There are vast swaths of the country just unreachable to Democrats

[LymphocyteLover]

they are beyond being reasoned with, unable to listen to policy, they are brainwashed herd animals, I hate to say. All those fucking rural areas have been completely taken over by the right, I don't see anyway out. Maddening, frustrating, depressing as hell.

Sure, Repubs suppress the vote and rig the system, but THEY HAVE THEIR RURAL BASE that we cannot touch.

[Blue_playwright]

1. Which is crazy...

... because the Pukes screw the rural and farming communities over and over.

[LymphocyteLover]

2. Right? These people are just beyond reason.

[PatSeg]

44. And also

In a different era, these people would have been proud FDR Democrats. Over the years, republicans have thoroughly brainwashed them to the point where they will vote against their own interests almost every time.

[David__77]

3. I disagree.

And 3141 county approach is needed.

The people on the losing end of historic changes to the economy should not be left for dead. They need practical solutions.

[Codeine]

7. They don't want practical solutions.

They want blacks to be hurt and flags to be waved. That’s literally all they give a shit about.

[Celerity]

12. and births to be forced

[Mariana]

23. Yes, and religion is a huge factor in Trump's support.

I suspect that Trump got the majority of the Christians' votes again this time, just like he did in 2016. If the right wing brainwashing machine media all vanished tomorrow, many of the Christian churches in these areas would still be preaching loyalty to Trump.

[BusyBeingBest]

15. No, they like trucks and weapons, too.

[Codeine]

28. I stand corrected!

[LymphocyteLover]

21. Dems HAVE solutions, they just don't spend a lot of effort selling them

maybe they need to?

[Cosmocat]

26. They can "sell" them 24-7 what these people hear

Is SOCIALISM!

[TexasBushwhacker]

27. Yes, SOCIALISM is what they fear

but keep those farm subsidies coming.

MADDENING!

[LymphocyteLover]

29. Yep... as they take their fucking govt handouts

I'm so sick of it

[DumpTrump20202020]

4. maybe some of us should move.. hear me out

California will never go red, so maybe some Californians should move to the purple states? And a few from NY, MA

[Hestia]

10. I told my DH the same thing. Global warming is not going to get better and people will need to move

anyway. There is still ties from the Great Depression in the red states when the economy and Dust Bowl pushed people off of their land migrated to West Coast. We need new blood to wash out the old.

Just keep your HOA's to yourself.

[TexasBushwhacker]

32. That is part of what happened in Texas to make it purple

Californians in the tech industry have moved to Texas by the thousands, generally settling in the Austin area.

Texas's Latinx population, currently 32%, will eventually eclipse the non-Hispanic white population, currently 41%.

Of course, older, more conservative people will die and be replaced by younger, more liberal people, but the young people in conservative areas are often conservative.

[dubyadiprecession]

5. It's not much in the glaring light of having an antiqueted thing, such as the electoral college, but

...3 million more people at this point, want Biden!

[spicysista]

6. This!

The electoral college must end or be reformed. Are we the United States or what? What does my citizenship have to do with which state I reside?
Why aren't more people pushing for these changes to our system?

[Bigredhunk]

14. -

Well, I know why one party and all of its voters (a little under half of all voters) aren't pushing to change it. This will be the 7th out of the last 8 elections that Dems have won the popular vote. Except for w in 2004 (supposedly), Dems would've won every election (but one) over the past 28 years.

You're never going to convince repubs to change it. They can't win if it's changed. They certainly aren't going to win on their ideas.

[spicysista]

17. I'm afraid you're right.

We still should raise the issue. Like gay marriage being about equality, this too is a matter of equality. One person's vote should not outweigh another simply because of one's geographic location.

[TexasBushwhacker]

33. FWIW, there are millions of Republican votes

in big blue states like California and New York that they aren't getting credit for because of the EC. As we see in the popular vote, things are really a lot closer than folks think.

[spicysista]

37. Very true. nt

[dubyadiprecession]

40. I agree, but how can it be extracted from our Constitution?

[spicysista]

41. I don't think it needs to be extracted from the constitution.

I think we should reform how the EC votes are allocated. For example, states could award them proportionally based on each state's popular vote. If Joe wins 45% in TX, he would receive that portion of EC votes for the state.
There are all sorts of decorative ideas out there. Some have a bit of steam behind them, too.

Some interesting articles on the matter:

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-reform-electoral-college

http://archive.fairvote.org/e_college/reform.htm

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/01/12/electoral-college-reform-conservatives-223965

[Freethinker65]

8. Fear is a great motivator.

[Blues Heron]

9. Disagree

Almost anybody is reachable.

[pfitz59]

11. There are ways

jerk on their heart-strings. End govt subsidies that make rural areas livable. Or remind them of the past. FDR gave them Rural Electrification and The US Soil Service.

[LymphocyteLover]

18. yeah, it's not impossible but it would be massive amount of work that would

take away time courting other voters.

[LiberalFighter]

34. Allow phone companies to charge more in rural areas?

[Celerity]

13. will not work, they are inoculated with RW baby jeebus and white power

[Bigredhunk]

16. IDK

I've lived in Iowa almost all my life (save for 5 years or so). I'm middle-aged now. If you drive between cities here (say Dubuque to Iowa City), ALL of the houses in the country are republicans. You're lucky if 1 in 50 isn't. It's just always been the way it is. Rural/farmers are all republicans. The cities are predominantly Democrats. EVERY DAMN political sign in the country is republican.

Remember the interviews with farmers who were really hurting b/c of drumpf's policies? They would all be like, "I might go out of business or even lose my farm. But I still support the president and what he's trying to do." They can't be reasoned with I tell ya'.

[LymphocyteLover]

19. that's what I'm saying!

[Bigredhunk]

22. Yup

I agree with you. I should've replied to one of the other posts ("nobody can be written off&quot instead of just responding to the thread.

[gollygee]

20. We have to motivate our people better than they motivate their people

Trump motivated them in a bigger way than most Republicans have. We haven't had a Democrat candidate who really motivated Democrats since Obama. We need motivational candidates.

[octoberlib]

24. Chris Hayes did a Twitter post on education polarization and a lot of teachers

chimed in , in the comments. An Oregon teacher said that how they teach social studies in KY is subpar and completely different than blue states. There's also the white evangelical faction. In John Dean's book Authoritarian Nightmare, professor Altemeyer said that authoritarian followers, al ot of whom are evangelicals memorize their principles and beliefs from their "leaders" (pastors, parents, politicians) rather than adopting them through thought, education and experience.

[Demsrule86]

25. If your message doesn't work than you must find one that will work and win hearts and minds.

[Turin_C3PO]

39. The problem is

what if we can’t? What if bigotry is their sole motive? How do we adapt to that? Obviously Dems can’t abandon minorities. So it’s a tough problem.

[onetexan]

30. Scarborough said we're a 50/50 country, and it makes sense as to why things are the way they are now

[Demovictory9]

31. 25 - 45% of people in those states vote blue

Dont forget that. Red states arent 100% red

[TexasBushwhacker]

35. And blue states aren't 100% blue

Think of all the disenfranchised Republicans in California and New York. We should get rid of the EC and focus on GOTV in EVERY state.

[Demovictory9]

36. Yep.

[lagomorph777]

38. I see it differently. There is a large swath who can be easily brainwashed.

We just need to take control of the washing machines: RW radio, Falsebook, and Twit.

We have some billionaire allies and many brilliant media and data people.

We can do this.

[LymphocyteLover]

42. Absolutely-- but when??? Can we FINALLY do this?

[crickets]

43. Thank you. This point needs to be hammered home with top Dems over and over

and over again. This country is being held hostage by propaganda from without and within, and we will never have a healthy republic again until we deal with it.