House Democrats toss 2016 playbook

[herding cats]

(CNN)House Democrats are scrapping their playbook -- with plans to fire pollsters, hire new staff and ditch the very tools they used to decide where they fight against Republicans -- as they search for a way to win back the House of Representatives in two years.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a New York Democrat who is leading an internal review of the Democrats' campaign strategy, and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, the chair of House Democrats' campaign arm, told Democrats they need to drop their old way of doing business.

"We should understand the reality of the new battlefield and we should talk about things that matter to ordinary Americans and if we do both, we will write a new chapter," Maloney told CNN Thursday.

Part of that review means dropping some of their basic ideas of what wins them races and dropping some of the strategies that hurt them just a few months ago, when Donald Trump won an upset victory for the White House and Republicans maintained control of both chambers of Congress.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/10/politics/house-democrats-toss-2016-playbook/index.html

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

1. Bout time! ...

We need to fight this shit until it is flushed.
I hope we all get on the same agenda.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Good, because that was a massive fuck-up.

[ProudLib72]

3. Does this mean they are done with

"When they go low, we go high" mantra that proved so ineffective? Time for trench warfare.

[ymetca]

4. Buy all the voting machine manufacturers

would seem the best option...

[Phoenix61]

5. Ya think?

They have got to make the effort to understand and include younger voters.

[democrank]

6. A "new battlefield" requires a new war strategy.

Focusing on "ordinary Americans" is a good place to start.

[kentuck]

7. I think there are two or three third parties out there...

That tend to lean more to the Democratic Party than the authoritarian Republican Party. We truly need to get them under our tent, in my opinion.
We need to form coalitions and work together.

[crazycatlady]

8. As long as Jill Stein is around

Greens won't work with us. Jill Stein hates Democrats more than Republicans.

[kentuck]

10. In that case...

we could only advise Democrats of her refusal and recommend that they think twice about their support.

[n2doc]

18. 94 million didn't vote last time

5 million fewer voted Democratic in 16 than in 08. There is where we need to focus our efforts. Not on the fringe.

[crazycatlady]

20. Winning is a 3 pronged approach

First step is expanding the electorate by registering voters. This is very district dependent-- if your district is primarily older, established homeowners, there won't be as much opportunity as say a college town.

Second step is to persuade the voters on the fence (that always vote). They're going to vote, you just need them to vote for your candidate.

Third step is to turn out the sporadic voters. This is done typically in the last months of the campaign.

[Freethinker65]

9. Get your act together and listen to the Marchers, Indivisible groups, and townhall attendees

The Democratic Party can expose the GOP hypocrites locally. The party needs only to figure out how to coalesce around one candidate...the one the locals want to represent them, not necessarily the one the Washington bubble DNC thinks polls better.

[msongs]

11. 8 years of appeasing republicans ... did not work out that well nt

[Buns_of_Fire]

12. I hope they're tossing out that old powder they've been keeping dry forever,

and replacing it with some stronger stuff.

Forget about those "strongly-worded letters."

And I know it's against the natural inclination, but perhaps developing a small taste for blood might be more appropriate nowadays.

(Of course, I've long wished they hadn't outlawed caning on the Senate floor, too, so maybe I'm not the ideal person to ask.)

[lpbk2713]

13. Look into Comey's role in swinging the election.

And dig into the very real likelihood of voting irregularities.

Be proactive instead of reactive.

[kentuck]

16. I agree..

Also, Democrats should continue to push Trump on investigating our voting system. But, it should be a bi-partisan investigation. We need to know just how much voter suppression there has been?

[workinclasszero]

14. Great get with the indivisible people and the woman's march

folks and let's hammer the shit out of the fascist republicans!

[KittyWampus]

15. they need a Democratic version of Cambridge Analytics. Advertising on tv is a waste of money

[PatsFan87]

17. Getting rid of the consultant class and their influence on the DNC would be a start.

Consultants take money away from state parties who desperately need money, organizing, and energy. We need to build from the ground up.

[Salviati]

19. Fight everywhere!

I wish there was somewhere I could donate that would allocate money towards recruiting and funding challengers in every house race evenly. Even if we lose, it helps to get the message out there and it may make it more competitive in the future.

[Blanks]

21. A lot of good ideas on this thread...

But I didn't see the sure fire method of winning "flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep".

We should go with what works.

[sunonmars]

22. You want to win, start by ripping their heads off, none of this nambypamby shit.

They bring a knife, you put them in a morgue.

Stop being wimpy weasels and stop worrying about what people are going to say.

You can see how this went, the GOP is playing nasty and getting away with it, about time you started doing the same.