GOTV and Smile

I’ve already been sorta writing about this in my last two posts, but I just thought I’d make it more explicit: I really think that all of this last-minute negative campaigning by the GOP is really going to hurt them more than anything. People are really tired of them and their negativity. Even their base is tired of them and are only voting because they’ve been trained to hate and fear us so much. And it’s fairly obvious that, for all their negative politics over the past six years, America has only gone downhill.

Republicans have always imagined that their slim successes in the past were due to people actually liking them, but it never really was the case. The negative campaigning was mildly successful and convinced enough people to give them a chance at running things; or at a minimum, convinced enough possible Dem voters that “both sides are just as bad” and to not vote at all. But it was never a lot of people, and now the Republicans have been given too many chances and people are tired of it. And again, even their base is tired. I don’t know about you, but I myself got tired of defending Clinton back in the day, and Clinton was much much easier to defend than this group of disastrous bozos. These days, nobody is a happy Republican, and that includes their leadership.

And so the more they ramp up their slime machine, the more they’ll be turning people off and giving more reason to vote Democratic. The slime machine was barely effective in the past, and it’s so damn slimy now that it’ll turn off almost anyone but the most diehard. And as long as the Democrats focus on that slime machine and point out that it’s the only thing that the Republicans have ever been able to do effectively, we really shouldn’t have too much to worry about next week. And in particular, to focus, not on the message of the slime machine, but on how those horrible tactics led us into the lousy state things are in now, particularly in Iraq.

Thus said, please try to convince as many people as possible to vote. Don’t be too emphatic or emotional, as that will just scare them away. And for god’s sake, make sure to smile. People like that. Oh, and if you can (unlike me) actually get up off your ass and participate in a GOTV effort on Election Day, all the better. Despite conventional wisdom to the contrary, a good election day for us this year will most surely be the end of Republican domination for many, many years to come. They will be doomed in 2008, screwed in 2010, and only able to do well in 2012 if the Democratic president isn’t able to fix enough of the GOP’s boneheaded screw-ups. The times, they are a changing; and we need to (politely) help ensure that they change soon enough. Do what you can.