Should Democrats ask the voters?

[kentuck]

"Do you want the House and Senate to investigate the Russian involvement in our election and whether or not they had help from the Trump Administration?"

Should that be on the table in the next election? Is it an issue with "legs"?

Should Democrats be straightforward and honest with the voters and ask for their help in changing the House and Senate? Because that is the only way we will find the answers to what has been done to our government?

Is it important?

[JustAnotherGen]

1. It's my number one priority

And I'm not alone - so yes.

If maggots voters don't like it? Fuck 'm.

See what maggot is doing?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029026409

[Wounded Bear]

2. I'm not so sure...

I mean, "The Russians are coming!" doesn't have the same panache as "Benghazi!"

People who support progressives aren't so subject to such motivations, and people are probably tired of investigations in general. It'll sound like more of the same to the average voters. Yes, we need to motivate the base, but we also need to reach out to that vast middle who stay home.

[vi5]

3. I just don't think that is the issue that is going to resonate....

...honestly we've got to mobilize voters and give them reasons to vote FOR Dems, and let them know what Dems stand FOR.

I think the Russia issue is important and by all means should be investigated but I don't think it's going to be anyone's primary voting issue.

And in a sense that is one of my biggest issues at this point is that we have far too many Dems and far too many people in charge of our party who are way too "insider baseball" focused. I don't think that Republicans actually care about anyone other than the wealthy, but they do what they need to in terms of speaking the language of the voters and getting them riled up with issues that they care about, even if in the end they don't actually do anything about it.

This week was a good example. I'm a middle aged, hardcore bit D Democrat who has been following politics religiously for decades now. And I had to be told the reference point from 25 years ago for singing "Hey Hey Goodbye" on the house floor. Most people won't get that, and a lot of people I heard talking, even ones sympathetic to our cause saw that as just more political gamesmanship and electoral taunting rather than outrage at what had happened. I get that the Dems in the house were being clever and referencing something Republicans did 25 years ago, but that is kind of the point. Too often I think we have this inner beltway fixation on how things should be. See also: the obsession with 'bipartisanship' that still seems to exist. It doesn't exist and it hasn't existed, and Republicans know enough to stop pretending that it exists but Dems seem slow to get the message.


So......I don't know. I think the Russia thing is big but I think it's just way too arcane and nuanced for it to be what we hang our hat on electorally.

[kentuck]

4. If the voters are not interested in this issue...?

What issue would they care about?

If the very survival of democracy is unimportant to them, then we are in deep trouble, in my opinion.

[vi5]

5. Yes. We are in deep trouble.

You are absolutely right. Again, my point wasn't that they SHOULDN'T care about this issue, just that knowing them and being as cynical as I am, and having watched what has been going on the past however many years, I don't think it will.

Unless the rumors of Russian hookers peeing on Trump comes up, then it's salacious enough for most people. But in the absence of that, there's just too much nuance and intricacy to this issue for it to be what we hang our hat on.