(11-13-2016, 12:03 AM)gabrielle Wrote: Since playwrite seems to be getting especially viscious, I think now's the time to remind him and the other smug establishment Democrats that they LOST BIGLY. That means you went wrong somewhere. Think about it a little bit. Maybe Shaun King can help you out with that. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics...-1.2866238I realize that this lost has caused a lot of hysteria on the Dem side, and it should, Trump will be doing considerable damage in the next four years to this country. And perhaps it is cathartic for some Dems to lash out at other Dems. But at some point, we all need to return to putting our thinking caps on and correctly focus our energies. It was not a cakewalk for Progressives in the 1860s, and neither will this be.
Besides, I don't know why you should be attacking Odin, considering he did exactly what you wanted--he "fell in line" and voted for Clinton in the general (at least I'm assuming he did, judging from his posts leading up to the election). I did too.
When the absentee votes (CA has 4 million, NY around 2M, WA about a million, etc), it is likely that Clinton will have exceeded Trump's national vote total by 3-5 million, or around 3-4%. Moreover, Clinton's total may reach or even exceed the 66 million votes that Obama got in 2012, which would, you know, kind of destroy the notion that Clinton didn't get enough turnout.
The long-term problem for Dems has always been those Dem votes are not spread out, for obvious reasons, in culturally backward Red states. That is changing, however, with demographics, and that change is not going to stop - go walk around Austin or Atlanta or Memphis and I'm bet the proportion of glum Dems is no different than in NYC, LA or Denver. If you peel away the 2012 Obama voters that voted 2016 Trump, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, and possible even Texas and Georgia would be Blue today. Now it is true, that voter suppression tactics will be getting a big boast over the next 4 years to starve off the demographics; fighting that, should be a high priority for not just everyone on the Left but those who consider themselves more moderate and Independent, I mean, at least the ones who are not hypocrites about what the Constitution actually was about.
The bigger problem, of course, is the former 2012 Obama voters that went 2016 Trump, in particular, the traditional Dems in mid-West manufacturing states who are so desperate that they believe a billionaire from Manhattan is going to bring back their former high-paying jobs. I'm not one who completely agrees with "you can't fix stupid;" I actually believe that otherwise fairly intelligent people who have chosen to do something really really stupid out of desperation and ignorance can come around to correcting their stupid choices once the consequences of those choices become highly evident. I believe the GOP can't help themselves from really screwing these people over the next four years - the GOP simply can't keep themselves from screwing these people because that is a basic function derived from their organic reason for the GOP's existence.
And that brings us to the biggest problem for coming back from this election - the Right wing megaphone that has no problem with lying or cheating to manipulate their traditional sheeple. These sheeple are beyond help and not much if anything can be done with them except wait for them to die out as a political force. The problem is there is still a lot of them and they can, and have, greatly influence those people (Obama/Trump supporters) who should know better but are desperate for answers that will help them. The job here, over the next four years, is to constantly point out to them, example after example, of the GOP screwing them to the wall. It's not going to be easy - the alt-Right isn't now just some websites spewing vile, it is now embedded in the US government.
But what you are implying is also correct and needed - we have to come up with some answers for those Obama/Trump voters. And yes, we need to fight it out on the Left on what that agenda is going to look like. But, we need to do it within the reality of what is really going on - our ultimate appeal to the MAJORITY of voters is reality. And the reality is the world is an increasingly complex and difficult place for Americans, and that the Orange Anus telling you that it is Black and Brown people making it that way isn't going to be of much help.
p.s. I didn't attack Odin on his voting pattern. He first attacked me for suggesting that some on this forum with more extreme conservative viewpoints likely have brains that function differently than those who have more Progressive or moderate viewpoints. He attempted to place my viewpoint on behavioral and brain functioning of the "conservative mind" on the same bigoted footing as racism or religious intolerance. It is not. It is derived from scientific studies on the matter. If you or he have a difference of opinion on the validity or conclusions of such research, I'm more that willing to discuss those with you - just try to bring it up a notch or two above simplistic name-calling and like in Odin's case, do a little research before spouting off.