How the hell did we lose the narrative?

[cilla4progress]

We were blindsided by the Republicans. From Merrick Garland to the KKK. From Cheney to Trump. We were outmaneuvered.

How did we not see this coming and head it off?

Feels to me like Dems are never prepared for the depths to which the Republicans will stoop. As if we are too naive and/or humanistic to get that these people exist... and vote.

[Blanks]

1. I'm sure the republicans felt the same way in 2008...

We had the house, we had the senate, we had the White House.

We have two years to come up with a liberal tea party type movement to take the house and senate back.

With the right leadership, it shouldn't be difficult.

[EL34x4]

18. I don't think Republicans honestly expected to hold the White House in 2008.

Mired in two bloody conflicts and the economy in the shitter, George W. Bush had so tarnished the GOP brand and pissed of the base that the reanimated corpse of Ronald Reagan himself couldn't have gotten elected in 2008. McCain was the archetypical "it's finally my turn" candidate but even his heart wasn't in it. And who could blame him?

On top of all the GOP failure, we couldn't have asked for a better candidate in 2008 than the rockstar junior senator from Illinois. Those were good days.

[Blanks]

19. I only point it out because...

While it sucks, they came back, we can come back too.

[guillaumeb]

2. The Democrats started losing the narrative in 1968.

The Southern strategy was the beginning.

[Sherman A1]

3. There is certainly some truth to that

and it expanded in the 1980's. The GOP became very, very good at framing the issues in any way beneficial to them.

[gulliver]

4. "We" have a bad architecture, are lazy, and don't build to code

When we Dems figure out a way to have a little more discipline, trust more, subordinate our own needs to a greater cause, etc., we'll have what it takes to withstand the Republicans. We'll beat them the old fashioned way, by taking away all of their good people.

[Stinky The Clown]

20. "subordinate our own needs to a greater cause"

THAT is the biggest single point that needs to be made.

[JudyM]

5. Too little time spent focusing on the horizon. Spinning our wheels to no avail with "cult of no"

rethugs.

[jodymarie aimee]

6. why are we always late to the party....

Gerrymandered, voter suppression on steroids here in WI and we just watched it happen. Why are we always 10 steps behind? Because we are not crooks and we are earnest and honest? Fuck that, look what we are up against. Our state has been burned to the ground. We will not reverse this stuff until after I am dead.

[LWolf]

7. There's a clear answer to your question

which is not allowed to be presented here at DU; at least, not without nuclear temper tantrums, attacks, alerts, and possible hides.

Not all Democrats were blindsided. About 43% of us were not. We saw it coming from a long way away, predicted it, warned about it and were: ignored, derided, attacked, demonized, and patronized. We weren't able to head it off; the establishment beat off our efforts to do so.

I wish, instead of the shock and dread, 55% of the party would simply own their choices. That way perhaps we could avoid repeating the same errors in the future.

I know better, though. I think I'll go do something positive and happy while the nuclear temper tantrums commence.

[ms liberty]

13. This. n/t

[Dem2]

22. Lol

Nobody likes a "told you so" post. You can NEVER know alternate outcomes. To put it more bluntly, I could say alternately that people like you lost us the election.

[Initech]

8. Because the republicans destroyed what's left of the "liberal media".

The media is completely, totally 100% conservative now, and we really don't have a voice anymore. Want proof? Fox News is played in far more public places than CNN or MSNBC, and if businesses attemp to play either of the latter networks, they get complaints. Conservatives don't want to work with the other side, they want us gone.

[edhopper]

10. that's it exactly

The Media prefers the GOP narrative, and that's the one they keep to.
Our narrative is dismissed.

[bdamomma]

12. Corporations own

the media, media is aligned to the corporations not to it's citizens. The media is all about $$$$$.

[edhopper]

17. I am shocked!!

...shocked!! to hear that!

[democratisphere]

9. NOT PAYING ATTENTION.

[ismnotwasm]

11. Oh here we go---another Democrat bashing thread

What part of we lost to a whole lot of racist, sexist and bigoted assholes is hard to understand? Our candidate was hit from the right and the left with a whole lot of bullshit, in fact the right, including Trump himself used the lefts own critiques --and it took her down.

Now there is shit we gotta do, yes, we need to improve our down ticket game, we need to stop voter suppression and gerrymandering, we need to present a leader with broad appeal--I'm still thinking O'Malley--and we need to not waste resources chasing votes of assholes who hate Democrats.

[dmr]

14. I don't see this as a bashing thread.

Many times you find golden nuggets in the responding posts.

If we can't discuss who, what, when, where, why and how come with our "troubles" here at DU, then we surely can't move forward. I like to read what people think, whether I agree with them or not.

[ismnotwasm]

16. I am simply irritated because this is merely one of several

They all follow a format--vaguely criticize Democrats. No specifics. An interesting conversation and/or debate may ensue, true, but lately I've seen mostly ooga type responses-"Democrats Bad!"

Makes me grumpy, because I like to read thinking as well, not mindless agreement.

Perhaps more coffee...

[Glitterati]

15. This is SO easy

Because Democrats continue to pit Democrat against Democrat - blue dogs against liberals against yellow dogs against conservatives.

That, and Nancy Pelosi is the worst minority leader EVER.

Hell, Newt Gringrich hasn't held elective office in 10 years and he gets more press than Pelosi does!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

21. I want more Democrats to make better arguments on moral grounds.

People are free to disagree with me, but I've heard Republicans making moral arguments for and against many things for years.

Just one example: Higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

The argument is basically, "Why should they have money that they EARNED stolen from them? Do you like having your own hard-earned paychecks taxed to pay for (fill in the blank)?'

The kind of thing that voters hear from economic progressives like Bernie Sanders: "Income inequality is at historical highs! The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and we need to do something about it!"

I don't think that works too well. Voters need things spelled out for them! And despite what some people might think, I believe that many voters want to support ideas that they think are morally right!

I'd prefer to hear something more CONCRETE like, "Corporations keep making demands for more education and training, but they don't pay for it! They WANT better educated and trained employees because it helps them increase profits! If they want those skills, why aren't they paying for it?! Instead, people are putting themselves deep in debt just for the chance to apply for such jobs! Unless corporations are willing to burden these costs directly, government needs to intervene and provide free education and a universal minimum income to keep these new workers afloat! And corporations should be morally obligated to pay these costs through higher taxes!"

[Igel]

23. Take two steps back.

There is no "the narrative."

There are several. Probably lots, but I suspect they form groups.

To some extent they influence each other. That's less than before. We didn't lose the narrative--and that's a good thing, because we shouldn't control the narrative. (That's a nice propagandistic way of looking at things, a media is "free" to the extent it's controlled and manipulated, otherwise who's going to stipulate what the truth is?). There can be dominant voices, but they are dominant not because of power-grubbing control but because they catch the attention and hold the attention of the populace.

Surveys of the MSM consistently show that the reporters of a lot of mainstream media sources are overwhelmingly (D). Usually left of center. We can say that the owners aren't always left of center, but the owners, truth be known, typically are more interested in money and information than proselytizing. They aim for their audience, and if they're out of step with what their readers/listeners want to hear then revenues fall and owners get bent out of shape.

Except every narrative has its own center as far as the listeners and readers viewers of that strain of media goes. A lot of people we'd consider RW consider themselves centrists, at best (R) a bit to the right of center. "Moderate."

I've had talks in the past with an acquaintance who was convinced that most Americans wanted nationalized industries and some fairly extreme kinds of price controls. He viewed himself as mainstream; he'd be to the left of what Sanders said and would view Sanders as being a bit conservative.

DU is consistently rather left of center. Many of those DUers consider themselves the center of the political spectrum, whatever silly Internet "where are you on the political spectrum" sites may say.

[UTUSN]

24. First, may we stop beating up on ourselves