General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I know this is going to be unpopular but I am friends with and I understand many Trump supporters [View all]Squinch
(50,948 posts)the conversations I've seen on DU this week: First and foremost, we do not jettison our values. WE are the party with the values that appeal to the majority of eligible voters. We hold fast to our values and show that we are not holding our fingers in the wind to figure out which lie to tell. We hold fast to our values to show that, unlike Republicans, we actually value them.
Second, and this has been discussed umpteen times in the past, only 27% of the electorate voted. Hillary lost by small numbers of votes in all the swing states she lost in. Small numbers and small percentages. Get out the vote. Every person who is voting and aware find a person who is apathetic and bring them to the polls. Each of us convince one of them. Not a trump voter, an non-voter. That doubles the numbers of voters on our side.
I think you have found another powerful answer to your question when you talk about communication:
We had a FABULOUS platform. Really, stellar. Possibly the best ever. The platform points about how to bring jobs to the rust belt should have been on billboards, in every OP ed page, in TV ads, in radio ads, passed out after church services and in PTA meetings. You shouldn't have been able to turn around in those Michigan or Ohio or Pennsylvania towns without having those plans put under your nose.
The platform positions about net neutrality, about equal rights for EVERYONE should have been treated likewise in a targeted manner.
The fact that the Republicans have screwed the middle class forever is something a LOT of the middle class knows nothing about. All those graphs about all the money going to the .01%? All the information about who is actually paying taxes? The information about how Republicans always raise unemployment and the Democrats always bring it down? The fact that Republicans always blow out the deficit and the Democrats bring it under control? Those facts also should be much better known. Billboards, targeted mailers, fliers outside town meetings, ice cream stores, ball games. Those facts need to get out, and they need to get out in ways that don't depend on the viewer tuning in to a station they aren't going to tune into.
That's a few things to start with. I've got a million of them. But watering down or dropping our core values so we appeal to those who disrespect my rights and yours will never be on my list.