Does the left have a base to rile up for the vote?

We always see the repug politicians rile up their 'base' before the vote.
Gay marriage, flag burning, activist judges etc.

Why is it that democrat politicians never rile up the 'base'? Do we even have a base to rile up.?

There is no need to rile my ass up, I am already there, but why do dems always try to appeal to the center? this is a losing strategy! The repugs get people mad enough to get in their gas guzzling SUVs (with red white and blue ribbon magnets made in china) and go down to precinct to cast their vote. Why can't we start doing the same thing? I am not saying we need an Ann Coulter of the left but come on for christ sake there is enough out there to get the progressives mad as hell! It's class warfare people and they are winning, they are kickin our ass. Kos said this exact thing after the Busby defeat "culture of corruption" is not enough to win. We need to get our people mad as hell so they will vote in huge numbers.

If that means getting down in the gutter with them then so be it. The high road leads to more oppression by the rich and powerful.

;)

that I, as an Independent, middle of the road person now STRONGLY identify as a "Liberal" to the point where I am seriously considering joining the party "officially." But how do you solve problems like this one?

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16751509&BRD=2703&PAG=461&dept_id=555106&rfi=6

ELECTION: Faulty voting machines delay results; counting under way
TIM ROHWER, Staff Writer
06/07/2006

The counting in Tuesday's Pottawattamie County primary election came to a sudden halt shortly after midnight today when Pottawattamie County Auditor Marilyn Jo Drake announced to the waiting courthouse crowd that something wasn't right with the new computers purchased to count the ballots.

As a result, all of Tuesday's ballots were in the process of being counted by hand today. Drake said the winners in Tuesday's election might not be known until around midnight this evening.

(snip)

Absentee ballots are the ones counted first.

When all of those were counted, Duran, a University of Nebraska at Omaha student, had 99 votes, while Sciortino, the county recorder since 1983, had just 79.

(snip)

Drake said she decided to count the absentee ballots by hand to determine if the computers were counting correctly.

They weren't - not by a long shot.

The actual absentee ballot count in the recorder's race when done by hand found Sciortino had 153 votes and Duran just 25.

(more at link)

"ITS NOT WHO VOTES THAT COUNTS -- ITS WHO COUNTS THE VOTES!" Joseph Stalin

Yeah, where are all the "Howard Beale" folks out there? As in "I'm mad as hell and not going to take it anymore"!!!
We need to take it to the street, just like what was done in the "Orange Revolution". Where in hell is the outrage? You can only play by their rules for so long. Time to write our own rules! Ya think?!

Republicans have spent the last 20 years cultivating a sense of moral panic in their base. It's not just anger that pushes the Republican vote, it's total fear. Fear of losing control, fear of losing face, fear of corruption of their children.

But progressives aren't fearful people. The fundamental vision of progressives is optimistic and tolerant. Maybe too tolerant, but that's the way it is. You just can't scare optimistic, tolerant people to the polls. It doesn't work.

I think we've been stuck in criticism mode so long, we've forgotten that our base are meliorists: people who believe human beings can make the world they live in better. That's why we created Social Security. That's why we created Medicare. That's why we acted to protect the environment. That's why we initiated Pell Grants and the National Endowment for the Arts. We create. And, except for a few figures like Brian Schweitzer, we haven't had our leaders inspiring America with new, practical ideas and asking us to vote for them.

Bush has been so bad that criticising him has been necessary and unavoidable. But just criticising him or his administration will never get that vast majority of quietly liberal Americans to the polls. We can't scare our way back into power, we have to build it.

They aren't supposed to need to be riled up. They're supposed to know we'd never nominate people like Roberts and Alito to the Supreme Court. Or introduce things like gay marriage amendments to the constitution. The Busby & Kerry numbers show the core set of Democratic voters is solid, we have to expand beyond the core to get the wins.