Former President Bill Clinton nails it. Democrats & Progressives can win it all in the midterm if they campaign the right way. Don’t allow Republicans to lie or scare Americans into a GOP win.
Bill Clinton is right on this one.
The Republicans handed Democrats a tool to use to motivate Democratic and Independent voters who typically are lax in voting in midterms. While it is irresponsible that many voters’ nonvotes represent votes for policies that hurt them, it is the responsibility of those who are aware to inform them of the importance of voting.
Bill Clinton recently appeared on Fareed Zakaria GPS, where Fareed asked him if Democrats could overcome history where the party in power loses in the midterm. Clinton had a fairly lengthy answer that we all show heed.
“We could hold both these houses,” Bill Clinton said. “But we have to say the right things, and we have to know the Republicans always close well. Why? Because they find some new way to scare the living daylights out of swing voters about something. That’s what they did in 2021, where they made critical race theory sound worse than smallpox. And it wasn’t being taught in any public schools in America, but they didn’t care.”
Clinton then pointed out the Republican modus operandi. Fear is a powerful tool that Republicans use to encourage Americans to vote against their interests.
“They just scare people,” Bill Clinton continued. “Then, in the end, the breakpoint in American politics is not much different than it was in the nineties, but as you still have to get those people, it’s just that are so many fewer because as the parties have gone more ideological and clear and somehow psychically intolerant, they pull fewer the more and more people toward the extremes. But there are still some people hanging on there who are really trying to think and try to understand what’s going on. So I think that’s very important.”
For too long, the lack of teaching civics in schools has led to a population that does not understand or believe that government is we-the-people and that government responds not solely to those who put the politicians in power but those who keep them in power.
Consistent voting is essential. Why? Politicians tend to favor the rich or corporations because they may be financially rewarded with less effort than dependent on inconsistent grassroots small-dollar donors. But again, remember, it is still one person/one vote. Citizens will stop that those politicians’ behavior if citizens vote consistently, and offending politicians know voters will vote them out immediately if they fail the grassroots at the behest of the rich and corporations.
In block walking, knocking on doors, and doing all necessary to get voters out, we must make the case ad nauseam that voting is an exercise that must never stop. It is the consistency that gets the will of the population. The clearest example is the success of Republicans in dominating government in a manner not commensurate with its population size. In other words, there are fewer of them, but because their vote is consistent, they overperform. The nonvote of Democrats, Progressives, and Independents is effectively a vote in their favor. And the policies of the politicians they elect have decimated the middle class and the poor.