Cenk Uygur's Election Analysis: Democrats only

[GaussLaw]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyVsgkd2xPE

Cenk had an interesting video (on TheYoungTurks) about why the Democrats lost......effectively Cenk argues that the Democratic party is not running on a principled platform and basically acting as "Republican-lite" (obviously he's referring to economic issues, as they definitely aren't on the social issues I care about).  I think it's a different analysis than many have made, as Cenk argues that the Democrats should have run on Obamacare and to the left.  

Personally, I think he has a decent point, but the idea of running Bernie Sanders in Louisiana is absurd.  He also seems to ignore the impact of social issues on voting. 

I'm curious what Democrats have to say about Cenk's argument for a change in strategy.  Should the Dems move to the left?

[IceSpear]

No. Democrats didn't lose because of ideology. They lost because more of their voters than Republican voters think only the president matters. Midterms always have a huge dropoff from presidentials, regardless of what ideology any particular party has at the time. But people (again, disproportionately Democratic) just don't think their vote matters in midterms due to a lack of knowledge on how the government actually works.

[Mehmentum]

"It's apparent that there are increasingly two separate electorates: a midterm electorate and a presidential electorate. We win one and we don't seem to be able to win the other."
- Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Democrats have the voters out there to win elections, and they're probably going to get better returns out of getting general election voters to vote in midterms than trying to find swing voters and convincing them to vote for Democrats.

The trick, I think, is treating midterm elections like general elections.  Have a national convention, have Obama out holding rallies, make a production out of it, get people excited.

Obviously, the dynamic is different in red states.  In most red states, Democrats tried to position themselves as 'Republican-lite', which is a losing position.  Conservative voters are still going to vote for the Republican and liberal voters are going to be depressed.

Democrats in Red states need to be able to draw a sharp distinction between themselves and the Republican, but in a smart way.  Is there something popular in the state that the Republican isn't supporting?  Use that against them. Its here that I agree with Cenk.

A minimum wage increase passed in Arkansas, yet Pryor was opposed to a federal minimum wage increase.  Marijuana legalization passed in Alaska, yet Begich didn't support legalization.  Its no wonder they both lost.