Bill Clinton-“You got to suit up and play the game”
During an appearance on “The Tonight Show,” former President Bill Clinton told host Jimmy Kimmel that people who are not happy with the political process must learn to play the game of politics if they want to change how the government works.
“But all of these people who have these feelings, who want to build modern, cooperative prosperous societies have got to understand that no matter how distasteful they find politics if you don’t play it, somebody will. And you will lose if you sit it out and it always happens. You got to suit up and play the game,” said Clinton.
A challenge the Democrats face is getting its base (low income workers, women, and minority voters) to the polls during the mid-term elections.
After the 2010 mid-term elections, Republicans won several seats and were able to take control of the House of Representatives. Nate Silver , a political pollster, has given Republicans a 60% chance of winning the Senate and gaining control of Congress after the 2014 mid-term elections.
Clinton told Kimmel that a problem the Democrats face is trying to get the party’s base to understand that voting during the presidential elections doesn’t solve all of the issues the base faces at the state level: “One of the working problems with young people and lower income people that have kids and trouble voting is that they’ll show up in a presidential election, and if their candidate wins, they think that’s all they need to do. And so they don’t show up at the mid-terms.”
The former president mentioned that he and President Obama are working together in order to try and get the party’s base to vote during the mid-term elections.
And in the event that the Republicans become the majority party, Clinton said that the best thing that President Obama could do is to stay focus and continue working.
Clinton noted that he had a Republican controlled Congress during the majority of his presidency, and that he faced some of the same problems that President Obama has faced.
Clinton told Kimmel that he learned the best way to combat the division was by working with the congressmen who wanted to compromise and to focus on the “job the American people sent him there to do.”
“But all of these people who have these feelings, who want to build modern, cooperative prosperous societies have got to understand that no matter how distasteful they find politics if you don’t play it, somebody will. And you will lose if you sit it out and it always happens. You got to suit up and play the game,” said Clinton.
A challenge the Democrats face is getting its base (low income workers, women, and minority voters) to the polls during the mid-term elections.
After the 2010 mid-term elections, Republicans won several seats and were able to take control of the House of Representatives. Nate Silver , a political pollster, has given Republicans a 60% chance of winning the Senate and gaining control of Congress after the 2014 mid-term elections.
Clinton told Kimmel that a problem the Democrats face is trying to get the party’s base to understand that voting during the presidential elections doesn’t solve all of the issues the base faces at the state level: “One of the working problems with young people and lower income people that have kids and trouble voting is that they’ll show up in a presidential election, and if their candidate wins, they think that’s all they need to do. And so they don’t show up at the mid-terms.”
The former president mentioned that he and President Obama are working together in order to try and get the party’s base to vote during the mid-term elections.
And in the event that the Republicans become the majority party, Clinton said that the best thing that President Obama could do is to stay focus and continue working.
Clinton noted that he had a Republican controlled Congress during the majority of his presidency, and that he faced some of the same problems that President Obama has faced.
Clinton told Kimmel that he learned the best way to combat the division was by working with the congressmen who wanted to compromise and to focus on the “job the American people sent him there to do.”
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