Democratic Party 2020 Election "Post Mortem"

Discussion in 'The Red Room' started by Chaos Descending, Jun 7, 2021.

  1. Chaos Descending

    Chaos Descending 14th Level Human Cleric

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    This is a 73 page PDF but the pages are not "information dense". It's basically the PDF version of a PowerPoint.

    Some interesting observations and conclusions.

    Some things I found most striking is that the massive voter turnout seemed to benefit the Republicans as much or more than the Democrats, and the Democrats treating all People of Color as one demographic seemed to be not a good strategy.

    https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/2020-postelection-analysis/871b6e27d1b7c544/full.pdf
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  2. Quincunx

    Quincunx anti-anti-establishment Staff Member Administrator

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    Democratic establishment tightens its hold on the party as far-left candidates fall short

    Tuesday’s elections in Virginia, which brought the renomination of former governor Terry McAuliffe and primary losses by three of the Democrats’ most outspoken liberal delegates, only underscored a pattern that was previously apparent in special House elections in Louisiana and New Mexico. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a moderate Democrat, won his party’s nomination without a challenge from the left after two protest candidates failed to collect the 1,000 signatures needed for ballot access.

    In the crowded Democratic primary in New York City, a similar crop of contenders, including Eric Adams and Andrew Yang, have emerged as front-runners by pushing platforms that include an embrace of police as an essential component of public safety, a far cry from the “defund the police” mantra that some liberal activists embraced in 2020.

    “There is nothing wrong with being one of those trailblazers who shakes up the status quo, but you can do it in a way that brings people along with you,” said Michelle Maldonado, a small-business owner from Bristow, Va., who defeated the state House of Delegates’ only self-described democratic socialist in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. “Prac-tactical — you’ve got to be practical and tactical at the same time.”

    Such rhetoric has left some liberal politicians fuming, as they see the dream of remaking the Democratic Party slipping away like it did during the 2020 presidential campaign, when perceived electability became the most valued commodity and voters coalesced around Joe Biden.

    “People like myself who are grass-roots-funded, who don’t take corporate money, are not able to compete effectively,” said Del. Ibraheem S. Samirah (Fairfax), another disruptive liberal who lost in the primary Tuesday after his opponent was endorsed by centrist leaders. “The party is not progressive.”

    The centrist successes contrast with the sharp rightward turn in the Republican Party, which has largely adopted the rhetoric of former president Donald Trump. Rank-and-file members, at the state and local levels, continue to rail against the nation’s institutions, passing censure resolutions against the few leaders who have contradicted Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen — a rallying cry that has been widely repeated by GOP candidates across the country.

    Such litmus tests have not applied in Democratic races this year.

    The candidates speaking out the loudest on issues such as racism, police abuse and health care inequities often find themselves behind in the polls. Winning candidates in many cases, such as McAuliffe, have adopted liberal positions on issues such as the death penalty and marijuana legalization, but even as they express support for the Black Lives Matter movement have stopped short of backing activist calls to “defund the police.”

    “Almost everywhere, voters’ preference was: We need to win and there is nothing wrong with the Democrat I am voting for,” Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) said of Tuesday’s result in his state. “They are progressive Democrats, maybe not as far on the spectrum as some would like, but they are perfectly acceptable.”

    The trends could complicate Republican plans to reprise their 2020 campaign strategy of painting Democrats down the ballot as “radical socialists” who favor a dramatic remaking of the nation. Democratic strategists have broadly concluded that those attacks were effective in 2020, including the frequently false claims that Democrats running for federal office wanted to defund the police.

    :?:
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  3. Demiurge

    Demiurge Goodbye and Hello, as always.

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    Lee was my delegate, but as much as I appreciated his policy focus, he started attacking Biden even before he was inaugurated. I follow him on social media, told him he'd definitely be losing my vote if he continued, but he did, so...

    Michelle Lopes-Maldonado beat him out for the nomination. She's got a very interesting background, and currently runs a company that teaches emotional intelligence to corporate and government clients. She is a bilingual laywer who graduated from George Washington.

    The far left just seems so unaware of the nature of actually governing. But then, none of them have ever done it in the US. It certainly makes their adherents easy to dismiss.
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  4. Jenee

    Jenee Driver 8

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    I don’t mind lack of experience so much as I do mind a lack of knowledge specifically on how the US government works.
  5. Shirogayne

    Shirogayne Gay™ Formerly Important

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    Considering the last five years, a candidate willing to speak up against the POTUS wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.

    It's early in the day for me, so I'll just leave it at that.

    So elect us and then we'll be able to learn! :P ;)
  6. oldfella1962

    oldfella1962 the only real finish line

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    Yes you on the far left will learn - you have some great teachers! :yes:

    das capital.jpg mao.jpg mein k.jpg
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  7. Tererune

    Tererune Troll princess and Magical Girl

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    They are all brighter than you and your glorious leader trump. Their lessons might be about bad things, but at least they don't tell you to inject bleach into your lungs.
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  8. Torpedo Vegas

    Torpedo Vegas Fresh Meat

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    Well, Hitler kinda came close.
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  9. Demiurge

    Demiurge Goodbye and Hello, as always.

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    I was considering the last five years, and I was thrilled we weren't going to repeat them. And note I stated 'even before he was inaugurated.' Hard to take a guy to task for his upcoming presidency before he's even walked in the door. And of course he was doing this while Trump was trying to steal the presidency, so I sure as hell didn't need people on the far left giving credence to anything the far right was doing.
  10. Demiurge

    Demiurge Goodbye and Hello, as always.

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    Oh, and only a drooling idiot thinks Hitler was on the left.

    As to the other two, Marx is one of the most important theorists in the last three centuries, even if he wasn't right about everything. Mao was a fuckstain - but I still find it funny that the Marines saying 'Gung Ho' comes from Mao's chinese communists.
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  11. Chaos Descending

    Chaos Descending 14th Level Human Cleric

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  12. Forbin

    Forbin Do you feel fluffy, punk?

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    From Wiki
    The linguist Albert Moe studied both the origin and the usage of the term in English. He concluded that the term is an "Americanism that is derived from the Chinese, but its several accepted American meanings have no resemblance whatsoever to the recognized meaning in the original language" and that its "various linguistic uses, as they have developed in the United States, have been peculiar to American speech." In Chinese, concludes Moe, "this is neither a slogan nor a battle cry; it is only a name for an organization."

    The term was picked up by United States Marine Corps Major Evans Carlson from his New Zealand friend, Rewi Alley, one of the founders of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives. Carlson explained in a 1943 interview: "I was trying to build up the same sort of working spirit I had seen in China where all the soldiers dedicated themselves to one idea and worked together to put that idea over. I told the boys about it again and again. I told them of the motto of the Chinese Cooperatives, Gung Ho. It means Work Together — Work in Harmony."
  13. Demiurge

    Demiurge Goodbye and Hello, as always.

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    https://medium.com/war-is-boring/gu...f-the-marine-corps-famous-slogan-379eacc4ce91

    https://idiomorigins.org/origin/gung-ho

    And
    https://www.historynet.com/gung-ho-makin-raids-strange-legacy.htm

    "During a tour in China in 1937 and 1938, Carlson twice took the opportunity to observe the Communist Eighth Route Army and its leader, Mao Zedong. Curious about its unorthodox methods of fighting the Japanese, the American set out on a thousand-mile march with Mao. What most intrigued Carlson was how the Communists applied political principles to lead their soldiers. He asked party political boss Jen Peh-his how Mao motivated his troops. “The Army and the people must work together in harmony,” Jen told him. “Work together…Gung Ho.” Carlson was fascinated by the concept. He was fascinated too by the way Mao’s army employed small, agile raiding parties to engage the enemy in guerrilla-style fighting, and resolved to adapt the tactics to the Marine Corps."
  14. Lanzman

    Lanzman Vast, Cool and Unsympathetic Formerly Important

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    If you define "important" as "whose crackpot theories resulted in millions and millions of avoidable deaths when put into practice," then yes.
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  15. Demiurge

    Demiurge Goodbye and Hello, as always.

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    Stalinism, Maoism and Leninism aren't the same thing as Marx's philosophy.

    And 25-50K people die a year in the US alone due to capitalism. Do we really need to get into the history of colonialism, which was largely driven by profits that could be extracted at the barrel of a gun?
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  16. Quincunx

    Quincunx anti-anti-establishment Staff Member Administrator

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    From the WaPo article upthread:


    :flow:
  17. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    Communism = good. We get it.:jayzus:
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  18. MikeH92467

    MikeH92467 RadioNinja

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    No you don't.:itsokay:
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  19. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    Then explain it to me, genius.
  20. oldfella1962

    oldfella1962 the only real finish line

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    25-50K a year die from capitalism? Damn, Dr. Fauci needs to get on top of this I guess. :yes: As for "profits extracted at the barrel of a gun" I want my convenience store armed robbery charges downgraded to "colonialism".
  21. MikeH92467

    MikeH92467 RadioNinja

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    No :muad2:
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  22. Demiurge

    Demiurge Goodbye and Hello, as always.

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    You are right, that's not fair. That's the number that die from lack of health insurance.

    The true number is much, much higher, and no doubt includes infant mortality and a hefty chunk of suicides due to pressures of our system and lack of social safety nets. And, of course, health care.

    We are one of the highest countries in that department, too. But that mainly just hits white middle aged men, so why would you care?
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