A CLARIFICATION

Yesterday I wrote a post in which I argued that Democrats need to tell voters that it's dangerous to vote for any Republican. One of the responses in comments was this:

Makes perfect sense if your sole electoral strategy is to poach moderate Republican voters.

But that wouldn't be the main reason to do this. The main reason would be to remind occasional Democratic voters why they always need to turn out.

It's widely known that older, whiter, more conservative voters turn out to vote at higher rates than people in other voter groups. Maybe it's just because they're more civic-minded -- but it also may be because the politicians they vote for, and the political media sources to which they pay attention, incessantly warn them that the Democratic barbarians are at the gate, and that it's up to them to ensure that the gate stays barred. This has been the message on the right for years: Vote Republican at every level of government because the alternative is big government! higher taxes! Nancy Pelosi! New demons get added to the list -- Maxine Waters! George Soros! MS-13! mobs! -- but the message is the same: Don't ever let your guard down because the evil Democrats are coming.

I'd like Democrats to vote in every election. Maybe more of them would if they always believed that Republican victories place our society in extreme peril. They should believe that, because it's true.