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Democrats: Why do you keep losing elections?

The Democrats keep governing ever further left, when the country still is a center-right nation.

Remember statistics and the population bell curve? Yeah, they are running to the left, where there are fewer voters to vote for them.

Waitaminnit. The Dems basically handed the nomination to Hillary Clinton over Bernie ****ing Sanders, and your claim is that the Dems are running to the left??????
 
Why do you believe the Democrats have been losing so many elections over the past several years in Congress, Gubernatorial, and now President? And any ideas on how to fix it?

Because they are still refusing to look inward and reflect on why they are losing. They still have not worked out how much damage Obamacare has done to them.
 
Since 2008:


"The grand total: a net loss of 1,042 state and federal Democratic posts, including congressional and state legislative seats, governorships and the presidency."

"Democratic U.S. Senate seats fell from 55 to 46. Their share of the House plummeted from 256 seats to 194. Republicans still control both chambers going into the next session."

"Democratic governerships also became a rarity during this eight-year period, slipping from 28 to 16."

Democrats lost over 1,000 seats under Obama | Fox News

And their response is: WHAT??!!!! YOU WANT TO REPEAL OBAMACARE??!!!!! :rwbdonkey
 
Democrats have definitely not done well in three of the last four elections. (Although the last one was kind of a push. They gained in the House and the Senate, while the Presidential race was basically tied. Although that Senate map and the House were a bit overextended for the Republicans. And though less relevant, they did win the popular vote substantially.) But it's really nothing out of the ordinary. Republicans went through the same phenomenon in 2006 and 2008, and were in a slightly worse position than Democrats are now. Obama crushed McCain in a much bigger landslide. They managed a super majority in the Senate. And they had a bigger lead in the House.

Which is why I think the Republicans need to be careful about overplaying their hand here. Because they control the Presidency, the House, the Senate, and a ton of state governments, it superficially looks like their in a dominant position. But they didn't get there by dominant margins in most cases. They need to be cautious of repeating the same mistakes the Democrats made in believing their large victories meant that the public was wholly behind everything they wanted done. Especially when the Republicans in Congress and President Trump have severe political differences on some issues. They should certainly use the dominant position their in to advance the policies they think are right, but they should be smart about it, and mindful that there is not overwhelming public support at their backs.

To put it in more direct terms, when the democrats gained power over the white house and both houses of congress in 2008, they went off the rails politically and have been paying for it every since. Their worse mistake was obamacare. No matter what anyone on this board thinks about obamacare, it was largely unpopular with the majority of Americans and the democrats on a party line vote passed it without gaining any cover at all from their political opposition. As a result, for good or bad, the democrats owned obamacare and it remained unpopular. Now it is self destructing. I don't think the republicans will make the same mistake. Whatever they come up with to replace obamacare, they will seek and likely pull in enough democrats to matter.
 
Another poster already said basically the same thing, but it's because the Democrats have basically been Republican-lite for quite a long time. They play the same game as Republicans, they just play it weaker and slower. My hope is that this last election taught the elites of the party that they need to do what political theorists and leftist pundits have been saying for a while--go more left, not right. Grow a damn backbone and stand-up for what you believe in.
 
Let's be clear about the fact that the Dems are in trouble in the first place not because of the intraparty schism (though yes, it will contribute to the party's woes if the dust doesn't settle in time), but because of the disastrously tepid third way Clinton style neoliberalism that brought about the intraparty schism in the first place, even before Bernie's candidacy, and increasingly disenchanted people since Obama's election (remember Occupy Wallstreet? that was foreshadowing). One would have to be willfully ignorant to conclude that false progressivism, false populism and a refusal to commit to economic justice did not contribute immensely to recent Dem electoral defeats, nevermind the party's skullduggery per wikileaks and Clinton's egregious and obvious weakness (which didn't stop her from being nominated with the extensive assistance of cronies in the DNC even as they swore impartiality). The loss of the so-called Rust Belt 'blue wall' (and Trump's consequent victory) says it all.

Yes...they were in such a hurry to coronate Hillary, something they had first intended to do in 2008, that they pissed off a sizable portion of their base. The republicans made similar mistakes in 2008 and 2012. They just did it behind the scenes and without a nonsensical super delegate system.
 
Waitaminnit. The Dems basically handed the nomination to Hillary Clinton over Bernie ****ing Sanders, and your claim is that the Dems are running to the left??????

It's pretty lame Bannonite disinformation.

GOPosters don't want to talk about the four down-ballot elections since trump.

GOPosters want DEMs to run to the center to push Bernie voters away.

GOPosters didn't want Perez and Ellison to make peace and come away unified .
 
Yes...they were in such a hurry to coronate Hillary, something they had first intended to do in 2008, that they pissed off a sizable portion of their base. The republicans made similar mistakes in 2008 and 2012. They just did it behind the scenes and without a nonsensical super delegate system.

As a conservative, you're probably disappointed that Perez and Ellison came away United from the DNC elections.

GOPs, like trump and David Duke, were praying Ellison would be elected chair as they had their Bannonite smear MACHINE all ready to go.
 
Why do you believe the Democrats have been losing so many elections over the past several years in Congress, Gubernatorial, and now President? And any ideas on how to fix it?

I think you can look at one group, independents. By the last several years I take it you mean since 2008, although one could consider 2006 when the Democrats took back congress. But in 2008 Gallup put the Democratic Party base at 35%, the Republican base at 30% with independents or other making up 35% of the electorate. In November of 2016 Gallup put the Democratic base at 30%, Republican base at 27% and Independents at 43%. These number show how those who don't affiliate with the two major parties have grown in just 8 years. It's interesting to note that in the 1940's and 50's, Independents made up less than 20% of the electorate with 80% plus identifying themselves with the two major parties.

Having pointed that out, independents are a finicky bunch of voters who tend to vote for the party out of power. By power I mean the party that holds the presidency. History shows that going back to FDR. Examples and I use just the House of Representatives although the senate follows the same course. Obama started out with 256 Democratic members and ended with 188. Bush Junior started out with 229 and ended up with 198. Bill Clinton began with 258 and ended up with 211. The first Bush dropped from 175 to 167, Reagan from 192 to 177, Carter from 292 to 277 and so it goes.

Independents tend to blame the president and his party for everything and anything that goes wrong. Without going way back, independents voted Democratic 57-39 in 2006, voted Democratic 52-26 in 2008, voted Republican 55-40 in 2010 and Republican again in 2012 51-48, fairly close. Went Republican in 2014 54-44 and in this past election, again voted Republican 46-42. History shows this to be so. I look for independents to switch once again to the party out of power in 2018. Independents always take out their anger on the party in power. It's their nature.

I'm pretty sure if one researches governorships, state legislatures, the senate, one will find the same trend. It may become even more drastic as both major parties continue to lose members and independent increase.
 
They won the last two presidential elections, and the Republicans have been trounced a few times too. So what's your point?


Yes. the democrats did win the previous two presidential elections, 2008 and 2012. They won in 2008 primarily for three reasons:

1. The republicans were falsely blamed for the mortgage market collapse.
2. The republicans nominated a geriatric "it's my turn" establishment RINO by the name of McCain.
3. The novelty of the first viable African American candidate drew out not only a massive turnout in the African American community, but the youth vote as well.

Obama won re-election primarily because:

1. They nominated another establishment "it's my turn RINO by the name of Romney.
2. The most harmful aspects of obamacare did not go into force until Obama was safely re-elected
3. African Americans still turned out in higher then usual numbers to vote for him.

None of which helped the democrats in the 2010 congressional races, the state legislative and governer races, the 2014 congressional races, or the 2016 presidential and congressional races.
 
Waitaminnit. The Dems basically handed the nomination to Hillary Clinton over Bernie ****ing Sanders, and your claim is that the Dems are running to the left??????


You really do not know the Clintons, do you? They are as left as Bernie. They simply feign left or right based on what they think works at the time. They perfected that over five terms of Slick Willy running for governor. One particular race as a liberal, he lost. Next time he ran as a more of a conservative democrat. He changed positions with the political winds. In his last term as governor, he was pro-life on the abortion issue. Suddenly when he ran for president, he was pro-choice. Though it was sometimes hard to tell. One one given day, he was pro-life at one campaign stop at one campaign stop and pro-life at another. He was full tilted to the left in his first term as president. Then when his party was slammed in his first midterm congressional elections, he feigned a mea culpa and declared that the era of big government was over, then proceeded to feign to the center.
 
As a conservative, you're probably disappointed that Perez and Ellison came away United from the DNC elections.

GOPs, like trump and David Duke, were praying Ellison would be elected chair as they had their Bannonite smear MACHINE all ready to go.

What the democrats do when choosing their DNC leaders is their own funeral. If they continue to go off the rails, they will continue to lose elections. if they suddenly sit back and reflect on the reasons they have been losing and pull back from the abyss, then they will be more competitive.
 
Waitaminnit. The Dems basically handed the nomination to Hillary Clinton over Bernie ****ing Sanders, and your claim is that the Dems are running to the left??????

The Democratic voter, yes, is running more to the left.

Bernie certainly was to the left of Clinton, yet he gave her a hell of a race. The DNC establishment was the ones who torpedoed their party's voters and made sure that Clinton won anyway.

You can see this same thing repeat itself with the 'election' of Perez to DNC chairman with Ellison getting the participation trophy of 2nd.

Hopefully, this will be the last gasp of the Clinton machine, and it's untoward influence on the DNC, but I kinda doubt it.

So, yes, the Democratic voters are pulling the Democratic party to the left. Sorry if I was unclear earlier.
 
Yes. the democrats did win the previous two presidential elections, 2008 and 2012. They won in 2008 primarily for three reasons:

1. The republicans were falsely blamed for the mortgage market collapse.
2. The republicans nominated a geriatric "it's my turn" establishment RINO by the name of McCain.
3. The novelty of the first viable African American candidate drew out not only a massive turnout in the African American community, but the youth vote as well.

Obama won re-election primarily because:

1. They nominated another establishment "it's my turn RINO by the name of Romney.
2. The most harmful aspects of obamacare did not go into force until Obama was safely re-elected
3. African Americans still turned out in higher then usual numbers to vote for him.

None of which helped the democrats in the 2010 congressional races, the state legislative and governer races, the 2014 congressional races, or the 2016 presidential and congressional races.

No, the Republicans were blamed rightfully for the utter disasters they have created with warhawkism and laissez faire economic polices that have crashed and burned this country's economies.

The Dems got beat this time, because Obama showed everybody who voted for him just how weak the Democrats are. Johnson was actually the last Democrat with the balls enough to mow'em down to get the job done. Before him it was Kennedy, and before Kennedy it was FDR. The Dems these days blow with wind; they're no good.
 
No, the Republicans were blamed rightfully for the utter disasters they have created with warhawkism and laissez faire economic polices that have crashed and burned this country's economies.

The Dems got beat this time, because Obama showed everybody who voted for him just how weak the Democrats are. Johnson was actually the last Democrat with the balls enough to mow'em down to get the job done. Before him it was Kennedy, and before Kennedy it was FDR. The Dems these days blow with wind; they're no good.

Are you for real? it was Johnson who mucked up the Vietnam war.
 
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