Yeah, I'm sure it will be really smart of young progressives to sit this election out. Hey, the Dems did it to themselves, so feel free to abdicate your choice and let Republicans take over. What you think is a rational response by voters and non-voters strikes me as epic stupidity. I don't care what your politics are. If you actively or passively support GOP control of Congress out of some misguided notion of popular protest, you deserve everything you get.

Meanwhile GOP is starting to transform itself from a bunch of reviled Social Conservatives to a Winners' Party

Nevada GOP Strips Opposition To Gay Marriage, Abortion From Platform

State party Chairman Michael McDonald told the Review-Journal that he was pleased with the outcome of the vote.

"I think it was about inclusion, not exclusion," he said about the platform. "This is where the party is going."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ne…

Your interpretation of a single opinion poll during March of a midterm election year is generous, to say the least. Not to be too cynical, but the majority of Americans don't care that much about the issues you listed. They might claim to give a damn and even say so in a relatively meaningless opinion poll, but when the chips are down there's not a damn to be given.

After all, we are not even a decade past the point when Americans favored the Patriot Act by margins like 60-40 and 70-30.

The reality is that Bill Clinton/James Carville was right, as far as elections are concerned. It's important to win those elections for many reasons, but they're not the same reasons that those elections are won.

#3: I think progressives are still operating under the delusion that the US population is secretly on their side.

#2: Oh don't worry, abortion and teh gays will come screaming back in time for the Republican primaries.

The girl told police he followed her ... urging her to get in and calling her "cutie."

Not so much luring as all out macking.

@3) You claim that "the majority of Americans don't care that much about the issues you listed." But that's not the point: The question is whether those key Dem blocs care--and they do.

Young voters in particular, by a 60 to 34 point divide, support the NSA leak. In contrast, Americans also disapprove of the NSA's spying. Meanwhile, 59 percent of Hispanic people oppose Obama's immigration practices while only 27 percent approve.

@6: This is a new low for you. The fact that you see a grown man trying to have sex with a child as normative flirting/dating behavior tells us all we need to know.

Normally I would assume a joke, but your desire to have sexual contact with children and your hatred for women in general is well documented here.

I wonder why women won't have sex with you.

@Dominic

Again, the only polls that matter are *intent to vote* polls. That's the only political decision that virtually anyone will make that matters. Every other poll, from the ones about finding a country on a map, to a person's weakly-researched opinion on domesti issues, is meaningless.

No Rodney Tom? Or are you saving that load?

@10: Yestiddy.

#7: And if they sit out the election and the GOP wins big, things will be materially worse for them. So instead of this whole "Democrats asked for it" line, maybe we should be encouraging them to vote against the Republicans. What exactly do millennials sitting on the sidelines think they're going to get out of GOP rule?

Side question: Is there some kind of style-guide decision that does away with the adjective "Ukrainian" for whatever reason? If it were in France, would we be referring to "France officials" and "France soldiers"?

Is "Ukrainian" outdated like saying "the Ukraine" or somehow insensitive?

Hey, Dom.
One problem (among many) the Dems have: Every time some a-hole kills or maims someone with a firearm, a knee-jerk reaction is sure to follow. Meanwhile, the government treats law-abiding citizens as criminals. In Massachusetts, we have some of the most restrictive gun (and separate ammunition) probition laws in the country, including weapons for use in home defense. It gets crazier: we need a firearm permit not just for firearms, but for BB guns, pepper spray, paintball guns and spear guns – in the home – all of which are permitted at the whim of the local police chief.

Recent analysis by Mass cops reveals most of the guns reovered from violent felonies originate as "straw-purchases" from buyers in Maine. That is not sufficient for people like our U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, for whom I campaigned, from referring to gun laws as "gun safety", calling for a national ban on high-capacity magazines and other ineffectual laws.

When I lived in Texas, some douche drove his truck through the storefront window (in Killeen, where else?) of a local restaurant and shot 23 people to death and wounded another 20 – with a .22 cal pistol.

After Harvey Milk and George Moscone were assassinated, Dianne Feinstein shamelessly grandstanded the tragedy by calling for an assault-weapons ban – despite the fact that those murders were committed by former-cop (and ex-101st Airborne sergeant) Dan White, with not an assault weapon, but a .38 cal. revolver.

THIS is what drives high-intensity gun-issue voters away from sensible gun law reform – an issue I support. But it doesn't help the cause when people who don't know shit about guns, sound as idiotic as Pat Robertson sounds on LGBT issues.

But the dems step in it almost daily. This is one of the many ways the Ds have to reconcile their positions or be resigned to snatch failure from the jaws of victory. (Seriously, how can you NOT beat Republicans on the issues of the day. (Oh, sorry, you illuminated that.)

Stop being the stupid party...Oh wait, that's what Bobby Jindal said to fellow Republicans after they LOST the Presidential election in 2012.

And don't forget the other juicies on the table, people: It's also Federal judges (appointed for life), up to three Supreme Court judges (appointed for life). We must end this ridiculous pursuit of non-winning issues.

A democracy always gets the government it deserves.

@4 - No. You are delusional to think that the US population isn't progressive. From single payer health care to minimum wage, the majority of Americans is on Obama's left. People do not vote not to make Democrats pay but they do not vote because the 2 party system is bankrupt: voting for Republicans isn't an option and voting for Democrats hardly makes a difference in their lives. Both parties are owned by corporate lobbyists.

@9 People may be swayed by 27/7 propaganda at election time despite their best interest but it is silly to claim that opinion polls do not reflect opinions.

@2 - yes, perhaps mountain-west and pacific conservatives are ready to step back into a more consistently libertarian line of thinking - not just in terms of corporate regulation, but also regulation of private personal lives. But let me assure you: the GOP is the party of the South and the South is not ready to give up those issues. The South isn't ready to give up racism yet, nevermind same-sex marriage and reproductive rights. The South sees all of those issues as matters of theology in which their first amendment freedoms of worship entitle them to not only continue to hold those beliefs, but to an exemption from any law which might affect their exercise and practice of those beliefs. Their first amendment right trumps all other rights, in their view.

If the national party were to follow the lead of the Nevada GOP, they'd be just about as numerous and relevant as the old mainline New England moderate GOP. Without the Solid South, the GOP is toast almost instantly. With it, they'll drag on until the pre-1964 population - the people who "lost" the culture war back in the 60s - dwindles.

The real question is how things re-align after the culture war wedge issues are done. The right used these to cleave away people on the economic left, getting them to vote against their own interests (largely without really understanding this). Will they return to a progressive economic agenda? What about neo-libertarian same-sexers and young wanna-be anarchos? There is a frighteningly strong undercurrent of generational warfare regarding safety net programs....

All this said, I don't think Obama's approval/disapproval numbers are indicative of lefty-enthusiasm. There are plenty of people who dislike the ACA - because it's not progressive enough - and yet that does not translate into apathy or support for GOP repeal. The NSA issue is a great one: Obama hasn't been any better than Bush on that (or only marginally better), but that doesn't mean the youte are gonna run out and vote for a Romney.

@13
Good point.
French is to France as Ukrainian is to Ukraine.
"The Ukraine" is archaic, comparable to "The Congo", a geographical area, and which is now, after several names (dating to its era as a pre-independence colonial territory of Portugal), is formally "Democratic Republic of Congo".

#15: I disagree with your assessment. Polls don't show anything on these issues. Support of minimum wage tells me nothing about how far to the left someone is, as it's pretty much the lowest bar imaginable. And even support of single payer doesn't mean Americans are progressive on every issue--someone might support single payer while being a horrible hawk on foreign policy. When American people start voting against the right and the left begins to consistently win elections with clear majorities (and the American people start actually protesting bad policies en masse) I'll believe this is a progressive country. Until you show me outcomes, actual voting patterns over the decades, you have no real evidence that the majority of Americans are progressive. Bush would never have won a second term in the White House if this country was progressive. At least they had an excuse for voting for Obama. And even then, almost half the voters supported Romney. After a certain point you need to stop blaming mommy and daddy (i.e. corporations, lying politicians, etc.) for the bad choices voters make, and accept the fact that there is no real progressive majority.

The left needs to stop waiting for a political messiah to show up and tap into the mythical progressive majority, and start working on actually creating a progressive majority.

"unconstitutional domestic spying, unexplained international drone killings, and mass deportations"

Which one of these things is the economy?

Whine whine whine

Typical anti-American "conservative"
Crap

Meanwhile my first cousin is running in the Boston Marathon after her successful leg surgery from the piece of a cooking pot they got the DNA of the bomber from.

She's a patriot.

You "conservative" folk aren't

@20 Polls overwhelmingly show that Americans are aligned on progressive issues including being against unprovoked war or any escalation of warmongering (as shown repeatedly for Syria, Iran, etc). There were millions in the street against the Iraq war before it started and the majority didn't know what to think despite massive propaganda. Only after the betrayal of Democrats (including Clinton), more trickery and being told to be with us or against us did they finally rally to support the war.

The political left doesn't exist to speak of. There is a long way before progressives can win important elections.

"Support of minimum wage tells me nothing about how far to the left someone is"

Plain false. Just consider the MW debate in Seattle these days and how people align on this issue.

@17
I don't think the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan and ascendance of the so-called "Moral Majority", the alliance of white evangelicals, supply-side yuppie-conomists, and semiliterate Dixiecrats – All of whom are alive and, regrettably, spawining, comports with the notion that they "...lost" the culture war back in the 60s".

The teabaggers, like many in the misnomer-titled "Conservative" wing of the Republican party, continue, in that curious tradition, to vote against their self-interests, despite the obvious (to others of course) fact that they are being unartfully manipulated on the basis of "family values" (routinely violated by their chosen leadership), and specious macroeconomic theories that none of them is equipped, nor curious enough, to explain or rationalize beyond GOP talking points and bumper-sticker sloganeering. (Example: "God said it. That settles it.")*

When George Hull (not P.T. Barnum) said, "There's a sucker born every minute.", he underestimated the copious proliferation of idiots for whom procreation is a directive from their "god", giving rise to a new generation of people for whom closing their eyes and slowly waving their hands in the air each and every Sunday with their like-minded, fills them with a kind of elation unavailable to the rational mind.

*Actual bumper sticker seen throughout the south, especially at Stuckey's roadside gas-and peanut-brittle candy joints, replete with Jesus-everything: decorative plates, framed wall prints, whisky flasks (even in the "dry" counties).

@18,

DRC was a territory of Belgium.

@24,

There's a big difference between the supporters of a $15 minimum wage and a $10 minimum wage. The majority of Americans support the latter.

Wait! You're saying that support for a president has fallen in his second term?!! Why, that's NEVER happened!
Doomed I say!

Thankfully for the Democrats the Republicans are even more disliked.

And Obama won't be on anyone's ballot.

But folks like Rick Scott, Paul LePage, Nathan Deal and Tom Corbett will be. Also on the ballot will be Mitch McConnell. And Michelle Nunn and Alison Grimes and Jason Carter.

Here's my bold prediction:

This is a neutral year, unlike 2010. The economy is doing fairly well, the Republicans will continue to act stupid and turnout in a few key states will be helped by minimum wage and medical marijuana initiatives. Maybe same sex marriage initiatives as well.

The Republicans will gain a few seats in the House and will net a few Senate seats, but not enough to take control.

But even more importantly, the Democrats will win a number of governorships and take a few state legislatures.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

"Priest" is a bit of a give-away. Most Protestant denominations have reverends or preachers, I believe. Idk though, atheist here.

@26 Actually there is probably not such a large difference since metro areas, where cost of living is high, tend to support MW higher than $10..