The enthusiasm gap
The folks at the Daily Kos blog, a bastion of Democratic support, are fretting over a recent poll (one that Kos himself commissioned pre-Thanksgiving) that suggests that enthusiasm for Democrats has declined pretty steeply compared to the evil Republicans. One front-page poster asks what can be done?
I could list several ideas here: Fire Geither and Summers and hire someone at Treasury who isn't part of the Wall Street revolving door crowd. Close down Gitmo and Bagram and have the detainees transferred into US prisons and hold real criminal trials for their actions if you have the evidence to support them. Use an executive order to halt enforcement of DADT until such time where Obama feels he can push for its official repeal. Enact a strong EFCA and a Consumer Protection Agency with actual teeth. In short, keep your fucking campaign promises.
Or alternatively, you can buy me a PS3 with copies of Uncharted 2 and Valkyria Chronicles. Because hey, if I'm going to be asked to vote for a "Lesser Evil" candidate after a few years of little more than window dressing on the status quo, then at least the PS3 will keep me distracted from raging at it all.
Having said that, it's a bit early to be conducting polls of this type. It's possible that Obama and the congressional Democrats could change course over the next year before the midterms and their liberal base will get excited again. It's possible that a prominent Republican will get caught trolling for male prostitutes again just before the elections. There are several factors that could happen less than a year from now to cause fluctuations in the trend, so we shouldn't start hand-wringing over the enthusiasm gap just yet.
Having said that, if this trend remains constant several months from now and the Democratic office-holders keep making empty promises, then I would refer you to my PS3 solution above. To whatever Democratic politician stumbled over this page by accident on a Google search: Give me that package, and I will vote for whatever "Lesser Evil" you want. Or give me a full paying job as a policy wonk on your staff and perhaps we can work something out. I do not think I am asking for too much here.
I could list several ideas here: Fire Geither and Summers and hire someone at Treasury who isn't part of the Wall Street revolving door crowd. Close down Gitmo and Bagram and have the detainees transferred into US prisons and hold real criminal trials for their actions if you have the evidence to support them. Use an executive order to halt enforcement of DADT until such time where Obama feels he can push for its official repeal. Enact a strong EFCA and a Consumer Protection Agency with actual teeth. In short, keep your fucking campaign promises.
Or alternatively, you can buy me a PS3 with copies of Uncharted 2 and Valkyria Chronicles. Because hey, if I'm going to be asked to vote for a "Lesser Evil" candidate after a few years of little more than window dressing on the status quo, then at least the PS3 will keep me distracted from raging at it all.
Having said that, it's a bit early to be conducting polls of this type. It's possible that Obama and the congressional Democrats could change course over the next year before the midterms and their liberal base will get excited again. It's possible that a prominent Republican will get caught trolling for male prostitutes again just before the elections. There are several factors that could happen less than a year from now to cause fluctuations in the trend, so we shouldn't start hand-wringing over the enthusiasm gap just yet.
Having said that, if this trend remains constant several months from now and the Democratic office-holders keep making empty promises, then I would refer you to my PS3 solution above. To whatever Democratic politician stumbled over this page by accident on a Google search: Give me that package, and I will vote for whatever "Lesser Evil" you want. Or give me a full paying job as a policy wonk on your staff and perhaps we can work something out. I do not think I am asking for too much here.