Why Do The Republicans Keep Kicking Our Asses In Elections?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

[quiet.american]

1. We play fair. They don't. n/t

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. Then We Need To Stop Playing Fair...

You don't bring a thesaurus to a street fight...

[quiet.american]

10. Amen.

[hiley]

23. right on

:yourock:

[msgadget]

2. They make good use of language and the visceral response.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

They Are Better At Manipulating Symbols...

nt

[MemphisTiger]

3. They are more unified that we are

[AlinPA]

29. They are more organized and more zealous about voting. I always

think about Michael Moore's chapter in Stupid White Men where he shows that we have the issues and most people support them. Problem is, "we" don't vote as much.

[mdhunter]

5. I picked "They have a better message"

Not because the content of their message is better, but their message itself, targeting the content to the recipient, finding constituencies and understanding them, is superior.

In other words, their form of message, not their content, accounts for a lot.

[Nite Owl]

19. Same here

They know how to get that message out and make it seem like they got the answers. It's not the message but the delivery.

[giant_robot]

33. I agree, but

I feel the content of their message appeals to the emotions of the electorate, rather than their intellect. It's how you get struggling, middle-class Ohioans to vote for tax cuts for the rich.

[colonel odis]

6. we got more votes in '92, '96, 2000, and more than likely in 2004.

kicking asses?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. They Control The House, Senate, and the Presidency...

Four of the largest states in the union have pug governors...


They control the governorships of more states than we do... I also believe they control more state legislatures...

[xultar]

7. We're to busy kicking ourselves to protect them from stealing them.

It's simple. I'll draw you a diagram.


While they are stealing elections over there--------------->

<------------We're fighting each other over here

See how that works people?

[lukasahero]

15. Well said!

Or "drawn", as it were. ;)

[stray cat]

8. They are more ruthless and don't let ethics get in the way.

[Poiuyt]

32. That's it exactly

Republicans view elections like war...win at all costs.

[MnFats]

9. they run filthy campaigns designed to make voters...

....frightened and angry.
////why else would so many people vote against their own best interest?

[mattclearing]

12. We don't collectively stand up for what we believe in.

On edit, The people above seem mostly to be focusing on what "they" did.

We have a responsibility to stop them, and to be true to our core beliefs. Like I was saying earlier, it isn't about them. They only get away with it when we let them.

[ElectroPrincess]

16. yes, because we get into pissing contest over silly little details ...

one of these days, real soon, we will set those differences aside because "the draft" will pale in comparison to our squabbles over the "little things."

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. I Think We Should Talk More About How We Can Avoid Getting

Our Asses Beat Than Fighting Among Ourselves....

[IrateCitizen]

14. Other -- they aren't afraid to stand for what they believe

Since the days of Reagan, the Democrats have tried to adopt a slightly softer version of market fundamentalism rather than offering a clearly alternative vision.

This, as George Lakoff points out, has hurt us in two ways. First, it fails to offer voters a real choice. Second, it signals to voters that the other side is really where all the good ideas are, and that all Democrats can do is piggyback off of them.

Of course, message matters tremendously as well. But the gains of the New Deal and the great liberal hour were not made through accomodation -- they were made by Democrats who weren't afraid to offer up an alternative vision of a better society, and to stick to their guns in promoting that vision tirelessly. They certainly understood that they would never achieve utopia, and that politics was messy. But most of all, they recognized that people only really respect those who are willing to stand and fight for what they believe.

It's a lesson that's largely been lost on the Democratic Party of today.

[Bethany Rockafella]

17. Two stolen elections doesn't equate to kicking our asses.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

18. Did They Steal The 28 or 29 Governor's Chairs They Hold?

Did they steal the five open southern senate seats?


Maybe they didn't kick your ass but my hiney is sore...

[Bethany Rockafella]

40. Well you never know, maybe they did (some of them).

If this election fraud gets uncovered, we shall see if those seats were won fair and square.

[Nordic]

20. you left out "The Democrats have no leadership"

which is the bottom line reason

[Touchdown]

21. 51-49% is not "kicking asses"

:eyes:

They didn't win in 2000, and barely scraped by in 2002. Cut the hyperbolic verbiage, please.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

24. They Control The House, Senate, and the Presidency...

That's a lot of power...


Close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades...

[IrateCitizen]

26. You forgot to mention they control the SCOTUS as well...

And that is perhaps the greatest power of all, since it can't be voted out....

[DemocratSinceBirth]

31. Thank God For SCOTUS...

Souter- o k

Breyer- o k

Ginsburg- o k

Stephens - o k

O'Connnor - could be worse

Kennedy- ditto

Scalia- reactionary

Thomas-reactionary

Rehnquist-reactionary

[IrateCitizen]

37. Yeah, but what are the changes over the next 4 years?

Souter- will likely stick around

Breyer- ditto

Ginsburg- who knows? Health problems (colon cancer) in the past, reactionary replacement likely

Stephens - He's 84 now, likely candidate for retirement, reactionary replacement likely

O'Connnor - I believe she's had cancer in the past, reactionary appointment likely

Kennedy- probably not going anywhere

Scalia- probably not going anywhere

Thomas- Probably not going anywhere, couldn't get a job clerking for a county judge otherwise

Rehnquist- Probably won't survive until 2006 due to cancer, reactionary replacement likely

[Touchdown]

30. That's right.

...but close got them there. They ran with that closeness as if they were mandates from landslides. and to answer you, I believe many of the Senate, and Governorships had some fishy results as well. They get voted on electro-machines too.

[Yuugal]

22. We are too conservative

Only a liberal helping of Jeebus can save us now!!!!! ;)

Seriously, I think we lose because we are too conservative. The country doesn't choose liberalism because they've never seen a real liberal and they don't know anything about us other than what they hear on TV.(all bad) If this party can ever ditch the corporate bootlickers then maybe the people as a whole will start to hear our message of a living wage and fairness for all. Kerry was for the Iraq war and he was worth 500 million. Hardly a populist firebrand.

[oldtime dfl_er]

25. its because they appeal to the lowest common denominator

of their base -- sorry to say it but the bigoted, the ignorant and the frightened. (you can tell Im a democrat because I am apologizing!)

[Swamp Rat]

27. They STEAL elections and they're quite brazen about it.

[bigfootme]

28. Because they lie with a straight face.

That and Americans have grown so trusting of their government that they don't think that any new laws that take away freedoms will ever be used against them, in fact many will argue that Americans have too many freedoms. Makes me wanna barf.

They are also what I call sheeple. They love to group think and then cast stones at anyone that dares to think otherwise.

It really looks to me that they have used the techniques of Edward Bernays, Goebbels and the Bible to do some mass brainwashing on a great many of these folks.

[tngledwebb]

34. There's Republicans and Republicans, and rigged elections on top.

But what we are really being brutalized by is a fascist war-mongering cabal deep within the system, an ugly and malignant 40 year old growth metastasized throughout the Govt and the MSM, that has manufactured consent, and ignorance, and apathy, in all levels of our society.

But we will excise that tumor, and soon.

[JI7]

35. they benefit from the geography/electoral map

in terms of presidential elections the electoral map favors them.

and of course they benefit in the same way when it comes to senate . they are overrepresented in terms of entire population of the united states.

also, more people view themselves as conservative than liberal and since republican party is seen as the conservative party they have an advantage there.

[AngryAmish]

36. Because we have not fought back

We need candidates and organizations who will find out opponents, drive them before us and crush them unmercifully.

[zulchzulu]

38. BBVs, the corporate media, Theocon Cult, lazy Americans...

If you can steal an election by rigging BBV and after you've had the American people hammered with right-leaning media channels on TV and the radio as well as a dedicated Theocon Cult base that will blindly vote against their interest over abortion, you're in pretty good shape.

[cattleman22]

39. Because of the attitude of some democrats

Why will undecided voters break for the Democrats when so many democrats are more for whining than anything else. Look at the results of this poll. Thirty some percent think the election was stolen. I don't believe that is an attitude that independents and undecideds will look highly upon.