Posted on 01/03/2017 11:00:54 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
As we face the new year and the realities of politics in a post-Obama world, the Democrats understandably feel the need to act as if some things are still normal.
That is, even if they suspect that Donald Trump and the Republicans will soon turn the U.S. into a one-party state in all but name, the Democrats need to avoid admitting as muchto themselves or anyone elseto prevent their fears from become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This means that, in the hope of being able to win elections in the future, Democrats are trying to think through the various reasons that the recent elections did not go their way.
True, their party did pick up two seats in the Senate and several House seats, and the presidential election was lost only because of Trump's bizarre and extraordinarily narrow path to victory in the electoral college.
Even so, there were times during the campaign when there was good reason to believe that Hillary Clinton would win in a landslide and that both houses would flip to the Democrats.
So even though it is classic defeatism that has some people on the left calling the 2016 election a "rout," there is certainly plenty of reason for Democrats to try to figure out how such a promising election ended with so many disappointments.
Much of that discussion involves trying to decide whether they have permanently lost the voters who gave Trump his tiny margins of victory in what were once reliably Democratic states, especially Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
One obviously wrong argument that emerged soon after the election was that the Democrats became too invested in so-called identity politics. Jennifer Finney Boylan's powerful response to that load of nonsense....
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Quite doubtful especially if Trump does manage to improve the economies of those mid west states in particular.
I’m a former Dem-voted for Billy Bob, AlGore and Lurch. Yea, it took 20 years to shed the liberalism that is so rampant in my family.
8 years of Obama has made me look back and regret even associating with that lunatic fringe. As a middle class white guy living in a rural area, I am hated by liberals. They have become the party of BLM, militant queers, Islamic sympathizers, feminists, atheists, white limo libs, globalists, anti Comstitution, anarchists etc
It will be a cold day in hell before I vote Dem again.
If you look at the map, Trump won a clear majority of the states. If you look at the map of counties, Trump’s majority is even larger. So he lost the large cities. Detroit demonstrated the voter fraud we all feared.
Or, they could accept that Hillary lost because the largest jury in the nation found her guilty of all charges.
Or, they could recognize that when Uncle Sam's car stopped running Trump showed up with the repair manual, gas, tools, spare parts, a mechanic, a tow truck, jumper cables, a Thermos of coffee, and donuts. Hillary showed up and wanted him to get out and push.
Or, they could...
Huh?! What's this author smoking? What's bizarre about winning the states Trump peeled off from the Dems plus holding more traditionally Republican states? Oh...riiight...Dems think they are never supposed to lose a state they previously won. They think their policies are so wonderful that once a state is "blue," voters will never change again.
To me, what's bizarre is that so many voters continue to buy the swill the Dems keep spewing.
Add poor white “educated” Hipsters to that group.
That’s a self performed Exorcism. You deserve a medal for that.
Yep. They made us hate them.
Fine commentary.
The change is absolutely necessary if the nation is to escape the banana republic death spiral.
Americans will simply need to adjust to a world without illegal aliens and NAFTA. Certainly it will cost a bit more to visit restaurants. But there's a silver lining: the youth of America has entry level jobs and the malaise of the inner city is treated.
Maybe you can't afford to go out and eat as often. Maybe there will be a resurgence of home cooking. In California, maybe the citizens will decide they are willing to pay more for food, but less for big state government.
(BTW, the housing situation in the Bay area is insane. My daughter is going to school there and is paying $800 for a tiny room and some common space with two roommates -- and her rent is going up soon.)
The Democrats will certainly adjust or their party will cease to be a national political force. The lefty temper-tantrums will surely end as people get bored and agitators like Boobamba are exposed as criminals and maybe even prosecuted. I haven't heard of a single neverTrumper moving to Canada as they promised.
The realities of life change, while painful at first, often open up new vistas. Possibilities never considered become new options.
A cornered animal lashes out at its attacker, then high-tails itself outta there fast. And it fully accepts its new territorial boundaries.
At its core, human life is still a rumble in the jungle. But a free, law-abiding Republic is still the best path to human prosperity, self-fulfillment, and brotherhood.
A great nation protects the individual, rewards those who deliver value to the common wealth, and respects its military and law enforcement heroes.
GO TRUMP! GO, ALL AMERICANS!
Beautiful. That IS a fine commentary. It clearly distinguishes the competing camps....we, the people, vs the elitists.
"Elitist" as when candidate Hillary actually said on video: "deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed in response to the leaked Catholic Spring emails.
The disdain Clinton and her team heaped upon believers and the trashing of religion had a huge effect on voters, IMHO.
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REFERENCE WikiLeaks emails appears to show Hillary Clintons campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri joking with a confidant about Catholics and evangelicals in emails sent to John Podesta, chairman of Clintons campaign.
Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri, who ran communications for the liberal think tank Center for American Progress that Podesta founded, responded to emails from think tank fellow John Halpin who noted a 2011 report in the New Yorker about News Corp chief executive Rupert Murdoch and Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson raising their children Catholic.
Many of the most powerful elements of the conservative movement are all Catholic (many converts) from the [Supreme Court] and think tanks to the media and social groups, Halpin wrote in the 2011 email, according to WikiLeaks.
Its an amazing bastardization of the faith. They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy.
Palmieri responded that she believes Murdoch, Thomson and many other conservatives are Catholic because they think its the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldnt understand if they became evangelicals, she wrote. Podesta did not respond in the email thread.
Human Relations 101 - You don’t win people over to your way of thinking by insulting them.
So, no.
Win back?
NO. Citizens of the republic are waking up and rejecting the ‘rat crime syndicate.
MORE FAKE votes? ALERT!
Wow. The media certainly loves and trusts the media, especially the media's rigged polls.
Only if the Pubbies pull a Cleveland Browns and fumble at the goal line.
No
Congratulations! My parents were very liberal. As a child, I never liked those ideas. I became the conservative black sheep of the family, never voted democrat.
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