01-10-2017, 06:02 PM
(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:(01-10-2017, 06:33 AM)David Horn Wrote:(01-08-2017, 11:38 AM)Odin Wrote: Trump was a fluke caused by the Dems having a terrible candidate. The real problem is that the congressional districts and state legislatures in Republican-controlled states are gerrymandered to all hell and Republicans engage in blatant voter suppression in the states they control.
Yes and no. Hillary can't be blamed for the loss of Congress, governorships and state legislatures. That falls directly on the Party itself, and to its leader BHO. The Dems have sucked for a long time; the GOP is suckier though successful. Politics is at a nadir.
Assume major changes or lethargic nothingness. Either is possible. Let's be honest, private interests prefer inept and ineffective government ... until they need to be bailed-out. Right now, they are giddy. Let's see how that plays in a few months.
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.
Yes. Non-urbane, anti-progressive white/red types ("rednecks" or what have you) or whatever you call Republican-leaning rural voters, are common to states like California and to the Rust Belt, the Farm Belt, the Mountain West and Deep South. The South may have a longer and deeper racist heritage, but basically it's all the same folks; just in different relative proportions in almost every state in the USA. You go to "Jefferson" CA or Kern County CA where a friend of mine lives that I see every week, and the views and lifestyles are not much different than those in rural Ohio, North Dakota or Alabama.