It's been only 4 days since the election. Let's collect the factors for the outcome

[NRaleighLiberal]

In no particular order (I just looked through GD threads since election night) - many of these were mentioned multiple times in a variety of ways

Voter suppression
Voting machine errors or computerized hacking/rigging
The map was stacked against the dems (most contested Senate seats in red states or close)
Too many Dems running away from Obama's accomplishments
Third way candidates instead of true Dems
Low voter turnout for the Dem base
Young people didn't vote, but old white guys did
Republican wave developed - polls didn't catch the gap between estimates and where things ended up
GOTV wasn't effective
Dems sit out the midterms, Repubs don't
Lots of people voting against their own interests
People are just stupid
DWS did a bad job
The game is rigged - the election results don't really matter, really
Low level of interest in the election
Corporate right wing media brainwashing of the electorate
Lack of clarity of what the Dems truly stand for (in contrast to the right)

with a sprinkling of

it's going to be OK - the sun will come out tomorrow, and this is politics - we have to expect highs and lows (in various forms)

What did I miss? I actually only looked at posts on Tues and Wed since pretty much all themes got hit upon in those two days.

To fix a problem you have to actually get at the root cause. Some of the above are effects, but not all of them can be actual root causes. Tonight's post saying that the Dems want to actually review what went wrong in 10 and 14 - this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014939911

Where they get with this will only be of use if they can get to the actual, true causes of the issue - but even more important, if they have the courage and ability to actually do something about it.

[leftofcool]

1. You left out one.

You forgot to add that it was Bill and Hillary's fault. You need to add this loss to the other bad things that Bill and Hillary and personably responsible for, like global warming, no jobs, bad stock market, NSA spying, IRS, ISIS, Ben Gawzi etc...

[shenmue]

2. They also control the weather

using a machine hidden in their basement.

But shhh! Don't tell anyone.

[krispos42]

3. The ongoing war against gun with pistol grips

It certainly didn't help that the anti-gun forces continue to push for bans on "assault weapons" simply to strike a blow against the NRA, gun nutz, ammosexuals, gun culture, etc.

People that understand how guns work know it's ridiculous. Others either don't know and refuse to learn, or simply don't care because it's a step in a larger agenda.

Gun owners have to live with the results of these laws daily. Non-gun-owners feel zero effect of gun laws because they don't own guns. Guess who gets more organized and motivated?

Now, obviously, the SCOTUS fucked things up royally in recent years, what with the Voting Rights Act decision and Citizens United. And the gerrymandering in the states has been both blatant and widespread.

But, what topic is important enough on a local and state level to allow such laws to make it to the statehouse in the first place?

Culture war shit like assault-weapon bans. People that think that gun technology should somehow be exempt from advances and innovation and simply stay at 1940 levels.

[msongs]

5. if gun owners would quit murdering thousands every year, that "Culture war shit.." might stop nt

[krispos42]

7. They use primarily handguns.

65% are done with handguns, 5% with rifles of all types.

Yet you really seem to think that taking the pistol grip off of an AR-15 will somehow fix something. As if the problem at Sandy Hook Elementary was that the guy had an AR with a pistol grip.

Here's a clue. You're not saving a single life, but you are putting Republicans and their corporate masters in charge of government and social policy, which most definitely costs lives as well as quantity of life.

[Odin2005]

17. The only thing I've killed with my guns is wild game.

[NYC_SKP]

6. We bicker over guns and religion while the middle class gets shredded.

We need to quit the little stuff, the identity politics, and go for what matters to people in both parties:

Good jobs, good pay, benefits, a strong middle class.

[redruddyred]

10. guns I don't care about but what's the R's obsession with abortion? none of their beeswax. nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

14. It's about controlling women, and you're right, it's none of their business. n/t

[Odin2005]

16. As a rural progressive, I think the gun issue just needs to die.

Seriously, every time some idiot says the technically meaningless word "assault rifle" we lose votes.

[branford]

21. What about the deadly "shoulder thing that goes up,"

the noxious barrel shroud and, of course, the dreaded bayonet lug. Also, I've been told are all black rifles more lethal. It's sounds racist, but that's the law in many states . . .

Just think of all the children that could be saved if we just banned the bayonet lug . . .

The gun issue will continue to burden non-urban Democrats, who are otherwise progressive, until our Party takes a more rationale stand.

[krispos42]

28. It needs to drastically change

There are some real solutions that we can implement to address guns as hardware for crime, but by and large the solution to violence is a social problem that our possessive agenda address, but that we cannot implement because we can't elected.... BECAUSE of the pandering-to-the-ignorant kinds of gun laws that form the plank of the party.

The drastic and sustained drop in crime in the late 80's to early 90's was not due to gun laws! It was due to a major social policy change AND a major environmental policy change a generation before. Specifically, legalization and wide spread availability of birth control pills and abortion services, and removing lead from motor vehicle fuels.

We can do the same thing... if we get into office.

[NYC_SKP]

4. With apologies to whatshisname, "It's the Middle Class, Stupid".

Go for the core, middle class jobs and benefits, education, things that matter to everyone, left and right.

Old school FDR programs that lift us all.

It's not that hard, but I don't see many potential candidates running on that platform.

[krispos42]

9. A politically and economically powerful middle class....

...is the only counter-force to the power of the wealthy.

Throughout most of the history of the civilized world, there isn't a politically and economically powerful middle class. It's created by government.

We've lost many of the laws that sustain the strong middle class, and we can't get them back if we keep losing elections based on pandering and feel-good politics.

[cprise]

13. A powerful middle class re-aligned its sympathies

away from the poor "welfare queens" of the 80s and towards the Donald Trump and Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous.

If you want to know how that happened, try this documentary on for size:

The Century of the Self (BBC, 2002)
pt.1 http://vimeo.com/85948693
pt.2 http://vimeo.com/75779119
pt.3 http://vimeo.com/54417979
pt.4 http://vimeo.com/75784765

[Odin2005]

18. "It's the WORKING CLASS, stupid."

Fixed that for you.

The fact that working class people think they are "middle class" is one of the right-wing coups that have destroyed proletarian class consciousness in this country.

[NYC_SKP]

19. Well that's more like it, but to the 1% all the other 99% are drones.

There is such a thing as a middle class and a different thing as the "middle class" used in the terms that you describe.

I'm talking about high wage good benefit jobs, even single earner families.

I'm talking about the days when a CEO might earn 40 times what their average employee earned and not 400.

[SMC22307]

8. "The War on Women" approach wasn't a winner.

According to clips I watched of Colorado women, they didn't like it. Granted, these were undecideds, so who really knows what goes through their heads...

[redruddyred]

11. depends on who the leadership is I think

democratic leadership in my state is all-female and there seemed to be a lot of interest from the women I talked to, esp concerning women's issues.

[SMC22307]

31. Framing it as a "war on women" was a mistake.

Too negative. And Americans are supposedly turned off by the onslaught of negative ads.

[redruddyred]

37. true tho.

lots of anti-abortion laws these past couple of years.

[branford]

22. The "war on women" worked great,

there's now a record number of Republican women in Congress . . .

[SMC22307]

30. Which would lead these voters to believe there really isn't a war on women.

backatcha.

Udall lost Colorado. Why? Was it because voters rejected his tack as social issues warrior?

Maryland now has a Republican governor. Is it partly because Hogan was cast as some sort of zealot on social issues and voters rejected it?

How about Kay Hagan in NC? Why did she lose? If I'm not mistaken, it was the most expensive senate race, with Reid, Rove, the NRA and Planned Parenthood all weighing in. Evidently they were bombarded with negative "war on X" ads. Did wishy-washy mushy middle voters get turned off and not vote?

[branford]

33. All kidding aside, I don't think focusing on issues important to women was the problem.

However, engaging in a culture war when the president was so unpopular was just bad strategy, particularly for Democrats in purple and red states. Republicans have more than ample women voters and female candidates that believe in their message and positions to render a "war on women" slogan as trite and condescending. Although I was being facetious, there really are now a record number of female Republicans elected to Congress, including Joni Ernst, Shelley Capito, Mia Love, etc., and many of them make some other Republican Senators look downright liberal in comparison.

The women's issues should simply have been a component part of an overall Democratic messages with a focus on the economy. When the "war on women" message became so loud and ubiquitous, it drowned out the other issues more important to the relevant electorates (I'm looking at you "Mark Uterus&quot .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/10/13/mark-udall-has-been-dubbed-mark-uterus-on-the-campaign-trail-thats-a-problem/

[SMC22307]

35. Exactly. Womens' issues resonate...

but the "war" framing was a loser. That was my point, which I didn't make very well!

[cprise]

12. To get at root causes, one becomes a "radical"

Not necessarily a bad thing.

The corporate media / infotainment are near the top of the problem list, IMHO (or near the base of the 'root', if you will). They flood our lives with propaganda (product ads and otherwise) to the extent of crying "fire!" in the proverbial crowded theater... and getting away with it. Virtually anything relating to foreign affairs is twisted to unreality.

An interesting example of this is how Murdoch & Co. announced they would go to war with Austrailian Labour party specifically over the carbon tax (one of the planks Labour ran on and won in the previous election cycle). With his new market share at around 70% his news outlets did just this and ousted Labour from power.

AND... That is in a country where voting is mandatory so there is nearly 100% turnout each election.

Americans are distracted, misinformed and constantly being conditioned by psychologist-backed advertising techniques to be impulsive and react only to what makes one feel strongly. TV shows and movies send a pretty consistent message that we are better people if we "live in the moment". So people who have the least power over their own lives turn away from dealing with the ugliness and delayed-gratification of politics; those downsides are more painful to cope with for those who are at the bottom of the consumerist lifestyle.

A more rational electorate would be willing to put up some kind of fight every two years in order to be represented. Write-in someone else as a protest vote. Purged? Show up anyway and make them visibly do the dirty work of turning you away.

A more rational electorate would not surrender the stamp of legitimacy so readily.

The other causes (or effects) you listed are also important, but lets face it: Some of these "news" bureaus are monopolistic, nakedly manipulative and shouldn't be licensed either for the public airwaves or the cable systems' public rights-of-way. Their cancerous M.O. is also seeping into the realm of Internet providers. Rich oligarchs should have the right to stand on a soapbox if they wish free speech.

[Odin2005]

15. IMO Citizens United and the Voter ID BS are the major sources of the problem.

The Democratic Party is caught in a bind. It needs to excite the base and young voters, but at the same time not scare off big donors. What the Finance, Tech, and Entertainment Industry capitalists who generally side with the Dems want and what Millennials and the base want almost completely conflict. Mix that in with voter disenfranchisement and you get low turnout and a demoralized electorate.

Corporate media IS a problem, but it is a problem we can compensate for with grass-roots organizing and activism. The RW Noise Machine was actually much worse in the 30s than it is now.

EDIT: One more thing, we need to just DROP THE FUCKING GUN ISSUE. We lost Udall because the Dem Establishment can't get over the fact that the gun debate is over and WE LOST.

[Odin2005]

25. IMO it shows the elitism and arrogance of the Dem Establishment.

Thinking gun-owners are all dumb hicks, rednecks, and lunatics is NOT a good idea.

[Odin2005]

32. I grew up in rural Minnesota and hunting firearms are a part of everyday life, here.

I think that is something a lot of urban progressives don't understand, indeed, they seem to NOT WANT TO understand.

I have run into people on this very site (as well as urban progressives elsewhere on the internet) who think I am something akin to Satan because I hunt

[branford]

34. Every time I read about "gun humpers" and "ammosexuals" from self-proclaimed progressives,

I'm certain another formerly loyal Democratic in the South, Midwest or living outside major urban areas, decides to vote Republican in the next election.

It's part of a culture war that was lost some time ago, but many just cannot seem to accept. Gun rights to many liberals is apparently akin to marriage equality to many conservatives. It's fighting a losing battle where most everyone else has simply moved on.

[ucrdem]

20. I think we really, really need to focus on voter registration, voting, and vote-counting.

HAVA opened the hell gates to all sorts of crooked practices in 2002 that have basically turned red and purple states into election machines for GOP candidates. That's a huge problem and from what I observed last week it's pretty deeply entrenched. What to do about it, I don't know, but I think just identifying it as a problem is important.

On a related note, I think we had a good turnout, and if it weren't so difficult for many Dem voters to register and vote it would have been even better.

[NRaleighLiberal]

29. You are talking about outcomes/impacts - I just looked at two days worth of

GD threads and picked out reasons I found for why the election results came out as they did - I didn't analyze, speculate or share my own views on it.