Silly question: Why do the Repubs get half the votes?

[johan helge]

It seems that the Repubs are ruthless agents for the 1 % richest people in the US. Still, they get around 50 % of the votes. Why?

Perhaps not so silly: What should the Democrats to, to change things?

My answer: It would help if the Democrats started telling the truth (Krugman style) about the Repubs.

[Electric Monk]

1. Saw an interesting thread on this just yesterday, actually

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1665879

Why Americans vote against their own self interest: "None of us is really poor; we're just pre-rich"

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/American+Dream+them+brink/5190843/story.html#ixzz1U6vm6qLI

[MilesColtrane]

2. Republicans/the rich/corporations control the media.

They get people to vote against their own interests by lying about Democrats/progressives, and by preying on people's fears and prejudices.

[BlueJazz]

3. Propaganda, Propaganda, Propaganda, Lies, Lies, Lies (repeat one million times).

[izquierdista]

4. It's a coalition

The richest 1% plus the stupidest 49%.

[begin_within]

5. They appeal to greed, which is a powerful human trait.

The constant refrain of "Lower taxes! Cut taxes! Taxes are evil and they must be cut or eliminated!" has universal appeal because nobody really likes paying taxes and the idea of lower taxes is automatically appealing, and something even simple-minded low-information voters can respond to.

They lure people into their ideology by appealing to their built-in selfish nature: "You can get rich! It's America and anyone can! We're the party that supports that! The Democrats are socialists that don't want you to get rich! They want to tax the shit out of you and give the money to illegal immigrants and regulate you so much that you'll never get rich as long as the Democrats are in power!" "So vote for us instead, and we'll keep taxes low or nonexistent, we'll keep regulations to a minimum, then you can get rich!"

They dangle that golden carrot in front of them, while swiping the steak off their dinner table at the same time.

This appeals to millions and millions of people who will never actually get rich, and are in fact HARMED by public policies that the Republicans enact once elected, but still believe that the Republicans create a county that is more conducive to the possibility of them getting rich. I have one friend who always votes Republican and I asked him why, even though he is gay and most Republicans oppose same-sex marriage, and his answer was, "Oh I'm just in it for the money."

So they draw millions of people into voting for them based on greed, but if that's not enough, there's always the hot-button social issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, gun control, capital punishment, and on and on. If need be, they can simply turn one of the buttons on to get people to vote, and those people who agree with them on the issue will likely vote for them on that issue alone.

Then there's the long-standing technique of creating a "bogey man" to be afraid of, and presenting themselves as the party that will protect you from said bogey man. For years the bogey man was communists. Then later it became terrorists. Now apparently part of the bogey man is immigrants. Whatever the actual bogey man is, the Rs represent themselves as the only party that will protect you from the bogey man. And moreover, that the Democrats not only won't protect you, they're actually friends with the bogeyman. They claimed JFK was "soft on Commies." Didn't Palin say Obama "pals around with terrorists?" And so forth. They just use the current fear of the day (and if there isn't one, use the media to create a fear) and then portray themselves as the solution to that fear, and portray the Democrats as enablers of the thing to fear.

And if that's still not enough, there's always the tried-and-true smear campaign. Since actual assassination with a bullet is not legal, Republicans have become precise masters at character assassination. Even if the crap they make up about a Democratic candidate isn't true or even plausible, they are still skilled enough, subtle enough and sophisticated enough to do it effectively. Just as John Kerry about the whole Swift Boat thing. The whole thing is designed to cast enough doubt in the voter's mind that they will vote for the Republican just because of the lingering doubts left by the smear campaign.

And if that's not enough, there are always dirty tricks such as phone jamming during campaign telethons, dirty electioneering such as scaring people away from the polls with phony rules and regulations, deleting voters from lists (ask Katherine Harris about that), harrassment of potential voters, inadequate voting facilities at precincts likely to vote Democratic while Republican-leaning precincts are almost luxury day spas, and so forth. Republicans are also very aggressive with watching the public poll lists posted at precincts on election day and calling voters registered as Rs who haven't voted yet that day, sometimes even offering rides to the polls.

And if all else fails, there's always Diebold...

And if that fails there's always the Supreme Court...

[ieoeja]

6. Many reasons.

The rank and file believe wealthy people are wealthy because they are superior. Everyone wants to put the best in charge of the country. Since they believe wealthy people are the best, they vote for them.

They treat Black people like shit and assume Black people will do the same to them. So they must keep those people in their place or all is lost.

They treat Hispanic people like shit and assume Hispanic people will do the same to them. So they must keep those people in their place or all is lost.

They treat Gay people like shit and assume Gay people will do the same to them. So they must keep those people in their place or all is lost.

They treat Women like shit and assume Women will do the same to them. So they must keep those people in their place or all is lost.

They treat Jewish people like shit and assume Jewish people will do the same to them. So they must keep those people in their place or all is lost.

They treat Muslim people like shit and assume Muslim people will do the same to them. So they must keep those people in their place or all is lost.

They treat Catholics like shit and assume Catholics will do the same to them. So they must keep those people in their place or all is lost.

[Beartracks]

11. "Do unto others...

... as you would accuse them of doing unto you."

Republicans excel at all the things they accuse their opponents of. It reminds me of the notion that the person who insistently accuses their spouse of cheating does so because they themselves would cheat (or already have).

[Throd]

13. Simplistic. Straight white males are not 50% of the populace.

And they don't march in lockstep.

[ieoeja]

14. Well then, I guess I should have said "many reasons" and trotted out a non-bigotted reason first.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

7. Lack of same-day voter registration, among other needless barriers to voting

such as

"Felon disfranchisement" (preventing more than a quarter of African-American men from voting in several southern states),

"Voter ID" laws (authorized by Jimmy Carter, who gave away the store to "Prince of Darkness" Jim Baker on the 2005 "Carter-Baker Commission", which .fed recommendations to the "Help AMerica Vote Act"0,

Local funding of elections, which often means poor urbanites have to wait hours to vote, while suburbanites cruise in and out in 5 minutes;

Lack of national standards for voting and for voting machines (again thanks to Jimmy Carter, who feared damage to "states rights"),

etc.

All of these barriers to voting have a long history, detailed in Alexander Keyssar's definitive book, "The Right to Vote".

Lack of same-day registration in particular favors proerty owners, whose addresses rarely change, at the expense of poor people, who are much more mobile. A turn of the century southern voter registration "reformer" famously said, "The negro is a nomadic tribe">

See http://www.demos.org/publication.cfm?currentpublicationID=593D3C5F-3FF4-6C82-5489535B756625C0 on efforts to promote same-day registration, currently permitted in very few states.

[treestar]

8. Divisive social issues

Guns, God and gays.

Abortion.

The get people to vote for them on those issues, people who are screwing themselves economically by doing so - and not really getting anywhere on their passionate opposition to abortion, gay rights, prayer in schools, anti-immigrant, and other person-hating agenda.

[hifiguy]

9. Two reasons

1. They control ALL of the major media.

2. This country has a long tradition of rank stupidity and absurd gullibility going all the way back to the "religious awakening" (a term as inherently contradictory as 'Justice Scalia' or 'military intelligence') of the mid-18th century.

[kctim]

10. Its simple

They believe individual rights trump the desires of society.

People resent others who falsely believe they know what is best for everyone else, so as Democrats, we should respect the fact that it is they who know what is best for themselves.

We do that and they no longer get half the vote.

[dtexdem]

12. The real question is why the Repukes get half of the votes ...

that the voting machines count in their favor. ;-)