I, like so much of the blogosphere over the past several months have been watching all of the special elections all over the country, starting in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District (Paul Hackett's almost miracle) to last night's California's 50th Congressional District (where Democrat Francine Busby is now "in the driver's seat.") There has been a disturbing trend in all of these races, and that's very low Democratic turnout - lower than expected (with the one exception of Hackett's race).
I know many of you are probably thinking, "God Ray, if there isn't motivation for Democrats to turn out with all of the lies and screw-ups of the Republicans, I don't know what will."
You're right, all of the problems of the Republican Party are pretty apparent to everyone. However, they are getting a lukewarm version of it all. Keep in mind, we're the weird ones in the sense we watch C-SPAN, read political blogs all the time, and maybe even listen to Air America Radio. Most folks get their news and information occaisionally from possibly CNN, FOX, or even a headline here and there over at Yahoo. And let's face it, the mainstream media isn't exactly trumpeting the truth from the mountaintops.
Besides, I've personally run into such widespread apathy myself. While doing numerous follow-up calls for the Marion County (FL) Democratic Party's Winner's Circle program, (find out what I'm talking about here) I talked to several people who were just as fed up with Democratic inaction at all levels as they were with Republican ineptitude. One even said she was thinking about just not voting at all! Luckily, I convinced her otherwise. They were a minority of people, but in a county like Marion County, where every Democratic vote is needed, this isn't good. Also, compouding this problem, these were folks tagged as members of our base, folks who had gone to fundraisers and/or volunteered in a campaign before. Maybe less experienced voters feel differently, though I doubt it.
Folks see the obvious problems with Republican governance, yet they see little reason to elect Democrats other than the fact that they're the "other guy" in the room (at this point anyway.) That's why we do very well in the Generic Congressional Ballot Poll (which has become every Democrat's favorite poll these days) and then get slammed in the approval of Democrats in Congress.
So what Democrats need more than anything at this point is motivation. There is no one national leader for the party - and we won't truly get one until 2008 (yes, many will point to Howard Dean, but he's in charge of the DNC, he isn't a President and he can't elbow reluctant legislators to do something.) The responsibility of motivating and turning out the base initially rests on the shoulders of our many candidates. Yet candidates, with all due respect, are working to get themselves elected (and quite frankly, that's what they should be doing), not work for a down-the-ballot win for Democrats - that's up to those at the precinct and county level.
In other words, this election comes down to the grassroots - and yes, my favorite subject - the local parties and the precinct captains that they contain.