Democrats face a pretty bleak future

[desura]

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/democrats-senate-2018-2020/511859/

"It’s possible that some states may be slipping away from Democrats. Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania along with Iowa and Minnesota are all states that have “watched their Democratic leans evaporate over the last thirty years,” Brandon Finnigan, the director of the non-partisan election site Decision Desk HQ, wrote in an e-mail. “This doesn’t mean a Democrat won’t win these states ever again, or that Republicans have a lock on them. But they’ve red-shifted,” he said, adding that despite the state’s track record of voting for Democrats in presidential elections, “it’s just a matter of time” before even Minnesota breaks for the Republican candidate in a presidential race.

It won’t necessarily be easy for Democrats to win back voters that once supported Obama and then voted for Trump. In some parts of the country, “voters stampeded to Trump. They didn’t just move to Trump. They ran to Trump,” Finnigan said in an interview, adding: “It would take a massive event for them to come stampeding back in a cycle.” That dynamic could frustrate Democrats hoping to swiftly reverse the losses the party sustained in the presidential election."

 

[alien42]

Americans face a pretty bleak future under Trump.

but this really isn't news, it's an opinion piece and says more about the poster than anything else.

 

[pauldun170]

An earlier article on Finningan and Decision Desk HQ
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/u...ia-explains-republicans-predicament.html?_r=0

 

[UNCjigga]

Just a consequence of our new single-party Republic. The GOP has done a good job removing any vestiges of democracy at the state level wherever they have a veto proof majority, and look set to continue that work in Congress. I'm pretty sure they found the perfect candidate in The Donald for continuing to weaken the Executive Branch and ensure we never have another Obama with the audacity to use Executive Orders.

I still don't understand how the GOP built an entire coalition of people voting against their own interests based on fear of "The Other"...but that would make a good documentary subject.

 

[Mai72]

They said the same a few years ago about the Republicanis. How they were going to have a bleak future because of the rising Spanish population. And, that the nation was going left. And, the Republicanis were out of touch with the "new America." And, whites were losing power. Etc...

Look at what happened. The lesson? We just don't know because things change so quickly.

 

[werepossum]

They said the same a few years ago about the Republicanis. How they were going to have a bleak future because of the rising Spanish population. And, that the nation was going left. And, the Republicanis were out of touch with the "new America." And, whites were losing power. Etc...

Look at what happened. The lesson? We just don't know because things change so quickly.

This is true. Some states get more red/more blue, and others less so. Texas for example is much less Republican than a decade or two ago. Go back five decades and almost the entire map has flipped. Demographics change, and in either party's pursuit of a new demographic it may alienate an existing demographic. I don't think this is particular to the Dems.

 

[OrByte]

Let's revisit this after 4 years of Trump

 

[Jhhnn]

Just a consequence of our new single-party Republic. The GOP has done a good job removing any vestiges of democracy at the state level wherever they have a veto proof majority, and look set to continue that work in Congress. I'm pretty sure they found the perfect candidate in The Donald for continuing to weaken the Executive Branch and ensure we never have another Obama with the audacity to use Executive Orders.

I still don't understand how the GOP built an entire coalition of people voting against their own interests based on fear of "The Other"...but that would make a good documentary subject.

They've also created an enormous amount of apathy among the eligible electorate by obstructing the normal functioning of govt. They say govt is incompetent & make it so every chance they get. They've been creating a power vacuum for the corporatocracy to fill for decades. Privatize everything.

I expect they'll deregulate, cut investor class taxes, overheat & crash the economy, again, at which point the apathy has a tendency to evaporate. Dems will need a message that resonates when that happens.

 

[senseamp]

In the short term, yes, but long term, it's going to be a very bright future for the Democrats and infamy for the Republican party.

 

[FIVR]

I'm going to create an app that routes people (probably democrats) to the fastest, best and most scenic destinations to commit suicide. As far as I know this is a completely untapped market that will greatly go up in value with Trump as president.

 

[imported_tajmahal]

Thanks Obama !

 

[senseamp]

I'm going to create an app that routes people (probably democrats) to the fastest, best and most scenic destinations to commit suicide. As far as I know this is a completely untapped market that will greatly go up in value with Trump as president.

It will go up, but primarily among disenchanted Trump supporters. He is truly their last hope, and he'll screw them big time.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Why should the Democrats have a brighter future than any of us considering they are part of the problem. Both parties should be tarred, feathered and run out of the nation on a rail.

Want better representation? Include choice to vote "none of the above" and rerun a new slate until the American public has a choice it can abide.

Public participation will increase because there's a real voice, not just rubberstamp people they wouldn't have in their homes.

So both Republicans and Democrats, how about it? How about not making tolerable candidates, (not just to you) a real choice? The expected response is "well if you voted you had a choice". Considering that both major candidates were more disfavored than anything else that the current system will provide generally acceptable choices. It demonstrably did not.

I'm think that for the most part partisans would rather be tied up by the genitals first.

So who proves they are the exception?

 

[Starbuck1975]

In the short term, yes, but long term, it's going to be a very bright future for the Democrats and infamy for the Republican party.

This was the conventional wisdom when Obama claimed the White House, a dream that died a short two years later.

The political spectrum ebbs and flows. Even if the Republican party dies, there will always be room for conservatism or even centrism. The center may continue to incrementally move left on social issues, but economic issues will forever define the true political battle lines. The well of identity politics will inevitably run dry for both Republicans and Democrats.

Even the Democrat coalition is subject to fracturing. Gays are also capable of extreme racism. Hispanics can also be devoutly Catholic, and share values with what is now the religious right.

Look at what happened to Clinton. A political campaign 20 years in the making and seemingly presumptive and inevitable, torn asunder by an @sshole on Twitter.

 

[Jhhnn]

Why should the Democrats have a brighter future than any of us considering they are part of the problem. Both parties should be tarred, feathered and run out of the nation on a rail.

Want better representation? Include choice to vote "none of the above" and rerun a new slate until the American public has a choice it can abide.

Public participation will increase because there's a real voice, not just rubberstamp people they wouldn't have in their homes.

So both Republicans and Democrats, how about it? How about not making tolerable candidates, (not just to you) a real choice? The expected response is "well if you voted you had a choice". Considering that both major candidates were more disfavored than anything else that the current system will provide generally acceptable choices. It demonstrably did not.

I'm think that for the most part partisans would rather be tied up by the genitals first.

So who proves they are the exception?

They're just as bad! They're all bad! Only Trump can save us!

 

[Genx87]

So what you are saying is the rumors of the death of the Republican party a decade ago were pre-mature?

 

[Darwin333]

They're just as bad! They're all bad! Only Trump can save us!

In all fairness the Democrats did just field a candidate that lost to freaking Trump.

Disclaimer: Not a Trump supporter.

 

[Jhhnn]

This was the conventional wisdom when Obama claimed the White House, a dream that died a short two years later.

The political spectrum ebbs and flows. Even if the Republican party dies, there will always be room for conservatism or even centrism. The center may continue to incrementally move left on social issues, but economic issues will forever define the true political battle lines. The well of identity politics will inevitably run dry for both Republicans and Democrats.

Even the Democrat coalition is subject to fracturing. Gays are also capable of extreme racism. Hispanics can also be devoutly Catholic, and share values with what is now the religious right.

Look at what happened to Clinton. A political campaign 20 years in the making and seemingly presumptive and inevitable, torn asunder by an @sshole on Twitter.

Trump's campaign was a brilliant exploitation of the propaganda groundwork laid by Repubs over the last 20 years & the media, particularly social media like twitter & facebook. It was the first campaign to really do that.

I don't often agree with Gingrich but these comments are prescient-

Trumpism also means they use modern technology. Trump has 25 million people on Twitter and Facebook. His great realization, which occurred around October of 2015, you can actually reach all these people for free. He decides on Tuesday, let's do a rally in Tampa. They email, and Tweet, and Facebook, everybody in Florida that's in their list, and says, hi, I'm going to be in Tampa on Friday at 5 o'clock, and 20,000 people show up.

The other candidates are all buying TV ads. He's showing up at a mass rally, which is covered live on television. He then has 20,000 people with smartphones who take his picture. They all send it out on Facebook and Instagram. If you figure 40 people per person, a 20,000 person rally, is an 800,000 person system, about twice the size of MSNBC. For free. There's no exchange rate you can create that makes sense. It's like trying to compare Polish cavalry and the Wehrmacht in 1939. These are totally different exchange rates.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/12/30/newt-gingrich-trumpism-explained.html

Most of the rest of what he said is the usual bullshit but he's right about that.

 

[Jaskalas]

“It would take a massive event for them to come stampeding back in a cycle.”

Such as an honest and bold progressive giving them clear direction towards the future instead of the fossilized status quo.
P&N should be well aware that people are desperate and hungry for change. Is foolish to deny it.

 

[agent00f]

Such as an honest and bold progressive giving them clear direction towards the future instead of the fossilized status quo.
P&N should be well aware that people are desperate and hungry for change. Is foolish to deny it.

Not real hard to figure out what change make murica great *again* while ranting about too many mexicans implies.

 

[Sonikku]

“It would take a massive event for them to come stampeding back in a cycle.”

It might be coming sooner than they think.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Trump's campaign was a brilliant exploitation of the propaganda groundwork laid by Repubs over the last 20 years & the media, particularly social media like twitter & facebook. It was the first campaign to really do that.

I don't often agree with Gingrich but these comments are prescient-



http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/12/30/newt-gingrich-trumpism-explained.html

Most of the rest of what he said is the usual bullshit but he's right about that.

I what point do you think Trump realized he was on to something? He was not a product of the GOP machine or the Koch brothers. He was not a darling of the Tea Party or the religious right. He did not have a well established campaign network or clearly organized ground game. He didn't have the social media apparatus that Howard Dean so brilliantly lay the groundwork for and Obama put to use as the foundation for his campaign. He didn't have the best and brightest of Silicon Valley feeding ideas to his campaign, or a vast network of Beltway surrogates or insiders advocating on his behalf. Hell, at one point, the GOP begrudgedly started to accept his imminent defeat and started to distance themselves from him, Pence included.

He was literally a braggart on one big soap box.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Not real hard to figure out what change make murica great *again* while ranting about too many mexicans implies.

It implies we need to do something about our broken immigration system and the exploitation of Mexicans in a system that perpetuated their status as part of a shadow economy?

 

[agent00f]

It implies we need to do something about our broken immigration system and the exploitation of Mexicans in a system that perpetuated their status as part of a shadow economy?

Sure, that's why it's important to point out they're murders and rapists and some I assume are good ones.

 

[Jhhnn]

I what point do you think Trump realized he was on to something?

When he ass-raped the rest of the Repub field in the primaries. He won the Presidency on a technical basis but he annihilated those folks, laid them to waste.