Democrat Indifference

You may not have noticed, but while the heat was high during the Super Tuesday primaries in most of the states on the Republican side, something else was happening on the Democrats' side of the primaries, which essentially were conducted in the same states.

And it was not a good thing for Democrats.

Now ... I'm not talking about the fact that Hillary Clinton actually won enough of the states' primaries to give her a mortal lock on the nomination, if she is not in prison by then.  That is bad enough for their party as it is, having a candidate who may likely be indicted along the way to Election Day.  This is worse.

According to the folks at Edison Research who track this sort of thing, the change in turnout on the Democrat side from the last primaries was remarkably high -- on the down side.  Think of it for a moment -- eight years ago the two candidates, one of whom was the selfsame Hillary Clinton, generated more interest among the Democrat electorate than was shown in Tuesday's primaries.

State by state, that difference was a lot.  Percentage drops in voting were in double digits in at least five of the nine states, and at least seven of the states had drops in votes.

The problem is not just the utter lack of enthusiasm the Democrat voters have for their terribly-flawed candidates (when you are on the verge of indictment, or are a socialist who only called yourself a Democrat in time for the campaign, well, that is "flawed"). 

It is that in all seven of the states where the Democrat turnout had declined from the last contested campaign, the Republicans recorded big increases from 2008, six of which were in double-digits.

Well, only five of those six were actually in double digits really, because Virginia, my home state, was in triple digits.  Yes, Virginia, the number of people voting in the hotly contested primary on Tuesday was more than twice as many as voted in the 2008 primary.  And, it should be recalled, the campaign was certainly no less hotly contested in 2008.

What are we to make of that?  Well, Occam's Razor, the principle by which the simplest, most straightforward explanation is generally the correct one, makes it pretty clear.  The Democrat electorate frankly has little to no enthusiasm for the candidates the party has put forth.

Hillary Clinton is not running on any accomplishments of her lifetime; her career has been primarily one of positions held and time served, along with marrying someone who ended up as president.  In other words, hers is a campaign of entitlement, the same concept that she ran on (and, it should be pointed out, lost on) in 2008 -- "It is my time and I am entitled to the nomination and the presidency because, well, it's my turn."  Am I wrong?

Bernie Sanders, with anything like a platform, could have competed hard and more successfully.  Had he taken Hillary on relative to her biggest vulnerability, the email scandal, he could be close enough even to be stealing super-delegates. He didn't, but the fact that he was (and still is) competing vigorously tells you that the level of enthusiasm engendered by the Clinton campaign is so minimal as to allow a 74-year-old severe leftist with precisely no Senate accomplishment to give her a run.

Bottom line -- regardless of the ugly contention in the Republican contest, and the rather hideous tone some of it has taken (as I wrote yesterday), the voters are coming out and voting for Republicans in huge numbers.  And at the same time, the Democrat voters are staying home in, well, huge numbers.  The contrast is not something subject to interpretation of polls; it is the arithmetic of counted votes.

Perhaps in the bowels of the DNC they are looking at Super Tuesday and are really scared for November.  Perhaps they are laughing it off, assuming that Hillary is unbeatable in November and they shouldn't worry -- it is certainly a liberal mindset not to listen to opposing data, even when it is scarily in conflict with your predetermined set of facts.

But right now, in comparably competitive campaigns, the Republicans are getting their voters out of the door and to the polling places, in literally record numbers.  The Democrats can't get voters to come out in numbers even resembling eight years ago.

It is pretty simple.  Hillary Clinton is such an unattractive candidate, and her campaign so much based on the unstimulating concept of entitlement, that her supporters don't care enough to show up and vote.

There is a message in there.  Fortunately for conservatives and the USA, liberals only hear the messages they want to.

Copyright 2016 by Robert Sutton
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