Posted on 07/27/2018 8:00:25 AM PDT by Kaslin
Last week I was ignored. It happened while I was eating an organic salad on the patio outside my local Whole Foods situated in the second largest county in the nation’s most ferocious battleground state.
Why was I ignored by the white middle-aged woman carrying a clipboard wearing a “Register-to-Vote Here” T-shirt who was standing only six feet away?
Was I ignored because I am a white female over age 50? Was I ignored because I was wearing a cross? Those questions swirled around my brain as I observed the clipboard lady ask everyone who walked between us if they would like to register — except me. (At that time all who entered Whole Foods happened to be younger or had darker skin.)
As I was munching my arugula, several times we made eye contact, but she never bothered to ask.
After about 15 minutes, lunch was finished, and the silent political standoff ended. Walking to my car, I assumed that she thought I looked “Republican” and was already registered. Both assumptions would have been correct. However, as an American, I was troubled by her overt partisanship. But honestly, by her looks and hair, I assumed she was a Democrat and must still be lamenting Hillary’s 2016 loss and anticipating Elizabeth Warren in 2020.
This incident has far greater implications than me being ignored after making Whole Food owner Jeff Bezos 12 bucks richer. The point is voter registration is generally perceived as a Democratic Party activity based on the assumption that everyone young and non-white represents a future Democratic vote.
Unfortunately for Republicans, age 18 – 29 voting patterns and party identification data turn that assumption into a reality.
But, before I discuss the data, here is an illuminating NBC News report dated July 9 with the headline:
“RNC Fights Blue Wave by Already Contacting 20 million voters.”
Within the article about the Republican National Committee is this paragraph:
The RNC reports a “total 487 million contacts it says it has already made this cycle, including emails opened (250 million), calls made for data gathering purposes (183 million), digital petitions or surveys completed (19 million), direct mail sent (9.6 million), and get-out-the-vote calls made (5.6 million).”
Missing from the report, which justifies RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel’s enthusiasm and optimism about the midterm elections, are two words, “voter registration.”
And let’s face it, voter registration drives make Republicans cringe.
The words are absent because the RNC knows it is facing an uphill battle of cultural and demographic change. The 2016 presidential data paints the picture.
>According to exit polls, voters aged 18 – 29 voted for Hillary Clinton by a margin of 55 to 36 percent over Trump. Worse for the GOP, non-white voters supported Clinton over Trump by a lopsided 74 to 21 percent.
In the 2012 presidential election between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, exit polls found that Obama won 18 – 29 year-olds by 60 to 37 percent. Obama earned five percentage points more youth vote than Clinton won in 2016, while the GOP youth vote stayed basically the same from 2012 to 2016 — decreasing by only one point to 36 percent. The African American vote in 2012 went 93 percent for Obama while he captured 71 percent of the Hispanic vote compared to 27 percent for Romney.
An old axiom in Republican politics is, “Go duck hunting where the ducks are,” and precisely why a February 2018 press release by the Democratic National Committee was headlined:
“DNC Announces New IWILLVOTE Campaign to Reach 50 Million Voters in 2018.”
That is a headline you will likely never see from the RNC because Republican “ducks” are not reproducing.
Moreover, when it comes to registering new voters, Republicans have no counterpart to youth groups like “Rock the Vote,” that bills itself as “a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to building the political power of young people.” Their home page reads, “Our generation is getting screwed by a broken system and leadership that don’t represent our values.” Along with, “We choose to fight. We choose to vote. Join us.”
Although “non-partisan” in theory, Rock the Vote is not aiming to register hordes of young Republicans. Therefore, it’s no surprise that Rock the Vote is the muscle behind "Vote for Our Lives." This new group is an off-shoot of the activist, anti-NRA, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student group that organized the successful, “March for Our Lives” in Washington D.C. with sister marches around the nation and that is now touring the USA this summer registering young voters.
Also joining the “duck hunt” is Michelle Obama, as reported on July 19 in the Washington Post:
“The former first lady on Thursday announced her involvement as a co-chair of When We All Vote. The nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization will work online and in person to help register anyone who wants to vote in the fall, when Democrats hope to ride a wave of anger among liberal voters against President Donald Trump’s policies on immigration, health care and other issues to take back control of the House and Senate.”
It looks as if voter registration is the new cool, hip activity, but for Democrats only.
Conversely, Republican leaders are always comforted knowing that older, white voters will turn out for the midterms in higher rates and save the party, while younger and non-white voter turnout has traditionally amounted to empty hype.
Will 2018 be the year that this tradition is turned upside down? Will anti-Trump fervor set new turnout records and squash the GOP with all these new, young, non-white “motivated” voters? Watch exit polling on November 6 for the answers.
But remember, older Republican white voters like me will not be ignored, even when we choose to patronize “enemy territory” such as Whole Foods because, like the motto of Rock the Vote, “We choose to fight. We choose to vote.”
Governors have better success running than senators.
True! I went to a health fair a few weeks ago and they had a voters registration table for the sole purpose of luring potential Hispanic voters...i live in a city in Texas that is going all out for FAKE-Beto ...unfortunately they were doing brisk business! Yes, we should be scared I’m seeing the socialist RATS enthusiasm going through the roof... I know some of you will not like me saying all that but the socialist rats are on a mission to literally destroy Trump! And unfortunately they might get their dream in November.. if we sit on our behinds and not work as hard as they are they WILL RECAPTURE the house! Honestly I was blown away at the amount of people eagerly registering at that table. Just saying...Cruz has his work cut out! FAKE-Beto is rapidly gaining on him AND FAKE-Beto is becoming VERY popular! Of course I’m in a deep CACA blue city, but I see the high octane enthusiasm for him all across the state! Cruz will lose SA, DALLAS, FT WORTH, and HOUSTON..hope I’m wrong though.
that happened to my husband. Registered at the DMV and was NOT able to vote b/c they had never received the registration. He was mad!
In his case, he has literally nothing to show....until elected and in office. I think his intention is to play it out as the mystery guy (like Senator Obama moving up so quickly).
It’s the downside of Trump’s confrontational style. Sure, it feels good and sounds nice (and does work) when he insults, tweets hyperbole and speaks like a marketer/salesman rather than a lawyer; lots of times it works; but it also energizes libs when they are attacked and DOES fire up their base when phrases like ‘Low IQ Individual’ or ‘Criminals and rapists’ are used. Every tactic has a downside; hype and insult do, too (no matter how much I enjoy ‘em).
I wonder knowing that most of them don’t vote, how many of those become the basis of fraudulent voting on their behalf.
They don’t have to vote all the party needs are names it’s how dead people vote.
JFK winks
But every time they have a voter drive they go to unemployment centers or welfare offices. They want to be sure to register illegal immigrants from Central and South America, most of whom have very little formal schooling. They want to secure voting rights for convicted felons, most poorly educated.
They claim that black people, who vote for them in overwhelming numbers, are too ignorant to figure out how to obtain a photo ID or fill out a voter registration form on their own. Conservatives disagree thoroughly.
The Democrats desperately need the vote of the uneducated, the criminal, the stupid. Their entire power structure is built on getting the people who know the absolute least about the issues into voting booths, confident that a dumb voter is a Democrat voter.
She should have walked up to the registration person and said, “Obviously you’re ignoring me because you assume I’m Republican because of my appearance. Isn’t that racial profiling?”
“Registration Drives’ do NOT check ANY KIND OF ID. They will sign up a ham sandwich if they could figure out how.
“Registered at the DMV and was NOT able to vote b/c they had never received the registration. He was mad!”
Just another way their motor-voter scam is working well for dims.
Don't kid yourself - all the rest is theater.
If I'm wrong, ask yourself - who are all these Federal judge-presidents who are governing the country from the replica Oval Offices in their judge's chambers?
“by her looks and hair, I assumed she was a Democrat”
I expect a nasty odor emanated from her liberal body, too.
These dorks who sign up to vote because they’re accosted by activist volunteers as they’re walking down the street may not be likely to vote. If they cared, they’d have registered already.
Yeah look at how “Rock The Vote” “Motor Voter” and the rest of the “voter registration drives killed Republicans in 2010 2014 and 2016 and ... oh forget about it.
Bingo. I see it as a “fraud drive” - lets find out who isn’t voting, get them registered, and then we’ll mail in their vote.
I have worked at dozens of Republican Register to Vote tables. We seldom get too many people to register, but we do get them to stop by and talk to us. They take our literature about local Republican events. They are happy to see other Republicans. I find that most Republicans put it on their “To Do” list when they move to register to vote. Having said all that, we need to continue to try.
Odd: in nine of the ten battleground states that register by party, since November 2016, Republicans have seen net gains vs Ds. In many cases, these net gains were significant: NC, FL, NV, NM, and AZ (two-to-one over Ds).
Until the law changes, so can we
The Dems will get the Soros, Steyer, Hollywood, Wall Street, Union, etc. big money. They have never depended on the small donor. In the Presidential campaigns they always raise more money than the Reps.
Ever-expanding democracy has long been the Progressive’s means to their fuzzy, yet dangerous social justice ends. Our national experience has shown that the explosion of the democratic element since the direct election of senators, voting by women, repeal of Jim Crow, abolition of poll taxes, lowering the voting age to eighteen, extension of voting from a single day to a couple of weeks, same day registration, motor voter, voting rights for ex-convicts, and judicial overthrow of state voter ID laws . . . have all served to extend the franchise to an ever expanding portion of the public.
To what end? More liberty, or less? Are Americans freer or less so since the progressive onslaught? Has the circle of liberty, the envelope in which we may act without government interference grown larger with the extension of voting to ever more people?
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