...... sigh

the warning signs were there before the election--just look at our meager numbers in the House of Representatives, statehouses, and legislatures.

we thought there were enough people in our urban archipelago that we didn't need to do the discomfortable work of outreach in the economically decaying industrial areas.

If President Obama was not on the ticket.. people stayed home.. and you are right..we have to talk to everyone.. and seriously.. put time in with everyone.. and not think that the coasts will be enough.. and we have to push past this thing of just getting out for the President.. the power is in the states and the state houses..

were less likely to support us--swing voters in conservative, white areas of the Midwest. Part of it was that he's from the Midwest, part of it is that he made damn sure to put in the time with those voters because he knew they could be talked into voting GOP if he didn't.

Democrats have been a little too triumphalist in assuming that their coalition of the ascendant had the numbers to govern the entire country, and that we didn't need to even talk to vast swaths of the country.

it's something of a vicious cycle, because the more we become concentrated in the urban archipelago, the less able we are to reach voters in 'flyover land.'

President Obama could do nothing right with "some" on our side of the equation.. and one of the biggest complaints was with his hesitant speech pattern.. which is so typical of the midwest.. but we cannot just write off the rest of the country even if it does not contain the same amount of populace...

than the GOP did and we still were in the minority by double digits. We also got more votes for Senate both in 2016 and over the 3 elections that made up this Senate.

Case in point. Democratic Party has an opportunity to win another senate seat Saturday. No discussion even though we won the governorship of Louisiana. You'd think we'd pull out everything to win this. Guess it's not needed.

for the Democratic Senate race in LA, even if it is a long shot.

2017 (VA and NJ) and 2018 governors races are going to be vital. We need to act locally.

Smart and good man, excellent politician. We should reflect on his approach a little more.

Something happened that's not known yet.

The Republican margin in rural areas along with rural turnout in general jumped significantly in 2016. Obama did not win them in either of his elections. The non-voters or lapsed voters showed up to vote this year unlike in the past and some of them who voted for Obama once or twice, flipped their votes this year.

We split electoral votes and Hillary won the 1rst Congressional District as well as the popular vote giving her 3 of our 4 EVs. But the 1 EV Trump got in Maine's 2nd Congressional District made history, because we've never had to split them before.

This whole area is now red

Too many anomalies in the swing states for this to be on the up and up.

Too bad there's nothing to be done about it.

US military personnel and other gov't (FBI Director Comey, Gen Flynn, NSA) and non govt actors (Rudy Guiliani) as well as outside actors (Russia) assisting with the overthrow of our form of gov't.

We're going to need to rebuild our democracy, not just our party.

The space aliens. They were definitely involved at the highest levels. Possibly the time travelers as well but that isn't proven yet

Seriously I really do.

Me and you ----->HERE<---- on what you said about these 3 states.

I'll always feel in my heart of hearts that this election was STOLEN, and that the Russians along with our OWN government was complicit in this. How in HELL can we ever trust the voting process from now on?

CAN Democrats EVER win the White House again in this environment with rigging and voter disenfranchisement/suppression?

Detroit is a democrat controlled city, Wayne County is largely democrat controlled.

Wayne Counties county clerk would have been the one to oversee the elections, they are a democrat.

I'm sure at least some of the budget comes from the republican controlled state, but why has Detroit and Wayne County not been raising hell if the machines have been broken for at least 7 years.

Who rigged the election in detroit. Its a democrat controlled city and county, so why are the democrats in charge not doing their job.

managers to run these (black) cities. I don't think the democrats are actually in charge of anything in MI anymore.

You are of course correct that we need to come together and support one another. The problem is that there are (at least) three mutually exclusive positions on the "how we lost" question.

1 - We didn't (lose that is). We won and Republicans cheated. This is not the "electoral college should be abolished" argument... it's variations on Russian hackers actually took control and gamed the system.

2 - We lost - but not because of any issue with our message or preferred policies. We picked the wrong candidate at the head of the ticket

3 - We lost - but not because of any issue with our candidate. Our message no longer resonates with middle America (or whatever)
3a - We've gone too far to the left
3b - We've gone too far to the right

you did a better job than I could..

You can only really "cheat" if the election is close (or you can but it'd be too obvious; they've very likely overreached as it is), so you need to do your best to win by enough to make cheating impossible. that goes into 2 and 3. I disagree with 2, and 3a/b (though I'd love to go further to the left). I'd propose a 4 which entails:

4 - We lost, but not because of our candidate or message, but because our messaging and campaign had blind spots, and we didn't allocate our resources properly.

when you could hardly find anybody who'd admit they voted for Nixon, even though he won in a landslide (520-17) in 1972. "Me? Vote for that crook? No way, ha ha ha.." (person looks sheepishly at shoes and quickly changes the subject)

and yep we do have problems with fake news on the internet.. but we have always had issues with lies about candidate.. it is mind boggling.. that is for sure..

And it's almost impossible to find a repub nowadays that doesn't say Bush was an idiot.

Bush v Gore election was highly questionable, and just as the recounts were turning up evidence of a steal, we get hit with 9/11. That event was probably not as much of a LIHOP, as it was the consequences of some heavy-handed business ultimatums regarding oil pipelines in the middle east. When it all went bad, and we got caught with our pants down, it became an opportunity for the guilty parties to hide when the media went dark.

And now we see moving parts that will certainly roil up China, with Russian interference in our election and a very strong push by a Republican GOP member to legitimize Taiwan.

Can Trump be thinking that beating China on a military plane will erase our debt with that country? Can he be that obtuse?

What is going on in that mans head???

i'm beginning to lean toward they stole it.

i like your sentiment Peacetrain. we must resist trump and come together stronger or really it's a done deal for this country's democracy.

ahead

Take away Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York city and see what the vote count might look like. This is why we have an Electoral College. It prevents large urban areas from dictating who the president is every four years.

do the same thing, then get the same results. Rinse and repeat till the cows come home. If nothing changes, then, tautologically speaking, nothing changes.

That's the truth

not discounting other rationales mentioned in the thread, this guy makes some solid points

From all sides --took her down. I keep having this visual of a hunting scene, where more and more bear-dogs show up after the bear has been wounded and is bleeding by the hunters who hold back and let the dogs do their thing No respite, no respite, she fell with a might sound.

Trump did successfully what Sanders tried to do--peg himself as a political outsider who will shake things up.

We can support each other once we stop sniping at each other--and that's not going to happen anytime soon.

It will end though. Resistance is starting in communities, And this will spread untill it's a viable resource to tap into.

apart. I think it's now a failed democracy and will just get worse. I look at other countries with strife and wars, I think now that's the future of the US. I can't put rose colored glasses on. Far too many in this country are too stupid, bigoted and wastes. This last election and Trumps' primaries well demonstrated how ugly, irrational and stupid Americans have become. Mostly lemmings, lambs and the naive now, gullible as hell and ripe for a takeover by Trump and his cohorts, a faded democracy.

and justly deserved....if you don't want hell to happen..sitting on your butt is the sure way that hell will happen...

but lost swing states by the same margin. She lost states where she campaigned head-to-head against Trump; 11 visits to PA and she lost; FL and NC the same story. She lost two more bricks on the blue wall where she didn't campaign much (MI) or at all (WI). He connected with more voters in the swing states than she did so she lost.

I'm not worried about making the right adjustments at the presidential candidate level for 2020. It's not complicated. Like many others, my focus is at the local and state level where we really have an emergency situation.

Everyone is ignoring the disaster that the party is at the state level.

Click the buttons to the left of the map & watch the nation turn red. It's alarming, yet all the chortling here about winning the popular vote.

https://ballotpedia.org/State_government_trifectas

candidate against Brat (who won the Pub primary, defeating Eric Cantor) got NO help from DC. Neither did they help the 2nd guy when he ran against Brat. That Dem came to my door and we talked for a while -- he had applied or asked for campaign money and never even got a how-do-you-do from DC. Just with his own money (about $100,000) he managed to get 40% of the vote. The national Pubs gave Brat TEN MILLION DOLLARS for his campaign.

This is where our problem is, folks.

All that money spent on the Presidency this year that probably did nothing since it all focused on how horrible Trump was. Reallocating some of it to local and state races could have put us in a much better position.

Peacetrain

I'm in agreement with much of what you said.

However...

We part company though at the thought of that p***y-grabbing, racist, xenophobic, war-mongering, grifter EVER being my president

We didn't lose, we were out ranked by a select few that represent a select few.

The bros are what kept it going on and on and on-he was mathematical toast on Super Tuesday

So they did

more understandable when you find a few (around here he cleaned up).

...we won the election. True, the electoral college will vote for Trump. I think it would be wrong to keep criticizing Hillary and others who supported and campaigned for the most popular candidate. The message of inclusion - Stronger Together- was clear and hit on many policies. Continue this message!

1: Bernie bros aka Bernie or bust types. In typical Democratic Party fashion, we/they tried to coddle them into supporting Clinton. They never came on board. Every "male" Bernie supporter I know, but one, ended up voting trump or third party. One WAS my best friend, and a manufacturer. I gained a lot of insight from them.

2: They wanted change. They absolutely hate the aca. They are mostly small, micro business people that are paying the fine rather than buying insurance they can't afford. Believe you me they are pissed about it. If we would have adopted a single payer (or something) platform they might have been more amicable. Instead they would rather burn it all down.

3: Going high when they go low. No, when they hit you, you pull out a baseball bat and give it back ten fold. Metaphorically speaking. If we want to continue to lose elections keep going high. Humans are not as evolved as most think. Carrot and stick is all they know for the most part.

4: Yard Signs. Yeah, so cliche. Not one yard sign in my area. There were none. Couldn't get one, nobody even stopped and asked if we wanted one. And I'm on the central committee. Trump yard signs were every where.

5: Clinton fatigue. Goebbels would be proud.... nuff said.

Im a low post count new member so I know that no one cares what I have to say. But I said it any way.

Sanders, and the way he and his supporters were dealt with, lost us the election.

Democrats got Nadered by the "progressive" left. Again.