Travis
Misanthrope of the Mountains
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2007
- Messages
- 24,133
I know my opinion isn't worth much but these are my own thoughts on how to move forward and not let America get sucked into a giant whirlpool of suckitude forever. I've already opined on the smug elitism thing so these are my other thoughts.
1) Forget ground game.
Endlessly it was said that the Democrats strength was its huge apparatus. But clearly that isn't as important in an age when people can self organize through social media. Which, it seems, is largely how Trump supporters did what they did.
2) Stop trying to be the sane adults.
It endlessly frustrated me that every single panel show on the news networks would consist of the following: moderate person, moderate person, ex Republican and a Trump surrogate that would just scream "lock her up" for an hour. I kept thinking "we need someone like that on our side on all these shows." Someone that isn't even trying to be reasonable they are just the ******* advocate for our side.
When someone is throwing bricks through your window you don't just meekly ask them to "stop" you counter with a molotov cocktail.
3) Don't abandon being progressive.
Double down. Be more progressive. If they are going to double down and say "we want all the things for white men and none of it for anyone else" make sure they own it and let everyone know you are the opposition to it. White men are a rapidly shrinking demographic. How long can they win elections when they are the core support?
4) Recognize that not all progressives are the real deal.
It endlessly frustrated me that so many so called "Bernie Supporters" turned out to care not at all about anything that didn't help themselves. They latched onto the message of progressivism because there were things that would help them but as soon as it appeared they would not be the centerpiece of all that advocacy they turned into petulant children.
I mean, I get it, you want to get rid of student debt and get legal weed because those are extremely important to YOU but there were loads of other people with different problems that need different solutions and some of the lame things you attached yourself to (trade tariffs, zero foreign policy intervention, blow up the banks, etc) would actually hurt a great many people.
5) Be a fighter.
No one is interested in compromise anymore. We all want someone that will promise to destroy the other side not work with them. So get some firebrand in the policy. Promise to hurt the other side not for any practical reason but because we can be mean too. Break their toys just so we can watch them cry over it. This leads me to my last bit...
6) Trolling works.
It does. Every troll was on Trump's side. Wander into any comment stream for the last year and it was all these rational people trying to talk logically about Hillary and trolls screaming about putting her in front of a firing squad because of emailghazi or whatever their fever addled minds were on about at the time. Combine the toll this takes with the endless memes that talked about "they both suck so vote Harambe" or some variation thereof and it quite frankly disillusioned many people. And most of those people were the empathetic ones who normally would have supported Hillary's policies.
I'm not saying throw insults at everyone but have some damned spine.
1) Forget ground game.
Endlessly it was said that the Democrats strength was its huge apparatus. But clearly that isn't as important in an age when people can self organize through social media. Which, it seems, is largely how Trump supporters did what they did.
2) Stop trying to be the sane adults.
It endlessly frustrated me that every single panel show on the news networks would consist of the following: moderate person, moderate person, ex Republican and a Trump surrogate that would just scream "lock her up" for an hour. I kept thinking "we need someone like that on our side on all these shows." Someone that isn't even trying to be reasonable they are just the ******* advocate for our side.
When someone is throwing bricks through your window you don't just meekly ask them to "stop" you counter with a molotov cocktail.
3) Don't abandon being progressive.
Double down. Be more progressive. If they are going to double down and say "we want all the things for white men and none of it for anyone else" make sure they own it and let everyone know you are the opposition to it. White men are a rapidly shrinking demographic. How long can they win elections when they are the core support?
4) Recognize that not all progressives are the real deal.
It endlessly frustrated me that so many so called "Bernie Supporters" turned out to care not at all about anything that didn't help themselves. They latched onto the message of progressivism because there were things that would help them but as soon as it appeared they would not be the centerpiece of all that advocacy they turned into petulant children.
I mean, I get it, you want to get rid of student debt and get legal weed because those are extremely important to YOU but there were loads of other people with different problems that need different solutions and some of the lame things you attached yourself to (trade tariffs, zero foreign policy intervention, blow up the banks, etc) would actually hurt a great many people.
5) Be a fighter.
No one is interested in compromise anymore. We all want someone that will promise to destroy the other side not work with them. So get some firebrand in the policy. Promise to hurt the other side not for any practical reason but because we can be mean too. Break their toys just so we can watch them cry over it. This leads me to my last bit...
6) Trolling works.
It does. Every troll was on Trump's side. Wander into any comment stream for the last year and it was all these rational people trying to talk logically about Hillary and trolls screaming about putting her in front of a firing squad because of emailghazi or whatever their fever addled minds were on about at the time. Combine the toll this takes with the endless memes that talked about "they both suck so vote Harambe" or some variation thereof and it quite frankly disillusioned many people. And most of those people were the empathetic ones who normally would have supported Hillary's policies.
I'm not saying throw insults at everyone but have some damned spine.
