The 74 million "Against the Dems" (not "Trump") voters

[gulliver]

We keep hearing how Trump got 74 million votes. He didn't. I think "Against the Dems" got 74 million votes, and Trump just happened to be in the "Against the Dems" ballot slot. If the slot had simply read "Against the Dems" instead of "Trump," who knows, "Against the Dems" might have gotten a few million more votes than Trump.

Respectfully, what I think some of us Dems need to learn is how to avoid helping Republicans persuade voters to vote for "Against the Dems." Demonizing and lying about Dems has become the Republicans' exclusive play, largely thanks to Trump, and we should be ready to counter it. We certainly shouldn't be helping them execute it.

Some of us talk too much, posture too much to try to look "more Dem than thou." Some offend for no reason, trading zero gained votes for a hundred lost votes on whims and triggers. Some blithely "sour grapes" the "Against the Dems" voters as bad people whom we'd rather have against us than for us. Some Dems seem to always forget to remind folks of all the dumb, crazy things we're not saying, allowing our opponents to lie and say we're saying them (and only saying them) instead of the smart, wise things we're actually saying. Or something.

The worst thing about inadvertent Dem support for "Against the Dems" is that that malignant orange gasbag just eats it up. Pundits keep reminding us how powerful he is. I'm really tired of that. I want about 24 million of those 74 million on our side, while keeping our 81 million. Is that asking too much?

[WyattKansas]

1. The Democratic Party must become a lot more vocal about who does what for whom...

And how the Republican Party actually harms them in more ways than they think.

The Democratic Party wants secure progress for a better future in America, while the Republican Party always demands destruction, instability, decay, and regressing back to much harder times for America.