"Democrats Neglect People of Color While Failing to Woo White Trump Voters"

[Garrett78]

An interview worth listening to: https://www.democracynow.org/2017/7/31/billion_dollar_mistake_democrats_neglect_people

A couple quotes from Steve Phillips:

So, the challenge the Democrats face is to focus on the math, and not on the myth, of what happened in 2016. And so, the myth is that all of these Democratic voters, all of these working-class white voters who had supported Obama, defected from the Democrats and then flocked to Donald Trump’s campaign and backed him, and that’s what the—that’s why Democrats lost, and that’s why they have to pursue them to be able to actually try to reassemble their power and get back into positions. But that’s not actually what happened, and it’s certainly not why they lost the election.

We had unprecedented—or, unprecedented in 20 years, black voter turnout drop-off. More than a million fewer black voters came out. And you had a splintering of the progressive white vote. And you had a larger increase of voters for Johnson and Stein—I sometimes call the JohnStein voters—than you did for Trump. And if you look in a place—Wisconsin is where it’s clearest. Trump got fewer voters in Wisconsin than Romney did. So it wasn’t like everybody flocked to him. It’s that the progressive votes splintered and was depressed. And that’s the challenge that the Democrats face, is how to reinspire, bring back out African-American voters, bring up Latino vote and bring back the whites who defected to third and fourth party.

The country is under conservative assault because Democrats mistakenly sought support from conservative white working-class voters susceptible to racially charged appeals. Replicating that strategy would be another catastrophic blunder.

[Warpy]

2. Right, and they think they're going to throw women of all colors under the bus while they woo

the antiabortion voters.

I thought Perez and Ellison cleaned house. They must have hired all the inside the beltway conservative idiots back to throw away yet another election the party should win easily.

[Garrett78]

3. At some point, they'll wake up, right?

Given how little power Democrats have at the federal, state and local level, surely those running the party can grasp the fact that what they've been doing for the last several decades has proven disastrous.

Right?!?

[Warpy]

4. I've come to the conclusion they don't give a damn

which party wins as long as their personal cash flow stays positive.

Yes, I am deeply cynical, I admit it.

[Garrett78]

5. You're probably right.

For the most part, these are not stupid people we're talking about. They know kowtowing to right wing interests has put them in an incredibly weak position politically, yet they don't change their ways. There must be a reason. Money being the main one.

[AwakeAtLast]

6. As long as Republican controlled states disenfranchise these voters

Democrats should not be taking all the blame.

[Garrett78]

7. Voter suppression efforts and gerrymandering are certainly a huge problem.

A problem that Democrats should make a much bigger stink about. Of course, part of the reason Republicans are able to get away with such tactics is precisely because they have so much damn power at every level of government.

Nobody can look at the Republican majorities at the state and federal level and not reach the conclusion that the Democratic Party needs to change its ways. But not by continuing to try and win over those who might as well be wearing white sheets and pointy hoods.

As Phillips said,".. all this attempt to try to figure out how to woo voters who were drawn to one of the most racist, misogynistic, xenophobic campaigns in history is a fool’s errand."