The Democrats Will Win In 2020

[David Horn]

(01-10-2017, 01:38 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:

(01-10-2017, 11:35 AM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(01-10-2017, 07:48 AM)Odin Wrote: The Dems have two big problems at the local level, the Republicans have a better messaging machine (a local candidate, no matter how moderate, will be slammed as a "loony liberal with San Francisco Values"), and the national party is stuck in a coastal bubble and often reluctant to give support to local candidates in more socially conservative areas that are seen as "too conservative" on certain hot-button social issues like abortion and would rather just not run a candidate in those races.

Republicans have the same problem at the local level on the coasts.  At the state level they've won a few governorships with socially moderate to liberal candidates, but that's mostly because a gubernatorial campaign can be run without the support of the party.

Here in CA we have a microcosm of the US. Our coastal counties plus a few more urbane ones inland are deep blue meanwhile the others are deep red. There is a portion of the inland North that wants to revive the notion of "The State of Jefferson" which was a mid 20th century movement to carve out a new state from that area plus similar areas in Southern Oregon. Without fail, there were Trump signs everywhere in those counties last summer. Such physical regions dominate the CA GOP. There is no hope for a moderate or urbane candidate to succeed. The state party will not help such candidates.

On balance, the rejection of liberals by conservatives is more pronounced than the opposite, though the gap is closing fast.  The reason is simple enough: Rush Limbaugh hit the airwaves early, and built a cult following.  Liberals assumed that NPR met the same need for them, but the two were always very different.  RW Talk Radio was intended to indoctrinate and build a following for the "right kind" of political views, not provide news coverage, unbiased or otherwise.  After a few decades of being demonized, and watching a slam-dunk election go south, the patience of liberals is now pretty well destroyed too. 

Partisanship is about to get even more intense, and its hard to know what that means.  Let's hope it doesn't mean violence.