Post Five Lessons YOU take from the midterms.

[Ken Burch]

Obviously, on the macro level of strategy and decision-making and the top of our party's "professional" leadership, everything was a total failure and nothing must ever be repeated.

People at the grass-roots level in this party did OUR part and none of the blame falls to us.

But each of us has taken different lessons from last Tuesday's nightmare.

(Mine, for the record, are as follows).

1)It NEVER works for candidates fighting for re-election to distance themselves from the party or its core values. If the voters are mad at one sort of Democrat, they will be mad at ALL sorts of Democrats. There are no such voters as "soft haters", who can be appeased if only the candidate in question makes it clear that she or he hates that uppity...uh, incumbent president...just as much as they do. If the candidates who used that tactic had actually BEEN elected or re-elected, they would all have spent their entire next term voting against anything any Democratic president proposed and for anything any Republican president demanded, so it would have been the same as having Republicans in their seats anyway. Distancing must be discarded forever as a tactic.

2)It NEVER works to leave the core achievements of a Democratic incumbent undefended during midterm campaigns. It didn't in 1966, it didn't in 1978, it didn't in 1994, it didn't in 2010. Voters are not going to spare Democratic incumbents, or elect Democratic candidates to open formerly Democratic seats in a midterm if on;y those incumbents act as if the incumbent president is a total failure.

3)The party KNEW that women and people of color have lower turnout rates in midterms and chose to do nothing to try to boost that turnout, apparently out of fear that even trying to get people who have benefited from the policies of this administration would would offend the "angry white men" that the Beltway pretended were the only voters who mattered(and who, the Beltway knew, were never GOING to vote for us in 2014 anyway). It does not work to not try to get voters who WOULD vote Democratic to the polls in order to appease voters who wouldn't vote for us even if we promised to restore slavery and finish driving Native Americans to extinction.

4)Once the voter suppression measures were in placed, the party SHOULD have devoted mass resources to getting as many of the voters whose ability to vote was being put in jeopardy in compliance with the laws. We were never going to count on getting the laws thrown out, and almost none of them were.

5)It was stupid for the party to essentially concede that we had no chance to retake the House at the beginning of the campaign. There was(and is)massive anger at the Boehner crowd, from its obsession with repealing the ACA, with its deference to corporate power, with its relentless assault on working people and the middle class(to say nothing of the poor-as the party always chooses to do)its scorched-earth campaigns against environmental protection, and those damn $1000 suits they wear. We were AHEAD in the popular vote polls for the House on several occasions this fall. And the party KNEW that, if the House stayed GOP, it would be two more years of gridlock even if we did manage to narrowly hold the Senate. Finally, even if we couldn't win the House, challenging Boehner and his Insane Clone Posse could only have energized our voters and forced the GOP to play defense in more fights than they wanted, and winning another popular vote victory(as we did in the overall House voting in 2012)could have been a way to delegitimize the Boehnerites and create the conditions for forcing the redrawing of congressional seat boundaries in such a way as to end or at least reduce gerrymandering.


(P.S., next time, Beltway dudes, dial the donation demands back by half. All you did was piss people off by continually shaking us down and the results showed that you didn't use much of any of the money we gave you to actually try electing anybody. But that's more of a quibble).

Post five lessons YOU learned from the 2014 disaster below.

[LeftInTX]

1. One thing I learned

We have a severe shortage of up and comers because of Republican dominance in many of the states.

I read that in the Washington Post

[Ken Burch]

2. The Post actually paid somebody to write

That there are fewer Democratic up and comers because there are more Republican up and comers?

By the Post, that's analysis?

[LeftInTX]

3. Here's the article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/two-midterm-elections-have-hollowed-out-the-democratic-party/2014/11/08/0366c60a-66c9-11e4-9fdc-d43b053ecb4d_story.html

Article is worth the read. Here's a few highlights:

But don’t blame Clinton for these problems. The party’s national bench is so thin that Democrats count themselves lucky to have her available in 2016. If she were to decide not to run, the Democrats would have trouble identifying a field of candidates as extensive as Republicans are likely to put up in the coming presidential race.

snip........

The more serious problem for Democrats is the drubbing they’ve taken in the states, the breeding ground for future national talent and for policy experimentation. Republicans have unified control — the governorship and the legislature — in 23 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Democrats control just seven. Democrats hold 18 governorships, but only a handful are in the most populous states.

snip...........

Without prominent statewide elected leaders, Democrats are in danger of seeing their state party structures atrophy. This has happened in Texas over the past two decades, ever since Republicans seized control of the politics of the state.

snip..........

But a political party cannot be constructed around two individuals (Obama and Clinton), as Democrats seem to be today. Winning the presidency and taking back the Senate will be the Democrats’ top priorities in the next two years. The bigger challenge of rebuilding the party in the states and nurturing a new generation of leaders should be just as urgent.

[arely staircase]

39. There isn't anyone with remotely her stature or standing in either party. nt

[JDPriestly]

4. K&R. Great post.

[ErikJ]

5. Not identifying and campaigning hard enough on the issues that effect youth

so they would get out the vote. Like Minimum Wage and high costs of college, Republicans doubling student loan rates and reproductive rights issues.

[Ken Burch]

6. Good. Very good.

I think that goes back to the fact that this party has had a hate-on for young voters since 1972(they still think we'd have won if only the kids hadn't worked so hard to nominate McGovern...when the truth is that Nixon's dirty tricks squad would have made sure he'd have carried 49 states against anybody we could possibly have nominated, including Scoop "stay in Vietnam forever" Jackson and Hubert Humphrey.

[King_Klonopin]

7. The 5 that come to mind for me:

1) Voters who are angry and vote AGAINST something or someone are more motivated
to turn out to vote than their counterparts. AND, Republicans excel at fomenting anger
and creating non-existent enemies and threats. The GOP strategy succeeded: fuck up
the functioning of the federal govt, hinder success, and then blame it all on that lawless,
evil Obama. 40% voter turnout is shameful. The apathy and detachment of voters will
eventually lead to the forfeiture of our rights to have a democracy (if we aren't already
at that point)

2) The Democrats are notoriously horrible at counter-punching and at facing down bullies.

3) The Democrats are too humble to brag about their successes, whereas the Republicans
are shameless in this regard. Obama did a "heckuva job" cleaning up the shit that Bush
left in his wake -- all accomplished while one arm was tied behind his back. The contrast
between the two parties should be obvious, but it is always obscured by GOP bullshit.

4) The Democrats have no balls. Their "strategy" was completely weak. The head of
the DNC (I can't even recall who he is!) should be fired.

5) The U.S. harbors a lot of closeted fascists/racists and is becoming increasingly more easy
to manipulate through negativity, anger, divisiveness, paranoia and hate.

[LittleGirl]

8. I voted even though we moved.

1. I voted absentee and figured my vote would be wasted until there was a recount and SUDDENLY my vote and my spouse's vote counted! Yeah.

2. But let me tell you, if the DEMS don't gain more progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders and Warren, this country isn't worth voting for anymore. It's going to sink into a GOP hell hole (which in some reds states) has already happened. I cannot for the life of me understand how that Gov in FL was re-elected. WTF? 20-30% voter turnout is shameful for our so-called democracy. Give us candidates that actually stand up for the citizens and be proud of it. G-Damn it that makes me furious.

3. You have to give voters a reason to vote and make it easier. Mail in was so easy. I called the city clerk and requested an early ballot. I got it the day before I moved, I did it at home, I put the ballot in my mail box and I forgot about it. Easy peasy. We must push for mail in ballots or early voting for a month!

4. We have to get rid of those ballot scanners. They are easily manipulated (before, during and after the vote) and I don't trust them as far as I can throw them. We have to go back to verifiable paper ballots. I want a receipt that shows what I voted for and I want to be able to verify it with the end results the next freaking day.

5. We have to overturn Citizen's United and get money out of politics. It is destroying the country.

When I started this post, I only had one lesson but apparently, the juices got to flowing and realized, our voting system is not working anymore. The tv ads are a turn-off, the voting day is in the middle of the week, it should be multiple days for everyone to be able to do it, it should be mail-in like Oregon and absentee and it should be mandatory. Civics should be taught at all schools, all education levels and all ages. That way there is no excuse for anyone not to know who the VP is and nobody would care about who Snookie is either. Make it mandatory to vote and do it yesterday! /rant over

[eridani]

12. No receipts! Scanners scan PAPER BALLOTS

What I would change is to have more extensive auditing by hand count.

[LittleGirl]

30. Yes, but touch screen ballots

don't give receipts. That's what I meant. Sorry for the confusion.

[eridani]

33. And they absolutely should not. A great motivation for paying people for proven voted

What the touch screen interface should produce is a paper ballot just like other paper ballots which can be scanned.

[LittleGirl]

40. yes, that's worded much better than mine as well.

thanks.

[Martin Eden]

10. STAND for something and give voters a REASON to go to the polls

1) Have a core message and hammer over and over again. Voters need to know what the Democratic Party stands for and that we stand for them -- economic opportunity and fair pay for the 99%; quality education for all American children; affordable health care; a sustainable environment for future generations; a move towards green energy & technologies that create jobs in this country while ending our dependence on foreign oil; a foreign policy that strengthens our national security and our role as leader of the free world by not engaging on wars based on lies and by standing up for the values we say we represent; constitutional rights at home that include an end to illegal NSA spying on American citizens, equal rights for gays and choice for women; and strengthen our democracy by ending voter suppression & gerrymandering and reforming campaign finance by ending corporate personhood.

2) Fight back. Call out their lies and propaganda. This includes supporting our president and his achievements while calling out the obstructionists and letting voters know exactly why Congress is so dysfunctional. Facts, science, and truth are on our side. Change the perception that Democrats are spineless/feckless and that Republicans represent family/Christian values.

3) Make a big issue out of voter suppression tactics, and GOTV! Let the people know that those responsible for the Wall Street recession and our falling standard of living don't want them to vote. Put forth a much greater effort to register voters in advance and engage in early voting. In all 50 states.

4) Campaign on all of the above. Don't insult voters intelligence with shallow puff pieces or misleading ads. Tell them what the Democratic Party stands for and what the plan is to turn this country around.

5) Propose legislation that will achieve what we say we stand for. Even though Republicans controlled the House and wouldn't allow votes on legislation that would achieve these goals, keep pushing it and make a big deal about it to the public so they know who is obstructing much needed progress. The Republican House voted 54 times to repeal "Obamacare" and left no doubt as to where they stand. Democrats have left plenty of doubt, and the voting public really doesn't know what the Democratic Party stands FOR.

[B Calm]

11. A couple things I learned. Republicans won because they ran as

Republicans and Democrats lost because they ran as Republicans.

[bigwillq]

13. 1. Vote

2. Vote
3. Vote
4. Vote
5. Vote

[baldguy]

14. United we stand. Divided we fall.

And some people responded by calling for a purge - of the very candidates that have won elections.

[Martin Eden]

29. You want unity?

There are real Democrats who represent the majority of their constituents, and there are DINO's who represent corporate interests (with some shades in between).

Those two different kinds of candidates and elected representatives are not united. In order to achieve unity, one group will have to start becoming real Democrats or the more progressive group will have to move towards the right and serve corporate interests.

Question:
Which group would you like to see change in order to achieve unity?

[SidDithers]

15. 1. America is more Conservative than the posters at DU think it is...nt

Sid

[socialist_n_TN]

19. Then explain the various leftish referenda that won........

even in deeply right-wing states.

[Bobcat]

28. Cheating

Electronic machines were programmed to flip votes for candidates not issues. Thee were reports of this happening in many states on election day. How else to explain the vote count for Democratic party-supported issues compared to the vote count for Democratic party candidates - particularly Senate candidates. Check out Arkansas. They voted FOR increasing the minimum wage and also elected two candidates who had campaigned AGAINST raising the minimum wage. The other issue that hasn't been addressed is that the winning margin for Republicans in the "battleground states" was routinely 3-4 times the margin for error in the final "too close to call" polls taken just before the election. Nine of these eleven races (only New Hampshire and Louisiana were tight) weren't even close - more than enough to "flip" the Senate to Republican control.

[Zorra]

24. Going along with "teh stupid", validating it, is a big part of the problem.

We need to challenge and change the national dialogue, not continue to validate it. The Emperor is butt naked, not dressed in Gucci's finest.

Democrats have proven again and again this election strategy is epic fail.

"Democrats moving to the middle is a double disaster that alienates the party's progressive base while simultaneously sending a message to swing voters that the other side is where the good ideas are.' It unconsciously locks in the notion that the other side's positions are worth moving toward, while your side's positions are the ones to move away from. Plus every time you move to the center, the right just moves further to the right." George

I've seen it happen time after time. When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for the New Deal and the fair Deal, and says he really doesn't believe in them, he is sure to lose. The people don't want a phony Democrat. If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don't want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign."

[Martin Eden]

31. "America" is misinformed and misled.

They vote against their real interests because they have accepted the flase narratives endlessly repeated by the 1% and their corporate media.

The Democratic Party can either continue to fashion itself to fit those false narratives, or it can exert real leadership and begin to dismantle the false narratives that have shifted America to the right.

[Ken Burch]

35. If it was, marijuana legalization and minimum wage increases wouldn't have won EVERYWHERE.

Even up here in Alaska.

Nice try, Sid.

But the fact is, we lost because we fought this campaign YOUR way.

No passion, no defense of what worked, no real attacks against the Right, coupled with abusive "you HAVE to!" messages to our base and our activists about voting and donation shakedowns.

If we'd fought FOR everyone who's on the outside, rather than just whining about relatively unimportant side issues like reproductive choice(issues our party has never really fought hard on anyway), the outcome could have been much better.

The GOP understands that midterms are all about firing up the base. Our Beltway types refuse to ever learn that. Instead, they focus solely on uptight finicky "suburban independent" voters that we can't ever get anyway and that aren't the majority(the majority being those who have lost in the neoliberal "free trade" economy).

And if your argument was actually valid, All the southern Dem candidates who ran "we hate the uppity nig...I mean liberal...just as much as y'all do" campaigns would have waltzed in in landslides. Instead, all that happened was that the Dem vote collapsed in every "southern strategy" state.

It's not like there was a position to Michelle Nunn or Mark Pryor's RIGHT that was still recognizably Democratic that might somehow have prevailed. Are you really arguing that we should have accepted "it's enough to have Richard Russell or John Stennis back, so long as they call themselves 'Democrats'" campaigns?

[Bluenorthwest]

16. I'm glad I live in Oregon where we run good elections and elect Democrats

I'm glad of that. Even though the rest of the Party ignores us, pretends our Senators do not exist and that we did not just reelect one of the more liberal Democratic Senators by a margin of 20% or so....no matter how many actual Democratic liberals we elect, the Party is all East Coast minded and will push conservative former Reagan/Bush anti gay Republicans at me in 2014.

[HereSince1628]

17. When dem voters don't vote, dem candidates don't win

When dem voters don't vote, dem candidates don't win
When dem voters don't vote, dem candidates don't win
When dem voters don't vote, dem candidates don't win
When dem voters don't vote, dem candidates don't win

[etherealtruth]

18. (Borrowing a word from religion) AMEN! n/t

[Ken Burch]

34. when dem voters CAN'T vote because of racist, sexist voter id laws, dem candidates don't win

when dem voters CAN'T vote because of racist, sexist voter id laws, dem candidates don't win
when dem voters CAN'T vote because of racist, sexist voter id laws, dem candidates don't win
when dem voters CAN'T vote because of racist, sexist voter id laws, dem candidates don't win
when dem voters CAN'T vote because of racist, sexist voter id laws, dem candidates don't win

It's up to the party to deal with that. You can't put it ALL on "dem voters".

[Bettie]

20. The big lesson I learned

was that our government is no longer for sale, it was bought this year by the Koch brothers, at least in Iowa.

[lonestarnot]

21. All of those and 5 more

While people are sleeping,

1. money can buy an election
2. money can buy an election
3. money can buy an election
4. money can buy an election
5. money can buy an election

[LWolf]

22. I don't know that I learned anything I didn't already know.

Here are a few key highlights:

1. Pandering to Republicans in the form of "compromise" does not inspire voters.

2. Neo-liberal Democrats disenfranchising traditionally Democratic voters is not a winning strategy.

3. Bullying and scapegoating the disenfranchised doesn't help GOTV.

[demwing]

23. 5 Points

1. Dems have no national identity.
Being a Dem in KY is not the same as being a Dem in CA. Republicans don't have that problem.

2. Demo have no national mid-term strategy:
As a result of #1, we do well in presidential elections (national elections with a unifying theme), and poorly in mid-terms, which we treat as if they were dozens of unrelated state elections that just happen to occur at the same time. If we have no unified identity, let's at least have a unified goal (in this cycle, a national living wage might have worked).

3. Our policies are more popular than our candidates:
Probably because of #s 1 & 2, above.

4. Money can't buy you love, but it can buy you votes:
Actually, I already knew that, but it sure was evident this year.

5. You can't push people to vote, but you can pull them:
Pretend you want to move a big rock from point A to point B, and all you have is a rope. Tie the rope to the rock, and pull, right? Pushing on the rope gets you nowhere. Insulting the rock, berating the rock, and ignoring the rock while you sit and expect the rock to move itself are all losing strategies. Well, your words and deeds are the rope, and your voters are the rock. Pull, don't push.

[socialist_n_TN]

25. Interesting question Ken.........

I'm assuming that you mean this from a personal perspective, so here goes.

1) Unlike a lot of folks, I don't see this as a hard right turn by the people. It was the lowest turnout since WWII, which means that these guys were actually elected by a VERY small percentage of the people. And the various leftish referenda won even in deeply conservative areas.

2) The Dems have been so busy running away from progressivism that they no longer offer an alternative to the Republican right wing. Ergo, the voters that DID bother to vote voted for the "real thing" rather than the wishy-washy "alternative".

3) Until voters get a true alternative, they will continue to vacillate between the parties during the election cycles. From this I expect the Dems to mount a come-back in 2016 because we KNOW that the Republicans won't offer anything for the average person to vote FOR. Since the Dems will probably win in 2016 anyway, the question becomes will they offer anything to vote FOR either? My guess is no they won't.

4) There are several policies where the Republicans and Obama have closely held positions. Expect there to be "compromise" and those policies to be enacted as law. Or at least the attempt made to enact them into law. Among them the Keystone XL pipeline, the Atlantic and Pacific trade agreements currently being negotiated in secret by world-wide capitalist interests, and some attempt at that "Grand Bargain" that all the neo-liberals are so enamored of.

5) Because of #4, the only POSSIBLE way to stop these policies from being enacted will be massive and continuing militant protests. Even that probably won't work, but a million people in DC protesting might make a dent.

[Man from Pickens]

26. Does "policies actually matter" fit in that list anywhere

because you know, the whole perpetual war and Orwellian security state thing kind of turn people off

Dem brand used to be staunchly opposed to that stuff, abandoning it caused a lot of voters to abandon the party. It's a bigger constituency than the "experts" appear to be aware of.

[Ken Burch]

32. Yes, of course that fits. Good point.

This was another "blur the differences" campaign...still buying into the 1992 line that we should ONLY be significantly different from the Right on reproductive issues and environmentalism...conceding the "correctness" of the Right's basic ideas on everything else.

That's the idea that's driven down our potential vote at every midterm, and yet they still won't let go of it.

[grahamhgreen]

27. 1) when your elected to get us out of Iraq, don't get us back in. 2) medicare for all must be on our

Platform.

3) Torturers must be prosecuted not forgiven.

4) the minimum wage hike should be our rallying cry.

5) compromise with R's gets R's elected.

[Ken Burch]

38. All great points. n/t.

[Brigid]

36. I take only one lesson:

That we, the prople, are on our own. We no longer have a functioning democracy.

[Ken Burch]

44. That is also very, very true.

We need to be organizing a culture of resistance now, and a culture of mobilization for all those who are out in the cold and will be even more out in the cold under the thugs who will now run the Senate.

[Yo_Mama]

41. I am pretty unsure about most of this

Except that the electorate is unhappy with the economy.

[lumberjack_jeff]

42. Agree with all but #3

Activists pulled out all the hyperbolic stops to get single women to turn out. The public reaction to "the war on women" rhetoric was to effectively draft independent men onto the other team. The net effect? Wendy Davis didn't even get most of the votes of single women. Mark Udall's campaign was such a parody of this hyperbole that the Denver Post described his campaign as an "obnoxious one-issue campaign." Exit polls showed that Democrats won women by seven points, while Republicans won men by 13 points.
The problem wasn't a lack of turnout, it was alienation of half of the voters in a failed attempt to provoke the other half to outrage.

[Ken Burch]

43. You're assuming that most men SUPPORT the measures that have been called "the war on women".

The efforts to get women to the polls, such as they were, were based on defending the rights women have become accustomed to...they weren't about demonizing men.

And yes, Udall's campaign should have talked about other things...but that doesn't mean it shouldn't have talked about choice.

Men aren't overwhelmingly antigay or antichoice...and those who are aren't ever going to vote for the more progressive party, whatever it might be. Our candidates should have talked more about jobs and standing up to corporate power, but it shouldn't have not defended women or not supported same-sex marriage.