Nope, TonySinclair is right, incidentally many of your OP’s points are good (although you dropped some things like your “appearing to govern poorly”. It has turned into “it is delusional to think so”). Overall what TonySinclair said does not contradict many of the OPs points, it supplements them as the reasons for the defeat were many, not only the historical and motivation ones.
Among the false crap pushers out there there was a lot coming from Americans For Prosperity, and with funding from a lot of powerful sources they nationalized the local races and even funded local “grass-roots” networks.
On edit: Yes adaher, the Koch’s even owned a lot of the efforts to get their way.
A lot of the scare about Ebola raised by FOX did benefit Christ Cristie when he traveled around supporting his fellow governor candidates. And then Rand Paul was just playing the fear monger.
I realize you need any port in a storm, but to think that the Republicans won because of ebola and ISIS is just wrong. Or the Kochs. The Republicans actually did very little to win, because they are still massively screwed up as a party, although less screwed up than they were four years ago. The Democrats made this possible. The good thing about that is that what the Democrats gaveth, they can taketh away.
Strawman, and I even said that many of your points in the OP are valid, so your claim here is not what I just said: I said that those were important factors too, as usual you need the security of your blanket made of straw.
And the point stands as you could not deal with the cites, FOX made (and makes) a lot of shit up.
Okay, that’s fair, I just don’t think it made as much difference as you think. The Democrats also had their billionaire backers, and especially among minority voters, resorted to some pretty terrifying ad campaigns.
Lately, Democrats run like it’s 1928. They campaign in favor of more regulation, more social programs, liberalized immigration, higher taxes, more racial preferences, as if none of this stuff has ever been tried before. They talk as if having to show a driver’s license at a polling place is exactly the same as what black voters faced in the South before the Voting Rights Act. Their constant accusations of Republican extremism are just so much projection.
In reality, all of these things have been tried repeatedly and at great cost. But Democrats still campaign as if the last 80+ years of nearly unbroken victories for the progressive agenda never happened, or as if there is a real risk this could all be undone. There is only so much hysterical rhetoric one can hear before questioning their sanity, much less entertain the possibility of voting for them.
Don’t think so, the reality remains that while the leaders right now do sound reasonable in the open they still want to remove Obama or remove Obamacare the EPA and many more programs that benefit Americans.
Most Americans do want changes, but not a complete repeal (or Obama’s impeachment :rolleyes: ) and Bohener and McConnell are claiming now that they will follow that moderate path, but unfortunately Bohener has already found many times how the extremism of the Republican congress critters has humiliated him.
I guess a lot of conservatives do want to make sure that Bohener and now McConnell are humiliated again when the time comes to vote for sensible legislation, I have seen already many examples of the extremist Right wing media telling the Republican leaders that they have another thing coming if the agenda is not like they do want it and they have more of the congress critter ears in congress now.
It seems to me that if the Democratic leadership is made up of the average Democratic Doper… then no they won’t.
It seems to me the general tone here is to make excuses for the huge loss or cry conispiracy instead of introspection and measures that can be done to improve the message. That’s a shame.
Maybe it’s too soon for introspection and I don’t think the Democratic leadership is the average Doper.
Again, just a factor, and it is not a conspiracy, what AFP did was all in the open. There is indeed very little excuse for the lack of motivation and lack of focus the Democratic campaigners had.
Not necessarily pointing at you, as such… I tried to couch my words with generalities rather than specifics for that reason. Just the overall tone I’m getting from Democratic Dopers in reading the various post election threads.
The Republicans realized they had to distance themselves from the whackos. They ran good campaigns, they made no idiot moves like shutting down the government (right before the election, that is), and they ran no candidates who tried to explain uteruses.
The Democrats didn’t run any really good candidates, for whatever reasons.
The adverse map of course, midterm Democrat apathy of course, and successful voter suppression endeavors on the part of the Republicans.
Republican obstructionists never wavered from the path and made this a deadly weapon in creating the perception of poor governance.
Obama’s own failures (healthcare rollout & messaging, and adopting Republican-like positions on privacy invasions and use of military force).
Basically you have a bunch of asshats who SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT and then moan “Oh, Obama’s so awful at governing”. Somehow the political environment was such that those who showed up to vote actually bought this pile of horseshit.
The Democrats need to stop being concerned about being such great Democrats and start being more like effective Republicans.
Another thing I can’t stand is all the hashtag hype of younger voter issues. Whee, gay marriage and pot. Healthcare reform. We WON! It’s all over Facebook!
Which is all certainly must be comforting to people living by the landfill, surviving off payday loans, shipping their sons off to get their balls shot off in next-istan, and their daugher stamping license plates in the minimum security prison to pay for the cost of hot shower water. With all the NSA snooping, people nowadays just pick up the dialtone and yell “Where’s my job Obama?”
Sometimes what I think we need is an Army Command Sergeant Major to run for president… just sand off the nicks and dings and you’d have a contendor.
Why isn’t it the Democrats fault? Their voters weren’t motivated to go to the polls or even to vote by mail. If you want someone to buy your product, you have to be able to actually sell your product. 100’s of millions of dollars in advertising couldn’t get out the vote. The party platform couldn’t get out the vote. The hate and fear mongering couldn’t get out the vote. The Clintons and Obama couldn’t get out the vote.
The Democrats spent too much money and manpower to now claim that this was “just” a midterm and no one turns out for midterms. The Democrats worked really hard for a large turnout. The party’s voters didn’t vote because they didn’t want to vote. What the Democrats were selling, the potential voters weren’t buying.
You’re right. My thinking was that Republicans didn’t have much more to sell, but that our voters are more reliable. What I should have said was that it’s not that Democrats’ fault that they have unreliable voters.
It’s also true that Democrats would do better if they gave people more of a reason to vote for them, rather than just trying to make voting easier. The convenience of voting isn’t the issue and I hope Colorado finally put that lame theory to rest.
Its not the convenience of voting, it is how unequally that convenience is distributed. You’ve seen the pictures, people standing in line four, five, six hours or more to vote.
Look at the pictures and tell me they look like Republican voters to you.