General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How the extreme left gave us Nixon, Bush and now Trump [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)The vast majority of the ads and speeches were focused on warning about Trump. NOT about what we were going to promise. Like all of the ads where we just ran clips of Trump talking.
We were NOT, from everything I saw, campaigning on what was actually in OUR platform. There was not an emphasis on all of the good things we were proposing and how those things would help people.
And our nominee did not visit the Upper Midwest to campaign in the fall even when there were warnings on the ground that Michigan, Wisconsin(which was a swing state to start with)and Pennsylvania(also a swing state to start with)were slipping away.
There was clearly an assumption on the part of our strategists that a campaign focused mainly on attacking Trump was all that we needed to win
Here's one good analysis of the situation:
http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/a-series-of-strategic-mistakes-likely-sealed-clintons-fate-1624514
Here's another:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-hillary-clinton-lost-bad-campaign-perspec-20161114-story.html
You say I have no call to question whether the Democratic establishment knows how to win elections.
If no one can question the party establishment's ability to get Democrats elected, explain why we we've been in decline electorally on every level since 2010. Yes, there is gerrymandering, obviously, but you can't dismiss it as nothing but that.
If the "pros" knew how to win...we would have done almost nothing BUT win since 2008. Some responsibility has to be assigned to the people who devise our electoral strategy.
When things don't go your way in an election, the first thing to do is to start asking the hard questions as to why. Once that's been done, a losing party needs to make whatever changes are necessary to do better, and to make those changes without betraying anyone or abandoning any core value.
Doing that insults no one and harms no one.
As to the way I interact with you personally-I don't see myself as a victim in life, but when you keep using derision and mockery to try to shut me up, why should I put up with that? Why should anyone put up with that? And why do you feel entitled to treat people like that? It's not just me...you do this to virtually anyone who is anywhere at all to your left.