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Carol Payne's avatar

It’s nice to have the actual numbers but i feel like we already knew the trends here. My concern is when we say “democrats need to do….”, who exactly are we talking about? On the republican side, you can name 3 or 4 people that craft the message that every politician follows (Bannon, Kirk, etc.) Who is that for democrats? We just spent months talking about the existential crisis that Trump represents and now post election, we’re just following the same normal schedule. The DNC will elect its new chair in February. Why wait so long? If ever there was time for war room strategy/ thinking it’s now. The lack of a cohesive message and delivery behind Trump’s nominees is infuriating. We just continue to waste valuable time.

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Beth M's avatar

So first, even mentioning CNN and MSNBC as options for news access shows a fundamental misunderstanding of those of us here in the cheap seats. Second, please stop with the darn polls. Yes, we make fun of trump because he relies on feelings instead of data but that is EXACTLY why he won. Because so do most Americans. We can tell them facts and cite statistics and prove our theories but all most people care about is how it FEELS to them. So, here are my suggestions that no one will take:

1. Dems need to have as many conversations with reality tv directors, writers, and producers as they can. Like seriously, after a debate, don’t wait to poll people. Have them text 29473 to vote for who won. trump won in part because he’s the one who spiked everyone’s adrenaline and cortisol. The person we all remember most from Survivor is Richard (sorry Jon) and there is a reason for that.

2. A serial podcast that looks at all the true crimes of all trump’s associates.

3. More roadside billboards for Dem candidates. Driving in the US felt like and assault for those of us who lean left bc in most places, the ONLY signs we saw were for trump

4. Dems need to figure out how to show up on right leaning media and not get their asses kicked. Which probably means being okay with being thought of as an asshole. The right relies on the rest of us following the rules of civility so they don’t have to

5. Dems don’t need more populist policies. Their policies are as populist as they can be. They just need to talk about them as populists. And actually act like populists. Lofty rhetoric is not populist. Treatises and polls and quantitative data are not populist. It’s not the message, it’s the delivery

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