General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe have to accept that there are huge blocs of voters that will never vote for Democrats
The bickering over how the campaigns and elections went is a waste of time. There is no magic messaging that the Democrats can use to convince almost half of the electorate to come over to our side. It's just not happening.
So, what should Democrats do?
First, govern effectively. Joe Biden is the perfect Democrat to do this. Good, strong effective policy prescriptions with broad support in the House may indeed break through in the senate with massive public pressures put Mitch McConnell in the senate.
Second, grow the base from young voters. Biden increased Hillary's advantage among young voters aged 18-29, and this is where the Democrats should focus their attention and efforts. Trump's biggest advantage was among voters 65 and over, most of whom won't be around in 2024.
Combining these two steps, effective governing and appealing to young people, could come in the form of college debt relief and sell it as a stimulus measure to get the economy going post-covid.
Stop focusing on trying to win over voters who believe that you are the devil incarnate. Their hatred of us has move to the irrational stage. The way forward is to replace them electorally, not waste time trying to placate them.
Locutusofborg
(524 posts)So there! 😃
Yavin4
(35,354 posts)The key should be building out the base with people who have not already made up their minds about you.
pwb
(11,204 posts)To win state houses and congress.
Turn out is always the key for a Democratic victory.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)They may not show up to vote, but if they do they will not vote Democratic. The same holds true in the opposite direction. No surprise here.
Lotusflower70
(3,077 posts)I accepted that a long time ago and yet I keep getting told to reach out to them and try to understand them. Nope. I am so over that.
Demsrule86
(68,347 posts)seats in Georgia without reaching out to all voters...answer...we wouldn't have a chance.
Yavin4
(35,354 posts)Both states saw huge population growth from CA and Northeastern cities. Also, the growth of the tech sectors in these states attracts new voters as well.
We didn't win over Trump voters. We created entirely new voters.
Demsrule86
(68,347 posts)You have to reach out to voters given the electoral college and it will be worse in two years with a new bout of gerrymandering on the way. My brother voted for Trump in 2016 He voted straight Democratic ticket this year...and the older voters who voted for Biden mostly voted for Trump...I know it is a attractive to believe we can win with our base and to hell with being competitive, but it is not true and every time we try we lose.
Lotusflower70
(3,077 posts)Arizona was assisted by Cindy McCain and the 22 Native American tribes of Arizona. They showed up and showed out. They were new voters not Trump voters. Stacey Abrams had tremendous ground game in Georgia. Again new voters not Trump voters. They were not wasting time on voters stuck in false victimhood. Democrats have the numbers, they just needed the turnout.
Vivienne235729
(3,373 posts)Demsrule86
(68,347 posts)needed. Without winning in Purple or moderate states,we won't have the House, the Senate or state houses. It will take work but biden showed clearly, we can win such voters with the right candidate and message.
Dem4Life1102
(3,974 posts)The sooner we can work on solutions that can really work.
Response to Yavin4 (Original post)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
Rice4VP
(1,235 posts)media kept saying that was our only hope in FloriDUH
JI7
(89,172 posts)Yavin4
(35,354 posts)It was his best age demo group.
Rice4VP
(1,235 posts)Demsrule86
(68,347 posts)Seniors: Swung to Biden in key states, improved nationally
So far, seniors have swung from Republican to Democrat in the battlegrounds of Michigan and Pennsylvania. In both of these states, older voters were more likely than younger voters to pick the coronavirus as their top issue.
And in Arizona, where seniors make up three in 10 voters, they split their votes between Biden and the president. In 2016, Mr. Trump won this group by 13 points, and he also won the state.
Nationally, Biden also made inroads with seniors. Mr. Trump won this group in 2016 by 7 points, but had just a 3-point edge this year.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/election-2020-exit-poll-analysis-how-biden-became-the-projected-winner/
Earthshine2
(3,848 posts)Our very lives and prosperity depend on it.
Docreed2003
(16,817 posts)The evangelical movement, within the Southern Baptist church in particular, has been preaching directly and indirectly for decades that all things "Democrat" are bad and that no true Christian could support at Democratic candidate. I grew up within that community and saw it from rural churches and larger mega churches alike. (As an aside, the other side of my family were socially conscious liberal Catholics, so I got both extremes lol).
These people follow Trump and his policies, not because they think he's one of them, but because he's a Republican that is speaking "their language" and giving them power to fight for their real goal, which is a theocratic vision for America in their own making. This is cult that is not limited to just Trumpism. In order to change these hearts and minds, we have to find ways to deprogram them from the cult.
JoeOtterbein
(7,697 posts)...nice people.
empedocles
(15,751 posts)Novembers past, - - 'what blue wave?'
Biden won, among Dems, as well as November, by capturing enough of the middle in his coalition.
Good arguments have been made that no other Dem Prez candidate would have won in 11/2020
Caliman73
(11,690 posts)Something has to be done about right wing propaganda. There has always been a bloc of voters who will not vote for Democrats, but it was more movable in the past. What we have at this time specifically because people live in a world where they get "information" that is completely fabricated in falsehood, is an entrenched group of voters who are not dealing in the reality that the vast majority of people deals in.
We used to have arguments in this country and you can even say that they were fierce arguments, but we always argued from the same set of facts, and differed in how they were interpreted. When Nixon went down, everyone was watching the same sources who all thought Nixon was going down. I would argue that if Fox and right wing media existed during that time, it would have been much more difficult to get Nixon to resign because a whole swath of people would have been told he did "nothing wrong". In fact, Roger Ailes, Nixon, and Pat Buchanan were already trying to throw together a media system that would "give the conservative perspective" and this was heightened in Ailes' and Buchanan's minds when Nixon went down.
In this country we have a corporate media (which is what the right wing calls "the liberal media" , we have a highly coordinated right wing media (in which the message is very often repeated by most outlets with the same talking points), and a tiny left wing media (which is typically independent outlets) that critique both the corporate and right wing (also corporate) medias.
I won't be so arrogant as to say that reality is liberal. Reality is socially constructed. However the human condition has always been one of change and adaptation to the facts on the ground, and that is generally a liberal concept. We adapt to and adapt our environment but we ultimately have to face facts. Conservatives try to make the facts fit their agenda, where as liberals adjust much of their reality around facts presented. Therefore, view of reality is very different between the two groups.
rgbecker
(4,806 posts)Sneederbunk
(14,207 posts)marmar
(76,976 posts)ancianita
(35,812 posts)Last edited Sun Nov 15, 2020, 09:23 PM - Edit history (1)
They are
47.3% of the total vote (as of today, 155,872, 778)
34% of the total registered population (213,799,467 as of Nov 3 2020 https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/number-of-registered-voters-by-state)
30% of the total voting age population 2020, around 246,000,000 (2010 Census rounded up to 330 million minus 74 million minors and 10 million undocumented immigrants)
22% of America, overall.
That leaves close to 4/5 of America who don't accept them.
We need to accept our mandate to govern for that population even more, not be reactive to that 22%, and encourage that 22% to rethink their view of what America really is.
America is not them.
They are definitely not a big enough block of America to either define or presume that some guns and fussing give them some outsized power to tell the rest of America what America really is.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)I am afraid that if those people were told that a killer asteroid will hit the earth if they dont vote, they would actually see it incoming and still would not vote, IMO. I dont understand the world those people live in, it is as if they believe that whoever gets elected has no impact on their lives.
ancianita
(35,812 posts)Everything you say about their mentality is probably true. That there's a whole level of privilege. And indifference. Or poverty. They probably have come to think that others will take care of the world's problems so they can just get on with themselves. Maybe they just want to be left alone. I'll bet a lot of them don't bother with masks, either.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,282 posts)... getting good wages and benefits because of past and present sacrifices by union brothers and sisters
They know the Republican party would eliminate unions in a heartbeat if thcy could. They've already turned some states to "right-to-work" (right to screw employees).
Union workers should be voting "D".
Solidarity forever.
ancianita
(35,812 posts)So what common thread do recipients of Democratic Party efforts have -- probably racism and sexism, as Gov Cuomo said today.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)pushing for more job equity for POC and women.
Dem2
(8,166 posts)And we are a very polarized country right now.
I still think there are a lot of independents who will be happy to have a stable, competent government. Biden has a chance to lead by example and I think he'll be a better president than he was a candidate. In fact I'd bet large sums of money that he will be a well liked president.
dalton99a
(81,062 posts)and deserves a second term as president
Fuck them.
UTUSN
(70,494 posts)"grow the base/young voters" - is long-range strategizing, looking for root causes and root solutions, spoken like a true Dem.