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An aspect of this defeat that may not seem as obvious comes to mind: Back in 2011, Scott Walker used budgets as an excuse to crack down hard on unions in Wisconsin. Wisconsin was the state with the highest percentage of its workforce unionized and has a long history of progressive politics and labor organizing. Labor unions all over the country have been losing protections for years, and poured every available resource into Wisconsin to stem the tide of union busting measures. The state level democratic party engaged in vigorous protesting that lasted for almost two full years, culminating in a recall election for Governor Walker. The unions and state party poured everything they had into it, but received no financial aid from the DNC. Walker benefited from millions in RNC money to spend on advertising, and wound up retaining his seat in the recall election by 6%. Walker is still the Governor, Wisconsin broke for Sanders in the democratic primary at a margin of 57-43, and Wisconsin unexpectedly went for Trump in the election. Union workers in nearby states got a solid look at how they could not count on the DNC when they need help. Places like Michigan and Minnesota.
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Nov 10, 2016 10:18
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Personally, I do think sanders would have won the election, but I don't think he would have gotten Wisconsin. The real damage to party reputation was done over a course of 2 years, during which Obama probably won as much off of inertia and Romney being uninspiring as anything else. But Wisconsin is an example of exactly what DNC behavior has hurt the party with midwestern states.
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Nov 10, 2016 10:50
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Personally I live in the midwest, in a metro area with half a million people. I have a bachelors, but in a liberal arts degree. The ACA is the only reason I have insurance for medical conditions that would have been "pre-existing conditions" before 2008. After University and returning to my hometown, it took me about 2 years to find a full-time job, but even then it was minimum wage with intense physical labor and rough conditions. I had injuries on the job send me to the ER twice during the two years I worked there. Sanders went right to the heart of a lot of the economic trouble in the US and working people, Clinton not so much. Iowa broke really hard for trump despite being solidly Obama is 2008 and 2012. I don't like it, but I understand why. We've actually done a lot of the things post-industrial and farm states are supposed to do: as a state we have invested more per capita in wind energy than anyone else, des moines attracted a lot of insurance industry jobs and has become a major hub for information tech, there was an ethanol boom in 2008-2010. All of it created some jobs, but everywhere outside of Des Moines job growth seems limited to the healthcare industry to take care of the state's aging populace. We have a very educated workforce, but not enough jobs for them. But Trump won't help. I expect some bad years if the EPA is gutted since we already have a problem with farm runoff contaminating rivers with too much pig poo poo and fertilizer that corporate farms just can't be assed to properly take care of. And God help all of our workers employed in the many plants rendering animals, where safety regulations are already very lax.
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Nov 11, 2016 13:30
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So I was thinking about potential steps steps for the Democratic party to take, and I remembered the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populist_Caucus which was formed in 2008 and effectively went defunct went Bruce Braley was left to pursue a Senate seat in 2014. Keith Ellison was a member, and though the group was small, it was progressive and centered around the needs of working people and rural areas. My representative is Dave Loebsack, who was a member, so I plan to call his office and ask about a potential revival of the house populist caucus. If your representative is listed as a former member, I would urge you to call and express your desire for them to brush off the cobwebs and make it active again and try to expand it. Or if your representative was not, maybe call and ask them about contacting former representatives active with the caucus to join and represent your district because the issues they represent are important to you. There is a lot of overlap with the house progressive caucus, but the populist caucus has some genuine room to work with any honest republicans out there on issues concerning workers.
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Nov 14, 2016 09:26
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Venom Snake posted:Do you mind if I add your post to the OP? Certainly.
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Nov 14, 2016 09:30
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Thanks. Just like a lot of other places, a lot of us here in Iowa are trying to look at what exactly went wrong and draw on examples from the past for a bit of inspiration. Bruce Braley was my congressman before re-districting, and the populist caucus was his baby. It sadly did not expand far under the Obama years, but it sticks out to me as a "what could have been" situation. Iowa is looking at dark times ahead - we lost the state house and senate for the first time in decades, and we already had a republican governor. He is up for reelection in 2018, but word is the party has learned NOTHING and wants to Dr. Andy Mcguire against him. She is the head of our state party, who had strong ties to Clinton and other than fundraising her tenure was pretty disastrous. I guess a faint ray of hope in this all: Iowa can punish a political party for economic failure very fast. This year we shifted 14 points into republican territory, and that is a horrible thing. But it has happened before. The last time was 1988, when Dukakis won the state 55-45 against Bush Sr. despite Reagan having taken it 53-46 against Mondale in the previous election. 1988 was an election so red that Illinois and California broke for Bush, but Reagan's agricultural policy damaged Iowa in a way the state still has not fully recovered from. Prior to 1988 Iowa had been solidly Republican outside of electoral avalanches. Democrats can win people back here, but the party needs to give everyone something to hold onto.
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Nov 14, 2016 09:59
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Also as long as anyone wants to talk worst CSPAM poster through this election, what about Whiskeyjuvenile and "$250,000 a year is middle class"
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Nov 14, 2016 10:09
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One thing I still struggle with is why exactly the Clinton campaign poured so much money into advertising in the Los Angeles area, and California in general. While sheer incompetence or kickbacks to friends seem more likely, I can't help but entertain the small possibility that someone in the campaign actually predicted a Trump victory and made a choice to pour ad money into California to run up popular vote totals for a counter-narrative. It seems incredibly unlikely, and why attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity, but attempts to run up the popular vote total are the only logical reason I can think of to spend big money in California.
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Nov 14, 2016 10:57
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MrCussMustard posted:Iowa DNC told me they would pass my message along, then after I told them what I wanted they said that I actually needed the national office, that the state party has no say in who chairs the party nationally. A waste of my time and theirs, but the # you want is 202-863-8000 I saw you mention Davenport earlier, so did you try Loebsack's office? I called earlier today and was able to get ahold of someone pretty quickly. His Iowa office phone is (563) 323-5988.
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Nov 15, 2016 18:40
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bump_fn posted:im a big dumb idiot why is free college racist Free college definitely serves POC less than white people because of underfunded public schools and the resultant lower graduation rates. Even respected universities that try real hard to recruit POC then have real issues with actually graduating them for various reasons. The ideal thing would be to just improve both public education and make college free and more accessible, but why do that when you can do neither?
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Nov 16, 2016 17:56
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Yeah, I'm over a week without even a form reply from the state Dems in Iowa. The phone # for their office has gone to voicemail. My congressman's office was better, I got someone live. They took my support for Keith Ellison and told me at this time there are no plans to re-form the house populist caucus atm. I still think this is the best way going forward, so I let them know and hope others do as well.
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Nov 17, 2016 19:48
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Hell, a huge part of labor I don't see anyone mention often unpaid internships. They drive down the price of labor, primarily benefit people who are already well-off enough to be able to work for long periods without pay, and have otherwise eliminated a lot of entry level positions at large companies. Move the Democrats toward banning unpaid internships in any for-profit situation and I bet that would motivate voters in the 18-30 range just as much as forgiveness of college debt.
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Nov 18, 2016 18:15
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Yeah, I plan to start attending meetings as soon as I am able. My father just had a hip replaced and needs to be watched at all times. For the moment I am limited to calling offices and stuff. The last time I really went to a meeting to argue with the local dems was when the city council got the genius idea to buy a casino.
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Nov 18, 2016 18:41
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Fullhouse posted:a significant amount of the government especially at the local level relies on unpaid internships to function so this won't ever happen unfortunately I'm fine with government and non-profit unpaid internships, but any business that exists to make a profit it should be illegal for. Banks don't need unpaid employees.
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Nov 18, 2016 18:43
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I'm not sure what branches they are from, but in the Midwest non-military people are most familiar with and generally have high respect for the US Army Corps of Engineers. Cities and towns are usually alongside rivers, and rivers flood. The Army Engineers are always pretty involved with the rescue efforts and cleanups in the worse cases, and general maintenance of flood walls along major rivers like the Mississippi and Missouri. They've also done work with environmental cleanup and such along with the EPA. So if people need an example of how the military can be used to help the country in peacetime, there is one that people in the Midwest are very familiar with. Of course, that is another issue where gently caress YOU MIDWEST comes into play: funding for levees and flood walls is allocated based on "a ratio that compares the cost of a project with the value of property being protected." Coastal Cities of course score much higher because the property values are higher.
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Nov 18, 2016 21:48
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Burn investment bankers as fuel?
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Nov 18, 2016 22:05
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Happy to see that my congressman is on the list of endorsements for Ellison. It's a nice thought at least that calling his office might have made a small difference.
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Nov 19, 2016 13:24
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I think I just got personally blamed for the Clinton campaign's failure by a longtime friend over skype. What do you even say when someone you've known for a decade says to you "you know, maybe if people like your family didn't lie on all the polls then she would've had more reason to go to the Midwest" with apparent seriousness? I don't think me or anyone I know has EVER purposely lied to a pollster, I just maybe only do 1 a year because they call anyone with landlines in Iowa about 5 times a day during election season. I held back my worst doubts about Clinton through the campaign year and defended her to friends and family quite often, but now the crime of being Midwestern and thinking there is something internally wrong with the party has drawn me some serious ire from friends lately 
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Nov 20, 2016 00:00
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Serf posted:I would be very interested in seeing some articles about how polls were conducted during this last election since the vast majority of them were dead wrong. There are a surprising number of people that think the polling failures were due to a coordinated campaign on the part of Trump supporters to lie about their support to every pollster. I chalked it up to shock at the loss initially, but there are still people out there that genuinely believe that was what caused problems in every state, with every single pollster. I just hope none of the the pollsters themselves are that dumb.
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Nov 21, 2016 22:24
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Personally I found the post-election analysis and breakdown of the Clinton campaign and some information about to people to contact to advance a progressive agenda pretty useful, the discussions afterwards about which side we we should have supported during the Spanish civil war and how to better engage with the Adult Baby/Diaper Lover community a bit less so.
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Nov 26, 2016 02:06
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For everyone who says the Democratic party didn't do enough to emphasize the problems faced by areas like Flint, you should consider their media director who has voluntarily consumed immense quantities of lead in solidarity.
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Nov 26, 2016 05:10
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There is a bear in the woods. For some people, the bear is easy to see. Others don't see it at all. Some people say the bear is tame. Others say it's vicious and dangerous. Since no one can really be sure who's right, isn't it smart to give it another shot in 2020? If there is a bear.
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Nov 29, 2016 07:38
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We definitely need to push for an expansion of the social safety net, but ultimately most people need to do some form of work to feel fulfilled. I'd caution people against underestimating the pride/shame people feel about assistance, because it does real harm in people's lives. I went to an elementary school that I now know from city records has 75% of the children attending participating in the free/reduced lunch program. I don't have past figures, but they were likely higher when I was attending because the farm crisis in the late 80's absolutely wrecked manufacturing related jobs here. As a kid I didn't know which kids were getting free/reduced lunches, but you could tell whose family was both poor and also had parents too stubborn (or simply were so neglectful/lazy to do the application paperwork) because if the parents never applied nor sent the children with money, the only thing the school would provide for lunch was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and water. So that is what those kids ate, every single lunch, for the entire time they attended school there. There is a privately run food bank here that has done reasonably well by providing food in exchange for working a certain number of hours there to help sort and process donations. There are obviously some issues to that approach if it is the only one used, because so many people who are struggling are also overworked. It has been fairly effective at helping some of the stubborn people who would otherwise avoid food assistance entirely though.
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Dec 4, 2016 08:41
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Yes and no. I think most people will take help if they need it. Even very stubborn people will usually take help on behalf of people that depend on them, if not always for themselves. An even smaller portion will not take help for themselves nor those who depend on them. I don't think its possible to reach everyone, but you always have to try because the people most affected are usually those with the least power to do anything about it.
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Dec 4, 2016 09:05
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In the upper midwest specifically, if the Democrats aren't at least trying to maintain some ties with more amenable religious denominations they are making a huge mistake. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America is about as close to a natural religious ally as you'll ever find among mainstream protestants in the area. There are still conservative/liberal splits, but even the conservative faction is opposed to capital punishment, believes in environmental protections/cleanup , and does good work for the poor. The more liberal faction has been dominant in recent years and has successfully instituted the ordaining of LGBT clergy, and allowed pastors to marry same-sex couples. Aside from that, I've worked with some of their congregations before and there is a good culture there. You find a lot of people there that are naturally drawn to lower-middle class jobs that don't pay especially especially well but do a lot of community good, like public school teachers and social workers. I've also known too many gay Mormons to write off working with them entirely. Just no Pentecostals. Edit: Forgot the mention the ELCA also supports universal healthcare for all people, regardless of how it is achieved, as of 2003. tower time has issued a correction as of 00:07 on Dec 5, 2016 |
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Dec 5, 2016 00:05
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Hey ballogan what is your recommendation for a good gin to try for someone who has never had said spirit? I trust only the finest drunks.
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Dec 5, 2016 00:10
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So in quite local news, the state senator representing my district died of a brain tumor in September and the ballots were not updated in time for the normal elections. So a special election is being held to fill the seat, and for some goddamn reason the governor decided the ideal day to do this would be 2 days after christmas. Is this part of that war on christmas i've heard so much about?
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Dec 7, 2016 08:02
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So Iowa's Governor is going to accept a Trump appointment as ambassador to China. He is expected to appoint Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds as his replacement. That means Iowa has gotten our first woman Governor and Senator in the past 4 years, and they are both Republican  The Governor's seat is up in 2018, and she should be a softer target than Branstad. But the Iowa Democratic party has few viable candidates and after our 14-point swing right I would be surprised if the national party lends much support. The party is in total disarray. Our outgoing state chair, Dr. Andy Mcguire, was head of Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign in the state. The frontrunner going into the state chair selection is the outgoing democratic senate majority leader (as Democrats lost the state senate, and he lost his seat) who endorsed Clinton just before the caucus as "the most prepared presidential candidate in the history of the world." There is definitely a lot of party discontent, but business in Des Moines is going on as usual.
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Dec 8, 2016 03:05
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To the extent that interest payments on the growing debt saps part of the budget and the number keeps growing, yes. But I've never in my life heard a candidate talk seriously about actually paying into our debt by cutting defense spending or raising taxes - its only offered up as a bludgeon to kill social security and other programs that help normal people.
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Dec 8, 2016 04:06
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Its not a perfect parallel, but there are historical examples of large and powerful nations getting into so much debt they could no longer handle it on any reasonable level. The Ottoman Empire was at one time a technologically advanced world power, and part of their decline was taking on an increasing amount of debt owed to European nations, to the point where nearly the entirety of the national budget near the end went solely to satisfying interest on said loans. And then when they went bankrupt, British warships appeared on the horizon...
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Dec 8, 2016 04:20
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Yeah, we're not going to default on it in Trump's presidency. And the US is still likely strong enough in our lifetimes that no one can force us to pay - that doesn't make it smart to ignore the problem forever and let it completely hobble the nation in 30-40 years. Then again, ignoring problems until they become insurmountable is just the american way.
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Dec 8, 2016 04:37
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The national debt is quite far from being one of my top concerns, more like a symptom of a very broken system. Maybe the debt is not crushing us at this time, but much of it was taken on for reasons I think we can largely agree did not benefit the average person in the US very much. Tax cuts, wars, corporate subsidies... I'd hope we could shrink the debt over time if the government gets spending priorities and taxation in order, which is to say when 95% of the nation's problems are fixed anyhow.
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Dec 8, 2016 05:13
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I have a bag of 5 billion gold pieces. Class? Whats Class? Stop trying to divide the party or we'll never defeat that red dragon.
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Dec 9, 2016 02:58
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Just thought as far as healthcare goes I'd mention my family's greatest financial accomplishment of the last decade was my dad being able to delay his hip replacement surgery for about 4 years after he actually needed it until a year when the $5,000 deductible had already been satisfied by a recurrence of my mother's skin cancer. The system works!
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Dec 10, 2016 06:02
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And then they both voted for Trump.
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Dec 10, 2016 06:08
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Ace of Baes posted:It wasn't just the two of us, it was a bunch of dems, and we were talking about DAPL where they defended Obama on not acting sooner, and saying Democrats have been paying a lot of attention to native americans, blaming wikileaks on Clinton losing, arguing against Edward snowden and saying he should be in prison, pointing out Keith Ellison was a black Muslim as a weakness. I haven't talked to a friend of 10+ years for several weeks since she accused myself and other midwesterners of being part of a vast conspiracy to lie about our voting intentions so Clinton would not visit or spend money here.
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Dec 10, 2016 06:48
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My immediate reaction was "I thought you were serious for a second, haha" which just made her REALLY angry. I'm not one to hold a grudge, but if she still believes that and has no regrets I am not going to go out of my way to mend things.
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Dec 10, 2016 07:09
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Maybe devoting $40 million in campaign funds to mail out fight song eight-tracks to people in influential circles would have changed the whole election.
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Dec 10, 2016 07:16
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Who said anything about LIVING with the results? Lets not get too optimistic now.
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Dec 10, 2016 07:34
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The important question is how much Peter Daou got paid.
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Dec 11, 2016 09:01
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