Contrary to what left-wing optimists had hoped, Democratic nonvoters in 2024 appear to have been less progressive than Democrats who voted. For instance, Democratic nonvoters were 14 points less likely to support banning assault rifles, 20 points less likely to support sending aid to Gaza, 17 points less likely to report believing that slavery and discrimination make it hard for Black Americans, 17 points more likely to support building a border wall with Mexico, 20 points more likely to support the expansion of fossil fuel production, and, sadly for economic populists, 16 points less likely to support corporate tax hikes (though this group still favored corporate tax hikes by a three to one margin). Overall, nonvoting Democrats were 18 points less likely to self-identify as “liberal” or “very liberal.” Here is a point for the centrists.
After spending months blaming actual leftists, it turns out it was just regular Democrats that were okay with giving Trump the presidency.
FWIW, the pollster who did this study predicted a 4-point Kamala win.
It wasn’t a no-show problem, it was that the 2020 numbers were artificially inflated by Covid vote-by-mail precautions.
When the Republicans saw how that boosted turnout, they spent four years trying to handicap it.
I was telling everyone that the '24 numbers would be lower.
We really do need 100% vote by mail in every state to have proper voter participation, but that’s the last thing Republicans want.
Just make voting mandatory and give people time off to vote. Read about Australia’s voting system. It’s really awesome and I wish we could have something like that here.
The fact is that non-voters either have more important things to do than vote or don’t feel they’d make an impact if they did vote.
When countries, states, and localities encourage education, promote mental and physical well-being, provide ample opportunities and fallbacks for financial security, and make it convenient to vote, then people more likely to at least vote, and at most vote progressively.
Scarcity promotes apathy, which promotes conservatism.
