>Jon Johanning wrote:
>
>It seems to me that the key fact about the U.S.
>electorate is one that has gotten very little
>attention in this discussion: about as many eligible
>voters don't vote as do. Leftists like to think that
>the no-shows have the same world view as theirs --
>they are said to be the poor, the non-white, and so
>on. Perfect candidates for recruitment by left third
>parties, right? Well, I don't see much evidence that
>those
>little parties are recruiting many of them.
I dunno, but there's a fellow I know who's worked for Republican campaigns, mainly Dole. Last I knew, he had a job with the Shrub administration doing computer security. He happens to despise Shrub; he's probably more like a Goldwater Republican.
Anyway, he's fairly well hooked into the Washington scene. He maintains that both parties are focusing on extremely negative campaigns. The goal is turn off voters. Each party wants to reduce the electorate to their core constituents, each side believing that they will win that way.
If what's he is saying is correct, and he's pretty astute when it comes to these things, then Shrubya doesn't give a flip about the far rightwingers or the xtian fundamentalists and Kerrybot doesn't give a flip about left wingers or even disaffected independents and republicans. When those people vote, they're just going to fuxor up the works.
Kelley