# How did the Democratic Party blow this election as badly as they did? How?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 3, 2004, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687 "2004-11-03T06:14:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Mirasawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mirasawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirasawa)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/101 "2004-11-03T18:48:18Z")
I honestly think that the Republicans learned a lesson by being out of power in the Congress for 40 years… you have to support views held by a majority of Americans if you want to win. The pubblies changed, moderated their views, and now they have swept the Congress, Presidency, and Governorships. Again. The Democrats are still using the old tactics which worked for 40 years… Republicans are going to destroy Social Security, bring back the draft, return Jim Crow laws, make the bad guys of the world flip out due to America’s strong military posture, etc etc. Also, Democrat plans are not explained very well. They don’t give convincing examples of how increased socialism has worked well in the past and how it would work well now. On foreign policy, they haven’t explained well that the UN has a good record of fairness and integrity. \_ ---
**Author:** ![spectrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@spectrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectrum)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/102 "2004-11-03T18:50:23Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Hello, strawman. > > I don’t have a “body count” goal or a debt goal. But keep up that winning attitude, because that’s what middle America loves to hear from the left! It worked great this time, and it’ll only get better with age! Hey Bricker, thanks for not being an arrogant, gloating shit. Oh, wait… ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/103 "2004-11-03T18:51:45Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Kerry is scary? Scary because people don’t know what to expect from him. The thinking is…_sometimes better the devil you know_. and BTW **Neurotik** I didn’t mean to imply (and never said) not a Yankee = southerner… it’s not necessarily one or the other. My point was that these WASPish candidates from New England and nearby don’t have a good track record lately. I know Bush and klan are from Maine but he plays the role of a good ol’ boy so well that he believes it himself. Poppy Bush did the same thing but wasn’t near as convincing as jr. ABC was having this discussion this morning I noticed after I posted. They said “it looks like in order to get in the Whitehouse you need a Southern accent.” Well, I don’t know about that…but you better a “bubba” from somewhere besides New England. That’s okay, we’ll see how the Jeb Bush/Swarzeneggar ticket does in four years. 😉 It was a heck of a nite…congrats and let’s all kiss and make up now. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/104 "2004-11-03T18:57:54Z")
> [@Airblairxxx](#): > > Nice strawman. And if, heaven forbid, we’re afflicted with a wave of terrorist attacks in this country, do you really think John Q Voter would hold the minority party responsible? No, they won’t and you keep missing the point. JQV will still blame the terrorists. He will always blame the terrorists. He will not blame politicians. He _will_ ask himself which party is more likely to kill any future terrorists before they act again. John Kerry failed to make the case that he would do more to kill terrorists. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/105 "2004-11-03T19:02:05Z")
> [@Airblairxxx](#): > > If Nixon were running today, he’d be a Democrat. Yes, he would. If you think that indicates a positive trend for liberalism, you’re missing something. ---
**Author:** ![Hazel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Hazel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazel)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/106 "2004-11-03T19:02:39Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > This outlook saddens me. I regret that you have the opinion that Americans are gullible and that churches somehow teach people “not to think”. > > And just a question, doen’t people die in wars even if sent to battle by a democrat? > > I can understand the disappointment from the election (which ain’t over yet) but to blame it on the majority being “gullible” and “not thinking” does a disservice to our fellow citizens and the democratic process. I have to agree that some Bush voters were gullible and unthinking. \> The ones who think that WMDs were found in Iraq, and/or that Saddam was involved in the 9/11 attack. (Saw an article months ago headlined “It’s Official. Half of Us are Morons”. Said about 1/2 the country believed one or both of these things.) \> The ones who think that there’s no proof that that big cache of explosives was not looted before we got there. (Recent press release from FAIR took media to task for failing to make the weapons cache story clear.) \> The ones who think that Kerry actually did “vote to raise taxes (however many times)”. ([Factcheck.org](http://Factcheck.org) debunks this charge.) \> The ones who disagree with Bush on significant issues, but mistakenly think his stands are the same as theirs. (I wish I could remember where I saw this article. It said that when Bush supporters were polled on the issues, it was discovered that a significant number believed his stands on several issues were what they preferred – when they were not.) ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/107 "2004-11-03T19:03:39Z")
> [@spectrum](#): > > Hey Bricker, thanks for not being an arrogant, gloating shit. > > Oh, wait… Sorry. How long have I had to listen to the SDMB Hive Mind tell each other how evil Bush was? How many times was I assured that all right-thinking people deplored Bush, and how there was no way for him to win? How many pile-on thread sdid I have to hop around, defending attacks from six or eight people at a time, all convinced Bush and Bush supporters were completely and uttely irredeemable? Forget it. I told you I’d gloat. I told you [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=238675). Remember? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/108 "2004-11-03T19:04:07Z")
Let’s see what you think of this theory- There are X% of voters in every state that base their entire vote on whether a candidate opposes abortion. There are Y% of voters in every state that base their entire vote on whether a candidate opposes all gun controls. There are Z % of voters in every state that base their entire vote on whether a candidate opposes gay marriage and civil unions. These groups are nearly coincident: those in X are also in Y and also in Z. So if we know X or Y or Z we can use any of them. And these voters ALL vote Republican. Let’s be conservative and say that in the Bible Belt, X=15%. To win this state, the democrat must win 50% of the total vote, but he’s only got 100-X% to work with. So he must win 58.8% of the 85% who consider other issues to get to 50%. A pretty daunting task. Or let’s say X=20%. Then the Democrat needs 62.5% of those 80% left to get to a majority, nearly impossible. Conclusion: It is virtually impossible for a Democratic presidential candidate to win a Bible Belt state. ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/109 "2004-11-03T19:05:48Z")
[http://www.gnn.tv/articles/article.php?id=795](http://www.gnn.tv/articles/article.php?id=795) This pretty much answers the “how” for me. ---
**Author:** ![spectrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@spectrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectrum)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/110 "2004-11-03T19:13:21Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Sorry. How long have I had to listen to the SDMB Hive Mind tell each other how evil Bush was? How many times was I assured that all right-thinking people deplored Bush, and how there was no way for him to win? > > How many pile-on thread sdid I have to hop around, defending attacks from six or eight people at a time, all convinced Bush and Bush supporters were completely and uttely irredeemable? > > Forget it. I told you I’d gloat. I told you [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=238675). Remember? Bite me. Have fun dancing on the ashes of the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere… oh, wait, you probably don’t give two shits about all the gays whose lives were used as toys by Bush’s gay bashing march to victory, do you? All you care about is that you get a chance to gloat. You couldn’t be a lower class of human being if you tried. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/111 "2004-11-03T19:26:39Z")
As long as we’re all Wednesday-morning quarterbacking here, I’m of the mind that Bush won the election by pandering to a fearful populace: Bush’s voters were afraid of terrorists, afraid of gays, and afraid of admitting that Iraq’s a fiasco. As others have noted, the Democrats have gained a lot of ground in organization and message, but it’s not enough yet. There was a massive grass-roots effort in this election that IMO was unprecedented from the Left, and that momentum has to be maintained and built up. Bush might have won the election, but he hasn’t gotten a brain transplant, and it’s imperative to hammer him for his screwups when he makes 'em (and I’m sure he will). Remember, 49% of the American voters _still_ think George W. Bush is a colossal f\*ckup. Tuesday’s results haven’t changed that. ---
**Author:** ![Airblairxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Airblairxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airblairxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/112 "2004-11-03T19:26:46Z")
> [@furt](#): > > No, they won’t and you keep missing the point. JQV will still blame the terrorists. He will always blame the terrorists. He will not blame politicians. He _will_ ask himself which party is more likely to kill any future terrorists before they act again. John Kerry failed to make the case that he would do more to kill terrorists. Oh, I agree that Kerry didn’t make his case here. And I’m not saying that, following a hypothetical terrorist wave, JQV would rather unleash his vituperation on a politician than a terrorist. But you really think that the electorate wouldn’t hold someone accountable? That rhetoric is all that matters, especially when one party holds all the cards? That people’s opinions won’t change over time? Okay . . . ---
**Author:** ![Airblairxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Airblairxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airblairxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/113 "2004-11-03T19:31:56Z")
RE: NIXON WOULD BE A DEMOCRAT NOW. > [@furt](#): > > Yes, he would. > > If you think that indicates a positive trend for liberalism, you’re missing something. If you think that indicates a static “center” of political equilibrium, contrary to American history, you’re the one who is missing something. ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/114 "2004-11-03T19:46:23Z")
> [@spectrum](#): > > All you care about is that you get a chance to gloat. You couldn’t be a lower class of human being if you tried. Keep going; keep swaying people to your open minded cause. That’s right; keep up the radical hatred and demeaning attitude toward those who don’t share your views and you’re sure to win next time. ---
**Author:** ![Mirasawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mirasawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirasawa)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/115 "2004-11-03T19:55:48Z")
Howz’about those October surprises? 1. **Al qaa qaa** - Democrats underestimated the power of the red media to quickly cast doubt on whether the explosives were actuallly there. 2. **Osama bin Laden** - He stars in a video tape! Scary! And does nothing but threaten states that vote for Bush. 3. **100,000 Dead in Iraq** - Didn’t pass the smell test, since it came too close to the election. Also, dead foreigners in a former dictatorship didn’t excite the voters. After those three and the DUI thing last election, hopefully the Democrats will stop trying this tactic. \_ ---
**Author:** ![spectrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@spectrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectrum)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/116 "2004-11-03T20:03:01Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#): > > Keep going; keep swaying people to your open minded cause. That’s right; keep up the radical hatred and demeaning attitude toward those who don’t share your views and you’re sure to win next time. Yes because they’re all fucking choir boys. Wait, they are, that’s why they support discrimination against and oppression of homosexuals. Because they’re bigots. You cannot deny that. Bush won because he got bigots to vote for him in droves. I’m mean? You don’t see me voting against the humanity and dignity of millions of other American citizens. Well, I guess gays are only pseudo-citizens now in part of the country. Which is just how Bush and his filth like it. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/117 "2004-11-03T20:07:05Z")
> [@Airblairxxx](#): > > If you think that indicates a static “center” of political equilibrium… Just the opposite; if you are correct, it suggests we’ve been on a conservative track for the last 30 years ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/118 "2004-11-03T20:10:01Z")
> [@TonyF](#): > > You forget: us ivory-tower liberals cut our teeth in the dorms with daily 8-hour ultraviolent gaming sessions, supplemented by military sim on the weekends and 2 hours at the gym everyday. 😉 Feh. Big deal. Animated blood and guts? :rolleyes: It’s not the sight that really gets ya, **Tony,** _it’s the smell._ That’s what doubles you over and empties your stomach in a reflex so fast that you’ve barely got time to turn your head so you don’t barf all over your clothes and shoes. And 2 hours at the gym everyday don’t mean shit when the chiggers are eating your ass alive in the bush, or you’ve gone so long without bathing that you peel a layer of skin off of your feet when you change your socks, or when you’re so cold you can’t can’t feel your toes anymore and are shivering so hard your rifle is rattling like a bunch of tin cans on a string. Bring it on, “ivory-tower liberals.” ---
**Author:** ![TonyF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TonyF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonyF)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/119 "2004-11-03T20:25:03Z")
Oh, toughen up. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687/120 "2004-11-03T20:25:38Z")
> [@spectrum](#): > > Bite me… > > You couldn’t be a lower class of human being if you tried. **Moderator’s Note:** **Spectrum** , knock it off or take it to the pit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-democratic-party-blow-this-election-as-badly-as-they-did-how/272687.md?page=7)