Let me tell you the real story of a political party who overplayed its hand.

[DetlefK]

My story is about the german party FDP. The Free Democrats. Very liberal on social issues. Very capitalist on economic issues.

For many, many elections they had lurked at ~10% nationally.

Then game the Great Recession of 2009. Almost all parties were screaming "We need tougher regulations to get back on track."
The only exception was the FDP. She shouted "No! The only way out of this crisis is even less financial regulations!"

In the elections that year she got 15%, their best result ever since the founding of the party. She was the third-strongest party and joined the government by becoming junior-partner to the Conservatives.

Seeing their anti-regulation stance vindicated by the voters, the FDP got cocky.
What they didn't realize was that they were on borrowed time.
The voters had voted for the full-throttle capitalists because they were desperate, not because they believed in their program.
The FDP became arrogant.
The FDP didn't deliver the economic boom it had promised.
The people came to realize they want tougher regulations, not weaker ones, but the FDP said No, still riding high on their election-result.

At the 2013-election, the pendulum swung to the other side. The FDP got 4.8%. Their worst result ever since the founding of the party.
They had lost 2 out of 3 voters in just 4 years.
From government-member to political outcast.

And it doesn't look good for the 2017-election either. The polls show them at 5-6%.





Now, please realize that many people who voted for Trump, didn't vote for Trump himself. They voted for his campaign-promises, trying to ignore the ugly things he had said.

What will happen if Trump and the GOP can't deliver what they promised?

They won't lose 2 out of 3 voters. But if they lose just 1 out of 10...

[still_one]

1. The problem, besides the FBI interference, was that 47% didn't vote

[mreilly]

2. Exactly. Those are the people to reach out to.

I'll never waste one moment trying to convince Trump voters to repudiate their disgusting choice (nor will I invest one second of hope). They can fuck themselves - ALL of them. I hope they suffer under his administration or at the very least are humiliated and whipped, but ultimately I don't care what they think, say, or do. They're nothing to me.

Rather, I will focus on the people who didn't vote who may have open minds. The beauty of this situation is we don't have to "win over" one single, solitary Trump voter. They can stubbornly cling to their fantasies, ignore all the non-stop evidence of his lies, his incompetence, his broken promises and his overall failure of a Presidency and then - God forbid he makes it to a second election day - breathlessly RACE out to vote for him. Fuck them.

I bet we can defeat him if we reduce the percentage of people who didn't vote from 47% to 45% and get 2% on our side. The exact same assholes who voted Trump can yank the lever for him in 2020 he'll lose this time around.

So any Trump voter who smugly thinks that Trump's opponents need to kiss their asses, pamper them, toss them goodies and pat them on the head then croon: "Yes, sweetie - we're willing to LISTEN to all of your endless tantrums and complaints about how it should ALWAYS BE ALL ABOUT YOU!" can eat a bag of shit. We don't need to engage them in any way, shape or form other than ensuring they're outnumbered.

[still_one]

3. You and I are definitely on the same page