Ask Auntie Pinko
May 23, 2002

Dear Friends,

If you don't mind, I'm going to try a slightly different format for this column. I want you to imagine that we're sitting around in my cozy chintz-upholstered sitting room, passing a plate of cookies and sipping tea or beer and chatting about the future of the Democratic Party. I've selected questions and comments from reader letters to move the discussion along.

Bob, from Cabot, AS: Auntie, can you please explore some of the reasons there is such a poor turn out of voters, and possible solutions?

Auntie: There's a lot of speculation about what affects voter turnout, Bob, and no clear consensus even among the experts. As far as Auntie Pinko can discover, when you leave out the obvious disincentives for people to vote (like difficult registration rules, limited polling places, and so on,) there doesn't seem to be any clear list of things any Party or candidate can do to boost turnout. The only possible factor that's been pinpointed lately is a negative one - people seem to make more effort to get to the polls when someone they really hate is running. A sad commentary, isn't it?

Lisa, from Tracy, CA: But are the Democrats stronger than the Republicans? And are the Democrats ever going to be stronger than the Republicans/GOP?

Auntie: There's a lot of ways to measure strength, Lisa. If we're just talking about winning elections, in a two-party system it's going to be rare for one Party to maintain a definitive advantage over the other Party in all levels and branches of government for any real length of time. The natural perversity of human nature means that people are going to vote for a change whenever they think the current "ins" aren't doing enough for them.

Scott, from Berkeley, CA: Oh, come on, Auntie! They all seem like such sellouts. The left needs candidates that they can get behind and not another Gore type candidate who is just the lesser of two evils. And yeah, I voted for Nader.

Jerry, from Detroit, MI: (With a sideways look at Scott.) What do you think the Democrats (as a party) can do to keep the progressive wing from fragmenting to other progressive parties (like the Greens)?

Joanie, from Tampa, FL: Yeah! I'm 16, and I'm just starting to understand politics. It always seems to be that Republicans are so much more right-wing than Democrats are left-wing. Are Democrats just soft-spoken or not dedicated enough to the liberal cause?

Auntie: (Looking a little overwhelmed.) Well! I can tell you all feel very strongly about this! Somehow or other, Auntie P always seems to end up with a parlor full of progressives. I wonder how that happens? I'm not complaining, mind you� you're all lovely people and my heart is with you, every one. Yes, even you, Scott, and if I lived in Berkeley I might have voted for Mr. Nader, too, just to let the DLC know what I think. But you're all being here with your progressive viewpoints means that I have to try to provide another perspective, so just bear with me for a bit.

You're all familiar with the old saying, that it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease?

(Everyone nods.)

Well, in politics that only goes so far. What Auntie Pinko has noticed over the years is that it's usually the "squeaky wheels" who participate the most-and that puts us in danger of forgetting just how many well-oiled wheels there are out there pulling voting machine levers. In other words, the big majority of voters don't participate actively in either Party. So we don't always hear their views. But we can't forget that they're there.

Now, let's take a big voting block that's solidly Democratic-African-American voters. There's lots of very progressive African Americans participating in the Party, thank heavens! And we've attracted some wonderful, crackerjack candidates and representatives from the African-American community. And when an African-American candidate runs in a Democratic primary, they'll usually poll a lot of the African-American vote. But not always.

Why is that? Well, let's look at who votes-not only in the African-American community-in all communities. Voter demographics show the highest voting rates among older people, among people who have lived in a community for a long time, among people with some education, and among people who are employed.

And, in the African-American community especially, that means that the voters tend to be good churchgoing folks from good traditional churches. They may be progressive on some issues, where it affects their communities, but on other issues they're as centrist and traditional a block of voters as you could imagine.

In fact, the profile for the typical Democratic voter is, progressive on a couple of issues and centrist on most of the rest. And since we're not all progressive on the same one or two issues at any given time, what does that add up to? It's hard to generate broad voter support for a broadly progressive platform.

Sally, from New York City, NY: (Slowly) Well, but I don't understand why the Dems are generally so polite, if not passive, in response to the dangerous and harrowing, proven lies spouted by the Repugs. Am I missing something here?

Auntie: I'm glad you brought that up, Sally. Remember what I said earlier about voter turnout, and the one factor that seems to increase it-people coming out to vote against a candidate they hate?

(Sally, and the others, nod.)

We have a really tough knife-edge to walk. Research shows that while people often respond to negative ads or attacks against a candidate, there's also something called a "boomerang effect," which can make people dislike a candidate who is seen as being harshly negative all the time. The furthest right-wing element of the Republican Party can get away with hate-mongering because right now they have some pretty strong unifying issues that a significant, steady core of voters agrees on.

But Democrats tend to be less unified, more independent. We think for ourselves. It's a tough dilemma for the leadership. I think the timidity you've noticed has been a combination of two things-Democratic leaders are reluctant to hand the Republicans any material to use against them in the upcoming campaigns, and they're unwilling to provoke that "boomerang." They feel damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't.

Scott: (A little exasperated.) Well, who should the Democrats run for president next time?

Auntie: (Passing the cookies.) Well, if I had my way, we'd get Paul Wellstone to run.

(General applause.)

We'd lose, of course. But if you all want Paul or someone like him to run, you've got a lot of work ahead of you. You're going to have to try to reconcile all those somewhat-progressive-about-different-things-but-also-centrist-about-more-things voters with your agendas, or find ways to reconcile your agendas with them. You're going to have to become part of the Party's leadership and decision-making apparatus.

(Looks around at all the fine, upstanding Democrats munching cookies.)

But Auntie Pinko thinks you can pull it off!

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