Organizationally, we need to start by identifying effective party actors at the state and local levels, especially in places that were borderline this time around; Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, etc. And we need to give them the leeway and funding to put together functional state apparatuses and run real candidates at the state level. In fact, we should start some kind of grant system that is administered by the party that just hands local and state candidates that are deemed to be of at least a certain level of viability a chunk of cash to build an organization with. With the requirement that the infrastructure they build be rolled back into the state or local party after the race.
Then we need to come up with our pitch. Our big idea, the thing that we can force the media to talk about instead of focusing on personality politics. Our "build the wall", basically. And make that part of the messaging and platform, top to bottom, local to President. Make it something the media has to talk about when they talk about Democrats or the Democratic Party. I'm talking about Universal Healthcare, Guaranteed Basic Income, $15 minimum wage, something like that. Aspirational and audacious, something that critics will have to explain their opposition to, however briefly.
There are so many things we need to do to become a real, viable party again. But these two things are where we should start.
The $15 minimum wage one is really interesting to me, but I feel like there's some necessary unpacking there with regards to wages across the board.
You see a lot of blue-collar resistance to this, because what the hell this guy at McD's would make as much as / more than me, and he's just running a till instead of unloading warehouses / working a line! That's horseshit!
And he's right! The caveat is that we're assuming that market pressure is going to raise all boats and we're all going to be making another $6-10/hour, and everyone is better off, but also with relative standards of living preserved between unskilled/blue collar / white collar. Someone needs to figure out how to squeeze that necessary contextualization into a 15-second sound byte, though.
SummaryJudgment on
Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
We lost in part because our lack of big, crazy plans kept us on defense. Defense is really, really important, as we're going to learn over the coming years I'm sure, but people don't vote for defense. Even when they vote for regression they're voting for action. Not a holding pattern, but a return to where (they think) we've been. Democratic wonkery is inherently defensive, especially in this media environment.
Go big, go loud. Fuck the details. At least during the campaign, because no one is listening to them. Say the biggest thing that you would totally do if you had the ability. Say it loud and often to the point where they can't talk about you without mentioning it. As long as it's not a completely shit idea, you've got a chance.
Organizationally, we need to start by identifying effective party actors at the state and local levels, especially in places that were borderline this time around; Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, etc. And we need to give them the leeway and funding to put together functional state apparatuses and run real candidates at the state level. In fact, we should start some kind of grant system that is administered by the party that just hands local and state candidates that are deemed to be of at least a certain level of viability a chunk of cash to build an organization with. With the requirement that the infrastructure they build be rolled back into the state or local party after the race.
Then we need to come up with our pitch. Our big idea, the thing that we can force the media to talk about instead of focusing on personality politics. Our "build the wall", basically. And make that part of the messaging and platform, top to bottom, local to President. Make it something the media has to talk about when they talk about Democrats or the Democratic Party. I'm talking about Universal Healthcare, Guaranteed Basic Income, $15 minimum wage, something like that. Aspirational and audacious, something that critics will have to explain their opposition to, however briefly.
There are so many things we need to do to become a real, viable party again. But these two things are where we should start.
The $15 minimum wage one is really interesting to me, but I feel like there's some necessary unpacking there with regards to wages across the board.
You see a lot of blue-collar resistance to this, because what the hell this guy at McD's would make as much as / more than me, and he's just running a till instead of unloading warehouses / working a line! That's horseshit!
And he's right! The caveat is that we're assuming that market pressure is going to raise all boats and we're all going to be making another $6-10/hour, and everyone is better off, but also with relative standards of living preserved between unskilled/blue collar / white collar. Someone needs to figure out how to squeeze that necessary contextualization into a 15-second sound byte, though.
"We're gonna raise wages by $10 an hour for all Americans!"?
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
+2
Options
SummaryJudgmentGrab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered Userregular
We lost in part because our lack of big, crazy plans kept us on defense. Defense is really, really important, as we're going to learn over the coming years I'm sure, but people don't vote for defense. Even when they vote for regression they're voting for action. Not a holding pattern, but a return to where (they think) we've been. Democratic wonkery is inherently defensive, especially in this media environment.
Go big, go loud. Fuck the details. At least during the campaign, because no one is listening to them. Say the biggest thing that you would totally do if you had the ability. Say it loud and often to the point where they can't talk about you without mentioning it. As long as it's not a completely shit idea, you've got a chance.
There are personally two ways to make the world a better place. You can decrease suck, or increase awesome....I do not want to live in a world where we only focus on suck and never think about awesome. If we lived in that world, people would play soccer by having both teams stand and guard their own goal the whole game, with the ball sitting at midfield, and then at the end of the game we're supposed to all celebrate because nobody scored any goals against our team. That's not going to get you on Sportscenter.
Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
I think one big question that has to be answered is fairly simple on the surface, but is also incredibly important to be correct on. Does the party move to the left, or to the right? We just ran the most progressive platform in the history of our nation, and lost what had been looking like a narrow but relatively safe lead. This doesn't bode well for the direction the party leaders will take us, in my opinion.
We also need to determine what the actual causes of the loss were. Is the nation significantly more racist and misogynist than we thought? The answer would seem to be yes, at least for now. Was Hillary Clinton the right candidate? I still believe she would have made a good to great President, but several decades of a Republican smear campaign was hugely damaging. Would Bernie Sanders have been a better candidate? I have no idea, though I am sure many people will claim that to be the case. What about Joe Biden? I think he would have been better than Bernie, but again no way to be sure. I can't think of any other Democrats that might have had a shot and were interested. How much did the FBI's bullshit affect things? By all indications it had at least some effect in energizing the anti-Hillary vote. How much blame does the media get? I would argue they should get rather a lot, since they focused on the e-mails incessantly trying to push a horse race narrative, and barely mentioned the legitimately criminal things that Donald Trump was involved in like the Trump University scam, his fraudulent charity, his illegal dealings in Cuba, his exploitation of undocumented immigrants in his modeling agency and I'm sure many others. How about the national attention span? Apparently it if didn't happen in the last week, it doesn't matter, as evidenced by his feud with the Khan family and the Access Hollywood tape.
I think once we have figured out where things went wrong, then we can work to address it. I do worry that the party is going to lose a lot of confidence and/or take lessons from this defeat that will hurt the country in the short and long term.
+1
Options
SummaryJudgmentGrab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered Userregular
Organizationally, we need to start by identifying effective party actors at the state and local levels, especially in places that were borderline this time around; Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, etc. And we need to give them the leeway and funding to put together functional state apparatuses and run real candidates at the state level. In fact, we should start some kind of grant system that is administered by the party that just hands local and state candidates that are deemed to be of at least a certain level of viability a chunk of cash to build an organization with. With the requirement that the infrastructure they build be rolled back into the state or local party after the race.
Then we need to come up with our pitch. Our big idea, the thing that we can force the media to talk about instead of focusing on personality politics. Our "build the wall", basically. And make that part of the messaging and platform, top to bottom, local to President. Make it something the media has to talk about when they talk about Democrats or the Democratic Party. I'm talking about Universal Healthcare, Guaranteed Basic Income, $15 minimum wage, something like that. Aspirational and audacious, something that critics will have to explain their opposition to, however briefly.
There are so many things we need to do to become a real, viable party again. But these two things are where we should start.
The $15 minimum wage one is really interesting to me, but I feel like there's some necessary unpacking there with regards to wages across the board.
You see a lot of blue-collar resistance to this, because what the hell this guy at McD's would make as much as / more than me, and he's just running a till instead of unloading warehouses / working a line! That's horseshit!
And he's right! The caveat is that we're assuming that market pressure is going to raise all boats and we're all going to be making another $6-10/hour, and everyone is better off, but also with relative standards of living preserved between unskilled/blue collar / white collar. Someone needs to figure out how to squeeze that necessary contextualization into a 15-second sound byte, though.
"We're gonna raise wages by $10 an hour for all Americans!"?
IMO, can't do it - you lose the context of framing this something necessary for human dignity for the people at the bottom. Middle and upper class don't need it. You need that specific minimum wage context as the foot into the door for the discussion.
Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
To beat Trump, I think the Democrates will need a Negi-Trump.
Some kind of person who is outspoken, who isn't a politician, who plays to the best of humanity. Someone who will fight against the mudslinging, not try to brush it off like it doesn't mean anything. It's going to require another 2008 Obama, someone we don't know enough about to have any real feelings for.
I believe that the only path forward for the Democrats is to go on the attack. What that means to me is that they'll have to suck it up and wade into the muck and get as dirty as the Republicans are happy with getting if they hope to ever come back from this. It's clear to me that when people say they hate lying politicians, what they actually mean is they hate politicians whose words--lie or not--counteract their world view. Trump blatantly, provably lied to their faces all throughout this election and they didn't care because it was what they wanted to hear. So the only path I see forward is to give them what they want: lie to their faces about how grand your grand plan is and will be, feel free to publicly change your position based on your audience(*), and then once you're elected enact liberal policies regardless of whatever you promised. The goal is to drive enthusiasm above all else and let your supporters handle making your excuses for you based on whatever the "real" you is in their heads.
(*)As a footnote, I'd like to say that I believe that if the Clintons had gone whole hog into triangulation rather than backing off from it and going the truth-telling route due to pushback from the left, she'd likely be President today. The left's objection to that tactic led to them using it far less and I think it cost them dearly.
Does anyone know of a good way to get involved in local politics? Do I just show up randomly at a DNC office near me and say "I want to volunteer?"
That's one way. Another is to identify a specific candidate to go work/volunteer for.
Most localities won't have a DNC office as such. If there's local infrastructure, it tends to be of the home office variety. But you should be able to google and find a local organizer if there is one. They'll be a good place to start in most cases.
Does anyone know of a good way to get involved in local politics? Do I just show up randomly at a DNC office near me and say "I want to volunteer?"
Yes.
EDIT: But temper your expectations. Show up to do work; do not show up for self-aggrandizement or the expectation that you'll be able to do big picture policy stuff.
The Ender on
With Love and Courage
0
Options
ChelleYeahMrs. LudiousLiving it up in Cinderella's CastleRegistered Userregular
...we need to gerrymander as many states as possible and shut down as many rural polling places as possible. We need to get on the news and accuse every GOP candidate of being secret Illuminati and anything else that might stick with low information voters.
hold your horses there buddy
i'm as upset about this as anyone else but that is absolutely not the way to go about fixing it.
we need to focus on education and truth. we failed because people were not educated, the numbers show this.
education is the way to fix this, not force. low information voters will never submit to force and even if they did what if one day the dem party goes off their rocker and we've done all these things to push them forward? no, we need to fix this the right way.
...we need to gerrymander as many states as possible and shut down as many rural polling places as possible. We need to get on the news and accuse every GOP candidate of being secret Illuminati and anything else that might stick with low information voters.
hold your horses there buddy
i'm as upset about this as anyone else but that is absolutely not the way to go about fixing it.
we need to focus on education and truth. we failed because people were not educated, the numbers show this.
education is the way to fix this, not force. low information voters will never submit to force and even if they did what if one day the dem party goes off their rocker and we've done all these things to push them forward? no, we need to fix this the right way.
You can't fix education without taking power at the state level in red states which you can't do because of one.
You need to play the field as it is before you can change it and that means winning through superior propaganda.
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
Not that apparently GOTV matters much anymore, but is there any place to volunteer to phone bank for the Louisiana run off so we can pray we could get a pub or two to flip and NOT nuke the filibuster?
...we need to gerrymander as many states as possible and shut down as many rural polling places as possible. We need to get on the news and accuse every GOP candidate of being secret Illuminati and anything else that might stick with low information voters.
hold your horses there buddy
i'm as upset about this as anyone else but that is absolutely not the way to go about fixing it.
we need to focus on education and truth. we failed because people were not educated, the numbers show this.
education is the way to fix this, not force. low information voters will never submit to force and even if they did what if one day the dem party goes off their rocker and we've done all these things to push them forward? no, we need to fix this the right way.
You can't fix education without taking power at the state level in red states which you can't do because of one.
You need to play the field as it is before you can change it and that means winning through superior propaganda.
But shutting down the polling places in rural areas is just as bad as Voter ID is. It is discrimination, just the same.
And I say this because I voted from a rural church in Alabama.
Does anyone know of a good way to get involved in local politics? Do I just show up randomly at a DNC office near me and say "I want to volunteer?"
Yes.
EDIT: But temper your expectations. Show up to do work; do not show up for self-aggrandizement or the expectation that you'll be able to do big picture policy stuff.
Even better to show up at your local school board, zoning board, county council meetings and speak your minds. Go hyperlocal. Notice who else is there and you'll find the people doing the real gruntwork.
+1
Options
TraceGNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam WeRegistered Userregular
...we need to gerrymander as many states as possible and shut down as many rural polling places as possible. We need to get on the news and accuse every GOP candidate of being secret Illuminati and anything else that might stick with low information voters.
hold your horses there buddy
i'm as upset about this as anyone else but that is absolutely not the way to go about fixing it.
we need to focus on education and truth. we failed because people were not educated, the numbers show this.
education is the way to fix this, not force. low information voters will never submit to force and even if they did what if one day the dem party goes off their rocker and we've done all these things to push them forward? no, we need to fix this the right way.
You can't fix education without taking power at the state level in red states which you can't do because of one.
You need to play the field as it is before you can change it and that means winning through superior propaganda.
there are other ways. going to have to agree to disagree and leave it at that.
I find it genuinely distressing that going after school boards and changing textbooks to be less objective is a valid tactic. That's just early age brainwashing and it is horrifying from a dystopian nightmare standpoint. But there are people who want us, even from an early age, to never question authority and to always accept what you're told and if you don't do that you're unAmerican and that's terrible.
+11
Options
syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
...we need to gerrymander as many states as possible and shut down as many rural polling places as possible. We need to get on the news and accuse every GOP candidate of being secret Illuminati and anything else that might stick with low information voters.
hold your horses there buddy
i'm as upset about this as anyone else but that is absolutely not the way to go about fixing it.
we need to focus on education and truth. we failed because people were not educated, the numbers show this.
education is the way to fix this, not force. low information voters will never submit to force and even if they did what if one day the dem party goes off their rocker and we've done all these things to push them forward? no, we need to fix this the right way.
You can't fix education without taking power at the state level in red states which you can't do because of one.
You need to play the field as it is before you can change it and that means winning through superior propaganda.
But shutting down the polling places in rural areas is just as bad as Voter ID is. It is discrimination, just the same.
And I say this because I voted from a rural church in Alabama.
Maybe if both sides do it we can get bipartisan support to outlaw it. But I think we are at the point that the ends justify any means.
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
...we need to gerrymander as many states as possible and shut down as many rural polling places as possible. We need to get on the news and accuse every GOP candidate of being secret Illuminati and anything else that might stick with low information voters.
hold your horses there buddy
i'm as upset about this as anyone else but that is absolutely not the way to go about fixing it.
we need to focus on education and truth. we failed because people were not educated, the numbers show this.
education is the way to fix this, not force. low information voters will never submit to force and even if they did what if one day the dem party goes off their rocker and we've done all these things to push them forward? no, we need to fix this the right way.
You can't fix education without taking power at the state level in red states which you can't do because of one.
You need to play the field as it is before you can change it and that means winning through superior propaganda.
With Love and Courage
+4
Options
Magus`The fun has been DOUBLED!Registered Userregular
The issue I find is that a lot of this is as black and white as it appears. From a moral standpoint, one party is so much better than the other it's not even funny. The "best" Republicans are merely the uninformed ones. There are plenty of ones who know more than enough and still choose how they do. While I say all voters should be critical thinkers, if the lack of it causes them to vote in a way objectively good for society than I'll take it.
As people have said, it's hard to reach people who so obviously fail base critical thinking. As a straight white guy with a degree I should be mad I'm having a hard time being paid what I'm worth. In fact, I do. I don't blame faceless mobs of others for it, though. If anything, my situation is a result of people trying to fuck minorities and I was just unlucky.
I'd love to run for President just to see how people would respond to MY real talk. Ah well.
...we need to gerrymander as many states as possible and shut down as many rural polling places as possible. We need to get on the news and accuse every GOP candidate of being secret Illuminati and anything else that might stick with low information voters.
hold your horses there buddy
i'm as upset about this as anyone else but that is absolutely not the way to go about fixing it.
we need to focus on education and truth. we failed because people were not educated, the numbers show this.
education is the way to fix this, not force. low information voters will never submit to force and even if they did what if one day the dem party goes off their rocker and we've done all these things to push them forward? no, we need to fix this the right way.
You can't fix education without taking power at the state level in red states which you can't do because of one.
You need to play the field as it is before you can change it and that means winning through superior propaganda.
But shutting down the polling places in rural areas is just as bad as Voter ID is. It is discrimination, just the same.
And I say this because I voted from a rural church in Alabama.
Maybe if both sides do it we can get bipartisan support to outlaw it. But I think we are at the point that the ends justify any means.
There are cartoon supervillains who use this line when talking about blowing up cities.
...we need to gerrymander as many states as possible and shut down as many rural polling places as possible. We need to get on the news and accuse every GOP candidate of being secret Illuminati and anything else that might stick with low information voters.
hold your horses there buddy
i'm as upset about this as anyone else but that is absolutely not the way to go about fixing it.
we need to focus on education and truth. we failed because people were not educated, the numbers show this.
education is the way to fix this, not force. low information voters will never submit to force and even if they did what if one day the dem party goes off their rocker and we've done all these things to push them forward? no, we need to fix this the right way.
You can't fix education without taking power at the state level in red states which you can't do because of one.
You need to play the field as it is before you can change it and that means winning through superior propaganda.
But shutting down the polling places in rural areas is just as bad as Voter ID is. It is discrimination, just the same.
And I say this because I voted from a rural church in Alabama.
Maybe if both sides do it we can get bipartisan support to outlaw it. But I think we are at the point that the ends justify any means.
There are cartoon supervillains who use this line when talking about blowing up cities.
This isn't a cartoon. The morally correct way doesn't have to work just because it's morally correct.
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
...we need to gerrymander as many states as possible and shut down as many rural polling places as possible. We need to get on the news and accuse every GOP candidate of being secret Illuminati and anything else that might stick with low information voters.
hold your horses there buddy
i'm as upset about this as anyone else but that is absolutely not the way to go about fixing it.
we need to focus on education and truth. we failed because people were not educated, the numbers show this.
education is the way to fix this, not force. low information voters will never submit to force and even if they did what if one day the dem party goes off their rocker and we've done all these things to push them forward? no, we need to fix this the right way.
You can't fix education without taking power at the state level in red states which you can't do because of one.
You need to play the field as it is before you can change it and that means winning through superior propaganda.
But shutting down the polling places in rural areas is just as bad as Voter ID is. It is discrimination, just the same.
And I say this because I voted from a rural church in Alabama.
Maybe if both sides do it we can get bipartisan support to outlaw it. But I think we are at the point that the ends justify any means.
There are cartoon supervillains who use this line when talking about blowing up cities.
This isn't a cartoon. The morally correct way doesn't have to work just because it's morally correct.
Please, shut up. This is the kind of talk that had millions of my people murdered in Germany. Please, just go the fuck away.
I think fighting fire with fire is a thing that should be discussed. For instance, Bernie often made promises people feel were unrealistic. It seems that most americans don't care about what's realistic or not. So should we stick to the factual boring truth when it can be condensed into a fun kinda sorta accurate soundbite when the thing being fought for is equality and justice? Where's the break point on that?
We lost in part because our lack of big, crazy plans kept us on defense. Defense is really, really important, as we're going to learn over the coming years I'm sure, but people don't vote for defense. Even when they vote for regression they're voting for action. Not a holding pattern, but a return to where (they think) we've been. Democratic wonkery is inherently defensive, especially in this media environment.
Go big, go loud. Fuck the details. At least during the campaign, because no one is listening to them. Say the biggest thing that you would totally do if you had the ability. Say it loud and often to the point where they can't talk about you without mentioning it. As long as it's not a completely shit idea, you've got a chance.
I mean I know this forum is anti Sanders, but he really was a left wing nega-Trump
His health care plan would not have worked once you looked at the details. So? Telling people OKAY OBAMACARE SUCKS BUT I WILL FIX IT is not a good idea in this cycle. We got an opponent speaking to peoples...not even their hearts... their guts? their asses? I don't know
What we needed was someone screaming WE ARE GOING TO GIVE EVERY MAN WOMAN AND CHILD HEALTHCARE, AND THE RICH ARE GOING TO PAY FOR IT
basically I'm saying for 2020 we need a younger version of Sanders, who has a message focused on class issues, because I think that's what we need to get WI and MI back
You know, I once read a book as a kid called "my teacher flunked the planet." It was about how aliens were scared of human potential, so they sabotaged our development by giving us the invention of tv before we were ready for it, which caused our society to self destruct. Or country was not ready for the invention of social media.
The main problem we learned this year is that we are now in a post- fact society. And its not just Donald Trump. It's the anti-vax movement. It's homeopathy. It's people signing up for pyramid schemes. Its Wikileaks.
We can lecture the media on how the media needs to do a better job, but the media is just a symptom of the problem. We live in an information age where light and flashy articles travel faster than dense and methodical. One where no one wants to pay for newspapers that do actual reporting. Where everything is run by click bait succumbing to the lowest common denominator, simply because educated people are more likely to have ad block installed.
And then there's the fact that conservatives will always dominate talk radio. I'm guessing that the main reason for that is because conservatives live in areas where there's nothing better to do. Even if a left-wing version is offered at this point, the communities already have their preferences.
So here are some ideas:
1) Encourage more people to subscribe to newspapers. If you can spare $10, subscribe to the Washington post. If you want good news, you need to pay for it. Also, newspapers need to form partnerships with each other. When people have dozens of newspapers to choose from, they're going to be stuck with analysis paralysis. Go with the Netflix model.
2) is there a Christian liberal radio station? If not, there really should be. You need a way to reach out to the rural communities and offer them an alternative to hate and division.
3) we need better means of countering misinformation. Fact checking sites like snopes and politifact aren't cutting it.
I think in a way we do need to take a few pointers from how the GOP got itself back on its feet. There was a time not that long ago when people were talking about how the GOP was in its death throes. I'm not saying we use their tactics like disenfranchising voters we disagree with and the like. I'm saying we need to focus on building from the bottom up. Jill Stein is not the only one guilty of taking too much of a top down approach. We have two years until the next national elections, and only one year for some state elections (Virginia I know for sure). There is little glory in city councils, school boards and small town mayors, but they are so very necessary. There is so much that gets done at the smallest levels of government, and it is a good way to find new candidates for things like state representative and beyond. The Democratic Party has focused entirely too much on the Presidency, to the detriment of overall party strength. Even if Hillary had managed to pull out the victory, we still would have had to deal with an intransigent Republican Congress (House and Senate both). Remember the 2014 midterms? The Democrats received something like 1.5 million more votes for the House of Representatives than the Republicans, but the Republicans still had the majority of Representatives as a direct result of their control of State Governments that draw the district maps. This needs to change, and it's going to be a real challenge if the Republicans are able to implement their voter suppression policies (and who, exactly, is going to stop them?).
I do also agree that in this day and age, we need a more unified party vision that we can sell to the voting public. The problem is finding such a vision that will appeal to the very diverse coalition of voters that make up the Democratic Party. The Republicans have it pretty easy, because apparently all they have to do is demonize brown people and that is good enough. Our challenge is much harder.
You know, I once read a book as a kid called "my teacher flunked the planet." It was about how aliens were scared of human potential, so they sabotaged our development by giving us the invention of tv before we were ready for it, which caused our society to self destruct. Or country was not ready for the invention of social media.
The main problem we learned this year is that we are now in a post- fact society. And its not just Donald Trump. It's the anti-vax movement. It's homeopathy. It's people signing up for pyramid schemes. Its Wikileaks.
We can lecture the media on how the media needs to do a better job, but the media is just a symptom of the problem. We live in an information age where light and flashy articles travel faster than dense and methodical. One where no one wants to pay for newspapers that do actual reporting. Where everything is run by click bait succumbing to the lowest common denominator, simply because educated people are more likely to have ad block installed.
And then there's the fact that conservatives will always dominate talk radio. I'm guessing that the main reason for that is because conservatives live in areas where there's nothing better to do. Even if a left-wing version is offered at this point, the communities already have their preferences.
So here are some ideas:
1) Encourage more people to subscribe to newspapers. If you can spare $10, subscribe to the Washington post. If you want good news, you need to pay for it. Also, newspapers need to form partnerships with each other. When people have dozens of newspapers to choose from, they're going to be stuck with analysis paralysis. Go with the Netflix model.
2) is there a Christian liberal radio station? If not, there really should be. You need a way to reach out to the rural communities and offer them an alternative to hate and division.
3) we need better means of countering misinformation. Fact checking sites like snopes and politifact aren't cutting it.
The thing about talk radio is that it specifically appeals to anger and discord.
I absolutely think there is an angle for the disgruntled liberal, especially in the podcast generation
You know, I once read a book as a kid called "my teacher flunked the planet." It was about how aliens were scared of human potential, so they sabotaged our development by giving us the invention of tv before we were ready for it, which caused our society to self destruct. Or country was not ready for the invention of social media.
The main problem we learned this year is that we are now in a post- fact society. And its not just Donald Trump. It's the anti-vax movement. It's homeopathy. It's people signing up for pyramid schemes. Its Wikileaks.
We can lecture the media on how the media needs to do a better job, but the media is just a symptom of the problem. We live in an information age where light and flashy articles travel faster than dense and methodical. One where no one wants to pay for newspapers that do actual reporting. Where everything is run by click bait succumbing to the lowest common denominator, simply because educated people are more likely to have ad block installed.
And then there's the fact that conservatives will always dominate talk radio. I'm guessing that the main reason for that is because conservatives live in areas where there's nothing better to do. Even if a left-wing version is offered at this point, the communities already have their preferences.
So here are some ideas:
1) Encourage more people to subscribe to newspapers. If you can spare $10, subscribe to the Washington post. If you want good news, you need to pay for it. Also, newspapers need to form partnerships with each other. When people have dozens of newspapers to choose from, they're going to be stuck with analysis paralysis. Go with the Netflix model.
2) is there a Christian liberal radio station? If not, there really should be. You need a way to reach out to the rural communities and offer them an alternative to hate and division.
3) we need better means of countering misinformation. Fact checking sites like snopes and politifact aren't cutting it.
The thing about talk radio is that it specifically appeals to anger and discord.
I absolutely think there is an angle for the disgruntled liberal, especially in the podcast generation
Posts
The $15 minimum wage one is really interesting to me, but I feel like there's some necessary unpacking there with regards to wages across the board.
You see a lot of blue-collar resistance to this, because what the hell this guy at McD's would make as much as / more than me, and he's just running a till instead of unloading warehouses / working a line! That's horseshit!
And he's right! The caveat is that we're assuming that market pressure is going to raise all boats and we're all going to be making another $6-10/hour, and everyone is better off, but also with relative standards of living preserved between unskilled/blue collar / white collar. Someone needs to figure out how to squeeze that necessary contextualization into a 15-second sound byte, though.
Go big, go loud. Fuck the details. At least during the campaign, because no one is listening to them. Say the biggest thing that you would totally do if you had the ability. Say it loud and often to the point where they can't talk about you without mentioning it. As long as it's not a completely shit idea, you've got a chance.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
"We're gonna raise wages by $10 an hour for all Americans!"?
This is how you wind up with fierce partisan divides and a complete lack of desire or skillset to bridge them meaningfully.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Also something we on the left only discuss in presidential years and on the presidential level. That needs to stop.
We also need to determine what the actual causes of the loss were. Is the nation significantly more racist and misogynist than we thought? The answer would seem to be yes, at least for now. Was Hillary Clinton the right candidate? I still believe she would have made a good to great President, but several decades of a Republican smear campaign was hugely damaging. Would Bernie Sanders have been a better candidate? I have no idea, though I am sure many people will claim that to be the case. What about Joe Biden? I think he would have been better than Bernie, but again no way to be sure. I can't think of any other Democrats that might have had a shot and were interested. How much did the FBI's bullshit affect things? By all indications it had at least some effect in energizing the anti-Hillary vote. How much blame does the media get? I would argue they should get rather a lot, since they focused on the e-mails incessantly trying to push a horse race narrative, and barely mentioned the legitimately criminal things that Donald Trump was involved in like the Trump University scam, his fraudulent charity, his illegal dealings in Cuba, his exploitation of undocumented immigrants in his modeling agency and I'm sure many others. How about the national attention span? Apparently it if didn't happen in the last week, it doesn't matter, as evidenced by his feud with the Khan family and the Access Hollywood tape.
I think once we have figured out where things went wrong, then we can work to address it. I do worry that the party is going to lose a lot of confidence and/or take lessons from this defeat that will hurt the country in the short and long term.
I got laughed out of the thread before the election for proposing this. We do not have the capital to be as cavalier as we were.
"Deplorables" was a shitty, shitty idea. "Irredeemables" even more so.
IMO, can't do it - you lose the context of framing this something necessary for human dignity for the people at the bottom. Middle and upper class don't need it. You need that specific minimum wage context as the foot into the door for the discussion.
Some kind of person who is outspoken, who isn't a politician, who plays to the best of humanity. Someone who will fight against the mudslinging, not try to brush it off like it doesn't mean anything. It's going to require another 2008 Obama, someone we don't know enough about to have any real feelings for.
(*)As a footnote, I'd like to say that I believe that if the Clintons had gone whole hog into triangulation rather than backing off from it and going the truth-telling route due to pushback from the left, she'd likely be President today. The left's objection to that tactic led to them using it far less and I think it cost them dearly.
That's one way. Another is to identify a specific candidate to go work/volunteer for.
Most localities won't have a DNC office as such. If there's local infrastructure, it tends to be of the home office variety. But you should be able to google and find a local organizer if there is one. They'll be a good place to start in most cases.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Yes.
EDIT: But temper your expectations. Show up to do work; do not show up for self-aggrandizement or the expectation that you'll be able to do big picture policy stuff.
hold your horses there buddy
i'm as upset about this as anyone else but that is absolutely not the way to go about fixing it.
we need to focus on education and truth. we failed because people were not educated, the numbers show this.
education is the way to fix this, not force. low information voters will never submit to force and even if they did what if one day the dem party goes off their rocker and we've done all these things to push them forward? no, we need to fix this the right way.
Unfortunately the perpetrators know this and have been working their asses off to screw over schools and education efforts
The GOP thinks critical thinking skills are a bad thing!
You can't fix education without taking power at the state level in red states which you can't do because of one.
You need to play the field as it is before you can change it and that means winning through superior propaganda.
Not that apparently GOTV matters much anymore, but is there any place to volunteer to phone bank for the Louisiana run off so we can pray we could get a pub or two to flip and NOT nuke the filibuster?
Duckworth seems like she could be a good younger leader, who else seems promising?
But shutting down the polling places in rural areas is just as bad as Voter ID is. It is discrimination, just the same.
And I say this because I voted from a rural church in Alabama.
Even better to show up at your local school board, zoning board, county council meetings and speak your minds. Go hyperlocal. Notice who else is there and you'll find the people doing the real gruntwork.
Biden/Warren
Warren/Biden
There really aren't many choices outside of someone suddenly appearing out of thin air.
there are other ways. going to have to agree to disagree and leave it at that.
Need to find young local promising politicians and build them up
We need to stop thinking it has to be a politician.
It doesn't have to be a politician.
Affleck, Damon, Clooney, Jon Stewart, Colbert...
Let's get someone out there who can be charming and sharp and on-point on the messaging, and willing to beat the shit out of their opponents.
And someone who comes with no political baggage like prior votes.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Maybe if both sides do it we can get bipartisan support to outlaw it. But I think we are at the point that the ends justify any means.
As people have said, it's hard to reach people who so obviously fail base critical thinking. As a straight white guy with a degree I should be mad I'm having a hard time being paid what I'm worth. In fact, I do. I don't blame faceless mobs of others for it, though. If anything, my situation is a result of people trying to fuck minorities and I was just unlucky.
I'd love to run for President just to see how people would respond to MY real talk. Ah well.
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
I love her but she is not ready for prime time.
There are cartoon supervillains who use this line when talking about blowing up cities.
This isn't a cartoon. The morally correct way doesn't have to work just because it's morally correct.
Please, shut up. This is the kind of talk that had millions of my people murdered in Germany. Please, just go the fuck away.
I mean I know this forum is anti Sanders, but he really was a left wing nega-Trump
His health care plan would not have worked once you looked at the details. So? Telling people OKAY OBAMACARE SUCKS BUT I WILL FIX IT is not a good idea in this cycle. We got an opponent speaking to peoples...not even their hearts... their guts? their asses? I don't know
What we needed was someone screaming WE ARE GOING TO GIVE EVERY MAN WOMAN AND CHILD HEALTHCARE, AND THE RICH ARE GOING TO PAY FOR IT
basically I'm saying for 2020 we need a younger version of Sanders, who has a message focused on class issues, because I think that's what we need to get WI and MI back
The main problem we learned this year is that we are now in a post- fact society. And its not just Donald Trump. It's the anti-vax movement. It's homeopathy. It's people signing up for pyramid schemes. Its Wikileaks.
We can lecture the media on how the media needs to do a better job, but the media is just a symptom of the problem. We live in an information age where light and flashy articles travel faster than dense and methodical. One where no one wants to pay for newspapers that do actual reporting. Where everything is run by click bait succumbing to the lowest common denominator, simply because educated people are more likely to have ad block installed.
And then there's the fact that conservatives will always dominate talk radio. I'm guessing that the main reason for that is because conservatives live in areas where there's nothing better to do. Even if a left-wing version is offered at this point, the communities already have their preferences.
So here are some ideas:
1) Encourage more people to subscribe to newspapers. If you can spare $10, subscribe to the Washington post. If you want good news, you need to pay for it. Also, newspapers need to form partnerships with each other. When people have dozens of newspapers to choose from, they're going to be stuck with analysis paralysis. Go with the Netflix model.
2) is there a Christian liberal radio station? If not, there really should be. You need a way to reach out to the rural communities and offer them an alternative to hate and division.
3) we need better means of countering misinformation. Fact checking sites like snopes and politifact aren't cutting it.
I do also agree that in this day and age, we need a more unified party vision that we can sell to the voting public. The problem is finding such a vision that will appeal to the very diverse coalition of voters that make up the Democratic Party. The Republicans have it pretty easy, because apparently all they have to do is demonize brown people and that is good enough. Our challenge is much harder.
The thing about talk radio is that it specifically appeals to anger and discord.
I absolutely think there is an angle for the disgruntled liberal, especially in the podcast generation
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
there aren't many leftist Rush Limbaugh types
they tend to get killed