The editorial formula over at Tweety's show seems to be "If you diss the voters, they will come." Or not.
This segment above from Tuesday's Hardball is exactly what I'm talking about. Now comes Chris Matthews, concern trolling about how people aren't motivated to vote because everything sucks and they're frustrated. This goes right up there with the rants about how Obama should magically morph into SuperPOTUS and fix everything right away, right now, and if he doesn't it's because he's a wimp. Or how Dems are doomed -- DOOMED -- in 2014. Or his gem about how Democrats should be making floor speeches about income inequality at the very same time they're making floor speeches about income inequality.
The days of leg tingles are over for Tweety. I get that. But this kind of report is just a useless waste of time, especially in light of this observation by Gallup, an organization which has been biased toward Republicans for awhile now.
According to Gallup, the Republicans success in establishing record level disapproval of congress will backfire on them at election time because of the link between high disapproval ratings and high voter turnout.
According to Gallup‘s data, voter turnout exceed 40% during the last five midterm elections when Congress’s approval rating was low. Turnout was below 40% when Americans were more satisfied with Congress.
If you look at the table in that article of the correlation between Congressional approval and voter turnout, it should be apparent that turnout should be higher than the numbers there, given Congress' current 13% approval rating. High turnout does not work to the benefit of Republicans or the Tea Party.
Thank God for Joan Walsh and Jonathan Capehart, who managed to turn Tweety's "both sides" trajectory back to one side. Everyone needs to repeat this like a mantra: Congress is dysfunctional because Republicans made it dysfunctional. Not 'both sides.' Republicans.
Make it a sign. Put it on your bumper. Shout it from the mountaintops. And for the love of everything that's sacred or holy, just vote in November.
