"People who say something can't be done should get out of the way of the people who are doing it."

I'm still puzzled, though. Increasing turnout in mid-term elections, though, seems to me to be an obvious goal, regardless of everything else.

Best to ignore them and get on with business.

in their own districts and precincts. We're going to need all the help we can get, I think.

Doomsayers and naysayers have never won a single election, as far as I know. They just have to put up with what happens, since they contribute nothing to the process beyond their individual vote. And that assumes that they bother to vote in the first place.

Exactly that and no more.

And I suspect that response was to the idea of waiting 2 years to remedy the illegitimate presidency of Loser 45

And it was to my proposition that the very best way to remedy the current situation was a massive turnout of Democrats in 2018 and 2020. There were other arguments in that thread, as well. Some said, "It won't work." Others talked about other reasons why massive turnout of Democrats wasn't the answer. Some proposed solutions that are actually completely impossible.

Regardless of any other actions that might be taken, GOTV for the mid-term election can produce more wins for Democrats, which is what we need to regain control of federal government. There is absolutely no downside from increased turnout of Democrats. I'm sure you will agree with that.

Somehow they seem to think that suppressing the vote will allow more of their 3rd party candidates to win. Not seeming to happen. The last 3rd party run that actually helped the Dems was the Clinton election. Since then, they have worked more to split and weaken the Dem vote than the Repub vote.

For all intents and purposes, Bernie is a 3rd party candidate, even though he ran in the primaries as a Dem. While his progressive credentials are strong on many issues, he has not really done a lot to strengthen the party. He holds rallies to support certain issues, but is highly selective on which candidates he supports. He wouldn't share his voter rolls, and many of his surrogates are campaigning on the "both parties are the same" bullshit. Destroying the Dem party from within will not help fight the Repubs, who may be "splintered" a bit, yet continue to vote for any old asshole with an (R) behind their name.

Frankly, GOTV is just about our last hope to wrest control from the Repub stranglehold on our government. The only way to win it back is to put out so many voters that they can't steal it. The bigger the margins we win by the harder it is to steal. There will always be local issues the must be reflected in the local races that the rest of us just have to accept if we want Dems to take over the House and Senate. I'll take a 65% Dem over a 90% Repub any day.

He's not a player in any of this, really. I'm not going to get into any sort of Sanders bashing here. I understand that he is endorsing candidates for the 2018 election. As long as they run as Democrats, I have no problem with that. So far, his endorsements haven't really produced any winners, though, so I'm not sure how important those candidates will be in congressional district primaries.

Anyone who is working to bring voters to the polls to vote for Democrats is doing good work, as far as I'm concerned.

are not the real world.

I have never heard a Democrat at a committee, club, or campaign meeting say GOTV won't work, is a bad idea, or anything else so negative. What I have heard is a lot of questioning why it is so hard to do. We are all volunteers, and spending the time needed to knock on doors and make phone calls is asking quite a bit. Like everything else in life, too many are asking "Why don't YOU do it" instead of saying "Here's what I'm doing".

The other problem we have that the Republicans and other right-leaning parties don't is fracturing. Every time I go to a meeting or demonstration there's another "progressive" group set up by three people for some obscure reason. I know of at least a half dozen such groups in my little corner here, and they rarely talk to each other.

"We MUST save the piping plovers!" OK, there's the Audubon Society and two other established environmental groups working on protecting plover nests-- why not join them? The usual reply is "Huh?"

Last local election the Republicans did the unthinkable-- they actually primaried the sitting Supervisor and got a Council member to run. So the Supervisor ran on another line anyway. Sounds like the Democrats should walk right in, eh?

Nope. With a split Republican party we found the worst candidate imaginable and he lost with maybe a quarter of the vote. Our Supervisor still has a job. We might be doing better this year now that we have a good candidate, but there is an excellent chance we'll still screw it up.


Never, ever forget that Will Rogers quote.

No question about it. I'm not sure how to solve that problem. For years, I've done door-to-door canvassing in the precincts where I have lived. Rarely is there anyone else willing to come along, which has always frustrated me. What that means is that, even though I walk every block in the precinct and knock on every door, I often don't have time to go back through and canvass the people who weren't there the first time. In some nearby precincts, nobody canvasses at all.

So, the end result that my precinct has a higher turnout than the ones not canvassed. I bring that up at our district conventions, but I still can't get people to volunteer, even those who talk up GOTV, but won't put their time where their mouths are.

GOTV works. Canvassing works. For every election, I register people who have recently moved into the precinct, explain where the polling place is, and have actually seen some of them on election day at the polling place. I talk to everyone I can in the precinct and help them understand why voting in that election is important to their interests. I consider my job to be getting people to the voting booth.

I don't know if I'll be able to do that in 2018. I'm in my 70s. My hips hurt after walking a certain distance. I'll try, though, because nobody else probably will.

I'll just keep on trying to convince people that GOTV matters, if people actually get involved in it. Meeting people face to face, listening to them and helping them understand the issues seems to work best. Phone-banking is a distant second to that personal canvassing. Face time matters in politics. Everyone knows that, but few want to do the work.

I too am tired of the defeatist posts. You know, the ones that suggest that all future elections will be rigged, so it doesn't matter how we vote. These messages are not helpful to the cause of electing more Democrats.

doing about that in their own state. Oddly enough, nobody ever answers that question, so I figure they're doing nothing at all where it matters. Too bad for us all, I think. My state (MN) handles elections just fine.