# Midterm Election Strategy: Isn't Firing Up the Base Supposed To Be the Key? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 17, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805 "2006-03-17T20:47:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/1 "2006-03-17T20:47:04Z")
I’ve been wondering about this lately. It used to be the CW that while Presidential elections were supposedly won by appealing to a wide swath of the electorate, off-year elections like 2006 were supposedly won by firing up the base. This isn’t something the blogsphere just cooked up; as a matter of fact, I haven’t seen anyone mention this old chestnut there. But this was the CW long before there _was_ a blogsphere. So is this still the route to victory in a year like 2006? Why or why not? And if so, when are the Dems going to start doing stuff to fire up their base, so they can win in the fall? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/2 "2006-03-17T21:12:08Z")
Dems strategy: fire up the radical base without alienating the wimpy middle and simultaneously appealing to the right on NatSec issues. Oughtn’t to work, but it might, considering the degree of contempt brewing in the electorate for the Man Who Fell Up. The Pubbie’s will most likely try another social crisis issue. Atheist penguins illegally immigrating, the Dems plan to force Eagle Scouts into gay marriages, something like that. To be a progressive democrat means to place your faith in the people, however battered that faith may become. If the people lead, the leaders will follow. Lets just pray that Lincoln was right on that “fool the people” thingy. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/3 "2006-03-17T21:24:29Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > And if so, when are the Dems going to start doing stuff to fire up their base, so they can win in the fall? Bush is doing it for them. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/4 "2006-03-17T21:34:27Z")
This is interesting. A few months ago, I got a mass email from Howard Dean (I think), unveiling the fancy new Democratic plan for taking back Congress. Finally! I thought. A plan! I’ll get to see the issues on which Democrats will run! No such luck: the sixteen-page plan contained about two sentences of issues, and those sentences both derided the Republicans’ issues. The remainder of the plan talked about how they were going to do grassroots campaigning. It infuriated and disgusted me. This ain’t a football game–I’m not automatically a fan of the home team. I want to see **what** I’ll be voting for, not just hear the coach’s gameplan! It seems to me that Democrats have been treating politics like a sports game for too long, not focusing on issues, not standing for anything, and have sufered grievously for it. But maybe you’re right. Maybe that’s exactly what they need to do for a midterm election. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/5 "2006-03-17T21:39:58Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > To be a progressive democrat means to place your faith in the people, however battered that faith may become. Really? It seems to be an article of faith among liberals that “the people” are idiots for liking Bush. See _What’s Wrong with Kansas_. Liberal Democrats have nothing but contempt for the common man since the common man refuses to listen to their exalted wisdom about whom he should support for public office. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/6 "2006-03-17T21:41:57Z")
> [@Renob](#): > > Liberal Democrats have nothing but contempt for the common man since the common man refuses to listen to their exalted wisdom about whom he should support for public office. You are confusing contempt with frustration. You are also assuming “the common man refuses to listen.” In light of “black-box voting” technology currently in use, this is not necessarily a well-founded assumption. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/7 "2006-03-17T21:45:08Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > You are confusing contempt with frustration. > > You are also assuming “the common man refuses to listen.” In light of “black-box voting” technology currently in use, this is not necessarily a well-founded assumption. _sigh_ The GOP controls both the House and the Senate. Are you suggesting that ALL the races that gave them that control were the result of “black box” vote meddling? ---
**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/8 "2006-03-17T21:45:10Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > You are confusing contempt with frustration. Perhaps, but I saw a lot of “why is the rest of America so stupid?” discussions after the 2004 election. > [@](#): > > You are also assuming “the common man refuses to listen.” No, I’m just saying that this is what liberals assume. I actually think the common man did listen and he rejected the liberal platform. The common man knows that high taxes, more regulation, and higher government spending is bad for him. He also knows the way to get ahead is through a job, not a government program. Liberals, however, cannot fathom that anyone would refuse to accept their enlightened opinions, and instead say that they merely have a communications problem. > [@](#): > > In light of “black-box voting” technology currently in use, this is not necessarily a well-founded assumption. Or, if not a communications problem, then liberals think they really did win, but the elections were all stolen. Whatever. Keep fixating on these myths and you’ll keep losing elections. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/9 "2006-03-17T21:52:55Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > _sigh_ > > The GOP controls both the House and the Senate. > > Are you suggesting that ALL the races that gave them that control were the result of “black box” vote meddling? I am mere raising the very real possibility that some were. In a two-party system, and one in which the electorate is as closely split as it is now, you don’t need to steal every election – just those you might not win otherwise, and just enough of those to get voting majority. See, e.g., the 2002 election in Georgia – [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040816/dugger:](http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040816/dugger:) > [@](#): > > In 2000 five out of six Georgians cast a paper ballot that could be recounted on ES&S systems. In January 2001, in a speech to the Democratic-controlled legislature, Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox, a Democrat who is expected to run for governor in 2006, declared that considering all the recent problems down in Florida, Georgia should adopt one “uniform electronic voting system by November 2004.” Upon Cox’s fervent recommendation of the just-born Diebold Election Systems, in May 2002 Georgia agreed to pay Diebold $54 million for 19,000 DRE voting systems. The counties and cities of Georgia had chosen their own voting machines for the last time, and, less obviously, Georgians had lost their ability to recount their votes in contested elections. > > At once Diebold set to manufacturing 282 of its AccuVote TS voting systems a day. Some of the earliest ones arriving in Georgia, sent out for use in the training of election workers, were left in a hotel conference room overnight, stolen and never recovered. Late that June the secret vote-counting codes inside nine to fourteen more of the Diebold machines were stolen. Diebold made an uncounted number of apparently illegal changes in the election-conducting code between June and November. The memory cards on which the votes on each of the computers were recorded on election day all over Georgia had no encryption. According to Rob Behler, who served as Diebold’s production deployment manager in Georgia during the first half of that summer, those cards could be used to change the results manually, precinct by precinct. > > Incumbent US Senator Max Cleland and incumbent Governor Roy Barnes, both Democrats, were odds-on favorites to win re-election. A week before the voting an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll showed Cleland ahead by five points, 49-44, but on election day he lost to his Republican opponent, Saxby Chambliss, by seven points, 53-46, a twelve-point swing. The loss of Governor Barnes to Sonny Perdue was even more remarkable: a one-week switch of fourteen percentage points. These were suspicious anomalies, and subsequently in a Peach State Poll one in eight Georgia voters were “not very confident” or “not at all confident” that the DREs had produced accurate results; another 32 percent were only “somewhat confident.” > > In his front parlor at home in Georgia, Rob Behler told me that just before or just as he took over the Atlanta warehouse for Diebold, some of the voting machines had been sent out to “do demos,” and in one southern county “somebody broke in and stole…[nine or] fourteen of the machines and, I think, one of the servers.” He says the vote-counting programs in the stolen computers could have been completely reconstructed by reverse engineering and employed to jimmy the election. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/10 "2006-03-17T22:00:46Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Are you suggesting that ALL the races that gave them that control were the result of “black box” vote meddling? I’m pretty sure all states did [something like this](http://www.collegehumor.com/movies/83252/)… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/11 "2006-03-17T22:07:43Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > … the CW that … > > … the CW long … CW? continuous wave? Civil War? clockwise? Can you define your acronyms? Democrats should be concentrating on the issues that Republicans have given up: balanced budget, less intrusive government, against pork barrel funding, against government corruption. The generic smaller, leaner government reform package. That’s what got the Republicans’ current upswing started in the 90s, but they’ve conveniently forgotten. Whether you want to call that playing to the base or the center, someone else can decide. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/12 "2006-03-17T22:26:08Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > CW? I think it means “conventional wisdom.” ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/13 "2006-03-17T23:20:31Z")
> [@Renob](#): > > The common man knows that high taxes, more regulation, and higher government spending is bad for him. After six years of the Bush administration, why anyone still thinks that “higher government spending” is a _liberal_ agenda is beyond me. ---
**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/14 "2006-03-17T23:24:47Z")
> [@Orbifold](#): > > After six years of the Bush administration, why anyone still thinks that “higher government spending” is a _liberal_ agenda is beyond me. I know. The GOP is pretty bad in this area. Of course, if the Democrats had their way, spending would be even higher. ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/15 "2006-03-17T23:56:11Z")
> [@Renob](#): > > I know. The GOP is pretty bad in this area. Of course, if the Democrats had their way, spending would be even higher. I’m curious: do you have any evidence for that assumption, or is that just a wild guess? 'Cause the GOP are setting the bar [pretty high](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/16/AR2006031600225.html) in this area; it’s difficult to imagine any party having less fiscal restraint than the current GOP. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/16 "2006-03-18T00:16:15Z")
> [@Renob](#): > > I know. The GOP is pretty bad in this area. Of course, if the Democrats had their way, spending would be even higher. Sounds pretty much like the conseratives I know. “Well, Bush is bad. But the democrats would be worse”. And apparently, anything Bush does can be excused with this line of thinking. At least the democrats try to pay for their overspending… ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/17 "2006-03-18T02:19:34Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > This is interesting. > > A few months ago, I got a mass email from Howard Dean (I think), unveiling the fancy new Democratic plan for taking back Congress. Finally! I thought. A plan! I’ll get to see the issues on which Democrats will run! > > No such luck: the sixteen-page plan contained about two sentences of issues, and those sentences both derided the Republicans’ issues. The remainder of the plan talked about how they were going to do grassroots campaigning. > > It infuriated and disgusted me. This ain’t a football game–I’m not automatically a fan of the home team. I want to see **what** I’ll be voting for, not just hear the coach’s gameplan! It seems to me that Democrats have been treating politics like a sports game for too long, not focusing on issues, not standing for anything, and have sufered grievously for it. > > But maybe you’re right. Maybe that’s exactly what they need to do for a midterm election. > Daniel I think firing up anyone - base or no - does have two components: one is standing up and saying, “NO” to the stuff the other guys are doing that you think is wrong, and the other part is saying what you’d do if you won. The Dems seem to spend most of their time shying from a fight - _any_ fight. And that’s the way to un-fire the base, IMHO. I’d like to see the Dems take a stand on _anything_. They’ve only taken two stands since the last election - Social Security (and boy howdy, was that a close one), and the ports issue, where they had plenty of GOP company, so it wasn’t like it took much courage. From bankruptcy ‘reform’ to Feingold’s censure resolution, the Dems seem to be more scared of their own shadows than anything else. At any rate, I share your disgust. I got a letter from Hillary today, asking for money to elect Dem Senators. She said we had a choice between standing up and fighting, or rolling over and capitulating to the GOP majority. I’ve missed the part where she’s stood up and fought them. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/18 "2006-03-18T04:00:43Z")
I am a progressive Republican (where is the Bull-Moose party when we need it? ☹ ) As much as I am disgusted with the movement of my party to the Ultra-Right, it’s still better than the people the Democrats put up. Slick Willie? Remember the self-serving hour-long speech he gave at the the DNC when introducing the real nominee 4 years before he ran? I knew he was an immoral bastard back _before_ he became President. I’m not going to get into a should he have been impeached (yes) or convicted (no) discussion - but let’s just say that when I found out he was getting blow jobs from interns and committing perjury to grand juries, my only response was, “I took this long?!” Al Gore? At least he invented the internet. The intellectual type that comes across as “I’m better than you.” that Americans love to hate. Might have been a decent President if we never had a crisis, but thank God he was not in the Oval Office during the Columbia Disaster and 9/11. At least some sandpipers would have had nice beaches to run on. John Kerry? Tax everyone and give it to everyone else (I think). Actually, I’m not sure what his politics were beyond “Republicans are evil.”, “Republicans will overturn _Roe v. Wade_.”, “Republicans will make poor people eat their children as a low-cost alternative to turkey at Thanksgiving.”, etc. It especially bothered me that he was the Demos’ _second_ choice once they realized Howard Dean was utterly insane. By the way, listen to Elvis Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation”. The line “You just sit and wait around. YYYYOOOWWWWW!” It’s the same damn howl!! But the reality is that voting for President anymore is like deciding whether or not you want to be poked in the left eye or the right one. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/19 "2006-03-18T05:43:30Z")
I agree with what many have said here. The democrats need to 1.) Grow some Balls and 2.) Show what their agenda is. Because so far they seem to have neither. Hell, The democrats can’t even get behind a resolution to censure Bush for things they generally agree he’s done wrong. In the last election, I didn’t vote for Bush or Kerry. I didn’t like Bush, but Kerry gave me no reason to vote FOR him. I keep hearing that he had a plan, but it usally had something to do with directing us to his website. Fine and good, but could we at least have the bullet points in your speech? Could you at least tell us what you would do to fix Iraq? Give me some plan, any plan to judge. Democrats, stop being fucking pussies and show us that you can do more then criticize, that you can lead! ---
**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805/20 "2006-03-18T14:10:29Z")
> [@Orbifold](#): > > I’m curious: do you have any evidence for that assumption, It’s not an assumption, it’s a fact. Look at the amendments they offer during consideration of the budget resolutions and appropriations bills. Look at their opposition to budget reconcilation bills that trim a tiny portion of future growth from entitlement programs. Look at their statements when the President releases his budget about how we need more spending for programs x, y, and z (even when these programs are proposed to be increased by the President). Anyone who thinks the Democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility needs to have his or her head examined. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midterm-election-strategy-isnt-firing-up-the-base-supposed-to-be-the-key/348805.md?page=2)