Why is it that Rove is considered a genius for relying on the Republican base to win elections but

[Quixote1818]

whenever anyone (Howard Dean for example) suggests the Democrats win that way they are considered insane? Clearly the polling from last night shows Dean is right. You have to light a fire under the base especially when your party has the Whitehouse because the other party's base is already fired up simply because they hate that they lost the presidency.

[proud patriot]

1. that and Chris Matthews is a tool

x(

[Quixote1818]

2. How did you know I was thinking of Chris Matthews when I wrote this?

:-)

[Grand Taurean]

3. Because the Democratic base

would force economic policies that are not friendly to tools such as Tweets Matthews.

[Quixote1818]

4. Very true. nt

[Juche]

5. GOP base = evangelicals; Dem base = liberals & unions

That is my understanding. Liberals and unions are pissed and disappointed in what has been happening.

blue collar union voters might not be on the same page as liberals on all social issues, but on economic issues the 2 groups form a pretty united front.

I don't know. The dems can't get major things done because they have no spine or discipline. And they are weak and ineffective. This fact isn't lost on voters.

[notesdev]

6. Not sure about that premise there

I'm fairly certain that Rove won elections by burning the GOP base... hence the wipeout in 2008 and the rise of the tea party revolt.

Looks like we're seeing the same thing happen on this side of the aisle in fast forward - base gets burned hard, and revolt spreads. Dems not showing up/crossing the aisle in 2009 gov races and yesterday in MA is the equivalent of the GOP base not showing up in 2006 and crossing the aisle to vote Dem in 2008.

[Zynx]

7. Umm... They lost ultimately and didn't achieve a whole lot.

[C_Lawyer09]

8. Rove was considered a genius

Because he courted and tapped a previously largely ignored and easily manipulated quantity (I'm generalizing) in the religious right. Most of this faction had never been directly spoken too. They since became a part of the traditional Republican platform, many anyway. It was kind of a Pat Buchanan, Nixon silent majority spin off.

[Quixote1818]

9. I thought Ronald Reagan had courted them back in the 70's?

Didn't the religious right register several million new voters for Reagan in the 70's?

[C_Lawyer09]

10. He did court them

But from what I read wasn't adept at speaking to them in their language, at least not on the level that the Rove guided Bush II was able too. Reagan was out of his comfort zone if asked to become anything more than ambiguously religious sounding. Now, I do believe the Reagan era, 1980 election, etc. was when Focus on the Family started attempting to become more politically influential. Not only did Bush resonate amazingly well with the religious right, I find it amazing on a personal level, at how he was crafted from a rich WASP whom never personally succeeded at much of anything, into this Western persona of individualistic success. What a ruse!

[Quixote1818]

11. True. I don't think Reagan was that religious either.

Then again, I don't think Rove is that religious.

[anonymous171]

14. That was Reagan. Rove's big thing was Rovian smears and extremely adept use of wedge issues.

[tblue37]

16. And dirty, dirty tricks. nt

[elleng]

12. Dem base WAS fired up in '08, in spite of rahm etc.

'Party' spent no time maintaining the vigor, as Dean and Grayson would have them do.

[Tutankhamun]

13. The M$M has to portray Dean as crazy.

How would the uber-rich react if an actual progressive agenda were enacted?

[laughingliberal]

15. What a difference, huh? Rove spent most of his time keeping the base on board

Our President's CofS takes a dump on the base for recreation. And DU members think it's funny to post a picture of the obnoxious dwarf thumbing his nose at us.

[Fly by night]

17. The Rethugligan "base" here in Tennessee are unverifiable voting machines.

Until the Holt bill is passed (to ban unverifiable voting machines for paper ballots and random manual recounts), Rethugligans will own our elections, even though Democrats enjoy an 8% advantage among registered voters and our state has a two century bedrock of blue.

I have stopped believing that election results tell anyone anything about the consent of the governed.