2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: THIS is who they want to put in the Whitehouse? Really?!? [View all]forjusticethunders
(1,151 posts)Nixon literally cheated to beat McGovern, and Nixon lied about an upcoming peace in Vietnam to co-opt McGovern's main issue. Détente didn't hurt either (the only good thing that slimy bastard Kissinger ever did for this planet).
McGovern also made a lot of strategic mistakes (like Eagleston). Also people forgot that Nixon won every demo, INCLUDING the youth vote.
Mondale was never going to beat Reagan no matter what he said. Maybe if FDR or JFK rose from the dead to run against Reagan then it *might* have been a race. The tax pledge had very little to do with it.
Dukakis WAS the DNC establishment guy as opposed to Jesse Jackson, and the GOP pulled out ALL the dirty tricks to swing that one.
Also this ignores that 1970s/1980s electorates were VERY different from the 2010s electorate. Whiter (and considerably more racist). More economically secure. The consequences of Reaganomics/neoliberalism weren't as apparent then as now. Furthermore, it is much, much harder to Willie Horton, or even Swiftboat a candidate. Too much social media to debunk BS within minutes, as opposed to weeks. The candidate doesn't even need to run attack ads back, if they have enough of a social media pull their supporters will tweet 10 rebuttals within 10 minutes. And the right wing has already blown it's load, or it's kitchen sink if you will, and failed to beat Obama twice, and his approval rating never really dips below 45%. Also the Republicans are more extreme than ever and the ones that aren't suck. Unless you think a huge part of the Obama coalition would stay home if Sanders was the nominee (when most of that group's reluctance to embrace him lies in the fact that there's a perception he CANNOT beat the Republican in an election in which defeating the Republican is a matter of survival), Bernie should win via cruise control.
In short, Bernie's has 2 electoral weaknesses, POC, and older voters with money. The first one is irrelevant in the general, as POC will vote for him as they (or in the case of black people, we) like what he has to offer, there's just a feeling like a candidate like him cannot win in this country, and a feeling he doesn't speak well enough to our issues. As for older upper middle class voters, if they're gonna flip for the R because they feel he's a threat to their class interests, do we really need them?