Democratic (Party) Direction

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/370186-poll-majority-have-favorable-view-of-george-w-bush

That kinda shit in particular encourages me to write off the future

it's the least important part of this story but yes of course the Democrats' well-compensated go-to Faith Adviser is a white Southern Baptist and not a representative of the many religious communities that actually support Democrats

— slackbot (@pareene) January 28, 2018

it's just another grift. years of service to the party (not just Clinton) on the self-evidently absurd premise that he'll deliver even a fraction of that vote. actual "faith outreach" looks like William Barber, but Burns Strider is the guy Dems want to hire

— slackbot (@pareene) January 28, 2018

I'd joke about Trump hiring a "Muslim outreach" guy but he and Romney actually shared a mostly unofficial one: Walid Phares, a Lebanese Christian who hates Muslims

— slackbot (@pareene) January 28, 2018

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/29/democratic-national-committee-ceo-leaving-post-376814

She only took that post in May -- three months after Perez signed on.

conservatives beat liberals because they've done an unbelievable job of convincing half the country that the Democratic party is synonymous with killing babies, the Muslim Brotherhood, MS-13,

Democrats really should stop tiptoeing around and go full-on media assault (non-stop tv commercials, billboards up and down every interstate, wallpaper social media - the whole gamut) just absolutely hammering into the the lizard brains of everyone with eyes or ears that the GOP = Alex Jones = NRA = Dylann Roof = "Rape Melania" guy = literal nazis. I mean really push right up against defamation laws.

nah they already do that, party of Trump, racists, deplorables, gun nuts, religious crazies, want to control women's bodies, anti-science dunces, etc. You have to tell people what you're for at some point.

what they should really do is dehumanize the opposition until their supporters feel confident that they are truly subhuman and then they can begin the culling

"Republicans are cockroaches," that kind of thing.

Yes, Republicans are definitely in a similarly precarious position to the Jews of Europe circa 1936, thanks for the trenchant insight Mordy.

They're not - that's clearly the problem.

He's being sarcastic I think.

But moving on--summary of various responses to SOTU speech

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/democrats-to-trump-not-good-enough/2018/01/30/a38d02ca-0612-11e8-8777-2a059f168dd2_story.html?utm_term=.6d76b0f69481

On Facebook, former Maryland congresswoman Donna F. Edwards delivered a speech on behalf of the left-wing Working Families Party. She offered the night’s lengthiest policy agenda, calling on Democrats to “make elections at every level publicly financed” and “cut the cord with developers, banks, Big Pharma, oil and gas companies, and all the interests that control public policy in states, cities, counties and Congress.”

I like it. Obviously not "possible" but you have to talk big to move the needle back in your direction.

donna edwards otm

You have to tell people what you're for at some point.

100% agree, but I think you can do both.

party of Trump, racists, deplorables, gun nuts, religious crazies, want to control women's bodies, anti-science dunces, etc.

Not specific enough imo. Sure, Trump is. But stuff like “deplorable” was so vague that it encouraged solidarity among anyone who disliked Hillary. Alex Jones, the leaders of online and irl tiki torch brigade, pizzagate boys, Sandy Hook truthers et al would surely be so thoroughly egregious and unattractive to even a (slight?) majority of Republicans, but the “normal” ones like my parents and sister and aunts and uncles don’t really even know those guys exist. Or certainly aren’t aware of how sympatico they are with the policies and philosophies of the GOP in 2018. There’s too much room for plausible deniability.

Instead of Democrats having to defend the fucking FBI or swear they don’t hate veterans every time a football player kneels or weakly profess their respect for responsible sportsmen after every mass murder, Republicans should constantly be put in a position where they’re effectively having to explain away date rapist Mike Cernovich. Ideally, in the general public’s mind, there should be very little light between the actual policies of Paul Ryan and the wishlist of a Richard Spencer.

I feel like the conservative media, right wing PACs, and GOP politicians who like to get on tv have done a pretty thorough job of merging “Democrat” with a whole slew of Bad Scary Things (not only among the active base but with heretofore unengaged, occasional voter) with an amazing degree of specificity.

that's because it is easy to fill a vacuum

it is a winning strategy but it obviously just doesn't come easily to democrats, they're not craven or committed enough. you need a roger ailes to play the long game with a fox news to get to where we are today. it would take decades of unrelenting assault on msnbc to make any kind of a dent in perception. i doubt many want to do that, bc of "principles" ---> barf

I said this somewhere else but I'm increasingly coming around to the idea that on a subconscious level they don't really want to win

“cut the cord with developers, banks, Big Pharma, oil and gas companies, and all the interests that control public policy in states, cities, counties and Congress.”

Dems are not gonna do this until the new public-financing system is magically put in place.

Lol this NYT piece misfires every few sentences. Kennedy scion = “fresh face.” Ok, got it. pic.twitter.com/IU2dLuAh9r

— Daniel Denvir (@DanielDenvir) January 31, 2018

so depressing

ppl sure love the word "scion," think i've seen that about 20 times over the past 12 hours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fvOg13V5mI

medicare / social security for all

Not specific enough imo. Sure, Trump is. But stuff like “deplorable” was so vague that it encouraged solidarity among anyone who disliked Hillary. Alex Jones, the leaders of online and irl tiki torch brigade, pizzagate boys, Sandy Hook truthers et al would surely be so thoroughly egregious and unattractive to even a (slight?) majority of Republicans,

exactly. Hillary touched on this stuff before but her messaging was pretty terrible. like, they could probably call more attention to stuff like this

Democrat dump truck derails Trump train?

This is perfect to divert the news cycle away from Trump unifying the nation with his powerful speech. #TrainCrash

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) January 31, 2018

I said this somewhere else but I'm increasingly coming around to the idea that on a subconscious level they don't really want to win

― Simon H., Wednesday, January 31,

And the GOP on a subconscious level doesn't want to govern. #bothsides

my grudging awe of what Ailes' has accomplished increases by the day

I said this somewhere else but I'm increasingly coming around to the idea that on a subconscious level they don't really want to win

it certainly feels that way. or certainly winning is incidental to fundraising and throwing money around an insular group of consultants and media buyers.

and of course any "wave" they experience in 2018 will only harden their stupid theories on what the electorate actually wants.

fresh wet face

And the GOP on a subconscious level doesn't want to govern. #bothsides

enh looks pretty conscious to me

And the GOP on a subconscious level doesn't want to govern.

oh see i think they're pretty explicit about that! or at least 'governing' (or functions thereof) should be outsourced to the brilliant and blessed 'job creators'

xpost

Fresh Wet Face in Hell

And the GOP on a subconscious level doesn't want to govern. #bothsides

enh looks pretty conscious to me

― Simon H., Wednesday, 31 January 2018 19:21 (four minutes ago) Permalink

And the GOP on a subconscious level doesn't want to govern.

oh see i think they're pretty explicit about that! or at least 'governing' (or functions thereof) should be outsourced to the brilliant and blessed 'job creators'

― constitutional crises they fly at u face (will)

dudes, accept the beauty of parallelism

#chiasmus

https://theintercept.com/2018/01/31/democratic-party-political-fundraising-dccc/

this is good & feels even-handed & thorough. and no lee fang to be seen, even.

medicare / social security for all

― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 31 January 2018 19:07 (thirty-nine minutes ago) Permalin

Honestly. It shouldn’t be hard. They don’t need freshed faced people or good looking people or a fancy communications strategy, just a commitment to protecting and expanding the liberal programs that made the middle class possible—i.e., the party’s true legacy. (The good part at least.)

Everyone can see through the bullshit at this point. No one is going to be inspired by a young hotshot centrist least of all a (lol) kennnedy

its ok they obviously don't believe in him if they gave him the SOTU response

tru dat

Is that a real thing someone said that last night

that's a slightly streamlined version of an argument a few people on the US politics thread expressed iirc

Seems marvellously stupid not to seize the opportunity to put Bernie up there to tear apart Trump’s arguments thst he protects the middle class but what do I know

Bernie gave his own. It was good, it was essentially what you described. Joe Kennedy’s was good too, in front of an audience, it had more of an emotional tenor. Mentioned Black Lives Matter.

Dems are really afraid to officially get behind Bernie, party is truly split right now.

I sometimes wonder if it's even hyperbole to say there are democratic donors who are more afraid of bernie than trump.

https://i.imgur.com/NcxrA6I.gif

sucks that bernie is so damn old

Resentment over the primary might hurt him more than anything as far as POTUS ambitions go. Practically all of the major Dem rumored POTUS hopefuls co-sponsored Bernie’s Single Payer bill, He did the speaking tour with Perez. Schumer asked him to be the outreach chair (which is why you see Bernie on all of CNN policy debates). The infighting narrative tends to cloud some things.

bernie gave his own response to the SOTU, and got some flak from ppl for "undermining" the democrats' response.

the real problem w/ kennedy's speech wasn't his name, it was that his speech didn't seem like an actual rebuttal to trump's speech. it was a generic 10-minute inspirational speech. given that, i thought he did fine, but it seems ridiculous not to use that time to counter any of trump's claims.

SOTU response is the worst job in politics. Either completely forgettable or memorable because you fucked up and derailed your career like Bobby Jindal.