Watching MSNBC

[Proud liberal 80]

And the Republican senator David Perdue said something that I have noticed for almost 20 years.....he said that he doesn’t have to persuade people, he just has to get the vote out...and to be honest he is right and that is what republicans do, they always campaign on a base election. Trump did it this year, and so did their House and Senate candidates....they don’t try to reach out to the other side and no one ever calls them out for it. They live and die with their base win or lose....and even when they barely win (Ron desantis and Rick Scott) they still govern to their base

However, Democrats always try to campaign for the mythical ‘undecided’ or worst ‘the republican voter’...we need to have that same attitude of turning out our voters and getting them energized without worrying about the ‘undecided’ or ‘Trump’ voter...those people aren’t going to vote for us anyway...seems like republicans have learned that

[stopbush]

1. If Ds had campaigned only to their base, tRump would have been reelected.

[Proud liberal 80]

5. You are buying into the media narrative

We won because of the base

[Demsrule86]

20. No we didn't. We got new voters in GA, Arizona ...lots of places...You are the one who is wrong.

You try to win the 'base' in purple GA...you lose. Our opportunities are in red and purple states.

[Turin_C3PO]

8. Imagine if

our base turned out to vote as much as the white evangelicals do. We’d probably have a lot more seats. White evangelicals were 42% of the white vote but are only like 25% of the white population.

[Dem2]

19. Unfortunately accurate

As noted in another thread, this is why Democrats lost some house and senate seats. Sad but true reality at this time. Hopefully this changes going forward.

[Binkie The Clown]

2. There are a LOT of areas where the Republicans know how to do stuff that we just haven't learned yet

Seriously, the Democrats need to get their shit together where messaging is concerned.

[Laelth]

3. I agree and have said so for years. n/t

-Laelth

[StarfishSaver]

4. I keep beating that drum only to get pushback from people insisting

we must continue trying to persuade voters who will only be persuaded to vote Democratic if we kick a large portion of our base to the curb.

[Turin_C3PO]

10. You've always been right on this subject.

Some people are mistaking our call to turn out our base as if we are saying we have to move left. We don’t. We just need huge turnout among key constituencies, specifically minorities.

[Demsrule86]

21. The issue is that we need a big tent and some object to that. But we won't win if out message is

on that works in dark blue states. This is a center left or even center right country...

[StarfishSaver]

25. I don't object to a big tent

I object to expecting black and brown voters to make room in the tent for racists - especially since those racists can only be enticed into the tent if assured that the black and brown people will be relegated to the back.

[Demsrule86]

24. Adopting policies that allow us to win rather than those advocated by the 'base'

will benefit everyone and kicks no one to the curb. You have to appeal to voters to win. And can I just say that people who win by 30 points in deep blue districts are not the base exclusively. We lost states, we lost house seats and we didn't do as well in the Senate as expected...time to examine policies that work. Biden managed to win by a moderate approach that reached out to everyone. That works clearly.

[Bettie]

26. That's my thought too

but, no one listens to people without a whole lot of money to put in Super PACs.

[Turin_C3PO]

6. I agree with you.

If we could increase turnout among our base, especially minorities, to something like 80% we could be competitive even in states like Mississippi. We don’t even have to move right or left. Just get our people out to vote, just like the Repubs get the evangelicals to come out.

[MaryMagdaline]

7. K&R

Excellent points!!

[Progressive dog]

9. Biden and Harris won

and by a lot of votes. That disproves the theory of only appealing to the base pretty conclusively.

[Demsrule86]

22. Exactly, we try for only the base and we will lose.

We came damn close to losing the house because we did not appeal to voters in some red or purple districts . There is not enough 'base' to give us the house or the senate.

[StarfishSaver]

27. Biden and Harris won by pushing a strong progressive message and fighting like hell

to get the base out to vote. They didn't go out of their way to appeal to racist Trump voters and they proudly embraced the "identity politics" that the "better tone down the race stuff because it turns off the working class" crowd kept telling them to stay away from.

[Progressive dog]

28. Biden pushed a centerist message

and specifically rejected M4All and defund the police. Appealing to Trump voters would have been a rejection of what our demcocracy is supposed to be about. Identity politics is not the same as trying to fix the inequities caused by identity politics.

[StarfishSaver]

29. To the people decrying "identity politics," any discussion of fixing inequities that harm minorities

or is not centered on white people's grievances is "identity politics."

[Progressive dog]

31. So what,

the people decrying identity politics are the same ones promoting it. I don't intend to join them. Two wrongs do not make a right.

[KPN]

11. Problem is, our base isn't motivated by hate, fear or batshit crazy conspiracies.

[SharonClark]

12. The base is only 1/3 for either party.

The No Party people are the other 1/3. Neither party can win if they appeal only to their base. But getting out the base and like-minded NPs is how to win.

[Proud liberal 80]

16. I see what you are saying

But tell me why republicans continue to win the senate/governors elections by just appealing to their base, and then when they get into their office they govern to the base.

[Demsrule86]

23. They have a loyal base...we do not. We have had message voters and but her emails voters...

We will never win without party loyalty. And adopting policies that don't sell in an area we are trying to win is never going to work.

[StarfishSaver]

30. We do indeed have a loyal base

Unfortunately, we also have people in our party who don't think those voters are all that important.

[mackdaddy]

13. Republican Politicians don't have to persuade people because Right wing media does it for them.

EVERY DAY The "talking points" go out to Fox hosts, RW radio, and the more extreme newsmux, infosmores, and other utube "influencers".

Propaganda Works. Organized propaganda is devastating.

And things have gotten to the point that the rubes will believe ANYTHING they say.

[Sogo]

18. True.

[FakeNoose]

14. If we Dems believe this is true

... then we also need to admit that Bernie Sanders hasn't helped us a single bit.
It's one or the other.

[PatSeg]

15. I don't know

I don't think in the long run, that would be a winning strategy for Democrats. We are more diverse as a party both culturally and ideologically. If we only spoke to our base, we would lose. Obama had voters that turned around and voted for Trump in 2016 and there were Trump voters who switched to Biden this election.

There actually are voters in the middle who do vote for both parties over the years. When our message is perceived as too liberal, even if its not in reality, we often lose some of the middle voters to republicans. Not all voters are like us. They aren't all up-to-date on politics and current events 24/7. They often base their decisions on less substantive information, gut instinct, remarks on TV, political ads, or something they heard from friends and relatives.

As someone else on this thread mentioned, we need to work on messaging, but we are different than republicans and we can't campaign like them. Republicans tend to campaign on fear, which can have a broad appeal, while Democrats are more inclined to focus on the positive, offering real solutions to people's problems. We just have to get better at reaching more people.

[Klaralven]

17. Latino voters in Georgia get attention in high-stakes Senate races

The Latino electorate in Georgia, with about a quarter million registered voters, has been growing and its turnout has been increasing.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latino-voters-georgia-get-attention-high-stakes-senate-races-n1247574