General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What too many Americans will never admit [View all]ProfessorGAC
(65,151 posts)The late 80s recession was caused by Reagan. The terrible crash under Bush caused by deregulation & tax cuts that wasted a surplus, in a stupid attempt to stimulate an economy that didn't need stimulating.
We did not sell to middle america that voting R was against their own interest.
We got too wonky, too technical, too abstract. We also refused to play the politics of personal destruction.
Obama won by NOT making those mistakes and selling a hopeful message with charisma. Then, our party STILL didn't grasp the sales approach & let tea party slugs take Congressional cooperation away from a 2 term president.
We have better ideas, better plans & they benefit more people while doing modest harm to minimal people.
But, we're bad at sales.
Beating trump should have been as easy as betting that a ball would drop if I let go.
The poor salesmanship resulted in an election close enough to steal.
Should have been a landslide the other way.
My one local example: Obama vs. Keyes for senate here in Illinois. Charismatic candidate selling a good vision against a wonky conservative crank. It was one of the biggest landslides in federal office history.
4 years later, the tea party. 6 years after that, PINO.
We cannot reverse this until we admit we are bad at selling good ideas and alter the sales approach.