President Clinton said decades ago that people will follow someone that is 'Strong and Wrong vs. Weak and Right' .

We are living it.

But I am sure our leaders will send a strongly worded letter.

instead of consistently having to vote AGAINST. That seems to be a problem for Democrats right now. Republicans are fairly clear on what they stand FOR (and yes, it all sucks). My sample size is small, however, and certainly not sound as sociological surveys go. More data needed.

There is another problem in that Democrats have no propaganda machine and generally suck at messaging on those occasions when they have one.

Elections -- especially recent elections -- have shown that voters care more about voting against something than they do voting for something.

And the only thing Republicans stand for is being completely opposed to anything Democratic (Socialist, Marxist, Communist, Far Leftist, blah blah blah).

Eligible voters, registered or not, stayed home in droves last election. The numbers I've seen are scattered, but "not voting" contingent seems to have picked up between 6 and 9 million. Some early reporting suggested there was a great increase in non-participation among voters under 35, but analytical postings dropped off sharply after last December, for some reason.

If "not voting" counted as "none of the above," it would have won the popular vote in last several elections. By a couple of estimates that sort of "none of the above" would have won the Electoral College in 2024, for the first time. I stand by my hypothesis.

In states with open primaries, for example, people don't have to register with the party to vote for the party candidates.

Younger voters have listened to them and been more inclined not to register as Democrats, even though we and they pretty much share the exact same principles, just different methods for converting them from principles into policies.

I prefer to see progress, even if it's incremental.

Some prefer to see an all-or-nothing approach and apparently see absolutely no problem in """fighting""" for something for half a century without coming close to achieving it. They just blame others for their failures.

Party self identification ebs and flows. This is higher than it was a year or so ago.

So it's a push.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx

Unless they are happy with Republicans having all the power?

....of voters considered themselves independent.
45& I, 30% D, 25% R.
Been this way for a long time.
So, I voted no because party affiliation doesn't win elections. Those are won at the middle and the economic issues swayed too many independents in '24.
With similar distribution of party affiliation, dems won in '92, '96, '08, '12, & '20. And dems won the popular vote 2 other times. That's 5 of the last 9 elections, and 7 of 9. PV.. So to me, the number is not a factor in electoral success as things have stood the last 30+ years.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx

Just my opinion, of course, but I might venture to add, it's more than just a notion of a problem; I'd venture to say, based on the analysis from data recovered from the notes tossed out by focus groups only to be recovered from a fiery dumpster, MAGA, and a shit storm of NAZIs setting fire to the Constitution, it is a problem -- a big freaking problem.

Over the war in Gaza. Can’t believe the Dems thought that contributing to genocide was more important than keeping our party intact.

I’ll say - I love my local NM Dems - glad my reps were all against sending more bombs to Israel - love my Dem gov but not happy with many other Dem party members. So glad to be living in this state, as our gov will take care of us no matter what happens to rest of US. She has lots of money now from oil and gas. It’s black $ white - NM has money BUT also more ozone.

There are more voters registered as independents than either Democrats or republicans. Yet in two of the past three presidential elections, the campaigns have sought to get republicans to vote for our candidate. This included bringing the pre-corpse of Dick Cheney on stage. There are, of course, Democrats who appeal to the left-leaning independents, which include many people who have left the party out of frustration.

stated flatly they would rather win with 51% of the vote than by a landslide of say 60+%.

I believe their thinking was the politician wouldn't be as obligated to please so many people, so get by with just the bare minimum, and chase the money, not the votes.

I'm believe that kind of political cowardice has led us to our current going to Hell in a handbasket status as a nation.

Thanks for the thread everyonematters.