On the liberal side of the aisles, every election cycle there are various efforts from the Democratic party and other liberal groups to register new voters. This year the effort varies from the Obama campaign itself to the labor unions, to independent groups like ACORN, NAACP, etc.
On the conservative side, is there any effort to sign up new voters? Generally what I hear usually comes from the religious right, but that is usually more of a “get out the vote” message rather than one interested in signing up new voters.
So I think it is worth noting that liberals do better when we’ve got more people voting, whereas conservatives seem to benefit from keeping the existing voting population while aggressively targeting “vote fraud” that always seems to be centered in minority communities (it is surely a coincidence that minorities vote mostly Democratic), and supressing the vote. Isn’t there something a little twisted about a political movement that seeks less people engaged in democracy?
One of my college roomies was the head of the Campus Republicans. I once mentioned that Australia had compulsory voting; he candidly responded that 100% turnout is the Republican Party’s worst nightmare.
Of course, as long as I’m throwing around personal anecdotes, I could go the opposite direction and say that my fundamentalist Pentecostal grandmother has always encouraged me to be politically active even though she knows I’ll be voting pretty much the opposite of how she does.
Oliver,
In his defense (which is something I never thought I would say), McCain did try to send me a voter registration form.
For all the good it did him.
Registering new voters takes a shitload of thankless time and grassroots energy. Scrubbing voters from voter rolls and sundry other voter suppression techniques require mostly money and a few insiders willing to do bad. Gosh, which path do liberals and right wingers take?
“On the conservative side, is there any effort to sign up new voters?”
No, they plan to win by stopping liberals from voting. One way is to send mail-in voting cards to registered Democrats with the wrong return address.
Of course not! The Republicans don’t believe in democracy! They want a “unitary executive”, i.e., a king. The try in every way to put themselves in an economic class above everyone else, i.e., feudalism (along those lines, they worship the military even while screwing over the folks that serve … of course most of those are enlisted men … hmmm).
Peter
“Isn’t there something a little twisted about a political movement that seeks less people engaged in democracy?”
Only if you assume that the political movement is shaped by democratic values.
“Do Conservatives *Try* To Register Voters?”
No. Next question.
caging minority voters is job 1 for repubs after accusing Obama of being a Muslim
Why register when you can gerrymander?
Kidding, Jays/Farris/JWG/Dennis/etc., kidding…
In his defense (which is something I never thought I would say), McCain did try to send me a voter registration form.
Well done, sir. TFJ to you.
Interesting about that flyer though. McCain lies right to your face about not ever taking earmarks.
I’m curious…do urban blacks expect to be paid to vote for a particular democtatic candidate?
Mr. Walters seems to be compalining that the Obama campaign isn’t handing out the money like he should.
http://www.washingtoninformer.com/wi/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1013&Itemid=88
It’s not a strictly GOP effort, but a lot of churches have voter registration drives – especially in the large evangelical churches.
What’s in it for me would be the question most republicans ask if asked to do a voter registration drive. Most liberals and liberal organizations are about helping others without gain. This does not fit into the republican mindset. If they got a tax write off or money for doing so maybe, but just to help others,never. If asked to do so they would just say everyone has access to the internet why do I have to help.
“compalining”
Heh – I like that one.