Kavanaugh will most likely be confirmed. It's what happens when you fail to WIN ELECTIONS.

[LBM20]

Don't like Trump? Win elections.

Don't like a radical right wing stacked Supreme Court? Win elections.

Don't like the radical right wing controlling every level of government? Win elections.

I'm a lifelong Democrat and have burned enough shoe leather working on campaigns to sink a battleship and have burned holes in my pockets donating. But the party has run SHITTY campaigns, plain and simple, over the last several cycles. We lost every branch and level of government. 1000 state legislative seats. Why? No message. No clarity. No strength. No good leadership.

I will say it has been better in VA and NJ in 2017, with state ballot measures, and in state level special elections. But we can't just be anti-Trump going into the fall elections. Yes, beating the shit out of that foul barrel of monkey spunk polluting the White House is PART of it, but we also need a clear simple compelling affirmative message, to speak clear and strong, to be STRONG in general, and to run on an agenda that starts and ends with GOOD HIGH PAYING JOBS FOR EVERYONE EVERYWHERE and GOOD AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE FOR EVERYONE EVERYWHERE. Most people DO NOT vote on abstractions. They want something tangible for their vote, and that means the middle class American dream of a good job with good wages, healthcare security, good education and training, a decent home, a good vehicle, a vacation every year, and secure retirement. Tell people very clearly how we will make sure they have these things, and we win.

And learn the hell how to frame a message. Start by NOT saying "conservative." God I HATE that. Call them "radical right wing." That party is NOT "conservative." It is radical!

[fallout87]

1. Collins and Murkowski already signaled that he's "Qualified"

Unless he publicly says he wants to overturn Roe V Wade (he won't), they will vote for him.

I'm sorry, but it's a done deal.

Elections have consequences. President Obama warned us of this.

[LBM20]

2. Yup. And to the shitheads who stayed home in 2016 or voted 3rd party, ya happy now?

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

39. Kavanaugh will say Roe v. Wade is established law. It worked last time, it'll work again.

That's how he answered the question about his opinion concerning Roe v. Wade when he was being confirmed for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Plessy v. Ferguson (separate but equal) was also established law before it was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education, albeit that was a unanimous decision. If Roe gets overturned -- or at least weakened to the point of uselessness -- it will be on a 5-4 split.

[Kaleva]

3. Republicans run on abtractions and that's one reason why they are successful

A majority of white women wouldn't have voted for Trump if they had a sound knowledge of the issues at stakes rather then basing their vote on abstractions such as "family values".

Why do senior citizens tend to vote Republican when that party has a long record of trying to cut back social security and Medicare? programs Dems fight to keep intact and even expand. Because they fall for the abstractions the Repubs offer.

"Trump's Graying Army

In the Republican nominee’s nostalgia-fueled campaign, older voters see their last chance to bring back the 1950s. "

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/trumps-graying-army/505274/

[LBM20]

5. No, they promise jobs, low taxes, guns, and a strong military. They have a clear message.

[Demsrule86]

23. They lie.

[Mariana]

43. So what? Their voters believe it and that's all that matters. nt.

[Kaleva]

54. Abstractions

What does "strong military" mean?

How about "jobs"? What kind of jobs?

Abstractions.

[handmade34]

4. Democrats have a strong message...

they just need to find a better way to relay that message... unfortunately we have a simplistic voting populace that can't comprehend complex thoughts...

http://www.ontheissues.org/Democratic_Party.htm

https://www.democrats.org/party-platform

https://www.democrats.org/issues/national-security

[LBM20]

6. What is the message?

[Hekate]

19. Let me introduce you to the Democratic Party Platform, as good a place to start as any...

Get back to me when you've read it.

Hillary was very articulate about it, as it happens. If you didn't catch her speeches, emails, position papers, debates, FB posts -- well, I'm sorry you missed all that.

[fescuerescue]

45. FWIW

Giving people homework isn't exactly a great elevator pick.

[Hekate]

49. Funny you should mention elevators, as the OP has plunged us past the basement & is descending ...

...to Hell.

Cheers.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

7. Pray tell, what office are you running for to fight the power?

How do we win when the election was thrown by one party to a foreign govt? How do we predict that? (bc I checked my crystal ball and even the ball didn't know.)
I was settled in in Nov. on that fateful day waiting for the cascade of victories, bc, HRC had done a great job of putting the boots to this cheater. Her campaign wasn't the problem. She won. Stop and listen...she won. We were robbed.
Further, how good of a campaign do we have to have to overcome voter suppression, gerrymandering, russian bots etc. on top of the cheating? And why would you come here after allll that effort to lecture us on what we "didn't do"?
Im going to go out on a limb and say your hearts probably in the right spot, but, you're preaching to the choir. You sound frustrated. We all are.
Keep donating and knocking on doors. Get your yard signs...right now.
Stay angry, and get to a protest on Sat. Let that shit out man.

[LBM20]

8. No, we didn't lose 1000 seats over three election cycles because of Russia.

And I am god damned sick and tired of excuses! No more! It was because of SHITTY leadership and no message. My god 2010, 2014, and 2016 SUCKED!

And I work HARD on campaigns and have for 14 years. Multiple leadership roles in the local Dem committee and on progressive ballot referendum campaigns. I am in the THICK of it. Not everyone has time to serve in office, but I sure all hell have donated countless hours over 14 years serving the party and working on campaigns. How about you?

And going to protests may make people feel good, but it doesn't mean diddly shit unless it is a real longterm organized movement with a strong political component. We need to fix the party and WIN ELECTIONS.

WIN ELECTIONS and we can use the power to fix the other problems you talk about. All that happened because we fail to WIN ELECTIONS!

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

9. I know...they got a lot of help from the conservati'......erm....gop.(alt-right)

I'm sure you are working hard. Thanks for the elbow grease. So what signs are in your yard...right now..tonight?
Oh good sir...you don't know me, but, I assure you, my work has been laborious as well. You sound ticked....any reason why we here at DU should get chewed out for it? Just asking for future reference.

[lapucelle]

10. You're a local Democratic leader unhappy with Democratic leadership?

You've held " multiple leadership roles" and you think the problem is leadership?

Interesting.

[sheshe2]

14. Woah.

Good catch.

[George II]

12. That "losing 1000 seats" refrain is getting boring. Why not tally the seats that we've WON...

....since that old saw was made up? Any idea?

Where I am we've gained seats locally, state-wide, and in the Congress in the last several years.

[Cha]

15. I think we lost all those seats because the purists

stayed home and sat on their hands.. stomping their little feet to teach President Obama a lesson. Not giving a shite about SCOTUS or the Planet.

Or what Obama could have accomplished with more DEMS to help him in Congress.

The tea party assholes got out and voted.

[FBaggins]

40. Because there haven't been many of them

Virtually every special election in the last year has gone our way, but there haven't been very many.

According to Ballotopedia.com, the current partisan balance for all state legislative races is 4,141R-3,143D with 99 open or 3rd party seats. They control state senates 36-14 and state houses 31-18. There are 26 states that have a republican house/senate/governor... with only 8 states that we control that tightly.

[George II]

41. But when were those "1,000 seat" lost? Last year? Two years ago? More like six, seven, or eight.

[FBaggins]

48. Over the course of the last decade

Yes, the largest single drop was in 2010. But with the exception of a minor correction in 2012, our losses continued up to the 2016 election (with Democrats hitting a new low of 3,129 last year.

"Where you are" we may have made gains over the "last several years"... but nationwide it looks like 14 seats gained since that low point.

?itok=Jkh2WwMc

[George II]

52. In other words the Democrats "lost 1,000 seats" about eight years ago and virtually....

....none in the last eight years.

So thank you, you debunked what I called a boring refrain.

Another thing that would be interesting is in which states each of those seats were lost - were Democratic seats predominantly lost in red states, blue states, or purple states?

[FBaggins]

55. Nope. IOW... your #12 was nonsense.

You tried to pretend that we suffered a big loss eight years ago and naysayers just keep repeating that loss while in reality we've spend several years making gains. That simply isn't the case.

More accurate to say that we lost about 750 seats about eight years ago and about half that many in 2014/2016...

...which is dramatically more than "virtually none" - particularly when compared to your claim in #12 re: all the seats we've WON in the last several years (i.e., a bit over a dozen seats from the worst point we've been in).

Another thing that would be interesting is in which states each of those seats were lost - were Democratic seats predominantly lost in red states, blue states, or purple states?

I think you're still missing the point with that question. If a state had a Democratic house and senate along with a democratic governor and now all three a republicans... were those seats lost in a blue state or a red state?

State legislative races tend to be over comparatively small districts. Are you imagining that there were 1,000 Democrats in "red" districts that were just overdue to go that way anyway? And do you imagine that this would blunt the import?

[George II]

57. No, it's not nonsense. To follow up on your last paragraph:

Are you imagining that there were 1,000 republicans in "blue" districts just itching for an opportunity to take a seat from a Democrat?

I would love to see the raw data and time frame that was used to construct that % chart you provided.

[FBaggins]

58. He says without offering support

Once again. Your claim was that we suffered a big loss eight years ago but that things had moved our way since then. That simply isn't true. We suffered a REALLY big loss eight years ago and then suffered two smaller (but still quite substantial) losses over the last two major elections. The raw number of seats (~1k) is the headline... but a single seat that switches control of a legislative body is obviously much more significant than a dozen seats that have no impact. By that measure, we've been clobbered (and no... not just eight years ago).

There's every reason to hope that 2018 looks to break that long painful streak (possibly dramatically)... but it simply isn't intellectually honest to try to fool ourselves into thinking that all the pain was almost a decade ago and things have been improving since then.

I would love to see the raw data and time frame that was used to construct that % chart you provided.

The data source is cited on the image. The NCSL is a bipartisan NGO. Their site is packed with useful info.

Are you imagining that there were 1,000 republicans in "blue" districts just itching for an opportunity to take a seat from a Democrat?

Again, I think you're missing the point. Most of those races were neither red districts that had been represented by democrats who then lost their seats NOR blue areas that somehow elected a republican...

... they were blue areas that became red areas.

[George II]

59. I pored over the NCSL site, couldn't find anything on state legislative seats over time.

[George II]

11. Do you have a message and clarity to put forth? Strength and good leadership?

[AlexSFCA]

13. we suck when it comes to each and every election

and especially on local level. Reps are much more organized and they take voting seriously. This is something to be admired and learned from. They have built infrastracture with effective propaganda network of radio and tv covering not only the entire nation but with the reach even outside the country. We couldn’t even communicate ACA properly to people so for years no one could explain how it really works - perharps our biggest legislative accomplishment in a decade no less. We all need to think how to improve our reach and message.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

26. No we don't suck. That's offensive.

Rich people have the time and the resource to build all you say. The rest of us go to work. If you have so many good ideas....maybe redouble your efforts. We need to improve our reach...yeah...we've been saying that since Rush Limbaugh. They killed Air America.
Seems threads like this are a super downer when everything else is bad enough. Just me though I guess.

[sinkingfeeling]

16. I, for one, am sick and tired of this type of post. Everything is the

fault of the Democratic Party's leadership or they have no message.

It sounds just like the Moron's, "Trade wars are easy to win" bullsh*t.

If you believe only you have the magic answer, then why aren't you managing winning campaigns and making $millions as a political consultant?

[SidDithers]

27. +1...nt

Sid

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

38. Standing up and clapping.

We better get real serious about people w low post counts coming here and lecturing the Democrats about ALLLL we do wrong...while the other side cheats.(I REPEAT CHEATS....IN EVERY WAY> LIKE EVEN HERE!) Maybe this OP should take his tijki torch ideas of burning down the house to RU and fraternize with the "winners".. Something smells wrong w this one.

[treestar]

53. +1

[Hekate]

17. What the ever loving hell, LBM20. Let me repeat: By the numbers, HILLARY WON. More people...

....wanted HER to be POTUS than wanted Trump. Clearly, her message and that of the Democratic Party resonated more strongly with the average American voter than did Trump's.

Many factors contributed to the coup, among them old-fashioned Jim Crow era voter suppression in new guise. Voting rolls were ethnically cleansed: in one state where Hillary "lost" by a narrow margin, 200,000 voters were purged from the registry, most of them likely Democrats.

I could go on listing reasons, but if you do not know this by now, and all you can do is blame Dems and our message, I wonder about you. None of the reasons given for how Trump got into the White House are whining, looking backward, or any of that crap. We are attempting to understand WHAT happened and HOW it happened (including treason) and how to FIX it.

[Cha]

20. It's another one Not dealing with the

Reality of what happened in 2016.

The American People Chose Hillary but Russia chose trump the Fraud.


BREAKING: Senate Intelligence Committee backs assessment of Russia election meddling

snip//

The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday backed the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to aid President Donald Trump and is continuing its efforts to undermine U.S. democracy.

The finding that reveal Russia meddled in far more extensive ways than previously known is yet another strong rebuke to Trump and many of his allies who continue to cast doubt on the finding from the intelligence community that Moscow carried out an operation to help his candidacy and hurt Hillary Clinton.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142100777

I think they do know it.. but it doesn't fit their agenda.

Thank You for your post, Hekate

[Hekate]

21. Thanks for chiming in. I am sick to death of posters doing nothing but blaming Dem voters...

...Dem leadership, our message, our outreach, and above all Hillary herself.

I'll keep repeating the truth as I see it and as supported by the facts, but this little influx is sickening.

We Dems aren't sitting in a bar mumbling "We wuz robbed, I tells ya" into our beer. We were IN FACT cyber-invaded by a foreign country, just as surely as the Twin Towers were destroyed on 9-11, and just as surely as the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Acts of treason were performed and are still being done.

Blaming Democratic defeat(s) on Democrats alone is worse than counterproductive -- it is a lie.

Can you tell I am pissed off?

[Cha]

22. Yeah, that is So 2016 Before We Knew

of all this SHITE that Went Down.

So 2016.. When a certain senator was out making the rounds blaming the Dems and Hillary.

Well it turns out he was WRONG.. but some won't let go of the 2016 BLAME GAME..

Cambridge Analytica whistleblower on Facebook fine

Christopher Wylie 🏳️?🌈
@chrisinsilico
Just to sum up. 1) Facebook broke the law.

2) Cambridge Analytica broke the law.

3) Vote Leave broke the law.

4) LeaveEU broke the law.

5) Brexit and Trump were both won through breaking the law.

6) Facebook let it all happen and covered it up.

https://mobile.twitter.com/chrisinsilico/status/1016955734570029056

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=10857938

Yes, I can tell you're Righeously PISSED! So am I as we All are who care about the Truth! The Truth is Always Important but Especially when Working to Get the madman out of our WH.

[suprcali]

18. Defeatist

When you give up without even trying then you guarantee defeat.

[Are_grits_groceries]

24. BOT!

We won!
It took major shenanigans in multiple areas for Trump to win. Do you think they wouldn’t have adjusted shit as the count rolled along? We don’t know half of what ws done surreptitiously.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

28. Amen.

[George II]

25. I don't know if anyone else posted this before, but in response to your request for a "message"....

....would the PLATFORM of the Democratic National Committee suffice?

https://www.democrats.org/party-platform

[beachbum bob]

29. when smart people refuse to vote or support the "lesser of 2 evils" and they don't care

about the consequences of THEIR actions is why we have trump and all that is happening. These people committed a greater sin then those who voted for trump.

shame on them

[no_hypocrisy]

30. "FAIL TO WIN ELECTIONS" ? ? ? ! ! !

What should "we" have done? Trip to Moscow and take out Putin? We all did our jobs. We voted. HRC won by more than 2 million votes.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

32. 3 million I thought.

[no_hypocrisy]

33. Sounds good.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

34. She won big.

WE won big. Not according to the OP though. WE all suck and he's superman.

[Hoyt]

36. Yep, in 1787 and 1804 those Ruskies plotted to elect a trump by inserting Electoral College in

Constitution.

We lost by the rules, no matter how much we think they are unfair, and need to quit making excuses.

People who were stupid enough to believe Russian lies, etc., and didn't care about trump's racism, bigotry, misogyny, stupidity, etc., weren't likely to vote for a Democrat anyway.

[George II]

42. More like people who believed the likes of Stein, Sarandon, and others and either didn't vote....

....or voted for trump because they were told (by more than one prominent person) that it either didn't matter who they voted for or they were both the same.

One has to wonder where these hand wringers were when all that happened?

[Hoyt]

44. Yep, they were a big factor. The November 2016 election was clearly a "perfect storm."

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

31. I've got 2500 posts...

And I was scrutinized like a Russian in Levis here for every thing I said for a few months...How do we get so many 'few post(ers)'...that are so bombastically nasty about the Democrats and they stay here? If they start here like this...where are we going to be in two months w folks who make proclamations like this before even 1000? As if the news and prices of everything isn't enough.

[Hekate]

50. +1

I'll refrain from further comment lest it be taken for interfering with forum moderation -- but my sarcasm quotient has gone up a lot.

[Blue_Adept]

35. I remember us winning in 2012 and not getting to even get a hearing in 2016

on a Supreme Court nominee.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

37. Yes...But hey...Dems gotta follow the "rules"

makes me wonder real hard about these folks that naysay right off the bat, and get foul about it as well. As if breaking a procedural rule...is worse than 40 years of gulag type legal oppression.

[edhopper]

46. Hillary won!

This is what happens when elections are stolen.

[MFM008]

47. "Winning" elections

Means supporting our own damn candidate and not falling for russian bot bullshit, because EMAILS and
ESTABLISHMENT and the "revolution".
We got a revolution. The maggot in chief is shitting all over democracy, everything we value and this planet as his fat ass swaggers
Over the world, because white racists hate immigrants and installed a LOW IQ version of themselves in office while we argued about party purity.

[andym]

51. Having an elevator pitch message is one thing the GOP does well.

And because the Democratic Party has such a large tent it is more difficult to create one.

Here's mine:
"The party of opportunity that has your back."

1) High paying jobs through helping small business.
2) Better future for your children by making education affordable.
3) Making sure health care affordable for everyone, (government based so you can explore better job opportunities).
4) Fairness: Civil rights for everyone.
5) Fair and humane immigration policies.

[xmas74]

56. I believe the party had a platform,

The most progressive in their history. Of course no one heard it when news agencies were more concerned with showing an empty podium where Trump might speak instead of focusing on each platform.

I've been on DU for over a decade. I was here in 2004 and lurked before. I've let a few things go in my time but I'll be damned if I'm not sick and tired of low post counts coming in here and shitting on us. Ive never had a suspension on DU. I'm willing to risk one for this.

Guess what? I'm also heavily involved in local politics. I know people who've worked their butts off over the years. Right now as we speak my 18 year old is out there canvassing for the party that you choose to crap all over. A few weeks ago someone threatened to pull a gun on her. I never had problems like that before this election. Things have changed and this is just one example.

Got a problem with the party? Go do something about it. You say you have? Go do more.

[Autumn]

60. Win elections? Hillary won over three million more votes than Trump.

Sorry, I quit reading right after that. How do you win when rigged elections and voter suppression are the standard rule of the other side? You can't.