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Where Do Democrats Go From Here


Dbeasy

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Even if Biden pulls this out at the end with WI, MI and Penn, the fact that the Democratic candidate loses to or could barely beat one of the worst Republican candidates in history is unsettling.

 

Trump has a cult following from a massive group of uninformed voters, but that’s just the point. Logic, reason, and policy is not a winning strategy in the United States of Idiocracy.

 

And at the same time, the Party needs to search deep within itself to understand why the Party doesn’t resonate better with half the country. There have been endless conversations on surly and elsewhere about both the messaging that the Democratic Party projects outward, as well as some of the policies the Party promotes.

 

The Party has two choices. It can just keep waiting for the slow demographic shift to take over, or it can examine itself more critically to understand why it can’t comfortably beat a party with massive flaws.

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3 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

 

Even if Biden pulls this out at the end with WI, MI and Penn, the fact that the Democratic candidate loses to or could barely beat one of the worst Republican candidates in history is unsettling.

 

Trump has a cult following from a massive group of uninformed voters, but that’s just the point. Logic, reason, and policy is not a winning strategy in the United States of Idiocracy.

 

And at the same time, the Party needs to search deep within itself to understand why the Party doesn’t resonate better with half the country. There have been endless conversations on surly and elsewhere about both the messaging that the Democratic Party projects outward, as well as some of the policies the Party promotes.

 

The Party has two choices. It can just keep waiting for the slow demographic shift to take over, or it can examine itself more critically to understand why it can’t comfortably beat a party with massive flaws.

 

It goes further left, its what the left is becoming hard left leaning. If Mr. Biden wins he'll be the next covid related death, by his own VP.

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I honestly have no idea.  
 

in some ways, Biden did a fantastic job, he’s made up a lot of ground the Democrats lost in 2016, and the demographic trends in last nights votes are clear.  But if Men in general are going to trend the other direction, I just don’t know what the answer is.

 

And the losses among non Cuban Hispanics is super worrisome.

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Live in Michigan, WI, MN and PA?

as long as that stays in place you guys are fine for the presidency as we saw today (and what happened last time around when it didn’t)

AZ, like NV and CO before it- now looks to be blue forever. Texas is probably a waiting game but that’s a long wait (maybe?) right now. Figure out how to win those 4 states and it’s a wrap.  
It’s a much easier time to be a democrat now running for president than it was in 1992 for example. 

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The Hispanic vote is huge, and there are multiple sub-groups within that. I don’t know what the strategy is there, however. Go left and you lose a sub-group. Stay moderate and you may not pick up voters anyway.

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My plan for YOUR party is first of all...fire all of your pollsters/pundits.  Your guys couldn't be any fucking dumber.  It's impossible your party of "Math & Science" could be any fucking worse at Maths.  Second...defeat Trump any which way but loose.  Maybe tap the brakes on litigation and do something productive with your law degrees like defend Democracy.  What the fuck people...this massive arsenal of smart people and money and you can't beat Trump, but you can do all the other dumb shit you do?  Get something done for the country!  Tired of this shit.  I don't give a flying fuck where you go from here on your soul-searching walkabout.  Just defeat Trump.  You had one fucking job in 2020 and you continue to fuck it up at every turn because of your own internal bullshit.  It ain't all waitin' on you............................

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This is a crazy thought, but maybe they should try attacking the Republican Party. The Republican Party is responsible for inflicting immense amounts of misery on normal Americans, frequently even disproportionately upon its own voters, and the Dems never even bother to point it out or explain how they’d be different.

Instead, they just spent the last four years acting like Trump was an aberration and that the rest of the GOP was normal. As a result, they underperformed in most house and senate races and even lost a significant chunk of their advantage with black and Latino voters.

They need to do a better job of defining their enemy and explaining how they’ll be better.

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It gets old hearing the same “they are going too left” statement. Just like hearing the “socialist” statement which use to be the “liberal” statement. Well the Republicans have become too “fascist” or too aligned with “white supremacy”. None of these comments help positive relationships or opens up the ability to work together. In their God Trump you have someone who only makes matters worse and who does nothing to bring people together and they have become him, or they were just like him and he brought it to the surface. It’s disturbing to see barriers being put in front of the WH to protect the President. That’s third world stuff and that’s the world of chaos Trump and his followers encourage.

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15 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

The answer is more complex at the state level and involves allowing for more ideological flexibility among candidates in red/purple states.   You shouldn’t run one of the most vocal gun control guys against Ted Cruz in Texas.  You shouldn’t think MJ Hegar being a veteran who rides a motorcycle somehow offsets disagreeing with the majority position in Texas on virtually every issue.  

It’s different for President, though.  That’s a different electorate, a different race that gets completely unique and pervasive media coverage, and that doesn’t even swing on actual policy at this point.  It’s a pop culture event.  Nominate a guy (or girl) with charisma who doesn’t come across as a pussy or a scold.  That would be enough.  It’s going to be enough for Biden and he’s geriatric.

Really smart post. 

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12 minutes ago, Brandywine said:

It gets old hearing the same “they are going too left” statement. Just like hearing the “socialist” statement which use to be the “liberal” statement. Well the Republicans have become too “fascist” or too aligned with “white supremacy”. None of these comments help positive relationships or opens up the ability to work together. In their God Trump you have someone who only makes matters worse and who does nothing to bring people together and they have become him, or they were just like him and he brought it to the surface. It’s disturbing to see barriers being put in front of the WH to protect the President. That’s third world stuff and that’s the world of chaos Trump and his followers encourage.

The youth of the party is much more left leaning.  It's not a stretch to say the party follows that direction.

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I disagree with most of the Democratic platform.  My biggest connection with y'all this cycle was "Fuck Trump."  

And what happened?  You have him fucking up everything possible.  And I mean everything, including a fucking global pandemic.  You get a 10-month head start.  More money that could be spent in 3 presidential lifetimes.  And Trump digging his own political grave on national television almost every fucking night.  I realize he has a few voter suppression tools in his back pocket, but otherwise...................how are you guys fucking this up?  It's impossible!  It's not because of the Electoral College or the Courts or whatever the fuck you wanna blame.  How is this fucking possible?  Be more tactical in Wisconsin next time around.  You know...your third fucking lesson in Civics.  WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!!?

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4 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

And voted for Trump because of socialism fears.  

The electorate isn’t very rational.   

Yeah but the voters support progressive policies. Democrats just really fucking suck at salesmanship. They allow themselves to be painted as socialists and all they say is “nuh uh!”  They’ve got to sharpen their message the next two years to take back the senate and shore up their 2024 support. 

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The overriding cultural driver behind America is greed.

A majority of this country will gladly trample over basic human rights, they'll damn the climate, and they'll trash their long term future f it might mean a few more dollars in their pocket today.

Dems need to convince people that they will have more money by voting for them. 

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2 minutes ago, Hawndoh said:

The overriding cultural driver behind America is greed.

A majority of this country will gladly trample over basic human rights, they'll damn the climate, and they'll trash their long term future f it might mean a few more dollars in their pocket today.

Dems need to convince people that they will have more money by voting for them. 

Or another thing that’s way less negative and awful- people can only care about any of that shit once they have their basic needs taken care of economically. 

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The overriding cultural driver behind America is greed.
A majority of this country will gladly trample over basic human rights, they'll damn the climate, and they'll trash their long term future f it might mean a few more dollars in their pocket today.
Dems need to convince people that they will have more money by voting for them. 

This is probably one of the biggest factors. People vote for self interest for the most part.
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2 minutes ago, SubliminalHorn said:

Yeah but the voters support progressive policies. Democrats just really fucking suck at salesmanship. They allow themselves to be painted as socialists and all they say is “nuh uh!”  They’ve got to sharpen their message the next two years to take back the senate and shore up their 2024 support. 

Salesmanship?  That's what you think is the overriding issue from last night/this morning?  Trump's salesmanship is literally from the Jerky Boys, "I grabbed some guy, he don't know if he wants to buy.  I push his face in the fucking hood.  You buy this fucking car or I break your fucking head."  

I can't believe this was considered a national 8% margin for Biden.  Hopefully he'll eek out the EC, what's the popular vote gonna come down to...maybe a million...if that?  

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1 hour ago, Dbeasy said:

 

Even if Biden pulls this out at the end with WI, MI and Penn, the fact that the Democratic candidate loses to or could barely beat one of the worst Republican candidates in history is unsettling.

 

Trump has a cult following from a massive group of uninformed voters, but that’s just the point. Logic, reason, and policy is not a winning strategy in the United States of Idiocracy.

 

And at the same time, the Party needs to search deep within itself to understand why the Party doesn’t resonate better with half the country. There have been endless conversations on surly and elsewhere about both the messaging that the Democratic Party projects outward, as well as some of the policies the Party promotes.

 

The Party has two choices. It can just keep waiting for the slow demographic shift to take over, or it can examine itself more critically to understand why it can’t comfortably beat a party with massive flaws.

 

I can’t believe how stupid people in Miami Dade are.  They fell for Trumps lies hook, line, and sinker. Those fuckers got DUPED.

 

 

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Just now, Lobo said:

Salesmanship?  That's what you think is the overriding issue from last night/this morning?  Trump's salesmanship is literally from the Jerky Boys, "I grabbed some guy, he don't know if he wants to buy.  I push his face in the fucking hood.  You buy this fucking car or I break your fucking head."  

I can't believe this was considered a national 8% margin for Biden.  Hopefully he'll eek out the EC, what's the popular vote gonna come down to...maybe a million...if that?  

I think the proof that democrats suck at salesmanship is Miami Dade. Trump hammered the socialism socialism socialism angle hard. And that cost Biden Florida. 

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Even if Biden pulls this out at the end with WI, MI and Penn, the fact that the Democratic candidate loses to or could barely beat one of the worst Republican candidates in history is unsettling.
 
Trump has a cult following from a massive group of uninformed voters, but that’s just the point. Logic, reason, and policy is not a winning strategy in the United States of Idiocracy.
 
And at the same time, the Party needs to search deep within itself to understand why the Party doesn’t resonate better with half the country. There have been endless conversations on surly and elsewhere about both the messaging that the Democratic Party projects outward, as well as some of the policies the Party promotes.
 
The Party has two choices. It can just keep waiting for the slow demographic shift to take over, or it can examine itself more critically to understand why it can’t comfortably beat a party with massive flaws.

Trump 2020, with the fully established cult following, dedicated reelection campaign since inauguration, advantageous democratic base, and platform of the presidency isn’t a terrible candidate. Terrible President and person, but a relatively strong candidate. Not really as comparable to 2016 as people are making it out to be right now.

I don’t know the answer right now but we should focus on wrapping up the W.
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It's not an issue of being "too far left."  Joe Biden was one of the most moderate Democrats running.  Kamala is certainly not "the most far left person in the Senate" as conservative media outlets have been claiming.  That's laughable.

A huge problem is that the most watched media network in this country runs a shamelessly open 24/7 campaign for the GOP and has been for the past 2+ decades. Their smears against Democrats stick.  Their disinformation campaigns stick.  Tucker or Hannity get on TV and say Democrats are evil and here's some made up reasons why, and millions believe it and spread it across social media. 

Democrats raised a zillion dollars and invested like crazy this campaign.  The enthusiasm was off the charts.  But as long as we have such a huge percentage of the population that is unreachable and loyal to their team, I'm not sure what the answer is.  Foreign owned media like Fox/OAN and disinformation superspreaders like Facebook certainly don't help.

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So, just spitballing here, but what happens if Biden wins, Mitch retains control of the Senate and the new right wing arm of the Supreme Court takes down the ACA?   I was hopeful that the Dems could turn around and re-institute the ACA on a more legally sound basis if that were to happen.  But now, isn't it clear that the ACA might actually end up being truly fucked in the middle of a pandemic?  How do you think that will play in 2022?  Or will it even matter because the U.S. populace is so fucking stupid?

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7 minutes ago, westexhorn said:

Lol why not just ask Republicans what they don't like and get it straight from the horse's mouth to figure out what needs to be worked on.  

why would those uneducated, stupid, unenlightened, cultist, racist zenophobes give a fuck?

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1 hour ago, Lobo said:

My plan for YOUR party is first of all...fire all of your pollsters/pundits.  Your guys couldn't be any fucking dumber.  It's impossible your party of "Math & Science" could be any fucking worse at Maths.  Second...defeat Trump any which way but loose.  Maybe tap the brakes on litigation and do something productive with your law degrees like defend Democracy.  What the fuck people...this massive arsenal of smart people and money and you can't beat Trump, but you can do all the other dumb shit you do?  Get something done for the country!  Tired of this shit.  I don't give a flying fuck where you go from here on your soul-searching walkabout.  Just defeat Trump.  You had one fucking job in 2020 and you continue to fuck it up at every turn because of your own internal bullshit.  It ain't all waitin' on you............................

Their not learning from the lesson of just 4 years ago is why they'll keep fucking up.  Trump got in because his anti-establishment veneer resonated with a large swathe of people.  Putting your weight behind more geriatric life-long senators isn't eroding that politicking "establishment" stink. 

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1 hour ago, Dbeasy said:

Even if Biden pulls this out at the end with WI, MI and Penn, the fact that the Democratic candidate loses to or could barely beat one of the worst Republican candidates in history is unsettling.

First admit that Trump isn’t even close to the worst candidate in history.  He’s a shitbag of a human being, a terrible businessman, and the worst president in history, but apparently a pretty amazing candidate.  He reflects nearly half the nation, at least 67 million Americans.  They are him and he is them.  He is very representative of an average American.  It’s disgusting but it makes him a pretty marketable candidate.  When he is gone there will be another.  Maybe one of his kids, maybe some current low level politician who is paying attention and learning how to whip the ignorant masses into a frenzy, maybe one of these established GOP cunts who has been biting his tongue and saying the politically correct things for the last 20 years but now has learned he can let his inner shitbag self out front and center and it won’t matter.  Decency simply doesn’t matter anymore.

We are a nation of idiots and with bad money management skills and racist tendencies (at best) who don’t collectively value education or true decency.  That’s half our country and one of their own kind makes a damn good candidate apparently. 

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The first thing the dems have to do is dig deep through the numbers to make a determination about whether Trump was an opponent of above average or below average difficulty. Did Biden squeak by only because Trump is so hated? Or does Trump turn out his base reliably enough to where beating him is actually more difficult than beating generic R (insert Mitt Romney).

The whole strategy decision needs to go from there. If Trump ends up having been a really game and tough opponent, then I think the Dems are probably okay for awhile and can survive on ever-shrinking remnants of the Blue Wall up north. They will eventually turn pink, but by then Texas should be light blue to counter the rust belt.

If Trump was a garbage, easy opponent, then the Democrats are in deep shit when they go up against generic R, and will need to make drastic adjustments.

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so everyone realizes that even if Dems have house, senate and executive they still need 61 for cloture to take anything to vote? We have to end the filibuster to do anything that the Dems want to "ram it down the throats". The GOP doesn't care about getting anything done, they have no agenda. If they get nothing done, people are mostly okay with it or if it's something that obviously has to be done, if you don't get to 61 for cloture then you look like the bad guy. Dems aren't willing to look like the bad guy, because their constituents apparently won't show up to vote if they do that. When the GOP does that it fires them up to vote more. GET LESS DONE.

So when the cloture rules change in the senate. They will allow for all kinds of stuff to get voted on, most of it will follow party lines. People will not turn out because Dems also don't turn out when policy doesn't end up being PERFECT IMMEDIATELY. Because surprise, national policy takes about 2-3 years to actually be felt. 

Democrats are fucked because they allow themselves to be fucked by pandering to a base that are a bunch of fucking pussies.

I've said this many times. Dems need to fuck everything for 4 years, but change cloture to 61 for ALL VOTES including SC stuff (nuclear option reinstated), but allow for a non-nuclear option for "housecleaning" if there are less than a majority of any 1 party in the senate. (50 for cloture) so that the Senate can start legislating again.

Right now the Senate cannot legislate, making the Executive take as much power as it can to attempt to legislate, which pushes the SC to be partisan...The senate must be able to legislate again and the rules need to change so that it can legislate.

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Everyone has assumed the sunbelt would shift blue and the rust belt would stay blue. That’s not true. The voters that can move are college grads and they make sun belt red states purple but leave blue rust belt states purple too. We’ve got a few decades of more purple states than we’ve had in a long time as demographics play out.

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Trump is like a Mack Brown, policies and the nasty parts aside he turns out the vote like a great recruiter. His rally skills are second to none. He uses the fascist playbook but he is an incredible vote recruiter. Dens haven’t had that really ever. Even Obama wasn’t as good as Trump.

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You can also look at rural policies - the gig economy isn’t available in rural America. We need a “Rural New Deal” with reliable modern economy infrastructure brought to dying communities. Having traveled to remote areas all summer, I can definitely say you can join the modern economy very easily from these places. Dems have to solve that problem.

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