Guardian: Liberals risk becoming a permanent minority in America

[arenean]

From The Guardian:

What will liberalism do in the new, terrifying world the 2016 election has inaugurated? More than any other presidential election in a century, its outcome turned not on issues but on resentment and alienation. It was a vote in which anger overrode optimism, a corrosive sense of failure overrode hope and in which the very impracticality of a Donald Trump presidency proved one of his strongest drawing cards. He would not improve politics, his core supporters told interviewers. He would blow it up.

Liberals have urgent work to do to block the most reckless, punitive efforts of a Trump presidency. But liberalism must also come to terms with the fact that the base on which it has rested since the 1940s in this election fell almost completely apart. The effectiveness of the Republican party’s Southern Strategy of the late 1960s in peeling off southern white Americans was the beginning of the New Deal coalition’s breakup.

The desertion of the northern, white working class in the 2016 election, should it persist, would leave liberalism without a viable electoral base. Unless the Trump victory literally splits apart the Republican party, liberalism threatens to become a permanent minority of the educated, the bi-coastal, the urban, the nonwhite, and the poor. Despite changing demographics, national elections cannot be won on that basis alone.


Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/03/liberals-risk-becoming-permanent-minority-america

[ucrdem]

1. Normalizing election fraud, just like the rest of them.

No mention of the fact that Trump didn't actually win, either. Thanks Guardian.

[uponit7771]

8. +1, most of the post this week stright up ignore election fraud and blame Clinton and everyone else

[Wabbajack_]

17. Even with the voter suppression

She should have won by 20 damn points against the most hated man in America, and she would at least have WON if had she had run a good race, which she DID NOT. Pretending she did won't help us win the next one.

[Demsrule86]

18. Not true...

This election was stolen...and it won't matter what we believe if we don't stop the GOP...I don't care about liberal or centrist labels...we all have to band together and fight the conservatives who are winning by the way because they stick together...Trump is not popular with the GOP either...but they voted for him in numbers that kept the election close thus allowing them to steal it. And I will say this...the primary hurt Clinton...had Bernie not run or at least gotten out and endorsed way earlier...Clinton would have won.

[uponit7771]

21. This is false on its face... Straight up Clinton bashing... That's not how voter suppression works

[KittyWampus]

25. The two are not mutually exclusive. There was voter suppression and Clinton's team failed

on several important levels.

[LaydeeBug]

10. Thank you for this. We let them frame the fucking narrative and it drives me nuts.

[brutus smith]

26. This is what happens

When we turn the other cheek. Time to stand tall!

[Cha]

13. Good post, ucr! Thank you!

[ucrdem]

15. Thanks Cha!

This is the Snowden-Greenwald-Wikileaks Guardian that wrapped up its coverage of the US presidential election by claiming that the recounts had proven that Trump really won.



Skinner pointed out this morning that it was a different Guardian that made Hillary person of the year, and I most def like that one better!

[Cha]

16. Oh this greenwald that said there was no Russian hacking.. and we all

know what an ass assange is.. all of them trying to bring down America.. well aren't they just the winners..



https://twitter.com/AlGiordano

How Julian Assange Turned WikiLeaks Into Trump’s Best Friend

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-11/how-julian-assange-turned-wikileaks-into-trump-s-best-friend

[Orsino]

2. I guess when we lose the presidency by three million votes, and lose Congressional seats...

...the danger is real.

[delisen]

3. The electoral college win was based on roughly 100,000 votes. Hardly the death of liberalism-

especially when we have voter suppression, fake news, a politicized FBI, and a poker-playing strongman in Russia acting to topple democracy here and abroad, Eight years of letting Republicans score over 1000 political seats hasn't helped, and could have been prevented.

JFK wrote "Why England Slept" explaining British failure to pay attention before World War II was upon them. One day someone will write "Why Democrats Slept" to explain the events of leading up to the forces of darkness scoring the Oval Office--but we need to get to work now.

[SFnomad]

4. So liberalism is dead (or on its way)

In the last election ...

When we win the popular vote of the Presidential Election by nearly 3 million.
When we gain seats in the House.
When we gain seats in the Senate.

Yeah, sure sounds like liberalism is on its last legs.

[Joe941]

5. I'm not buying it.

[NewJeffCT]

6. Democrats and liberals have a LOT of work to do

but, winning the popular vote by 3 million despite unprecedented billions in free media coverage for Trump, voter suppression, James Comey, Russian hacking, the low standards Trump was held to, while Clinton was held to a much higher standard, etc. does not mean liberals are going to be a minority for a generation. The minority vote is going to continue to increase, while a lot of those crabby and angry white voters are going to be dying of old age.

That said, Democrats really need to retool and rebuild at the state level - and, not just in red, pink and purple states. In every state. All 50 states. (Democrats lost ground at the state level in my blue state of Connecticut and now the state senate is a tie after being under Democratic control for years.. outside groups poured big money into CT state races, all to benefits Republicans.) The country isn't that red where Republicans should be controlling 37 state legislatures.

[Vogon_Glory]

28. I suspect that a lot of angry white red-state voters won't be here next time

I suspect that a lot of angry white red-state voters won't be here next time. They'll have slit their own throats when Republican real-life "death panel" legislation wrecks their health coverage.

Also, as cruel as it is to say, the result of the next census will mean that some of Trump Land's states will have to give up congressional seats as their population either remains stable or declines. Wham! Take that, Wississippi! Wham! Take that, Iowa! Wham! Take that, Kansas!

[yeoman6987]

32. Actually New York and Pennsylvania will most likely lose at least one electoral vote

Not sure about Mississippi. They don't have many to begin with.

[Vogon_Glory]

37. Beg pardon, but I didn't say Mississippi

Not to be unpleasant, but I wasn't referring to Alabama's western neighbor, but to Koch-backed Scott Walker's Wisconsin, which is now on the track to becoming a Mississippi North, with regressive social and economic policies and sagging employment.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. Yes, 4 months ago we were sure the GOP was dead for good, now the Democratic Party is.

Nothing is "permanent", certainly not in politics.

[bigdarryl]

9. Heard this bullshit before when the dems lost three Presidential elections in a row

To Reagan and Bush Senior.I even heard some people saying IT might of been 100 years before a democrat is picked as President.Shit just two years ago they we're predicting the republicans would be a minority party.

[AngryAmish]

11. The nightmare is Trump peels off the private sector unions

AFL-CIO, Teamsters, Autoworkers, Electricians and Laborers. If he builds the Wall, makes Mexico pay for it and does it with union labor we are cooked. I bet this stunt with Ford got 1/3 of the Autoworkers with him.

[Demsrule86]

19. Can you blame them?

We have to fix trade...we need a manufacturing policy that will keep jobs here and entice more companies to manufacture here. We will never be a great country by selling burgers to each other.

[Wounded Bear]

12. Only if we roll over for them...nt

[BigDemVoter]

14. In all respect, the Guardian here is full of SHIT.

America is still essentially a liberal country that believes in healthcare, etc. These motherfuckers who are taking over in January have managed to illegally game the system. It's not going to happen another goddamned time, because WE are not going to allow it.

America is going to take a look into that stinking pit full of shit, pus, and piss and will just recoil with horror. And these people just bring out the worst in me too. All I have to say about the fucking rubes who supported these pigs is that they'll get off easy, as we are going to win, and THEY will have to help subsidize universal, single payer healthcare for all. And THAT will be their worst fucking nightmare!

[Demsrule86]

20. I wish I could believe that.

But I don't think we will get healthcare again in my lifetime...it took more than 100 years to get what we have...and now it looks as if Ryan will get rid of it...we had a shot to expand it and move towards single payer, but that hope died the day Trump won the election.

[Vogon_Glory]

29. Our chances might be slightly better than that

If you take away something, people will notice when it's gone. I suspect even some of the most vehement Pro-Trump Magoos bellowing against "Wicked Hillary" will notice when their health coverage is gone, their insurance premiums triple, and they're facing financial ruin.

[yeoman6987]

33. 2018 scares me to death. The senate looks dreadful for us.

[Kingofalldems]

36. How many times will you post this yeoman6987?

BTW James Woolsey has left the Trump team. He knows now that Trump is a traitor. This will help REAL Democrats in 2018. We may take both houses. Oh yeah, Trump supporters are also traitors as of now. They have been given the evidence.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141657028

[adigal]

22. Um, we won. We got more votes. We have more people voting for Dem Senators and Representatives.

Liberalism is very popular. The Republicans cheated.

[yeoman6987]

34. We won 20 states. They won 30. We need to increase that state number.

[Willie Pep]

23. Liberal policies are popular but we still lose elections.

As others have mentioned, voter suppression and gerrymandering account for a good chunk of GOP success. But we do have a lot of work to do convincing people that we are going to fight and win victories for them, especially on kitchen table issues. We can fight and beat the Republicans here because their agenda is bad for most of the country.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

24. We need national campaigns, not some quant's computer models.

Before we get too deep into this we need to define what "liberal" means.

We lost because Hillary Clinton was not a nationally competitive candidate, and I am sure her own campaign knew that. But they had all these stupid models that said she could still win decisively based on electoral math.

Oops.

[Renew Deal]

27. More people voted for liberal policy

[brutus smith]

30. After reading some of these posts,

keep thinking Liberalism is OK. Instead of Repubs only controlling 32 states and the Pres, congress and senate, they will control it all. The time to take a stand is now.

[MFM008]

31. They are as bad as daily mail

Crap.

[Paladin]

35. Bullshit. Trump's excesses will end up being the salvation of liberalism.

Liberals simply need to take advantage of what the new regime will attempt to do.

[TrekLuver]

38. Except we are not the minority since MORE PEOPLE voted Democrat.