Chris Bowers looks at the challenge for Democrats in turning out the base in 2010 and wonders what can be done:
But what is the primary motivation behind drop-off voters, and what can be done to get Democratic drop-off voters to the polls in 2010?
I have a theory: nothing. There is nothing that can be done to bring the drop-off voters to the polls. The lack of participation among drop-off voters is consistent with long-term civic trends in the United States, and not specific to the current political situation.
Winning in 2010, he says, will therefore mean persuading on-the-fence voters rather than mobilizing the base, i.e., the natural constituency for the (at least faintly) progressive policies of the Democratic Party versus those of the more aggressively corporate-oriented Republican Party.
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