Like 2010 DEMOCRATS are to ENTIRELY TO BLAME ! Too many REFUSED TO VOTE in FL ! Sickening !

[RBInMaine]

I guess there are still a lot of Democrats who like to take it up the you-know-what. There is ONE main reason they BLEW that election down there in FL. Too many Democrats refused to get off their lazy god damned asses and go to the polls.

Thanks to all who worked hard on it as always. But face it, this was BLOWN. They were up seven points just weeks ago. They were ahead in the polls narrowly as of yesterday. They were winning the early vote. What happened? On ELECTION DAY more RePUKES got off their butts, as fucking usual, and went to the polls. Too many Democrats didn't. It is as plain and simple as that.

This guy Jolly was a fucking lobbyist corporate fucking toady asshole. He was also a SHITTY candidate. And they GAVE IT TO HIM.

*** The FL Dem Party better get their SHIT together too. The rank and file should demand that those SUCKHOLES running things down there get the fuck OUT and replace them with people who know what the hell they're doing. They SUCK from everything I have heard. ***

The DNC and DCCC better step the fuck up and make some heads roll over this one. NO EXCUSES. NONE ! Someone needs to get fucking FIRED and NOW.

[RKP5637]

1. And it's so easy to F'en vote in Florida. Like, just mail in the ballot. I just get totally

disgusted with many democrats. They deserve what they get!

[RBInMaine]

2. Yup. And the FL Dem State Party fucking SUCKS from all I'm hearing. Those suckholes need to GO !

[RKP5637]

4. Some democrats whine all the time, but then are too F'en lazy to vote! n/t

[RBInMaine]

6. Exactly. And the FL state party FUCKING SUCKS too. They all need to be fucking FIRED.

[BlueDemKev]

8. The State Demoratic Party has been impotent for 25+ years in Florida

They went to sleep in the '80s and by the early '90s, the Rethugs had all the momentum. The captured the state Senate in '94 and the House in '96. When Jeb Bush ran in 1998 to replace retiring Democratic legend Lawton Chiles, there was no strong Democrat to oppose him and he all but walked into the governor's mansion armed with a Republican supermajority in the legislature. The Rethugs have completely-controlled redistricting in both 2000 and 2010 which has only made the job harder.

[bigdarryl]

3. Wait a minute isn't the National DNC Chair person from FL

I'm just saying

[HooptieWagon]

5. Yep.

And they're happy with the staus quo in FL. Look for it to be a model for Natl Party. Pukes their friends, progressives are the enemy.

[bigdarryl]

7. And speaking of that person she still thinks its

A good idea to continue sanctions on Cuba.I was horrified when I saw that interview I'm like lady are you kidding

[riqster]

9. Hugs from Ohio. We suffer similarly.

Because all the Ohio Dem party gives fuck-all about is giving Chris Redfern a cushy fucking job.

If you call yourself a Dem and don't vote: fuck you, you're a Repube for all practical purposes.

[world wide wally]

10. Makes me feel I'll.

[neverforget]

11. 2010 can be blamed on Independents. They voted for Republicans 55-39.

I don't know about this election but if we lose "Independents", then we're not going to win. And yes, our base needs to turn out but we also need those that don't identify with a party.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/2010-midterms-political-price-economic-pain/story?id=12041739&singlePage=true

Swing-voting independents who, as usual, made the difference, favored Republicans for House by a thumping 16 points, 55-39 percent. Compare that to Obama's 8-point win among independents in 2008. It was the Republicans' biggest win among independents in exit polls dating to 1982 (by two points. The GOP won independents by 14 points in 1994, the last time they took control of the House.)

[Doctor_J]

31. Shhhhh! You're spoiling a perfectly good "it's all the liberals fault" thread. Take your reality

someplace else!

[ancianita]

12. I just sent the Florida party this reaction. I'm no expert on what their problems have been, but

I believe that Florida, having been the site of stolen elections, has a vote counting credibility problem. Along with the perennial GOTV.

[workinclasszero]

13. Elections have consequences...

I'm sure the teabagger that won will punish all the working people, gays, women, non christian, non-whites, poor, unemployed, seniors on SS etc.

After all he has to keep his masters the koch bros happy. I feel sorry for all the people that will suffer under the tea bag boot.

[flamingdem]

14. Perhaps this is a canary in the coal mine

November..

[XiaomuWave]

15. Welcome to every off year election ever.

There is always going to be an asymmetry in enthusiasm. The party out of power nationally is going to be outraged and are going to be able to rally the base. In 2014 a lot of it is going to be over bullshit, completely fictional stories about ACA.

[JohnJohn]

16. All about ACA

How are we supposed to gain any traction against the bullshit, fictional stories though if the President keeps delaying parts of the law? The GOP can make up whatever they want because we can't see the law fully in effect.

[XiaomuWave]

19. Delays are completely irrelevant to false stories.

The employer mandate is a pretty minor part of the law that can go without much incident. The law is basically in full effect now. That stuff is being made up around the clock is really not related to things like this at all. Even the person whose most recent ACA horror story that was debunked after it turns out she is going to save money - she doesnt believe it. So in her mind, she will always be spending more, and nothing will ever change this - certainly not some minor implementation hangup that doesnt even affect her.

The bullshit is being combated correctly currently, by debunking it. That the Republican base still believes it is not really a changeable issue.

Nothing will ever prevent bullshit claims about ACA from rallying the Republican base. The point of putting out facts are for other people who might possibly care about facts.

[JohnJohn]

21. They're not irrelevant because they give the perception.....

How about the President allowing insurers to continue selling their shitty plans? That may provide some cover for Dems that are up in 2014, but it hurts the ACA not only in public perception but also could end up proving fatal down the line.

[XiaomuWave]

22. There isnt any room for public perception to change

The delays certainly are not good policy, but public perception is almost universally set in stone. Almost no one is changing their mind about it at this point. There is nothing fatal here either policy wise. ACA is here to stay unless it is repealed by a Republican administration or replaced with single payer. There is no death spiral in the way conservatives think. There is the death spiral in that the private for profit insurance cannot exist in the long run, but thats a much slower spiral.

[TheKentuckian]

26. Democrats seemingly believe base elections are the stuff of fables and the TeaPubliKlans go

all in on base all the time and it has downside come national election time so they have to try to drive up negatives in hopes the Democrat cannot pass the credibility bar so it can be close enough for shenanigans and failing that the hope is to diminish "coattails" and "wave" effects. They then parlay the muddying into the eternal bog down war.

There is the fact that there is only one national election and it is still more like the tally of 50 elections weight by census giving the ability to win the popular vote and lose the election.
You give yourself a punchers chance every four years and maintain substantial power despite a real voter disadvantage by keeping who you got in a frenzy in an environment where the opposition disregards their voters seeking snipes in bushes.

All that said, I think the benefit even for the Presidential election I think the benefit of the "Centrist"/Turd Way strategy is somewhere between minimal benefit and substantial net negative overcome by staggeringly terrible opposition under the shadow of perhaps the worst President in history they all goose stepped along with and who they are running to the right of while actively pissing off everyone outside of their narrow base democratic.

[Doctor_J]

32. The Dems don't have a base any more

they get more right wing with each passing month, then wonder why they can't beat the party that all of the right wingers vote for.

[Chestrockwell]

17. The African American vote.....

That did not exist. When I was canvasing, none of them even know there was a special election going on or who the candidates were!

[rtracey]

20. not buying that

sorry, but are you telling me no African American has a tv in florida, or listens too the radio, or sees billboards, or lawn signs...bullcrap... complacency is your problem, and this is going to cost us the Senate in 2014

[Fuddnik]

23. One point of rebuttal.

I was driving a taxi the last couple of months in Pinellas County (I live in Pasco, so couldn't vote).

I never saw one single lawn sign for Alex Sink the whole time. Not one. Jolly signs were all over the place.

[Chestrockwell]

24. I was at the polls on the south side.

And I was alone!!! So don't tell me what the facts. I will pass blame on all of the democrates who were to lazy to vote. I have no reason to lie about anything I said. Sadly, it's the truth.

[rtracey]

18. as stated in another post

Face this piece of reality.... 2014 is going too be a bombshell for our party. We are going to lose the Senate, Right Wingers are going too keep the house, and Obama is going too be a walking veto stamp for 2 years, and its all because this party is so damned complacent. We refuse too push agenda, we just muttle through, most of us don't openly support our president, and guess what...tough crap... maybe its time too be looking through the outdoor. I have been pushing on facebook and other sources to get the vote out in 2014....every page I see, I have been hitting it, I see friends in the store, I hit them, at work, at recreation, etc.....I am seeing very little push... ok so good luck in 2014, and really good luck if you are retirement age, because, the right wing are coming for your retirement, your healthcare and going too make you pay higher taxes (middleclass). the only good thing that can come of a GOP sweep is now their own people will soon feel the ax too. (not the Kochs), but the lower, middle class.....seeya

[RBInMaine]

27. Please, take an upper. You are reading WAY too much into this.

[Hippo_Tron]

25. Collective action problems are called collective action problems for a reason...

If you know how to change the voting behavior of millions of people, I'm all ears.

[TheKentuckian]

28. Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what yelling at the few folks that reliably vote to vote because they are

actually paying attention to be aware they are being yelled at.

You cannot believably make every game the Super Bowl and there is always the fair chunk that only catches the Super Bowl. That has to be accepted unless somebody has a miracle cure for "the big ___" focus in our culture.

You overcome it by driving your base. Our party doesn't want a base except a fundraising base, we play the big tent shit and only the big money rises above the confusion.

[Hippo_Tron]

30. I'll give you that the Republicans are better at exciting their base, but it didn't help in 2006...

It's a fact of life that the party in the White House loses seats in midterm elections. That was a constant rule from 1936 to 1994. The two exceptions since (1998 and 2002) were due to extenuating circumstances where the incumbent President happened to be unusually popular around the time of the midterms and the other party's brand was damaged in one way or another.

The problem IMO for both parties is that they delude themselves into believing that they've built permanent majorities every time they win a presidential election. The Republicans did it in 2004 and the Democrats did it in 2008 and now we're doing it again in 2012.

When Obama says that "we're good at presidential elections but not midterms" it shows a lack of understanding of just how frail the coalition that re-elected him in 2012 was. His approval ratings are now in the low 40's, the airwaves are filled with propaganda about how terrible the ACA is, the economy is still anemic. The problem isn't that we're not good at midterms, the problem is that majorities last for one election cycle (maybe two) and then they vanish, because voters are fickle.

I'm not saying don't donate, I'm not saying don't phone bank, I'm not saying don't drag your friends to the polls. All of these things can have an effect on the margins and this year in particular those margins can determine control of the Senate. But it's a fact that we're most likely in for some big losses in 2014 and there's absolutely nothing you, I, nor anyone else can do about it.

What Democrats can do is they can stop being deluded into believing that they have a permanent lock on millennials and hispanics (we don't). They can also stop assuming that we can count on Republicans making stupid comments about rape and birth control to flip close elections. When you stop assuming these things, you can then start governing under the assumption that there's a very good chance the other party will win the next election, therefore we'd better do as much as we possibly can while we're still in power.

[Doctor_J]

33. That is pretty humorous, yelling at DU as if someone here didn't vote

I guess it's easier than facing the fact that the party has no platform, no strategy, and no soul.

[Sancho]

29. This is a repeat of my post on another thread, but it fits to repeat it here...

1.) both candidates were mediocre, so there was little energy for most voters despite the crazy tv ads and phone calls. Most of the Democratic base was simply not interested: teachers, unions, minorities, college students, women...none were really mobilized by this race and Sink didn't mean anything to them. I'm in a union - Sink didn't talk to us. Sink had lots of people walking and calling, but they were going after the suburbs where most folks already were voting for Jolly. There was no "issue" like women's rights or "stand your ground" or ANYTHING that Sink put forward to attack Jolly. All she said was that she would "work with the other side". That's not an issue. Sink is not a good candidate!

2.) The repubs can count on the retired base who have lots of time and vote straight GOP no matter who is running. The Democrats don't vote (as several others have said).

3.) In 2004, I saw a DRE cast a vote for Buchanan when you pushed Castor. We've had reports for a decade of absentee ballots found in the trash, mailed ballots whose signatures were rejected (by GOP volunteers who do the checking; old folks again), and you name it. You get no help here from election supervisors. ID's are "checked" at the polls, and it intimidates some voters. If it's close, the nod goes to the GOP.

4.) The district is gerrymandered. Even when registered, there are a some hurdles getting ballots by mail, voting early etc. Registration is much more difficult under Rick Scott.

5.) Jolly benefitted from a lot of local veterans and military people who came out to protect their health care and retirement. They heard a lot of false reports that Jolly would help them and Sink would do them in...

6.) The senior citizens did not buy into the "Jolly will get rid of SS" message. They already have SS and they know they are safe...they would react if Jolly went after medicare, but all his ads said that the ACA was cutting medicare. We all know it's not true, but I could not convince the retired neighbors on both sides of me.