1980, 1984: 49 states go red. How can Dems achieve that kind of mandate?

[Clarkie1]

How can we lay the groundwork to make 49 states go blue?

In 1980 only 6 states went blue: Georgia (home state), Hawaii, Minnesota, Maryland, Rhode Island, West Virginia.

http://lab.pava.purdue.edu/pol101/Text/BOOK/Screens/EV/ev_1980.html

But by Reagan's 2nd go-around, only one blue state survived: Minnesota.

...by 49.7/49.5%...it was almost all 50 states.

http://www.multied.com/elections/1984state.html

http://lab.pava.purdue.edu/pol101/Text/BOOK/Screens/EV/ev_1984.html

National %: 59/41

How can the Democratic Party achieve this kind of mandate? I say we need to think of 06', but also long-term. Thoughts?

[Zynx]

1. Have an economy as bad as Carter with a Repug in the WH.

That's a start. :evilgrin:

[NAO]

10. Reagan was not just about the economy...the dawn of the religious reich

Reagan's victory was based more in the national psyche than in the economy.

It was based on feelings, perceptions, and national mood more than on concrete economic indicators. The majority of the electorate does not understand or want to understand the economy. They know their own situation, but that's not necessarily how they vote, as we saw in 2004.

Further, Reagan's victory was assisted by the newly dawning religious reich. And he was copiously aided by expert manipulation of the news media by the National Security State, courtesy of his VP, GHWB (former head of the CIA).

[NAO]

2. Run a Hollywood Actor who appeals to the national psyche

and knows how to perform his lines in a way that everyone will hear exactly what they want to hear.

Additionally, having the full cooperation of the National Security State to conduct foreign and domestic covert operations to orchestrate and highlight your talking points is very helpful as well.

[iamjoy]

3. Carter Was From Georgia

That's why Georgia went blue.

If you want to know how we Dems can achieve that, read Lakoff's "Don't Think of an Elephant" - I think a few weeks ago Bill Bradley wrote an article about building political power.

To do it, we would have to come up with a whole new political strategy. The Republicans started theirs in the 1960's, but we were playing the same old game and are just now beginning to catch on.

[Clarkie1]

6. That's right! Duh!

But how does that explain Mississippi?

[ISUGRADIA]

8. He was wrong Mississippi did NOT go for Carter in 1980

though it was close

EDIT: he missed Minnesota in 1980 on his list

[Clarkie1]

13. Sorry, my typo. Minnesota was next to Mississippi on the list!

Fixed OP.

[jedr]

4. If the Republicans told you what they really were going to do;

Nobody would vote for them.. The only way they win is to move to the center at election time then go to work on destroying the middle class. Obviously the truth doesn't work...got any ideas over and above that?

[creeksneakers2]

5. Keep running the GOP are power abusing extremists theme

Tie every little thing to it. Don't just go after their elected people. Go after the extremists that support them. Expose as much of the Fascism from the GOP base as possible. Insist that is the real GOP.

[Davis_X_Machina]

7. Easy -- promise the voters:

• that at Jesus' name every knee shall bend
• that taxes will never go up, and services will never go down
• that foreigners will tremble when they see our might
• that they'll get to 'keep their guns'
• that The Other -- women, fags, liberals, coloreds -- will Know Their Place.

And finally, and most important:

• that all change will stop.

Of course, that means turning into Republicans.....

[mikelewis]

9. Elect a compelling leader who captures the imagination of the people

DUH!

Reagan has done a lot of shitty things but what he did right was focus a nation on a vision and create an illusion of graduer and respectability. When Reagan was at the helm, he seemed warm and inviting. He gave the impression that he respected everyone and only made the decisions he made because that was what he believed was the right thing to do, even if he was wrong. He gave the impression that he was a true believer and he inspired a lot of people to believe as well.

He also worked the media much more effectively than any President in history. He would issue press releases everyday and constantly gave the impression that he was working on vital issues that impacted everyone. We now know we weren't really in that equation and that corporatism grew out of control in the 80's but we ate it up because Reagan led us to believe we were doing the right thing for our future. With Reagan at the helm. finally, we could live the good life.

[NAO]

14. Reagan did not create a vision, he presented and performed one

that had been created by others. Some of his acting talent came into play as he found his way into the role, but I think most of his scripts were written by others.

As for manipulating the media, two things. First, he was an ACTOR. TV/Film was his natural environment. Playing to an audience was what he did. Second, it helped that his VP was former head of the CIA and could pull strings to use the National Security State to make things happen in the proper sequence to fit Ronnies lines.

For example, the release of the hostages 30 minutes into his inauguration speech; the invasion of Grenada a few days after the bombing in Lebanon; the precision timing of the bombing of Libya to correspond to the start of prime time news coverage. There are hundreds more examples. Reagan's entire presidency was one long "Wag the Dog".

[mikelewis]

15. Very true but it worked didn't it

Of course he acted like a President, that's what made him so successful at it. He was able to appeal to everyone because he made people believe in his role and he played it well. Who knows how much actual control he had over things, Bush Sr. was the tactician and stringman. He was the Cheney of the 80's, although Cheny is still the Cheney but you get what I mean.

You are right but the question wasn't what made him a shitty President, the question was, how did Reagan take 49 out of 50 states. He did it by putting on a show and inspiring a vision of what a President should be.

[omega minimo]

19. It didn't work and he wasn't able to appeal to everyone

What did work was the power of peer pressure-- all the poor people being told by Big Media what everyone ELSE thought and believed and felt and said about this evil buffoon. AND THEY'RE STILL DOIN IT! We watched history rewritten a la "1984" in 1984 and again in 2004 when the old buzzard died. They made him a GOD fer gawd's sake...

And the folks who were the pre-digital DU DID NOT BUY IT.

There's a book called "The Clothes Have No Emperor" compiled by a journalist of clips and photos from the Reagan Daze. He dedicates it "For those who were paying attention."

I would agree with "putting on a show" and kick at "inspiring a vision" because it was seen through a haze of deception, deceit and deliberate undermining of the American citizen's birthright, right up until today.

RIP Ronnie. I do "recall."

[omega minimo]

17. "Illusion" being the operative word here

Is this how you saw it at the time? If so, what changed your outlook?

:hi:

[mikelewis]

22. I was 10 -

Alex P. Keaton was the poster child for Republicans and MTV ruled the world. That's as political as I got.

As I grew up, I revisited the speeches I never heard in the first place and gained a lot of respect for Reagan and his ability to lead. As time wore on and Jr. stepped in, running on the same sort of policies, I re-revisted many of the speeches and then took a long hard look at the impact those policies had on our people. After that, I wasn't all that keen on Reagan though I still believe he embodied the image of a President. He was, unfortunately, only acting.

[omega minimo]

26. Yeah, it sounded like you were there

and young enough to have your perceptions filtered through youthful acceptance of the Original Chimp's legitimacy-- or even younger than that and relating what you had heard or read about Reagan's "charm."

In those a bit older, Reagan inspired disbelief and disgust. (Ever listen to Punk Rock?)

I respect you for sorting your way through the can of worms in the fishbowl in the hall of mirrors in the Matrix that you grew up in.

Interesting that you straddle the awareness that he was bogus ("unfortunately, only acting") AND some appreciation of his "success."

The relevance to where we are now is that story of The Emperor's New Clothes. Reagan's lies, the disconnect between his words and actions, the effects on the American public and the public's inability to respond or EVEN PERCEIVE IT has led us to the zombified, hijacked, Through The Looking Glass place America has become....

:evilgrin:

[ISUGRADIA]

11. Actually Mass and Miss did not go for Carter in 1980

but Maryland and Minnesota did. Carter was hurt by John Anderson in many Dem states like Mass and NY

[LittleClarkie]

12. Dig up Reagan, and convince him he never married Nancy

I wonder how he was as a Dem.

I think it will take that kind of charisma.

But, if you believe the exit pollsters and the fraud folk, we got an electoral landslide last time.

We will probably need to get election reform before we talk about what else to do.

[In Truth We Trust]

27. Exactly L C- Paper ballots NOW! Hand counts NOW!

[omega minimo]

16. 1. Use Big Media to predict the winner months before; convince voters

to believe it. Miniscule percentage shows up, the announced loser's voters stay home, loser candidate concedes hours before the West votes-- voila! Landslide!

2. Run an aging, apple doll candidate with a Pez dispenser wife (where's OUR Ahnald?!) preferably with background in commercial voiceovers and tough-guy grade B(lockbuster) movie roles.

3. Three words: Emperor's New Clothes

4. DON'T ACT SMART! People HATE that. People want the feel-good, non-threatening, gee-he's-not-sayin-much-but-you-can-sure-tell-he-believes-it guy :-)

[WI_DEM]

18. Carter was very hurt by the Anderson vote in 1980

not that he would have won without John Anderson, but it would have not been as much of a blow out and the popular vote would have been closer. For instance:

Carter lost New York by 160,000 while Anderson received 467,000
Carter lost Massachusetts by 4,000 votes while Anderson got 382,000
Carter lost Maine by 17,000 votes and Anderson received 53,000
Carter lost Delaware by 5,000 votes and Anderson received 16,000
Additionally Carter lost Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi, and North Carolina by very small margins and much less than Anderson's margins in those states.

It is worth remembering that Reagan won the popular vote in 1980 by barely over 50%.

[Clarkie1]

20. Interesting, but then look what happened in 1984...59/41 nationally.

And "other" candidates only got 0.7%

[WI_DEM]

21. true

Reagan would have been difficult for any democrat to beat in '84. Even though it actually took a recession to finally beat inflation--he was personally very popular. In '84 he was able to successfully tie Mondale to the Carter economic record. I don't think anybody else nominated, not even Gary Hart, would have defeated RR in '84.

[Lexingtonian]

23. why care?

The GOP's first tier politicos are aging out and they've got nuthin' after that. We don't have a need to amend the Constitution- only to enforce it, and that only takes majorities. What's wrong with nice, normal, 55-to-45 wins that keep politicians relatively honest? And to speak to what may be your central anxiety, our side only needs to win properly and fully once now. A single time. Their party and Nixon Republicanism will collapse like the Confederacy in the spring of 1865. They know it better than Democrats do.

It's nice to want 'landslide' victories, but it's wiser to count on/by and go for state-by-state renewal of the Party, and then to win with good candidates and a clear agenda- with a mandate- and good backing for them. Rather than a lot of weak candidates getting into office just because they're Not something and flubbing everything away.

In the longer term, Democrats and Republicans are defined/divided by the way they choose (i.e. whether) to understand and enforce the 14th Amendment guarantees. Republicans will predictably lose that battle in social matters in the next few years and, shedding their Religious Right, become an economic interest party again- defined by resisting the economic policy followup on social rights equalization.

[Skittles]

24. we can be lying, conniving, disgusting bastards

that's how

[deadcenter]

25. run someone

that has a plan and can lay out that plan effectively. Reagan won because he came out and said what he was going to do and how he was going to do it, and he hammered out that message over and over and over again. Kerry could have won had he come out with a similar plan, but not with his "I have a plan but I'm not going to tell you my plan because my opponents will steal it from me," or the, "I have a plan but you have to go to my website to see it," plan.

One other thing will help, run a candidate that supports, vocally, the constitution and the bill of rights. One reason I'm here is I'm sick and tired of the erosion of civil rights we've been experiencing, not just for the past five years, but for the past 40+.

It didn't help the democrats that Carter refused to leave the White House until the hostages in Iran came home, either.

deadcenter

[liberalpragmatist]

28. We shouldn't want to

When we expand to that big a majority, inevitably we wind up with supporters that don't agree with us and the coalition breaks down. It has happened repeatedly, time and time again. FDR after 1936 faced his most determined opposition b/c his coalition broke down. Reagan found it difficult to keep his voters - after '84, his popularity plunged following Iran-Contra and the Democrats should have had a strong chance at taking the WH had Dukakis been a stronger candidate.

We should aim at a comfortable win and majorities in Congress. I'd like a Congressonal landslide in '06 and a comfortable win (53/46) in 2008.

[BlueIris]

29. Elect the liberal version of Reagan, then stage an assassination.

Then run dramatic footage in primetime and at the convention. Over and over and over.

[Radical Activist]

30. Nominate someone who can inspire people.

That has a lot more to do with electability than their voting record.

[zann725]

31. Buy all the voting machine companies.

We'll win in a landslide like Reagan.