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More than a dime's worth of difference
Friday, April 2, 2010 at 2:20PM We are in the midst of one of the most contentious, polarized and highly partisan times in American history. But in terms of voter engagement, that is not all bad.
When former Alabama Gov. George Wallace ran as a conservative populist third-party presidential candidate in 1968, he complained there was “not a dime’s worth of difference” between the two major parties. With moderates abounding in both, it made little difference to many voters whether a Democrat was elected president or a Republican. Voter turnout was on the decline.
But over the last decade, the difference between the two parties has grown exponentially. And since 9/11, national elections have clearly been for much higher stakes, with the two parties offering starkly different visions of how the nation should be governed.
In the process, voter attentiveness has grown as has voter turnout. In the comparatively placid presidential election of 2000, the last before 9/11, barely 105 million Americans voted. Four years later, with the election widely recognized as a referendum on the controversial presidency of George W. Bush, turnout jumped to 122 million. And in 2008, with the historic candidacy of Barack Obama added to the mix, turnout reached a record 131 million.
There is no indication that the stark differences between the two parties will be muted anytime soon. Republicans have lined up in lockstep against major Obama administration initiatives, most recently health care reform. This contrasts with the passage of Social Security in 1935, which according to the Washington Post was approved with the support of a vast majority of House Republicans, as well as the passage of Medicare in 1965, which was favored by nearly half of congressional Republicans.
Yet while both historic measures were passed with bipartisan support, they each came during a time that the Republican Party was enfeebled. That is not the case now. Differences between the two parties are clear cut. Their bases look to be energized. And the turnout this November should once again be large.
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