2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: I fear Democrats are laying the groundwork for future losses by refusing to learn from defeat [View all]still_one
(96,445 posts)the critical swing states were the Establishment, Incumbent, republicans.
Russ Feingold and other Democrats in those swing states were quite progressive.
Russ Feingold was endorsed by Bernie, as was Zypher Teachout.
Katie McGinty, Deborah Ross and others in those swing states were also progressive, especially in regard to labor, minimum wage, etc.
What I am doing is pointing out that the OPs implied conclusion that we lost because we didn't "work and talk with fellow lefties" is simply wrong. The party did work with everyone, including those on the left. Minimum wage, and college debt and other issues were part of the platform.
In addition, the the majority of the Democratic Senate candidate were progressive
Russ Feingold lost by a larger percentage than Hillary. What happened was those self-identified progressives who voted for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson, if they also had voted for Russ Feingold, Russ would have won the Senate race in Wisconsin.
Similar patterns also hold in the other swing states.