A long overdue companion to [thread=676834]this thread here[/thread]. The Dems may have a winning trend at the Presidential level, and they look good on paper for the next POTUS election cycle. But they are in danger of losing the Senate, are at best unlikely to take the House of Representatives, are not looking great for governorships, and are getting clobbered at the state legislature level.
Why? And more importantly what should they do about it? What are they doing about it?
My 2 cents as to why: a decades-long propaganda campaign funded by plutocrats had put the GOP, and ideas the GOP now embraces, in a very positive light among large swaths of voters. Combine that this a well-executed long term strategy of “inside baseball” politics, the most public of which is gerrymandering, and you have a permanent looking GOP advantage in the “red” states.
As to what the Dems are doing - IMNAAHO not bleeping enough! The NC legislature has taken the state off the rails into Teahadism. There are thousands protesting every week in the capital, and now all around the state. If I were a Democratic Party of NC operative, I would hope I had the brains and the guts to got into that crowd with a clipboard and get the name and contact information of every single person there. Those people would be the basis for future campaigns, get-out-the-vote efforts, fund raising, even a candidate pool. Have the NC Dems done this? My NC friends say no. Have the NC Dems done anything with the opportunity the NC GOP delivered to them on a silver platter? It appears not.
There’s a similar story here in Virginia. The GOP ran on budget and paycheck issues, and then took their working majority in the legislature and their hold on the governorship and passed a wand-rape bill, but did not pass a budget. That was DURING THEIR BUDGET SESSION!!! OK, it’s not as bad as NC and there are no mass protests, but I have yet to hear from the VA Dems as to how they are going to go after the GOP majority in the legislature. No wonder we’re losing!
Fellow Dopers, what are your thoughts? Can the Democratic Party be saved, or is it destined to fade away to a party that can only win the top national office?
I think the Dems need to get into terminology education.
People out here have very mixed opinions on topics and sometimes the words get in the way.
Guns are important in the West, and the Dems lose on rhetoric even when the ideas make sense.
Same goes for other local issues- people vote farther right than they actually believe.
This is all that really matters. All that other stuff you rattled off is just the normal waxing and waning of political discourse. Things won’t–and can’t–change until after 2020. How that might happen is really hard to say right now. For all we know, WWIII might happen in the meantime.
One thing to remember, the democratic party got more votes in the House in the last election than the Republicans, IMHO gerrymandering has a lot to do with what took place as the Republicans nevertheless continued to control the House; of course, how we got to that levels we see now is related on what the OP mentions.
IMHO the gerrymandering also creates a self fulfilling result, consider that in the last election Teahadist Bachmann won by the seat of her pants, but it is clear to me that if his opponent had more support and funding the result would had been different as Bachmann overspent her opponent by 12 to 1. IIUC the lack of funds was because of tactical thinking, it is considered to be better to spent more money in districts with more chances to get a result, but this idea is self defeating IMO, because as the OP mentioned, efforts to organize the people that would work for change in a conservative district then are not funded because of that mentality.
Get mean. Turn the Pubs’ demonization tactics back on them. Out-demonize them and their politics and ideology. Dems have an advantage there because they don’t have to lie or make anything up to pull it off. Just state the truth and state it loud: The GOP is an arm of the 1% and the megacorps, and the astroturfed/grassroots RW are idiots, bigots and dupes.
Adopt the Roveian tactic of attacking your opponent’s greatest strengths: The GOP bears the conservative banner proudly, so attack conservatism as such.
There are three basic poles/axes in American politics: social/cultural; economic; and foreign/military policy. Some issues, like immigration, touch on more than one, but those are the poles.
On foreign/military policy, conservatives are divided between isolationist paleocons and interventionist neocons. That division can be exploited, and both positions are subject to honest criticism.
On the social/cultural axis, speak the truth: Social/religious/cultural conservatives are always entirely wrong about every single thing that distinguishes them from others. In a strictly metaphorical sense, follow them into the churches, grab them by the lapels and scream at them.
On the economic pole, keep hammering away at how business interests shape GOP policy and the dismal results. Talk about ALEC and its suspicious secrecy at every opportunity – that’s especially relevant to this thread since the organization specifically works on state legislation. Make ALEC the new ACORN.
This was one of the reasons I supported Hillary Clinton in 2008. She understood how the game works. If the other side attacks you, you don’t just defend yourself. You also attack them back and make them defend themselves. Your enemies won’t stop attacking you because you’re nice to them. They’ll only stop attacking you when they’re afraid of you.
Really? You needed yet another insult to poison the well and prevent any attempt at civil discourse in a [del]conservative bashing[/del] political thread?
From demanding to burn fake obamacare cards, making up “death panels” to denying climate science and evolution I do make the point that the poison was added and continues to be added by the tea party.
You should notice that a good number of republicans are not in my insult sight.
Whatever their opposition does, or is like, the problem is not them, it is in themselves.
The democrats are not in the least left-wing * ( although naturally they and all the social-democratic parties also not left-wing in essence must rely on left support, since the left have nowhere else to go ) being socially liberal, but devoted to capital and the intertwined economic and agreed political systems as much as their opponents; but they do suffer from the same fatal dilemma as does the New Left.
Either they enforce simon pure identity politics ( anti-racism/anti-sexism/gay rights/ anti-guns / pro-immigration etc. ) for present righteous ideological raison *d’etre, *or they embrace the feelings and beliefs of the ordinary people they claim ( as do their manipulative opponents ) as the repository of virtue and final source of power, and stop attacking their entrenched belief-systems. The latter frequently being repugnant, this is not ‘the easy way out’. However also, the simon pure approach needfully appeals to the emotions despite not always actually enriching those meant to be helped. At least welfare gives a dole, rhetoric enriches no-one.
This is not a question as to which approach has more morality; just as to which will give them they control they need.
Were they ( or the SDs ) left-wing they might consider, and offer to, change the present intertwined economic and political systems, instead of merely aping their opponents economic mantras and lauding the traditional past which ensures their political tenures; they might even consider changing to leadership and ideas from below instead of the marxist-leninist model that all current parties adhere to.
However the launching of pigs has been indefinitely postponed.
That’s another thing they need to change. The Dems need to realize that they can move much further to the left than the Pubs have to the right without becoming Tea-Party-like crazy idiots in the process.
Oakminster, I’ve got your suggestion as “The Dems should leave the motive-impugning, well-poisoning insults to the GOP.” Got it! But then what do I know? As the McCain campaign made clear in this Pit thread, I’m not a [post=10332883]“real” American[/post]. And as GWB told me repeatedly in his re-election campaign, I favor letting the terrorists win.
But do tell me, in what way is “wand rape” an inaccurate description?
No goal post moving. I’m obviously objecting to the tactics used on this board by the vocal left. Want to have civil discourse? Don’t poison the well with crap like “teahadist” and intentionally provocative drivel like that in post#5.
Don’t want civil discourse? Rant in the Pit where you are likely to get appropriate responses.
We’re talking about party tactics, not Board tactics, and my point is that the Dems have relied entirely too much on “civil discourse.” They’re bringing a pamphlet to a gunfight.