In a discussion of the wisdom of holding to Charlotte, NC, as the site of Democratic Party’s September national convention, Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse said,
We can’t go back to a map where we’re not growing the electorate, but where we’re shrinking it. So we have to be in places like North Carolina.
He made his remark in an environment of then-candidate Obama having carried the state by 14,000 votes out of 4.2 million cast in 2008, a Republican legislature having been elected in 2010, the Democratic Party’s incumbent governor deciding not to stand for reelection in 2012, the state’s unemployment being the 5th worst in the country, the state’s voters having passed an amendment banning same-sex marriage just before Obama announced his support for gay marriage, and so on.
Woodhouse’s sentiment is certainly sound. The Democratic Party can’t, politically, be seen to be in retreat in the face of these setbacks. But notice the phrasing he chose. “we’re not growing the electorate,” “we’re shrinking it.”
The electorate, it seems, consists of Democrats and Progressive agenda supporters. The electorate—all Americans eligible to vote—doesn’t include Republicans, Conservatives, or anyone opposed, or merely indifferent, to the Progressive agenda.
Hmm….