Not to sound like a grump or a cynic, but this is why Democrats shouldn’t make these special elections so fraught and weighted. Democrats are now 0-4 in special elections for Congressional seats, having lost that Montana special election, even though the Republican, Greg Gianforte, literally assaulted a reporter on the record the day before the election. Democrats also lost a special election in Kansas back in April, which was a harbinger of things to come. Democrats lost a special election yesterday in South Carolina’s fifth district (although the results were tighter than expecting, but still). But the worst defeat for Democrats was the special election in Georgia. Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff was young, fresh-faced and progressive and Dems spent millions of dollars trying to get him elected. And he lost.
Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in a blockbuster special election for a Georgia congressional seat that was viewed as a barometer for both parties in the chaotic first months of President Trump’s tenure. The race for the suburban Atlanta seat was the most expensive congressional race ever, with the candidates, outside groups and the national parties pouring more than $50 million.
The race was closely watched by the national party organizations in Washington, activists across the country and a host of politically engaged entertainment figures. It was viewed not just as a referendum on Trump’s tenure, but sort of a test run of whether Democrats could channel protests and activism into electoral victory and boost their hopes for the 2018 midterms. The results will likely stir consternation among Democrats seeking victories in the prelude to the 2018 midterms, and a reprieve for Republicans worried that Trump could be a drag on candidates in local races.
Ossoff, 30, a documentary filmmaker, emerged as an early favorite in a crowded field of contenders after his candidacy was boosted by progressive activists, including the Daily Kos website. They saw opportunity for Democrats to pick up a seat in a Republican leaning district, but fell short.
“We showed the world that in places no one thought it was possible we could fight, we could fight,” Ossoff told supporters after his loss. Ossoff’s candidacy drew nationwide attention, collecting donations from Jane Fonda, Rosie O’Donnell and Sam Waterston, among others. Samuel L. Jackson recorded get-out-the-vote radio spots, while Alyssa Milano volunteered for the campaign and walked precincts and drove residents to early vote.
Still, Ossoff fell just short of winning a majority against a crowded field of candidates in an April election, which would have been enough to win the seat outright. Instead, he advanced to a runoff against Handel, who was giving the advantage early on because she would be able to consolidate conservative support in a GOP-leaning district.
Here’s a spoiler: Ossoff didn’t even live in this district. D’OH! But seriously, I do feel sorry for Ossoff’s supporters. I read somewhere – but now can’t find the story, my bad – that Ossoff’s defeat means that Dems cannot win by meeting Trumpian lunacy with kindness and decency. Derp, of course we can’t. I figured that out when Trump “won” last year. Michelle Obama’s “when they go low, we go high” doesn’t work against Trump and his minions. You have to be a street fighter, you have to be hard and tough and not-nice to defeat these lunatics, fascists and white supremacists. It’s going to be dirty and rough. So buckle in and repeat your new mantra: “F–k you and the Nazi horse you rode in on.”
Anyway, Emperor Baby Fists’ itchy Twitter fingers got in on the action last night as the returns came in. He took a victory lap on Twitter, and Politico even ran a story about how some Republicans believe their party just needs to acknowledge that they are the party of Trump, and run accordingly. Sure.
Congratulations to Karen Handel on her big win in Georgia 6th. Fantastic job, we are all very proud of you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2017
Ralph Norman ran a fantastic race to win in the Great State of South Carolina's 5th District. We are all honored by your success tonight!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2017
Well, the Special Elections are over and those that want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN are 5 and O! All the Fake News, all the money spent = 0
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2017
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I hate 45 sfm.
I wish everyone did. Seeing her supporters cheering “Trump, Trump, Trump! ” after she won made me sick
At least she looked somewhat uncomfortable. She never mentioned his name and she did not run as “with him.”
I’m glad she was uncomfortable & I hope the GOP is always reminded of where their votes come from. I want the GOP & Trump tied together so they can’t try to entangle the fascist web they weaved. She won on Trump’s bigoted coattails & I hope we never let her forget it, especially when the dumpster catches fire & she, along with her other cockroaches, try to run.
I didn’t know what sfm was and then I said the I hate 45 out loud and the sfm became sf obvious.
Yup! Me too
Although stupideffingmisogynist would work in this instance too…
He is an idiot calling it a big win when the previously almost had a 23% advantage in a RED state.
I’m really beginning to loathe a lot of my fellow citizens. Leaving Trump aside – She. Was. Horrible. Fake and mean-spirited. If really horrible people keep winning then I for the first time ever will really want to take myself & tax dollars out of the US.
hate to say it and really hate to feel this way but I think America is getting the government – and country- it deserves. there’s a terrible selfish streak that populism and the republicans tap in to. does this make me a bad person? some one talk some hope into me quick. where is the ‘yes we can’ spirit?
First of all it was a decent campaign but 30 mil on a house seat is completely ridiculous. Second of course they cannot meet it with decency and again stop trying to court a vote you will never win. I swear the Dems are idiots sometimes.
However Ga is overwhelmingly red…the fact that the election was close and it was a siren “win” for the GOP is good news. It means we are whipping up a good amount of support.
That district’s history is downright scary and disgusting. Somebody there must have ethics? Somebody? Any body? They keep sending scum to Congress. Gingrich, Price, now this idiot Handel.
And don’t forget Johnny Isakson, who is now one of our senators. Bleh. There are good people down here, but there are plenty of deplorables. too. My 15 year old daughter was an unpaid intern/volunteer for the Ossoff campaign. She canvassed over 200 homes on Friday. This is what they encountered: a crazy screeching woman who lectured 2 15 year old girls about how her grandma had an abortion and it made her crazy. Then she started demanding if they had had abortions. And if that was why they were supporting Ossoff. The mom who was canvassing with them had to come and rescue them because every time they tried to politely end the conversation, she started screeching more. My daughter said the ironic thing was that the screecher was only a couple of years older than me and she had 5 grandkids or something. I swear, we are all living Idiocracy now.
JFC your poor daughter.
I’m coming to terms that many of the screechers will not be reachable & will not listen. We should recognize them, call them out for what they are, contain them (not give them more power & time) and move on. What a horrible pos that woman was talking to 15 yr-old girls like that. I bet it wasn’t the abortion that made her grandma crazy but all the rest of the family’s shame & reaction to it. JFC is right.
There is no good news here. The Democratic House leadership is so out of touch they can no longer win elections. If your hopes are pinned to 2018, you are going to be very disappointed.
@Megan. Yes, this is good news. Going from a double digit to a single digit lead in an 8 month time span is not a good sign for the GOP in purple districts.
Back in 2009 the Repubs lost every special election before those idiot teapartiers came through in 2010.
Megan, My first inclination last night was despair but I think this race is good news for the big picture. This was a very close race that historically has gone to the GOP for decades by very large margin. Same with Kansas and Montana if I’m not mistaken.
I have to agree with Megan-the Dems keep resting on moral victories like it counts for something and it doesn’t. When the opposition is saying stuff like “I don’t believe in a livable wage” and people would still rather vote for them than you, you are doing something wrong. A slim loss is still a loss and leaving it with “well, they just appealed to all the RACISTS living there” isn’t a strategy that is helping us win well, anything.
I’m sure the district probably IS full of racist party hardliners who wouldn’t check D if they were on fire. That doesn’t mean you don’t put everything into the fight. That doesn’t mean you don’t fight on a level that they understand. You don’t just accept a gold star and say “We’ll get it next time!” because you think you should. And that is what the Dems are doing right now.
Before the election, the Republicans were as fractured as they have ever been-they HATED 45. All of them. But one thing the right has always done and is continuing to do, is come together to fight a common enemy, It doesn’t matter if they would all sell each other to the highest bidder if necessary-they present a solid front when it counts and it has paid off. Democrats still can’t figure it out. Does that mean you have to lower yourself to gaslighting? No. But you better figure out how to fight a little more street level and be smarter or we’re going to be looking at this scenario over and over again. Moral victories aren’t going to stand for sh*t when we’re standing on the edge of WWIII.
Democrats are challenging the most corrupt administration and Congress in the history of America and they still can’t win. It’s not good news, it’s a crisis.
Democrats need to stop patting themselves on the back when they narrowly lose.
I’m with Megan. The current political climate is like sports: winning is all that matters and a win is a win no matter how you get it.
What was the young people turn out? Because I think thats the problem Dems dont address. Young people rant on their twitter, old people vote. Especially at mid terms and special elections. They need to convert online outrage into votes.
These were all BlOODRED districts in BLOODRED states. What in the world made you think that he was going to outright win in this district? The former rethugs who had that seat won by comfortable margins in the last elections. She basically won this election by the skin of her teeth. That should not have happened. Go and look at the voting history of this district; the margins that they won by and then look at hers. Now if the Dems start losing in districts and states that they normally would carry, then this is a crisis. Until then, stop… just stop.
This is only a loss if you only think on a binary scale of either you win or you lose, which is narrow-minded and silly. This is not Game of Thrones. This is not wrestlemania, a football game, or whatever sports reference you wanna put in there and to equate it to such is, quite frankly, dumb. This situation is more nuanced than that and you know it. Blowing this win out of proportion on either side would be an exaggeration of the highest order. Yeah, it sucks donkeys balls to lose-epecially to someone who is basically a bully in a cheap suit. This is actually how progress works. And yes, this is progress.
I sometimes forget that some people aren’t used to being in this position.
@Aiobhan Dems will never have the majority if they can’t win in red districts. If we can’t win in a highly educated and financially stable urban district where the Republican candidate said she does not believe in a living wage or gay adoption, where can we win? It is a crisis. The Democratic brand is so toxic effing Trump is in the White House and his majorities in Congress are safe.
@ Megan: Well, the issue with a toolbag like Karen Whatever winning is because “financially stable” and “highly educated” are intersecting with toxic Southern Pretend-Christianity and the cultural mores of the Deep South. The South has bled red since LBJ. Tragically, I live in the Deep South, so I’m completely familiar with their shenanigans. Fox News is second only to the Bible in these parts.
Ultimately, the trick is to balance out hellholes like Georgia and the Rust Belt with younger supporters in more Northern and progressive climes. Whether or not the Dems can actually do that, that’s the question.
Bull..same old from dems..close spends resources and gets you no seats in Congress. The fact that the south loves trump eludes me..the area gets a disproportionately large amount for the programs that will be cut. Dems don’t need to be bullies, but they have to give up the kumbaya and start shouting the truth.
I agree. The Dems need to up their game, i.e. play down and dirty, And I also think keeping Pelosi as Minority Leader was a bad idea. Regardless of her power or accomplishments in the past, the Party is in desperate need of new faces with better messaging and tactics..
I believe he should have moved into the district he’s running for. He said he lives 6 miles away, meaning he could have not even voted for himself. And the reason he was not in the district was because his fiancée is in med school. I did not understand why his fiancée could not have traveled the extra six miles to help him with his dreams. I was totally disappointed last night with the results.
If you lived in the area, you would understand that those extra 6 miles can equal an additional 45 minutes on to one’s commute. As a med student, those 45 minutes are vital…
I was just about to say the same thing dollydahl. Traffic in the ATL area is no joke. I completely understand his fiance wanting to be closer to her school.
I live on Long Island, NY and six mins would be about 8 mins in extra time taking into. account traffic lights. If you don’t mind, please explain how six miles ends up to 45 minutes, not being funny.
I live in Washington, DC and traffic is so heavy during rush hour six miles could easily add an hour to a commute.
Wow! Learn something new every day.
The extra six miles can actually mean an extra hour. I had radiation treatment at Emory Hospital in Dekalb County and it took two hours (not an error) to make an appointment about 40 miles away. When I85 bridge burned up, it rendered the perimeter highway impassable. Traffic in Atlanta is like LA rush hour all the time. I commuted downtown for my job for 30 years, 17 miles at 6 am to 6:30 am took an hour. It was an hour and a half in the afternoons.
Thanks everyone for explaining. I did not understand his district was in the urban area, not the suburbs, my fault. It like living in NYC the traveling is the worse.
I used to work in the city for twenty years but the travel time with bus and subways was a killer. I took a job in the outer borough and travel by car 🚗 to and from work, what a big difference in time saved. Thanks again.
I didn’t know this was a thing until my mom was telling me her friends daughter has to live in a specific area – she’s a med student as well. She needs to be within a certain range from the hospital.
I have noticed that there is a big difference to L.A. traffic vs. everyone’s traffic in the nation. I been stuck in traffic in the Boston & D.C. area and it was a damn nightmare. No one was moving. At least here, in and around the L.A. area, our traffic moves.
But still, going to back what was originally said. How could he run in a district he didn’t live in? There was no way he was going to win.
I agree. I am not discounting the reasons why he didn’t as without merit in his life, But if I’m in the district I’m not voting for someone who doesn’t live there regardless of their reasons, He’s already putting someone else’s interests over mine by definition, It is what it is.
He wasn’t a good candidate and say this as a Democrat. Also an outsider. Dems need to understand its about relating to the people versus wooing the people.
I agree with what one commentator on television said. His opinion was if someone is 80% with the Democrats but they are pro-life and pro-gun can they call themselves Democrats? The online reaction on his Twitter feed was h-ll no. His response was then, the Democrats have lost most of the South for the foreseeable future, except for a few pockets like South Florida where you have a lot of transplants from New England and Chicago. So, enjoy losing because with all of the money and enthusiasm from the left you let your need for ideological purity override your desire to win.
This commentator wentnon to add there aren’t enough voters throughout the South who agree with the Democrats 100% to override the number of Republicans. For those voters who are 80% with the Democrats their 20% of difference are important enough to stay home or vote Republican on election day. Obama was ham fisted but accurate when he commented on Republicans relationship to their guns and Bibles especially in a place like the South.
I would add what Reagan used to say that he rather would have a representative who was with him 80% of the time than an opponent who was going to be with him 0% of the time.
So, to add my commentary, you threw all of your chips in on Ossoff and with all of that support he should’ve won. Closer only counts in games like horseshoes. So what are you guys willing to give up to peel off enough Republican voters to win in places like the South?
So the candidate who is on record saying she’s against livable wages (among other niceties) won the election. So much for populism and poor disenfranchised white working class voters.
All of this. We all know that the only thing that keep the Republican party together is racism.
Something Karen Handel understood perfectly. Her constant references to Georgia ‘values’ were dog whistling at its best.
An angry white voter making $20 an hour isn’t going to vote for a candidate who wants to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour because what’s in it for him?
When asked Why do u think gay parents aren’t as legitimate as heterosexual parents? Her answer was ‘Because I don’t.’
I know Froggy, I saw the clip on twitter. That woman is vile, and so is the current GOP.
Seriously? She is repulsive.
She said that gay people should not be allowed to adopt to the mother of a gay daughter. I was devastated, but not surprised.
Yup. Further proof that the only thing GOP voters care about is hate. You can’t claim to care about jobs and support someone against living wages. Jobs are worthless if they don’t pay all your living expenses.
I live across the county line from this area. It is very wealthy, very white, and pretty clueless. The fact that he even came close should be considered a victory. When I would go into town to run my errands, because I live out in the sticks, I would see tons of ossoff Signs and volunteers. It’s pretty sucky that he didn’t win, but the fact that he came close should be considered a victory.
I was coming to say that too Its’JustBlanche. I live in Acworth, GA and I would have loved to have been able to vote in this election. It would have been a nice birthday present for me today. Boo-hoo!
Happy Birthday, notpretentious 🙂
Wish I had a better gift for you than an Ossoff loss. :/
You and I must live close to each other-I’m in Cumming. I’m so depressed right now.
@Kate, I’m from the 6th, this is not a working class district. This is actually one of the highest educated districts in the country. I think I was this in WaPo, but 2 of the 39 districts around the country with the highest proportions of college educated people are held by Rs. This is one of them. There are rich, angry, white people here.
I’m from a similar area outside of Houston – affluent, majority white, hyper-Evangelical Christian, majority college-educated, and blood-red. It’s not poor white people voting these people in, it’s wealthy white people – particularly wealthy white women. Don’t get it twisted.
White working class voters? Honey, this area is where the old “antebellum” homes are located. Part of this area has tons of beautiful homes and cards parked out front, filled with a lot of rich white folks.
Thank you to all the commenters who are confirming what we ALL should know by now: rich white folks are why we have Trump.
Are these people racist?
It wouldn’t surprise me.
Do they want to protect their wallets?
Most definitely.
Are they selfish and self-interested AF?
Abso-f*cking-lutely.
@Kitten they would argue they are voting their economic self interest. Republicans have a track record for cutting personal, business, capital gains and estate tax. If we expect poor people to vote their economic self interest, we should expect rich people to do the same. If Democrats could wrap their brains around that, we might even win an election or two.
Kitten, excatly! Bankrupcy Batista’s win had little to do with the working class, white or not. Many of his voters are well off. They voted with their wallet and more importantly, their SKIN COLOR.
Thanks Kitten!
Well exactly, Megan. This is a conversation I have with my BF all the time: it makes sense that rich white folks would vote Republican but it doesn’t make it any less heartening.
Also, it bears repeating that many of these rich people just got richer under Dem leadership the past 8 years. But shhhhhhh don’t tell them that, it will spoil the illusion.
I know the 6th is full of riche white voters who ran into Trump’s arms in November. I was just trying to challenge the media’s and the left of the Dem party’s narrative that Trump voters are all poor white folks who lost their coal mining jobs and that all it take to win them is some populism.
This website is pretty much a dem website, huh?
Carol, I just wanted to say thank you for your comment. I’ve been avoiding the political threads because they are just so….righteous. Thanks for weighing in with your perspective. I think we could all use a deep breath or two.
@Carol. What are “identity politics?” The concept that POCs, LBGTQs, the poor, the disabled, women, et al, are just as equal as all others and deserve the same opportunities? I rather prefer the Dems identity politics to the identity politics of the Repubs as smug, wealthy bigots, because despite your moving paean, that’s the optics.
ETA. The above was in response to Carol’s now removed essay about the righteous, hardworking Repubs vs the lazy, handout Dems.
@carol Check out the comments on the Jolie post. Many commenters simply have compassion and concern for others.
Along with an enjoyment of juicy gossip.
Hashtagwhat, unfortunately those of us with children in the LGBT community cannot afford to merely “take a deep breath or two.” Georgia just elected another homophobe who does not believe my daughter has the same rights as other people’s children. And I will continue to be angry about that.
Third ginger–this is a more than fair point and I am so sorry if my comment seemed to minimize what you deal with everyday and, indeed, what we are all up against. I abhor, abhor, ABHOR Trump, but I was just trying to make a point about civility. And you might say, CIVILITY? Are you kidding? Where is the civility in denying my daughter her rights? And you would be right, but the bigger point is that it’s INJUSTICE and to have the conversations we need to fight that INJUSTICE, civility would be helpful. Im just trying to make a small point here. Of course there are easy rebukes but sometimes these boards seem to have jumped to shark so to speak, IMO
And just to clarify, the comment of Carol’s that I was replying to has since been inexplicably deleted.
The comment of Carol’s that was deleted was a loving tribute to the hard working, paying their own way through college, starting from the bottom entrepreneur, straight arrow Republicans as opposed to the lazy, waiting for a handout and their “rights” Democrats. I didn’t see anything civil in that and responded so.
I know you’re not a trump supporter, but when it comes to his cultists I don’t expect civility or even logic as to why they love him. This past year has cured me of my lifelong idealism and I still clung to that during the Cheney/GWB reign of terror.
Hashtagwhat, thank you for the response.
🙂
Carol may i give you a fist bump 👊. I agree with ya. The political threads here are deeply left wing and hostile to Republicans. I mostly avoid them too.
If you want to see people on the left not just disagreeing with Republicans but passing a moral/ethical judgment on them, this site’s political posts are one place you can come.
And the stereotyping of Republicans is off the chain.
That district foisted the evil scum that is Gingrich upon us and the unethical scum that is Price. People there have no problem sending scum to Congress. The surprise and consolation is that Ossof did so well there. Price received 61% of the vote last November, 65% in 2012 and 99% in 2010. A republican was going to win that seat no matter what. That Handel dropped 9% points below Price’s last victory just 8 months ago is a positive sign. We have to take positive signs where we can find them.
Yes! I can take this loss as a positive sign. This simply was not the district for democrats to throw down in.
And why then did the Dems throw solo much money into this race? I say pick your battles at this point
Because Ossoff showed promise, that’s why.
And please let’s not pretend that most of the money came from the DNC or DCCC when Ossoff shattered both fundraising records and out-of-state private donations records resulting in about $23.6 million in donations. I live in Mass and I donated to his campaign and literally every one of my lefty friends out here donated as well.
@kitten. I actually think Osoff was a terrible candidate for this disctrict. If Dems really wanted to win here, they should have put up a married, middle aged white man from the upper-middle class or who ran a business or was an exec or something along those lines. It’s sad to say but Ossof looks like everything people in the north part of the district absolutely hate and the more moderates in the central part of the district don’t relate to. Republicans are so much better at imaging and messaging than dems. Is it shallow and unfair? Sure. But if you want to win you need to pay attention to this stuff.
Mostly I’m just sad that my state couldn’t find two better candidates on either side to run.
About Ossoff’s loss CNN was stating earlier today that Democrats have to analyze why they are losing and focus on the future. I agree with that idea. This is the era of Emperor baby fists we are living in and us Democratic liberals must learn to cope or we will continue to lose.
I keep hollering about people literally not being able to vote – gerrymandering, redistricting, moving polls, voter ID laws, shortening voting hours, throwing people off voting rolls for RIDICULOUS reasons, tampering with voting machines, onand on. THIS is a huge reason why they keep winning, and I feel like nobody sees it. It’s America, and people cannot vote!
But people also don’t WANT to vote. There are many democrats that only choose to vote during the Presidential elections, every 4 years. Many Dems are younger, and the young tend to NOT vote. Sadly, this is well documented. #TRUTH
Dems need to stop with the excuses. Work around the reality of they don’t always put up the best candidates, we need to lose the mindset we have to love the candidate, also get dirty like the Republicans and the big one is relate more to the people. When you are standing up in working class town talking about cigender, it isn’t going to work. We often put up candidates with zero charisma and no “rage”. We need more passionate candidates. Relating to your audience and the Republicans are great at this. Gerrymandering only effects the house and state elections, It has zero effect on the Senate or Presidential. Oh and voting machines haven’t been manipulated, investigators have said this over and over again. Russians meddled in influencing the elections through social media, attempting to hack into computers wth voter information and hacked into RNC & DNC computers but no voting machine hacking.
@isabelle- Again, Dems put up two GREAT candidates in Ossoff and Parnell. As I said in my other comment, they tried their best with Ossoff, who had a moderate platform and great messaging, someone who even Republican voters conceded is a “good guy with a good platform”.
Parnell was a good choice for SC and ran on “kitchen table issues” in a largely rural voting district. These were NOT out-of-touch establishment neolibs but humble *country* candidates who ran on the issues, hence the narrowing divide in poll numbers. And no, I never believed MSM’s assertion that either election was a referendum on Trump, but rather a commentary on the widening polarization of American politics.
Look, I’m all for the Dems self-assessing and striving to be better and more unified, but please lets give credit where credit is due. This loss and the SC loss is not about the candidates not being good enough. Handel was one of the shittiest candidates GA 6th has ever seen (and that’s saying a LOT) and she still won. Because winning is all that matters in this increasingly divided and polarized political atmosphere. Policies and platform take a backseat to wins and gains. And I disagree with the idea that an angry and passionate liberal would have fared better in a solidly red district than a smart, capable and moderate liberal with solid, relatable ideas.
Don’t see it that @kitten. He lived outside of the district and his only real experience was being a hill staffer. Also, he shouldn’t have ran as a moderate but owned that he did have progressive ideas. Most uninformed general voters don’t vote solely on policy, we have learned this since the Tea Party rose up. They vote out of emotion and heart. No matter how much informed voters shake their heads and me included say “wtf” reality is most Americans are extremely uninformed voters. It is a sad reality of the American police as a whole. Liberals as of now are trying to appeal more to conservatives than their own base and it will be a very failing strategy for 2018. Democrats need to energize their own base and those non-voters sitting on the side lines saying “they are the same” the apathetic non-voters. Our politics are definitely becoming more polarizing, Republicans see this and act on it. Benefit from it. Meanwhile Democrats keep trying to appeal to moderates while the country in reality is very divided. Them working in the middle isn’t going to work in this climate. Liberals need a real liberal candidate, focusing on the class system rather than what socially divides us. Defending the working and middle class heavily. Parnell did exceptionally well for that district and that should give Dems some hope.
Honestly I am so dissapointed my first thought was well, the decent people are not the majority in the US and I should stop watching Rachel Maddow and stop reading WaPo as it does not show what most of the Americans think. I am sad. And feel the great loss of November all over again.
I completely understand. So far, 2017 is the year that made me finally lose hope in humanity. Not that I ever had much faith to begin with, but this is just another nail in the coffin.
Kitten, you know our state will keep fighting. Nobody listens to us but we’re still here and we’re still fighting. Katherine, Seth, and Joe are really stepping up as the future of the party.
I love our reps so hard, LightPurple.
(I almost called you Lilacflowers! no sleep last night *sigh*)
Please do. Miss my old self. And I think at this point, Baker is so fed up with his own party that he would switch to independent if it didn’t mean losing the financial support and fighting a two front re-election battle. Even still, it wouldn’t surprise me if they ran a primary opponent against him. He has taken good positions on the ACA and Paris Accords and they ignored him completely
Remember this a deep red district. Dems ran a 30 year old guy, an outsider on top of it. Actually think if they had picked a smarter, older candidate, an insider they would have possible won.
The Rs kept labelling Ossoff as an outsider, but it simply wasn’t true. He grew up in the 6th. His parents still live in the 6th. He, like so many of us, went away for college. Then worked for John Lewis (Ga 4th district) in DC. From there he went to London and got a master’s degree. When his girlfriend (now fiancee) started medical school at Emory, they came back to Atlanta, albeit a few miles outside of the district, for the reasons that were discussed upstream. The one truth that the Rs could pin on him was his youth, but having met him, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more genuinely curious, smarter, candidate. And sadly, there is really no “insider” candidate who could have run. Remember, this is a state where Rs have beat both Jason Carter (Jimmy’s grandson) and Michelle Nunn (Sam’s daughter) in statewide races.
Ida be who you are. If you love Rachel Maddow and the Washington Post keep reading and watching them.
Just add a little bit of news from the right to check in and see what the other side is saying in their own words without the liberal filter of MSNBC or the Post. You don’t need to agree with the right but checking in with their news outlets will mean you understand them better and aren’t taken by surprise as often. You might even become a more nuanced debater because you will become more familiar with right wing views.
You could start with some of the news commentary shows on Fox like Outnumbered or the Five if you want establishment Republican opinions on the day’s news.
If you want a Libertarian bent watch Stossel or Kennedy on FBN.
If you want to dive deep down the rabbit hole of the Alt-Right there is Brietbart or Info Wars or the Young Turks but most Republicans don’t watch them and never have watched them.
Sorry. There are no “establishment Republicans” on Fox. Nicole Wallace and Steve Schmidt are on MSNBC. However, your point about listening to other voices is a good one. I like to read the articles on REAL CLEAR POLITICS. But as I noted above, there are some issues that do not have “sides.” A big one for me involves the rights of my gay daughter. I mention this a lot. It is likely tedious for many, but issues like marriage equality are now supported by a majority of Americans, but not by Republicans.
Democrats need to start winning congressional elections. Period. You’d think that Trump being so unpopular and the Republicans trying to kill millions with their evil healthcare plan and their bleating for
More guns on more Americans, would be enough to scare voters away from the Rethuglicans, but that has not happened. Any progressive need to ask themselves why? Why have their ideas not appealed to a lot of people’s basic sense of humanity and decency?
Well, they tried. Now on to the next one. Remember Orange Foolious and his racist band of trash grifters are still under investigation and it is getting worse for them. There are still other races to support.
I do like that the Dems are fighting but they are wasting their energy in the wrong places. This race was in a heavily Republican district and for them to get this far is good. They need to start focusing on the purple areas and start fighting smart and dirty.They also need to overhaul their structure and have a mix of old and new voices in their party. People with new ideas and people who know how to execute those ideas.
While I think they need to focus more on purple areas and areas that flipped last year, they still also need to bring back the 50 state strategy that they had under Dean 10-12 years ago: fight every race, even if it’s believed that the Republicans will win.
It goes back to what I complained about yesterday concerning the Greens and other 3rd parties, you have to build up your stable of candidates, and the Dems stopped doing that after Dean was no longer head of the DNC. To use as US baseball analogy, they don’t have much of a minor league system right now.
Exactly right @cr – they have no “bench warmers”, to use a basket-ball analogy (Cleveland CAVS fan here 🙂
@CR this! Dems have no minor league. If you look at the state and local level, Dems simply do not hold enough seats grow serious contenders for gubanatorial and congressional races. Gerrymandering and voter suppression are serious problems, but that fact that the Democratic Party is in disarray cannot be ignored.
In 2006, while Dean was head of DNC, the Dems basically swept the the statewide houses in Ohio. 4 years later, they flipped back to the Republicans and the Dems have been floundering ever since because it turns out we didn’t have that much of a bench. The Gov’s race next year is open, since Kasich can’t run again, and it’s going to be very nasty.
I think that Democrats need to make an effort to fight for every House seat and open Senate race they can, in addition to any Governor’s race.
I’m in Wisconsin and it’s still a purple state. It looks like Paul Ryan may be getting an actually decent Democratic opponent, Randy Bryce, who’s a veteran, iron worker and cancer survivor. He produced a very well done campaign kick off ad that was released yesterday. If the current polling by a right leaning group is accurate, Ryan should be concerned. If the polling is closer, he’ll be forced to spend more time in Wisconsin campaigning and money than planned. That sucks away money that could be spent in other, more competitive House races across the country. The time aspect is important in that he won’t be able to help his fellow Republicans fundraise or campaign. WI-1 is also in an expensive media market. His campaign will have to buy ad time in the Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago media markets.
Even though most Wisconsin House districts are gerrymandered to benefit the GOP incumbents, there’s some hope because the Supreme Court took a case to review that issue. Ryan’s district is a mix of both white working class voters, some of whom were blue collar workers formerly of GM, and the wealthy white Milwaukee suburban voters, similar to GA-6. If the Supreme Court rules that the Wisconsin 2010 redistricting was unconstitutional and that the House, state senate and assembly districts have to be redrawn in a way designed not to benefit one party, then Ryan could lose his white, upper middle class voters. That area would likely be absorbed into WI-5, a very strong GOP district, and WI-3, a safe Democratic district representing the city of Milwaukee. He’ll have to answer to the working class blue collar voters whom he left behind for his upper middle class supporter in the Milwaukee area.
Her name is Karen, she has shiny hair and look at her–that’s all it takes to win a dyed in the wool red district.
Democrats need a bit more self more self awareness, patience, and to pick battles they can win.
This is really a loss for Tom Perez and team, time to come up with a new plan, gents.
Until the Democrats quit being satisfied with “moral victories” and deciding that almost winning a seat that has always easily been Republican is as good as winning, we are doomed to lose over and over again. The mid-terms are going to be a f**king bloodbath if the party and its voters don’t get their collective sh*t together. I’d be interested in seeing what the voter turnout was.
When you can’t get a win against a woman who literally said that she doesn’t believe in a livable wage, a woman who belongs to a party where it seems pretty much everyone is under investigation, then you have gotten horribly off message and obviously you are doing something really, really wrong.
And that is a bad feeling that I have had for months, when party leadership seems to have all but disappeared or been rendered mute-that somehow that 45 and his ilk are so horrible that they really don’t have to put any effort into fighting him, that naturally voters will just flow back to them because why wouldn’t they when we’re SO much more “moral” than the opposition. It is the same fatal lack of planning that they displayed before the election that helped get this moron elected, and they’re doing it AGAIN. How many losses do you have to swallow before you accept that just because you don’t think something should happen doesn’t mean it won’t.
The district she won in is wealthy, they couldn’t care less for one because the district is wealthier.
I live in a neighboring district and I am disgusted. I wonder if the attack ads claiming Ossof was overjoyed by the baseball shooting had anything to do with his loss.
I live in the 6th. It was probably more the ads linking him (falsely) with Nancy Pelosi. One day last week, I got 4 or 5 different mailers from different conservative PACs that had photoshopped him with Pelosi. I think *that* was the dog whistle.
I bet you’re right on that.
I knew the idea that highly educated Republicans would go for a Democrat was not going to work. I have highly educated relatives in this district. They never vote for Democrats.
The heartening thing is that over the course of the campaign, Ossoff had 12,000 volunteers out knocking on doors and phone banking. I and my daughter were 2 of them. It was great that over the course of the campaign, we found many like-minded individuals who were neighbors or acquaintances that you would never have talked politics with…because being liberal here is like a dirty secret. The take-home message for me is that there are more of us than we knew. And we hope to keep building on it.
Dems need to look into the future and change the strategy. I am in the Atlanta area, and while I was hopeful Ossoff could pull it off, it’s a neighborhood of affluent white people, so of course it was going to go to a republican. Republicans would vote for Satan, a dead cat or Caitlyn Jenner as long as that R was next to their name. The base is unmoving. It’s time to realize that and get a new generation of Democrat leaders that are as unified as the GOP is right now. It is time for the Bernie bros and the 2016 election to be a thing of the past; otherwise we are going to be screwed for eight years (possible more) versus four. Yes, the administration is being investigated, but what do you think it’s going to happen if it’s a majority republican congress and they keep winning elections? They won’t impeach the guy. Let’s focus our energy in districts that we can win and a new generation, motto and strategy for the Democratic Party.
Democrats need Bernie Sanders at the very moment and they need to get off their high horse and start going grass roots….. like Obama did during his election year. Because these Republicans are lying to their people, especially TRUMP SUPPORTERS. They are poor whites who wants to make ends meet for themselves and their families, and the Conservative politician do not care for the well-being of their people, and that includes Trump and his kiss ass, got no balls ADMINISTRATION.
America is going to be broke and Russia is the new superpower. So Democrats, you need to start working and get your grove back.
ITA, Kiki.
Did poor whites who vote for Trump really vote for economic reasons?
Economic factors played a much smaller role, suggesting that Trump’s rise was shaped more by cultural and racial concerns than by economics. For example, white working-class voters who displayed economic fatalism — measured through the belief that getting a college education is “a gamble” — were only twice as likely to prefer Trump.
And economic hardship among white working-class Americans actually predicted more support for Hillary Clinton, not Trump: Although not highly statistically significant, the survey found that “[t]hose who reported being in fair or poor financial shape were 1.7 times more likely to support Clinton, compared to those who were in better financial shape.” This finding rebukes the common sentiment that poor white Americans came out in droves to put Trump over the top in 2016.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/9/15592634/trump-clinton-racism-economy-prri-survey
We don’t need Bernie Sanders. He has his own agenda and it’s to tear down anyone who doesn’t pass his purity test. I don’t need anyone who doesn’t see that identity politics/civil rights go hand in hand with economic issues. Bernie believes the road to Valhalla goes through Wall Street, but it flows through every neighborhood in America, through minority majority cities. If we can’t get a seat at the table with the policy makers, we can’t effect change. Bernie wants to champion issues that effect white working class and ignore the fact that blacks/Asians/Hispanics are workers too. I can’t and won’t get behind that and neither will a large majority of real democrats.
Trump voters are nowhere near as poor as the white male pundits on TV like to claim. The operative word in ‘poor white’ will always be white.
Up until last month, I lived in that District…District 6 and I can tell you that people all over that area wanted to support Jon. The problem is ads saturated the TV for the whole Atlanta area so people that didn’t even live in that district we’re turning out to vote for Jon, only to be turned away. I didn’t hear people trying to get out and vote for Karen Handle that didn’t realize they couldn’t. I think the push to turn GA blue is working, but it’s not going to happen overnight. There needs to be good candidates that are willing to go up against the established, smug as f$*# Republicans. I saw your tweet about the guy running against Paul Ryan, and let me say, I would love to vote for him. We need more candidates like him, like Jon too!
The thing is, Karen Handel was one of the WORST candidates and she still won. Ossoff had a lot of good ideas, did a great job trying to appear more “moderate” than liberal and STILL lost.
It’s easy to find a candidate that’s better than Handel but much harder to find a Dem that is better for a state like GA than Ossoff.
He was YOUNG and an outsider. He also had little experiences. His experience was he was a Hill staffer. IMO he wasn’t that good of a candidate and moderate isn’t going to win anything for the Dems. They need to learn this from the Republicans, have no shame in being loud, brass and coming off as “raged”. People are craving more passion from Dems and yet they still haven’t learned the lukewarm method isn’t working.
Super green Ossof is cute fo sho, but it’s not going to take down bigoted Repubs in Red states.
I take solace that I don’t have to live anywhere near GA6th and see ignorant tools every day.
I also take solace that despite the victory by Handel, Emperor Zero is royally screwed and will be in prison soon for $ laundering.
Bigly Sad!
I think Fox News and their vilification of liberalism sealed the deal here. From what I understand, Ossoff’s campaign ads were about ideas and policy, while Handel’s were pretty much just attacks on Ossoff for being a liberal. If we can’t win elections by advocating an increased minimum wage, affordable college tuition, and affordable healthcare for all, when the opposition is on the record saying she doesn’t believe in a livable wage and wants to repeal Obamacare, then we’re screwed. Because people are not listening to our message, they are blinded by the fear and hate propagated by outlets like Fox News. And they probably don’t even know what a “liberal” is or stands for, they just know they can’t ever vote for one.
I hate to be a downer, but this isn’t going to get better. I can’t see Dems ever winning a majority in Congress again, thanks largely to Citizens United and gerrymandering (not to mention fake news outlets like Fox). What’s even more disturbing is that Congress is under funding the Census. I’m sure you can all guess why. If the Census in 2020 is not performed properly, then redistricting will certainly not be in our favor. I really think the chance to stop the rise of authoritarianism ended back in November. We (and by “we,” I mean a minority of racist, xenophobic bigots and the electoral college) made our choice and there’s no turning back now.
I’m really not optimistic for 2018. Because of gerrymandered districts, it looks like Dems will need to win the elections by millions of votes just to take back the House.
The Supremes just struck down North Carolina’s gerrymandering and they voted last week to take up Wisconsin’s case in the coming session. Now, if they would only look at Texas too.
The WI case has the potential to be momumental. If SCOTUS strikes down political gerrymandering, it will be a whole new world. If they uphold it, we’re in for a long Republican majority. Given the composition of the current court, I am not optimistic.
I hope they see the light on Wisconsin but I’m not getting my hopes up.
I am with you.
Completely agree with your analysis.
The thing is, Dems keep saying that they need to start focusing more on policy and less on personality. They did that here with Ossoff and yet the Rethugs steered the conversation back to personality, not policy and they won.
It just says so much about the current state of American politics. How much lower can we possibly go? WHERE is rock-bottom? IDK but I think we’re almost there.
Rock-bottom would be the Nectarine Nuisance being re-elected. If this happens, I completely give up.
*shudders*
just the mere thought is enough to make me buy a plane ticket.
The scariest thing is that even just a year ago, I though a single term for Trump would be an impossibility, much less two terms.
Now, I think anything is possible. GOP will not stop until the entire country is destroyed.
What the current GOP is doing is beyond the pale. And they don’t seem to fear any kind of voter backlash, which makes me wonder. Are they so convinced they have gerrymandered districts to hell and back that they think they are unseatable? It certainly seems like it.
I worked on the 2010 census and am considering doing 2020 too. I encourage everyone to get involved. There’s usually 1 week of daytime training and then you get your assignments and work your own hours. Early morning, evenings & weekends are when you find people. I got hundreds of people who never filled out the form, including a family of 8 at the end of the third round- that’s when you’re verifying that houses reported as empty on earlier rounds really are empty. Let’s do our part to get people counted
Seeing Kellyanne’s tweet “Laughing my Ossoff” made my blood boil. Despite her and Bigly’s gloating, I do think the GOP was nervous. I’m glad they spent a ton to defeat Ossoff and I don’t think this is a sign that all is lost in 2018/2020. Unless we all just give up now. I do agree with Kaiser that we need to stop making these races so fraught. It riled up the deplorables as much as it energized the resistance.
+1
Grrr. I hate that woman.
I also wonder if it harmed him that so many of the “Hollywood elites” came out in support for him?
Southern, affluent, white people are almost always going to vote Republican. I go to an Episcopal Church in one of the richest towns in America, right next to Birmingham. On Sundays it’s all social justice and pro environment and changing the inequality that surrounds the city. There are parishioners who are completely sold on these causes whom I know vote Dem, but the neighborhood was littered in Trump signs, and now various Republican signs as we get ready to vote on the Keebler Elf’s Senate seat.
My MIL lived in Mountain Brook. My SIL and her husband, former hippies, are fervent trumpees. It’s a sad situation when the horrible Luther Strange is the least offensive of the R candidates. None of the Dems stand a chance in this benighted state. And how the people voting R do not understand that the Party doesn’t give a damn about them, as proven over and over, is beyond me.
The guy who wants to challenge Paul Ryan as a very impressive ad out. I don’t know anything about him, but I think his ad is fantastic, and if we get more candidates like him, we can start winning again. But the Dems are in really bad shape because we have candidates that we just don’t care about, and ones that have absolutely zero message. Also, I may be mistaken, but my understanding is that Ossoff wasn’t a progressive. He was very much a moderate, and he still couldn’t win because he had no message. He had no message against Trump, he had no message about jobs, he had no message about healthcare. Is it a pipe dream for Democrats to argue about universal healthcare? I think so. But can we craft a message that will fix what didn’t work about Obamacare while keeping what did, and convince the American people to support it? I think so.
Not sure where you heard he had no message on jobs. His ads featured a wide swath of Atlanta business leaders and spoke of what he wanted to do for Georgia. His ads were positive and spoke of the future of the region. Handel’s ada spoke nothing but fear hatred and bigotry. That’s what she brought to the table. The fact anyone outside of GA even knew about this race is a testament to the strength of his campaign. He should have won outright the first time. I blame Dems who wouldn’t step aside to support him, but to say he brought nothing to the table is ridiculous. The Republicans brought down the full weight of their political machine to defeat a former Dem staffer in a district they have owned for 40 years. We may be disappointed that Jon didn’t win, but that district and Georgia are turning blue. Rome wasn’t built in a day and Trump/RNC won’t be defeated 160 days into his presidency.
It is an awesome ad, I want to vote for the guy.
So depressing. Hardly slept last night just thinking about three and a half more years of Trump. I don’t know if I can make it…already feels like a lifetime with this moron in charge.
Lately I’ve been having fantasies about leaving the US for good and dreams about New England seceding. Just so sick of red states controlling the fate of our country.
I know. Makes me wish I had taken up science, so I could take up Macron’s offer to move to France!
Ha, Kitten, my son and I were talking about how much we’d love to move to Lithuania for a simpler, Trump-free life after enjoying it so much last summer. But sadly they are on high alert with Putin breathing down their necks. Sigh.
That is a red district and I never thought it could be flipped.
It came dang close for that district.
I wish people would stop acting like it’s a huge surprise ossoff lost. He had a chance, but he was definitely the underdog. That district has been red for decades and wealthy whites are actually trumps base not the poor. We got close, we lost, on to the next challenge. We don’t need to have a meltdown of despair at every single fight we lose in deep red districts. Progress is a very slow slog and it doesn’t happen over night, history has proven that to us. A couple marches arent going to completely change what republicans have been eroding for decades. So no, we don’t get a prize for second place. We are chipping a way though. When you’re going through hell keep going.
This. I actually resent pouring this much money into Republican stronghold districts. Put the money to better use, Dems!
I hear you. So many people poured their money (and energy) into the race, I think, because it made them feel like they were taking action. Lesson learned, hopefully.
I think one of the reasons they poured money into was this was a runoff, in the first round Ossoff nearly get enough votes to avoid the runoff, hence it was thought he had a chance. Also, I believe he was leading until recently.
All true, cr. And I believe Trump only beat HRC by one point in this district, despite 20+ Repub margins in other elections. It would have been a great symbolic victory to flip it, but the demographics were still not favorable. As soon as I read about heavy early voting turnout, I knew it would be a Repub win.
I am as liberal as they come and I am catholic. I pray everyday and last night as the results came in I had to ask if god is a republican, because it’s defeat after defeat. The country just keeps getting worse and worse and these uneducated voters who are voting against their own interest. it’s very disheartening. The DNC needs to get it together, we spent all this money on GA and we didn’t give enough attention to the other special elections. Anyway really like this candidate Randy Bryce’s add he want to unseat Paul Ryan and I hope he does it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6zAyPRbels
I think he was a great candidate but seriously the dems can’t be putting up a candidate who doesn’t live in the district! Yes he was only 6 miles away but he couldn’t even vote for himself. I understand 6 miles can add crazy commute times (I’m in D.C.) but if you want to win, you have to make that sacrifice. That was such an easy fix that the republicans were able to use against him.
That didn’t make a bit of difference to voters here. That was a wolf whistle being blown by people who moved to gerrymandered districts and newly formed cities to foster an us vs them mentality. He made the sacrifice for his fiancée. That resonated positively with a lot of voters, especially women.
I’m curious as to why people think he was a good candidate?
You should check out his website. He lays it all out there. He had a very strong message on trying to get high tech industry here. He had a good message on health care as well. You couldn’t be much more moderate than him and the fact that he lost is basically attributable to the fact that Rs are putting party above message. Handel is the one who had no message about what she was going to do.
Think the Dems need to stop trying to appeal to Republicans, it will never happen winning over their vote. They are too old and stubborn to change but Democrats hugely need to energize their base and millennials. It isn’t going to happen by playing to the moderates. The Democrats need to start acting like progressives with zero shame. Stop trying to appeal to the moderates and conservatives of this country and appeal to its own base.
I thought he was too nice, too thoughtful, too earnest… I would be in G06’s face after this. Go with full on “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed” (leave the IN YOU unsaid but clear. He should shadow her every decision. I don’t mind that he lost, I mean I do but look at the district! That he got that close…. and I’m still not convinced there wasn’t some hijinks in the original race to stop him from getting over 50% but whatever.
I’m disappointed he lost to her. To the values she clearly stated. The hate, the bigotry, the everything. That they chose THAT over Ossoff. But Ossoff didn’t go for the jugular. He didn’t attack directly. He talked around her debasing qualities. Sucks for him but not a cause to be demoralized nationally. Despite pundits pushing the midterms being close, they’re not. Given what a disaster this Administration has been in a few short months, 16 months is a loooong time.
I suspect a lot of the Republicans who voted for Handel actually dislike Trump but they hate Democrats and Nancy Pelosi more than they dislike Trump. There are a ton of people like that unfortunately. I swear Nancy is the new Hillary. Tribalism rules politics today. ugh
A couple of things stand out to me about this loss:
1) Ossoff living outside the district gave people the impression he wasn’t “one of them.” Handel was very smart to yammer about “GA values” Ossoff should have played up his own GA roots more – just like Handel did. (I know it’s anathema to speak highly of the Clintons nowadays but that’s the type of thing Bill Clinton did in the 90s and he was able to win a number of Southern states).
2) Is it true that Ossoff’s final pitch to voters was about climate change? IMO Ossoff would’ve been better served focused on pocketbook issues like healthcare and jobs. Like Tip O’Neill once said, all politics is local.
On a related note, I think the Dems should be coming up with and promoting ways to *fix* Obamacare instead of just fighting to keep it. That might go a long way with many voters that are currently dissatisfied with Obamacare but do not want to see it totally dismantled the way the GOP plans to do. We need to be *for* things more than just *against* Trump and his agenda. I know that being anti-Obama rallied the GOP in 2010 but I’m not sure if that strategy will work with folks on the other side of the political spectrum.
I think your comments are spot on. All of them, To expound on one…..I have taken the time to listen to to several people I know well who ultimately voted for Trump (no, I did not). Generally speaking they are southern, firmly middle-middle class. At least HS educated –some College but not high end professionals. (There’s a lot of dialogue on this site re wealthy white people voting for Trump, and maybe they did, but there aren’t enough of them to get the man elected, So it went way beyond that demo). Truly I couldn’t understand why they voted for him. BUt most told me they didn’t like the man either, but they really hated two things more…1) “liberal democrats” (being called a liberal is such an insult in their world )and HRC specifically and also 2) old guard, traditional republicans. Supporting Trump to them was an “eff you” to the republican power brokers as it was to the democrats. No way they wanted another Bush, they found Ted Cruz smarmy, Rubio too wet behind the ears, Kasich too smug. Etc, What they related to in Trump is feeling like an outsider to a changing world they felt has largely blamed, and ignored them.
They are just ultimately pissed off. Racist and sexist? I don’t know that is the motivator per se –I concede there is some of that in the mix. Theie feeling of invisibility and stagnant was more the issue, Many felt they weren’t offering their kids “a better world ” they were brought up to expect in each new generation. 8 years of obama presidency and the media / cultural changes in the world left them feeling like the pariahs / enemy of the left, when they aren’t the high end upper middle class. Their lives feel stagnant, their opportunities for more limited. Their healthcare under OBAMACARE didn’t improve and got more expensive and in some cases with fewer choices as insurers (It would have without Obamacare, but they don’t understand that…they just view it as a failure to them).
I know plenty will say “boo boo”, roll their eyes and talk about how sick they are of hearing about the disenfranchised middle white voter. Go ahead with that attitude, but that’s what the democrats have lost, and maybe listening , caring, and some compromise along the way will get their vote again. They really aren’t happier with Trump — he’s a vehicle for their anger and frustration. Solving a few issues that impact them will go a lllooonnng way for the democrats. And fixing Obamacare is a great place to start,
‘What they related to in Trump is feeling like an outsider to a changing world they felt has largely blamed, and ignored them.’
Feeling. That word right there. They FEEL ignored, I’m really not sure they ARE ignored.
And short of stopping being a black woman who cares about the well-being of women and black folks in this country, I don’t see how I could reach them.
At the end of the day, they chose to vote for a white supremacist and nothing, nothing can justify that in my eyes. For me, Trump voters are too far gone and the Dems should try to fight back like hell against gerrymandering to enable POC to actually vote rather than courting white folks who don’t see the humanity of people like me.
Kate, the reality is that feelings are facts to people. When your neighbor loses his job, it’s s recession. When you lose yours — it’s a catastrophe. They feel ignored, it’s a reality to them, and Maslow hierarchy of needs (basic psychology 101) teaches us we all want our needs met before we can look outside ourselves.
If the dems want to keep getting what they are getting, they shouldn’t change then. But all this righteous indignation about others being wrong in how they think ……just firmly entrenches the status quo of political divisiveness and warfare. If we want better, we should try being better.
My opinion, your mileage will vary.
Maybetomorrow I think you are a lot closer to the truth than anyone else on here. It is too easy to label Trump voters as the hateful white rich Republican or the uneducated poor white Republican. There is more going on here.
It has to do with the feeling for Trump viters (including the reluctant ones) that their lives aren’t going to be better than their parents and they are on the outside looking in. Then, you add in the culture wars where whites are constantly told that they are the problem. The left is alienating these voters because they think if I am the problem then why am I not doing better? Why is my life going to be worse if I am so powerful and privileged? This is especially true when Gen Xers compare themselves to their Baby Boomer parents or their WW II grandparents and look to the future for their Millenial and Gen Y offspring. The present and the future look grim. So, they threw the dice and took a chance on an outsider for whom they had deep reservations and/or disgust.
And Hillary as a candidate. Oi vey. I remember thinking her proposals were more of the same that we’ve heard from Democrats since the sixties. More regulations, more programs, more taxes. This stuff hasn’t worked. Then, I remember one of Hillary’s surrogates on television saying all of her policies are online. I went there and saw the reams of documents. I thought really? How many people are going to wade through all of this? Hillary’s people need to distill this down into a bumper sticker slogan like it’s the economy stupid, which worked well for Bill. Simplistic, yes but necessary. I’m with her isn’t going to resonate with people who don’t already like her. The bumper sticker needs to give people to overlook their pre-existing feelings for Hillary.
@india Andrews…thanks for the response. Your comments resonate as well.
Just jumping in here to add to what others have already said upthread: this loss is demoralizing. But we made it competitive in a deeply red district. Rs almost lost the seat. That is good news and hopeful sign.
I agree that this election was overhyped. I didn’t think he would win simply based on the district’s demographics and I felt like so much attention amplified the defeat unnecessarily.
My question is what kind of candidate do we need? So being nice doesn’t work…but Hillary’s campaign was too narrowly focused on slamming Trump and not enough on her message, among other things.
Barack Obama was a uniquely awesome candidate and we need that kind of energy again. Big shoes.
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think the right wing wants a dumbed down electorate. That’s one reason they only care about education as a for profit enterprise and gut funding every chance they get. Forget learning anything. People who are ignorant about history, civics, economics, etc, and stay in their bubble surrounded by equally ignorant people are more likely to fall for emo bloviating and blaming like Trump.
You can’t reason with people who never learned to reason. And yes I know in this race the voters are more educated, per the stats. But educated and smart or educated and wise are different things. Let’s not even mention educated and compassionate. We all graduated and work with functional morons and selfish hellbeasts.
+1
P.S. MSNBC did a piece on shady voter purging and disenfranchisement in Georgia. Community activists have been threatened with arrest for daring to question why registrations for so many POC went missing and making copies of registration forms because that was their only proof. They were told by GA officials photocopying a registration form is illegal. It is not. 10,000 Asian-American registrations went missing. It’s noteworthy that these are specifically Korean-Americans who tend to vote Democrat. Also 40,000 African-American registrations went missing.
Karen Handel played a part in this. She pushed to make it more difficult to register to vote. And that tends to negatively impact POC and the poor. The fix was in. She’s just as corrupt as the rest.
No doubt she is corrupt, and a grifter to boot.
Just to give you an idea of our environment, at one of the precincts near me, the head precinct person from the GA Secretary of State’s office drove up in her Karen Handel-stickered car, parked up front (within the 150 feet no-campaign-zone) and refused to either move her car or cover up the stickers.
The Republicans figured out how to talk to a certain portion of America while the Democrats have yet to figure that out. They have got to pivot already because if Trump is not impeached by 2019 (nothing will happen this year or next year) then he will win again in 2020.
Yes, but a certain portion of that population isn’t voting republican because of economics, it’s voting because of culture, primarily white culture. The reality is that the Dems can’t appeal to that core group because it doesn’t want to be appealed to.
Is there a mushy middle of Trump voters who didn’t want to vote for him and did, for reasons? Yes, but appealing to them is going touchy communication-wise.
I felt like dancing when he lost. If I had to see or hear another ad from him, I would lost my mind. All that money wasted. A perfectly decent candidate exist in the district. Plenty decent candidates are in the 6 district. I received dozens of flyers and post cards and visits. I was sick of him and his people. I hope I never hear his name. They democrats lost my vote, because of the daily harassment.
I guess you didn’t mind all of the mail from Handel then? Or the daily calls from Mitt and Saxby and Johnny? And maybe if you have engaged with the canvasser in a civil fashion, they would have told you that they way to get them to stop calling or ringing your doorbell would be to early vote, either in person or via absentee ballot. Then the Georgia Secretary of State (R, by the way) would have marked you as having voted already, and no one would have bothered you in person or on the phone.
Karen, get off celeb gossip websites and get back to hating/defrauding your constituents.
The Dems are hopelessly fractured because what passess as progressive among the Democrat hierarchy doesn’t cut it with progressives at the grassroots. Hopefully this will change.
The GOP spent twice as much money as the Dems on a race the GOP had in the bag – that’s a win for me. They don’t appoint these people to Cabinet positions if they don’t think the party will retain the seat they’ve vacated, which is exactly what these special elections were called for.
Sorry how to turned out for Ossoff. He was a great candidate and I hope he continues in politics. He is talented and sensitive to what will heal America of its hatred and self-defeating policies. The Democratic platform in general is strong, decent and inclusive but the Republicans aren’t listening. Under Trump’s thumb Republicans are voting no to universal health care as a right, no to common sense gun control, no to doing something about global warming, no to a free press, no to scientific facts, intelligence and truth, no to so many ideas that would build a healthy more caring society. Republicans spout patriotism yet have no qualms about Russia interfering with the election or electing someone who beats up a reporter. I’ve come to the conclusion that the GOP are evolving into America’s version of the Taliban. Disappointing but I have to believe goodness and reason will prevail if enough people of goodwill make their voices heard and never give up on their ideals.