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Ongoing Dem Debacle Thread: Commander will kill us all

That she had something like 68 votes against her is actually a bit encouraging if you're searching for a silver lining. I'm thinking this means she's done the next time around.

Things must be really bad if I'm appearing as the optimist here.

Why do you say that? Those 68 are probably more vulnerable than those who voted for her.
 
I'm all for the millennials taking over the Democratic Party. They are really in touch.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...c6a45c-aff8-11e6-be1c-8cec35b1ad25_story.html

As opposed to the alleged billionaire and man of the common people who dined on sauteed frog legs (oh no, Pepe!) at Jean George last night, who just hired a dude from Goldman Sachs to run the Treasury (at least he didn't, God forbid, make a speech for kids to them), who refuses to pay small businesses who for work for him, who buys giant portraits of himself with charity money, and who donated sperm to this shining example of silver spoon shitheadedness (and hot POA he'd like to bang):

"When Ivanka was a kid, she got frustrated because she couldn’t set up a lemonade stand in Trump Tower. “We had no such advantages,” she writes, meaning, in this case, an ordinary home on an ordinary street. She and her brothers finally tried to sell lemonade at their summer place in Connecticut, but their neighborhood was so ritzy that there was no foot traffic. “As good fortune would have it, we had a bodyguard that summer,” she writes. They persuaded their bodyguard to buy lemonade, and then their driver, and then the maids, who “dug deep for their spare change.” The lesson, she says, is that the kids “made the best of a bad situation.” In another early business story, she and her brothers made fake Native American arrowheads, buried them in the woods, dug them up while playing with their friends, and sold the arrowheads to their friends for five dollars each."

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/ivanka-trumps-terrible-book-helps-explain-the-trump-family-ethos

But that opinion piece does provide additional evidence that the people in the heartland who are so angry about their shit lives and how terrible America is (it's ok if they say it) have been languishing under Republican state and local governments -- but you can't even try to point something like that out because post-fact world and all. But, let's be honest, they are the ones who are out of touch.
 
Why do you say that? Those 68 are probably more vulnerable than those who voted for her.

I think because this time around it was a reaction to the bad election news and what appeared to be a quickly conceived insurgency. Whereas I think you'll see a better planned insurgency in 2 years. Maybe I'm being too hopeful, but please don't urinate on the few hopes I'm trying to find.
 
I think because this time around it was a reaction to the bad election news and what appeared to be a quickly conceived insurgency. Whereas I think you'll see a better planned insurgency in 2 years. Maybe I'm being too hopeful, but please don't urinate on the few hopes I'm trying to find.

You're being too hopeful. Dems just don't get it and it's frustrating seeing them flail around.
 
You're being too hopeful. Dems just don't get it and it's frustrating seeing them flail around.

They get it. Corruption governs their every move.

I'm praying for 2 good years for trump then the dem slaughter is finished in 2018.
 
Really good Vox article about what Dems can learn from the effectiveness of Trump's speeches.
http://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2016/12/6/13853314/trump-speeches-lessons-democrats-economics-trade

Watching Trump with fresh eyes shows that we need to think more clearly about how Democratic proposals assume people will accede to changing social norms, how to convey to voters that the policies pursued by the rich are a problem, how to have clear messaging, how to deal with trade, and how to deal with questions involving wages and power. I don’t have the answers, certainly not here and now; but getting the questions right is the first step.

Trump and his team were a mess on campaign discipline. But when it came to the economic platform in his speeches he remained disciplined and clear: He’s going to crush undocumented workers, roll back globalization, and cut taxes and regulations in DC. He has catch phrases and symbols for each (the wall, rip up trade deals, drain the swamp), and it’s easy for his (white) voters to imagine how those line up with a better economic situation for themselves. As I’ve emphasized, this is what policy is, and Trump was fantastic at it.
What were Clinton’s three things to benefit workers? There was policy everywhere, but none of it was clear to voters. An infrastructure deal — though would that even happen and didn’t Obama already try that? Anyway, Trump promised to do it twice as big. After that it wasn’t clear what was a priority.
Stuff that actually would affect workers’ lives was presented in a technocratic and vague way. Clinton spoke of “short-termism” instead of bosses who would rather give money to shareholders than invest in their companies and workers. “Shadow banking” instead of “Wells Fargo was ripping you off and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stopped it.” I use these terms too — they are useful when talking to other economists — but I’m not running a political campaign.
 
Yep. Successfully running government doesn't win anymore.

Having no candidates in the pipeline anymore and relying on only 1--Hillary is what doesn't win. When your leadership is limited to Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer & Kames Clyburn, and they have a 'death grip' on the top and won't let anybody else in to learn or take over some of the reins, you have mounting problems. You have no farm system and it came to bear in the 2016 election. Clinton scared off everybody, Bernie exposed what a vulnerable candidate she was and it took him being a total socialist to do it. They she ran on Obama's dreary record with OBummerCare's increases helping to bring her down at the same time the email hacks exposed what a 'hack' her campaign chairman John Podesta was--such a little worm and even said she smelled like urine. Debbie WaWa got caught cheating, then Donna got caught cheating and even Bernie wouldn't turn on them--having been paid off by the 'machine'! Now come to 2020 and the best names are Biden who will be 78 & Elizabeth Warren who will be 71. They don't exactly strike fear in the hearts of many anymore at that age. Cory Booker et al aren't up & running yet. There won't be much redistricting until past 2020 and the new census, so that is the next time for Democratic hope, because in 2018 there are 25 Dems up in the Senate! And maybe 3-4 already replaced in SCOTUS!
 
Is there anything Martin O'Malley could do over the next 3 years to make himself a more viable candidate? Knowing what we know now, the DNC never gave him even a remote chance of emerging from the primaries.
 
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Not be Martin O' Malley? He comes across as a combo of John Edwards and Dan Quayle.
 
Perhaps the thing I've hated most about the Clinton post-2000 is that everything they've done was geared toward getting Hillary into the White House. They've only developed a bench to the extent to which it would help her.

Barack and Michelle and the Bidens have a chance to do some real good that the Clintons never did. I would like to see them identify and mentor young Democrats from state and local politics and business who have the potential to run in 2018 and 2020. I want them to find the next Barack Obama and use their PACs and political capital to give them a shot in running for Republican senate seats with one or two running for president.

Some hopeful news:

To Rehabilitate Democratic Party, Obama Plans To 'Coach' Young Talent

President Obama sees a role for himself in rebuilding the Democratic Party after he leaves office — coach.
"What I am interested in is just developing a whole new generation of talent," Obama told NPR's Steve Inskeep in an interview on Morning Edition.


"There are such incredible young people who not only worked on my campaign, but I've seen in advocacy groups," Obama said. "I've seen passionate about issues like climate change, or conservation, criminal justice reform. You know, campaigns to — for a livable wage, or health insurance. And making sure that whatever resources, credibility, spotlight that I can bring to help them rise up. That's something that I think I can do well, I think Michelle can do well."

 
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