this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2026
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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

we could not get them to vote

The 2020 COVID crisis gave us some of the most lax voting laws in the country's history, for a brief and magical window of time. Consequently, voting - particularly mail-in voting - surged nationwide and the nation experienced the biggest turnout in proportion to population to date. Democrats won in a landslide.

Over the next two years, nearly every single state in the country clawed back voting rights and slammed down novel new restrictions. This was under a Democratic Majority and Presidency, with windfalls of state legislatures and gubernatorial wins across the country. Democrats got absolutely shellacked as a result.

2022 midterm turnout plunged under the 2018 level. 2024 Presidential turnout saw liberals - particularly those "purity test" liberals - turned away from the voting booth in droves, by a combination of malicious conservative vote caging / registration purging and liberal administrative apathy. Much like with the reactionary campaign against GOTV groups like ACORN in 2008 and the lawfare conducted by anti-enfranchisement litigators in 2013 and onward, taking anti-VRA cases to the SCOTUS time and time again, the damage was done to turnout before the election began.

Probably didn't help that ruling liberals annulled the possibility of a primary before dumping Harris into the top of the ticket over the objection of the sitting President, too. You'd think they would have known better. But I guess it's just easier to fuck up and blame Palestinian and Transgender voters for your catastrophic defeat, when your Senate and Gubernatorial candidates are outrunning your Presidential nominee by a winning margin of votes.

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Direct disenfranchisement is a drop in the bucket compared to the willful lack of participation more than a third of the country participates in. If even half the people who decided to stay home every election day decided to try and participate, the entire contest would be a wash. It wouldn't even be close.

But they don't, because "the system is rigged and there's no point in trying to fix it".

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Direct disenfranchisement is a drop in the bucket

It's more than enough to swing elections by margin of victory