Things might be a lot different in Congress and the statehouses if Democrats could get more of their voters to show up for off-year elections. But important groups like young people and minorities tend to sit them out, allowing Republicans to carry the day.
On the theory that every little bit helps, here’s a tidbit I picked up from Gilovich and Ross’s recent book, The Wisest One in the Room, which is a collection of insights from social psychology:
One group of people was asked “Do you intend to vote?” The other group was asked “Do you intend to be a voter?” Simply changing the focus from “what I do” to “who I am” caused the expressed intention to vote to increase by 10%!
Democratic message experts should keep this in mind. If you want to look up the original research paper (I didn’t), the cite is: Bryan, C. J., Walton, G. M., Rogers, T., & Dweck, C. S. (2011) Motivating voter turnout by invoking the self. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 12653–56.