Hard Choices: Why Trump won and how the Dems must change (Lyin' Steve's autopsy)

[ApatheticAustrian]

i disagree with you on some important parts but i don't want to dismiss such a big and well-written eassy with a few snarky one-liners, so...kudos, nice job.

while i generally agree that some democrats overplayed their cards hard, i think a big part of that problem is a matter of communication.

what a democrat says and what someone else understands or is told about its meaning are totally different things.

in fact, dems have done more for the poor people and the working class in the last few years than pubs have done in decades.....just doesn't look so appealing, which means the question of "heart-felt" respect seems to be more important than practical money matters.

i am in general against hard shifts...the republicans haven't shifted at all against all evidence to do so and still got reward plentiful. (and democrats would have won this red wave election too [in fact they have won it] with just 2 points difference in 4 states.....with quite a low turnout)

i am all in for shifting but in fact: the democratic party was the center party to begin with during the last years and it seems like less center, more populism would have won it.......no easy answers, no clear message, no "third way" affiliation like 1988, imho.

[ApatheticAustrian]

All the advice from the 2012 post mortem was proven wrong Tuesday

not really.

the re-alignment worked and doubled down in the right area....the talented mister trump just pierced the right states at the right time...perfect storm.

the most important question right now is, if trump is able to make the GOP into a big-government nationalist party or just doesn't care anymore after winning the title and goes along with peak cruz.

[ApatheticAustrian]

regarding the gay thing:

it is surely true that a gay person can't understand how "classical conservative" voters feel about this change.

but the question is two-sided....since.....many of those classical conservatives also never asked how the gay person feels.

i understand that in terms of raw vote, the cultural conservatives are of bigger concern than gay americans but regarding respect, this runs both ways.

[ApatheticAustrian]

on the long run, this thing is gonna cancelling out itself.

question is if dems are able to withold till the "normalization".

[ApatheticAustrian]

How so? 

losing by about 40-50 points with a group about the size of 10% of the electorate is something else than losing the same group by 40-50 points if it standa for 15 or even 20 points of the electorate.

and i don't think that they democrats were unfair regarding theit description of trump - he really is THAT awful - but you (as the common voter) are entitled to interpret things yourself however you want.

and i obviously agree that hoping for such lopsided margins on the long run could be unhealthy but i still pray that a really clear defeat will finally "break the fever" of the GOP. otherwise i can't imagine close-center-politics working again anyway.

[ApatheticAustrian]

let me tall you that this definition of "religious liberty" seems as weird for an european as the claim, citizen united is about "free speech".

[ApatheticAustrian]

well, religious liberty can also be described as the right live free of religion, but i doubt the US become france anytime soon.

[ApatheticAustrian]

as a moderate but solid liberal, the hardest thing for me to realize has been this cycle, that the grievances of "my" own side and the insults thrown against it aren't as damaging for the "other side" politically than counter-punching is or gaffes from liberals are.

the biggest voting bloc and the biggest single group, uneducated white voters, still are far more likely to "avenge" real or imagined faults than other groups.

"unfair" in terms of debating but otherwise simple math and general willingsness to vote.