Don’t believe the Democratic Party is in crisis? Read This

[Cicero]

Nov 5, 2015 12:08:29 GMT -5 gravytrain225 said:

Nov 5, 2015 11:42:18 GMT -5 froggy76 said:

So, I voted on Tuesday but I often skip non-Presidential elections. Why? I feel completely uninformed. I voted straight ticket on Tuesday because I honestly didn't know anything about the candidates. I've tried Googling and it's hard to find much, even harder to find any information that isn't put out there by the candidates themselves. I'm part of my local Democrats group but all they do is urge us to get to the polls and vote Democrat.

I'm obviously interested in politics and I like to be informed but I'm only willing to put in so much effort before I get frustrated and just skip the polls.

(Yes, I am ashamed to be writing this.)

I'm kind of here too. I do vote in every election, but it's nearly impossible to find out legit info on who is running. The only thing I get is political smear campaigns in the mail from the other candidate.  I vote straight ticket D, but always feel guilty about that too after I leave.

when it comes to judicial candidates definitely look up how they are rated with the bar association. In your county in particular it's pretty easy to find out who is good and who isn't and it usually has nothing to do with party affiliation. The website is [insert county name here]bar.org

[msmerymac]

Nov 5, 2015 8:29:56 GMT -5 tacosforlife said:

One of the problems with local election coverage is the decline of the good local newspaper. There are some blogs that have picked up the slack, but not every place has that. Now that a handful of companies own most major news organizations, reporting on local races is pretty abysmal. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel just got purchased by Gannett (you know, of USA Today brilliance). I weep for the future of my city's news coverage.

I just say Chris Hayes talking about this. Basically, it's the opposite of "all politics is local." Now, all politics is national. Gubernatorial elections (AHEM, Kentucky) talk about national and international policy, like ISIS, Shari'a law, Obamacare. People are voting based on how they vote at the national level, rather than how candidates are falling on local issues, which can be quite different. Even my Democrat, Massachusetts-born husband acknowledged that maybe a Republican or two on the school board isn't so bad. Because while I'm all about paying as much as is needed in school taxes, maybe someone reigning in the spending is a welcome addition, sometimes! 

Anyway, the lack of local coverage of races and issues is what drives people to fall along party lines the way they normally vote nationally. 

[msmerymac]

Nov 5, 2015 9:58:59 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

One thing that amazed me in the midterms is the number of people who showed up to vote for Wolf then either didn't vote down ticket at all (like, literally left everything else blank) or voted for Wolf then all Republicans on the rest of the ticket.

I feel like a lot comes back to needing better civics education before people turn 18 (hey, we can indoctrinate them in government schools!) so that people understand how our entire government works, why voting for the entire ticket is important and the limitations of the executive branch.

I also get really fucking angry at how hard the suffragettes worked to have women not bother voting now.

Also, I know people who claim they are abstaining because there are no good options and they won't choose the lesser of two evils but they don't understand that there's no way for the party to distinguish displeasure with the options from apathy if you don't show up. Show up, write in or vote down ticket and abstain from those races you don't like the candidate for. If you don't show up, it's apathy, whether that was your intent or not.

When I voted on Tuesday there was seriously a button to press if you wished to not vote in any of the races. So you would show up and be recorded as having voted, but didn't actually have to cast a vote for anyone. My husband also discussed not voting for 5 candidates for school board (we were allowed to vote for 5 out of 10), because he didn't like more than 3-4. Fine. 

[penguingrrl]

Nov 5, 2015 18:00:29 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Nov 5, 2015 9:58:59 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

One thing that amazed me in the midterms is the number of people who showed up to vote for Wolf then either didn't vote down ticket at all (like, literally left everything else blank) or voted for Wolf then all Republicans on the rest of the ticket.

I feel like a lot comes back to needing better civics education before people turn 18 (hey, we can indoctrinate them in government schools!) so that people understand how our entire government works, why voting for the entire ticket is important and the limitations of the executive branch.

I also get really fucking angry at how hard the suffragettes worked to have women not bother voting now.

Also, I know people who claim they are abstaining because there are no good options and they won't choose the lesser of two evils but they don't understand that there's no way for the party to distinguish displeasure with the options from apathy if you don't show up. Show up, write in or vote down ticket and abstain from those races you don't like the candidate for. If you don't show up, it's apathy, whether that was your intent or not.

When I voted on Tuesday there was seriously a button to press if you wished to not vote in any of the races. So you would show up and be recorded as having voted, but didn't actually have to cast a vote for anyone. My husband also discussed not voting for 5 candidates for school board (we were allowed to vote for 5 out of 10), because he didn't like more than 3-4. Fine. 

[

I love that there was a set way to note disdain for all the options while showing that they are, in fact, paying attention.

[msmerymac]

Nov 5, 2015 12:02:08 GMT -5 heyjude said:

Here's an illustration about California and our wonderful vote by mail system but abysmal participation:

ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/11/28/California-politicians-picked-by-few-voters/

There is a member of our assembly who was elected by a couple thousand votes. Not that he won by this much, but that was his total vote haul, as the winner! In a district of hundreds of thousands. I think the break down was 8% particpation. EIGHT PERCENT!!!!!!!

When I lived in West Hollywood we had a contentious local election. One of these things to determine the makeup of the city council. And since pretty much everyone was a Dem, it was mostly establishment (literally people who have been on the council for 25+ years) + their hand picked successor vs. new people. So you kind of hand to pay attention to all the crap going on, rather than "just" voting party lines. 

Compounding the issue was that the election was in March, so not a normal voting day. 

In the end, I think the voter turn out was something like 13%. My husband and I ran to our polling place, which happened to be next to our kickball field, right before our kickball team, and one of our teammates was like, "What? People are voting today?"

[msmerymac]

Nov 5, 2015 12:35:26 GMT -5 froggy76 said:

Nov 5, 2015 12:28:50 GMT -5 tacosforlife said:

No, parties don't guarantee progress, but my statement stands - I'm almost always going to side with a D over an R. Their stances align with mine.

I mean, Paul Ryan seems like a good father and husband and is probably a nice guy to the people in his life. But I disagree with him on the vast majority of issues. Provided that his opponent didn't have some sort of criminal history or ongoing drug problem, I'd probably always vote for a Democrat if I lived in his district. Because at the end of the day, I care a lot more about whether my representatives will enact policies I support than whether I like them as people. And no matter how great of a leader someone is, I don't want someone guiding us forward with policies that are antithetical to my beliefs.

I understand why people don't like the idea of voting straight ticket, but if you have been unable to find out information about a specific race, voting based on party ID is, generally speaking, a pretty good way to choose the candidate most likely to align with your political views.

And the data supports me on this - a huge number of people claim to be independent, but when you actually look at their voting habits, they are partisans. The idea that there is a large group of independent, undecided voters who change parties from election to election and make a big difference in the outcome is a myth.

For national elections where major policy issues are at stake, I agree with you. I can't see myself ever voting for a Republican in those cases. But for local elections, I don't feel good about voting straight party. What if the guy who is an R is running for city council and hopes to demolish a delapidated building to put up new shops or office space in my town? I like that idea! What about being a D vs an R makes someone a better prothonotary? 

I would like to point out that the Register of Wills in my county was instrumental in beginning to issue same-sex marriage licenses prior to PA overturning the marriage ban. And the then-Attorney General decided not to really do anything about it. And when the state supreme court looked at the state DOMA, the AG also decided not to defend the law. 

(I'm not sure if you're in my county, but I think you're in my metro area.)

In the Sheriff's race, for example, the D candidate is probably more likely to give credence to the BLM movement than the R candidate. 

Not to mention, the local party machine works together to help support candidates in that particular party. 

Now, as far as local elections go, I do agree with you. I actually *gasp* voted for a Republican in the school board race, because she lives in my neighborhood and my (village-y, middle class) neighborhood differs greatly from most of the rest of our (rural, upper class) school district. However, I am also someone who supports tax increases when necessary, and I don't want a devote follower of Grover Norquist either on the school board or the town council, which is why I only vote R in limited circumstances, like what you described. 

[StrawberryBlondie]

I didn't vote on Tuesday and I'm not even a little bit sorry. There was like 1 thing on our ballot and I didn't care about it. So much so that I don't even remember what it was.