Embrace the suck

[TexasTowelie]

Over the last few weeks I've been thinking about why Democrats fare so poorly in rural areas. It is particularly perplexing because the policies of the Democratic Party are much more friendly and helpful to rural folk than those of the Republicans.

Pretty clearly rural voters are responding to something other than actual party values. Likely it's perceived party values. Or, what I see here in Idaho, the voters reject Democrats based solely on the party ID. Idaho voters have so thoroughly internalized the idea that Democrat=Bad that they simply ignore everything else. Really. I believe the run of the mill Idaho voter wants to know nothing other that the party affiliation.

My perception is that these voters aren't voting Republican so much as they are voting anti-Democrat. Years ago Democrats got linked to "radical environmentalism" and the demise of logging. That really hurt Democrats in North Idaho. Best thing that ever happened to Republicans in North Idaho was the Spotted Owl. Republicans here still brand every Democrat as liberal, and it seems to work. Reality be damned.

As a thought experiment I've asked myself, What policy position could an Idaho Democrat espouse that would actually earn votes? I've asked other people this same question. The answer always is, nothing. Idaho Dems can't move any farther to the right, really. And even if they did, Idaho voters don't look at policies, they just look at D or R.

Read more: http://idablue.blogspot.com/

[JHan]

1. Good share, thanks

[TexasTowelie]

4. You're welcome.

I agree with the author that there is a perception problem that goes far beyond any policy positions that could have been proposed by either Sanders or Clinton. The GOP has won the hearts of the anti-government, anti-taxation populace despite the economic misery they unleash when they are in power. There is a mindset that people would prefer to be impoverished and without health care rather than to pay for public and social services because they believe that some benevolent caretaker (usually a church organization) will arrive to take care of their needs. That is what occurs when half of the population is below average intelligence.

[JHan]

5. I fear you're right.

Good assessment.

[elleng]

2. Not Your Grandmothers Wisconsin

'As much as Mr. Trump won the election in Wisconsin, Hillary Clinton lost it. Her campaign, which prided itself on employing all the data wizards and ground game gurus money can buy, did not do nearly enough to lock down the upper Midwest, particularly Wisconsin and Michigan, and instead treated those states as a given.

Paul Soglin is the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin’s capital city, in cerulean Dane County. He supported Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, and said he talked at least once a week with a field organizer from the Sanders campaign during the primary. But once Mrs. Clinton locked up the nomination, it was radio silence from the Clinton campaign.

“Since I first held elected office in the early ’70s, virtually every presidential election, I’ve been contacted, either by the candidate or by a staffer,” he told me. “I’m not saying this to say I’m important. But the point is, not only wasn’t she in the state, but I never got a call, a contact, anything after the primary.”'>>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/opinion/campaign-stops/not-your-grandmothers-wisconsin.html?

[dhol82]

3. Interesting

And sad.

[pansypoo53219]

6. because most people listen to CREAP on the radio like LIMBALL.

jobs are scarce, entertainment is scarce. services is scarce.