Trump's message was that MS13 rapists were coming in, china is raping us on trade, no one else pays their fair share, etc.

he offered the opposite of a positive vision imo. it was just calling out problems with no actual plans to fix them, just vague promises. his only concrete platform pieces were "i'll undo X, Y, and Z obama era executive orders, and build a wall".

He was describing the status quo in negative terms, and directly or indirectly promised a big course correction/policy realignment. For his supporters, this meant that he saw things like they did, and to them, this promised course correction on immigration and free trade was a positive vision!

But yeah, pointing out that he has no actual clue on how to fulfill these campaign promises imho is a much more promising angle of attack for Democrats than focusing on personal attacks.

the status quo is Trump, and the dems hate Trump. the dem voters want a return to normalcy, and they're ultimately fine with high tax bernie or center aisle Biden, as long as it isnt trump. thats why i say bland. just be not trump and they'll vote for you.

although he didn't have much for a plan going in. plans have come out and/or been in motion.

border-security (as goom brought up the other day)- the 4 pillar plan
https://www.rpc.senate.gov/policy-papers/four-pillars-the-trump-administration-immigration-plan

others paying fair share- trump has avidly been fighting for countires in NATO to pay the agreed 2% gdp on military

china- do i really have to?

anyway, just saying, you're correct saying he had no plan going in. (at least publicly) however, he has been fighting hard on the promises he ran on.
i don't think the democratic campaign slogan, -trump failed to keep promises-, will swing his base at least.

Because that strategy worked so well last time

sure, but that was never the question. the question is how they can work on independents or perhaps even nevertrump republicans while simultaneously keeping their base happy.
also, enthusiasm for their own candidate and platform among their base might have a small effect on their turnout, and in a tight election, this can make all the difference.

betting that hatred for trump will carry their turnout is risky. it might well work, but I wouldnt want to rely on it. what if Trumps does what he did at the end of the 2016 race and disappears for the last 2-3 weeks of the race, working on his own base and turnout without making further divise public statements? given the stakes, I would throw my base at least one bone if I were a Democratic strategist.

if say Biden runs an "I wont rock the boat too much and bring a return to normalcy"-campaign, the progressive activists would still turn out this time because they are so motivated by their desire to get Trump out of the WH. but what about poor black voters or disengaged whites and hispanics who dont follow politics all that much? the activist class will turn out this time, no matter what, that's true. but a lacklustre minority turnout could still spell doom for democrats, and I wouldnt take their turnout for granted.

Well, obviously we need the version with all the subliminal graphics. I especially like what happens to big corporate in the 3rd verse.....














/e tl;dr version: The people wanted a drastic change, cause the normal BS wasn't working anymore.

This post was edited by Ghot on Dec 6 2019 04:13pm

yeah im really talking about campaign strategy. anyone promising to rollback trump era policy would need to deliver, as well as some kind of healthcare plan.

his plans, while many have been ineffectual or shifts from campaign promises, have been somewhat delivered upon.

but we still have no wall, obamacare still exists, no china deal, no middle eastern deal, and NATO is enact, HRC free as a bird, etc.



trump wasnt the status quo last time.



insulting trump well can pull moderates, imo. and im a moderate.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Dec 6 2019 04:12pm

^ is what i was referring to. best of luck to the dems, i'm anxious to see how this all plays out