Former President Clinton said the No. 1 goal for Democrats should be increasing voting numbers in midterm elections.
Clinton struck a popular refrain Wednesday night on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” reiterating a point President Obama has been making at fundraisers across the country.
{mosads}”Then they wonder why nothing happens,” Clinton said of Democrats. “The president and I have talked about this a lot — about how the No. 1 thing we got to do is get voting up in the non-presidential years.”
Clinton noted that every member of Congress, a third of senators and many governors are elected in midterm elections.
He focused on lower-income, working people who tend to have trouble voting. “They’ll show up in a presidential election and if their candidates wins, they think that’s all they need to do,” Clinton said. “So they don’t show up in midterm.”
During a Miami fundraiser late last month, Obama said Democrats tend to get “clobbered” in midterms because the party’s base gets turned off by the toxic atmosphere in Washington.
Clinton said people have to realize that if you don’t engage in politics, somebody else will.
“All these people who have these feelings who want to build modern, cooperative, prosperous societies got to understand that no matter how disdainful they find politics, if they don’t play it, somebody will,” he said. “And you will lose if you sit it out. You have to suit up and play the game.”