I have heard several folks around here talk about Republicans staying home—but every serious study I have seen show that nonvoters have ideological views almost identical to folks that do vote.
What the nonvoters have in common is that politics is low on their priority.
To be blunt—the most successful tactic to get them to vote is to terrify them about the evils of the other side.
Both parties recognize this—and that is why the discourse of politics is negative ads and hostility.
It does not work that well—but it is better than nothing so they keep doing it.
“Both parties recognize this—and that is why the discourse of politics is negative ads and hostility.”
Not negative enough on our side. Lee Atwater understood you have to play by THEIR RULES, so he made sure that “Willie Horton” was a household name. The media BLASTED him for it (and later the Dems took him out), but he was able to get a pathetic candidate into the White House. But with the non-stop media attacks, our side was tricked into never going to that level again.
We have our “Willie Horton” in the guy who killed the Ukrainian babe. Will we use it? Probably most people even here would be afraid to...but remember the point about Willie Horton had NOTHING to do with Willie Horton being a bad guy, or being a black guy, it was TOTALLY directed at The Loser for not keeping him where he belonged, which was in jail.