Quote (Goomshill @ Mar 6 2018 08:35pm)
"Sustainable" in that the populists were left-wing. It works for Trump because he's stealing a whole chunk of blue voters away. Whoever wins the democratic primary is going to have to try to reclaim the defectors as well as hold together a fractious party who regards any attempts to appeal to the white working class as nazism. Just dismissing Hillary as a fluke and assuming everything will go right again- that was the kind of arrogance that led to her failure in the first place.
I stand by my points. The vast majority of Republican politicians aren't populists... the right-wing populist movement is being held up by Trump, it'll mostly collapse when he goes away. Left-wing populism is here to stay because the new generation are mostly anti-establishment liberals.
Go look at your post history... you constantly harped on Hillary for being a horrible candidate, for spending all her time focusing on identity politics. No, an economic message aimed at low skilled voters doesn't offend Democrats, that's silly. Hillary had so much baggage, wasn't likable at all, exemplified the status quo, and had the DNC leaks/her email story to deal with, as well as Comey's interference. My point is even with a bad candidate like Hillary, she barely lost. Democrat politicians aren't idiots, they know they have to develop a better economic message.
Quote (Goomshill @ Mar 6 2018 08:35pm)
If his approval rating wasn't a mirage, he wouldn't be president. Where is Pollster now?
The absolute values are useless. You can read into whether the numbers are going up or down, and the relative change is a useful metric, and it has shown Trump is likely adding new voters with a small, steady upward tick.
And if you think him being a douchebag was a problem, I guarantee you that the majority of people who voted for him agreed, and didn't care.
Well I know Trump acting like an idiot gets the cult all giddy, but plenty of people held their nose to vote for him in 2016. They didn't like him, but they absolutely hated Hillary. The next candidate isn't going to have the insane negatives, unless they nominate Elizabeth Warren.
Democrats are going to be fired up in 2020, I really don't see how Trump can overcome that. That said, considering the insane world we live in, I won't be as surprised in 2020 if he wins.
Quote (Goomshill @ Mar 6 2018 09:02pm)
I mean its just the mindset that neoliberals/neocons can think that all it takes to win over the populists is to trickle down some pandering onto them and call it rain. All it takes is some messaging, not policies.
To me it sounds like when you get fat enough you can't see your feet. That was Hillary's mistake, and here we are over a year later and everyone just wants to double down on all the mistakes
:bouncy:
The idea that every candidate needs to become Pat Buchanan or Bernie Sanders to win is laughable. You overestimate the number of populists because you wish more people thought like you... but they don't. The most establishment candidate with insane negatives got almost 3 million more votes than Trump in 2016... Democrats don't have to go full retard to win, they just need to focus more on the economy and nominate someone not named Hillary Clinton.
Quote (EndlessSky @ Mar 6 2018 09:09pm)
The current trend is Identity Politics for the left. Their base wont let them pull to the center now
I think the Kennedy part of the Dem party is dead
That's because you don't go outside.