I don't want to believe this article but turns out the author is an old and trusted friend.

[nolabear]

It's making the rounds today. And it's a warning that the Orange Menace could well win in 2020 if we don't get our act together and unify behind a candidate. I can piss and moan about various people's age and where they are on the liberal spectrum and who their donors are and what purity tests they can't pass but frankly we have GOT to agree to support the Democratic candidate.

We all want him impeached. We all want him indicted. We all want to be rescued. But in the end we have to vow to rescue not only ourselves but the entire country, because we are losing safety, people, rights, standing, health, sanity, hope, joy and everything this country stands for as fast as he, and they, can take them away from us.

So yes, debate but don't fight. Be angry but don't despair. Go the extra mile to resist and work and vote.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/trump-is-on-track-to-win-reelection-20171007-gywdp8.html

[ProudLib72]

1. I don't care who is our candidate

So long as he/she is chosen sooner rather than later and we get a lot of good messaging about him/her.

Seriously, there are a huge number of people I would support. I'm not going to give into this flavor of the day crap that seems rampant on these boards. I don't feel like our candidate must be the best of the best, and that leaves a huge pool of possibilities. All that matters is that we unify behind whomever is chosen and promote the hell out of them for the next two years.

[Not Ruth]

2. Right now it is looking like Harris vs Bernie in primary, with Cuban as a vote splitter

[murielm99]

3. It doesn't look like any such thing.

You can speculate if you like, but it is much too early to make pronouncements.

We need to concentrate on the midterms.

[Salviati]

10. Agreed. Talking about 2020 at this point is wasting our time.

The left needs to get over this idea of the president as savior, We have seen how easily progress made as the result of executive orders can be rolled back. The real progress to be made and harm that can be done will be achieved in congress. The presidency is a defensive political position, congress is where we can actually make lasting gains.

[Squinch]

6. WTF?

[nolabear]

9. What makes you say that? And I'm asking seriously.

When I say we need to stop fighting and talk I mean it. So here I am.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. No. We don't need to figure out who our 2020 candidate will

be in the next year or so. Good grief, we're over three years away from the next actual Presidential election day.

We need to see just how things play out over the next year or so before we start thinking too seriously about who will run in 2020. Committing ourselves as a party to one candidate early just is not a good idea.

[nolabear]

7. I'm not a fan of just seeing how things play out. So far we've been played.

No matter when we back a particular candidate we need to start figuring out how to unify.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. Part of what went wrong in 2016

was that the Democratic Leadership decided very early that Hillary would be the candidate and would brook no opposition. So when Bernie challenged her they rigged everything they needed to rig to make sure he couldn't get the nomination. Had they not done that, had the media actually covered his campaign, things may have turned out very differently. Plus, a lot of polling in the spring of last year clearly indicated he would beat Trump in the general election (this was before Trump nailed the Republican nomination) and Hillary would not.

This is NOT refighting the primary. What happened, happened. But a three years before the election commitment to a candidate -- other than someone you might personally want to commit to -- makes no sense.

I've actually been around DU, under a couple of different screen names, since just about the very beginning, and every election cycle it's the same. Usually many people here are in a rush to re-nominate whoever our losing candidate was. The sentiment to renominate Hillary is somewhat muted, but not entirely.

Here's what we need to be paying attention to going forward: the reality of the Electoral College. Fighting very hard to make a good paper trail. Proper and credible auditing of the actual votes.

I can think of several good possibilities for our next nominee, but I feel no need at this point to name anyone.

[nolabear]

12. I agree. But, respectfully, I think referring to what happens here sets us back.

I'm at the point where if I see someone throwing support behind someone I'm interested in why. Most conversations here have many observers and I think it's helpful to ask questions and try to find out why people think what they do, and let them know why I think what I do. They do devolve and old anger uses up all the energy that could be so helpful to us in the long run.

I'm a compromiser. Some people don't like that but I would love to make my case and hear theirs without fighting.

[ProudLib72]

22. Remember a couple months back

Each day there would at least three posts (at least it seemed like that many) about who were the best choices for a winning ticket? Franken/Harris, Booker/Warren, any crazy combination you could think of. Honestly, I would be thrilled with either of those tickets and many, many more. However, as Poindexter pointed out above, it's very early to decide on a candidate for 2020. A lot can happen in three years.

So that leaves the question: Where do we look for unity? I really wish we could unify behind Pelosi because that would make a lot of sense going into the midterms. Considering that, I have two questions: 1) Is it possible between now and the middle of next year to rally around her? 2) If it is possible, how do we go about it? These other reps calling for her to step down are not doing our party any favors. Maybe we need to be writing to them, telling them to shut up and support our leader. All I know for sure is that, right now, our party is in disarray and looks exceedingly weak. In other words, I agree with the article you posted. While I know what makes the most sense, I'm not sure if it's possible or how to go about achieving it.

[struggle4progress]

4. He won a few key states by beating us on turnout there. It's that simple: too many on our side

sat on their hands. Will he be beatable? Hell, yes! Can we beat him by being busy beavers online? No -- we actually have to go knock doors and jingle phones and get our side to the polls. It's not rocket surgery but we have to do it

[nolabear]

8. LOL "rocket surgery" but you're right. And talk to our legislators about what we want.

[Scruffy1]

21. You are right.

Too many sat on their hands. But then, we need to get better at overcoming the propaganda machine and giving people motivation to vote. it's actually very frustrating to me in a strong Democratic district, because we have little input on the outlying districts. It's a defacto gerrymander. As i like to point out that if you combined my Congressman's district with the Michelle Bachmann's old district it would be majority Democratic. A great example of voter ineffeciency. I think the some in the party are willing to keep their safe seats rather than win overall, but that's just me griping. We can't change the gerrymander in the near future, but we can GOTV if we have clear policies that motivate the public, especially poorer voters. Study after study shows that voter participation inreases with income. and is less than 50% at the bottom. Just increasing the voter percentage in the poverty bracket by a few points would have swung some states.

[marylandblue]

11. It's been said that dems nominate resumes, repubs nominate people

Let's not nominate another resume. Pick someone able to inspire. Obama won through inspiring the best in us. Trump won by inspiring the worst.

[nolabear]

13. I think you're right. A combination of having a good agenda and being a good communicator

makes sense. Frankly we're limbic creatures once we reach a certain stage of alarm. But I've always been surprised that typical psychology uses the "fight or flight" trope as though though those are the only two things we are capable of when we are threatened. there's a third. UNITE. Every attachment study ever done talks about how being attached to one another makes us strong, resilient, hopeful and effective. When we see others as potential allies even when we don't agree on everything we can move things in directions away fro all this fear mongering. Then we can get things done.

Someone who can convey that sense in a more effective emotionally stimulating way while having good sense and enough support can do so much for us.

[sharedvalues]

14. Work work work. https://www.turnoutpac.org/ http://endcitizensunited.org/

Kander's project: Let America Vote
Russ Feingold's: LegitAction

unkochmycampus.org

And indivisible, moveon, planned parenthood. Join up and participate!

[nolabear]

15. PERFECT. Thank you!

[Snackshack]

16. He could...

Very well be re-elected. Anyone who thinks he can’t is simply deluding themselves and should remember the last time they heard that he can’t/won’t win the election.

The division on our side of the isle needs to end ASAP (what’s done is done) so that we might have a chance at winning back the senate next year in order to have some sort of checks and balance on trump. It is only dumb luck that republicans ended up with trump in the executive office. Had Rubio or Bush won the executive republicans would have coalesced and half of their legislative agenda (kill O’care, SS, Medicare, EPA, FDA, huge tax breaks etc) would have been passed by now.

[Progressive dog]

17. As a Democrat, if a person expects me to

rally behind a Presidential candidate for 2020, I would wonder if that person were an American--much less a Democrat. I am a member of the Democratic party by choice, I vote for Democratic candidates by choice and I, for one, would be much less likely to support a candidate who was touted as the party savior. If I wanted an authoritarian leaning President or party, I would have been a Republican.
I cannot imagine a Democratic party candidate for President whom I wouldn't support, but since our votes are secret, a pledge to support an unknown candidate is meaningless.

[YOHABLO]

19. Nope, not going to buy it. We've got serious serious problems in this country.

Unless of course our electronic voting systems are being hacked into. Which I believe is the case we have in front of us and no one in the establishment wants to address it.

[TNNurse]

20. We need to focus on 2018

If Mueller can get Trump out with evidence, we need a Democratic Congress to stop Pence.

[sarcasmo]

23. 2018 is the first hurdle, take back the Senate.