Beto O'Rourke has done a post mortem on the Texas election and it seems pretty dead on to me

[flamin lib]

https://riograndeguardian.com/orourke-what-weve-learned-in-texas/

1 The Republican party, through years of majority, has institutional advantages like gerrymandered districts.

2 The Republican party isn't ashamed to lie, cheat and steal to remain in power. That's hard to fight, if we go defensive it looks weak and it's not in our DNA to lie, cheat and steal elections.

3 The Democratic outreach was too little, too late and poorly executed. In-person canvasing works, the Republicans didn't care if Covid spread, we did. Campaigning for the party and it's platform needs to be a year around effort, not just before an election.

4 The Democratic message, particularly to Hispanics, was one size fits all and the Latino vote is not monolithic. Figure out who you're talking to and target them and their needs.

5 The Republicans took advantage of Social Media and it's lack of oversight to effectively spread their lies while our Social Media Marketing was sorely lacking.

Beto had more to say but that's it in short form.

What to do?

What if the DNC built their own Lincoln Project? With a twist. Instead of attacking the Republicans as the LP did, build a low key year around social media campaign that extols the accomplishments of our party. History lessons as it were. Remind everyone that it was the Democratic party that gave us Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Remind everyone that without those Mom & Dad would move in with YOU. Educate them on the protections put in place after the Great Depression; FDIC to protect your savings, the SEC to police wall street and protect your retirement, keep hammering on health care and promote our party platform by making it personal to each constituency. Remind everyone of the work left to be done: strengthening the safety net, increasing minimum wage, universal pre-school so people can work, low/no cost higher education that pays for itself by increasing wages and therefore tax revenue. Promote our policies that help the rural constituency like universal broad band, infrastructure, the things that will make their lives better.

Hey DNC, ya' listening? If you do this it won't be such an uphill battle to sell both a candidate AND a party every two years.

[Sherman A1]

1. I like the idea of a social media

program year round not just for Texas but everywhere. Radio Free Democracy or something of that sort.

[flamin lib]

2. +1

[SheltieLover]

16. Agreed!

Smart idea!

[My Pet Orangutan]

33. The Trump campaign ramped up social media and data collection

from the moment Trump was president-elect. Their transition team may have been chaotic, but their digital outreach/re-election effort was a top priority from day one.

[lagomorph777]

38. Absolutely. And we need to do something about Fux and Hate Radio.

[Iliyah]

3. Democratic Party cared for the safety of the American people . . ..

republicans do not. Period.

[MaryMagdaline]

4. Beto for DNC - or at least let's get some monster sub chapters going

One for Texas, one for rust belt

One for Florida - yes, we need to reverse the trend and add voters

[SomedayKindaLove]

5. "Year around effort"

Make people feel safe personally, and that voting D will increase their safety.

[frazzled]

6. Like rock, paper, scissors

Lies always beat truth. It's naive to think that even a years-long program of extolling the virtues of the Democratic party with truth-telling facts will override the exciting appeal of a bunch of conspiratorial lies, for those who are inclined to like that sort of thing.

It's like the movies: the super-hero fantasies and CGI (read fake) disaster films are always going to outsell the beautifully wrought, serious cinematic masterpiece.

[WyattKansas]

41. The problem with your analogy is that even tRUMP tried to hijack FDR to peddle his own gimmicks...

Because even Republican voters love FDR and what he gave to this country. The problem has been that the Democratic Party has not done a very good job at educating voters who exactly gave people what.

The only thing the Republicans have is a long history of failures of their ideals and policies. The Republicans, and lately tRUMP trying to claim he was like FDR, have been very good at hijacking and claiming Democratic accomplishments as their own to sell to voters, because they only have failures. Republicans use only lies, projection, and made up crap to describe their Democratic opponent, because people don't really know who will give them the FDR Progressive Ideals and Policies they want built on and not torn down.

[Ferrets are Cool]

7. I have been preaching the building of our own Lincoln Project. I hope someone is listening

Our messaging must be better.

[MyMission]

23. The LP formed to fight against trumpism, and now

They are calling themselves a pro-democracy group. I think while they were formed by Repubs, they are not a republican group, but a group of conservative patriots.

I don't see why the Democratic party need to form a pro democracy group; the party is one already. The LP folks are no longer Repubs, most have left the party. I think we should partner with them rather than forming another group. Dems are somewhat split between moderate and progressive policies. A Dem Lincoln project would have this division as the party does, they might serve the liberal or conservative branch more.

As for messaging, Beto has some excellent points, perhaps an arm of the DNC can direct positive ads, and information campaigns as the LP did.

[Loki Liesmith]

8. Where is the observation that many Latino's are socially conservative?

That’s something we need to acknowledge. Do we write them off?

[DarthDem]

19. No

This is a good point. Personally I feel that in-person voter outreach is the answer. Town halls, and not just before elections. We can listen to voters in Hispanic areas and hear their concerns. If they're socially conservative, we can assure them that we are, and will always be, the big tent party and that we are about tolerance of ideas. That should appeal to many.

Another advantage of this sort of voter contact is that it's difficult for most Republicans to counter. Think about wealthy patricians like Cornyn and Cruz attempting to connect with whom they view as "average" people. Same in Georgia with the comically out of touch, contemptuous caricatures Loeffler and Perdue. We can remind voters, even socially conservative ones, that the Republicans have achieved nothing in the last 90 years but cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations, saying "no" to programs that will help people who are not wealthy, and getting people hurt or killed.

[Turin_C3PO]

27. No but

in my experience here in NM most Hispanics may be slightly socially conservative but those issues aren't as important to them as they are to whites. I'm Anglo but for my entire life my friends have all been Hispanic. They vote more based on economics. I can't speak for Latinos in other states.

[dalton99a]

9. #3 and #4 really hurt us in the Valley.

Beto is absolutely correct

[AmericanCanuck]

10. Beto is god

He understands Southern and Midwestern Democratic voters far better than people who tweet platitudes from safe blue districts.

Same can be said about Stacey Abrams who understand the Democratic voters and knows how to not make them get turned off by some of the rhetoric coming from extreme blue areas.

[dalton99a]

12. The guy spent months on the road talking to people

He knows rural Texas and Texas Hispanics.

He knows what people are thinking

[George II]

40. Exactly, he knows Texas and Texas Hispanics. He isn't flying up to New York, Chicago, Seattle....

...or any other area of the country other than Texas and the Southwest telling them how to win elections.

He recognizes that Texas, Southwest, and Gulf Coast politics is completely different there than any other part of the country. And I guarantee he isn't running around his area pushing Democratic Socialists or advocating for "defunding the police". He knows that won't work down there.

I remember when Conor Lamb decided in 2017 to run in a special election for PA's 17th District. He was lambasted for being too far right or centrist by what Sanders might call "coastal elites". But Lamb was the perfect Democrat for that district.

He wound up winning the special election and has now been re-elected twice.

Would he win in the Northeast or Northwest of many areas of California? No. But the people of his district apparently are very happy with him.

[AmericanCanuck]

47. It's a massive delusion some safe-blue-district politicians have

They really think that their socialism will be appealing to everyone everywhere.

Politicians get elected to represent the people who elect them and their interests. They are not elected to advance an ideology. They need to act like public servants which they are.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

11. #5 burned Beto badly against Cruz. Cruz did nothing and then

Spread ugly smears on Mombook just weeks before election. They spread like wildfire among low-infos. Just take a scary pic and darken it up even more. You can reach thousands a minute

Perhaps others know more about how or if you can get the same targets as they do. I thought back when started that Dems should try to set up a rapid response team to monitor the smears. If we had same list of targets immediately blast out counter ads. Even if you could influence 10% it's something! Obviously they didn't. Wonder if Beto brought this up to anyone...cuz he lived through it here.

[Klaralven]

13. How about changing schools to a 10 hour day, 52 weeks/year to accommodate working parents?

Combine the otherwise fragmented school and daycare systems into a single coherent education and child development system for pre-school through middle-school. Remove the burden on working parents of arranging for and managing the transitions between school and other facilities for school holidays, vacations, etc.

[kcr]

37. That's too much

It would be much better to offer adequate childcare.

[Liberal In Texas]

14. At some point the party needs to figure out how to establish

a network of radio stations to cover the state. Right now the only way to get progressive radio any place in the state is to buy a sub to Sirius/XM satellite radio which for most is too expensive.

Right now there is a constant stream of repub propaganda piped into people's work vehicles, workshops and farm equipment.

It's way too late in coming, but it's better to start turning this advantage around.

Is it going to cost a lot of money? Yes. It's not going to be easy, but somehow some of the wealthy Democrats need to put their money where their mouths are and get the ball rolling.

[Laelth]

15. Excellent thread. Lots of good ideas. k&r n/t

-Laelth

[Claire Oh Nette]

17. Spot on.

We won, but the "landslide" should have been a real landslide--we need to peel off Montana, Ohio, North Carolina, perhaps Iowa...

The Democratic Party 12 month, 50 state strategy has to tap into the emotional component. That's how the 24/7Faux outrage media convinced "reagan democrats" and white blue collar working class voters to vote against their own interests. Emotional outrage, never actual issues.

And, we make the mistake of assuming working class and blue collar of yore are the same folk. That teacher? working class. That nurse? working class. That computer analyst and IT guy? working class. The civil engineer at DWP making $175K a year? Also working class. Anyone who has to work for a paycheck is working class.

Democratic Leadership needs to make sure it speaks to all facets of the working class, and distinguish even the high income folks from the investor class.

There should be the outrage.

[Turin_C3PO]

22. I think

Texas will be easier to peel off than Iowa or Ohio. Those two states are moving in the opposite direction of where we need to be. I do think we could flip Montana in 2028 and North Carolina in 2024 with the right strategy.

[Claire Oh Nette]

24. Agreed...

I figure Texas is on the verge of swing as well. Maybe Florida, too.

[Turin_C3PO]

25. Florida is possible

if we can convince Cuban-American voters that we’re not pro-Castro communists. I know we’re not but for some reason they believe otherwise.

[JI7]

18. 2 And 5 happend across the whole country . But I think Biden campaign

ended up being right with the focus on those 3 midwestern states.

But we do have to with on Texas and as Beto says it needs to be every year and not just before an election.

It would be a good idea for Biden to go to Texas before he gets into office to see what is going on .

[LeftInTX]

45. The focus on Texas is also important because of down ballot races.

Texas is going to pick up 3 congressional seats. It will be gerrymandered by the Texas GOP. We wanted to flip the state house and we did not flip a single seat....If we had flipped a few seats, we might have gotten a seat at the redistricting table.

[DarthDem]

20. These are such very, very good points.

Beto is right on. Only the Republicans could successfully ignore a deadly virus, then profit off that obscene negligence by going to voters' homes because they didn't care and we did.

The point about the need for liberal radio raised in the responses here is another outstanding observation. A friend of mine in North Carolina echoed the same idea when I asked her about the election results there last week.

[Turin_C3PO]

21. Beto might be a good choice

for head of the DNC. His ideas make sense and should be implemented.

[FakeNoose]

32. He certainly knows Texas inside and out

Beto's expertise on the Texas scene would be very useful to the DNC. But each state is different, and each state has its own weird background history. The DNC can't be expected to know all the ins and outs of each area and state. That's why guys like Beto should remain where they are, running things because their knowledge is so great.

I doubt that he'd be much help in Pennsylvania, or Michigan, but he's pure gold in Texas.

[NewJeffCT]

52. Stacey Abrams to head the DNC

Beto is great, but I think he may run for governor of Texas in 2 years.

[Turin_C3PO]

54. You're right,

Stacey Abrams would be an even better choice. It’s primarily because of her that we took Georgia.

[melman]

26. .

Link to tweet

[NurseJackie]

31. Lulz!

[George II]

44. ....

[liskddksil]

35. Exactly but whether AOC, Beto or Jones I appreciate hearing all views that

push the conversation towards improvement. Acting like this election was in any way a success (other than barely defeating Trump) does us a major disservice, as we can only learn lessons if we are willing.

[melman]

36. Definitely

Just hard not to notice the lack of crying over this as compared to last week.

[George II]

46. What's this about the election not being "in any way a success"? Facts:

- We won the Presidency, and not "barely"
- We gained at least one seat in the Senate (won two and lost one that we would have lost under any circumstances), possibly one or two more
- When all the dust settles, we'll lose ten seats in the House, a mere 4% of our current seats, and less than a quarter of those we gained in 2018.

That is FAR from being not being "in any way a success"!

[liskddksil]

49. Happy talk doesn't work on me. The reality is that without a Georgia miracle

Biden's presidency will be ham-strung to enact any of his proposals. We also lost ground in basically every state legislature that will draw new maps ensuring both House and State Legislative races will continue to be very difficult. The troubling part is we have been on the losing side for decades withstanding a few bright-spots, and we keep following the DSCC/DCCC playbooks that keep on losing elections, and basically force even our good candidates to hire their hack consultants. We need a wholesale firesale of them and new ideas to stop the bleeding there.

[JI7]

50. We lose elections because of large white population. As the white population decreases and minority

increases we are starting to win more.

It's as simple as that .

We didn't win Georgia because people changed their minds. We won because of demographic changes.

[liskddksil]

55. No, our poor performance with latinos and Asians this cycle shows that we can not rely on

demographics alone. We need to appeal to all ethnicities with a stronger economic message, be more effective at countering right-wing framing in both the national media and in social media currents (memes, whatsapp etc.) where once views get normalized are hard to break. We need to stop showing up during elections and begging for their votes, and instead engage full-time and empower the people on the ground with the resources to do this and get out of the way instead of the top down micro-managing which seems to happen each cycle.

[JI7]

56. There was no poor performance with Latinos and Asians. Asians and Latinos were a reason we came

close in GEorgia .

We did get hurt with hispanics and other groups in some states but that was because we avoided a lot of campaigning like the ground campaign and rallies because of the pandemic while Republicans did as usual because they didn't care for safety concerns.

[George II]

42. AOC criticizes Democratic strategy as a whole, advocating for a particular strategy....

...from coast to coast to gulf coast.

O'Rourke and Jones talk about how to win in Texas, Alabama, and the rest of the gulf coast.

Big difference.

O'Rourke isn't trying to foist Texas politics on New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, or the west coast.

Again, big difference.

[JI7]

51. Yup, this is why Obama stayed out of Beto's Senate Race

When Beto was asked about Obama he said positive things about his presidency but separated that from his own run for Senate which he saw as representing the people of Texas . And being about Texas.

Some people that like Obama didn't like this but I explained to them the reasons for it and that Obama understands also and would support that strategy .

[Bettie]

28. Constant social media messaging on

the good that Democrats have brought people would be a HUGE benefit. It would allow "Democrats good" to burrow down into people's brains, down far enough that they wouldn't immediately and automatically accept any stupid lie as truth.

[Butterflylady]

29. Your last paragraph I have to agree with so much it hurts.

We do not tell the people enough about all the positives the Democratic party has done for the country. My guess is the majority of this country has no idea. The repugs have been spreading lies about how the democrats are spreading socialism and are really communists in disguise. I did not hear one word about how rump is pandering to Putin or that n. Korean guy.

I know our candidates wanted to tell the people what they intend to do for everyone, but gee couldn't they tell how this country is going toward the abyss and why?

Evidently rump voters don't see what we see we have to tell why. Hopefully some will see the light.

[Baked Potato]

30. Democrats need a media machine with many tentacles.

A TV channel devoted entirely to Democrats and Democratic issues, policies and goals.

Billboards.

Internet.

This way, President Biden and Democrats can push Democratic agenda immediately and unrestrained.

[Dem2]

34. And yet...

We've made decent progress into Texas in the past 20 years...

2000 -21

2004 -23

2008 -12

2012 -16

2016 -9

2020 -5.7

Trendline suggests it will "snap back" the next cycle, then we have a real chance to win Texas in 2028.

[greenjar_01]

39. Door-to-door canvassing in masks should have been done

[JI7]

53. The problem was that there was no gaurantee people in the houses would wear masks

[apnu]

43. "Campaigning ... needs to be a year around effort, not just before an election"

[BrightKnight]

48. I would give him resources and let him

What he wants. The more the better.