I have written this new piece for Talking Points Memo. It begins:

Democrats love to talk about Republican voter suppression, and various ways, such as strict voter identification laws, that have been employed to keep Democrats from registering and casting effective votes. But ironically, the path to Democratic victory in November could be to adopt some methods to depress the Republican vote, specifically to encourage conservatives to stay home on Election Day or to vote for third party candidates. This may be an unsavory tactic but smart politics. The better long-run solution for Democrats is automatic voter registration, or even mandatory voting.

There’s a long tradition of trying to push down the turnout of one’s opponents. Back in 2010, Democrats and progressives denounced ads from a Republican front group, “Latinos for Reform,” which urged Spanish-speaking Latino voters “¡No votes!” (or “Don’t Vote”) in upcoming congressional elections. The ad’s pitch was that President Obama and Democratic voters had not done enough on immigration reform to deserve Latino votes and that these voters should stay home.

The ads seemed aimed at depressing Democratic turnout in congressional elections in order to help Republicans. The person behind Latinos for Reform, Robert de Posada, was a former official for the Republican National Committee who opposed President Obama’s immigration policies. The largest donor to Latinos for Reform was a non-Latino pro-life activist living in Southern California.

Democrats could easily follow a similar strategy in November. Republican and conservative voters have very negative views of Hillary Clinton, and it seems unlikely that any amount of advertising or persuading will get many of these voters to vote for her. But these same voters are ill at ease with Donald Trump, who has not always (and still does not always) take conservative positions on issues that these voters care about.

It is easy to imagine Democratic Super PACs and non-disclosing 501(c)(4) groups running ads aimed at these voters in swing states such as North Carolina, Florida, and Ohio highlighting Donald Trump statements indicating his earlier support for abortion rights and his current support for some of Planned Parenthood’s work; Trump’s comments on same-sex marriage and the rights of transgender people in the current disputes over bathroom access; and Trump’s views on taxes and the economy. Every conservative who stays home helps Democratic candidates.