Have We Learned the Lesson Yet?

[MineralMan]

We've seen the first half of Donald Trump's first term in office. That should be ample time to learn from the mistake, I think. But have we learned? Of that, I'm not certain. In the Mid-term elections, it appeared that we had learned something - at least enough to regain a majority in the House of Representatives.

But, that's not enough. Not really. Now, we're setting up for our next elections. We have every House seat on the line, as well as enough Senate seats to regain control of that congressional body. We also have a President to elect. So, are we working hard and steadily to make sure we correct the mistake that is Donald Trump?

I'm not so sure. I can't look into every House district nor state. I don't know what's happening in your district or state. Do you?

I can look at the Presidential race, though, but that's only part of what needs to happen. We have a huge slate of primary candidates. They'll sort themselves out in the next year or so, so I'm not that worried. We'll end up with a nominee, and I hope we'll all start lining up at the polling places in record-breaking numbers.

But, what of the rest of government? Are we paying close attention? Are we already looking at the potential candidates? Are we ready to retake control of our federal and state legislative bodies? I'm not so sure about that.

We'd better get cracking on all of this. The Republicans are. We must not underestimate them. We desperately need to make a stand and take back our government.

Let's get on it, shall we?

[RKP5637]

1. K&R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[Cary]

2. 33% of the electorate are authoritarians

I am reading "The Authoritarian Dynamic" by Karen Stenner. It is illuminating.

That 33% will never change. The defining characteristic is that they cannot handle complexity.

37% of us are what Stenner refers to as libertarian. We are for liberty. We will take complexity and process it and use it to make us better people.

We have to turn out MM. Unindicted Co-Conspirator didn't garner as many votes as Romney had in 2012. We must turn out to vote. That has to be our mission and we must stop doing the Republicans' dirty work for them.

I have taken a lot of abuse here for speaking that truth. That abuse must stop.

[MineralMan]

4. The majority has the power to defeat the minority.

That only works, though, if the majority actually turns out and votes. We don't have to vote for perfection; we must vote for change, though.

We are the majority. We need to demonstrate that next November. We need to demonstrate it clearly and emphatically.

[Cary]

32. Absolutely. This is critical.

[Johonny]

3. The GOP certainly hasn't learned. You go to bed with Trump he eventually * you.

Homeland security is just the latest person Trump tossed under the bus because ... who knows? He uses people and when he thinks you're no longer useful he tosses you away. But there will be another sucker to take that post. There's always another GOPer that thinks they can win the Donald game.

[MineralMan]

5. I'm not interested in what the GOP wants.

I am only interested in making sure that we vote for what we want and defeat the GOP minority. I hope we will do that.

[Generic Other]

6. Thanks for putting things in perspective

We are not out of the woods yet!

[MineralMan]

7. You're right. We are not out of the woods.

We could easily ignore reality and fight among ourselves over details. If we do that, we could easily lose again to the Republicans, who are, if nothing else, unified in their stupidity.

We lost our chance for four years of positive change in 2016. Now that we have control of the House, we can somewhat limit Trump's ability to cause negative change, but that's not enough.

We have been set back and have lost four years of potential progress. We must not repeat that mistake next year, and it's time to start making sure of that right now.

[bronxiteforever]

8. Kick and recommend. IMHO control of the Senate is

absolutely essential to the presidency.
How does a Democratic President get anything done with a GOP Senate?
Do any confirmations occur or will it be the Garland treatment for all?

You are right about state races and state houses. The states are the nurseries of policy and we need control.

[MineralMan]

12. We need only look at Obama's second term to understand

how crucial it is to have a strong majority in the Senate. It's rules make it very difficult to do anything at all when the opposition party has control of it.

Mitch McConnell runs the Senate like his own private fiefdom. Only what he approves has a chance there.

I'd love to have a 67 seat majority in that body, but we can make do with a simple majority.

We had two branches in the hands of the Republicans, and they are working as fast as they can to turn the third branch into a Republican enclave.

If we miss our chance in 2020 to regain control, the GOP may be able to make another chance impossible. That is the ever-present danger that faces us. We need to pay close attention and band together, not fragment the Democratic Party even further.

[bronxiteforever]

14. Totally agree.

[old guy]

18. The last paragraph says it all.

2020 is indeed our last chance to stop the bleeding. If we can't do it at that point, we'll not get another chance.

[MineralMan]

19. Thank you! I wish people could get that idea fixed in their brains.

Maybe if we say it often enough...

[Aristus]

9. Don't be ridiculous. We're Americans. We never learn.

[NewJeffCT]

10. Democrats made a ton of pickups at the state level

in 2017 and 2018. I was disappointed about losing governor's races in Ohio and Florida when polling had the Democrat ahead, and also losing close races for governor in Iowa and Georgia. But, I believe Democrats picked up a net several hundred state legislative offices overall and we flipped the governorship in NJ, MI and WI, not to mention KANSAS.

I expect Democrats to continue that in 2019 and into 2020.

The Senate Map for 2020 is better for Democrats than 2018 (2018 was called by some the worst map since Senators were first elected by popular vote over 100 years ago) but it is still NOT a great one - a lot of the Republicans up for re-election are in very very red states.

[dottie66]

30. Part of the effort is to stop voter suppression and voter machine errors

as well as Russian trolls on social media

[House of Roberts]

11. Mo Brooks is my Representative.

Mo Brooks is an idiot. But he got 61% of the vote in 2018. Anything else you need to know about my district?

[MineralMan]

13. We can't win every district. We can't win in every state.

What we can do, though, is win in enough districts and enough states. That's also what we must do.

[Heartstrings]

15. GOTV!

Bigly!

[FakeNoose]

16. We need to reach out to everyone in 2020

... especially young people who have never voted, but really anyone who will listen and think. We need to make them realize how much this country has lost under the GOP, and Chump has done way too much damage already. Chump cannot be given four more years.

[MineralMan]

17. Yes. And it's going to be everyone's responsibility to do that.

One person at a time. One voter at a time. We all have a job to do.

[maxsolomon]

20. Who's "we"?

If you mean the flibberdigibbet "independents" who put Trump in office, or the purists who voted Green, then no.

[mtngirl47]

21. Here in NC the Democratic Party is working

at the local level for every elected official from Dog Catcher on up! We are paying attention to Judges!

We have our plans in place to educate our voters on the Voter ID Law (dammit!) and here in my county we have new machines on the way and are planning a fun kids voter education event to also educate the voters on how the new machines work.

From what I hear the Democratic Party is pushing for grassroots efforts all over the country. In addition we've got lots of activity from the Indivisible Group, the NAACP, and OFA going on.

I ask that every Democrat in this group find an organization and volunteer! Make calls, help fund raise, show up for sign waving events, whatever you can do will help us take back our country!

[MineralMan]

22. That sounds promising.

And you're right. We should all be looking for ways we can help through our local Party organizations. It doesn't have to be a full-time job, either. Any amount of time (or money) you can offer will help. What doesn't help is doing nothing at all, except for posting on discussion boards. The reach of those discussions is short.

Even if the only thing people do is to talk to everyone they know about what's happening and what needs to happen, that works toward a win for Democrats.

Volunteering is even better, of course.

[maddiemom]

23. Biden and one of the more than impressive women candidates.

Basically because I'd love to see Joe Biden debate Donald Trump. If Trump thinks he beat Hillary by debate, he's into another of his delusions. His clownish looming over her when she was speaking, should have ended it then and there. It seems no rules ever apply to Trump because honesty is a mess to deal with(Sorry, I know some intelligent Trumpers who are just relieved to stop hiding their prejudices.). Biden (no surprise) took Paul Ryan to the cleaners. He'd decimate Trump any day of the week. Hillary probably exhausted herself, however, for no reason. How simple to win three million voters more than Trump, when there remained the electoral college to negate the popular vote. I worked election night for Hillary in a college town in PA. and found that the college students (many of them whom I'd registered to vote locally if they couldn't go home just to vote) had been getting calls confusing them as to where to vote. The local Republicans were trying to screw up the students by misleading them as to where to vote. My mom was an active Democrat and introduced JFK when he barnstormed the country in 1960. I was in junior high, but recruited the "Kennedy Girls.' The Republicans have become a whole "nother animal" into this century.

[MineralMan]

24. Right now, my ideal ticket is Biden/Harris.

That might change, but for now, I like the combination. See, I think Joe Biden will opt to be a one-term President, and I like Kamala Harris's chances in 2024, after making her mark as VP.

That's just me, though.

[librechik]

25. Give us a break--we have millions more cats to herd

than they have snakes. And snakes are even harder to corral. And more dangerous

[Eliot Rosewater]

26. Peace of cake if we didnt have a huge faction bound and determined to HARM the party if their

candidate doesnt get in.

Yes I meant to type peace instead of piece.

[MineralMan]

31. In that case, we'll have even more work to do.

The Russians were hedging their bets in the last election. They helped Trump and they helped Jill Stein, as well. It was very nuanced. I have no evidence that they helped any Democratic candidate during the primary season, though, other than Trump.

[zipplewrath]

27. Not here

As many will recall, Gillum lost in the election, as did Nelson.
And now the GOP, which has run the state for 20 years, is working on consolidating their power by reducing the power of the people to pass referendums which they oppose (Ya know, radical things like class sizes, medical pot, minimum wage, etc.).

Hasn't changed, and is getting worse. The GOP is planning on running all of government from a minority position, are slowly establishing their ability to do it. It is why McConnell is packing the courts.

[dubyadiprecession]

28. We need leaders that lead.

AOC has got the “fire in the belly” attitude so far.

[grannyokie]

29. YES!!!!

It's the secret sauce. We need to concentrate on the Senate, Congress and local offices too. Get out there whatever you can do.



We need to "GO TO TOWN!" or as I like to put it because I have a music tic.

[BlueWI]

33. Agreed.

Just a week ago, we were all in in our blue-ish Western Wisconsin county in the spring midterms. Four good progressives won city council seats, but turnout was low statewide and another Scott Walker fanboy lawyer got a supreme court seat. The progressive candidate got 59% in our county, which was a good achievement, but not enough.

Too much sleepwalking still. A full on effort to win in 2020 is sorely, desperately needed. I do think Wisconsin will go blue again, but we need a national ticket with energy, purpose, and focus, along with a full court press to improve turnout from now till November 2019.

I hope we're all done legislating the 2016 election and are working to organize and win, with no delay.