I keep seeing stories in the US papers that say the Republicans are way off base with their cuts-and-misery agenda because polls consistently show that the majority of Americans want government action to solve the unemployment problem.
The trouble is, it doesn’t matter what the majority of Americans want, because the majority of Americans don’t vote. The Republicans changed the make-up of the Congress by motivating some 22 per cent of the electorate to come out and vote for them.
The first criterion for winning a battle is to show up. As long as most of the US electorate is more interested in Charlie Sheen and American Idol, the results of public opinion polls aren’t worth a tinker’s dam.
I think we’re seeing the same trend in Canada. The Tories pursue a nasty, attack-ad style of politicking, in continual campaign mode. It energizes their base and turns off more moderate voters. The result: election turn-outs decline, and a determined minority can hijack our democracy.
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