Yeah, Cheating Is Likely Occurring -- But We Are Just Losing Too....

[LovingA2andMI]

Democrats are losing. Now, some of this could easily be election rigging on behalf of Republicans, true enough.

The FACT has to circle around Democrats are losing too.

There were in the last three months - three special elections. Trump's so-called "approval rating" is supposedly 36% and has never supposedly reached beyond 45%. Yet, the Democrats have lost all three Special Elections.

Money was NOT the issue in the Ossoff race. Repeat, NOT the ISSUE.

When upwards of $25 MILLION DOLLARS is spent on a Congressional race, sorry Charley -- there was enough money in the race to win it, point, blank, period.

So now, we return back to election rigging. Which is/was a possibility. However, don't we know this is a UNIQUE POSSIBILITY, after the Clinton/Trump race? Of course, we did.

If we have not learned that YET, and know to REALLY win the other side must be down by 10 points a night before the election (instead of us up by 1-2%) -- then races will continue to be lost - as the GOP will rig the game if it's anywhere near close.

Another point. Ossoff not living in the district was the X-Factor which also lost this race for him, in the end.

#FYI IT MATTERS WHERE FOLKS LIVE IF THEY ARE RUNNING FOR OFFICE.

And if one is running to represent an area, district, township, city, state --- they need to LIVE where they want to be elected at.

Lastly, the Democrats need to new game plan. How to build it, we don't know but it HAS TO BE BUILT -- as the GOP will cheat, lie, steal and anything else they have to do, to win.

What Will The Democrats Do, In Return?

[JoeOtterbein]

1. We need to repeat, over and over: "ALL elections must be with paper ballots and MUST be audited"

.

[Hoyt]

3. That has nothing to do with this election. Certainly not opposed to paper, but we lost tonight

as we did November 2016 under the rules of the Electoral College. The excuses sound like an athlete who can't accept they were beaten -- "I wus robbed."

[JoeOtterbein]

8. It takes a thief to catch one. If you are for paper, why not audits? Starting in GS-6 Wed morning?

[Hoyt]

9. Why, we audited Wisconsin and Trump ended up with a few hundred more votes.

This conspiracy stuff makes Democrats look weird. We lost, do something about it beyond yelling about stolen elections.

[JoeOtterbein]

11. I don't care if Trump or any other GOP pol gets more votes, or even wins. It need to be audited or..

..we will lose over and over. So why should I care if I look "weird"? I have heard that smear many times in my life before!

[Hoyt]

13. No we'll lose harping on audits rather than important issues.

The elections are audited, checked and rechecked.. There are representatives from both parties. Could it happen, yes.
Has it happened, probably. Could more be done, yes. Are we the only party to believe we wus robbed, I'll let you answer that.

I love Prez Obama, but we should have been on top of Ruskies hacking here during his terms. I don't see evidence they got through defenses, close but not through. But just the appearance of actual vote changes is as big a threat to us as Trump. Well, maybe not that bad. I suspect Obama improved our cybersecurity over bush, but I'm disappointed. I think the taint is hurting us, as much as Trump.

Fortunately, if nothing else, I like to think Trump will be forced out as an embarrassment to USA and world, not necessarily through an impeachment.

[Lee-Lee]

17. I've been saying basically the same thing and just attacked for it

People jump straight to "it was hacked" now when we lose, no matter if they have any actual evidence of it or can produce any viable theory about it.

And they cling to that as the reason for the loss.

And all that does is help the other side. Because then we don't take a look at the rest of the mistkes we made and correct them. If your attitude is that you ran the better race and it was stolen by hacking then you never change the race you run and just focus on hacking. And then if/when they change procedures and you figure out it ever was hacked you still lose and you realize you lost a lot of races and seats focused on the wrong things.

But it seems if you dare suggest we shouldn't focus on actual vote total hacking unless we have any evidence of that or at least a viable theory about how it's being done nobody wants to listen. I guess because it's easier to blame vote hacking based on faith than to take a harder look at actual mistakes and missteps.

[BeyondGeography]

2. Based on my distant reading

Ossoff should not try again. He was successfully "other-ized" by the GOP, and it wasn't just the residency issue. I liked him, but I'm a northeasterner and I like most documentarians. There's a reason the DNC is heavily recruiting candidates with a military background for 2018, and a race like this is Exhibit A.

That said, the GOP is very good at harvesting dark money for late negative ad blitzes in tight races. I saw it here with Teachout, who lost a once tight/winnable race by 10 points. We have our hands full, even though our opponents are selling poison.

[Hoyt]

4. The ads against Ossoff were brutal, even indirectly tying him to shooting last week.

[BeyondGeography]

7. Ironically, Teachout had a residency problem, too

She lived in the district but she's from VT and parachuted in for the race. Life is hard enough; we need to check that box.

[JoeOtterbein]

12. NEVER give up!

[Luciferous]

5. We're too worried about civility and taking the higher ground. If we want to win we need

to fight dirty. Democrats need to start calling out Republicans on everything.

[LovingA2andMI]

6. This Right Here

N/T

[beaglelover]

10. Dems need a message. And inspiring leadership.

[old guy]

14. These special elections are just a preview of what 2018 is going to be like.

We will be lucky to just hold the seats we have let alone pick up enough to have control. We are always trying to figure out why we lost and to me one of the biggest reasons is that we have a varied, many issued platform for voters to consider and understand. The repub platform is simple and the same every year. No taxes, and basically a white religious rule for all. While our platform changes and adjusts to meet the challenges of events, they never change their backward focus so it is easy to follow. Just find the R and vote for it. See how easy. Going to bed now and will hopefully be alive to see what new horrors await us tomorrow.

[LovingA2andMI]

15. Great Points....

Trying to be everything to everyone, resulting is nothing. As in three Special Elections lost, Trump in the White House, Republican rule in Washington, D.C. and all but EIGHT states, type of nothing.

We cannot be the party of all things. The Democratic Party is a party for economic mobility, who believe in the civil rights for all people.

The Saying is KEEP IT SIMPLE as a majority of potential voters have the brain power of an 8th grader. We can make policies ONCE WE WIN SHIT that can try and be all things to all People -- but campaigning like it is a surefire loser in an election.

Trump had the most simple shit campaign slogan "Make American Great Again" -- which means NOTHING in reality -- yet is simple as shit.

Democrats need to get a clue ASAP. It's time to play simple shit - very dirty ball - as that's what the Republicans are doing quite effectively.

[Jim Lane]

16. You're too gloomy. The districts were Republican to start.

You write:

"There were in the last three months - three special elections. Trump's so-called 'approval rating' is supposedly 36% and has never supposedly reached beyond 45%. Yet, the Democrats have lost all three Special Elections."

You have your facts wrong. There were FOUR special elections. In CA-34, which was vacant because Xavier Becerra resigned to become Attorney General of California, there was a special election on June 6, won by Democrat Jimmy Gomez.

So the regularity isn't that Democrats have always lost; it's that whichever party won the seat in 2016 has won it again in the 2017 special election. The notable feature is that, in the three GOP seats, the Republican candidate has significantly underperformed the 2016 winner. (In California, because of the "jungle primary" system, the runoffs in 2016 and in 2017 were between two Democrats.) If the 2018 midterms show Republican candidates nationwide underperforming 2016 by similar margins, then the House will go Democratic.

[LovingA2andMI]

19. Seriously....The California Race...

Was a State Race for the California Assembly. Not the U.S. Congress. Each of the Special Elections for CONGRESS in the last three months the Democrats have LOST. Reasons could have partially to do with hacking the vote or any type of voter suppression, however, a lost in flat out -- a LOST.

Complaining about how the Lost happened his not WINNING. The winning has to occur on election night in 99.5% of all cases. It's rare an election is overturned in the favor of the losing party and nearly NEVER if the losing party lost by over 10,000 votes like Ossoff.

The facts are the Democrats need a new plan, because, for the Special Elections and ESPECIALLY for GA-6, $25 Million Dollars, was laid on the table -- for a lost. This is an undeniable fact. Twenty-Five Million Dollars and the Candidate still lost by more than 10,000 votes.

If the plan, strategy, working outline is not put into place by the Mid-Terms -- the Ossoff lost will look like a "good night" as Republicans will hack, lie, cheat, steal and whatever else they have to do to ensure they keep CONTROL of Congress.

Our side needs to get busy planning to win and these plans must start, ASAP. WINNING IS THE ONLY OPTION for 2018. Not excuses on why the lost happened.

[Jim Lane]

20. You're simply wrong about California.

It was not a State Assembly race. It was in fact a race for the U.S. Congress. See "California's 34th congressional district special election, 2017" for the Wikipedia article about the election.

As for the districts where the GOP kept the seat, we should consider each of those elections an opportunity to learn from our mistakes. You're right that "making excuses" is pointless but identifying the problems we had is the first step toward correcting them.

[pnwmom]

18. All these special elections were in Republican districts and we did better

than past numbers would have predicted.


This wasn't a swing district or a purple state. Ossoff's district hasn't been won by a Dem since Jimmy Carter was President, and the last Dem to run here lost by 24 points.

Congrats to Jon Ossoff and the Dems for getting this close.