re: #152 dangerman

well done.

in summary, more people like Democratic positions
if only they’d all vote all the time…

Good in theory, but in practice, the numbers just don’t bear it out.

Again, here’s the presidential numbers, going back to ‘68, ranked by turnout and who won the popular vote:

1968 (61%) Nixon; 2008 (58.2%) Obama; 2004 (56.7%) GW Bush; 2016 (55.7) Clinton; 1972 (55%) Nixon; 1992 (55%) Clinton; 2012 (54.9%) Obama; 1976 (53.5%) Carter; 1984 (53.3%) Reagan; 1980 (52.6%) Reagan; 2000 (51%) Gore; 1988 (50%) GHW Bush; 1996 (49%) Clinton.

In the House, for midterms it’s not much different:
year/turnout/R-D results
2014 (36.7) 51-45.5
2010 (41) 52-45
2006 (40) 44-52
2002 (39.5) 50-45
1998 (38) 48-47
1994 (41) 52-45
1990 (38.4) 44-52
1986 (38) 44-54
1982 (42) 43-55
1978 (39) 45-54
1974 (39) 41-57.5
1970 (47) 45-53.6

I’m not seeing much correlation there, either. Turn out matters, of course. But I don’t think we can really draw a straight line between higher turn out and good results for Democrats.