You know, I'm tired of blaming Democrats for everything

[PatSeg]

(I posted this as a comment on another post, but decided it should be its own post.)

Certainly they are far from perfect, but who are these voters who apparently forgot the nightmarish four years under Trump and the republican controlled congress? They didn't get everything they wanted quickly enough, so they either stay home or vote for a Republican?

- Republicans, who have pretty much done nothing for the average person in decades.

- Republicans who give away huge tax breaks for the wealthy while pissing on working people.

- Republicans who shamelessly and openly use public office for their own personal gain.

- Republicans who have done little to prevent the spread of COVID and don't care how many people died.

Our society is full of impatient, self-absorbed people who appear incapable of seeing past next week and apparently only care about what politicians can do for them today. I look at the last nine months and see extraordinary accomplishments and I know there are more around the corner, well unless voters keep giving power back to the people who caused most of our problems in the first place.

People like Sinema and Manchin really do piss me off, but ultimately for the most part, the problem is the voters. The people who didn't bother to vote or those who got angry at Democrats and cast their vote for republicans, they will be the first to complain down the road when their choices didn't work out for them. With selfish, clueless voters like these, there would have never been a New Deal or a Great Society. I am kind of disgusted right now.

After the elections yesterday, I just needed to vent. I really fear for the future of our democracy.

[spicysista]

1. Me, too!

[grumpyduck]

2. I'm right there with you.

[Act_of_Reparation]

3. You don't get choose your electorate, unfortunately.

They are who they are, and we have little choice but to engage them on their own terms. If we fail to do that, it's our fault. Sorry.

[Grasswire2]

4. well said nt

[Hugh_Lebowski]

7. Not entirely true ... gerrymandering is the process of doing exactly that

Just sayin

I realize it doesn't apply to offices like State Governor, or US Senator, and some others, to be clear.

[chowder66]

8. Unfortunately their terms are not based in facts or comprehension. nt

[PatSeg]

12. Exactly

Sadly, many of them vote based on a smile, a couple of sound bites, and clever Facebook memes. If they don't get exactly what they want quickly enough, they either don't vote or vote for a republican who won't give them anything they want. How do you deal with a stunningly uninformed electorate who have shockingly short memories?

[Act_of_Reparation]

15. The GOP appears to be very good at it.

Their campaigns are appeals to base emotion, utterly devoid of facts, rationale, and, in many cases, a platform.

[PatSeg]

23. Sadly very true and alarmingly disturbing

And over the years, republicans have gotten farther and farther away from facts, truth, and policy. Now it seems to be 99% fact-free, emotion based propaganda. It is like they are selling laundry detergent or Pop Tarts and they don't even pretend it is anything else anymore.

[qazplm135]

11. well

you get to choose part of it, but it requires motivating your voters to turn out for you.

[Act_of_Reparation]

14. You don't choose them so much as they choose you.

And motivating them consists of encouraging them to choose you again.

[PortTack]

5. Yes....when VA has had a taste of trump lite after 4 progressive yrs they aren't going to like it

[FalloutShelter]

6. Agreed.

[pandr32]

9. I'm in total agreement.

[empedocles]

10. I'm always surprised at the apparent lack of appreciation or knowledge, here at DU,

for LBJ and his Great Society programs

[czarjak]

16. I was eleven years old when LBJ passed The Civil Rights Act...

It turned my family members into republicans without blinking. Race based, yesterday, today and forever.

[empedocles]

25. The only way FDR could get the Social Security Act passed, was to effectively

define blacks out of it.

[CrispyQ]

13. Maybe if we had a marketing department we could counter some of the blame the media throws on us.

Maybe if we put any value in messaging, instead of putting all our eggs in the legislative basket, we'd get the majorities to win & actually pass that legislation. Then our marketing department would really have something to chortle about. But no. Crickets.

There's a thread posted today about how dems are too academic. Here it is. https://democraticunderground.com/100216012321

The entire commentary is worth reading, but this final statement nails it:

For years, I've been talking about how Republicans are a successful sales and marketing culture, and Democrats are an academic culture: "Didn't you see our white paper on this?" Democrats used to be able to sell their accomplishments and ideas. Now they speak in footnotes.

I'm wondering how much an arrest of Bannon last week, might have made a difference this week? Whatever. Our party is not going to change. Not in time to save the country. I'm in total agreement with your last sentence.

[crimycarny]

18. Yes..that final statement nails it

Even on this forum, how many times have I seen a thread devolve into some academic discussion that goes way into the weeds on something and the point of the OP gets completely lost. I've even seen arguments on the grammatically correct use of a word used in a post and the substance of the post gets completely lost.

I think part of it is the nature of those attracted to progressive ideas to want to look at all sides of an issue, but we have to learn how to channel those discussions into a simple message. Not easy to do.

[PatSeg]

30. Yes, Dems are very weak on messaging,

which is such a shame, as they have SO much to sell. If they could only learn to communicate better, I think they would win more elections. Meanwhile, however, so many voters are not conscientious about learning the issues. They rely on sound bites, hearsay, and bumper sticker politics. I remember a time when voters took their obligations more seriously and put some effort into their choices.

Every time I see Democrats lose elections they should have won, I become discouraged and pessimistic about my fellow citizens. I wonder what on earth do republicans have to do before voters wake up and reject them?

[patphil]

17. Republicans, who have pretty much done nothing for the average person in decades.

When I was growing up in the 1950's and 60's, my father would tell me that the Republicans never did anything for the common man.
He was born in 1903...a life-long Democrat who came east during the Depression to keep his job by following the company he was working for when they relocated from Wisconsin to New York State.
He, and my mother saw their share of hard times, and he knew from personal experience of what he spoke.
His statements are more true now than they were then.

I to am also very concerned about the future of our Democracy.

[Elessar Zappa]

21. My great grandfather

was born in 1910 in Mississippi and he also told us that the Republican Party didn’t give a damn about the average person. He was a yellow dog Democrat who hated Ronald Reagan with all of his being.

[PatSeg]

29. It seems that after Teddy Roosevelt,

Republicans were only about big business, money, and power, never the average person unless they wanted their vote. It took the Great Depression to wake up a lot of people and FDR had the message that they needed and wanted to hear. Except for Eisenhower, I can't think of a post TR republican president who cared about the working class or the common folks.

[robertpaulsen]

19. As George Carlin said, "The public sucks!"

“Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. F*ck Hope.”

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/78321-now-there-s-one-thing-you-might-have-noticed-i-don-t

[PatSeg]

27. Yes, yes, yes!

He said it much better than I did, but that was pretty much how I am feeling. The public is getting the politicians they expect and their expectations are extremely suspect. I think a better educated populace would hopefully elect better people to office.

[Elessar Zappa]

20. I hear you.

This is on the voters 100%, not the Democrats. I also disagree with those saying this doesn’t bode well for 2022. The truth is, the 22 elections are a year off and it’s impossible to predict what the political atmosphere will be in a month, much less a year. People have notoriously short political memories. For all we know, Biden’s approval in November of 2022 may be 60%+ and we keep the House and increase our advantage in the Senate. Or it could be the opposite. Who knows? I’m not ready to give up on our democracy.

[PatSeg]

26. Oh yes, that jumped out at me as well

Last edited Wed Nov 3, 2021, 05:21 PM - Edit history (1)

How can politicos start writing off 2022 already because of this election? It is like they are rooting for Democrats to lose. People most definitely do have short memories, which is obvious by how quickly they forgot about the accomplishments of the Biden administration already. If voters don't get what they want instantaneously, they chalk it down to failure. Yet republicans are rarely held to such a standard. It is absolutely bizarre.

[Elessar Zappa]

28. I've definitely noticed that

the media seems to salivate over the prospect of the Dems losing elections. I’ve never been one to call the MSM biased but my opinion has changed since Biden took office. It’s like they miss the daily Trump circus.

[PatSeg]

31. A lot of people I know

have cut way back on their cable news watching or quit it all together. They are probably wondering why they are losing viewers. I can't take it anymore. I get too anxious and frustrated. I watch a little bit of Brian Williams a few nights a week, but I rarely watch anything else. Last night I tuned into election coverage a couple of times very briefly, but had to turn it off after a few minutes.

[usaf-vet]

22. I'm tired of being run over by the GQP using deceitful and often illegal tactics.

If you can win by cheating, why not cheat, especially if the victims are unwilling or savvy enough to put up a defense.

[PatSeg]

24. If Democrats have to cheat to win,

then we become just a slightly better version of republicans. Not a very palatable option. In the end, we will probably lose more voters to disgust and apathy.

[usaf-vet]

34. How does consistently losing work? And if they take control again and restack the courts and....

.... change voting rights. And gerrymander every state. Pass Taliban level restriction on women. Privatize Social Security and the USPS, kill ACA, reduce Medicare benefits, transfer more wealth to the billionaires to START.

How does all of that sit with you? Happy to stay in the minority forever?

How palatable is that? If you doubt any or all of this will not happen? You are not paying attention!

Remember the STOLEN SCOTUS seat. The steal wasn't done by playing by the rules?

Sorry, that is just the way it appears to be going.

This guy says it better than most pay attention.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017691434

[PatSeg]

39. Of course I don't want a permanent republican majority

but that does not mean I condone becoming as lowdown and dishonest as they are. If that is our only option, then I am afraid we are already doomed. As I said, many Democratic voters would become apathetic and disgusted, which would eventually make us the minority party for real.

I don't think it is inevitable that we all must become cutthroat, rule-breaking assholes. What kind of governance could we expect from such elected officials? Would we ever be able to trust our government again if we knew our choices were only Mafia or Mafia-lite? That sounds like a recipe for a failed democracy. We've seen that all over the world throughout history.

Also, when we become more like them, they will only escalate and become even worse, while attacking us for being dishonest and hypocritical. They are shameless. We've seen them do this many times, so that is a pretty sure thing. We can fight tough and fight smart, while maintaining our integrity and principles. If we can't, then what are we fighting for?

[usaf-vet]

40. If we keep doing what we have been doing the results we be the same.

This cartoon pretty much demonstrates what they do and what we do.

They K.I.S.S. and in reply, we give Ph.D. lectures that put the audience to sleep.

[PatSeg]

43. Oh yes, I totally agree

Democrat's messaging is absolutely horrible. Today's Dems could take a lesson from FDR. He was a master at communication. He knew how to speak to the people, all the people.

[mvd]

32. I think there were a lot of factors

Our messaging, fickle voters who vote against their own interests, racism, Repukes and a few Democrats obstructing, off year election.. we have time to get things together.

[betsuni]

33. Thank you. Negativity from all sides. If Dems have just the right slogans and messaging,

just the right leadership, fight harder, play hardball like Republicans, had just the right candidates that will change things, and they must be constantly scolded (because evidently they don't know anything).

Democrats are always blamed for not stopping (they let/allow) bad things (they can tell the future, so why didn't they stop the bad things from happening?). Never given the benefit of the doubt. Assumed to be doing nothing unless they're on TV. If you can't see it or don't know about it, it's not happening. Constantly accused of corruption. Accused of doing too much and not doing enough, being socialists and being corporate Dems who only think about money, accused of being wealthy out-of-touch elites who ignore the working class and of giving all the tax money to immigrants and minorities and working class poors.

Won't really matter what the Biden administration does or doesn't do. People won't bother to do their own research and inform themselves (or they can't, don't know how), they'll believe whatever they hear, and all of it will be negative. Remember something from the 2016 election where earlier in the year the most Googled articles about the election were from The New York Times, Washington Post and the like, but by October it was Breitbart News and conspiracy theory crap.

[PatSeg]

42. Oh, that is spot-on!

Democrats are expected to walk on water and be absolutely flawless, but even then, they would be accused of being "above it all and out of touch with the voters". Meanwhile, republicans get a pass time and time again as the expectations for them are so much lower.

[CrackityJones75]

35. Me too.

But that is a sentiment all too common here. Shame.

[mcar]

37. This is what makes me crazy, PatSeg

Do these people who switched from D to R in one year really think the Republicans are going to do anything for them? No, of course they don't.

I believe they voted for Youngkin in VA because he gave them permission to do so. IOW, they were, perhaps, embarrassed by IMPOTUS' excesses but they didn't disagree with him. Youngkin made the racism more palatable by making it about "education."

[PatSeg]

41. Yes, very sad but probably true

And so many don't realize that their seemingly casual choices could alter our democracy for generations to come. It is like they are voting for a contestant on a reality TV show and there will be no real consequences.

Meanwhile, we are such a superficial society, that Youngkin kind of looks and sounds better than McAuliffe. Some voters make their choices based on optics and overall appeal, not policies and character. Then they find a few pithy sound bites to confirm their initial perception. At least that is the impression I get listening to reporters interviewing voters - a world full of very vocal experts who know a whole lot of nothing, but they proudly vote anyway.