Trump Needs to Coax More Votes from a Shrinking Base

[applegrove]

Trump Needs to Coax More Votes from a Shrinking Base

January 3, 2020 at 10:01 am EST By Taegan Goddard 174 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/03/trump-needs-to-coax-more-votes-from-a-shrinking-base/

"SNIP......

“President Trump’s 2020 election strategy relies largely on the white, working-class base that he excited in 2016. But he faces a demographic challenge: The electorate has changed since he was last on the ballot in ways likely to benefit Democrats,”  the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Working-class, white voters are projected to decline by 2.3 percentage points nationally as a share of eligible voters, compared with the last election, because they are older and therefore dying at a faster rate than are Democratic groups. As those voters pass on, they are most likely to be replaced by those from minority groups or young, white voters with college degrees—groups that lean Democratic.”

“That means Mr. Trump will have to coax more votes from a shrinking base—or else find more votes in other parts of the electorate.”

......SNIP"

[C_U_L8R]

1. Or just do away with Democracy all together.

That seems to be the Republican strategy. They'd rather put people in cages than build a bigger tent.

[NewJeffCT]

3. David Frum said it correctly

just about 2 years ago -

"If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. The will reject democracy.”

[C_U_L8R]

4. I'll take their word for it.

F'n traitors.

[calimary]

2. And WE have to turn out OUR base.

If we ever hope to see the America we all grew up knowing and loving, again, that is.

[gratuitous]

5. This is an underreported angle to election 2020

The electorate of 2016 has not remained static, and has indeed changed in ways likely to benefit Democrats. The underreported aspect of this is, "What has President Trump done to attract more voters to his side?" Yeah, we see the stories all the time from the diners and other rural settings that people who voted for Trump in 2016 are disappointed with his administration, but by golly they're going to vote for him again. It's a comforting narrative, and one that the media feel very at-home telling.

But bitter-end Trump voters aren't likely to add to Trump's numbers in 2020. Where are the voters who didn't vote for Trump but who have gotten on the Trump Train since 2016? Who didn't vote in 2016 but is now motivated to vote for Trump in 2020? We don't hear from those citizens at all in the popular media. We sure don't hear from voters who have seen their worst fears realized about a Trump administration. Nobody is interviewing urban voters (if you know what I mean, and I think you do) about why they don't like Trump and what they're doing to make sure he's a one term president - assuming Trump lasts until November.

Our faultless bulldogs of the Fourth Estate are once again failing the country. They need to get out there and talk to people they're not used to talking to.