# So when Democrats control everything in 2020.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 14, 2017, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577 "2017-05-14T05:59:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/41 "2017-05-15T05:07:48Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > As for making voting as easy as possible, oh, we will eat your lunch on that one. Voting is already very easy and it’s even easier to paint your efforts as a plot to make it easier for illegals to vote. It of course begs the question why you insist on “we” instead of “they” when the “we” you belong to is both entirely voluntary and clearly morally bankrupt. I see this from the republicans on this board time and time again. “Oh sure, we know what we’re doing is fucking awful, but you can’t stop us, so ha ha.” Why? Why the fuck would you approach it like that? Why would you _want_ that?! ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/42 "2017-05-15T06:29:28Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Actually, one thing I’ve pondered: We talk a lot about “limited political capital”, and “no time to address all the issues”, and so on, but is it really true? Spend the two years until midterms, and the two years after that until the Presidential election, writing up bills on _all_ of these subjects. … Sage advise that the Republicans should have heeded leading up to the 2016 elections, but didn’t. I am somehow doubtful that the Dems will fare any better in that regard leading up to 2020. There will always be some negotiating around the margins so long as either party holds a relatively narrow majority in either house. But major initiatives that your party is running on should be hashed out far beyond the bullet point list stage. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/43 "2017-05-15T10:51:10Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > It of course begs the question why you insist on “we” instead of “they” when the “we” you belong to is both entirely voluntary and clearly morally bankrupt. I see this from the republicans on this board time and time again. “Oh sure, we know what we’re doing is fucking awful, but you can’t stop us, so ha ha.” Why? Why the fuck would you approach it like that? Why would you _want_ that?! Because the drive to make voting easier is entirely driven by the reality of the Democratic base at this point in our history. Back when the Democratic Party was the party of the middle class and had the elderly in their pocket as well due to being champions of Social Security and Medicare, the ease of voting wasn’t on their radar. It’s cynicism disguised as virtue. Appeal to the voting base that exists, and then you can look into expanding it. I’d also note that the last time the Democrats made an above board attempt at election reform, it was to require ID and voter purges: > **[Help America Vote Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_America_Vote_Act)** > > The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 107–252 (text) (PDF)), or HAVA, is a United States federal law which passed in the House 357-48 and 92–2 in the Senate and was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 29, 2002. The bill was drafted (at least in part) in reaction to the controversy surrounding the 2000 U.S. presidential election, when almost two million ballots were disqualified because they registered multiple votes or no votes when The g... I don’t think Democrats would ever dare to actively seek to make the system looser than it is, and I think they’d lose big in the process, whether we took the high ground or the low ground. Given the GOP as it is, that means we’ll unfortunately take the low ground(Illegals voting!) but either way it’s a loser and rightfully so. What Democrats will actually do is what they do on immigration: favor tough laws in theory and undermine them in practice. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/44 "2017-05-15T10:58:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Actually, one thing I’ve pondered: We talk a lot about “limited political capital”, and “no time to address all the issues”, and so on, but is it really true? Spend the two years until midterms, and the two years after that until the Presidential election, writing up bills on _all_ of these subjects. Get discussions going with both the current Democratic legislators (and any Republicans willing to participate, too, if we can find any), and with the up-and-coming new politicians who are likely to become legislators, about what they’d like to see, and what they’d need before they’d vote for any given bill. Run as the party that multitasks and addresses _all_ of the issues, and then as soon as you have power, put all of those pre-written and pre-negotiated bills up for a vote. Focus on infrastructure upgrades, AND on other jobs, AND on healthcare, AND on education, AND on climate change, AND on the water crisis, AND on civil rights, AND on whatever else I’m leaving off. Planning things out beforehand is certainly useful and can probably get a little more passed than would otherwise be the case, but it doesn’t increase political capital. Political capital is basically defined as how much you can do that isn’t all that popular and/or might offend interest groups important to your party before you get to the point where you’re so unpopular that you can’t get anything done. For OBama and the Democrats, that happened after passing health care reform and that was pretty much the end. Climate change legislation failed, card check failed, immigration reform wasn’t even attempted. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/45 "2017-05-15T11:21:22Z")
2020 will be the start of the decades long effort to unfuck the country from the current administrations wanton disregard for the nation and it’s people. THAT should be the only goal (well that and making sure nothing like this ever happens again). ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/46 "2017-05-15T11:54:39Z")
Then that means avoiding big, controversial changes. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/47 "2017-05-15T12:19:13Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > This is a refrain I hear often. Yet somehow we always have angry old conservative people. > > It seems that people change their political leanings over a lifetime and the overall drift is conservative as they grow older. If that holds and yet birth rates stay lower we may end up with an older population with a conservative majority. > \ > > If the Democrats score a majority in both houses of Congress and gain the presidency in 2020 then they need to focus on basic pocket book issues. Do so obsessively. Ask themselves time and again how their proposed policies will impact the family budget of those working paycheck to paycheck. > > We’ve had an economy in an anemic recovery for a number of years according to the statistics and yet public perception has not tracked so favorably. As I have gotten well into my 8th decade, I have become more and more fiercely Liberal and will always vote Democrat. Republican policies are the damnation of humanity. Only by practicing true Christian charity and termperence can we humans survive and thrive on this lonely planet. I don’t know what causes Republicans to be so unhuman and phobic, but I want no part of them ever. Education is the key to seeing the needs of the world clearly. Republicans hate education. The kids might not be as tractible to stupid religious and cultural ideas if they get that school nonsense into them. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/48 "2017-05-15T12:23:26Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Because the drive to make voting easier is entirely driven by the reality of the Democratic base at this point in our history. Back when the Democratic Party was the party of the middle class and had the elderly in their pocket as well due to being champions of Social Security and Medicare, the ease of voting wasn’t on their radar. It’s cynicism disguised as virtue. > > Appeal to the voting base that exists, and then you can look into expanding it. > > I’d also note that the last time the Democrats made an above board attempt at election reform, it was to require ID and voter purges: > > [Help America Vote Act - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_America_Vote_Act) > > I don’t think Democrats would ever dare to actively seek to make the system looser than it is, and I think they’d lose big in the process, whether we took the high ground or the low ground. Given the GOP as it is, that means we’ll unfortunately take the low ground(Illegals voting!) but either way it’s a loser and rightfully so. > > What Democrats will actually do is what they do on immigration: favor tough laws in theory and undermine them in practice. Sure, Democrats and Republicans alike can agree that voter ID is a good thing – the difference, as we have constantly seen, is that when such laws are passed, Republicans gleefully make it hard for people to get those cards. Everyone who can legally vote should be helped to do it, not forced, for example, to travel to another county to a DMV to get a card. ‘That’ll fix them’, says the old, white Republican strategist. Republicans will destroy us all. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/49 "2017-05-15T12:28:32Z")
Yep, those Republicans are just deplorable. Getting that message out to the public should be a major item on the agenda of the Democratic party. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/50 "2017-05-15T12:32:41Z")
Democrats need to focus heavily on opposing voter ID, if they ever hope to retain popular support. Guaranteed lock on power. [Or perhaps not](http://www.gallup.com/poll/194741/four-five-americans-support-voter-laws-early-voting.aspx). Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/51 "2017-05-15T12:35:42Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Democrats need to focus heavily on opposing voter ID, if they ever hope to retain popular support. Guaranteed lock on power. > > [Or perhaps not](http://www.gallup.com/poll/194741/four-five-americans-support-voter-laws-early-voting.aspx). > > Regards, > Shodan That poll shows that Democrats would be wise to very, very strongly push early voting and automatic voter registration. Whatever their position on voter ID, early voting and automatic registration will help ensure Democratic voters can actually vote. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/52 "2017-05-15T12:56:59Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Because the drive to make voting easier is entirely driven by the reality of the Democratic base at this point in our history. Back when the Democratic Party was the party of the middle class and had the elderly in their pocket as well due to being champions of Social Security and Medicare, the ease of voting wasn’t on their radar. It’s cynicism disguised as virtue. And yet, it would be able to disguise itself as virtue if it weren’t, fundamentally, a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/53 "2017-05-15T13:03:02Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > A white Democratic politician who dares to hold his wife’s hand in public will be shunned for insulting the transgendered > yes, it was a joke… > But the reason the joke works is that it is only slightly exaggerated… it could actually happen a few years from now. > Being straight and married will be a sign that you are politically incorrect and out of touch ,not to be taken seriously–like being a rich white male is today. When you find yourself explaining why your jokes work, your jokes don’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/54 "2017-05-15T13:05:42Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > That poll shows that Democrats would be wise to very, very strongly push early voting and automatic voter registration. Whatever their position on voter ID, early voting and automatic registration will help ensure Democratic voters can actually vote. Amend voter ID laws to have a freely-available ID for all citizens, along with funding for late hours at DMVs so working stiffs don’t have to take time off work to get them, along with a robust update to our record-keeping system such that obtaining necessary documents from across the country is a trivial effort, and you’ll find opposition to voter ID drops among Democratic constituents. Couple voter ID laws with early voting and automatic voter registration (as opposed to how it’s traditionally worked, where ID laws are coupled with repealing early voting and automatic voter registration), and you may find some Democrats downright enthusiastic. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/55 "2017-05-15T13:17:44Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Keep in mind more people voted for Clinton than Trump. And similar results occurred in five of the previous six presidential elections. The evidence is that the Democrats have public opinion behind them. It’s the Republicans that need to scramble for votes. Keep in mind that that California accounts for that entire lead and then some. 45% of people didn’t vote. I don’t know what you can take away from a popular vote based on turnout in safe states. The fact of the matter is that Republicans outperformed expectations in the senate elections, the house elections, state elections, and the white house. Trump may have been a fluke but Republicans winning is not. I don’t know if confidence in electoral dominance is called for when we’ve lost across the board with Trump at the top of the ticket. Sure we had Hillary at the top of ours, but still. > [@](#): > > And time seems to be moving towards the Democrats. Here’s a [map](https://thumbs.mic.com/ZGQ5MTY3YjY2OCMvdlR6NkpGTng3WUs5SUd5QWVwZTdfeGZKejlvPS8yNXgxODoxMTc1eDg0Mi82MjF4NDQ1L2ZpbHRlcnM6cXVhbGl0eSg3MCkvaHR0cDovL3MzLmFtYXpvbmF3cy5jb20vcG9saWN5bWljLWltYWdlcy9wZzBjeGZiNWdjYWtoeHVycmMyNWpndWJpdnpmbW1hdGc5cjU3amY1OGgyZzBiYmNva3pzbG9tdm94cWYxYmptLmpwZw.jpg) of what the results of the 2016 election would have been if only votes cast by people under 40 were counted. I remember a similar poll done during the 1990’s proving that HW Bush was likely to be our last Republican president ever because everyone under 40 was a Democrat. Turns out that a Democrat from the 1980’s/1990’s might be a Republican in the 2010’s. > [@](#): > > Clinton would have won with 364 electoral votes. Here’s a [map](https://cnet3.cbsistatic.com/img/TTi37uO9bt0MqEMuTyLoO4mfEPs=/770x433/2016/11/09/4c30dc00-a79b-4bbe-a0b7-32bb406e109a/bluemapcropped.jpg) showing results if only voters under 25 had been counted. Clinton would have won with 504 electoral votes. Obviously, not every young voter in 2016 will remain a lifelong Democrat but it does appear that the Democrats have a younger voter base than the Republicans. That has been true since at least the civil rights movement and yet here we are with TRUMP as president. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/56 "2017-05-15T13:22:22Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Keep in mind that that California accounts for that entire lead and then some. This is such a silly talking point – Californians are Americans, and count just like residents of any other state. A big portion of Trump’s votes come from lopsided counts in conservative states – those margins aren’t any more (or less) valid or significant than Clinton’s large margin in CA or NY. So there’s no point to “keep this in mind” unless one’s goal is to minimize Californians or Clinton. It’s no more valid to discount this large margin in CA as it is to discount Trump’s margin in Texas, South Carolina, Kentucky, or WV. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/57 "2017-05-15T13:26:14Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > This is such a silly talking point – Californians are Americans, and count just like residents of any other state. A big portion of Trump’s votes come from lopsided counts in conservative states – those margins aren’t any more (or less) valid or significant than Clinton’s large margin in CA or NY. > > So there’s no point to “keep this in mind” unless one’s goal is to minimize Californians or Clinton. It’s no more valid to discount this large margin in CA as it is to discount Trump’s margin in Texas, South Carolina, Kentucky, or WV. In fact, given that the places Clinton disproportionately won are the cultural and economic powerhouses of the nation (Of the top 5 things people think of when they think “USA”, how many do you reckon are in states Trump won? How many are just in Cali and New York? Most of them, right?), I’d say it’s quite a bit more significant. It should matter more, not less, what people in California have to say compared to people in fucking Montana or Wyoming. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/58 "2017-05-15T13:32:05Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > It should matter more, not less, what people in California have to say compared to people in fucking Montana or Wyoming. LOL, but no, it should not. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/59 "2017-05-15T13:38:53Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > LOL, but no, it should not. It already does – CA gets a lot more influence in the electoral college than smaller states, as it should. Those other states get a lot more influence per capita, though, which I think is unfair – every voter should have the same amount of influence on presidential elections, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577/60 "2017-05-15T13:59:34Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > In fact, given that the places Clinton disproportionately won are the cultural and economic powerhouses of the nation (Of the top 5 things people think of when they think “USA”, how many do you reckon are in states Trump won? How many are just in Cali and New York? Most of them, right?), I’d say it’s quite a bit more significant. It should matter more, not less, what people in California have to say compared to people in fucking Montana or Wyoming. Wait a minute. Are we discussing stuff in this thread that helps or hurts Democrats get/stay in power? I’m losing track. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-democrats-control-everything-in-2020/786577.md?page=4)