2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumI got it. Here's the solution how the Democrats can win back the white middle-class:
How could we have been so blind? It was obvious all along.
The Trump-voters didn't believe Trump when he promised that he would actually repeal Obamacare. And now they act all shocked. They voted for Trump, believing that he would "drain the swamp". And now they pretend that hiring Wall Street sharks is somehow a way to get rid off the Big Money-corruption.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028368212
http://www.salon.com/2016/12/15/tribalism-run-amok-donald-trump-voters-on-obamacare-are-now-worried-that-hell-repeal-it/
The question we have heard over and over and over again was: How can the Democrats win back the white middle-class voters who flocked to Trump?
The answer is obvious:
These voters aren't rational. => You cannot use a rational argument to convince them.
You have to use irrational arguments.
Scream, holler, fabulize, lie, threaten, cajole, romance.
Appeal to their basest instincts, like fear of the stranger, fear of the other.
Give them a scapegoat they can hate and blame for all their troubles.
Reassure them that their opinion is the correct one, whatever the opinion may be.
Revel in the rejection of norms.
Embrace chaos, destruction and undoing as the path forward.
Be outrageous and interesting.
And don't you EVER dare to mention facts that would make these voters uncomfortable.
Yeah, it's cynical, but I can guarantee you 100% that this is the election-strategy to win over these kinds of voters. Trump is living proof for that.
You are welcome.
tenorly
(2,037 posts)Fascists have understood this since the Mussolini/Hitler era - and continue to use this strategy to great success, even if often a narrow one, in countries around the world.
OHfreePARTY
(2 posts)I am what is described as the typical trump voter uneducated rural voter living paycheck to paycheck in rural ohio & there is TRUTH to your post. People believed Facebook post only when they reinforced their own beliefs & many really believed that Trump was a business genius here to save them from his own kind! That's not rational!!! They want to feel like apart of a movement & will shape his message to fit their own beliefs. They want to be part of a change movement no matter the policy ( which is why they voted Obama twice & then trump) so we need to craft an anti corruption , anti bank & corporation message & drill it home over & over & over they vote for what affects them in their own mind no matter how backwards their candidate was and is! He will hurt them we just need to use bernies message with a poetic voice like Obama to take back WH in 2020 but we need to use same anti Washington message in Senate & house seats in middle America 1st
tenorly
(2,037 posts)People are hurting, and are getting desperate. Fertile ground for plutocrats with the gift of gab like Trump.
My guess is that even if he does make any sincere efforts toward curbing our trade deficits and deindustrialization (very doubtful, given his own record as an offshoring businessman), the GOP bankrollers themselves won't allow it.
Mitchy and Ryan will see to that.
Willie Pep
(841 posts)I know most people here will hate this but Democrats need to get mean, nasty and crazy. Talk about Benedict Arnold companies. Say that the Republicans are planning to kill grandma and grandpa with cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Play up GOP connections to foreign governments. Talk about how the Republicans want to lower your wages and take away benefits and overtime. Connect Republicans to every crazy right-wing personality out there including domestic terrorists. We need to have our own left-wing populism that attacks the GOP like crazy.
People seem to respond better to messages about fear than hope right now. I am not sure why that is but it seems to be the case.
0rganism
(24,677 posts)even then, that person would have to compete with Trump, who's god mad skillz in all the areas you list
i take your post to be mainly facetious, but i feel like it deserves a straight reply nonetheless
by 2020, if we have an election to campaign in, we might want to present an alternative to what's been the norm from 2017 onward
even white middle class voters might be bored and annoyed by
- irrational arguments
- screaming, hollering, threatening (fabulizing, lying, cajoling and romancing will never go out of style)
- unproductive scapegoating
- rejection of norms (although we will have some interesting new ones by then)
- chaos, destruction, undoing
i think we'll have to find someone new and transformative who can make a case that appeals to a national yearning for constructive behavior and sustainable growth
it will have to start at the local level, we can't fix this mess top-down
BSdetect
(9,047 posts)The DP missed stopping the States power grab after 2010 and all the gerrymandering and voter suppression - seen as weakness by the GOP.
Now they can laugh at any effort to stop them.
Fake news did not help.