Reply #20: maybe. Nevertheless, there's a huge problem

[xed_out]

I'm a Canadian watching US politics and it ain't pretty. The US MSM defines the "right" by Limbaugh, the "teaparty" - Palin, Angle, Paul, etc., putting the "moderate center" in that space just to the left of absolute insanity. That is, putting the "moderate center" in the space once occupied by the far right G.W.B. admin, and, slightly to the left of that, the Reagan admin. And this is the same "moderate center" that the Obama/Reid/Pelosi trio are claiming. I find it mind-boggling, and I don't have anything directly invested in the US political scene. How much more so all those Dem voters, especially the first time Dem voters, who were carried away on the "hope and change" campaign with all the fine fine words that captivated the whole world with their poetry. Which captured a Nobel peace prize.

Quite frankly, US Dem/Rep politics doesn't make sense to me unless I conclude that the people are being coldly and cynically played. Yes, I've no doubt that Obama's supreme court nominees are way better than anything the R's would make. But if I try to put myself in the shoes of a Dem voter, I'd find that to be cold comfort when set against.... well, jeez, an assassination program???? Something when, alleged of Cheney, fit Cheney's darth vader image to a T, and which repulsed every thinking man and woman in the world (I mean, those who share in some of the progressive ideals that underlie protections like "equal rights under the law" etc.) And that's just the start of it.

The huge problem can't be addressed just by suspecting the motives of people who say they won't vote to continue what they consider to be a charade. Because the huge problem is just that the Dems in power, the big shots, have been systematically pissing all over "the left", all over their "base" - in their rush to fill the void left by the Republicans. Because the traditional R voter isn't too likely to switch en masse over to the D's, the R politicians aren't going to give the D's any "bipartisan wins", and the Dem base is demoralized. Unenthused, and feeling abandoned.

So the big problem isn't the suspected motives of the D's and potential D's who don't turn out, the big problem is that the Dem politicians, the big shots who have the power to change things around, are failing to motivate the people they claim (on voting day) to represent.