The Holy grail of politics.
I've heard it much of my life (I'm 62). On the Democratic side I've heard it again and again for years, if we could just get the folks who would benefit from Democratic policies to go vote, we'd win and win big.
Maybe so, but I've yet to see it really happen. Voter participation in this country is notoriously low. We've known that for a long time
So here is Donald Trump's gamble. He's happy to throw away Hispanic votes, black votes, gay votes, Asian & Muslim votes etc. so long as he can motivate a whole bunch of low education/low income white voters who usually don't vote to show up at the polls and vote for him. What was it he said? “I love the love the low education voters”? He figures there are more of them than the others I just mentioned. And he might just be right.
He's taking page out the playbook of George Wallace and updating it. Rachel Madow played a clip last night of a Wallace rally in 1968 - “get em out of here” - almost an exact replica of what we see at Trump rallies and it gets escalated every day.
Trump is not a stupid man. Amoral? Well yea. So for that matter so is Cruz, his game is not much different. But we should not underestimate this.
Romney lost but got the highest % of white vote in history. Maybe Trump thinks he can put that on steroids if he an get voters to the polls who typically don’t vote.
For all of the Bernie/Hillary wars here for the last number of months, there is a much larger threat. There is great deal at stake. Just look at Trump rallies over the last few days. Blacks being driven out just for being black. Trump saying “don't hurt them, but if you do, I'll defend you. Or the right handed salute he solicited from the crowd at today's event in Florida.
This site has been all about Bernie v. Hillary to the point of madness in my estimation. My own view is they both have valuable things to offer. I'm glad Bernie is in the race, I'm glad for the issues he is raising, but that alone is not enough for me
But the point here is winning an election – the consequences of losing this one are profound. The Supreme Court alone would have consequences long after I am gone.
I only ask that you think about all this.