Democratic Party Strategy: Hoping for a Unicorn
Democrats are stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Ossoff, a political neophyte and mere child, lost by 6% f*cking points against a 55 year old veteran conservative. And he spent TWENTY FIVE MILLION HARD EARNED DOLLARS for the privilege. TWENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS. In a district held by Republicans for FORTY YEARS. That’s just goddamned stupid. The Democrats are so desperate for a win that they ran a little leaguer against a popular local journeywoman and got their asses kicked, deservedly so. Did they really believe this kid could win? Oh, please.
The same thing happened in other races tonight, where the Repubs virtually swept the special elections, and the talking heads on MSNBC are rationalizing “how close” they came. Stupid. What a waste of time, money, and brain cells. The Dems continue to swing for the fences with a 12 oz. bat. That’s stupid, too. The party hasn’t groomed solid candidates in God-knows-how-long, and everyone is crying in their beer tonight that the golden-haired boy lost to a tea bagging weirdo. Is anyone surprised?
Well, here’s the bad news, kids…you can’t turn an entire political movement inside out with a unicorn. You have to start at the local level and build, build, build. And for God’s sake, stop pouring generational wealth into candidates who don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of even making a showing.
Jesus…
(sorry, Momma)
Howard Dean knew how.
1Yeah, I was sick to my stomach watching the results come in. I’m pretty sure the millenials didn’t think it was important to vote. They’re going to have to live with what comes of this. The next decade or so is going to be living hell for them, especially of they need medical care or good jobs.
2We don’t generally agree, El Jefe, but we do this time. I wish we had spent a few of those bucks and some effort in South Carolina, though, where Archie Parnell lost by a smaller margin than Jon Ossoff in Georgia, despite the fact that the Republicans were so heavily favored that the Democrats didn’t bother to support their candidate.
Unfortunately, close only counts in horseshoes, despite what we keep telling ourselves. We really need to stop pulling candidates out of the air, and start building a state-by-state pipeline of seasoned campaigners with progressive ideas, if we ever want to take back some of the red states. Howard Dean was right.
3Hey, Dems, take a good look. You spent way too much on one race that you forgot others. Some you just won’t win. But your ground game stinks. Learn how to play before you step up. A lose is a lose. If people are entrenched in stupid that’s how they will vote. Now learn and go on. Please no more whining. The whole party and all its supporters were insulted by that corrupt delusional traitor in the White House. Start grooming winners. They’re out there. Look in state houses. A candidate needs some record to run on. Get going. Stop wasting money on those who can’t win. Know the local people. That’s the key.
4Democrats won first 7 special elections during the Obama administration: Lost the House in 2010.
This is a hit but not the death of the D party. The Rs ran a vicious, nasty campaign with hateful attack ads filled with lies.
The answer is not simple nor is that the Ds are stupid.
5Right! Bring back Howard Dean.
6Nurture candidates locally. School boards, city councils, volunteer civic committees and move the smart ones up the ladder.
“The strength of a house does not come from the grandeur of the master suite, but from the strength and stability of the foundation.”
7Let’s not forget that Handel was one of the leaders in the Republican charge to disenfranchise as many potential Democratic voters as possible:
https://www.thenation.com/article/karen-handel-has-a-long-history-of-suppressing-votes/
8Sure, by all means castigate the people who made an effort.
The Democrats outspent the GOP in this election by about .5 million. The challenger party USUALLY outspends the incumbent party, and in a deep red district – how is this strange to you?
By all means, let’s not talk about the voter rolls being conveniently purged ahead of the election. No, let’s do all we can to further demoralize the people who are still willing to work toward a goal. Good game.
9Monday morning quarterbacking sure is easy.
I’m glad the Dems fought for that seat. I would love to see the same fight for every seat. Ossoff looked like a pretty good bet, charming and intelligent. Karen Handel is a looney bird. But fighting against looney is just tough right now.
10And how many of you believe we have an accurate vote count?
El Jefe, what would you have ranted if Jon had won?
11Fighting every election means fighting every election. Yes, it would be nice to have a better bench, but the important thing here is that the Republicans were not given an unopposed victory.
Did we win? No. Not this time. But we have to keep working – and it’ll take more time and more losses before we win.
12Bring back Howard Dean, give him an understudy, then give that individual a stand-in. See how Broadway and the Met Opera do it, don’t rely on on a “star”.
Let Handle prove she won, no records I know, that is the feature not bug of electronic voting. Handle can’t prove she won, it’s fair to challenge her(and others), let her proof she got those votes.
Challenging voter roll purging, caging, the crosscheck and other trickery, is there another Kobach somewhere?
Get the Clintons out of the picture, they have sucked the O2 out of the Dem Party, Once you have been in the White House that should be it…I don’t know my history that well but these political dynasties need to lay low for generational intervals.
13I agree with Old Quaker but while we are building we shouldn’t just hand elections to the Republicans by default. You don’t know you can’t win until the votes are counted and polls (untrustworthy I know) indicated that Ossoff looked good. Who knows? Maybe 45 will have imploded by the time they vote again next year and Ossoff will look even better or a better candidate will be found. I don’t think we should castigate him because he lost. At least he ran the race.
14Do all the after-the-fact critiquing you want, el jefe. I’m to the point of not caring anymore. I’ll do my best to look after my loved ones; the rest of this big stupid country deserves exactly what’s coming.
15Sorry, but the people who voted Republican are the really stupid people. They are voting against their own self interest.
16The recent shooting of a Rethug congressmen was exploited ad infinitum and associated with any Democratic candidate.
Winning in a red state is a fool’s errand. Kudos to the hard working volunteers for John Ossoff.
Bev, sorry, but “millennial blaming” is too similar to the hippie punching tactic of the snacilbupeR. Please consider stopping that which is counterproductive. Yes. We confess; Jane & I are millennials. We vote, we donate; we’re engaged in politics and Jane is preparing to be a candidate. We’re not alone.
What we can do is join the ACLU, President Obama, former AG Eric Holder and others in the effort to fight gerrymandering and the outright voter suppression of minorities in the courts.
Get out the vote. Assist every eligible voter in becoming registered to vote. Numbers. Elections are lost when we don’t have the winning number(s). Georgia may be a special case of a special election, if all votes were not counted. There is evidence that an accurate vote count in GA is not in the best interests of the snacilbupeR and they work hard to disenfranchise minority voters. We need to be screaming about that and working to fix it.
Similarly, SC is a heavily gerrymandered state and has actively been engaged in cleansing voter rolls of “undesirable” voters targeting minorities and Democratic voters. Again, fighting to have every vote counted is the only way we will win. To restore small “d” democracy, we need to restore the fair election process.
17maryelle, ITA with “Winning in a red state is a fool’s errand.” To a point. Now comes the but in rebuttal. Education is a slow process. However, rather than writing off a significant portion of our fellow citizens, we can improve on our messaging and demonstrate why it is a certain percentage of voters are inclined to vote “against their own self interest.”
Hope it’s not just my imagination, but I think old Mitch McConnell and Lyin’ Ryan have given us a significant edge in 2018 with their draconian AHCA. Facts. We need to get out the facts and we need to do it in a fashion that attracts some of those recalcitrant voters to our plan(s).
18Well, all that money sure was not spent on identifying the Ds and getting out the vote.Unless there weren’t any. Do you suppose they had records? They can buy all the data needed from Cambridge Analytic.
I was hoping Texas would go blue in my lifetime. Looks like the whole country is going Republican.
My first disappointment with Obama was the party not using Howard Dean. For anything.
19Just an observation from a Canadian cousin; it would appear that Dems CAN win when you eliminate the electronic voting option. ie: voting by mail. Repubs even admitted such in one past special election. Cried like stuck pigs when vote by mail was suggested. Your voting machines are not secure. So stop turning on yourselves. You and your message are not the major problem.
20We have had four US House races this year to fill spots vacated by Trump appointees. In Kansas Democratic candidate received $0 and from the Democratic Party in his election bid. Despite the lack of support from his Party he came within 7 points of beating the Republican. In Montana, the Democratic candidate received $250,000 from the Democratic Party about 10 days prior to the election. He came within 6 points of beating the Republican despite the lack of support from his Party. In S. Carolina the Democratic candidate received $300,000 from the Democratic Party about 10 days before the election. He came within 3 points of beating the Republican despite this lack of support from his Party.
John Ossoff was vying for the office held these past 20+ years by the likes of Newt Gingrich and Tom Price. And the Democratic Party couldn’t give him enough money. The DCCC gave him $5 million and the Super PACS gave him many millions more. Despite all this money (the most expensive House race in history in a tiny little district) Ossoff lost by nearly four points.
Why was Ossoff treated so vastly different from the other 3 candidates? I suspect it was because he was a former Congressional aide who had been mentored by Madeline Albright at Georgetown University so the Party establishment really liked Ossoff and wanted to help him even if it meant spending huge sums of money in a state where the chances of a win were slim to none based upon past history and an easily hackable non-paper voting machine system.
Democrats need to get serious. Democrats need to quit playing Party favorites and start picking candidates who can win. Democrats need to spread the money around. If the $5 million the DCCC gave to Ossoff alone had been split between the four races we might have picked up a seat or 2. But financing one very iffy race to the tune of $5 million was a waste of time and money. And Democrats need to quit focusing on just presidential races and races involving their little darlings. We need a 50 state strategy that includes every local, state, and federal race. We can’t fight gerrymandering and voter suppression if we don’t have some power in state legislatures.
21We also need answers. Like why were the recounts stopped in the 3 states Hilz narrowly lost the popular vote and the Electoral College margin was just sufficient to award the election to Dolt45.
221) Heard Handel was NOT popular.
2) I don’t trust the vote – machines with no paper trail. Hackable. Why was the result so far off from the predictions?
3) Heard that rain and flooding hit Democratic areas yesterday afternoon, but not Republican. Voting could have been depressed.
4) Handel helped herself in her previous efforts in statewide office by purging roles. Also heard that voter registration groups for minorities had applications “lost” and groups were threatened.
5) I’m glad I live in a blue state with mail in paper ballots!!! Can’t believe what’s happening elsewhere.
23O/T, but we’re stunned. Lyin’Ryan actually did something approaching decent. He probably thought of it as a photo op. But he did attend the Congressional Women’s Softball game.
24That’s why I like you so! You tell it like it is and how it should be said. Thanks Juanita!!!
25Cecil, El Jefe wrote that. I’ll introduce you guys sometime. You’d like each other.
26I too miss DNC Chair Howard Dean. Investing in all 50 states and every race – in a responsible manner, not $23M in one place – is how you win in the long and short terms.
JuanitaJean’s post contains a slight internal inconsistency. She wants the party to groom good candidates but doesn’t want the party to fund these same candidates unless they are highly likely to win. Hmmm.
One of the current problems (Exhibit A being GA-6 versus SC-5) is that ALL of the money goes to one or two races, and everyone else starves. In 2016, ALL fedeal money went to the TX-23 race in El Paso. It needs to be spread around, including some uphill but still possible races.
27Well, from where I am (in Austin, but not as political as years ago–age catches up) This is just observations.
28How do you like Beto O’Rourke? I do.
Why aren’t we harping on how the Koch bros are papering all the races with money and is there a way to do something about it?
City council and school boards are supposed to be nonpolitical. One thing Kochs are doing is try to take over all local elections.
BE A PRECINCT CHAIR. Don’t tell me all your precincts have chairs. It’s an ongoing battle. Either pcts don’t or the ones they have don’t do anything. The pct chair can walk around with good candidates and knock on doors. It does a lot of good. People are more likely to support candidates if they meet them and talk.
It seems that every time we solve one problem two more pop up. Sally Hernandez and her husband are relentless door knockers (in more than one campaign) and she’s sheriff here. Abbott got really mean and punished not only her on a policy issue, but he punished the whole county.
You can yell about that.
Now, good news. Our friend John Courage was about to beat Lamar Smith so the powers that be redistricted the mess and fixed it so Courage couldn’t win.
But (short version) Courage won a city council seat in San Antonio recently and we are so happy!
It’s just a dang lot of work.
Why can’t we get Howard Dean back? So he yelled. We can yell in chorus.
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