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KING: The Democratic Party doesn't get why it's so unpopular
The New York Daily News ^ | March 9, 2017 | Shaun King aka Talcum X

Posted on 03/10/2017 12:59:26 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

A troubling new poll was just released showing that the Democratic Party is significantly less popular than both Donald Trump and Mike Pence. My gut tells me that Democrats will ignore this poll, or blame it on bad polling, and continue down the same course they are currently on: being funded by lobbyists and the 1%, straddling the fence or outright ignoring many of most inspirational issues of the time, and blaming Bernie Sanders for why they aren’t in power right now.

As a general rule the Democratic Party doesn’t listen well and struggles to hear the truth about itself.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Republicans now control the House, the Senate, the presidency, and the overwhelming majority of state legislatures and governorships. This new poll from Suffolk University illustrates just how that’s possible. Here are the base results of the poll with favorable/unfavorable ratings.

Pence: 47%/35%
Trump: 45%/47%
GOP: 37%/48%
Media: 37%/50%
Dem Party: 36%/52%
Hillary: 35%/55%
Congress: 26%/52%

In other words, the Democratic Party has a favorability rating 11 points lower than Pence, nine points lower than Trump, and even one point lower than the GOP.

Their unfavorable rating is 17 points worse than Pence, five points worse than Trump, and four points worse than the GOP.

This is a disaster. At a time when Donald Trump is the least liked President ever measured at this point in his first term, the Democratic Party has found a way to be even less liked than him. This is how Donald Trump wins a second term. This is how congressional Republicans win the next midterm elections. This is how conservatives not only maintain their current power from coast to coast, but also expand it.

The Democratic Party is deeply unpopular – period. It’s a fact. Don’t look away. Don’t call me a Bernie Bro. It’s a problem that must be seriously addressed. Not a day goes by when I don’t have people reach out to me and ask if it would be worth it to start a credible alternative to what the Democrats are offering. Most people, I believe, would also be open to a brand new way of business for the Democratic Party, but core leaders seem hell bent on doing the same old crap.

When good people who are frustrated with the Democratic Party express their genuine concerns, I see them being told to shut up and unify. “Now is not the time for public complaints,” they are told. “We must all work together.”

But what this apparently means to the people who are calling for unity is getting behind the corporate, suit and tie, lobbyist-driven agenda of the establishment. But let me break it to you – the establishment has almost no grassroots momentum. Virtually every progressive grassroots movement in America right now is fueled by people outside of the Democratic Party establishment and this is a huge reason why the party is so outrageously unpopular.

Huge grassroots movements, made up of millions and millions of people, are fueling the fight for a $15 minimum wage, fighting back against fossil fuels and the Dakota Access Pipeline, fighting to end fracking, fighting to remove lobbyist money from politics, fighting to end senseless wars and international violence, fighting for universal healthcare, fighting for the legalization of marijuana, fighting for free college tuition, fighting against systems of mass incarceration, and so much more. But mainstream Democrats aren’t really a central part of any of those battles, and, to be clear, each of those issues have deep networks, energized volunteers, and serious donors, but corporate Democrats virtually ignore them.

In the past two months, I’ve spoken in a dozen states around the country and thousands of people show up. Wednesday night, in the freezing rain, lines were wrapped around multiple city blocks to attend an event I was hosting at a local Seattle high school. We literally formed the event a few days ago on Facebook and didn’t spend a single penny putting it together.

When I see these crowds, I don’t see them and think “Wow, I’m so popular.” I see them and think “Wow, people are hungry for change, and insight, and direction.” When I see those crowds, those polls showing how outrageously unpopular the Democratic Party is frustrate me even more. It just doesn’t have to be this way.

People show up in huge numbers for my events, or Bernie’s events, or for events put on by the organizers of the Women’s March, not just because we all want to stop Donald Trump. That’s a gross oversimplification of who we are and what we stand for. People are showing up, by the thousands, by tens and hundreds of thousands, because we have many of the very same beliefs, and passions, and preferences for how America can improve and be a better place for all of us.

The Democratic Party is not a fiery Barack Obama speech away from being popular. He may be beloved and mobs of screaming fans may follow him all over the country, but the party he represents simply doesn’t have that same type of support. And they won’t if they don’t do some serious soul searching about who and what they truly stand for.

Recently, I’ve asked the crowds where I am speaking two key questions about the Democratic Party. The response that I get is always the same – mass laughter or audible frustration.

The first question is, “If I asked you, in just a few sentences, to sum up what specific policies the Democratic Party stands for, what would you say?”

People have no genuine idea. They know some things the party stands against, but it’s genuinely hard to be sure of what they stand for.

The other question is, “What exactly is the strategy of the Democratic Party to take back the government from conservatives across the country?”

That one always gets the most laughs. Nobody has any idea. Not once has somebody stood up and said, “Hey, I know the strategy.” Hell, I don’t know it. I don’t think one exists. Whatever the strategy was this past election, it didn’t work either. And again, I don’t just mean in the presidential election. Democrats lost all over the place in national, state, and local elections.

Losing is hard. It sucks. I hate losing. But this much I know – if the Democratic Party does not come to grips with why it is so wildly unpopular, many more losses will be on the horizon.


TOPICS: Issues; Parties; Polls; State and Local
KEYWORDS: democrats; hillary; pence; trump
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To: exDemMom
Nancy Pelosis of the congress are actually stupid enough to believe that they can get utopia by more socialism and ludditism.

Pelosi is firmly in the anti-Socialist Corporatism camp of the establishment. She is the one, more than anyone else who pushed in Obamacare for government control of insurance companies and government control of medical providers and government control of ordinary people rather than a Socialist single-payer system wanted by the Bernie types.

21 posted on 03/10/2017 4:40:51 AM PST by spintreebob
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To: 867V309

Losing 1000 seats in 8 years does not indicate grass roots.


22 posted on 03/10/2017 5:34:19 AM PST by KC_Conspirator
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
“If I asked you, in just a few sentences, to sum up what specific policies the Democratic Party stands for, what would you say?”

They advocate any policy which will make Americans poor and miserable. In this way, they hope people will increasingly vote for Liberals to fix all the problems and take care of everyone.

“What exactly is the strategy of the Democratic Party to take back the government from conservatives across the country?”

Lie a lot.

23 posted on 03/10/2017 6:19:46 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (Abortion is what slavery was: immoral but not illegal. Not yet.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Maybe to show he is down with the sister this fake Negro should hire the female fake Negro as a researcher to help him churn out fake news. Just sayin.


24 posted on 03/10/2017 6:25:21 AM PST by jmaroneps37 (Conservatism is truth. Liberalism is lies.)
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To: 867V309

I agree! That “huge” movement is 100 people who work online all day with software programs that make it look like they’re hundreds of thousands. Even Soros’ paid protesters are looking for new gigs.


25 posted on 03/10/2017 6:27:58 AM PST by gr8eman (People too dumb to understand what the word "country" means will not have one!)
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To: WKUHilltopper
My dad...a life-long FDR Democrat...absolutely hates the Democrats now.

My dad is 81 and was raised a dim and use to say he was one, just always voted republican. Now, he no longer mentions he use to be one.

26 posted on 03/10/2017 6:28:25 AM PST by fungoking (Tis a pleasure to live in the 0zarks)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It’s hard to believe this clown is still being published by the Daily News. His writing is atrocious and illiterate, his insights are on the level of a high school kid, and all he ever talks about is himself. Who would look to this guy for guidance? Pete Hamill and Jimmy Breslin must be rolling over in their graves.


27 posted on 03/10/2017 7:10:20 AM PST by beckett (Amor Fati)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why are Democrats unpopular? Simple...Look at the people with a D behind their name. That should explain it all.


28 posted on 03/10/2017 7:28:52 AM PST by oldtech
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To: spintreebob

‘If I like the results of a poll, then the poll must be valid.

If I dislike the results of a poll, then the poll must be fake.’

Let’s say the poll is fake. It still has Hillary as the most unfavorable person/entity listed. It was stiff competition with the Democrat Party and Congress as a whole, yet Hillary prevailed. That’s worth a laugh, fake or not.

Plus, if it’s fake, Hillary has to add another name to her, People Likely to Commit Suicide or Die in a Plane Crash list. At times the number of people she needs to neutralize must seem daunting even to her.


29 posted on 03/10/2017 7:49:04 AM PST by Fantasywriter (Any attempt to do forensic work using Internet artifacts is fraught with pitfalls. JoeProbono)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

GOP leaders have nothing great to cheer about with this poll. While Pence and Trump get nearer to a majority than the Democrats, the GOP itself is less than 1% higher in the poll than the Democrats.

I think the GOP leaders greatest failure is not their ideas. It is their horrible skill level at communications. They can’t and don’t sell very well even the best ideas the GOP has.


30 posted on 03/10/2017 7:52:24 AM PST by Wuli
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To: Fantasywriter

Btw, I’m just going by the 55% unfavorable # by Hillary’s name. Maybe someone or something is less unpopular is you calculate the difference between their favorable/unfavorable #s. Idk. I just can’t get over her 55% negative #. It’s amazing.


31 posted on 03/10/2017 7:55:43 AM PST by Fantasywriter (Any attempt to do forensic work using Internet artifacts is fraught with pitfalls. JoeProbono)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Bottom Line, the elitist media in NYC, Washington and LA are non stop attacking Trump and qre perhaps the most disrespectful crybabies in history - that continues to do just the opposite of what they wish, they are making Trump more popular and exposing the weaknesses and hatred of the Dem Party.

More good news - they don’t realize that their hate filled attacks hurt their cause and will continue this effort - winning!


32 posted on 03/10/2017 7:57:28 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The writer was a toddler hitting the keyboard and said toddler got published. Matter of fact, I think my youngest brother could write better.


33 posted on 03/10/2017 9:01:54 AM PST by ConservaTeen (Islam is Not the Religion of Peace, but The religion of Pedophilia...)
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