MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Charles Blow should be writing speeches for the Democrats that are running. This is really a good op-ed piece. It is about voter apathy. It is very emotionally moving.
Now we hear murmuring that Republicans hold a slight advantage going into 2014, not strictly because that’s the will of the American people, but because that may well be the will of the people willing to show up at the polls.
Comments
There's something in here about delayed gratification and believing in unseen (as yet) outcomes. The wealthy understand the power of investing for the future, whether it be monetarily or electorally.
And I don't mean "buying candidates" at the moment. They invest a bit of their time and vote. Of course, they have more time to vote, but still, voting need not take that much time (except in those well-known cases).
Perhaps most importantly, they believe their own actions can change things because they have experienced great personal leverage. The rest of us have to join together to gain leverage, and that's a harder sell. You have to know or believe or fervently hope that when you vote, others will, too.
by Peter Schwartz on Thu, 04/10/2014 - 11:18am
Along a similar line, here is an excerpt from a share in my Facebook news feed yesterday:
Knowing when to vote so your vote can actually make is difference is harder than most people realize.
by EmmaZahn on Thu, 04/10/2014 - 12:16pm
This April 2 post over at Five Thirty Eight gets into some interesting nuance on the midterm GOTV problem.
by artappraiser on Fri, 04/11/2014 - 1:13am
The subtext of that article is so depressing for those of us who aspire to raise class consciousness--to elect Dems we need rich voters,,,,WTF???
by jollyroger on Fri, 04/11/2014 - 1:34am
I am in the district just south of FL-13. Sink carried all the northern precincts that are upper middle class that voted for Romney. These people have good incomes up there. The older suburbs of St. Pete that was built in the 1950's and 60's is were the campaign collapsed. She worked that area hard and had a GOTV plan. This area just barely went for Obama. It is an area has shifted more Latino and away from families that dominated the area after WWII. The ones that lived there all their lives turned out to vote for Jolly. He promised to defeat immigration reform. For them it was all about race. The elderly vote split even and the uber rich yacht owners on the coasts voted for Jolly. Her numbers was good until the last week when the air war took over. The commercials were ugly from outside groups. It turned people off from voting. The air war for the Republican presidential primary for the state in 2012 was also very bad and the turn out for the republicans was a record low for the state primary. I actually turned my TV off during the air war last month and did not turn it back on until after the election. It was that bad.
I differ with 538 on their take of the higher income super zips. I don't think that shift is that temporary. For the most part they are very smart and they see the harm that congress is doing to the economy. The austerity is cutting into their businesses and bonuses. Jolly is a mess. He may not survive in November.
St. Pete was gerrymandered out after 2010 to make it safe for Young. Tallahassee knew they were braking the state fair districting amendment that passed in 2010. But was buying him time to retire before the state supreme court redrew the map. That ruling will not happen until 2015 after the midterms. St Pete will be part of the county again and not part of Tampa.
by trkingmomoe on Fri, 04/11/2014 - 3:26am
I did some GOTV calling for TM in the governor's race and can testify to the impact of social issues, especially on the women I talked to.
(Of course, most calls, by far, don't connect, so my sample is exceedingly small.)
However, one thing the article leaves out is the pronounced indifference, and even antipathy, virtually everyone had toward TM. He was not a strong candidate, and his wide boy personality turned off everyone, including folks who supported him.
So there was a lot of voting against the Cooch.
While it's true, there aren't always Super Zips and very few Cooches to count on, we can and should run better candidates. Both TM and Mark Warner (though TM less so) were successful business people who could appeal to folks whose primary focus was the economy and jobs.
Of course, the great--and awful--thing about social issues is that when they are working for you, they can overcome many other problems. But when they are working against you, you could be JHC and still not win. They reach down into the primitive parts of our brains and emotions. and move us like no other lover.
by Peter Schwartz on Fri, 04/11/2014 - 8:07am
Yeah, I was sad when McAuliffe won the primary, but I was certainly glad he won the general. Cuccinelli was scary.
by Verified Atheist on Fri, 04/11/2014 - 8:09am