Face the Facts: Democrats Must Move to the Center to Win Senate Control

[Vidal]

The electoral college, and the way each state is given two senators regardless of population, can lead to very un-democratic results.

Which is the situation our country is in.

Thirty-one states lean more Republican than the country as a whole, according to FiveThirtyEight’s partisan lean metric, so it’s easy to see why the party currently holds a 53-seat majority in the Senate.

Here's the simple truth: to take over COMPLETE control of the U.S. government, including the Senate, Democrats will have to figure out how to appeal to rural voters and red-state voters.

I think there are ways to do that, if we are smart. But it might require some changes to our messaging, although not to our core values.

The truth is that people in small town America would be much better off with a Democratic government because we all know the GOP doesn't care about them, they just use them to take power so they can put in policies (and tax laws) to favor rich people.

Rural and small town America isn't rich. And they should be voting Democratic.

I just hope that our party leaders -- and candidates in the states where can flip red Senate seats --figure this out sooner than later.

[wasupaloopa]

1. No matter what your ideals are you have a better chance if we

control the government.

So we do what is needed to get there then we can make dreams come true .

[Vidal]

19. I agree

nt

[TwilightZone]

2. Only situationally.

We need to run candidates who fit the demographics of their particular states or districts. We're already been running moderates for years/decades in places like North Dakota, for example, in part because they're the only ones who can win in those areas.

The party as a whole doesn't need to move to the center, but we do need to understand that one-size-fits-all doesn't work nationally or for Senate/House seats.

[Vidal]

20. true,

one size doesn't fit all so we have to as a party allow more moderate candidates to do what they have to win in red states. that's kinda the point i was trying to make.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Meh, while I get your premise, let me qualify it a bit...

by saying, "All politics is local."

The various states must work to elect Dem senators that can get elected IN THEIR STATE. That has always been true, which makes it kind of silly to complain about Dem senators from red states.

The majority of the country is moving left, finally. But that is population, which is not necessarily reflected in our geographic reality.

Yeah, candidates in red states have to appear more centrist to win. Liberals in blue states don't need to "move to the center."

[Vidal]

21. Good point

it is silly to complain about Dem senators in red states.

Manchin has taken a beating from Dems, but he counts as a Dem when it comes to who to pick as Senate Majority Leader, so we should ease up on criticizing him for doing what it takes to win in West Virginia.

[malaise]

4. What is the center of outright fascism? n/t

[TheBlackAdder]

6. Quasi-fascism?

[malaise]

7. OK then

[Voltaire2]

9. Half-ascist?

[malaise]

10. I see what you did there

Nicely played

[TwilightZone]

14. Nice

Very nice.

[superpatriotman]

15. The Half-Ass party

It's symbol is half a donkey

[Voltaire2]

17. With a half swastika brand on its butt

So it is only half as offensive.

I give the fuck up. If we don’t understand what game we are playing, what the stakes are, what our opponents objectives are, we are doomed.

[leftstreet]

33. LOL

[ooky]

28. This presidency.

[TheBlackAdder]

5. Over the past 30 years, the center moved to the right. So centrist policy is right-leaning.

.

This is due to the efforts of Koch and their Third-Way funded group that convinced Democrats to be Pragmatic.


Pragmatism ONLY works when all parties are pragmatic. The Republicans are rigidly right-wing and and attempt to be pragmatic means that the best Democrats can do is get half of what they want, but during negotiation, when starting at the 50 yard line, most deals will skew to the right. So, Republicans gain in most issues.

Pragmatism is a bullshit method of governance in this current GOP-fascist environment.

.

[Brother Buzz]

8. One could make the argument today's center is to the right of Nixon

Instead of bashing them, we simply need to embrace Blue Dog Democrats and level the field.

[malaise]

12. Correct

There is no center to abusing brown children in cages

[emmaverybo]

30. What Democrat is for that?

[malaise]

31. Huh?

that's a general comment - as Voltaire2 asks and others have asked before why don't folks ask the fascist party to move to the Democratic Party's Center?

[emmaverybo]

35. I don't think any democrats, even gosh forbid, centrists, want to see children in cages. nt

[Vidal]

22. In some ways maybe

we do need to embrace them

[Voltaire2]

11. Strange how this wisdom only applies to one party.

The other party has bent hard right for more than 30 years, and they keep winning.

Odd.

[Ace Rothstein]

13. The Republicans win and they govern from the right.

They lose and they go even further right during the next election. We keep getting pulled further right along with them.

[TwilightZone]

16. Some run as moderates, then govern well to the right.

Even Trump ran as a moderate on some issues, most notably anti-interventionism. He also claimed he was going to be a big ally of the LGBT community.

Not that anyone believed him. Well, almost no one. Salon seemed to buy his supposed anti-hawkishness. Idiots like Goodman and Stein used his stance as "proof" that he wouldn't be as bad as Clinton.

[Voltaire2]

18. Hardly any.

The 2010 election cycle pretty much eliminated remaining “moderates”. In the senate Collins is the only one left who even tries to pretend, and she votes pretty much lockstep with the fascists.

[TwilightZone]

25. Murkowski

Murkowski is probably the closest thing they have to a real moderate. She's voted with Trump less than half the time this session, though she's been in the 70s overall.

They have a few fakers, though. Joni Ernst ran claiming to be a moderate, votes with Trump 91% of the time, still claims she's a moderate now.

Rob Johnson, Scott, Portman, Rubio, Romney, Sasse, Rand Paul. In their Senate campaigns, part of the strategy was to pretend to be "sensible" Republicans to woo voters, then they govern to the right, as anyone who paid attention to their actual records would expect. Rubio, of course, bailed on that strategy during his presidential campaign.

[wellst0nev0ter]

23. Steve Bullock and Sherrod Brown won statewide offices

in red states (Montana governor and Ohio senator) and they are as progressive as you can get.

[stillcool]

24. Grow where you're planted...

[Chin music]

26. All we need is a clean election.

And we win. End of story. Has any anti virus/counter-attack been unleashed on russia? Or do we just bend over and grab our ankles for putin now? Or run when we are attacked?
I don't want war, but, WE WERE ATTACKED. Since when do we just shrug that shit off?

[Irishxs]

27. Centrist dems will attract centrists from both sides. Most important is GOTV.

[Chin music]

34. Most?

Most important is justice right now. GOTV is 16 months away.

[zipplewrath]

29. Towards their constituents

It just depends where they're from and what the competition is. In the end, what they must do is inspire, build confidence, and lead.

[Calculating]

32. Best way the Dems can win more is to drop gun control as an issue

Gun control is an overall vote loser. The people who want it would vote Dem anyway, but those who don't want it are forced to vote R.

[KG]

36. I lulz'd

[Gothmog]

37. If Democrats want to pick up seats in the Senate, we will have to move towards the center