Doesn’t matter. Democrats as a whole are incapable of leaving the gun issue alone for very long. Every time I think they’ve started to figure this out, they revert to talking about gun control.
Democrats could offer to materially improve people’s lives. Failing that, they could spin conspiracy theories about their opponents being Russian agents…oh.
Most of those voters aren’t reachable by the Democrats. However, there needs to be less of a focus on urban elite issues such as transgender bathrooms and how many letters and symbols to add to LGBT. There are a lot of reachable voters who don’t wake up worried about the Dakota pipeline first thing in the morning. They may be concerned about police violence but get annoyed by smug millennials who bark at them to check their privilege. They get increasingly annoyed with endless protests to shut down the city. They’re annoyed by seeing 15 newly created genders on the paperwork for a docot’s visit.
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I think you’ve got that one backwards. It’s Republicans who have been focused on transgender people’s bathroom usage, trying to put into law that transgender people be required to use the restroom that matches their birth sex. But I think this issue is already being put to bed fast because it’s not a winning issue for Republicans.
Speaking of which, Danica Roem’s election last month in Virginia is a great case study. She made headlines for being the first openly transgender candidate elected to a state legislature. The incumbent Republican that she defeated was the author of the Virginia trans restroom bill. But she didn’t campaign on calling her opponent a bigot. She stuck to the issues, did a lot of knocking on doors type campaigning, and centered her campaign on her plan to fix a local highway. Her opponent tried to hammer her on “transgenderism”. The lessons here are pretty clear.
Yeah, I think Democrats would be wrong not to address civil rights, which is their strength. What they need to do is something along the lines of what Bernie Sanders is doing: we need to think and communicate in terms of economic rights. Health care as a right, basic income as a right, safe communities as a right. Less epistemology and more core messaging that touches a nerve. Democrats used to talk about economic equality and they just don’t do that anymore.
One reason they don’t is that they’re afraid of losing money from donors and losing a competitive edge. I think they’re already losing that edge and destined to lose only more of it. The democrats will not be able to keep up with the republican big money machine, especially now that they’re out of power. This is why it’s critical, critical, critical to start winning local elections. If they can repeat the model of Virginia, they can become a force to be reckoned with.
If you want to win more elections, stop worrying about facts so much and appeal to emotions. There’s no big mystery here.
That’s the principle - don’t tell them they were foolish, which they were - instead tell them the guys they supported were lying to them, which they were. Don’t tell them they’re deplorable for supporting racism and ignorance, instead show them the consequences of racism and ignorance to real people like themselves.
Maybe, but you have to understand which emotions to tap into and how to effectively do that. And when you think your target audience is a bunch of rubes, it’s likely you’re going to miss. I’ll stick by what I said first off: Quit thinking of them as “rubes” and sit down and listen to them. You might learn something. Take a look at what Sarah Silverman (yes, the comedian) is doing. I think she gets it.
Well, OK, John, tell us what you learned. If there’s anybody to trust for having his finger on their pulse, gotta be you. What do they believe that we have failed to understand? That millions of illegal voters bolstered HRC’s election numbers? That Trump is a “blue collar billionaire”, who has down home, working class values? Roy Moore is the very embodiment of Christian teachings? That tax cuts for the wealthy are “rocket fuel” for the economy?
You believe any of that? Is it a result of you sitting next to the old cracker barrel with some old crackers, and letting their wisdom wash over you? You must have listened, otherwise, no way you would urge us to, right? Shirley you are not urging us to pander to their ignorance and folly! Maybe if we were nicer, is that it?
Show us the way, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you!
He’s made that clear. What we failed to understand is that Bernie would have made everything right.
AFAICT, Trump has been more true to his campaign promises than any president I can remember. Unfortunately for his supporters, he has gone about it in a very hamfisted way, and hasn’t gotten a lot done, and partially as a result of his many personality and character flaws has been blocked by courts and stymied in congress. But he’s certainly tried to get done what he said he would, and what he could do by executive order he has.
I suppose you could argue that his supporters are “rubes” for thinking that these policies are the right policies to have. But I don’t think it’s fair to say that Trump has played these people, in the manner depicted by the OP. He’s said “I’m going to do X”, and has gone about trying to do it. For the most part, Trump supporters have gotten exactly what they expected out of him (a lot more than I expected, frankly - I thought he would normal out after the election).
Yeah, his wall is magnificent. And he did end Obamacare on his first day. :rolleyes:
I can understand well why you only quoted the first sentence of my post.
He really is a man of action.
It would be more accurate to say “He’s made a show of telling other people to get those things done while he’s out golfing again, then tweeted blame on anyone but himself when it doesn’t just happen” than to say he “has gone about trying to do it”.
All any president does is tell other people to do things. That’s the nature of the role. No one thought Trump was going to go down to the Mexican border and start digging.
So how have those things gotten done under other Presidents but not this one? Is it always someone else’s fault?
Reread my first post on the subject.
Put down the shovel.
I guess that means you’re not going to reread it. OK, suit yourself.