The Democrats USA (2018-2020)

MadamSarcastra said:
I think we might see a buffet of Dems running just like we saw with the Reps in the last campaign... and I'm thinking (merely envisioning at this point) that Trump will just be offered up as sole slaughter by the GOP... because they'll have accomplished a lot of what was on their agenda & they no longer need him & they'll exit all the richer & leave a Dem majority a colossal mess that will take years, probably decades, to clean up....
Just "thinking out loud" here.... :| LOL
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Maybe Madam, have noticed (well down here) politics can be pretty explosive energies to watch at election time.Think you could be correct about Trump's timeline.

Once the bun fight is over and the Democrats get down to a couple of contenders, it might come down to who can bring the money to the table to fight the election.
 
Hillary seems to be considering it but I think hasn't finally decided yet. I think if you're a 2-time loser and one of the people you lost to is Trump, you should leave the stage more gracefully. I think she could have something to offer as a senior figure in the administration (from 2021) but with someone else as President. There is too much baggage and negativity - it would be nice to have someone with less controversies against them to run against Trump.

I'd like to see Elizabeth Warren have a go.
 
Jamie in Chile said:
Hillary seems to be considering it but I think hasn't finally decided yet. I think if you're a 2-time loser and one of the people you lost to is Trump, you should leave the stage more gracefully. I think she could have something to offer as a senior figure in the administration (from 2021) but with someone else as President. There is too much baggage and negativity - it would be nice to have someone with less controversies against them to run against Trump.

I'd like to see Elizabeth Warren have a go.
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I agree with everything except for Warren. I like her but I think it will be a repeat of Hillary and people will vote for “the other guy” out of spite. That’s how trump got elected.
 
What do you mean - her being too far to the left? Sexism meaning a woman can't win?

If not Warren they who? Or perhaps it's too early to say.
 
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I wonder sometimes if the Democrats have the wrong strategy, in fact at times they are not strategic at all. I think some of them, and their liberal supporters, just call the issues as they see them.

I wonder if the Democrats, and the broader liberal movement, right down to liberals posting on facebook, might be too focused on issues like minorities in society and Trump's tweets and lies and getting him impeached, and may just be preaching to the converted while alienating the moderates/people in the centre/independents in the rust belt and Florida that decide the election.

I don't think there is anything wrong with much of what they say, in fact we probably need more talk about minority rights if we are talking about what is the right thing to do, but I am talking about electability. By responding heavily to everything Trump does, the liberal movement does come across as kind of elitist and superior probably to some Americans.

I wonder if the democrats could campaign more on issues like jobs and security. I'd also like to see the democrats taking up some middle of the road positions on issues like abortion and immigration which I think might see them win.

But I could be wrong - if they have honestly carefully analyzed that going a bit further to the left could be a winning strategy, or really have carefully figured out that constantly holding Trump to account is going to get the Presidency then maybe they know better.

But my concern is that by non-strategically responding to every Trump tweet with anger they come across as elitist know it alls more concerned about political correctness and out of touch with the unemployed and low income Americans that drifted to Trump in 2016.

The strategy at the moment looks rather similar to the one that failed in 2016. And here I'm thinking not just of Democrats but the wider liberal movement including CNN and other media.
 
Jamie in Chile said:
Hillary seems to be considering it but I think hasn't finally decided yet. I think if you're a 2-time loser and one of the people you lost to is Trump, you should leave the stage more gracefully. I think she could have something to offer as a senior figure in the administration (from 2021) but with someone else as President. There is too much baggage and negativity - it would be nice to have someone with less controversies against them to run against Trump.

.
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I totally agree. It's time for her to step down.
 
Jamie in Chile said:
What do you mean - her being too far to the left? Sexism meaning a woman can't win?

If not Warren they who? Or perhaps it's too early to say.
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Yes on both counts. But keep in mind, I never followed politics until this recent debacle so I’m basing it on more of an emotional stand point than actual facts. It’s my current state of doom and gloom that I’m in. :(
 
We need a really good, strong candidate who will try and join both sides and bring them together. My hope is that there are more middle ground people than there are extremists on either the right or left. I think that “someone” would be able to grab more of the middle people.
 
Yeah, but ... and I really do not intend to open old wounds here ... was not Hillary actually supposed to be the perfect "middle ground" candidate (apart from all the baggage she had) ?
 
It seems to me that one crucial factor for whether a candidate can win an election is their ability to create enthusiasm amongst their party's side of the political spectrum. I don't think it matters where on that side of the spectrum the candidate is themselves. They really need to be able to get "their voters" to the ballot boxes.

Trump brought something new and was able to create enthusiasm. Hillary Clinton was a known quantity, and didn't generate as much enthusiasm, although she did win the popular vote.

Obama again seemed to bring something new and created enthusiasm, Romney and McCain not as much.

Bush appealed strongly to evangelicals and came off as "the kind of guy you'd have a beer with", if I remember correctly, so there was some enthusiasm. Gore was mostly a boring middle-of-the-road kind of politician, though again he did win the popular vote. Kerry will be remembered as the windsurfing elitist who also got swiftboated out of the campaign.

Other factors are whether the economy is doing well, and which party is the incumbent, and whether they've been in power for one or two terms, as most presidents manage to hold on to power for two terms. These factors are on Trump's side at the moment, but things can change before 2020.
 
Andy_T said:
Yeah, but ... and I really do not intend to open old wounds here ... was not Hillary actually supposed to be the perfect "middle ground" candidate (apart from all the baggage she had) ?
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Not from what I saw around me. People hated her. Once she took the primary, people I know that were Bernie supporters, voted for trump just to not vote for her. But I guess Bernie supporters were not considered middle ground? I don’t know. I just don’t see Warren winning over those people but hopefully I’m wrong. :shrug:
 
This thing about most of them winning two terms (absent particular negative factors) may be to some extent a random recent trend, although I do see an incumbent advantage.

I'm not convinced the Democrat 2020 candidate will have to work too hard to make left wing voters turn out or stop them voting green. Everyone on the left wing will just be wanting to stop Trump regardless, therefore it makes more sense in this case to appeal to the centre.

Likewise Trump has the very right wing anti-immigrant and very religious crowd on his side for good, I'm not convinced he has to work that hard to get them to turnout either.

So, my suspicion is that the centre ground needs to be claimed in this particular election.
 
I also think the Democrats are doing a poor job of challenging inherent flaws in the system like corporate funding, gerrymandering, the electoral college defying the popular vote. If they were to campaign for some changes even if they didn't succeed they would at the very least highlight that the system seems to be slightly biased against them, and remind everyone that the Trump administration is as much a minority power grab as a truly democratic one.
 
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