When you filter out the the hard core Republicans and hard core Democrats, who are going to reflexively vote for the R or the D no matter who the candidate is, or what they may have said or done, there is probably about 20% of the electorate left.
Those are the people who actually decide elections. They are largely people who are either completely ignorant of politics, and couldn't be bothered one way or another to pay attention to political issues, or they are simply too busy working, raising a family, or taking care of life in general, to spend a lot of time thinking about politics.
In either case, this group of independent, swing voters makes their decision based on general impressions, rather than any detailed analysis of issues, or being programed by cable news or podcasts.
The general impressions are frankly, that both parties suck right now, and neither offer what most people want, which is economic stability and safety. So, the result is what we've been seeing - in each election cycle, the incumbent party gets a beat down. It's really as simple as that. Which is why it seems like a no brainer to me that despite all the valid points Bernie made in his column, as well as the many comments here - which I mostly AGREE with, the Democrats are going to easily win back the House in 2026.
They will argue, incorrectly, that their progressive message was what helped them win. But the truth is, Donald Trump is making sure they will win with his overreaching actions. I suspect he may even know this, and may not care, which is why he's trying to do everything in a few weeks through executive orders.
In a recent CNN survey, "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) narrowly leads in a poll of Democrats on which political leader “best reflects” the “core values” of the party."
That says it all and why I am sick and tired of the left wing. They don't represent the core values of this country.
Bernie…Nail hit firmly on the head. In your own words “ I suspect a lot of Americans watching that speech were nodding in agreement. I was — and I’m no fan of the president.”. That, in one sentence is where a large percentage of this country is. It’s not just about The Donald. It’s about the common sense of his messaging, spoken plan, and, in some cases results to date.
Mr Trump will always be The Donald but the democrats right now have zero idea who they are or where they might be headed.
If the AOC’s of the party are their voice, they are doomed.
Today's Democrats can be redefined as dangerous, delusional, and radical--hijacked by the woke wing. Their tunnel vision has morphed this out-of-touch group of politicians into the America-Last Party. "No Compromise" is its battle cry. They have woefully misread the temperature and tolerance of the American voter. .
To his credit, Rep. Al Green said he took no issue with being removed from the House floor and subsequently censured. He made his stand and took the consequences. The same can't be said of his ridiculous cohorts, who thought the actions of Speaker Johnson essentially called for another March on Selma.
Great article. You hit the nail right on the head. Trump hatred is empty, wasted, partisan narrative. It’s void of solutions that improve our country, and doesn’t improve their electability. If I just lost an election, I’d be holding town halls in my district, and listening to my constituents in trying to identify their needs, and what I need to do to better represent them.
I have no doubt about the democrats making a comeback. The precise form it takes, I cannot say. Trump was and is a terrific study in political marketing (propaganda). Keep your message simple and to a few points with some element of truth and have it marked by a catchy slogan. Never deviate from or dilute your message. Make yourself part of the people in the negative situation of the target voters. Offer yourself as their champion to get back at those (whoever is handy at the time) keeping you all down. Make those keeping everyone down an enemy because negative emotions are a more powerful motivator than positive emotions.
History repeats itself over and over again on the political landscape. If you mean to imply Trump had some special monopoly on propaganda, you need to put in a bid for the Brooklyn Bridge.
Remember Clinton and the economy against Bush in 1992. Clinton repeatedly said we had the worst economy since the great depression. It was actually a recession of lower magnitude that most of the post war downturns. Catchy slogan, it's the economy stupid.
Democrats will make a comeback by changing their views on some issues and pretending they never had those unpopular views in the first place.
And he is greatly aided by a Democratic party that is dominated by virtue signaling ideologues who often show incredible intolerance towards those with whom they disagree.
I did not say that Trump is the only purveyor of propaganda. He just happens to be the current highest profile distributor. You can find it used from tyrannical genocidal maniacs all the way down to local elections for dog catcher.
Of course, you are correct on saying this, because it is absolutely true. I'm concerned over the anger, hatred, and even the malice BOTH parties exhibit; my God, it is a circular 'firing squad,', no?
<Let’s start with their “basket of deplorables” mindset. Hillary Clinton said it out loud in 2016, but this apparently is how many Democratic elites see half the country. If you question their agenda, you’re not just wrong — you’re immoral.>
Just to be clear, Hillary said that half of Trump supporters could be placed in a basket of deplorables - i.e. 50% of 90% or so of the GOP. That said, it was an impolitic statement, to put it mildly.
Otherwise, I agree with you. It seems Gavin Newsom is in recovery. My vote is still with Gov. Moore of MD, if he runs and unless he has a side or skeletons I'm unaware of.
I believe Bob that the Democrats better clean up their act before deciding who can run next. It goes a lot deeper than their candidates. The little signs they held up during the State of the Union was a display that some of my democrat friends just shook their heads at.
The national Democratic Party can do and has done both. They had much the same problem in the 80's and the 90's until Bill Clinton came along and drew them - some of them kicking and screaming - out of the wilderness. Clinton knitted a coalition of centrists, left-of-center, some leftists and even some moderate conservatives. He accomplished some liberal policies during his presidency and benefitted the nation as a whole.
We need a modern day Bill Clinton - without the cigar. It's more difficult now because the extremes are more dug-in. But it can be done. We need an attractive, talented, affable, articulate moderate liberal to help consolidate the national Democratic Party and actually win. The AOC's will get their panties in a bunch, but will eventually support him.
It appears as though the Democrats will win the house by a large margin and maybe the Senate, unless they screw up. This will put the Democrats in a good position to win the WH in '28.
I agree with you that they need another Clinton. He came with faults but how many of the greats didn't. And I thought Bill after his second term was a very good president.
There has been cheering among Trump opponents at the SpaceX Starship's explosion in space. There has been little praise of SpaceX role in the recent rescue of the stranded astronauts.
Vandalism on Teslas, barely heard denunciation of it.
Actually blaming Trump for an uptick in the rate of inflation, with all of eleven days in office, followed by crickets when the February rate showed a dip in the inflation rate.
When the Dobbs verdict was leaked, not much criticism of the leak from mainstream Democrats.
Very incomplete list. It is now the Democrats turn, being out of power, to want to see things go badly in this country. Why not show you are better than that and be more willing to see things go well in the country, even if it might benefit Trump?
A lot of acts to clean up, and the above noted failures on the part of the Dems show a mere tweaking won't likely cut it.
I hope the vast majority of independent voters recognized this and I really do wish that Trump would stop these stupid terrible tariffs against Canada anbd other allies. That is just dumb.
When you filter out the the hard core Republicans and hard core Democrats, who are going to reflexively vote for the R or the D no matter who the candidate is, or what they may have said or done, there is probably about 20% of the electorate left.
Those are the people who actually decide elections. They are largely people who are either completely ignorant of politics, and couldn't be bothered one way or another to pay attention to political issues, or they are simply too busy working, raising a family, or taking care of life in general, to spend a lot of time thinking about politics.
In either case, this group of independent, swing voters makes their decision based on general impressions, rather than any detailed analysis of issues, or being programed by cable news or podcasts.
The general impressions are frankly, that both parties suck right now, and neither offer what most people want, which is economic stability and safety. So, the result is what we've been seeing - in each election cycle, the incumbent party gets a beat down. It's really as simple as that. Which is why it seems like a no brainer to me that despite all the valid points Bernie made in his column, as well as the many comments here - which I mostly AGREE with, the Democrats are going to easily win back the House in 2026.
They will argue, incorrectly, that their progressive message was what helped them win. But the truth is, Donald Trump is making sure they will win with his overreaching actions. I suspect he may even know this, and may not care, which is why he's trying to do everything in a few weeks through executive orders.
Pregnant person.
Latinx.
Chest feeding.
Biden is sharp, detailed and engaged.
Tepid condemnation of the killing of the CEO, followed by long discourses on how people can be driven to hate the CEO.
Minimal condemnation of the looting, damaging of abortion alternative centers.
Schumer issuing a threat against Supreme Court Justices, a reasonable way to interpret his comments pre Dobbs.
Men can menstruate and have babies, because transgendered men are as much men as biological men.
The border cannot be secured without new laws.
Who will pick the crops ?
The young ladies protesting biological men in their locker room are transphobes.
So many more......
Too often the matters we see above are either advocated by too many Democrats, or not condemned by too many Democrats.
Trump 47 came about because of the failure of Democrats to support sanity.
In a recent CNN survey, "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) narrowly leads in a poll of Democrats on which political leader “best reflects” the “core values” of the party."
That says it all and why I am sick and tired of the left wing. They don't represent the core values of this country.
Bernie…Nail hit firmly on the head. In your own words “ I suspect a lot of Americans watching that speech were nodding in agreement. I was — and I’m no fan of the president.”. That, in one sentence is where a large percentage of this country is. It’s not just about The Donald. It’s about the common sense of his messaging, spoken plan, and, in some cases results to date.
Mr Trump will always be The Donald but the democrats right now have zero idea who they are or where they might be headed.
If the AOC’s of the party are their voice, they are doomed.
Good
Today's Democrats can be redefined as dangerous, delusional, and radical--hijacked by the woke wing. Their tunnel vision has morphed this out-of-touch group of politicians into the America-Last Party. "No Compromise" is its battle cry. They have woefully misread the temperature and tolerance of the American voter. .
And I’m very pleased about this.
Agreed. Hope they keep it up, especially up to the mid-term elections.
To his credit, Rep. Al Green said he took no issue with being removed from the House floor and subsequently censured. He made his stand and took the consequences. The same can't be said of his ridiculous cohorts, who thought the actions of Speaker Johnson essentially called for another March on Selma.
Great article. You hit the nail right on the head. Trump hatred is empty, wasted, partisan narrative. It’s void of solutions that improve our country, and doesn’t improve their electability. If I just lost an election, I’d be holding town halls in my district, and listening to my constituents in trying to identify their needs, and what I need to do to better represent them.
I have no doubt about the democrats making a comeback. The precise form it takes, I cannot say. Trump was and is a terrific study in political marketing (propaganda). Keep your message simple and to a few points with some element of truth and have it marked by a catchy slogan. Never deviate from or dilute your message. Make yourself part of the people in the negative situation of the target voters. Offer yourself as their champion to get back at those (whoever is handy at the time) keeping you all down. Make those keeping everyone down an enemy because negative emotions are a more powerful motivator than positive emotions.
History repeats itself over and over again on the political landscape. If you mean to imply Trump had some special monopoly on propaganda, you need to put in a bid for the Brooklyn Bridge.
Remember Clinton and the economy against Bush in 1992. Clinton repeatedly said we had the worst economy since the great depression. It was actually a recession of lower magnitude that most of the post war downturns. Catchy slogan, it's the economy stupid.
Democrats will make a comeback by changing their views on some issues and pretending they never had those unpopular views in the first place.
Trump does not have a monopoly on propaganda. He's just much better at it than most.
And he is greatly aided by a Democratic party that is dominated by virtue signaling ideologues who often show incredible intolerance towards those with whom they disagree.
For sure.
I did not say that Trump is the only purveyor of propaganda. He just happens to be the current highest profile distributor. You can find it used from tyrannical genocidal maniacs all the way down to local elections for dog catcher.
Of course, you are correct on saying this, because it is absolutely true. I'm concerned over the anger, hatred, and even the malice BOTH parties exhibit; my God, it is a circular 'firing squad,', no?
<Let’s start with their “basket of deplorables” mindset. Hillary Clinton said it out loud in 2016, but this apparently is how many Democratic elites see half the country. If you question their agenda, you’re not just wrong — you’re immoral.>
Just to be clear, Hillary said that half of Trump supporters could be placed in a basket of deplorables - i.e. 50% of 90% or so of the GOP. That said, it was an impolitic statement, to put it mildly.
Otherwise, I agree with you. It seems Gavin Newsom is in recovery. My vote is still with Gov. Moore of MD, if he runs and unless he has a side or skeletons I'm unaware of.
I believe Bob that the Democrats better clean up their act before deciding who can run next. It goes a lot deeper than their candidates. The little signs they held up during the State of the Union was a display that some of my democrat friends just shook their heads at.
The national Democratic Party can do and has done both. They had much the same problem in the 80's and the 90's until Bill Clinton came along and drew them - some of them kicking and screaming - out of the wilderness. Clinton knitted a coalition of centrists, left-of-center, some leftists and even some moderate conservatives. He accomplished some liberal policies during his presidency and benefitted the nation as a whole.
We need a modern day Bill Clinton - without the cigar. It's more difficult now because the extremes are more dug-in. But it can be done. We need an attractive, talented, affable, articulate moderate liberal to help consolidate the national Democratic Party and actually win. The AOC's will get their panties in a bunch, but will eventually support him.
It appears as though the Democrats will win the house by a large margin and maybe the Senate, unless they screw up. This will put the Democrats in a good position to win the WH in '28.
I agree with you that they need another Clinton. He came with faults but how many of the greats didn't. And I thought Bill after his second term was a very good president.
There has been cheering among Trump opponents at the SpaceX Starship's explosion in space. There has been little praise of SpaceX role in the recent rescue of the stranded astronauts.
Vandalism on Teslas, barely heard denunciation of it.
Actually blaming Trump for an uptick in the rate of inflation, with all of eleven days in office, followed by crickets when the February rate showed a dip in the inflation rate.
When the Dobbs verdict was leaked, not much criticism of the leak from mainstream Democrats.
Very incomplete list. It is now the Democrats turn, being out of power, to want to see things go badly in this country. Why not show you are better than that and be more willing to see things go well in the country, even if it might benefit Trump?
A lot of acts to clean up, and the above noted failures on the part of the Dems show a mere tweaking won't likely cut it.
I hope the vast majority of independent voters recognized this and I really do wish that Trump would stop these stupid terrible tariffs against Canada anbd other allies. That is just dumb.
When you vote the lesser of two evils, the winner in the election still has those evils, and we are seeing that with Trump 47. for sure.