General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStuff's Not Going Well. Really, It's Not.
There will be no gun control bill. Trump will continue to do incredibly stupid things, and Congress will help him. We'll continue to rage about it. What else can we do?
Well, here's what we can do:
Focus on the elections coming up in November. We can regain control of at least the House. We can regain control of at least some state legislatures. We actually can do those things. We need only do one thing to succeed:
Get out the damned vote! Bring more voters to the polling place who will vote for Democrats. Which Democrats? Any Democrats, for pete's sake. We can do it. Will we? That up to each of us to answer.
I do not want to be on DU after the election, doing the same complaining about Republicans doing stupid, harmful things.
GOTV Everywhere! Just do it, damn it!
Wounded Bear
(58,648 posts)to GOTV and overwhelm them in November.
Demovictory9
(32,452 posts)CanonRay
(14,101 posts)is better than any Republican. Anywhere. They may not be perfect, but at least it won't add to the problems.
MineralMan
(146,288 posts)There will be primaries. After those occur, we must all support the Democratic winner of those primaries. Period. If we do anything less, we aid the Republicans. It's not a new lesson. It has always been true.
Ligyron
(7,629 posts)Unless someone else Democrat is able to primary him.
MineralMan
(146,288 posts)but he votes with the Democratic caucus most of the time. A Republican would never do that.
Primaries are where we replace candidates. I'm all for them. But, once the primary's over, the Democrat on the ballot should get our votes. Every time. We simply can't afford any more Republicans winning elections due to spite voting or non-voting. We cannot!
Ligyron
(7,629 posts)LiberalLovinLug
(14,173 posts)Not only that the "all" support who wins the primaries, but the part of the "all" that voted for the winner, not spend months, years, bad mouthing the one that came in second, and his supporters.
Akacia
(583 posts)DemocracyMouse
(2,275 posts)Atticus
(15,124 posts)to door, volunteer to phone bank. If you can't write LTEs, put a sign in your front yard. If you have a car, offer rides to early voting or polling places. Help someone register to vote.
Get Out The Vote!!
MineralMan
(146,288 posts)It's essential.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)DemocracyMouse
(2,275 posts)Motivate a massive blue votefire by inviting all your friends to a voting party. Tell them they can't come unless they are committed to voting.
Voting paties are aspirational and contagious. Make voting a passion, not just a duty.
Mountain Mule
(1,002 posts)And I'm bringing a friend. Been exercising my legs and walking 3 miles per day - in part so I can help canvas for the Dems this fall.
UNITED WE STAND!
thucythucy
(8,047 posts)This is our best, perhaps even our last hope.
Thanks for putting it so well.
MineralMan
(146,288 posts)We'll all be needed.
PaulX2
(2,032 posts)The blue wave is us....
Pacifist Patriot
(24,653 posts)dalton99a
(81,457 posts)GOTV. Fuck the pundits. Fuck the Trumpanzees.
Again, GOTV.
Grammy23
(5,810 posts)Many people at that time said our next chance to make things better was the 2018 election. And it seemed like an awfully long way off. It felt like forever.
Well, here we are in 2018. The time went by faster than we imagined it would. That was partly because things have gone so much worse than we imagined. And because every day topped the day before for craziness in the White House. So truly the time as zipped on by and we find ourselves facing another election in 8 months.
We have our work cut out for us, but tRump himself has inadvertently helped us by being the worst American President. Ever. Period. So lets marshall our forces. We need to pummel tRump mercilessly for his failure as a leader, failure as a decent human being, failure as our representative on the world stage.
But we need to do more than criticize tRump and the Republican Congress. We have to outline a better plan which the Republicans have failed to do. tRump made big promises and said it would be easy to fix our problems. In fact, that can be a talking point right there. None of the problems we face will be easy, quick fixes. But that alone is no reason to throw up our hands in despair. The American people are desperate for leaders who hear them and can deliver on their campaign promises.
The time to reach out to voters from all parties (or no party affiliation) is now. We have just a few months to find them and give them better answers. We can do it. We must do it if we are going to have any chance at ridding us of the menace currently occupying the White House and the thugs and thieves running Congress!
MineralMan
(146,288 posts)and vote out Republicans. I don't care what they call themselves, as long as they vote to help us win.
Many of us know Republicans who are horrified by Trump. We can help them to decide against voting for Republican down the ticket. We need to show them the way out of this awful mess.
louis c
(8,652 posts)this is not a time to be "politically pure".
There may be a time in the future for that, but not now. We must take control of the Congress. if, in the general election, there is a candidate who will caucus with the Democrats, that's who we need to support. We don't need to look for an excuse to vote against that person, we have to look for a reason to vote for him or her. And that reason is that he or she will caucus with the Democrats. If we gain the majority in any chamber, we control the committee chairperson. We control subpoenas. We control the hearings. We control the voting agenda. We bring bills to the floor for a vote. We control the conference committees.
Come on people, there is only one litmus test in 2018. If the general election candidate will caucus in the House or the Senate with the Democrats. Period.
PatrickforO
(14,570 posts)as a people, of taking back our Republic from these robbers and capitalist pirates.
But...I also encourage all of you to have the backs of these kids who are pushing back against the NRA. My wife will be participating in the March for our lives on March 24. This march needs to be bigger than the Women's Marches - why? To keep the pressure up. To keep people thinking. To keep people seeing the stupidity, illogic and immorality of the Republican positions on pretty much anything.
I say this, MineralMan, because I believe organized resistance will keep us from feeling alone, and keep us from despair in these next 8 months. Every day there is a new outrage and the parasites are sucking from a thousand veins - common decency and common sense are attacked on a thousand different fronts. Resistance may help us from becoming numb again, because I think we have many of the problems we do, because as David Gilmour sang, we "have become comfortably numb."
For me, I guess, this is why I continue active resistance. I don't want to get numb.
MineralMan
(146,288 posts)Nothing else matters. If we don't win in November, we lose for a much longer time.
DinahMoeHum
(21,784 posts)Last edited Sun Mar 4, 2018, 02:09 PM - Edit history (1)
And that means GROUND GAME, people..
Join up with the local Indivisible chapter in your area.
In my area, they supply additional people power for the canvassing, phone-banking and postcard writing to GOTV
Join your local Democratic committee/club and become a district leader/precinct captain.
They are the ground troops in all this; oftentimes Indivisible provides reinforcements for GOTV activities.
In my area, we did this and became part of the blue wave that swept through the nation in 2017.
2017 was just the warm-up.
Now I'm taking my own advice and going out this afternoon for yet another round of neighborhood canvassing, for a special election come April 24 (for NY state senator, since the previous one is now our county executive)
MineralMan
(146,288 posts)there's no time like the present.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,339 posts)"I do not want to be on DU after the election, doing the same complaining about Republicans doing stupid, harmful things."
Hopefully, the Dems will have a good majority in the House, and a slim majority in the Senate.
Then, we can be on DU, complaining about blue dogs, and about Republican 40-member filibusters in the Senate.
These are preferable complaints.
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)Love your posts MineralMan!
Pepsidog
(6,254 posts)The ONLY justice we will have is at the ballot box so that these bastards are swept away in a tidal wave of votes. Take nothing for granted, VOTE!! Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania voters must especially correct their grievous actions from the 2016 election.
lastlib
(23,222 posts)GET. OUT. THE. F&UCKING. VOTE!
VOX
(22,976 posts)It CAN be done!
gademocrat7
(10,656 posts)We all have to be very proactive in the upcoming midterms. Vote, register friends and family to vote. Help in any way you can.
MineralMan
(146,288 posts)UCmeNdc
(9,600 posts)Takket
(21,563 posts)it is already march. the elections will be rolling around before any impeachment hearings will be concluded. we are stuck with this piece of shit for better or for worse this year. only flipping congress will save us
MineralMan
(146,288 posts)There's no time to waste in getting active. If we wait, we lose. We must not forget our state legislatures and other offices, either. They have a huge impact on the direction we go.
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)News flash" NOTHING happens until these assholes see the price they pay. Until they do, they'll remain in the NRA's pocket.
bigtree
(85,992 posts)...that's most of the way we garner support from the public, at large.
I'm always bemused (at the least) by these arguments which counsel moving from agitation to the vote, as if the two weren't entirely integral to each other.
MineralMan
(146,288 posts)Unless our "raging about it" ends up electing Democratic majorities, it's wasted, frankly. That's my opinion.
bigtree
(85,992 posts)...how do you distinguish 'raging' from other advocacy you believe is worthwhile?
Here's the thing: Midterm contests are mainly, 'anti' elections where voters 'raging' about what they disagree with or dislike dominating attendance. Very rarely do we find masses of voters voting their approval in these contests. That's what we saw during the Obama era, with voters anxious to counter the results of the presidential election with their votes for Congress and the Senate.
Unless there's a palpable fervor among anti-Trump voters at election time, there won't be a turnover. I don't believe we get there by a sterile focus on legislation, for instance. Indeed, voters won't respond at the polls like we want if all we do is invite comparisons on policies that republicans don't even believe in, and often elevate to debate to divert from basic incompetence or malfeasance of their candidates..
PearliePoo2
(7,768 posts)Get out and VOTE!
Send money to Democrats if you can!
Andrew Janz CA-22!
https://www.andrewjanzforcongress.com/
K&R
demigoddess
(6,640 posts)and look myself in the mirror in decades, but now they seem to have lost their brains, morals, and their citizenship in one fell swoop.
Besides, we need to do it for the school kids of America, especially the first graders and the high schoolers and all in between. Unless we want to see teachers armed in classes.
pwb
(11,261 posts)So many don't vote. A drive by them could make the difference .
riversedge
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Katinfl
(157 posts)The way I see it, that is really all we can do. From your words to Gods ear!
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)So there's that.
There's little chance we can take back the Senate & House, but we can get more people in there to make a difference.
Response to MineralMan (Original post)
Pacifist Patriot This message was self-deleted by its author.
LongTomH
(8,636 posts)I just donated to a MO state senate candidate. I will work for her campaign and others here in Missouri and Kansas.
Pacifist Patriot
(24,653 posts)CousinIT
(9,241 posts)is to VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE in November and get a Dem majority in at least ONE house.
THAT will hogtie him a bit until 2020. With all the indictments and Mueller closing in, add a Dem majority to it, he may just resign. If not, we can - IF WE'RE STILL HAVING ELECTIONS - outs his ass in 2020.
If Dems have the majority in congress they WILL (THEY HAD GODDAMNED BETTER) begin impeachment proceedings. EVEN if the Senate majority won't vote for it -- they should DO IT anyway.
BigmanPigman
(51,585 posts)you can check out Swing Left and Adopt a State.
https://adoptastate.org/
https://swingleft.org/
YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)RandySF
(58,786 posts)So if you go to the voting booth and don't like your local Dem, just think of them as one inch of the bandage. We can worry about rehabilitation later.
Heartstrings
(7,349 posts)Volunteer......
GOTV!
C Moon
(12,212 posts)calimary
(81,220 posts)librechik
(30,674 posts)and god forbid the elections do not go as planned and the repubs CHEAT to stop us from doing anything about it and half our people say You are just imagining things...Then what?
You know, like now.