78 million Americans did not vote in 2004

according to this Washington Post article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10492-2005Jan14.html

That's nearly the entire population of Germany - Europe's most populous nation. Imagine, if like Australia, voting was compulsary. Would Bush still have won if everybody had to vote?

I'm starting to feel like I'm the dumbshit now....not those that knew better than to trust any flavor of American Government.

of voting system, that may be a smart option to preserve sanity.

are in my family sad to say. They think I'm a frickin loon when I talk politics and in the same breath bitch about how things are. Which is where I chime in again. It's a never ending battle talking to them.

don't seem to give a shit about politics. That's a sad state of affairs in any democracy.

Millions of votes...possibly...

If every poor or working family member would vote, we'd have control of Gov't from now till doomsday.

Thats the republicans secret weapon.

...by a landslide.

A Mandate, if you will? lol

This article only takes into account the percent of Americans ALLOWED to vote: ie, American citizens of legal voting age. The actual American population is around 290 million, including minors and resident aliens. The actual population of Germany is around 83 million, including minors and resident aliens.

and as Jon Stewart said, our people stay home if it's cloudy :(

the Fundies to get out of the house, and they did! An additional 11 million plus votes for shrub than in 2000! That was the anti abortion/gay vote folks!

That Kerry won 8 million votes more than Gore in 2000 means that more Dems got out the door too, but not enough!

We HAVE to get the non voters out the damn door on election day!

Earlier today, I heard that 50 some million single mothers don't vote! Isn't that a strong group to woo? Get the message out to them about how much the Pubs have damaged their chances for survival, let alone success!

only appeared in combatted states like Ohio in 2004, and not in surefire Republican states like Texas.

They made the Presidential race into a coattail issue. They lured the voters out with gay marriage, and while they were there, as long as they were strongly defending their beliefs (homophobia), they might as well support the guy who would defend them (Bush).

to find something similar in 06 & 08 to do the same damn thing!

There are plenty of topics to choose from.

Spying on your emails and phone calls.
Packing the court to OT Roe.
Reducing taxes on the rich and putting all the burden on the middle class.
Selling out our domestic industries to foreign countries.
Cherry picking intelligence to foolishly invade another country.
Cutting funding to support out veterans.
Trying to destroy SS.
Reducing funding to Medicare and Medicaide.
In charge when Abu Gareb happened.
Claimed to have unitary authority to do anything.


Oh, I could go on, and on.

We need to pick one that will resonate with the majority of the American people, and SCARE them enough to make sure they take the Pubs out of power!

appeared all over the nations, including very red states. But I agree that these wedge issues were especially effective in getting fundies out to the polls.

The sad thing is though, that these measures passed even in so called blue states like OR and MI.

Here are the ballot measures from '04:

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/ballot.measures/

I expect the total number of voters to be down by about 20%.

as well as their more liberal counterparts.
The fundie bunch seems to be willing to let up on the pressure, now that they have their "prize." The unexpected demise of the chief justice and the selection of double ought gage brained Alito have given them the make up of scotus they have been dreaming of for thirty years.
The dems seem to be pretty generally disheartened, disillusioned, and defeatist. In spite of the tremendous work that was done, the phenomenal effort expended and large voter turnout, the criminals are still in power. The "why bother" syndrome is pretty thick and many are in even worse shape than they were two years ago.

I think, as of right now, anyway, the rethugs are fairly well accepting of the fact that they will be out of power in three years, but that doesn't seem to bother them much.

Of course, things may change, but that describes what I've seen.

it's pretty clear to me that we can't win any election we need to at this point, be it from propaganda, election theft, or whathaveyou. The small group we are represented by in DC in unable/unwilling to pursue acts which are clearly treasonous. I won't be sending any money this year.

The largest group of voters said, "I don't give a damn who runs this country."

..if we constantly didn't have to choose between "evil" and "slightly less evil".

Just a guess. :shrug:

voters voted. This is a figure I worked out at the last election. That means only 18% are running this country and only 18% care enough to vote against the nuts.

There were over 122 million voters in the 2004 election, and the US population in 2004 was about 295 million, so that means about 41% of the entire population voted. The percentage of eligible voters who voted was around 60%.

http://elections.gmu.edu/Voter_Turnout_2004.htm

Maybe you did your calculations for the 2002 midterm elections, which had a turnout of 35-40% of eligible voters.

about it years ago, but lately they've been quite on it. I did try to go see if those figures were correct and couldn't find them. I did find out that 219 million were over 21 years of age. I am suprised so many did vote, because for years the number has been very low. Thanks for your input.

except choosing the least uninspiring of the uninspirational.

And why get off your ass to do THAT?

The masses have spoken...we need a more original candidate in 08'.

Edit: we need a more original, outside-the-box, inspiring candidate with a CLEAR message of no more politics-as-usual. Why? Because the masses are tired of the tired old political parties and their figureheads. They are also tired of senate-speak and lawyer-speak. The only way they will feel it worthwhile to get off their asses is if they feel INSPIRED, and they are not people inspired by "career" politicians. So our best bet is a true patriot with the PROVEN ability to LEAD this nation to higher ground and truly CHANGE Washington and the way things are done in this country, not a another politico-as-usual.

When I say "lead this nation to higher ground" I mean it in more than a metaphorical sense. Americans trust neither Democrats nor Republicans to lead a functional government in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. To the vast majority of Americans, both parties have proven themselves equally inept.

First, people lose hope that any political party can lead a government better equipped to serve the people, then they become indifferent.

And so, we need a "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" type of candidate (Americans LOVE that movie). The historical moment demands it. Someone who has NEVER held political office and is thus perceived as GENUINE and UNCORRUPTED. Politicians and lawyers are they least popular people in this country...and usually they go together. Americans can spell them from a mile away and they generally don't like the scent.

And that, my friends, is why the masses sit on their asses. :-)

If only a very small fraction of nonvoters had voted for Kerry, we wouldn't be talking about Bush right now.

There were many Kerry voters who weren't inspired by him, but who were inspired to remove Bush from office and voted for Kerry to achieve that.

Anyone who was eligible and had the ability and means to vote, but didn't, can't complain about what happens.

I'm interested in doing what it takes to motivate more non-voters to vote.

go to rallies.

I was relatively "uninspired" by Kerry based on what slipped through the media filter. I liked him in the primary debates, which were relatively unfiltered, but after that I didn't see much. Until I went to a rally and saw how he really was totally different than the media portrayal.

So, if you want to motivate people, fix the megaphone, instead of only worrying about the candidate. Chances are you already have a good candidate, just not enough people are hearing him (or her).

then nothing is.

are just lazy and stupid.

I don't know what people expect of candidates. There were I believe 9 candidates running for president in the Dem party primaries alone in '04.

Not one single one inspired them? What happened under four years of Bush didn't excite them enough to want change? Hell, even the idiots that went FOR Bush make more sense. Those people atleast stood for SOMETHING.

People that don't vote should drink a big cup of "shut the fuck up". They don't even deserve the right to bitch about the state of the nation.

I'm blue in the face, if we could only get a fraction of them. Christ the Diebold Donkey Kongs would burn up trying to scam that.

I knew it was bad, but I had no idea that many eligible voters didn't bother to vote.

they are, like GA, trying to get around the voting rights act by requiring a driver's license to vote. I predict by November 2-3 million poor/black/Dem-leaning voters will have their right to vote encroached on.

they are helped immensely by low turnout.

Edit: and of course of it looks like turnout will be high, they have voter rol lpurges, defective machines, insufficient machines, poll "challengers", and FBI visits to black peoples' homes.

Voter apathy is a huge problem.

I also think the party that taps into that market could possibly cripple the other party for decades.