Democratic (Party) Direction

Alfred also OTM

A lot of people hate the word "hypocrisy" especially when it's used to try and make them look dumb

"this dude knows basically nothing about government or foreign policy and probably couldn't pass a 5th grade Civics test"

this is basically a pro-Trump t-shirt

But if he had been relentlessly painted as an irresponsible, bankrupt fraud, maybe things could have been different. Maybe she could have won by 6 million votes!

Fuck everything.

frogbs, who do you think Hillary's base is?

the GOP has wanted dumbfucks who know jackshit about governing since January 1981; to know shit about governing is to imply that you WANT to govern, and governing is not in the GOP's longterm plan.

I can't get why my Dem friends don't want to understand this. Politics isn't rational!

i think Dems consistently overestimate their own inherent appeal, the appeal of celebrity supporters, and underestimate the ability of more centrist conservative voters to be swayed into more liberal voting patterns (and underestimate their ability to be swayed back with strategic fearmongering.)

underestimate the ability of more centrist conservative voters to be swayed into more liberal voting patterns

the Hillary campaign overestimated Dem appeal to these so-called centrist conservatives.

i think they overestimated Hillary's appeal!

my opinion probably isn't as informed on this subject but I think the Dem message is attractive yet they've been habitually bad at putting it out nationally since....well, forever. except for Obama.

IDK who 'her base is' in anything more than a broad sense. just know that a lot of people didn't like either candidate and Hillary needed an argument other than "I'm not Trump"

and yea I get what you're saying Alfred, but I think its one thing to support bad ideas, another to support someone whose only ideas are total nonsense. "we're gonna crack down on immigration big league!" is a bad idea. "let's build a 100 foot wall" is nonsense.

messages don't matter to the electorate nearly as much as the messenger and what they signify

i think Dems consistently overestimate their own inherent appeal, the appeal of celebrity supporters, and underestimate the ability of more centrist conservative voters to be swayed into more liberal voting patterns (and underestimate their ability to be swayed back with strategic fearmongering.)

Yes

romney's vote held up completely despite the fact the the clinton campaign focused hugely on swaying centrist republicans. never trump conservatives broadly don't exist as a significant voting block

Hillary needed an argument other than "I'm not Trump"

Have you met any middle-aged women?

never trump conservatives were hard to persuade into voting for the traditional enemy

Not in my experience. They all vote in blue precincts though

i think they overestimated Hillary's appeal!

― nomar, Monday, March 13, 2017 12:04 PM (fifty-four minutes ago)

this, sadly. you can cut it up however you want, and misogyny definitely played a big part, but hillary was personally repugnant to a huge swath of voters - mostly die-hard republicans, but also dems, independents & the undecided. same could be said of trump, but he managed to turn his negatives into strengths in the minds of his supporters, and hillary never did. at best, she "overcame" them.

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/14/14908272/trump-greenberg-democrats-neolib

I thought this was pretty good, a podcast ep talking about the structural problems and shitty media culture the Dems have right now:

http://www.thisisfine.net/2017/03/23/episode-1-8-any-organized-party/

In this week’s podcast, we talk with writer, academic, activist, and erstwhile Twitter-opinion-haver Freddie DeBoer

lol kingfish what are you doing

I mean, Freddie? Really?

DeBoer is so enormously shitty. Recently he had someone doxed for criticizing Michael Tracey too much.

Jeff Stein‏
@JStein_Vox
Below, @justicedems's list of all House Dems not sponsoring Conyers's single-payer.

3 Ds heavyweights not on board: Pelosi; Hoyer; Crowley

https://twitter.com/JStein_Vox/status/847069350402117633

cool I didn't know there was a single-payer health care bill

can we get the Russians to hack it? maybe then Dems will back it

bernie would've gotten it through amirite

stop eatin Mark Russell's lunch, AB

xp

Polis did a reddit AMA yesterday, looks like he dodged on why he's not co-sponsoring

not sure what the goal of a single-payer bill at this particular time is - to make the GOP look bad? to keep the idea in the public eye? Not sure it accomplishes either.

to lure the demented trump into 'working with the democrats' to win the adulation of the people

lol like Trump pays attention to random bills in Congress

i support Single-Payer and hope this bill gets the momentum for it started, but I'm a bit mystified by the timing, strategically, of this push for Medicare For All NOW. ACA just avoided an existential threat, was declared law of the land by Paul Ryan, and the current President is vowing to sabotage it or to 'let it implode'. seems like Dems would want to defend ACA and try to build a coalition to improve some the many shitty parts (maybe a public option). if ACA had been repealed i would understand, but I just don't see the timing. is this just inertia from ppl who had expected repeal to pass? it's going to be difficult for Dems who have defended this law for 8 years and just finally permanently succeeded to say, actually, here's this other thing that we didn't do in 2008 but now think is better. maybe ACA and single payer are more compatible than I think, and they can sell it as an additional arrow in the quiver?

not sure what the goal of Nancy Pelosi at this particular time is

her stated goal for staying in office was to block ACA repeal

p sure she's done after this term

How much policy work did she do as speaker of the house? The recent stories of the way she whipped for votes for ACA were pretty great, though.

Pelosi didn't really write bills, she did what a Speaker is supposed to do: keep her caucus together, count votes, and get shit passed.

^ otm. Speakers don't introduce many, if any, bills and are sparing in their co-sponsorships. Ryan's sponsorship of the AHCA was more the exception than the rule. He put his prestige on the line, tripped and fell flat on his face. Which is why speakers don't introduce many, if any, etc.

Ok. So her not being the world's biggest ideologue might not be such a big surprise?

*siiiiiiiiiiiigh*

it's more that her (and Hoyer) not co-sponsoring a bill (which, in case anyone was unclear, has no hopes of passage) is not remarkable

cue Morbz link re: her killing single payer in initial run-up to ACA House votes

https://twitter.com/LanaDelRaytheon/status/847755420168994817

pelosi is a parliamentarian. something ryan sucks at, if you didn't notice.

XP yep those are two screen shots.

4 screenshots

Oh yeah, sorry.

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2017/03/how-trump-won

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/upshot/a-2016-review-turnout-wasnt-the-driver-of-clintons-defeat.html

Survey data, along with countless journalistic accounts, also suggest that voters switched in huge numbers.

Throughout the campaign, polls of registered voters — which are not subject to changes in turnout — showed Mrs. Clinton faring much worse than Mr. Obama among white working-class voters.

The postelection survey data tells a similar story: Mrs. Clinton won Mr. Obama’s white-working class supporters by a margin of only 78 percent to 18 percent against Mr. Trump, according to the Cooperative Congressional Election Study.

In the Midwestern battleground states and Pennsylvania, Mrs. Clinton had an advantage of 76 percent to 20 percent among white working-class Obama voters.

The survey data isn’t perfect. It relies on voters’ accurate recall of their 2012 vote, and that type of recall is often biased toward the winner. Indeed, the C.C.E.S. found that Mr. Obama had 54 percent of support among 2012 voters, compared with his actual 51 percent finish.

uggggh

How much policy work did she do as speaker of the house? The recent stories of the way she whipped for votes for ACA were pretty great, though.

― Frederik B, Friday, March 31, 2017 1:25 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Pelosi didn't really write bills, she did what a Speaker is supposed to do: keep her caucus together, count votes, and get shit passed.

― Οὖτις, Friday, March 31, 2017 1:26 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ otm. Speakers don't introduce many, if any, bills and are sparing in their co-sponsorships. Ryan's sponsorship of the AHCA was more the exception than the rule. He put his prestige on the line, tripped and fell flat on his face. Which is why speakers don't introduce many, if any, etc.

― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Friday, March 31, 2017 1:55 PM

Pelosi is by far the most effective speaker -- by any definition -- since Rayburn.