This is a Democratic blog. I get that. I understand that the mission of this blog is to find ways of creating more and better Democrats. I think that is the simplest and most straightforward way of saving America. And restoring it to brighter shades of its former glory and to shine many new lights to the rest of the world could be done by renewing this party. I feel we represent many of the best principles of America.
In light of yesterday’s solidarity, I believe that perhaps we all need to show up in a similar way here. Our potential numbers as a party are shrinking. Although we know where most of them are going. Please look at the graphic above again. You can find it at www.gallup.com/...
Gallup had another chart from 2014 which was virtually unchanged. More troublesome, as of this month, January 2017, Gallup says that 44% of registered voters are Independents, 28% are Republican, and 25% are Democrats. That is only 6% away from Independents being as large a group as the Democrats and Republicans. I noticed that 2015 data around the end of that year and all of 2016 I had an uneasy feeling about it. And indeed, there was a strong anti-establishment mood this year across the political spectrum as the numbers suggested. Which grew worse as few would even recognize our party could be 10 points or less away from being a minority party. The point of this story though is that I think I know where we might find a lot of new and better Democrats. It also should help us touch on the 40% or so of eligible voters who don’t register at all.
The obvious problem though is that we don’t talk much about the Independents or Unaffiliated here. Or at least in terms which aren’t disparaging. We don’t acknowledge this issue. There is rarely a story about them and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything on the front page regarding these numbers or anything about them. They largely don’t matter because they’re not Republicans? Again I understand that in this house it’s about the Democratic party. But if we don’t, as a party, find ways to bring them in the door here and at least moderate a range of liberal viewpoints, we will be sailing against the wind. Out in the real world we could be crushed by a Republican party which might galvanize their side of the Independent / Unaffiliated line.
Now, there is good news. I think, if you are at all concerned about this, you might want to look at this link to Pew Research doing a deeper dive into the same concluding data in 2015 where they got almost the same exact numbers. Perhaps a little over half of those registered voters were liberals. Half of millennials. People exiting the Democrats. Perhaps a bit less than half of that 21%~ of voters felt that this party was too far to the right. Nearly all rest for a variety of reasons, despite rejecting the Democratic affiliation, when polled on individual issues usually neatly slotted into the same concerns for most Democrats. In fact, a number of sources beyond these two recognized that the Indies of 2004, who couldn’t decide on Democrat or Republican, are largely gone and still shrinking. If the proportions still hold it could be that this month somewhere around 22% of them are liberals. We are 25%. Good morning America! Wake up!
So how do we get them to join us? We need to hear their concerns. Many here just dismiss them all as stupid or low information and write them off. And sure, some are. But there can be a variety of other reasons were less willing to hear. Anecdotally, at least, I find that corruption in the political system and no believable efforts to quell it have a lot to do with it. Many believe Democrats are willing partners in the corruption. Whether you agree or not, this can be a big problem as many of us registered as Democrats agree. And that the rank and file are oblivious of it and of them. Are they right? If not, how do we convince everybody else? Worse yet, what if they are right? And some don’t join us for additional moral, ethical, and civic reasons they don’t feel the party addresses. Or that we are inefficient and don’t put up a good fight against conservatives and neo-fascists.
At the end of the day I suppose we’d need some dispensation from Markos to have more lurkers speak out here and to hold actual suggestions. But while they would need to understand when coming here we are attempting to get them to join, at the very least they can provide feedback we may not be getting from polling sources. Who have no rich data on them that I can find.
Other than that all we can do is discuss this issue openly. And often. And more importantly, here or elsewhere we need to speak to them. If this site is going to be some representation of the Democratic party, insisting on quick, ready affiliation or begone this will not be a venue for discussing this. I like to think this site is a pulse of the Democratic party. It’s large enough to be a national sample slice.
While for their part I sure they can try and get us to change in ways some might not be comfortable with. And if we don’t change some things, ideally finding our strengths together. But I think we can’t reach them without having them here for some dialog. We need their numbers to vote consistently. To negotiate with others outside of the party.
I think what would be key is to grow solid ideas for breaking us away from monetary and political corruption over the next two years. I won’t get into this much here, but if we have some new and perhaps unique ideas for taking on the banks and corporations and special interest money in the next 2 years, this could be key to unifying most liberals. It would be new and different if proposed on large scales. We need to make every attempt of taking on corruption. We need to point out corruption in the Trump administration but moreover we have to X-Ray ourselves as well. How many of them and that 40% that don’t vote could we reach if our party effectively asked for their help to give more representation back to them? That would be the result of reducing corruption. Sending the paid lobbyists away. At this time in fact, all we can do is to plan. I ask you to consider this as a goal we need to discuss here.
We didn’t see 2016 coming. What’s worse is that we had means of preventing it.
But we didn’t have enough time if we had then to make those kind of changes in the party which would make it far more inclusive than just Democrats. We have two years now. If we don’t do this, I think our way forward is limited. But as evidenced yesterday we might have ways to open up for 2018. If we can come closer to doubling our size, we might be able to start some long term changes for the country by 2020.