This is a point I've danced around on occasion, that finally crystallized at Drinking Liberally tonight:
Republicans understand that voters in "the base" turn out if motivated, and the undecideds in the middle do not. Consequently, they tailor their electoral strategy to pumping up their base to maximize that turnout, and they don't worry about the middle all that much because they're proportionally less of a factor. The Democrats, on the other hand, repeatedly throw their base under the bus in pursuit of those fickle undecideds who probably aren't voting anyway.
In other words, Republicans understand that turnout is a force multiplier. Democrats are satisfied with just being ahead in opinion polls, implicitly assuming that voter turnout is homogeneous.
And this is why the ballot results never quite live up to the poll results for the Democrats. The Democrats are alienating voters by chasing after non-voters.
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Which is, of course, the result of the genius political strategerizing of the truly high-end Dem consultant* class.
*Hee. I almost typed "conslutant." Shoulda left it alone.
You also forgot to mention they have been too busy reading Russ Lieber's new tome.
In case you want to check it out at the library it's called "Raising your voice by raising your hand: A non-confrontational dissenters guide to fighting back politely!"
I heard Joe-mentum himself wrote the forward.
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