I don't actually have a lot to say about this, but the fucking audacity to claim it was the one generation that overwhelmingly backed Clinton that caused her to lose...I'm sorry, but if you really think you can blame us and not the PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR DONALD TRUMP then you deserve to lose over and over and over again until you wake up.

We lost the election this year, and there's not an easy explanation for why. However, there are some simple facts we should acknowledge:

1) Turnout was down among some voters who voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012.
2) Some Obama voters from 2008 and 2012 chose to vote 3rd Party.
3) Some Obama voters from 2008 and 2012 flipped to Trump.

Why did these changes occur? Well for the last 3 weeks we've all bickered over why we think 2016 didn't turn out the way we wanted. It's turned out that, honestly, there probably is not one big reason. It's probably many small reasons, each of which are complex, and some of which are interconnected. Certainly a difficult situation to be in! Some people voted for Trump because they are bigoted and we may not be able to reach them again. Some people voted for Trump because they were duped, and maybe they will be reachable. Some people did not vote (or voted 3rd Party) because they didn't like our message this year. Some people did not vote because they felt that both parties have ignored them for many years, or that we took their votes for granted. Some people simply weren't mobilized to vote (thinking of GOTV in Milwaukee and things like that). It's a lot of different reasons and we could probably go back and change any one thing and get a different result.

But that's all over. We can't change it, and debating exactly what grand unified theory explains the past is fruitless and counter-productive. So this is where you come in:

What specific steps does the Democratic Party need to take in the next 2 years to win elections again? This is a pretty open-ended question, it can be in terms of policies, leadership, messaging, tactical strategy, or anything else you think has to happen for us to win. Reply with your recommendations below!

The media, and many of the posters here, have repeated this smear for the last several days but it's entirely false. Sanders has said again and again that Democrats must stand up against racist, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and all other forms of bigotry. He has stood in steadfast opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline, indeed I think he's said more about it than anybody else considered a leader of the Democratic Party. He has repeatedly said, even in his recent remarks, that Trump's racism, sexism, and xenophobia is unacceptable and must be challenged at every opportunity.

To the core of the remarks that have been misconstrued: Sanders said Democrats must go beyond just identity politics. What he means by this is not to throw minorities under the bus (that would be the moderate Democrats that want to do that) but to fight for economic and social justice in equal measures. Realizing that these problems are related and interconnected (which is what we call "intersectionality" is key to articulating a political vision. A stripped down version of identity politics, one that many liberals (and some conservatives) employ to much consternation, is to advance the interests of elite members of minority communities while leaving structural forms of oppression in place. But getting more women and minorities in boardrooms or the Cabinet does not help the average person on its own, especially if they carry out policies that harm average people. Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson, and Nikki Haley are going to be in Trump's cabinet, but do we REALLY believe that represents actual progress that helps dismantle institutional racism and misogyny?

Centrists would like to project their own problematic history onto the left: like when they supported blowing up people all over the Middle East, opposed gay marriage, supported restrictions on abortion, dismantled the welfare state, allowed the Bush administration to oppress Muslims, and unleashed police departments and private prisons and allowed them to construct the school-to-prison pipeline. Everywhere a social issue could be found in the last 30 years, you could find moderate Democrats standing with Republicans in odious ways, while progressives tried to drag the party left. All of the advances for LGBTQ rights in the last 50 years has been met with resistance from both parties, but those of us who are queer leftists fought to win more rights. Centrists (remember when homophobes like Harold Ford, Jr. ran the DLC?) have opposed us at every turn, and some Democrats are once again trying to throw trans people under the bus to get nondiscrimination laws passed for gay people, just like they tried to do in 2007.

The lie that Bernie Sanders wants to abandon social justice is told on purpose. It is told because liberals in the media and political establishment, and even here on this board, hate the left more than they do conservatives. They think George W. Bush is cuddly and that Ronald Reagan was right about many things, but are mistaken. They want capitalism to persist with only token reforms, and think the current foreign policy of the United States is just fine. The abuses of our system do not weigh on the liberal heart, because at their core liberals believe that the status quo is truly good, that "America is already great." But for a large number of Americans, ESPECIALLY those of us who are marginalized by institutional oppression, America has many, many flaws. Major change is needed, and remaining blind to that change will only make things worse.

If liberals want to continue living in a post-fact delusional fantasy where everything is fine and capitalism is great, then perhaps I don't feel like disturbing them. But as long as they spread lies and half-truths to purposefully discredit the Left, they will receive our opposition on any forum that allows it.

The Democratic Party and its liberal base has two options for the future of America: Socialism or Barbarism. Which will you choose?

I don't have inside information on this, but apparently James Hoffa has a big challenge in leadership from Fred Zuckerman. I live in Kentucky so I know a little about Zuckerman from his leadership of the local Teamsters, but am not entirely sure how the candidates differ politically, if at all. It does appear that Zuckerman is running on reform, while Hoffa's team seem to be looking to preserve the status quo within the union. People interested in organized labor might do well to keep an eye on this.

Here's an article about the election from last month: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/19540/zuckerman_v._hoffa_can_a_pissed-off_teamster_push_out_the_incumbent

And here's a link to results as they come in from both campaigns:
http://hoffahall2016.com/election/
http://www.teamstersunited.org/vote_count

So we lost the 2016 Presidential election, and actually we lost a bunch of other elections. I'll post a cleaned up version of my reply in Ken Burch's thread here, because I want to figure out a way to fix the mess we're in:

Trump did better with every racial group than Romney did, won white women by double digits, and won over some people who voted for Obama in 2008 or 2012. And a bunch of our own people did not vote at all!

We've got to run a campaign that fixes that. I'm of the opinion that taking on the system is probably our ticket out of this: talking about institutional racism, economic inequality, etc. are when we do best. President Obama's campaign in 2012 was about inequality (he went and campaigned on the auto bailout across the Midwest) and he did quite well. Obama's campaign in 2008 was about changing the status quo, going after Wall Street, and helping people get back on their feet. He did quite well then too.

Since we can't run Obama in 2020, we've gotta run some kind of campaign that can recapture his winning coalition. Whatever happened this year didn't win, so we should learn from whatever mistakes we made. Then we can build a winning campaign for the 2018 midterms and the 2020 Presidential election.

It's time to put this Orange Baboon Putsch down with an overwhelming vote at the polls. Every one of us here should be voting for Hillary Clinton tomorrow, but our last push has to be to have the hard conversations with the Trump supporters in our lives.

I'm talking about the relatives that you avoid all year so you don't have to hear what they heard on Fox News; call up your racist uncle and really work him over on this Trump feller. Tell him the guy's a con man that hates the poor and won't stop until we're all broke and suffering. I want you to call your grandma and tell her that Donald Trump is gonna make your life worse. Tell her how he's gonna hurt you if you're a woman, an LGBTQ person, a racial minority, or even if you just love somebody not on his list. I need you to call up your church group and tell them that religious freedom is under ATTACK, and it's under attack by a fake haired moron who will strip away the right to worship one by one of every group that stands up against him.

I need you to talk to your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, and your enemies. Plead with them, tell them the disaster that this man will rain down on humanity. Bring up how he insults veterans and disparages the dead. Tell your friends about how Donald Trump isn't somebody you'd trust your daughter with, let alone the standing of this country on the world stage.

And if that's not enough, tell people that Donald Trump wants to be President so he can control nuclear weapons. The man is a certifiable nut, and anybody that votes for him is either pure evil or dumber than a box of rocks.

Now let's get out there and make Candy Corn Hitler go away for good.

Nearly all of them have come around to supporting Hillary. There are a couple really pesky holdouts, but they're as likely to vote for Johnson as Stein from what I can tell. People are starting to calm down and decide that, despite our differences during the primary season, Hillary is the best and only chance to stop Trump. I think the string of bad polls for Hillary/good polls for Trump maybe helped wake people up to the possibility that he could actually win. Nobody who truly supported Bernie wants that.

It's become obvious at this point that the media will give Trump a pass for nearly everything but the most outlandish comments, and even then, the controversy only lasts a few media cycles. This is standard for American politics, but it's created a horrible double standard between the candidates. If you want to know why Trump is suddenly gaining on Hillary, realize that for years now, Trump has been putting his foot in his mouth on a nearly daily basis. The voters are so numb to his nonsense, and the media so tired of repeating how bad that he is, that the only exciting angle to take now is covering how well he's supposedly behaving.

Now everyday that Trump doesn't insult Gold Star families, disabled veterans, Hispanics, Muslims, or some other group of Americans is a "win" for him in the press. Hillary Clinton is held to a professional standard, and indeed a much higher standard than most politicians because she is a woman. Hillary has to be nearly perfect to escape criticism, and every time anything (including non-stories like a mild illness) goes wrong, she is raked over the coals. For weeks, Trump has been given soft praise for every time he didn't screw up. Hillary has been critiqued for every time she didn't meet impossible expectations.

This has not been completely rebuffed by the Clinton campaign yet. They've mostly focused on attacking Trump, which is a decent strategy, but needs to be complemented by more positive arguments. I'm not entirely sure if I've seen a positive pro-Hillary ad yet, but when she gets them out I think it will help a lot. Voters aren't hearing anything good about Hillary from either the campaign or the media, but that will probably change.

If this poor pattern of media coverage continues for the next few weeks, we have an uphill battle. Our chances to win depend on a few things: flooding the airwaves with TV coverage, building a positive portrayal of Hillary through advertisements and social media, and destroying Trump on the ground. We can still win this, but we're being put in a tough spot for completely unfair reasons.

It's not a catchy title, but it's accurate considering that Hillary has reached a majority of pledged delegates. I did not vote for her in my state's primary, but she is the nominee of my Party and will do a good job as President.

Donald Trump is the biggest threat to freedom that this country has known in decades, if not ever. Watching the speeches of Clinton and Trump today was like seeing the difference between day and night. Only one of the candidates has any clue how to be President, has the temperament to be President, and is open-minded enough to represent all Americans. And that sure as hell wasn't that orange, blowhard clown Donald Trump.

I don't agree with Hillary Clinton 100% of the time, and I won't hesitate to speak up when I disagree. But now that she is the only thing stopping a fascist from taking over America, I think we must all unite to do everything in our power to get Hillary elected. As a Sanders supporter I will continue to support somebody who I agree with on his vision for the country (Bernie) and I hope that Hillary sits down with him and negotiates a fair representation for the 45% of us who voted for Bernie. She's intelligent and I think she intends to do just that, and I look forward to Bernie and Hillary working together for progressive causes for years to come.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027824707

The replies in this thread range from the misinformed to the absolutely offensive. I could not imagine being a trans person thinking about reading DU and seeing the posters on this site repeat the myth that most trans people "change back" and make jokes about the struggles of a prominent trans person.

Not really sure what point I have in posting this, just that I was a bit mad after reading that and wanted to say something on a part of DU where LGBTQ people are reading.