A propos the
failure of the young to turn out for Bernie, during the twenty-five years that
I was running my South African scholarship organization, I learned an important
truth that I expressed in the form of what logicians like to call a “miserable
tautology,” viz: people who give money give money. Certain groups are responsive to fund
raising appeals almost regardless of the cause, and certain other groups are unresponsive even to appeals for causes one would have thought were close to
their hearts.
Old people vote.
Young people don’t. If your
candidate’s appeal is to old people, you are golden. If your candidate’s appeal is to young people,
you are screwed. Biden appeals to old
people. Bernie appeals to young people. Bernie said repeatedly that if he could bring
hordes of young people to the polls he would win. He was right.
But he couldn’t. It wasn’t his
fault. Nobody can.
14 comments:
I like Bernie's politics and voted for him against Hillary, and will vote for him in two weeks in OH. But his judgment seems to be lacking. Any person considering a political career in this country should never call himself a socialist. Nor should they praise any part of Castro's govt. And the irony is that Bernie is NOT A SOCIALIST. He does not advocate public ownership of the means of production. He is an FDR democrat, which is the most left-wing you can be in this country and get elected. Go figure.
It's true, sadly. And, reinforcing your point, I'm reminded of the 100-Million Project's findings:
https://knightfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/The-100-Million-Project_KF_Report_2020.pdf
Of their many, interesting results, relevant here is that the the 17% of non-voters they called "Unattached Apoliticals", the profile least likely to participate in politics, is the youngest profile on average. My generation.
I wish I knew what to do to motivate them, but I don't. All of my friends, at least, are politically engaged, but we're in the minority.
I must say again, that Biden, at least in certain respects, seems to be off-his rocker. Trump will drub him in any debate format, at least if Biden can't up his game. Way too many gaffes---such as last night's, when he introduced his wife as his sister. I suspect that Obama has with-held his endorsement of Biden because he suspects the man of creeping imbecility.
What does the Democratic party do when Biden has to pull out because of his dementia? And why is the Democratic party letting this train wreck continue?
Wrt non-voting, although I took only a cursory look at the recommended knightfoundation report and so maybe missed it, while I don’t want to dismiss an ‘age effect’ out of hand, what seems to be missing is some notion that some process of deliberately de-politicising the public is going on. I think Sheldon Wolin has written about this in several places—the following is the first of his remarks on the subject I came upon just now:
“By controlling the state and the economy, the revolutionaries gained the leverage necessary to reconstruct, then mobilize society. In contrast, inverted totalitarianism [i.e., the USA, for one] is only in part a state-centered phenomenon. Primarily it represents the political coming of age of corporate power and the political demobilization of the citizenry.” (“Democracy Inc.”, pp. ix-x)
Whatever else it has been, Sanders' campaign has surely been an attempt to start to undo this political demobilization?
Here's another nice number for you kindly folks: President Trump outpolled all Dems combined in TX, a serious battleground state. And Hindenburg won't do well among Hispanics come November. God bless America!
R McD, Maybe the thing is to recognize that the presidency can only be won through the suburbs and try and undo demobilization at the grass roots level, with the ultimate aim of taking back some state houses. In this way you would avoid having to make a pitch to the whole country.
In response to RFGA, I'm a life-long Texas Democrat, and I'm very pleased with the "nice number[s]" coming out of this election. According to my quick math, Trump received 1,889,130 votes (the actual number as reported by the Texas Secretary of State's office - with 100% reporting), while "all Dems combined" received 2,075,862 (my quick math), while the Reps combined came in at 2,007,314. So, at the top, the Ds outpolled the Rs by about 68,000. And, if you go down-ballot and look at other statewide races, that number is close to holding.
I know I can't be too hopeful (it is Texas, after all!), but the trend is towards a BLUE Texas. As we say here in Austin, every time a racist Republican dies in East Texas, he's replaced by a Democratic kid in Austin, Houston, Dallas, etc. And, if Beto and the Castro brothers continue to energize the Hispanic community, who knows? Maybe 2020 will be the year?
Finally, Texas Democrats may have a woman in the senate slot, and our four candidates for the Texas Supreme Court are women. That will energize women.
As for RFGA, maybe he gets his election results from the same source Trump gets his coronavirus advice?
He censured me again. Just like under every single other leftist regime. Coward; afraid of truth. You can't best me in a debate, old man. I won. MAGA
So again:
1. Biden senile; people rightly don't trust senility.
2. Abortion murder. Thus, abortion proponents insane. Insanity not to be trusted. Thus, don't trust TX Dem's #s.
3. CV weaponized by Left. Those who weaponize disease not to be trusted. Thus, don't trust Left's pronouncements re. CV.
The Alinskyite who runs this blog advised weaponizing CV before media and Dems did, a la Bolton. It eventually dawned on others to do just that or he has more readers than he knows.
RFGA, you did see my post, did you not? The one where I pointed out your lie regarding the Texas election numbers?
I wonder if you're up past 16,000 lies in the last four years, as Trump is. As a lawyer, I'm reminded of what a Texas judge once told me about a particular compulsive liar: "He'd lie when the truth would serve him as well, just to stay in practice." I think of that comment each time I see one of your posts.
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