I'm sick of hearing about the LOW-INFO VOTERS of PA, OH & WVA!!

[polichick]

In spite of the constant warnings by the media, catering to them is all about lowest common denominator politics ~ I say fuck 'em. We'll have to drag them kicking and screaming into this century.

Obama is all about our highest aspirations ~ focusing on those states he can move from red to blue because of a changing (more progressive) population makes a lot more sense.


YES WE CAN change that electoral map!

[jaysunb]

1. Think: 50 State Strategy

n/t

[polichick]

2. Yep - and there are even a few of us "high-info" voters in PA!

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[IndependentDem]

4. quick question...

what is bad about driving a prius?

[newmajority]

5. Pizza eaters United for Moronic Assholery??

that would be my guess.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Not every time. There were those little thefts in '00 & '04 that installed pResident **

[brokenheartmia]

7. yeah either that or your "Green" candidate Ralph nader screwing it up

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Ralph wasn't the Green candidate in '04, so there goes that theory. We have an election

reform forum here. You should read up on what the Repubs have done to the system. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203

You can also get info here: http://hostdiva.com/liberalchristians/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=116&Itemid=29&limit=1&limitstart=1

[polichick]

8. Welcome to DU, you low-info voter you!

[newmajority]

12. Too late

That PUMA has dragged the captive pizza back to Appalacia already. :rofl:

[polichick]

15. LOL

[bluestateguy]

17. I wish I could afford a Prius

If I could I'd buy one.

I do drink Starbucks coffee. So sue me. I did go to an expensive college too. The student loan bill I get in the mail reminds me of that every month. I worked hard for my ELITE education, and apologize to no one for it. I didn't have legacy admissions to get me in, unlike some people.

As for history, I'd remind you that no Democrat had ever won the presidency without carrying Texas-----until 1992, and then Clinton won without TX again in 1996. History moves on. It's not always path dependent.

[anonymous171]

18. lol Irony. You fall for division tactics easily.

[high density]

25. A lot of voters are idiots

That's not disparaging, it's just a fact.

[rucky]

26. We hardly knew ye.

And I didn't even get a chance to brag about my bitchin' gas mileage.

[suston96]

10. Can this be true about American voters?

Another Peek Inside the Brain of the Electorate

Voters interviewed in the recent past showed an ignorance similar to that found in a study nearly 50 years ago. (By Bruce Twitchell -- Idaho State Journal Via Associated Press)

By Libby Copeland
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 24, 2008; Page C01

So a bunch of academics decides to revisit one of the defining books of modern American politics, a 1960 tome on the electorate. They spend years comparing interviews with voting-age Americans from 2000 and 2004 to what Americans said during elections in the 1950s. The academics' question: How much has the American voter changed over the past 50 years?

Their conclusion -- that the voter is pretty much the same dismally ill-informed creature he was back then -- continues a decades-long debate about whether Americans are as clueless as they sound.

Reader, before you send that outraged e-mail, consider that you may be an exception. You, of course, are endlessly fascinated by the debate over domestic wiretapping, but it's possible your neighbors think FISA is a hybrid vehicle. In fact, it's quite possible your neighbors are Republicans only because that's what their parents were, and ditto for the Democrats across the street. They couldn't even mumble a passable definition of "liberal" or "conservative."

******

Really funny piece.

[polichick]

11. I'd sure like to think a few voters have yanked their heads out of the sand...

...since 2004!

[bluestateguy]

13. I think Obama is going to write off WVA

He may never say so directly, but there are just too many uneducated idiots there to make it worthwhile.

[Beaverhausen]

14. There are many citizens out there who are too overworked to have time

...to really get all the information they need to make the right choice. I think it's pretty fucked up to look down on these people. Their lives aren't centered around politics - they are centered on survival. You and I know they should vote democratic, but they are probably more worried about how to make the next rent/mortgage payment, pay the electric bill or fill their car up with gas.

Give them a break, will ya?

[polichick]

16. What I'm sick of is the media yammering on and on about them...

Not the people themselves. I did fieldwork in those areas ~ good-hearted people, but I sure don't want them setting our national agenda and wouldn't waste a lot of time campaigning among them.

[depakid]

19. The election will turn on the rust belt

So, if the campaign wants to win, it'll have to define and repeatedly attack McCain on that ground.

High road loses, every time.

[polichick]

20. I dream of a time when progressive ideas (like those in our Constitution)...

...actually determine elections.

[depakid]

23. Hey, rust belt folks need good jobs, better schools and healthcare just like everyone else!

probably even more so.

Progressive candidates just need to stand up and fight for traditional Democratic values, while at the same time exposing the far right in no uncertain terms for who they really are, what they really stand for- and what they've done to degrade everyone's quality of life.

Not to mention, mortgage their children's futures.

[polichick]

24. I don't consider all rust belt folks "low info voters" - far from it...

I live in PA and there are plenty of people around here who do their homework. They're all working on the Obama campaign!

[depakid]

27. There's a substatial number who fit the description in just about ever state

In Oregon, for example- Democrats keep voting for Gordon Smith because they think somehow he's a "moderate," even though he's walked lock step in barrel with the far right for his entire Senate career.

He gets away with that because the candidates (including the current one) refuse to go "negative" and attack him with his own record, preferring to take the "high road" losing road instead.

[polichick]

30. You're right - those voters are everywhere, not just here...

It's crazy the way the media focuses on this.

Anyway, I know what you mean about Obama taking the high road ~ it just seems to go against his character to attack McCain. I've read that there's a research group in the campaign going over McCain's record in detail ~ hopefully they have some plan to put the info to use. Maybe that will be the veep's job?

[Marie26]

21. I'm sick of hearing rust belt states called "low information voters" nt

[polichick]

22. That's not a term for whole states - I live in PA too...

It's a term for voters who are stuck in outdated fears and myths that Republicans know how to exploit.

[WinkyDink]

28. Excuse me: PA has to "move from red to blue"? Since when are we NOT GE BLUE????

Besides when McGovern ran?

[polichick]

31. We ARE blue here in PA...

But all the media talks about is the so-called "low-info voters" in this state. My point was that it makes more sense to focus on turning growing states like VA and CO blue than to focus on the so-called low-info voters in PA, OH and WVA, who aren't likely to go with Obama.

[MellowDem]

29. I think it all started with the coverage

during the primaries. PA, OH and WV all got a huge amount of coverage.

[polichick]

32. I'm sure that's it - these guys get stuck on something and that's the story forever!

[bigwillq]

33. Hello.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[MellowDem]

35. Thanks for the welcome!

:hi:

[AtomicKitten]

34. The elitist* in me doesn't have a lot of patience with purposely ignorant low information voters.

Try as I might, I can't muster the inclination to "save" voters who would vote against their own self-interests, so I won't be working those states. Kudos to the boots on the ground willing to try to change those minds.

* edited to say I live in SF, the epicenter (apparently) of "elitism" and whatever the hell the wingnuts think that means