Megalomania, false patriotism, and the maggot eaten shell of a once great press focused only on rating based profit, are all that the Democratic Party have to overcome this election. The first two of those three characteristics are Donald Trump. I do not think the third has the capability of anything else, so there is a lot of one on one work for us to do.
Trump (and his family) is his own worst enemy.
He will lose.
We need to worry about turnout.
Although only a slice of the population gets excercised about Trump’s Migrant-Mooslim-Moocher-elite conspiracy, some of them may get so excited they actually vote. The Democrats have long known that the Hispanic vote will matter in this election, yet the outreach, well, underwhelming. Perhaps in DC when you are sitting at a DNC planning meeting the worry is that adressing Hispanic concerns might scare off white folks, but in California or Arizona where you have large Hispanic populations, the name of the game should be winning, and winning a lot of Hispanic votes. For example, CA-21 is the poorest, most-Hispanic district in California, with 71% Latino population and a 15% lead in Democratic voter registration. Yet the congress critter is David Valadao, a shill for Big Ag and Big Oil. Emilio Huerta has put together a grassroots campaign largely without outside help beyond a website template. His philosphy is that if you energize people, that’s contagious. Kane should take a break from damage control in swing states to just asking Latino voters to show up and vote. If you don’t ask, you don’t recieve. Moreover, all three of our Hispanic Senators are of Cuban descent, which is kind of odd.
I just check Chuck Schumer’s twitter back to August 31. While there are tweets about New York-related Little League, vodka, and chicken wings, there isn’t a single fucking tweet that mentions either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. You literally would have no idea that a momentous Presidential election involving his former NY Senate colleague is going on right now, which is completely mind-boggling given the ample evidence that Trump was misusing Trump Foundation funds that certainly has to involve some New York donors.
I also did not unearth any other google references to Schumer for recent speeches or statements. I guess if it doesn’t involve Chuck directly he ain’t interested.
I can believe there are a lot of folks that believe all the shit Trump says, I just have a hard time believing they make up a majority of US citizens that actually go out and vote. Although I’m sure he’ll motivate some that don’t usually vote, the way they vote will be both for and against him and kind of equal out…at least I sure hope so!
This is an election Charley Brown. We all have to do our part.
How did so many folks come to believe what Trump says? Maybe we have ignored their very real fears and concerns.
Everybody has real fears and concerns, but for far too long we have focused on the problems of our constituent groups. In the case of Democrats we have ignored working class white people. We wrote them off and left them to the Republicans. The Republicans played the same game with minorities. Now we have a country that doesn’t talk to each other about politics and people like you who can’t believe anybody listens to Trump and people we both know who can’t believe anything Hillary says. It is a hell of a mess and our real opponents from ISIS to Putin are trying to take advantage.
How did so many folks come to believe what Trump says?
Some white folk have believed this shit for centuries. Telling the the truth that if we help all folks regardless of their color everyone will do better, ain’t what they want to hear. They want to hear that colored folks need to get to the back of the bus, use different water fountains and toilets, do the same or lesser jobs for less money, and be god damn happy white folks don’t string 'um all up from the nearest tree. These are the folks that Trump’s pulling into this election. Look at a Clinton rally and look at the diversity. Then look at a Trump rally and look at the vast whiteness. Trump is the George Wallace of the 21st century. And hopefully the last breath of a dying political philosophy.
edit: Oh and stay away from our white women!
Democrats and Independents just need to work together to get out the vote.
Anyone who was a part of the middle class before 1998 and is not now, which is millions upon millions of people, is going to be angry. Their lives have been burned down to the ground. What do they care if everyone else’s gets burned down as well.
This is the same reason why Southerners vote for people like Cruze. They know he’s going to burn down the rest of the house, since their house has already been burned down, that’s not a bug but a feature.
These people need to be helped. A $1 trillion infrastructure bill would take care of that. The GOP congress won’t pass that for Obama and they won’t pass it for Hillary or any other Dem for that matter. They are holding America hostage until they vote in a GOP President. Those that vote Trump are either angry or victims of stockholm syndrome.
1998? Dude, the economy went way above that initially under Dubya then crashed and burned because it was built on a real estate bubble. Under Obama, in spite of a Republican congress, the economy is above where it was in 2008 although wages for working class folks are only about the same. Yes we need infrastructure spending, but I doubt even a Republican President would help with that. The reason some working white folks want a Republican president is because they believe the hype of cutting taxes on the rich gives them trickle down benefits. It’s been proven voodoo several times since Reagan started that shit, but they have faith regardless of proof. And they blame blacks and women.
In Michigan Hillary volunteers are at the Taco Trucks registering new voters. Hillary has a massive ground game. With such a stark difference between Trump and Hillary, there is no way that folks can say both parties are the same. As a woman, the thought of being dragged back to the 1950s and early 1960s is downright scary.
Do we know what the campaign’s outreach and ground game is like in Hispanic communities? What’s their ad buy on telemundo? What are their surrogates doing? How about voter drives? Anyone have info on that? I hope to god they are busy doing that. We’ve talked a lot here about amateur hour over at the Trump campaign, I always assumed the professionals at the Clinton campaign were on this. Please tell me they are.
An important lesson from the New York Times School of How Not to Do Journalism:
When you go looking for a story and don’t find the one you wanted to write, don’t try to write it as if you had anyway.
They are very busy doing Hispanic outreach in Michigan where there is a large community.
Great to hear!
So what about Nevada & Florida? They’re key right? Probably worth building the coalition in Arizona too. So-- who is doing this and who do we give $ to? I say this knowing full well that I will be inundated with EVEN more emails from political groups- but I am willing to surrender my inbox to make this happen. I live in MA which is pretty safe and NH, my closest battleground state is not a great place to register Hispanics. Fairly sure that the army of Massachusetts volunteers who cross the state border every weekend to canvas has already registered all 150 of them to vote (NH is VERY white).
Hillary to her credit was in Fresno in June. Kaine, who seems to be in this for the good lunches, seems focused on a) fundraising and b) visiting swing states.
The old saying is you can win an election with people or money. Huerta, who is campaigning in a very poor district, is going with the people route. Kaine, well, this is what passes for Hispanic outreach I guess.
In the case of Democrats we have ignored working class white people.
Yes, the historic support for organized labor that the Democratic Party has demonstrated is a sure sign that they’ve ignored working class white people.
JMFC.
Trump, I believe, is just the figurehead of a whole subculture whose existence is fueled by manufactured fear and outrage. He’s the end product of right-wing media’s grip on rage-aholism and the Republican party’s catering to it. “The Muslims, liberals, socialists, Mexicans, immigrants, environmentalists, feminists and Black Lives Matter “thugs” are all at the gates and they’re electing people who want to take your guns away and enslave white Christians forever!” is all these people ever hear. If they hear otherwise, it’s just the filthy liberal media lying to them (in their minds). It’s a whole industry that’s more than willing to perpetuate these sentiments 24/7, and right-wing social media echo chambers where believers can share their oversimplified image memes that reinforce everything. Trump is the first true believer with a real shot at power. They believe him, because to them what he says is reality. The fear and concern is real, to them, but the substance of it is almost entirely misguided - by design.