I am still not quite sure how we lost the election

[Peacetrain]

No one I know is willing to own up to voting for Trump if they did.. so what the heck??

I have not posted anything since the night of the election.. even though the site went down, I still would not have posted because I am still trying to wrap my head around it all..

The one thing I know for sure.. we have to be a unified party.. just as we are expected to acknowledge that Trump is President.. (boy that one is hard to say).. as a party, when we are finished with the primaries.. we need to unite as a party and support our candidate.

Just saying folks.. the perfect candidate that everyone is going to love.. does not nor has ever existed.

Now.. with getting that off my chest.. we can support one another as we rebuild the party.. and see this as an opportunity.. or we can forever be trailing behind some Breitbart goober because we cannot bring ourselves to support the imperfect in our individual opinions..

I am holding out for seeing this as an opportunity to rebuild a much stronger party..

[MythosMaster]

1. the corporate media

...... sigh

[geek tragedy]

2. party has to broaden its appeal. simple as that.

the warning signs were there before the election--just look at our meager numbers in the House of Representatives, statehouses, and legislatures.

we thought there were enough people in our urban archipelago that we didn't need to do the discomfortable work of outreach in the economically decaying industrial areas.

[Peacetrain]

7. We have been pulling our hair out since 2010 about this

If President Obama was not on the ticket.. people stayed home.. and you are right..we have to talk to everyone.. and seriously.. put time in with everyone.. and not think that the coasts will be enough.. and we have to push past this thing of just getting out for the President.. the power is in the states and the state houses..

[geek tragedy]

13. it's somewhat ironic--Obama had a connection with the very people we would assume

were less likely to support us--swing voters in conservative, white areas of the Midwest. Part of it was that he's from the Midwest, part of it is that he made damn sure to put in the time with those voters because he knew they could be talked into voting GOP if he didn't.

Democrats have been a little too triumphalist in assuming that their coalition of the ascendant had the numbers to govern the entire country, and that we didn't need to even talk to vast swaths of the country.

it's something of a vicious cycle, because the more we become concentrated in the urban archipelago, the less able we are to reach voters in 'flyover land.'

[Peacetrain]

15. Geek.. I got into it with some posters back in 2008 about this very subject

President Obama could do nothing right with "some" on our side of the equation.. and one of the biggest complaints was with his hesitant speech pattern.. which is so typical of the midwest.. but we cannot just write off the rest of the country even if it does not contain the same amount of populace...

[dsc]

47. We got more votes for US House in 2012

than the GOP did and we still were in the minority by double digits. We also got more votes for Senate both in 2016 and over the 3 elections that made up this Senate.

[yeoman6987]

16. Until we take elections serious during off elections, we will continue this horrid path

Case in point. Democratic Party has an opportunity to win another senate seat Saturday. No discussion even though we won the governorship of Louisiana. You'd think we'd pull out everything to win this. Guess it's not needed.

[geek tragedy]

21. more money donated to Jill Stein for her publicity stunt than

for the Democratic Senate race in LA, even if it is a long shot.

2017 (VA and NJ) and 2018 governors races are going to be vital. We need to act locally.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

53. Sad.

[Yo_Mama]

33. Tip O'Neill: "All politics is local."

Smart and good man, excellent politician. We should reflect on his approach a little more.

[LonePirate]

3. Rural and suburban white people voted in historic numbers for the Racist-in-Chief

[yeoman6987]

17. As they did for president obama in 2008 and 2012

Something happened that's not known yet.

[LonePirate]

25. No. Rural and suburban white voters backed McCain & Romney.

The Republican margin in rural areas along with rural turnout in general jumped significantly in 2016. Obama did not win them in either of his elections. The non-voters or lapsed voters showed up to vote this year unlike in the past and some of them who voted for Obama once or twice, flipped their votes this year.

[PotatoChip]

57. Not my rural area. People here haven't voted R for POTUS since 1988. Well... not until this year.

We split electoral votes and Hillary won the 1rst Congressional District as well as the popular vote giving her 3 of our 4 EVs. But the 1 EV Trump got in Maine's 2nd Congressional District made history, because we've never had to split them before.

This whole area is now red

[MadamPresident]

4. I'm still not convinced we did.

Too many anomalies in the swing states for this to be on the up and up.

Too bad there's nothing to be done about it.

[underthematrix]

5. We didn't lose the election. It was a military coup facilitated by

US military personnel and other gov't (FBI Director Comey, Gen Flynn, NSA) and non govt actors (Rudy Guiliani) as well as outside actors (Russia) assisting with the overthrow of our form of gov't.

We're going to need to rebuild our democracy, not just our party.

[GummyBearz]

29. Don't forget

The space aliens. They were definitely involved at the highest levels. Possibly the time travelers as well but that isn't proven yet

[underthematrix]

32. Damn. I love people like you.

Seriously I really do.

[Ace Rothstein]

37. I heard the time travelers voted for the Lizard People.

[putitinD]

6. they rigged the vote in WI, MI, and PA

[LenaBaby61]

35. They rigged the vote in WI, MI, and PA.

Me and you ----->HERE<---- on what you said about these 3 states.

I'll always feel in my heart of hearts that this election was STOLEN, and that the Russians along with our OWN government was complicit in this. How in HELL can we ever trust the voting process from now on?

CAN Democrats EVER win the White House again in this environment with rigging and voter disenfranchisement/suppression?

[putitinD]

39. look at how many machines were broken in Detroit, for at least the last 7 years. IMO rigged

[Travis_0004]

44. Who rigged it?

Detroit is a democrat controlled city, Wayne County is largely democrat controlled.

Wayne Counties county clerk would have been the one to oversee the elections, they are a democrat.

I'm sure at least some of the budget comes from the republican controlled state, but why has Detroit and Wayne County not been raising hell if the machines have been broken for at least 7 years.

[putitinD]

45. we just learned about it through the recount process. We need paper ballots, hand counted twice.

[Travis_0004]

52. You didnt answer the question

Who rigged the election in detroit. Its a democrat controlled city and county, so why are the democrats in charge not doing their job.

[putitinD]

54. Detroit is a city in receivership, as is Flint, Pontiac, etc., Governor Snyder appointed emergency

managers to run these (black) cities. I don't think the democrats are actually in charge of anything in MI anymore.

[FBaggins]

8. The challenge there is split three ways

You are of course correct that we need to come together and support one another. The problem is that there are (at least) three mutually exclusive positions on the "how we lost" question.

1 - We didn't (lose that is). We won and Republicans cheated. This is not the "electoral college should be abolished" argument... it's variations on Russian hackers actually took control and gamed the system.

2 - We lost - but not because of any issue with our message or preferred policies. We picked the wrong candidate at the head of the ticket

3 - We lost - but not because of any issue with our candidate. Our message no longer resonates with middle America (or whatever)
3a - We've gone too far to the left
3b - We've gone too far to the right

[Peacetrain]

14. Laid out very well.. thank you!!

you did a better job than I could..

[forjusticethunders]

18. None of them are mutually exclusive

You can only really "cheat" if the election is close (or you can but it'd be too obvious; they've very likely overreached as it is), so you need to do your best to win by enough to make cheating impossible. that goes into 2 and 3. I disagree with 2, and 3a/b (though I'd love to go further to the left). I'd propose a 4 which entails:

4 - We lost, but not because of our candidate or message, but because our messaging and campaign had blind spots, and we didn't allocate our resources properly.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. It's going to be like after Watergate,

when you could hardly find anybody who'd admit they voted for Nixon, even though he won in a landslide (520-17) in 1972. "Me? Vote for that crook? No way, ha ha ha.." (person looks sheepishly at shoes and quickly changes the subject)

[Peacetrain]

12. So true.. no one would admit to Nixon..

and yep we do have problems with fake news on the internet.. but we have always had issues with lies about candidate.. it is mind boggling.. that is for sure..

[True_Blue]

36. Yep.

And it's almost impossible to find a repub nowadays that doesn't say Bush was an idiot.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. I am seeing a pattern.

Bush v Gore election was highly questionable, and just as the recounts were turning up evidence of a steal, we get hit with 9/11. That event was probably not as much of a LIHOP, as it was the consequences of some heavy-handed business ultimatums regarding oil pipelines in the middle east. When it all went bad, and we got caught with our pants down, it became an opportunity for the guilty parties to hide when the media went dark.

And now we see moving parts that will certainly roil up China, with Russian interference in our election and a very strong push by a Republican GOP member to legitimize Taiwan.

Can Trump be thinking that beating China on a military plane will erase our debt with that country? Can he be that obtuse?

[Peacetrain]

11. You have to wonder sometimes..

What is going on in that mans head???

[Dems to Win]

19. Van Jones has some good ideas about how it happened, what we do next

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512647349

[barbtries]

20. lots of theories.

i'm beginning to lean toward they stole it.

i like your sentiment Peacetrain. we must resist trump and come together stronger or really it's a done deal for this country's democracy.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

22. there are a million reasons why we lost, and a million reasons why she is now 2.7 million votes

ahead

[SlimJimmy]

56. Why do we continue to play this game?

Take away Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York city and see what the vote count might look like. This is why we have an Electoral College. It prevents large urban areas from dictating who the president is every four years.

[Binkie The Clown]

23. "Rebuild"? Nancy Pelosi says people don't want the party to change, so...

do the same thing, then get the same results. Rinse and repeat till the cows come home. If nothing changes, then, tautologically speaking, nothing changes.

[flamingdem]

24. We didn't lose, it was stolen

That's the truth

[0rganism]

26. here's some commentary i think has merit

not discounting other rationales mentioned in the thread, this guy makes some solid points

we need to ditch the establishment moneybags running things at the DNC, and after a few years of full-GOP control that shouldn't be hard -- those big donors know who's in a position to butter their toast.

the candidates best positioned to succeed in the smoking ruins of the Democratic party will be small-donor progressives capable of motivating and fundraising from the base, taking unabashedly liberal positions, and completely unafraid to lose.

[Tatiana]

50. He raises some good points. n/t

[ismnotwasm]

27. Lotsa Hillary bashing

From all sides --took her down. I keep having this visual of a hunting scene, where more and more bear-dogs show up after the bear has been wounded and is bleeding by the hunters who hold back and let the dogs do their thing No respite, no respite, she fell with a might sound.

Trump did successfully what Sanders tried to do--peg himself as a political outsider who will shake things up.

We can support each other once we stop sniping at each other--and that's not going to happen anytime soon.

It will end though. Resistance is starting in communities, And this will spread untill it's a viable resource to tap into.

[RKP5637]

28. I doubt the country is coming back together. There are far too many people trying to rip the US

apart. I think it's now a failed democracy and will just get worse. I look at other countries with strife and wars, I think now that's the future of the US. I can't put rose colored glasses on. Far too many in this country are too stupid, bigoted and wastes. This last election and Trumps' primaries well demonstrated how ugly, irrational and stupid Americans have become. Mostly lemmings, lambs and the naive now, gullible as hell and ripe for a takeover by Trump and his cohorts, a faded democracy.

[beachbum bob]

30. too many voters didn't vote or voted 3rd party and now we have what we have

and justly deserved....if you don't want hell to happen..sitting on your butt is the sure way that hell will happen...

[BeyondGeography]

31. Pretty straightforward: Our candidate won the PV by two points

but lost swing states by the same margin. She lost states where she campaigned head-to-head against Trump; 11 visits to PA and she lost; FL and NC the same story. She lost two more bricks on the blue wall where she didn't campaign much (MI) or at all (WI). He connected with more voters in the swing states than she did so she lost.

I'm not worried about making the right adjustments at the presidential candidate level for 2020. It's not complicated. Like many others, my focus is at the local and state level where we really have an emergency situation.

[Ace Rothstein]

38. Yes, way too much focus on the Presidency here.

Everyone is ignoring the disaster that the party is at the state level.

[CrispyQ]

41. Here's a map of state legislatures.

Click the buttons to the left of the map & watch the nation turn red. It's alarming, yet all the chortling here about winning the popular vote.

https://ballotpedia.org/State_government_trifectas

[Nay]

58. I've begged and begged for national Dems to go local, to no avail. The Dem

candidate against Brat (who won the Pub primary, defeating Eric Cantor) got NO help from DC. Neither did they help the 2nd guy when he ran against Brat. That Dem came to my door and we talked for a while -- he had applied or asked for campaign money and never even got a how-do-you-do from DC. Just with his own money (about $100,000) he managed to get 40% of the vote. The national Pubs gave Brat TEN MILLION DOLLARS for his campaign.

This is where our problem is, folks.

[Ace Rothstein]

60. That's both disappointing and sad.

All that money spent on the Presidency this year that probably did nothing since it all focused on how horrible Trump was. Reallocating some of it to local and state races could have put us in a much better position.

[LenaBaby61]

34. Just as we are expected to acknowledge that Trump is President. (Boy that one is hard to say).

Peacetrain

I'm in agreement with much of what you said.

However...

We part company though at the thought of that p***y-grabbing, racist, xenophobic, war-mongering, grifter EVER being my president

[Rex]

40. The EC picked Trump.

We didn't lose, we were out ranked by a select few that represent a select few.

[ismnotwasm]

43. She did finish him off quickly

The bros are what kept it going on and on and on-he was mathematical toast on Super Tuesday

[budkin]

46. It was close enough to steal

So they did

[cry baby]

48. Agree. So good to see you again. nt

[jmg257]

49. A shitload of people voted for trump - for various reasons. Surprising but pretty simple. And

more understandable when you find a few (around here he cleaned up).

[Mike Nelson]

51. Well...

...we won the election. True, the electoral college will vote for Trump. I think it would be wrong to keep criticizing Hillary and others who supported and campaigned for the most popular candidate. The message of inclusion - Stronger Together- was clear and hit on many policies. Continue this message!

[Littlered9560]

55. From where I sit there are several reasons that jump out.

1: Bernie bros aka Bernie or bust types. In typical Democratic Party fashion, we/they tried to coddle them into supporting Clinton. They never came on board. Every "male" Bernie supporter I know, but one, ended up voting trump or third party. One WAS my best friend, and a manufacturer. I gained a lot of insight from them.

2: They wanted change. They absolutely hate the aca. They are mostly small, micro business people that are paying the fine rather than buying insurance they can't afford. Believe you me they are pissed about it. If we would have adopted a single payer (or something) platform they might have been more amicable. Instead they would rather burn it all down.

3: Going high when they go low. No, when they hit you, you pull out a baseball bat and give it back ten fold. Metaphorically speaking. If we want to continue to lose elections keep going high. Humans are not as evolved as most think. Carrot and stick is all they know for the most part.

4: Yard Signs. Yeah, so cliche. Not one yard sign in my area. There were none. Couldn't get one, nobody even stopped and asked if we wanted one. And I'm on the central committee. Trump yard signs were every where.

5: Clinton fatigue. Goebbels would be proud.... nuff said.

Im a low post count new member so I know that no one cares what I have to say. But I said it any way.

Sanders, and the way he and his supporters were dealt with, lost us the election.

[BobbyDrake]

59. 80,000 Stein votes across 4 battleground states, that's how.

Democrats got Nadered by the "progressive" left. Again.