« November 7, 2006 | Main | God and Country II »

November 7, 2006

Only Chumps Don't Vote - Rove is counting on it

T
his morning in Washington we hear that flacks for the Republican National Committee are trying to sell reporters on the idea that the exit polls are skewed to the Democrats. As a Democrat, I find this terribly encouraging. Turnout in my highly Democratic precinct in Virginia has been off-the-charts high, which bodes ill for George Allen. But I still fear that the Republicans have an extra couple of points in their back pocket - because their turnout effort is so good, and because it's easy to rationalize cheating when you are the party of God, or when victory for the Democrats is victory for the terrorists, as our President has said. This crossed my mind as I cast my vote on a paperless electronic machine.

It looks like Democrats are going to win big today, but don't count on it - go vote. If there is one principle of Rovian politics, it's that you don't need a majority to win; more precisely, you certainly don't need the support of a majority of potential voters to get a majority of the votes actually cast. I'm not just talking about turnout here - everybody tries to get their folks out - nothing wrong with that. What's changed since prior to 2000 is that the political operatives who control Republican strategy and tactics no longer see any need to try, or even pretend to try, to build support among a majority of Americans. They are not embarrassed by overt efforts to suppress the opposition's turnout (mostly by legal means like negative ads, and barely legal means like hyperactive efforts against potential "voter fraud", really just designed to hassle certain kinds of people into not voting). The formula seems to be: get real affirmative support from about 40%, and convince about 10% that the Democrat is even worse because he/she is unpatriotic, a big taxer, effeminate, not hostile enough to gays, has a fetish for the bill of rights, wants the terrorists to win, wants your gun, whatever. Rove and his disciples seem to take pride in the idea that a "permanent Republican majority" could be cobbled together from a base that clearly is a minority and voters who choose the candidate they hate and fear the least. Many of them seem to regard the kind of agenda and governing style that would be necessary to build a real majority as the province of "the squishes," as they like to call moderates. Luckily, their "permanent majority" is unsustainable, and in its final hours.

This minority rule approach never was more apparent than when W. and his surrogates trashed the idea that his loss of the popular vote in 2000 should affect in any way the policy choices he would make - after all, he had a five-Justice mandate! He then veered rightward and used 9/11 to intimidate any who might challenge him on matters unrelated to terrorism. He certainly has been ostentatious in showing his contempt for the processes of American democracy, as have his (until recently) loyal troops in the Congress. I always thought that a governing style that regards the affirmative support of a true majority as an unnecessary indulgence could not prevail politically in the long term. Today I think we will learn the limits of that authoritarian approach.

But you never know. Don't be a chump. GO VOTE.
(That goes for you too, Republicans. We want it fair and square.)

Posted by TFW at November 7, 2006 11:08 AM

Comments

Eric,
I spent the whole day as a pool worker in Ohio and talking to others around the state . . . the issue is not conspiracy . . . it is incompetence . . . period . . . until the people who bitch about the voting process start volunteering or getting paid a pittance to spend the day working the poll . . . it is one day and I imagine law students wouldnt be sad if they had a day off so their prof. could work at the polls

This may be a little off topic but it was a long day with in a very liberal precinct with everyone swearing that we were stealing their votes . . .

Posted by: David at November 8, 2006 1:05 AM