Support NeoGAF

[Aaron Strife]

I'll say it again. This search for someone to rally behind in 2020, a "savior" so to speak, is a red herring. If we don't fix our party at the state levels, it's all for naught. We'd be treating a symptom and not the deeper issue.

I honestly fell that if Bernie would have won, most of the people that voted him in would have gone back to doing whatever it was before Bernie showed up. Because they "won"; they stopped the big bad evil GOP and now they don't have to worry for another four years!
And the same would have happened if Hillary was elected.

All the while the GOP controls the House, most state legislatures and governorships, and might have ended up still controlling the Senate.

There is no one single person that is going to save our party. Or get the younger generations involved in politics. Or to even bother to vote.

Yeah. To be fair, I think a lot of Trump supporters will be outraged when he doesn't do everything he promised and they don't understand how the system works. But that's why you generally don't promise the impossible.

The problem I saw President Bernie having is going up a GOP Congress (either in part or in whole) that's unwilling to pass shit. Most Bernie supporters I talked to early on in the campaign seemed to really believe in the power of the bully pulpit, and that simply staking out the furthest left position possible in negotiations would bring the final result closer to the left.

Thing no one seemed to realize is that Congress and state legislatures have no compulsion to go along with what the president proposes. What happens when Bernie proposes single-payer and the GOP says no? Ryan's not going to be like "Oh god, anything but that! I'll take a public option, just please no single payer!" as if it's one or the other. He has a multitude of options, like "lol no, here's a budget that repeals Medicare that you can veto."

I think if there's anything we've learned over the last six years it's that Republicans in Congress are perfectly content to sit on their hands and not do anything. Even if it's something they came up with. Anything to stick it in the Democrats' eyes.

 

[neurosisxeno]

Can he actually do that? I thought recess appointments were out because of GOP shenanigans?

As far as I know it says and Federal Seat and Supreme Court Seat.

Like Republicans ARENT going to try and screw up Obamas legacy as much as humanly possible. Their entire agenda is basically Reverse Obama, Cut Taxes, ???, Profit!

 

[Pixieking]

As far as I know it says and Federal Seat and Supreme Court Seat.

Like Republicans ARENT going to try and screw up Obamas legacy as much as humanly possible. Their entire agenda is basically Reverse Obama, Cut Taxes, ???, Profit!

Huh... Interesting. Though, if Obama does have Trump's ear, he may be more inclined to try and persuade Trump to nominate Garland himself. There's nothing inherently wrong with Garland, from either party's perspective, so it would be the better course, if possible.

 

[Diablos]

Huh... Interesting. Though, if Obama does have Trump's ear, he may be more inclined to try and persuade Trump to nominate Garland himself. There's nothing inherently wrong with Garland, from either party's perspective, so it would be the better course, if possible.

lol there's no way Garland has a chance now.

 

[IggyChooChoo]

Question (spurred by the mention of Reagan's dementia).

Watching the rallies and the debates, to me and my wife it looked like Trump was himself affected by dementia - word salad, confusion, inability to stick to a point. Do others think this as well? He still hasn't released health records, has he? Does he have to once President?

Unrelated:

I have wondered about whether he has some dementia, yes.

 

[dramatis]

Guys, I opened up NY Times main page on my browser

And Canada is advertising there

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Question (spurred by the mention of Reagan's dementia).

Watching the rallies and the debates, to me and my wife it looked like Trump was himself affected by dementia - word salad, confusion, inability to stick to a point. Do others think this as well? He still hasn't released health records, has he? Does he have to once President?

It runs in his family. Although it's hard to tell because he's always been pretty weird and out there when he talks.

 

[Pixieking]

lol there's no way Garland has a chance now.

Well, Trump wants an anti-abortion, pro-gun, pro-gay marriage justice. I don't think that even exists... So, Garland has as much chance as anyone, given what Trump has said.

(Not that I think there's a big chance with Garland, but he's so unpredictable...)

It runs in his family. Although it's hard to tell because he's always been pretty weird and out there when he talks.

Oh! I did not know that.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Oh! I did not know that.

His father was diagnosed in his 80s, but there's no guarantee Trump couldn't get it early.

 

[Diablos]

Well, Trump wants an anti-abortion, pro-gun, pro-gay marriage justice. I don't think that even exists... So, Garland has as much chance as anyone, given what Trump has said.

(Not that I think there's a big chance with Garland, but he's so unpredictable...).

Trump lied his ass off to get to where he is today. What he says today could be completely invalidated by something he says two days from now. I don't really have much trust in anything he says. He could be against gay marriage again next week.

 

[The Chosen One]

Joe on Morning Joe is working hard to get his access back for the new Trump administration.

 

[Pixieking]

Trump lied his ass off to get to where he is today. What he says today could be completely invalidated by something he says two days from now. I don't really have much trust in anything he says. He could be against gay marriage again next week.

Oh, yeah, I totally agree... And that's the absolute problem with him (well, that and his tolerating neo-Nazis). Hillary would've stuck to trying to do what she talked about, and it may or may not have happened due to Senate/Congress/SCOTUS. Trump is so variable there's just no saying what he could or would do.

I'd die laughing if Hillary spoke to him, and he then nominated a pro Roe v Wade SCOTUS. Serve the bloody evangelicals right, that would. (Yeah, I can dream. )

Polls:

Putting the Polling Miss of the 2016 Election in Perspective

Yet in the end, her polling lead proved illusory.

All of these states have something in common: They have a large number of white voters without a college degree. Mr. Trump also outperformed the polls in other mostly white and rural states, whether Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri or Indiana.

The states with a large number of white working-class voters tend to be somewhat less populous than the more diverse and well-educated states along the coasts. A result is that the state polling averages were off by more than usual, even though the national numbers weren’t far off.

Worth reading it all, though it's not really anything we haven't already thought of.

 

[dramatis]

Oh, yeah, I totally agree... And that's the absolute problem with him (well, that and his tolerating neo-Nazis). Hillary would've stuck to trying to do what she talked about, and it may or may not have happened due to Senate/Congress/SCOTUS. Trump is so variable there's just no saying what he could or would do.

I'd die laughing if Hillary spoke to him, and he then nominated a pro Roe v Wade SCOTUS. Serve the bloody evangelicals right, that would. (Yeah, I can dream. )

You know, if Hillary and Obama could be that shaman in South Korea that controlled their president, why the hell not

2016 is one hell of a year

 

[Toxi]

NPR's interview with that traditional Conservative blogger about Steve Bannon is a great example of the lengths establishment conservatives twist themselves to make excuses for the alt-Right and pin all its ugliness on "blue collar America's issues". Because when I think blue collar America, I think Milo fucking Yiannapolos.

 

[IggyChooChoo]

Trump lied his ass off to get to where he is today. What he says today could be completely invalidated by something he says two days from now. I don't really have much trust in anything he says. He could be against gay marriage again next week.

Kremlinology, reading the tea leaves of the statements of Trump and his courtiers for clues and portents -- everything is so speculative. My bet is the more he sees protesters, the more vengeful he will be. (This is in no way me saying they shouldn't protest; just speculating about his hyper-reactive personality.) I am very concerned that inaugural protests will play into the Trump/Fox/Breitbart narrative of "the media and liberals never gave me a chance." Earlier this year I poo-pooed comparisons to 1968. Now I think it really is going to be pretty similar in terms of Nixonian law and order hippie-punching.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

I really wish my subconscious would come to terms with the election.

Every night for a week now I've been having election themed dreams. I've mostly come to terms with the next four years when I'm awake, but apparently my subconscious hasn't.

I miss my regular dreams.

 

[dramatis]

America’s Repudiation of Barack Obama [New Republic]

Under President Barack Obama, the national unemployment rate has dropped to 4.9 percent from a high of 10 percent in the fall of 2009. Under Obama, tens of millions of people have gained health insurance, new regulations have been enacted to protect consumers from the predations of the financial industry, and substantial progress has been made to roll back the cataclysmic effects of climate change. His approval rating stands at 55 percent, a near miracle in our age of hyper-polarization.

But we now know the numbers mean nothing. Approval ratings, election forecasts, aggregates of polls—all have been obliterated in the wake of Donald J. Trump’s astonishing victory in the presidential election. Whatever we thought we knew about the American electorate has changed overnight. In electing Trump, voters have rejected everything Obama has done in the past eight years, ushering into office a man who has promised to undo all these accomplishments. Most of all, they have rejected what Obama and his election stood for: progress—real progress—on the issue of race.

We know that race was the deciding factor because Trump launched his political career with racist attacks on Obama, questioning whether he was an American citizen. He then launched his presidential campaign with a racist attack on Mexican immigrants, describing them as rapists and thieves. He expanded his platform of white revanchism by calling for a ban on Muslims entering the United States. All of this is known, and has been repeated ad nauseum throughout this election. Even if Trump voters had other, more sympathetic reasons to vote for Trump, it doesn’t change the fact that they elected a man who was openly running on a platform of white supremacy—whose political raison d’être was to be a megaphone for whites raging at their diminishing influence. That alone stands as a rebuke to Obama.

This brings us to the problem of how the Democratic Party—and America as a whole—can recover from this calamity. There is sure to be a civil war among Democrats, with leftists arguing that a purer, less compromised version of liberalism will have a better chance of appealing to those very voters who put Trump over the top. There will be a push to expand the Democratic message beyond the identity politics that has increasingly defined the party in recent years—to welcome with open arms those blue-collar and middle-class whites who have been culturally alienated by newly assertive blue-collar and middle-class workers of brown skin. And there will be a backlash to this, an argument that the Democratic Party’s function is to redress the wrongs that have been done to minorities and make white America atone for its sins—“to force our brothers to see themselves as they are,” as James Baldwin put it, “to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it.”

It is not clear that the Democratic Party is capable of making a tent that large without it collapsing under its own contradictions. In terms of policy, Barack Obama’s administration has done far more for this country—for whites, blacks, Latinos, and Asians—than the previous administration ever did. Hillary Clinton offered Americans of all stripes more than what Trump and his Republican enablers did on issues ranging form child care to paid leave to the minimum wage. And it was not enough.

 

[Toxi]

While talking to my dad on the phone, he told me how he was had a chat with a stranger about the election yesterday. When my dad mused over Clinton winning the popular vote by a few million, the guy told him "I don't know how it is where you're from, but this is how things are done in our country."

My father has lived in this country for two decades and was a citizen in 2008. He has experienced six US Presidential elections firsthand and spent his time and money contributing to the Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns.

He reacted to that shit far more charitably than I would have.

 

[RustyNails]

I want to post so many things but I just get bummed out after acknowledging Trump is the president for the 100th time. What troubles me most, even more than the Trump presidency is the state of Democratic party. Because Trump being a fascist is given. The question is how we can limit the damage. Without a strong opposition, we're thrown into the wilderness of the 80's again.

I think the path ahead will be very difficult as Sandernistas will continue to roll everyone who endorsed Hillary under the bus. The party will go through its purging of assumed corporatists. The thought leaders must guide this movement or we will become the fracture we thought GOP would have. Bernie, Tulsi, Keith, and even Young fuckin Turks must lend a positive voice to heal the party and forge ahead.

 

[dramatis]

I want to post so many things but I just get bummed out after acknowledging Trump is the president for the 100th time. What troubles me most, even more than the Trump presidency is the state of Democratic party. Because Trump being a fascist is given. The question is how we can limit the damage. Without a strong opposition, we're thrown into the wilderness of the 80's again.

I think the path ahead will be very difficult as Sandernistas will continue to roll everyone who endorsed Hillary under the bus. The party will go through its purging of assumed corporatists. The thought leaders must guide this movement or we will become the fracture we thought GOP would have. Bernie, Tulsi, Keith, and even Young fuckin Turks must lend a positive voice to heal the party and forge ahead.

You mean the idea that we're going to turn into UK Labour.

Which is going to be wonderful, of course.

 

[IamDodongo]

I think the path ahead will be very difficult as Sandernistas will continue to roll everyone who endorsed Hillary under the bus.

I can't believe some people think this will create a stronger coalition.

 

[Pixieking]

McConnell finally admits ending ‘war on coal’ might not bring back jobs

In a Friday appearance at the University of Louisville, he tamped down any expectations that coal jobs would come back. “We are going to be presenting to the new president a variety of options that could end this assault,” McConnell told attendees. Then he added “Whether that immediately brings business back is hard to tell because it’s a private sector activity.”

McConnell also noted that he did not intend to spend any government dollars to help those who have lost coal jobs and may not regain them. “A government spending program is not likely to solve the fundamental problem of growth,” McConnell argued. “I support the effort to help these coal counties wherever we can but that isn’t going to replace whatever was there when we had a vibrant coal industry.”

I really want to crow about Hillary's retraining policy, but... What's the point? These people will continued to be fucked, and that doesn't help us now. Push for their votes at the mid-terms and in 2020.

 

[Maledict]

McConnell finally admits ending ‘war on coal’ might not bring back jobs


I really want to crow about Hillary's retraining policy, but... What's the point? These people will continued to be fucked, and that doesn't help us now. Push for their votes at the mid-terms and in 2020.

They aren't going to vote for democrats no matter what anyway. Objective reality doesn't come into the field at all at this stage in those areas like West Virginia.

 

[Mr.Mike]

The coal industry was replaced by the also American shale gas industry. And now we're almost at the point where green energy will be straight up cheaper than fossil fuels and start growing on its own and not because governments are supporting it. My biggest concern isn't that the government will merely stop supporting green energy, but that it will start actively trying to impede it.

Also Trump said he'd direct his people to label China a currency manipulator and I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. But I guess Donald Trump is gonna go up to the Chinese leaders desperately trying to prop up their currency and talk shit to them about how they've been keeping it down, because of course what little knowledge Donald Trump does have of the world is outdated.

 

[Laevateinn]

We went to a wedding over the weekend in Ohio. During a car trip with my wife's grandma, she kept going on and on about "Brother Don" and it took us a bit to realize that she was being a creepy fascist and talking about Trump. We then spent the next half hour destroying all the fantasies she had about the future of America. It felt great crushing her dreams.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Also Trump said he'd direct his people to label China a currency manipulator and I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. But I guess Donald Trump is gonna go up to the Chinese leaders desperately trying to prop up their currency and talk shit to them about how they've been keeping it down, because of course what little knowledge Donald Trump does have of the world is outdated.

Trump (and the GOP in general) absolutely love labeling everything. "WHY DIDN'T YOU SPECIFICALLY CALL THIS TERRORISM" and garbage like that.

It's a strange party. They also seem to love meaningless pledges. And meaningless committees.

Like the party, collectively, has some form of OCD.

 

[IggyChooChoo]

They aren't going to vote for democrats no matter what anyway. Objective reality doesn't come into the field at all at this stage in those areas like West Virginia.

This is what worries me. There is a point where the white working class becomes so Foxified that external reality no longer reaches them. Where it doesn't matter how much New Desl economic programs you throw at them, because they vote on culture anyway. That this whole endless debate on our side over Bernie v establishment policies or Hillary-blaming is just completely missing the tectonic plates shifting as whites become an identity group.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

They aren't going to vote for democrats no matter what anyway. Objective reality doesn't come into the field at all at this stage in those areas like West Virginia.

WV has a Democrat Senator, who was a former governor.

But looking at his voting record and what he supports... he's essentially just an R with a D next to his name.

Jay Rockefeller was a senator from WV, as well. And supported stuff like a public option.


We shouldn't assume Democrats can't win these states. We need to put up our best every chance we can. Imagine if Murphy had been a better candidate, Rubio very well might not be a senator any more.

 

[Gruco]

I think the path ahead will be very difficult as Sandernistas will continue to roll everyone who endorsed Hillary under the bus.

Sanders fans blowing up about Howard Dean is horrifying, stupid, and shameful. After the primaries I was worried about our party being able to keep its shit together in the long term.

This guy is the last person in the world who deserves to be called a Democratic sellout.

Facebook is a plague on democracy.

 

[A Link to the Past]

I mean, what even CAN be done to get them gainful employment again? Give them job training to help transition into jobs relating to renewable energy?

 

[Totakeke]

I mean, what even CAN be done to get them gainful employment again? Give them job training to help transition into jobs relating to renewable energy?

Even a solid, realistic plan on paper cannot outsell the magical promises of giving your jobs back. Messaging is the bigger problem and and unless the counter is shouting louder, there needs to be a precise plan on how to inform people that one is probable and the other is a magical unicorn.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

I mean, what even CAN be done to get them gainful employment again? Give them job training to help transition into jobs relating to renewable energy?

Wind turbines need constant maintenance. It's not a job for the faint of heart, though.

Give them construction jobs updating our infrastructure. Ensure that the contractors hire local.

Teach them the skills to start their own small businesses. They might not know about resources out there to help get funding.

Encourage them to re-educate. They may not even know that they can qualify to work in certain fields with just a 6 month course. My mom took a 6 month course in some kind of medical paperwork job and she's certified to do that now if she wanted (she didn't end up liking it). She has no other formal higher education beyond that, but it was enough to be able to get the job.

Have the government hire them. Increase the size of the Post Office and the DMV and hire additional unskilled workers for both. These government jobs are about as close to the "old days" as they can get, with pensions, health care and decent pay for relatively easy work. Our government agencies are wholly understaffed and there's a lot of room there to high a ton of new people.

 

[Pixieking]

This is what worries me. There is a point where the white working class becomes so Foxified that external reality no longer reaches them. Where it doesn't matter how much New Desl economic programs you throw at them, because they vote on culture anyway. That this whole endless debate on our side over Bernie v establishment policies or Hillary-blaming is just completely missing the tectonic plates shifting as whites become an identity group.

I think educating voters on what can be done is a start - go into rural and ex-factory towns and level with them about what training can be given what jobs they can look forward to, and what their communities get out of it. The main problem is that they need to respect the people who are talking to them, and realise they're not being sold out, they're just being sold a different future than they want (and what the Republicans sold them).

If the WWC is becoming a whole new identity group (equivalent to, say, Catholics), then they can still be Democrat voters, especially if the Republicans fall short on their promises. Jobs and economy isn't something one party owns (not like, say, abortion), and it's motivated by emotion as much as fact - "What can the Dems do for me and my kids?" is as emotional a question as it is factual. It's just the Republicans don't care about lying, and can use that to their advantage. Get them to realise that they and their kids are being sold short by the Republicans. and you can grab them, and help them.

I mean, what even CAN be done to get them gainful employment again? Give them job training to help transition into jobs relating to renewable energy?

That was what I inferred when Hillary was talking about it in the debates, but *shrugs*. I mean, it all depends on what training they already have, and how connected to their community they are. Some form of education, maybe?

 

[JP_]

So Keith Ellison has a podcast called We the Podcast: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/wethepodcast/episodes/2016-11-04T07_39_12-07_00

I just listened to the latest episode -- that's a near perfect example of the left's populist message. That's what the party needs to be communicating to voters. That's a message that can appeal to a broader coalition.

 

[Gruco]

WV has a Democrat Senator, who was a former governor.

But looking at his voting record and what he supports... he's essentially just an R with a D next to his name.

Honestly, the problem with Republicans isn't policy. It's that they're fundamentally evil. Their use of policy for empowerment is not acceptable. What happened in Wisconsin and NC this cycle was an assault on democracy. The Bush Justice Department was criminal. Nihilistically abdicating the government to disinherit your opposition's votes is an assault on the will of the people. Exploiting racial tension and scapegoating minorities and then ignoring the ensuing hate crimes is an assault on human decency.

8 years of Obama and people lost track of how evil republicans were. A Blue Dog is a wonderful thing. I don't care how much they love coal and guns.

Wind turbines need constant maintenance. It's not a job for the faint of heart, though.

Give them construction jobs updating our infrastructure. Ensure that the contractors hire local.

Teach them the skills to start their own small businesses. They might not know about resources out there to help get funding.

Encourage them to re-educate. They may not even know that they can qualify to work in certain fields with just a 6 month course. My mom took a 6 month course in some kind of medical paperwork job and she's certified to do that now if she wanted (she didn't end up liking it). She has no other formal higher education beyond that, but it was enough to be able to get the job.

Have the government hire them. Increase the size of the Post Office and the DMV and hire additional unskilled workers for both.

All of this. Infastructure (transportation, utility, telecom, and energy) in the short term, vocational training in the medium term, and higher ed / revitalization in the long term.

Incidentally, both Obama and Hillary had plans in place for these types of efforts. But sadly, "those jokers in Washington can't get anything done" and neoliberal elites don't care about white people because identity politics.

 

[neurosisxeno]

I saw a video somewhere of people be interviewed (before the election) and asked what Trumps Policies were and what Hillary's were. They all knew MAGA, The Wall, and even Bomb the shit out of ISIS. But nobody could name Hillary's proposals. How did that even happen? Have meme's become so mainstream they now fit into elections???

 

[Fedelias]

Who admits he primarily eats fast food and barely sleeps as apparent by his 3am Twitter rants.

I honestly have no idea how Trump will last for 4 years with his terrible diet, lack of sleep, and the stress & weight of the presidency. He's already 70 for crying out loud...

Also now that we're talking about Garland again, I feel really bad for him. When he gave his speech accepting Obama's nomination, he seemed really emotional and on the verge of tears and talked a lot about how much getting a SCOTUS seat meant to him. I know it pales in comparison to the large brunt of suffering that Trump will potentially cause, but it's one of those sad stories that sticks out for me at the moment.

 

[Gruco]

I saw a video somewhere of people be interviewed (before the election) and asked what Trumps Policies were and what Hillary's were. They all knew MAGA, The Wall, and even Bomb the shit out of ISIS. But nobody could name Hillary's proposals. How did that even happen? Have meme's become so mainstream they now fit into elections???

I do think this was in part a failing of Hillary.

I mean, it's a failing of more than Hillary. The media, first and foremost.

But, she had a lot of policies. She thought about policy all the time. She had an amazing policy shop. I love her for it. I will always love her for it. But she didn't have a core policy. She didn't have salesmanship. She cared about what she said about the details, but "I sweat the small stuff" isn't a message. It's about what the issues say about you.

The campaign says Comey preempted their last week of messaging, which I believe, but it should't have taken to the last week, and based on what I saw, they wouldn't have acted differently on this point anyway.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

I saw a video somewhere of people be interviewed (before the election) and asked what Trumps Policies were and what Hillary's were. They all knew MAGA, The Wall, and even Bomb the shit out of ISIS. But nobody could name Hillary's proposals. How did that even happen? Have meme's become so mainstream they now fit into elections???

Simplicity, and easy to latch onto.

 

[Totakeke]

I don't have strong faith that any problems within the next four years will be attributed to the GOP either. Trump ran as an outsider. GOP problems are not his problems so his problems are not the GOP problems either. Another candidate that feels anti-establishment can run on the same lies and people who ate up Trump's messages will do it again. Plus the electorate has the memory of a goldfish. There's also no discounting that the next demagogue can come from the left.

Everything will fail without a way to communicate what is true and what is false.

 

[effzee]

America’s Repudiation of Barack Obama [New Republic]

heart breaking.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

MAGA was easy to remember and catchy

Hillary's... uhhh... ermm... uhhh????? campaign slogan wasn't. Love Trumps Hate? Stronger Together? Deal Me In? All three are just direct responses against Trump and aren't really about Hillary's campaign. I'm not even entirely sure what her campaign's slogan was.

Think about huge crowds shouting "YES WE CAN" with Obama. Or "Hope and Change." Those were slogans people remember

I think you should be able to answer the question "what will I do as president" with your slogan. "I will make America great again" "I have hope for the future and plans for change" "I will trump hate?" I guess? Maybe?

 

[gutter_trash]

McConnell finally admits ending ‘war on coal’ might not bring back jobs


I really want to crow about Hillary's retraining policy, but... What's the point? These people will continued to be fucked, and that doesn't help us now. Push for their votes at the mid-terms and in 2020.

 

[Chezzymann]

This election showed that people like Rosie O'Donnell jokes more than carefully thought out slogans or lines like "deal me in"

 

[Pyrokai]

heart breaking.

Yeah..... All based on lies and conspiracy theories. This makes me so, so sad.

 

[Totakeke]

MAGA was easy to remember and catchy

Hillary's... uhhh... ermm... uhhh????? campaign slogan wasn't. Love Trumps Hate? Stronger Together? Deal Me In? All three are just direct responses against Trump and aren't really about Hillary's campaign. I'm not even entirely sure what her campaign's slogan was.

Think about huge crowds shouting "YES WE CAN" with Obama. Or "Hope and Change." Those were slogans people remember

While making this comparison we should also remember Obama also didn't run against Trump.

"Hope and Change" may not necessarily win against "Make America Great Again".

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

I really wish my subconscious would come to terms with the election.

Every night for a week now I've been having election themed dreams. I've mostly come to terms with the next four years when I'm awake, but apparently my subconscious hasn't.

I miss my regular dreams.

Same thing is happening to me. I go to bed thinking I've finally calmed down, and then I wake in the middle of the night angry as fuck. I can't distract myself long enough. I tried to start a week long cutoff from political discussion for my health, but as you can see, it's not working. It's impossible when I know that the next 4 years is going to be speculation of just how fucked things are going to be for me.

I would like to protest, but it's getting real cold in DC now and my current health isn't exactly in the best shape. I have some pre-existing conditions and on top of that I'm still technically recovering from surgery from the Summer. As you can imagine, the question of what's going to happen to healthcare is scaring the shit out of me, too.

Right now, my anger is almost at a laser point at the people who decided to play the purity test game despite the consequences of that being pointed out several times. I hope the Democrats will be able to fix this unity problem that we clearly have because I don't know what I'm going to do if I get hit like I did last Tuesday in both 2018/2020.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Whenever she'd try to coin something, it would come across as cringey.

"Trumped up trickle down economics" was awful. It didn't mean anything. It was a pun on Trump's name tying him to trickle down economics that wasn't really the focus of the election. It fell completely flat.

 

[dramatis]

Chambers of Pain
Democrats got walloped at the very top of the ticket, but what’s happening at the very bottom of the ballot could hurt them for years to come.

Just before election day, I spoke with Jessica Post, the executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, a party organization tasked with winning back state legislatures. Post was door-knocking in Iowa for Democratic candidates—she was clear about the challenge, but she was energized.
“In 2010, I was at the DLCC,” she said. “I had a firsthand look. We were prepared for an old fight: lawyers, guns and money—but not a lot of investments were made in the electoral campaigns for state legislators.”

That 2010 wakeup call shook (some) Democrats into action.

“We have to invest in campaign infrastructure,” she told me.

Groups like the DLCC saw the 2016 presidential election as a critical point to turn statehouses and governorships blue, and ride that momentum into the 2018 midterms—so that by 2020, the eventual redistricting process would take place under Democratic oversight. (No less important, Democratic chambers could put a stop to conservative, state-level legislation like transgender bathroom laws and rollbacks of reproductive-health services). Speaking to my colleague Russell Berman this past August, Post was downright bullish about the prospects of doing this: At that point, the DLCC hoped to flip at least 10 state chambers, and as many as 13.

The DLCC was assisted in its efforts in certain states—like Ohio—by the Clinton campaign, which put hundreds of organizers in the field. President Obama, in a fairly unprecedented move, made 150 down-ballot endorsements. These included U.S. House races, but also candidates running for state Assembly seats and state Senate seats. David Simas, the White House political director, told me that, “Foundationally, the president—on his own—said to me and others on team that he wanted to engage forcefully and aggressively … on the state and local level.”

That desire, he said, was “Driven by what the president has seen in the last few years, in terms of legislation passed in statehouses—like SB-2 in North Carolina, voter disenfranchisement laws, attacks on reproductive health and attacks on climate.”

One week ago, the DLCC’s target list included flipping seats in critical states: the Michigan House, the North Carolina House, the Pennsylvania House, the Florida Senate, both the Senate and House assemblies of Ohio, as well as Wisconsin’s State Assembly and Senate.

But on November 8, all of these states—Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin—ended up being the ones that ultimately destroyed Clinton’s chances of winning the presidency. The DLCC’s attempts to make Democratic inroads met with a similar end.

Of the 32 seats the organization had targeted in those states, Democrats won only eight. Ohio’s targeted seats remained solidly red, as did those in Wisconsin. In Michigan—once a reliably blue state—just one seat was turned. In Pennsylvania and Florida, both states that Clinton had been projected to win, two out of the four targeted senate district seats turned blue. In the end, it was only in North Carolina, a newly purple state that had been showered with significant attention, thanks to Clinton’s campaign, where the DLCC made real inroads: Three of its four House seats turned blue.

Post pointed out that the DLCC had also managed to flip three other state chambers into Democratic control—the Nevada Assembly, the Nevada Senate, and New Mexico House—both in states, not coincidentally, that Clinton won, whether because the state was reliably blue (New Mexico) or because of an extraordinary amount of resources directed there to target a changing electorate (Nevada).

Yet Post remained optimistic. “The good thing about Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio is they have always had strong party organizations. [Those organizations] are thinking about, What we do next to fight back and get back into power?”

I asked Post whether the infrastructure that the DLCC had invested in—that grassroots victory project—would survive until the next election cycle, given the fact that most of the candidates had lost. “There were things in the state that were positive and long-lasting,” she told me. “People are more fired up to be engaged.”

 

[Bonen no Max'd]

While making this comparison we should also remember Obama also didn't run against Trump.

"Hope and Change" may not necessarily win against "Make America Great Again".

Stronger Together lost by a little over 100k votes distributed across three states while winning the popular vote.

I think Yes We Can pretty decisively wins last night.