Two Midterm Elections Have Hollowed Out The Democratic Party

Washington Post ^ | 11/08/2014 | Dan Balz

[goldstategop]

The more serious problem for Democrats is the drubbing they’ve taken in the states, the breeding ground for future national talent and for policy experimentation. Republicans have unified control — the governorship and the legislature — in 23 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Democrats control just seven. Democrats hold 18 governorships, but only a handful are in the most populous states.

In California, Gov. Jerry Brown won again at age 76, his fourth, non-consecutive term in the governor’s office. His victory means that younger Democrats will have to wait until 2018 to compete for one of the nation’s most high-profile political jobs. In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo won a second term, but can’t get out of Clinton’s shadow. The only other state among the top 10 in population held by the Democrats is Pennsylvania, newly won by Tom Wolf.

Meanwhile, Republicans control governorships in Florida, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia and Massachusetts. Democrats were hoping to knock off Republicans Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Rick Scott in Florida and Rick Snyder in Michigan. All survived. In Ohio, John Kasich won by the second-largest margin in state history, thanks in part to the implosion of his Democratic opponent.

snip...

But a political party cannot be constructed around two individuals (Obama and Clinton), as Democrats seem to be today. Winning the presidency and taking back the Senate will be the Democrats’ top priorities in the next two years. The bigger challenge of rebuilding the party in the states and nurturing a new generation of leaders should be just as urgent.

[goldstategop]

The Democrats' implosion is deeper than Hillary inevitable candidacy.

Their leading lights are geriatric politicians ready for the retirement home and the party has no pool of fresh, youthful talent at the state level.

The Democrat Party has been hollowed out. But Democratic leaders are loath to address the problems they face.

A Clinton win in 2016 would only temporarily postpone the need to revive the party from top to bottom.

[ealgeone]

Yet with this implosion Obama is twice elected. I t still boggles the mind.

[goldstategop]

I mainly attribute that to black voters excited about having the first black President.

One won’t be on the ballot in 2016 so its going to be interesting to see if the Obama Coalition survives his departure from the national scene.

[Tzimisce]

If the kids are so important, how come I can abort them?

[Publius]

The Democrats were in a similar position in 1979-80.

[RandallFlagg]

If we want to win against these jackasses, we MUST work to prevent voter fraud.

The more we seem to forget about it on the day after the elections that we win, the more we’ll pay for it later.

Support TrueTheVote!
(Why do you think Obama’s, “Weaponized Government,” came after them?)

[goldstategop]

At that time they were a majority party and the Republican Party had been out of power for decades.

The Democrats are now in the minority and its a long slough back. Rebuilding won’t be an easy job.

[goldstategop]

They should nominate Jerry Brown in 2016. Reagan was slightly younger when he ran.

He’d be more electable than Clinton.

[Publius]

They still had problems with their bench, and the problems only got worse during the Eighties.

[tumblindice]

A penny for the Old Guy.

[laplata]

If we want to win against these jackasses, we MUST work to prevent voter fraud.

---

Absolutely!

[Will88]

The problem is, the Dems may have stocked the voting roles with enough poor and poorly educated legal immigrants, and illegal immigrants to be legalized, that they can continue winning the presidency with unqualified con men such as Obama.

That’s the real reason Obama is so hell bent on his illegal amnesty, and it’s the reason ever non-Democrat should fight it with ever means available.

[Cowboy Bob]

I think in the long term, the Democrats will have a “White Flight” problem. Whites are leaving the Democrat party in the South, and this will spread across the US. Democrats have long promoted “diversity” and Affirmative Action. This identity politics has made the White middle class Democrats feel unwelcome.

[goldstategop]

The attrition of white male voters is only going to get worse for the Democrats.

Its no longer just a Southern problem for them.

[Vince Ferrer]

Our priority, especially the tea party, should be at the state and local level. We can defund a lot of their machine, and reduce their scope even more. Take all of the local democrats in these red districts and vote them out. Also, that upper Mississippi area should be possible to pick up. I don't see why democrats should be doing better there than rural areas elsewhere, even if these are the university areas.

And if we look at the blue areas in the south, that is black voters. Also Chicago and Detroit. If we win some of those areas, the democrat party becomes a coastal party. We could certainly pick up Illinois and Michigan as reliably red if we could win a part of the black vote.

Colorado is interesting. This is the first time I have seen southern Colorado go red. The area is heavily latino and was pro union. But the big union employers, coal mines and a big steel mill in Pueblo, have shut down or severely cut back. The generational blue collar democrat voters are gone now. While still heavily latino, those people have been Americans for generations, some families hundreds of years. This tells me republicans can win the legal latino vote. It also tells me that Scott Walker has the right idea to defund the unions.

Every blue area west of Chicago and the bottom of Texas straight to California is the regions controlled by lilly white hippy eco communists, with the exception of adding in latinos in southern California. The lily whites are true believers that we probably can't win, but we can decrease their numbers as the "climate change" runs its course. Two more years of non warming and and it will be that much harder to hold people in fear.

[Slyfox]

If she were to decide not to run, the Democrats would have trouble identifying a field of candidates as extensive as Republicans are likely to put up in the coming presidential race.

Isn't that a riot?

[goldstategop]

The map tells us Democrats control gentrified big cities, minority-majority cities, Indian reservations and cotton counties.

Everywhere else Republicans have swept the board.

A few slivers of coastal territory and splotches of land in between do not a majority party make.

The only states that are solid Blue are in New England and then there is Hawaii.

[Migraine]

It also tells me that Scott Walker has the right idea to defund the unions.

You are an astute observer, my friend. Scott Walker is the one and only landslide-electable Repub candidate for pres in 2016. He da man!

[Bobalu]

Something has hollowed out the souls of the democrats IMO.

[SWAMPSNIPER]