Here's a radical thought about the midterm election

There's been a lot of ink spilled and a lot of teeth gnashed over the poor turnout in the recent midterm elections.

Everyone bemoans the difficulty of getting people to come out to vote when there is no presidential race.    Barack Obama will bring them out, but without him . . . 

What if it wasn't just the person of Barack Obama missing on November 4th?   What about the fact that his ideas and his policies weren't much in evidence either?

What if courageous Democratic candidates had come out swinging, campaigning loudly for the continued success of Obamacare, for immediate immigration reform, for more stimulus spending on infrastructure to create jobs and get the economy working for the middle and working classes, for climate change action -- and against the madness of restrictive abortion rights laws that result in clinics having to close?

Instead, most of them ran away from the president, tried wanly to find a way to distance themselves without actually denouncing him and his progressive policies. 

Some did support some of the issues, of course, especially minimum wage.  But they usually did it without giving credit to the president.   What if they had run forthrightly as Obama Democrats?

Perhaps a lot of Democratic voters might have felt that was worth getting out to vote for.

Why do we cow so easily and concede the message-war to the Republicans?

Ralph