So clearly, Republicans know something about midterms that Democrats don’t. If the Democrats can’t figure it out, they’ll keep winning presidential elections, maybe, but keep losing majorities in off-years, and the stalemate will continue. And, by the way, eventually, the retirement age actually will go up, because someday this “grand bargain” pressure will prove irresistible, and Republicans like Dan Sullivan and Joni Ernst will have leverage.

So, for now at least, go fear-mongerers.




........................SNIP"

[lonestarnot]

1. My kid turned out.

[msongs]

2. republicans don't pretend to be democrats in the mid terms nt