Dinocrat: "3 - 4 million Democrats voted for Bush: can they be coaxed back or replaced?"

Dinocrat.com ^ | 12/12/04 | Jack Risko

[macbee]

Overview

We have written a lot about the red shift of the last decade, the trend toward the Republican party at every level of government. Today’s question is: if you were running the DNC, where would you try to find the votes you need to win. It’s a hard task, given the location of your voters, the growth trends of Republican areas, and the structural problems of the Democratic party. Here are some of the issues in play.

The 3 - 4 million Democrats who turned to the dark side

John Podhoretz put the figure at 3.6 million; Roger Simon says 3 million, and adds this:

The Democrats lost in the last election much more seriously than is commonly understood. A swing of three million votes is gigantic in our society where party allegiances are formed in childhood and reinforced by an omnipresent media. We can see the primitiveness of these allegiances in the remaining popularity of Howard Dean, a man who a very few years ago presented himself as a pro-gun centrist, jumping around like a re-upped version of Jerry Rubin to appeal to a segment of the Democratic Party that hasn’t changed one view about anything in thirty-five years. But… and here’s the crux… these people are not that exceptional. Few of us change our views over a lifetime.

Yet, three million did.

He has it exactly right. These Democrats didn’t stay home; they didn’t leave the presidential ballot unmarked. They crossed over to the dark side. One supposes they weren’t brought to the polls by anyone’s GOTV effort, though that is hard to know. In any event, they showed up, having voted for Al Gore, and pulled the lever for Bush...

[macbee]

Actor Ron Silver is another Sept 12th Republican, as you put it. I like the term, it certainly fits!

Took real guts for him to do that, since he depends on directors and other functionaries for his living. Guys like him and James Woods and the other conservatives who have "come out" in recent years have my respect. The blacklist exists, but it's reserved for (a) people who blow the whistle on studio misbehavior (e.g., Cliff Robertson) and (b) anyone who doesn't go along with the lib party line in Hollyweird.

[Coop]

You are probably right for the most part; but I was a Gore voter who switched sides. I can't be the only one who wised up after our country was attacked on 9/11.

Indeed not. But keep this mind. Despite his faults, Al Gore had a strong record to run on. John Kerry was an absolute joke. "Ignore my almost twenty years in the Senate, because I was in Vietnam! Forget that I sold out my colleagues - especially the POWs - because I was in Vietnam! And don't you dare question my patriotism, because I was in Vietnam!"

Yet this sleazeball got the second largest amount of votes for President ever. Unbelievable.

In short, you were outnumbered. But welcome to the light. :-)