I\u2019ve been writing essays about American politics for over five years.\u00a0\u00a0Throughout that time, our political world has grown more divided; with a greater chasm between the left and the right.\u00a0\u00a0Like the 1850\u2019s leading up to the Civil War, our nation is polarized. The two sides are hardened in their views, and conversation between the two more and more dissonant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We see it in elections, where a narrow electoral margin in a state like Florida marks an incredible swing in policy. Republican Ron DeSantis won the Governorship in 2018. He defeated Democrat Andrew Gillum by around 30,000 out of well over 8 million votes cast. In other eras, DeSantis would have seen the narrow victory as a message to govern \u201cfrom the middle\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in our modern times, DeSantis determined to govern even farther from the \u201cright\u201d than he ran. Current Florida actions over LGBTQ and abortion rights and immigration all put the Sunshine state on the extreme right of American politics. Elections do have consequences, but what an extreme from a result of less than one half of one percent. How different would a Gillum governorship have been?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It used to be political short hand: forty percent will vote for one side, forty the other, and how the \u2018swing voters\u201d in the middle, the twenty percent \u201cundecided\u201d voted, would determine the election. The battle of campaigning was in winning the majority of the twenty percent \u2013 ten percent plus one. That\u2019s the \u201cold school\u201d of politics. In the Democratic Party a successful candidate would \u201ctack\u201d left in the primary, to appeal to the middle of the Democratic base,. Then he would \u201ctack\u201d back to center in the general to gain the \u201c10+1\u201d. A Republican candidate would do the mirror opposite, \u201ctack\u201d right in the primary, center in the general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But our current politics seems to be less about the middle. Or more correctly, the \u201cmiddle\u201d has changed. So many voters are single issue voters, those who vote only about abortion, or guns, or one of the \u201cfake news\u201d issues like Critical Race Theory. It makes it so difficult to find a \u201cmiddle\u201d for a candidate to \u201ctack\u201d towards. So many don\u2019t. They simply double-down on their base. They hope that their forty percent will show up more than the other side\u2019s forty percent, and that the middle will \u201cwash-out\u201d in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s proven to be successful \u2013 in the Virginia Governor\u2019s race in 2021, for example. The “right” forty percent showed up, the left’s did not. And it certainly mirrors our current lack of a \u201ccompromise\u201d middle candidate, or a new “middle” political party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there\u2019s a whole other \u201coutside the box\u201d model of electioneering.\u00a0\u00a0In the biggest turnout election in American history, just two years ago, over 158 million voters went to the polls.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But that\u2019s still short ten million voters who were actually registered to vote. And even more, it was eighty million short of the total number of adults eligible to vote.\u00a0\u00a0So there\u2019s a huge block of potential votes that are beyond the usual parameters of traditional American voting and campaigning.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And, while that huge number of Americans don\u2019t vote, they often are counted in the polling that we look at to determine where the nation is going (or how to target a campaign).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So here’s another question. If a campaign could tap into the great mass of Americans who don\u2019t vote at all, what difference might that make?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Democratic left believes that, since the vast majority of non-voters are \u201cworking class\u201d; an appeal to their economic interests might convince them to add their voice and vote to the political \u201cfray\u201d. That is the strategy of the Democratic Socialists, who are convinced that there is a way to reach that great untapped resource of voters, and get them to the polls. And maybe they\u2019re correct \u2013 at least, the political right seems to think so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because the strategy of the right seems to be to make sure those un-registered voters find it most difficult to register and vote.\u00a0\u00a0The more complex the system can become: identification, voting precincts, time to actually cast a ballot, and just general \u201choops\u201d to jump through; the less likely someone is to be convinced to\u00a0\u00a0be a \u201cnew\u201d voter.\u00a0\u00a0The right-wing strategy seems designed to keep those non-voting \u201cworking class\u201d folks from voting.\u00a0\u00a0So maybe they DO know something that many of the rest of us don\u2019t acknowledge.\u00a0\u00a0 There is a great untapped voting resource, and if it is reached, it will go left, not right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It makes logical sense. If the \u201cright\u201d thought that the mass of non-voters would vote for their causes, then they\u2019d make sure that everyone, every single one, would get to vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a television advertising campaign for investing in digital currencies. In one commercial, the comedian Larry David portrays a member of the American Constitutional Convention. When the idea is agreed to that every citizen will be allowed to vote \u2013 he takes exception. \u201cEvery citizen, even the stupid ones?\u201d he cries out, just before he leaps for the parchment document to try to tear it shreds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It seems that this may be our future argument. One side, the side \u201con the right\u201d, is using voting law restrictions to say \u2013 \u201cNo, not the stupid ones\u201d, because they fear that \u201cstupid\u201d is on the left. The other side, \u201con the left\u201d is saying \u201cyes, everyone, even the stupid ones, and they’re not so stupid\u201d. And at least one political party, my party, the Democratic Party, still seems hellbent to govern from the middle, on the old model of American politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s the model I grew up and campaigned with all my life. But maybe we need to ask \u2013 is it time to be \u201cradical\u201d and demand that everyone, all 240 million of us, get to vote (yes, even the stupid ones). Finding a way to motivate those potential voters is the key. Because that vote will represent the greatest common interest of America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"