Stop acting surprised voters like liberal policies but conservative pols

[Recursion]

Repeat after me: "policies don't get candidates votes." Most voters do not vote on policy. US politics will make very little sense to you until you grasp that.

It's been a mantra in every campaign I've ever worked for. Mississippi and Texas have both seen personhood amendments go down in flames, but will not elect pro-choice candidates in our lifetime.

This is why those of us who advocate running conservative candidates in conservative areas do that: because voters in conservative areas want to vote for somebody of their tribe. We advocate that because we are for liberal policy, not against it.

Back in the Pleistocene I wrote an anti-tobacco program for some high schools. In the focus groups we did, an interesting thing came out: teens don't think smoking is cool; they think smokers are cool. Attempts to tell them about how bad smoking is were missing the point. It's like that.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Erm, conservative Dem candidates keep getting beaten in conservative districts.

So obviously their 'tribe' is not based on 'conservative', but some other commonality.

[JI7]

2. depends on who, why does Manchin continue to get support ?

[branford]

13. Would more liberal Democrats have fared better in these conservative districts?

The "tribe" analysis may still be correct, just those particular Democrats were not sufficiently conservative to be considered part of the "tribe."

[JVS]

18. if you say policy doesn't matter...

then you can't define a hypothesized determining factor (tribe) in terms of policy direction. That's like saying it doesn't matter how the ice cream is flavored as long as it smells like strawberry and not like peach.

Or to use a math term, your vectors are not linearly independent.

[Odin2005]

3. Americans vote based on tribal alliagence, not issues.

American society has dissolved into two antagonistic cultural tribes, we are no different than some countries in Africa where people vote for a candidate purely because he or she is in the same ethnic group as them. Most conservatives will NEVER vote for a Democrat no matter how conservative the candidate is.

[GliderGuider]

4. This tendency isn't unique to Americans by any means.

Humans have developed and honed their tribal identification instincts over hundreds of thousands of years of evolution.

[Odin2005]

8. Yes, hence my Africa reference.

Namely the election-triggered ethnic violence in Kenya that happened a few years ago.

[Recursion]

14. I agree, except that tribe can still transcend party

Manchin, Tester, Giffords, Graham...

[1StrongBlackMan]

16. I would say ...

Americans vote based on tribal alliagence, not issues.

That holds true for straight white americans; but less so, for historically marginalized groups. Take African-Americans, for example, we have never/rarely had a "tribal alliance" to vote for; but rather, have had to vote on the issues ... same goes for the LGBT community.

[Bluenorthwest]

5. Voters around here like progressive policy and politicians. This is not Mississippi.

Here's who I advocate running in various places: Democrats who actually win. If people don't vote for policy, what the fuck does it matter if the affinity they feel for a candidate comes from conservatism? If it's not about policy, why is their tribe 'conservatives'? What defines conservatives? Policy. So it really is policy that people vote for? Why isn't their tribe 'people who live 'round here'? Because of policy.
It seems confused, what you are saying.
What district do you live in where the conservatives are conservative independent of policy?

[Recursion]

9. Democrats who actually win

Well, as you got pissed at me for pointing out before, the two Democratic House candidates who beat Republicans were Gwen Graham in Florida and Brad Ashford in Nebraska. Both conservative, both likely to join the blue dog coalition, both spent a lot of time on the trail running away from Obama and the national party. Those are the only results we got, and that's what the party is going to look to.

If it's not about policy, why is their tribe 'conservatives'?

Because they have a high "disgust" response, view the country symbolically, and prefer false positives to false negatives. That's what most sociologists I've read say the big difference is. That often translates into conservative policies, but it doesn't need to.

[Barack_America]

6. Americans voters vote for the perception of strength.

Obama is disliked because of his perceived weakness and inability to lead much more so than his policies. That's why we're forever doomed with these simpering, triangulating, apologetic 3rd way DINOs.

When they're spelled out in ballot proposals, in a ballot box, where the corporate media cannot interject, Americans LIKE liberal policies.

[True Blue Door]

7. Quite right: Americans vote for typically vote for candidates, not issues.

Until the Democratic Party, and specifically the base, gets it through its thick head that strong candidates make strong issues, not the other way around, we will continue experiencing these senseless yo-yo election cycles.

[Recursion]

10. Like the way Manchin could introduce universal background checks and not alienate his supporters

He sold it as "we can't let Al-Qaeda-influenced illegal Mexican immigrants buy guns."

[geek tragedy]

11. Even simpler, voters hate the government but expect it to help them out. nt

[Recursion]

12. And want to eliminate the deficit by getting rid of foreign aid

[1StrongBlackMan]

15. +1,0000 ... Kicked for truth ...

This is exactly what we saw in this past election ... how many districts approved minimum wage increases, MMJ, anti-personage, and a bunch of other progressive initiatives; while electing candidates that vocally opposed the same?

[JVS]

17. There's a contraction in your logic.

Repeat after me: "policies don't get candidates votes." Most voters do not vote on policy.

Then
This is why those of us who advocate running conservative candidates in conservative areas do that: because voters in conservative areas want to vote for somebody of their tribe.


If policies don't get candidates votes, then why do voters from conservative areas insist on policians who pursue conservative policies? You just said policy is irrelevant.

The answer you seem to offer in your post is that conservative areas have a tribe. What is this tribe based on and, since you've declared policy irrelevant , what's stopping us from finding a tribe member who will enact liberal policy?