Polls For Years Told Democrats They Would Have To Move Center Right To Win. Did Not Lose Their Way.

[TheMastersNemesis]

I have judiciously followed trends in this country since Reagan. Our drift into this disaster began with Reagan. Every election cycle voters kept putting in conservatives in enough numbers to keep us moving in the present direction. Clinton ran as a new way Democrats which was to the right of usual Democratic values.

Bill Clinton had polls that showed that Democrats could not win on a more left pro labor agenda when he ran for the presidency. Mondale's huge loss to Reagan indicated that voters would NOT vote for what the perceived as too socialistic pro labor and pro working class policies. That reason is one reason why the Democrats tried to find more middle ground farther away from leftist policies.

A good example is my local district 29 in Colorado in the state house. My representative has won her 3rd term. She ran more in the center of the R - L spectrum. Now most of this district is middle and lower working class workers who hardly have a pot to piss in. If my representative ran a pro labor and pro union campaign she would be called a communist and would get smashed. Voters in this area pretty much hate government and really do not like labor laws either from what I can tell.

Bernie Sanders might have won but he would have been called a Marxist Communist giving away "free stuff" to terrorists, immigrants, "N****rs", S**cs", union thugs and low life takers. And the result would have been the same. The politics of racial hatred and resentment has worked very well for the GOP. GOP/Trump lovers would abolish the Emancipation Proclamation if they could and go back to slavery. If anything they want ALL brown people, LGBT and immigrants deported.

No matter how false such accusations would be they would stick with a largely demented voter base. The 25% that put Trump in was the GOP base. Not enough of our base and independents came our way. And women shot themselves in the you know where.

[putitinD]

1. Bernie Sanders would have won. And who gives a rats ass what the attack dogs on the right have

to say. They are going to attack and try to tear down anyone that is not a Republican. I disagree with your post, America is a center-left nation. Nobody wants a Democrat that is only a little left of the republican candidate. Bernie had it right all along.

[TheMastersNemesis]

3. I Agree That We Are A Center Left Nation. The Question Is Why We Have These Electoral Results.

Based on being center left we should have a Democratic Congress and Executive branch. We have just the opposite now. So where are the lefty voters then?

[putitinD]

5. Democrats don't seem to have the same sense of importance that republicans do about voting.

I know lots of democrats that just don't vote, or only vote for President, Republicans vote every time no matter what.

[vi5]

6. They came out in 2008 and 2012...

Especially 2008 when we had an Obama who was running a decidedly left of center campaign and proudly at that. And based on this years popular vote they came out as well, just not in the right places. And the states we needed to win but didn't were razor thin margin losses.

This whole situation would have been avoided if the Clinton campaign had just spent a hair more time and money in those swing states rather than just assuming they would show up because they did for Obama. Instead they used those resources trying to run up margins in states like Iowa and Utah.

This years loss really can be chalked up to a strategical boner of a move (or lack thereof) by the Clinton campaign, more than any kind of major sea change in belief systems.

[vi5]

2. The problem is Dems don't point to the other data sets...

..that show that Democratic, progressive, center-left economic policies actually work and are better for the economy.

The fact is that a majority of the country agree with the Democratic party on social issue after social issue. Polls show that, and Clinton's large popular vote total show that as well.

The problem is in the fact that the Democratic party and too much of our leadership have enabled and bought into the Republican framing of the narrative that Republicans are better on the economy and better on military, both of which are verifiably false after decades of data showing otherwise.

Andy ANY Dem always gets tarred with being Marxist communists who want to give handouts to minorities.

[TDale313]

4. Sorry, but buying into this "We need to be Republican lite"

Is how we got into this shitstorm in the first place. Bernie outperformed Hillary in Michigan and Wisconsin in the primaries. I firmly believe he could have won those in the General and voila... we have one of the most progressive Presidents ever rather than Trump. Name me one state you honestly think Hillary won in the General that Bernie wouldn't have carried if he were the nominee? You actually think the West Coast, New England, etc would have voted Trump rather than Bernie? Not a chance in hell. Maybe we still would have lost. Hard to say for sure. But I would have liked the fight and I still believe our chances would have been better with Sanders. He could take Trump on on his faux economic populism without a lot of the Clinton baggage and with a track record to back it up.

We are *never* gonna win by chasing Repugs rightward. We've been trying that for decades and it doesn't fucking work.

[TheMastersNemesis]

7. You Are Certainly Right About That Observation.

Actually Bill Clinton did run more center left but he abandoned his New Covenenant after he won office. And as an after thought Clinton went rightward with NAFTA after running against it. At that point is when the Democrats began to have real trouble.

[HassleCat]

8. What do we do?

More of the same? A new coalition that includes millenials, rural voters, etc?

[citood]

9. This was a change election

A complete outsider won the GOP primary, and a complete outsider almost won the Democratic primary (Bernie wasn't even a registered Democrat prior to this).

Nobody was too center or too right. Hillary Clinton was just too familiar.

What should we learn from this - alot of people are unhappy and are willing to try anything new, no matter how improbable a successful outcone may be.

[pansypoo53219]

10. we went too far. now its time to go LEFT! CHANGE. zombie reagan is DIEING.

[Orsino]

11. Psst. It wasn't the polls ordering our politicians around.

It was the money.