Why do we keep losing? We are the good guys

[Ferrets are Cool]

That is all.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. we lose because we ARE the good guys - the bad guys are immoral and heartless.

and they are beating the crap out of us because they can get away with anything with no consequences - we've seen that for decades now.

[ProudLib72]

7. Maybe there ought to be consequences from now on

Lots of investigations with severe consequences at the end.

[theaocp]

42. Well, Obama said we look forward, not backward, right?

That's kind of defining "no consequences" for the bad guys. I say bring on Democratic majorities and let Benghazi be our template.

[EffieBlack]

2. We don't keep losing.

2006, 2008, 2012 ...

It just feels like it since we have been losing lately. But we’ll win again - IF we don’t give up

[tableturner]

3. Because we ACT like good guys!

[onecaliberal]

4. We have morals/ethics. We're not liars for the most part. We seek to help people, not cause hur

It is our party that wants schools, jobs, healthcare, clean air and water, and a fair break for all people. I could go on. The media talks about none of that. They’re too busy writing down what trump says every second of the day and then repeating it incessantly until he says some other stupid thing.

[Liberal In Texas]

5. Guess what? Good guys don't always win.

I hate to be a "Dabbie Downer" but this life isn't a TV show. Or a feel-good movie.

Evil frequently dominates for years if not centuries. Think of the Crusades and NAZI Germany.

We can only strive to stop the forces of evil with one kind and compassionate act, one at a time.

An act of defiance in the face of abject evil.

[Thekaspervote]

6. Take heart.. please read!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211242295

[global1]

8. Trump Told Us We Would Get Tired Of Winning.....nt

[oasis]

18. Vote those Russia paid off GOP traitors out of office. For starters. Nt

[issuesDemocrats]

10. Because we don't fight for what we believe in as ruthlessly as they do.

Also, the deck is stacked against us in terms of our system of government and elections.

And then there's racism and sexism...

[Garrett78]

11. This:

https://www.vox.com/2018/5/1/17258866/democratic-party-republicans-trump-election

[Codeine]

12. Because we don't vote.

Or more accurately, our natural constituencies cannot be relied upon to vote.

The bad guys never miss a chance to made their voice heard by casting a ballot. If we had that level of motivation the world would be a much better place.

[Joe941]

28. Hillary won the popular vote and russia...

Stole the votes. Do you remember?

[Codeine]

35. Which has nothing to do

with the myriad elections all over the country, especially in midterm elections. You’re focusing on one prize while we let the real goal of gaining control of Congress nd syate houses slide. The executive bench matters, but we need to remember the importance of legislative houses on both state and federal levels.

And if a few thousand more people in each of a handful of states had gotten off their asses and voted then Hillary would be getting shit done and be putting her second nominee on the SC. We got people out in ‘08 and failed to do so in ‘16. Our own damned fault.

[Joe941]

41. It's our own fault...

Russia stole the election... ok...

[OliverQ]

13. Apparently evil prospers and the good guys lose.

That's why evil trash like McConnell, Grassley, Trump, Hatch, etc. are still alive.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

14. Because the Republicans play politics with everything.

The Democrats play nice.
There is a line in the movie 'Mississippi Burning' where Willem Dafoe says to Gene Hackman 'you mean we should get down in the gutter to fight these people (meaning the Klan) and Hackman responds ' Yes, because these people crawled up from the sewer'. I am paraphrasing but it was close to that.
I sometimes think the Democratic Party is torn between Hackman and Defoe and Defor always seems to be the one we listen to. I suggest we change our thinking.............

[ooky]

15. We knew we were going to lose these SCOTUS battles

when we woke up on November 9, 2016.

[Codeine]

36. This.

I’m not sure why that eludes so many people.

[rwheeler31]

17. What are you trying to say?

"an honest seeming white woman"

[ms liberty]

27. Welcome to DU. Enjoy your stay.

Do you like pizza?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

33. welcome to ignore

[CousinIT]

19. PEOPLE. WON'T. VOTE. "We should only lament our future if we lack the will to fight for it."

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/100211242767

[Vinca]

20. We don't vote and we seldom fight back with any real oomph.

We have to start acting as if our lives depend on it . . . because they do.

[betsuni]

21. Because Republicans are an organized crime group waging a war against the U.S.

Democrats don't lose. Their wins are stolen, by whatever means necessary.

[Hortensis]

22. ELECTORAL COLLEGE. From there, redistricting after

a massive electoral 2010 midterm win by the right. That huge success was part of the same giant right-wing conspiracy packing the courts with Kavanaughs is.

But we are a strong majority and we couldn't fail to overcome those huge handicaps without the special contribution of those on the left who didn't vote for the Democratic candidates. They didn't even vote to stop the obvious anti-democratic authoritarianism rising on the right. Some actually voted for it.

Some even claimed that staying silent in the face rising evil or actually voting against our candidate when Trump promised to persecute Muslims and immigrants was a matter of conscience. Hopefully, that is in the past. We need every mentally capable person on the lines.

[Blue_true]

23. Why do you ask that question?

The answer is in plain sight for any that chooses to see it. Just look at the 2000(prime case), 2004(he didn't excite people, even after two unjust wars started and thousands of dead Americans and hundreds of thousand dead others), and 2016(some wanted Bernie in the face of obvious danger).

If I meet a young woman who wrote in Bernie in the 2016 General or did not vote because she was pissed off about Hillary being our nominee and I find that she has recently been denied rights or victimized, though I would grieve for her, I would also conclude that she could have potentially changed her future and chose not to. Same rationale with an LGBTQ, Black, Hispanic person that made the same choice. People need to realize that when choices are stark, they must put bullshit aside and vote for the obvious best choice. Until that happens consistently, we will continue to lose eventhough we are the majority and by far, far, the most right.

[zanana1]

24. YES, YES, YES!

[JI7]

25. We Win in California

[JI7]

26. the Republican Party is pretty much about White Male Superiority/Privilege while everyone else is

the enemy. more specifically xtian hetero white male. and the women who depend on them.

they appeal to a single type.

while democrats are more diverse . not just in their personal backgrounds but their views on issues also. some are even conservative leaning but are turned off by the bigotry of the republicans .

[anarch]

29. speaking for 2016, well that's what happens when one side follows the rules, and the other doesn't

More importantly, as several people have noted already, our apathetic population largely doesn't vote.


All we can reasonably do is steel ourselves, keep chipping away at the entrenched white supremacy in our culture, and get out the vote. I'm a congenital optimist when it comes to the long game--I think this current crop of reactionary fascists represents the last desperate attempt of what was once an insurmountable white male hegemony to hold on to power; sheer demographics will overcome them eventually...the vote this November will be crucial, but frankly even with a strong Democratic victory it's not like everything would be instantly fixed--we have a long slog ahead of us; with the stolen judiciary, I suspect it'll be another generation before we can really "take our country back," to borrow a phrase. I expect I'll be long gone by then, but I feel that progress is inevitable and our society will eventually move past this absurd situation we're in. (Or we'll all die in some horrific human-caused calamity, in which case we'll all be dead and our problems will be over...either way, we gotta just keep trying; fight these bastards to the last breath!)

[SkipG]

30. The system is still rigged to favor the old slave, now just backward states, and...

there's lots and lots of oligarch/corporate money to throw at a relatively small number of "conservative" issues that can spin up the rubes so they don't notice their pockets are being picked.

[Mike Nelson]

31. Everyone must...

… agree to vote for the Democrat picked. Everyone. We need more than 50% as it's rigged, but we still have enough voters to win.

And, maybe, change the tone so the people can see... after listening to Susan Collins' speech, don't say, "My good friend..." anymore. Collins is not a friend to sex assault victims... unless they accuse a Democrat. Say it out loud. Collins thought Kavanaugh should get a promotion with a sham investigation; she thought Franken should resign with no investigation. That's the Republican way... SAY IT. Senators need to start pointing stuff out more...

Investigate Kavanaugh for perjury, if power is regained in the House of Representatives. Why is lying now acceptable for over-emotional Supreme Court nominees? Investigate Trump... Mueller will not be enough; after all, he is a Republican. Democrats need to investigate, for a change. STOP PLAYING FAIR... they don't!

[lanlady]

32. a line from Space Balls says it all

Said by Rick Moranis in the Darth Vader suit: "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb"

Like all good comedy, there's truth in it.

[Amishman]

34. Geography

Our base is very heavily concentrated in cities. Zero offices in this country are determined by nationwide popular vote. Geography matters and the locations of our support put us at a huge disadvantage.

Only two ways to fix it. Change the system to remove our geographic disadvantage or change our platform for broader appeal.

[Kilgore]

43. You nailed it

I live and work in a rural area that was once very democratic. As the party became less interested in rural issues and more centered in cities, folks started voting republican. Our county carried Trump and now has a conservative representative.

The people are the same. They think the party walked away from them

[Sancho]

37. Most obvious reasons...

1.) the elections are hacked, and have been since 2000
2.) most people (in the US) don't vote
3.) the repubs are well-funded by a basket of deplorable, wealthy crooks

[bdamomma]

46. the government

is owned by rich white guys that's not a democracy, its a oligarchy. Putin must be happy with grasshopper.

[Freddie]

38. Too many structural disadvantages

The end result is that rural people’s votes count more than ours. I wish there was something we could do about it short of civil war. But as long as changing the system requires cooperation from those who are advantaged by it, change is never going to happen.
Even though the structure of the Senate is wrong IMO (giving land more power than people) it’s understandable why it was created. But the House was the one body that was *supposed* to represent the people, one person one vote. With gerrymandering, that is gone too. The solution is to end gerrymandering and greatly increase the size of Congress to, say, one rep per 400000 citizens. The size of Congress was set at 437 to limit the influence of big cities - which, 100 years ago, were teeming with recent immigrants. Nothing sacred about that number.
But these changes will never happen. In due time THE PEOPLE will get completely fed up with tyranny of the minority, and there will be a civil war.

[Donkees]

39. We need some haka dancers

[beachbum bob]

40. we don't control the messaging for starters

and then look at our dismal performance in elections where too many democrats are simply too lazy to vote


we are here because we let it happen

[Kurt V.]

44. Taxation, deregulation and privatization

are the main issues of the donor class. money still wins elections

[bdamomma]

45. We need to keep reminding them

MERRICK GARLAND.

This was all McConnell, he already knew what was coming down the pipeline, with the Russian interference.

Repigs are thugs just like their leader.

[Hoyt]

47. Lots of reasons, but we must recognize there are lot more callous white wingers than we believe,

or at least want to believe.

[Ferrets are Cool]

48. Thank you for all the wonderful responses...

It was great to hear from each of you. I hate that cheaters, liars and the rich have the advantage because they cheat, lie and throw money at the right places.

I honestly do not know how we get out of this quagmire. Yes, we must vote, but we won the vote in Nov 2016 and still "lost" because they cheated. We won the vote in 2000 and "lost" because they cheated.
It does seem as though they have gotten even better at cheating since then.

I will continue to vote AND to encourage others to vote, but it does seem as though we are in a downward spiral that is never ending.

GET OUT THE VOTE!!! I know of nothing more we can do.