Typical "we own your vote and you will fall in line" bullshit, and yes, it has hurt the party.

Just, maybe not the way you expect.

citizens who could not be bothered. They deserve our scorn far more than the poor deluded/racist/bigot/ignorant fucks that voted to elect the Republican majority.

People who did not vote elected the Republican majority in the House and Senate as surely l as if they went to the polls and voted for a Republican.

They deserve the vomit the rest of us must suffer.

...they vote with their feet.

We had the lowest turnout since 1942. Voters decided the like Republicans so much they would vote with their feet. They decided they like Republicans taking the vote away from minorities and the poor, so they voted with their feet.

The voters who did not turn out are resposible for attacks on marriage equality, for laws to make it harder to vote, for Michigan trying to pass a law to split their electoral votes and fix the 2014 election.

If they don't like be called on being irresponsible, useless Conservative Republican want to be's, they need to vote.

As a veteran, it annoys me when people insist on thanking me for my service. They should be thanking ever voter for their service. Democdacy and freedom are defended at the ballot booth, not some foreign country.

Those who did not vote deserve to be scorned.

..which is why you don't insult them

Otherwise, they deserve nothing but scorn. Vomit on them.

They vote with their feet. Most voters are not political junkies like us.

They deserve to vomited upon, not the party that tried to get them to the poles when it really mattered.

... because she was under the mistaken impression she had to apply for an expungement to get her voting rights back after serving her probation. When I told her all she had to do was re-register, she was amazed, but that was too late -- even if she'd told me before the election instead of later, voter registration ends a month before an election here.

Another friend didn't vote because she couldn't find a ride and didn't tell me in time for me to take her to her polling place. Several others because they didn't have a or had lost their photo ID, and it'd been widely publicized that photo ID was required (even though that was overturned).

Not everyone who doesn't vote is doing so because of their own willingness to let the system trample them. I was giving rides to all sorts of people at my apartment complex (mostly elderly or disabled folks here) on Election Day, but only one person can do so much.

As adults we need to stay informed and be proactive about our rights, especially in the face of a party that works actively to make it more difficult.

I gave rides, I called relatives. Sometimes being a citizen requires work and responsibility.

People who did not vote are responsible for the state of the nation. They deserve to be.

*slow, sarcastic clap*

To use, or not use, as you please. Whereas, the party knows it belongs to them.

While these letters you cite would be viewed as rather offensive, I wouldn't cite it as a significant cause.

At least the way I see it, low voter turn out was largely due to a very significant state of
dis-illusionment with the process and the system we're "participating" in.

I think that the party leadership directly asking the question why people didn't turn out to vote is legitimate (and golly gee whiz) would be quite informative.

However, the intimidating stance is indicative I think as to the arrogance, hubris of the leadership and disconnect with the rank and file voters..

I can understand why this would be considered as disgusting to say the least.

the party and candidates running away from Obama and the Democratic platform. Basically these candidates did exactly what the pukes wanted them to do, pretend to be republican-lite.

Look at Connecticut. An unpopular and sharp elbowed Democratic incumbent (Malloy) was ripe for the picking, the pukes and kochroaches invested millions to help Tom Foley try again to take the office. In 2010 Malloy beat Foley by something like 1%. This time around people began writing him off in the spring.

Instead of following the logic of other Democrats, Malloy had Barack and Michelle Obama in for fundraisers and rallys. He talked about the new gun laws that the ammosexuals thought they'd use to beat him and actually told people he was proud of enacting them. He talked about Progressive principles like an increased minimum wage and mandatory sick leave.

He beat Foley by a larger margin than he did in 2010 and Connecticut also sent back all five of their Democratic congresscritters with fairly easy victories.

I really hope the party and the committees figure out how stupid the puke-lite tactic really is but recent history doesn't seem to be on our side.

Teapartier Gov 38% was 10 or so points behind blue dog Michaud. Michaud had the Clintons and Obama campaign for him and moved significantly to the left on policies. Gov. 38% jumped 10 points or so in the final weeks, admittedly helped in part by his Ebola lies and failed attempt to imprison the heroic nurse Kaci Hickox in her home, and we're stuck with him for 4 more years.

Amazing to me how many working poor lost tax breaks and support systems courtesy of Gov 38% and still somehow believed he cut taxes for them

sucking Democratic votes in Maine again?

Even if Michaud had gotten all of Cutler's votes, he still would not have won.

I think he was simply horribly outspent. On my way to work, I heard 3 or 4 ads for Gov 38% for every Michaud ad. Same with signage in the public areas.

One postcard praising my husband for voting, and one shaming me for not voting. They determined those stats by our current address, which neither of us resided at during the time they were referring to. :/ We both voted, as usual.

I'm sick of these babies. Grown ups should vote. Period. Quit whining if you don't. And stop demanding others coddle you. Geez. Enough already. They aren't democrats.

from higher to low income, home ownership to renters, public sector to private sector, mangers to laborer -- consider who the "babies & whiners who want others to coddle them" affects

I'm an adult. It's not fair that other citizens, who have the equal right to do so, can't unless I coddle them in some way.

The only exception is people who have trouble due to Republicans vote suppression efforts.

I'm tired of their demands (or at least those attributed to them by posters who keep up with this shit). There is nothing I can do but vote myself. I don't have time for babies who don't care (and politically, yet they are babies, and whiners, and who cares what job they have or where they live?) I'm also beginning to think such people would vote Republican too. With that attitude, it is hard to believe they are liberals. Liberals care about other people and are not judgmental and demanding.

Why are there turnout gaps in all those areas? It heavily suggests poor, working people have more trouble making it to the polls to than richer people.

You call them babies and who cares what job they have? Most people that work in the public sector. In the private sector the opposite is true.

A full two-thirds said they simply didn't have enough time to vote. More than half of this group - 35 percent of the total - said that scheduling conflicts with work or school kept them from getting to the polls last Tuesday. Another 34 percent of the total said they were simply too busy, or that they were sick, out of town, or forgot about election day.
http://www.washtimesherald.com/cnhi_network/report-many-people-say-they-didn-t-have-time-to/article_9c67d578-32c1-5530-8de8-04933e05bf19.html

The same is true of any poll that polls registered voters that didn't vote. (Forgot would be more of a factor in the midterms)

Republicans try to make it tougher to get to the polls what do we do? We insult them for not going to the polls while this is being done.

Sanders currently has a "Democracy Day" bill sponsored and while it is unlikely to pass like the vast majority of Senate bills, I notice a lot of right wing columns criticizing the idea.

Registered Democrats have a much larger turnout than Republicans for the midterms. Richer, affluent, have the ability to take time from work to go vote.

Not that I don't, it is the logic behind it. Democrats can't win without their base, but because their base always votes for them the concern to appealing those who may or may not vote for us takes over and the base that already votes for them has to maintain loyal support, insulted, etc - all in an effort to appeal to those who may not vote for us.

and saying the same types of things they say to liberals on DU. Think that would make someone want to vote for the Democratic Party? I wonder how many people heard about unicorns and ponies from that bunch and were happy just to get them out of their homes. Berating and belittling people is no way to get votes, obviously. We see how that turned out.

come and coddle you enough or said something a little bit critical? Geez. It's more important to tell those people they didn't do enough or do it properly than to see to your own interests. And that over a right you have that is a very big thing, as people who've lived in dictatorships will tell you. These threads are about berating and belittling Democrats who get off their asses and run for office, campaign and just vote! Claiming they didn't do enough to serve other demanding people who had the same right to do all of that on their own. Sitting there like people expecting to be served when they had just as much right to be out there doing.

We also, unfortunately, voted on a proposed ban on bear beating, which brought out every hunter and their families and friends. So unlike the rest of the country, we had 60%+ turnout, which meant high turn out from both parties.

On the other hand, every single proposal to borrow money to invest -- whether infrastructure, a cancer center, a biotech center, water quality, or conservation -- passed. So the very liberal spending to invest and care for our environment, won across the board.

Our dem rep, Chellie Pingree, won 60+% to 30+%. Locally, in my *red* village, our GOP house rep was ousted by a former Dem turned Indie. One of our more liberal house districts had a 3-way -- the Indie former Green Activist won, with Dem a close second

Michaud moved very left on his messaging, and had the Clintons and Obama stump for him.
However, for every Michaud ad I heard on the radio or sign I saw on the commons, there were 3 or 4 ads most by PACs) for LePage and tons of signs.

What is the reward in these two states, they now have a newly elected GOP senator. Think the GOP Senator is going to listen the left, yea, right.

by "we're watching every move you make" and "report cards" on whether you voted is a good communications strategy.

Back when I was a high tech marketing communication manager, I would have been fired for such a strategy. It's really a piss-poor strategy in my (former) communications professional opinion.

Tell people that you're a lost cause or that they're a lost cause, and they majority will move on and look for a winner to align with pretty much every time. Go figure.

... been lowered to five years old?

Expressing disappointment in low voter turnout is "shaming"? Asking for your reasons for not voting is "menacing"? I've consistently seen people here who want to "send the Democrats a message" as to why they're dissatisfied. But when actually asked to express your reasons for not voting (if you choose not to), you react like a kindergartener who's upset because somebody was "mean" to you in an email?

I'm still trying to find the "threats and intimidation" you're going on about.

Fer fuck's sake. Maybe if some folks were promised a candy bar, a romp in the playground, and a balloon at the polling station, they'd get over their tantrums long enough to cast a ballot.

so it is cutting off their nose to spite their face. To spite Democrats who aren't doing enough for them, rather than just do what they have every right to do and what is in their own best interests. Five years old is right.

... but I think of "intimidation", "menacing", and "threats" in terms of voting as crosses burned on lawns, fully armed rednecks standing outside of polling stations threatening people of colour as they lined up to cast their ballots, and people attempting to register "certain" voters in the south winding up in ditches after being tortured and eventually killed.

Hard to believe that some people now think of a fuckin' email in their Inbox being equivalent to the aforementioned.

In the not too distant past, people were maimed, people were tortured, people had their children's lives threatened, people DIED in the face of "intimidation, menacing, and threats" - very REAL threats that were carried out - in order to vote.

How embarrassing to have anyone bitch about the "intimidation" of a fuckin' EMAIL that suggests they vote - and asks for some input as to the reason they have chosen not to.

I certainly experienced myself a whole bunch of "donation" shaming. I've voted in every local, state, and federal election since I was eligible to vote in 1972, so I'd have been plenty pissed to receive that.

I did, however, get at least 10,000 shaming emails (peppered in with the "thank you!" ones) saying, &quot Name), we still haven't heard from you." Or threatening that I was about to lose my "membership" in the DNC (there of course is none) if I didn't contribute before midnight. Honestly, they pissed me off so badly that I gave significantly less this cycle than I have in previous years. I even got shaming emails within 24 hours of actually making a contribution. These are just spam, and they are driving people away.

Now mine just said that they hoped I would vote and that I had a good voting record. I didn't find anything wrong with it. I do think it was a waste of money