The Sky is Not Falling

[NightWatcher]

A House District that has voted republican since 1979 voted that way again yesterday.

That's the only postmortem we need.

That it was closer than usual is a good thing but not a ground shattering moment.

Stop saying that we need to fire Pelosi or rethink our platform or strategies.


Now let's get back to piling on trump and drive him from office.

[Blue_Roses]

1. Well said

Thank-you

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. I agree, and thank you!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Why did Trump pick Tom Price for HHS?

-just apart from the fact that he's a right-wing nutbag. Price was chosen over other right-wing nutbags because the GOP was confident that the seat he was vacating was safe. Republicans voted for a Republican in a Republican district - quelle surprise. I am encouraged by the fact that the election was as close as it was, considering that for the last 40 years the GOPer always won by huge margins. Some years the Dems didn't even have a candidate. The sky is not falling at all, but it will take time and a lot of work to right the ship.

[GoCubsGo]

9. Yep.

The same holds true for Mulvaney's seat, and Nikki Haley's governorship, and...

[J_William_Ryan]

4. We need to avoid a sour grapes fallacy.

The frustrating fact is that this is the type of election we need to win to have any hope of turning the political tide.

[Demsrule86]

15. We will not win elections in deep red states...there are some we may win...

The House is gerrymandered...which is why we have not won even though millions more voted for us than the GOP. Changing leadership won't fix that.

[IronLionZion]

18. District lines are drawn every 10 years, people move more often

so some districts in suburban areas have seen major demographic changes making them more competitive in spite of gerrymandering 7 years ago. In the last 10 years we've seen entire states switch from red to blue: Virginia, Nevada, Colorado, and we apparently lost some rust belt voters.

[Demsrule86]

21. Not competititive enough for us to win...millions more votes were cast for the Democrats

in the House...and we are not in the majority. Gerrymandering is huge and must be addressed because if they keep the states, the GOP will do it again...and now they are threatening a constitutional convention.

[IronLionZion]

23. We need to win state legislatures

since that's who draws the lines

And our party has been challenging them in the courts when they blatantly drew the lines based on race

[niyad]

5. agreed. refer everyone to pic of the day.

[secondwind]

6. K&R !!!!!

[muntrv]

7. Agreed. I survived 1994 midterms, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2014, 2016, etc..

To me, this is re-run.

[GoCubsGo]

8. Kick. Rec.

[Wabbajack_]

10. Not the whole sky by any means

But a big chunk fell and hit the DCCC in the face.

[Demsrule86]

12. And that my friend...is why we lose...blame blame and more blame for the only

party that can stop the Republicans...exactly what did the DCCC do wrong this time sigh.

[liskddksil]

11. When we haven't won a competitive election in nearly 6 years

we need to make changes. Things aren't working so let's fix them.

[Demsrule86]

13. No, we need to end the gerrymander and stop fighting among ourselves...we need a loyal and

supportive base, we can count on.

[liskddksil]

27. We can't end gerrymanders until after the 2020 census, and to do that we need to be in power

so given the limitations of our current situation we need to figure out out to win now. This means not repeating the same mistakes we've been making including the constant demoralizing "we're doomed" fundraising emails that our current crop of consultants seems to love, and endless GOTV phone-calls to the point of harassment that seem to lose us more voters than gain. This means a coherent, dynamic and simple message that can be distilled into a tagline, that is more than we are not Trump. I don't see our current leaders having learned anything from 2016 in this Georgia election which is why it's time for some new voices.

[Demsrule86]

30. that is not really true...I think the gerrymander is losing its effectiveness... and with

care candidate selection we have a shot with the House and if the Senate passes this terrible health care bill the Senate.

[NightWatcher]

14. We should hire hackers so that we can win next time

The GOP doesn't seem to mind have a shit voting system in place as long as they wil. If we hacked and won, they'd fix it toot sweet

[tiredtoo]

16. The Democratic Party

Has lost numerous governorships and state legislators and all branches of federal government in the last 20 years.
Change is indeed needed!

[cubbies01]

17. Agree but

the problem is these gains have come from a 20 year program employing propaganda across the AM/FM airwaves then Fox News then internet Blogs then Social Media that has trained a HUGE (bigly) number of folks to fear democrats and live in an alternative reality. It is really hard to combat what they have done.

Two items of hope:

1: People are slowly,very slowly waking up and seeing through the bull
2: A large portion of our brainwashed countrymen/women are quite simply getting very old and will die....and the younger folks are less susceptible to this stuff.

[FiveGoodMen]

25. "the younger folks are less susceptible to this stuff"

Give me one reason to believe that.

At 57, I've been through several rounds of "the young will save us" and it's been complete bullshit so far.

The younger generation is just as susceptible to evil as the previous one.

Why do you think there are organizations of College Republicans in this day and age?

Waiting for evil to die off is and always has been a losing strategy.

[tiredtoo]

28. amen that

at 76 i too have seen many rounds of the young will save us.
ps. not all old white men have drank the Kool-aid.

[Chakaconcarne]

19. And it's no mandate for trumpcare

Wtf

[Still In Wisconsin]

20. "Stop saying that we need to fire Pelosi or rethink our platform or strategies. " I agree on Pelosi

But... to say that strategies don't need revision is naive. It's not just this election- we've been losing ground in congress, state legislatures, and governorships slowly but surely for decades. More of the same is not a strategy.

[Moral Compass]

22. Multiple sources are representing this is an unusual crushing defeat

Multiple sources are representing this as an unusually crushing defeat. One of NPR's guests said it this morning. I also read it in the Dallas morning news. As usual, the narrative is being skewed.

I saw the numbers last night and I kept wondering how this could be a crushing defeat in a district that's been in republican hands for 40 years.

The margin of victory yesterday, by the way, was 3.8%. In that district this was a remarkably close race. It would've been really nice if Jon Ossoff could have won but from the very beginning it was very unlikely that he was going to win.

I contributed quite a bit of money to his race and like everybody else on Democratic Underground I'm extremely disappointed.

But to put things in perspective, when Tom Price ran in 2016 he beat Rodney Stooksbury by 23.2%.

I'm sure if I went back and looked at the other results they would be just as lopsided.

We need to not accept the narrative that is being established. We're gaining on them and in their back yards.

[HenryWallace]

24. With this attitude, prepare for a long future of "postmortem(s)!

"Stay the course" and expect more of the same.......

[tiredtoo]

29. Well put sir, well put. EOM

[ehrnst]

31. And with the attitude that gains are nothing, we will have a future of even more postmortem(s)

Learning how Ossoff came so much more close than his predecessor did against Price should be studied, and not dismissed as some sort of massive failure, yes?

[samnsara]

26. we will overcome!