Ann Friedman says Obama‘s base still wants a positive political experience — not just a set of policy positions.
Just two years later, everyone agrees that Obama’s party is having trouble “involving the customer.” These days, the Tea Party is the political movement that offers its members a thrilling collective experience. Democrats bracing for disappointing results in the midterm election cite “the enthusiasm gap” — the fact that conservatives are palpably more excited about politics right now than liberals are. What happened to the droves of young people who were such avid Obama supporters in 2008? Writing in The Nation about a month before the midterms, Chris Hayes gave a succinct explanation for the gap: “The people with the most faith in the president and the Democratic Party are the hardest hit by the continuing economic disaster.”
