I’ve thought a lot about the voter turnout dynamics that Matt and Lee are talking about. Is it the case that Americans are only attentive to democracy when we feel like the stakes are incredibly high? After all, polarization and close races seems to have driven higher turnout over the past decade or so in general. But, if we have record turnout tonight, I hope that one lesson will be that it’s not dependent on having the most inspiring candidate. Trump was on the ticket last time, so he probably isn’t the reason, and Biden has performed pretty well as a candidate, but he’s not the most bombastic or charismatic. That’s fine. People respond to the dynamics of the race, not just the candidates, and I for one will be excited if we can stop linking the flashiest candidates to “inspiration” and thus turnout. End cranky political scientist rant … until my next one.
