Trump Thread

[Montmorency]

It would help if the Democrats weren't the party of the social-justice crusader stereotype too. Being the party of everyone that is not the majority is a good way to pat yourself on the back and feel self righteous but it won't win elections. The economic solutions from both parties aren't too different but when you talk with joe-schmoe he generally doesn't even know the details of either parties economic policies but will know and have an opinion on gender-neutral bathrooms etc...

That's a culture-war question, not one of party policy. The Democrats can't hope to win over white voters by silencing minority voices; so it would be doing the hypocritical thing, for no profit. The smart money with social transformations is staying the course until the aggrieved can no longer "remember why I was even angry". The real policy challenge is digesting the hard core of atavists who disagree with every post-Civil War policy other than Jim Crow.

[spmetla]

Staying the course for the long term is the correct policy for them but they seem to try and make the changes far quicker than people in "fly over country" care to accommodate. They are right on LGBT but to paint it in the same light and nobility as the womens suffrage movement or civil rights movement is foolish. Look at today's military transgender policy announcement by Trump, it accomplished it's goal because that's topic number one right now on MSNBC instead of the health care bill which is far more important.

They don't need to silence minority voices but that doesn't need to be their primary platform which runs strong in Universities and the coastal states.

You are right one point two, there are no shortage of folks in the South that see Jim Crow laws as correct and see all the woes of the black community as self inflicted.

If they marketed themselves more as the party that'll protect them from corporate greed and from having to compete with sweat shop workers they'd probably win more votes. Look at the fall out from the 2008 crash, it gave Obama and the Democrats the momentum he needed to make major reforms. They however couldn't secure a win because the Republicans drowned out their successes by doing the culture war propaganda which is not answered in kind.

The repeal of don't ask don't tell and the trans-gender integration while both justify were implemented in such a way that the right is able to market it as the Democrats sacrificing military readiness for the sake of social experimentation. I had to brief my platoon and then company of infantrymen on the implementation of each of these (as well as women being allowed into combat arms) which were by and large badly taken of course. Neither resulted in any loss of readiness but today my facebook feed is inundated by my happy fellow servicemen celebrating the end of a policy that had literally no effect on them besides sitting in a briefing on it's implementation.

The Democrats may have policies that are beneficial to most Americans but the ability of the Republicans to paint them as social experimenting war on Christian values socialists they will not get those white male working class people that reliably vote to vote for them. There's no need to abandon those policies just don't make them the forefront while painting all those that oppose them as back woods ignorant rednecks bigots (even if true).

[Montmorency]

Staying the course for the long term is the correct policy for them but they seem to try and make the changes far quicker than people in "fly over country" care to accommodate. They are right on LGBT but to paint it in the same light and nobility as the womens suffrage movement or civil rights movement is foolish. Look at today's military transgender policy announcement by Trump, it accomplished it's goal because that's topic number one right now on MSNBC instead of the health care bill which is far more important.

They don't need to silence minority voices but that doesn't need to be their primary platform which runs strong in Universities and the coastal states.

You are right one point two, there are no shortage of folks in the South that see Jim Crow laws as correct and see all the woes of the black community as self inflicted.

If they marketed themselves more as the party that'll protect them from corporate greed and from having to compete with sweat shop workers they'd probably win more votes. Look at the fall out from the 2008 crash, it gave Obama and the Democrats the momentum he needed to make major reforms. They however couldn't secure a win because the Republicans drowned out their successes by doing the culture war propaganda which is not answered in kind.

The repeal of don't ask don't tell and the trans-gender integration while both justify were implemented in such a way that the right is able to market it as the Democrats sacrificing military readiness for the sake of social experimentation. I had to brief my platoon and then company of infantrymen on the implementation of each of these (as well as women being allowed into combat arms) which were by and large badly taken of course. Neither resulted in any loss of readiness but today my facebook feed is inundated by my happy fellow servicemen celebrating the end of a policy that had literally no effect on them besides sitting in a briefing on it's implementation.

The Democrats may have policies that are beneficial to most Americans but the ability of the Republicans to paint them as social experimenting war on Christian values socialists they will not get those white male working class people that reliably vote to vote for them. There's no need to abandon those policies just don't make them the forefront while painting all those that oppose them as back woods ignorant rednecks bigots (even if true).

But it's still a function of channels of information dissemination. These channels have a funneling property that creates an inflated impression of a given policy's value and importance to the originators of that policy, leaving consumers to adopt the monomania they come to believe the government applies to its more matter-of-course activities. It's not about how much Democrats care, but how much Republicans think Democrats care. After all, transgender toilet rules are not a single-issue motivator like abortion or gun control retrenchment are. Counter-propaganda would correct the effect, but the question is how to do it. Without grassroots activists to condition the learning, the necessary level of persistent funding simply doesn't exist.

[HopAlongBunny]

I think Trumps' victory proves beyond a shadow of doubt: marketing means more than facts; at least as far as politics is concerned.

The Dem's lost for a variety of reasons; their policy was sound but was lost in the "noise" of the campaign.
Trump dominated most media by saying and doing outrageous stuff; the media ate that stuff up, and policy became lost to public discourse.
What Hillary needed was the "fire brand" approach of the Bernie campaign: "Mad!? You bet we're mad! We are going to make this $%%^^& work for YOU!"
That message might have got through, but as Monty points out, you need the medium to convey it to the audience.
The promise of "Revolution" might have been able to turn the klieg lights from Trump to policy.

[Fragony]

I think Trump didn't really win, Hillary just lost. It's imppossible to like her, everybody with a bit of a radar can see that it's a ruthless woman who will do anything House of Cards. Trump isn't nearly that well-oiled fake. I kinda like it that what she took for granted didn't happen. From what I have seen so far Trump isn't doing so badly.

Why is your millanial crying

[Beskar]

From what I have seen so far Trump isn't doing so badly.

I got to strongly disagree here, he is absolutely terrible. It makes me miss George Bush Jr and I thought he was bad.

[HopAlongBunny]

Dear Leader may be coming to realize the limitations of his office.
The "Trans-ban" tweet has resulted in a lot of confusion.
The "Chief of Everything!" said, "blah blah blah"; but the regulations and policy we have don't allow it => cannot be done until we get clear guidelines and written policy.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2...trans_ban.html

For now, process trumps Trump.

In other developments, how goes the fight to banish the "Great Society" to the dustbin of history?
Not so good it seems.
While the GOP seems intent to turn Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security into funnels for savings/tax cuts; the electorate are not so delighted.
It might be possible for the GOP to get what they want, but the short-term political cost is very high. How many career politicians are actually willing to put their head on the block?:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...itlements.html