Bummed, pissed, disgusted and looking for someone to blame. A rant.

[bklyncowgirl]

Listening to the triumphant elephant parade on MSNBC I'm feeling bummed, pissed and disgusted So who's to blame for the Democratic Debacle of 2014? More important, what can be done about it?

1. The Republicans: Gotta give them credit. Republicans play the long game. Win statehouses, gerrymander districts, build a farm team, but also (this time) don't let the crazies run wild. Put up candidates who can eat with a knife and fork and put shock collars on the rest so that they get a reminder every time they say "rape" or say anything but "I am not a scientist" when it comes to climate change and put off the twenty percent or so of voters who are still persuadable. Truth is the GOP should pay Howard Dean royalties--they're using his 50 state strategy. Bottom line, you can't expect your opponent to shoot himself in the foot every time. If you do you're going to lose.

2. The Supreme Court: Citizens United essentially institutionalized corruption in this country. The tsunami of cash led to a tidal wave of negative ads and made an already cynical public even more cynical than ever. Bottom line: It's not going away. A strong candidate can overcome a media onslaught--witness Jerry Brown wiping the floor with Meg Whitman despite a vast amount of money she spent against him but first you have to have a good candidate.

3. Democratic Candidates: How did running away from the president and his record work out for you? Ditto micro targeting women, Hispanics African-Americans. Bottom line, tell a coherent story, give reasons that resonate for as many voters as possible as to why they should vote for you. Unless your party's record is an unmitigated disaster (and it Damn well isn't) tout your successes. Give the voters credit for having half a brain. It might work.

4. A smug, complacent and incompetent DNC: The failure of the party to create a coherent message that touted the achievements--yes, there are achievements--Low unemployment and a high stock market and GDP are generally considered good things at least in my world--the fact that people can no longer get tossed off their insurance the moment they get sick? Those aren't things you care to mention? Give me a break. Microtargeting? Yes it's a good tool but when your entire campaign consists of targeted messages to women, blacks and Hispanics and young voters and you can't give a coherent reason why beyond these particular concerns anyone should vote for your candidates, you are going to lose and lose big. Women are more than uteruses (or is it uteri?) attached to pocketbooks. Oh and if you're going to string people along with endless promises and no action don't be surprised if their not going to show up. It will be interesting to see what the Hispanic turnout was. It's a truism in politics and horse racing--you can't beat somebody with nobody--how about vetting candidates for a change? Democrats lost to Michael Grimm, Michael Grimm for chrissake in my old district because party hacks figured they couldn't lose and put up an inarticulate party hack to run against him. Finally, Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been a disaster as DNC chair. Wasserman Shultz may be a good fundraiser (I can't think of anything else she's done well) but having a sitting Congresscritter running the party when Congress has a lower poll rating than the Ebola virus has not proved a very good move. She should be replaced. Will she be? That's up to the man who put her there, which brings me to...
5. President Obama: Dear President Obama, I'm from New York City. We are notorious as the city that judges its mayors, not on their political positions, though we're generally liberal, but on how they deal with snow removal. Yeah, snow removal, which is a metaphor for a general feeling that the guy is competent and on top of stuff. We want to SEE our mayor down there at Sanitation Department headquarters in his fleece jacket even though we know full well that the guy probably has no more hands on knowledge of street plowing techniques than he does of lumberjacking. As president your number one job is not to run everything, it's to appoint people who know what the hell they are doing to run stuff and make sure they do their jobs and do them well. In some ways you have been successful, FEMA is no longer a joke for example, but the Obamacare website debacle was a heads up, add to that the Secret Service shenanigans, Veterans Administration and inadequate preparation for the possibility that in a global economy someone might show up in the U.S. with Ebola and people who are not dyed in the wool Democrats are going to worry. This brings me to another issue--a good mayor is not only smart--he has what the educators call 'emotional intelligence'. There's no question that you are a very smart man but when it comes to dealing with people's irrational emotions you are lacking. Yes, you had the facts right on Ebola, you trusted the experts. You were right about all the reasons not to get involved in Syria. But lets go back to our mayor in his fleece jacket. He's making people FEEL better and sad as it is that stuff counts. Sorry but going golfing after giving an emotional speech on the beheading of an American journalist is not going to make people feel better--or safer--especially when the opposing party and the media who dance to their tune are going to freaking crucify you for it. I'd like to see a shakeup at the White House with a focus on competence first.

6. The Media: The media sucks. Get over it. Find ways to work around it. Most importantly, show up, with smart, articulate spokespeople who can speak clearly enough to be understood by ordinary voters and make sure you pound home the message. Meet the Press should not be Meet the Republicans. Republicans do that brilliantly. Obama Sucks, Obama Sucks, Obama Sucks, Obama Sucks.


The Voters: American voters have short memories. Of course our system does not allow them to make nuanced statements so 'Throw the bums out' is about it. People are unhappy and for good reason.

[a kennedy]

1. Hey, I'm not watching or listening to any so called news programs for quite a few days......

I'm here reading stuff, starting to feel a little better, at least not bawling as much as last night. It's a new day, the sun DID come out. I'm ready to compose myself and begin a new. Positive thoughts, Al Franken and Mark Dayton won in my state, and d*mn it, they're NOT going to get me down. Now it's onto 2016 and GOTV.

[Vinca]

2. I've been muttering all the things you just wrote.

I told my husband this morning that it seems the only way to preserve your sanity in this country is to become a greedy, selfish, ignorant twit. As an older person I'm pretty much unaffected by political results. The GOP always threatens SS and Medicare, but in the end they back down because they know the sacred old people always vote. I spend my time worrying about everyone else. Will kids get a decent education? Will poor people get enough food assistance? Will that miserable pipeline taint the water supply for millions of people? And a million other things. Somehow I have to become more self-centered before I drive myself nuts. (Only kidding, of course. I'll be a bleeding heart liberal until the day I die.)

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. A good list overall, even if I'd nitpick in a few places.

The fatal flaw so often is pretending the voters are at fault, rather than the candidates / officeholders. We KNOW what the voters are like. They don't change. They're always amnesiac. We KNOW they won't remember a government shutdown that occurs more than a year out. Hell, they won't remember it more than a few months. You HAVE to strike when the iron is hot. When a score of schoolkids are massacred, you have a month, tops, to actually pass any legislation that will address it, or you'll get what happened - nothing. Anything the Repubs do more than six months out simply isn't going to factor into elections.

And you can't simply 'not care what independents think' about your candidates. Because you can't win elections with only registered Democratic voters. You can't simply insult and bully and ignore anyone who isn't registered as a Dem, and expect it to wind up with winning races. There aren't enough registered Dems out there.

So you have to be willing to go to the polls with the voters you have, not the voters you wish you had. And that means appealing even to the people on the 'left' that you sneer at now.

[bklyncowgirl]

4. I really blame voters the least.

There is actually a rather small minority of "persuadable" voters. These people are frequently all over the map on the issues. Let's take a woman with a high school education, who's for a higher minimum wage but is also a devout Catholic and is staunchly anti-abortion or a union member in the Midwest who likes target shooting and is susceptible to talk that the Democrats are coming to take his guns.

Do we want those people's votes? Some would say no. I beg to differ.

I'm a big believer in "It's the economy stupid!". Yes, be pro choice and pro gun control or gun safety whatever they're calling it now, but be smart about it. Occupy Wall Street was successful when they focused on a simple message "We are the 99%". When they got sidetracked--not so much.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. I thought about editing that 'you' to let you know it was the 'generic you', not

you personally. I do agree that it looked like you did blame them the least, so I was building on your post, not trying to refute it.

[bklyncowgirl]

6. I didn't take it that way. Just wanted to clarify my thinking.