115th United States Congress

[Cail]

Reuters Top News‏ @Reuters
JUST IN: Senate healthcare bill will be unveiled on Thursday at 9:30am ET - Senator Barrasso

[EternityEnd]

And there is the most important fight, ladies and gentlemen. They'll unveil it late this week, and CBO will score it early next week.

There's a window to contest it and make your displeasure known to your senators.

[6souls]

[Zetanio]

The best part is they really expected to win.

Seems similar to another election.

[Headspace]

Clearly veering hard left would have gotten swaths of disenfranchised people out to revolutionize politics the same way Bernie was able to mobilize the disenfranchised with his progressive platform en route to sweeping HRC out of the primary. It's not like the reason being against a livable wage wasn't a deal killer for Handel is that the district is full of people that like being able to pay their employees substandard wages.

45% turnout.

Wonder why 55% didn't turnout and why Ossoff couldn't increase Dem turnout from 2016 congressional election. R turnout down 33% in this election and Dem turnout was exactly the same.

Yet your only excuse for the loss is "well it's deep red". Listen Robby Mook, it's deep red because Dems don't run good candidates and they don't give the left leaning people any reason to vote for them.

[tyven]

I am so fucking excited for 2018 and for Dems to get their teeth absolutely kicked in and for all of you to come here and be like "well you know, we can't actually expect to win a house race and also win the majority and also ever win a single election, luckily we have Nancy Pelosi leading us"

I just came from lunch with a republican house member from PA and all the table could do was laugh and gloat about how stupid the democratic machine is and how they hope they continue to spend 30 million dollars with terrible messaging on every race lol.

[Gryffes]

I am so fucking excited for 2018 and for Dems to get their teeth absolutely kicked in and for all of you to come here and be like "well you know, we can't actually expect to win a house race and also win the majority and also ever win a single election, luckily we have Nancy Pelosi leading us"

I just came from lunch with a republican house member from PA and all the table could do was laugh and gloat about how stupid the democratic machine is and how they hope they continue to spend 30 million dollars with terrible messaging on every race lol.

Maybe given Corbyns success in being an older career political lefty who managed to excite the youth and get record turnout from them would inspire the dems to give Sanders a try in 2020, instead of running a bland neoliberal or taking another punt on Hillary?

[Headspace]

Maybe given Corbyns success in being an older career political lefty who managed to excite the youth and get record turnout from them would inspire the dems to give Sanders a try in 2020, instead of running a bland neoliberal or taking another punt on Hillary?

Corbyn lost tho

[tyven]

Would be nice but Bernie will be too old and even if he weren't too old the democratic party is a poisoned monstrosity and wouldn't run a far left (i) as a Dem anyway. Which is fine because basically anyone except Hillary should be able to win. But probably won't LOL

Fucking loser party

[Gryffes]

Would be nice but Bernie will be too old and even if he weren't too old the democratic party is a poisoned monstrosity and wouldn't run a far left (i) as a Dem anyway. Which is fine because basically anyone except Hillary should be able to win. But probably won't LOL

Fucking loser party

She was 99% to win this time but managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by running an incompetent campaign.
I'm sure this time she'll have learnt from both her 2008 loss and her 2016 loss and manage not to fuck it up? Right ?

All she has to do is actually visit states that matter instead of fundraising in California and she can't lose!

[Talint]

I am so fucking excited for 2018 and for Dems to get their teeth absolutely kicked in and for all of you to come here and be like "well you know, we can't actually expect to win a house race and also win the majority and also ever win a single election, luckily we have Nancy Pelosi leading us"

I just came from lunch with a republican house member from PA and all the table could do was laugh and gloat about how stupid the democratic machine is and how they hope they continue to spend 30 million dollars with terrible messaging on every race lol.

I have it on good authority from the guys here on this very message board who thought for 100% sure that Hillary was going to win, that the midterms are always a referendum on the president and that the generic congressional prognostication ballot is D+16 which means an absolutely unprecedented House wave is coming.

All these special elections were just ruby red districts that democrats weren't ever going to win anyway, even though the plan was to have democrats try to win over republicans and just show how strong neoliberalist wonkishness is.

You are just wrong, sir.

[tyven]

shit you are right. I have been owned and House dems will successfully defend all their current seats and easily pick up 24 more that aren't urban centers or suburbs because we cannot expect Dems to win suburbs in one of the fastest growing major cities in the country. I'm very excited for Speaker Pelosi to be back in the saddle. Thank you for schooling me on how Dems are actually winners and I am the loser.

[Tyrath]

Idk why people think Dems are gonna win the House in 2018 just because of Trump lol. The Senate itself is looking tough because it's mostly dem seats up for re-election.

[tyven]

Idk why people think Dems are gonna win the House in 2018 just because of Trump lol. The Senate itself is looking tough because it's mostly dem seats up for re-election.

because Trump is bad and so you have to vote Dem. That is the official winning message of the bigly winning democratic party thanks to President Yas Queen and Majority Loser Ossoff

[EternityEnd]

I am so fucking excited for 2018 and for Dems to get their teeth absolutely kicked in and for all of you to come here and be like "well you know, we can't actually expect to win a house race and also win the majority and also ever win a single election, luckily we have Nancy Pelosi leading us"

I just came from lunch with a republican house member from PA and all the table could do was laugh and gloat about how stupid the democratic machine is and how they hope they continue to spend 30 million dollars with terrible messaging on every race lol.

I think the DNC has made a lot of bad decisions, and is plagued by a lack of coherent leadership or visionary. You'll find no argument from me there. They need to stop campaigning on how bad republicans are (which it's impossible to convince their electorate of), and start campaigning on their own policies and what they can/will do to help the people.

However, I think you're being completely deaf to why we're even having special elections in the first place. These are to fill positions vacated by Trump's appointments -- appointments Trump's team made specifically because they were in unassailable districts.

Yeah, we didn't win any. Framing these as the baseline for a normal election, or for midterms going forward is just foolish, though. These were on republican turf, with republican advantage, and not just in some abstract color sense -- in demographics. Expecting to win these is setting yourself up for demoralization, and to be fair, I think much of that blame lays at the feet of the DNC's framing of it as more winnable than it was.

As I said earlier, the very best we could get these seats to was down to a crapshoot. Ossoff underperformed for various reasons, and Parnell overperformed, in districts that had no place being close at all. Neither won. Yeah, that stings, but get real. These elections are not the damn neutral baseline, and these seats are up again next year.

Elections are binary in the short term, and losses hurt, but in the long term, looking at republicans' (un)popularity and their victory margins getting slimmer and slimmer, 2018 is pretty damn hopeful. Especially since Trump hasn't stopped trending downward and the investigations into him will continue to feed that.

Republicans' control of Congress has yet to affect the average american. If the ACHA goes through, that will change. If various other things that they move on to after the AHCA go through, that will change. If they continue to fail at everything and that becomes more and more visible, that will change. They're the party in power and that has never been advantageous for anyone electorally, because they will be to blame for everything.

[tyven]

I think the DNC has made a lot of bad decisions, and is plagued by a lack of coherent leadership or visionary. You'll find no argument from me there. They need to stop campaigning on how bad republicans are (which it's impossible to convince their electorate of), and start campaigning on their own policies and what they can/will do to help the people.

However, I think you're being completely deaf to why we're even having special elections in the first place. These are to fill positions vacated by Trump's appointments -- appointments Trump's team made specifically because they were in unassailable districts.

Yeah, we didn't win any. Framing these as the baseline for a normal election, or for midterms going forward is just foolish, though. These were on republican turf, with republican advantage, and not just in some abstract color sense -- in demographics. Expecting to win these is setting yourself up for demoralization, and to be fair, I think much of that blame lays at the feet of the DNC's framing of it as more winnable than it was.

As I said earlier, the very best we could get these seats to was down to a crapshoot. Ossoff underperformed for various reasons, and Parnell overperformed, in districts that had no place being close at all. Neither won. Yeah, that stings, but get real. These elections are not the damn neutral baseline, and these seats are up again next year.

Elections are binary in the short term, and losses hurt, but in the long term, looking at republicans' (un)popularity and their victory margins getting slimmer and slimmer, 2018 is pretty damn hopeful. Especially since Trump hasn't stopped trending downward and the investigations into him will continue to feed that.

Republicans' control of Congress has yet to affect the average american. If the ACHA goes through, that will change. If various other things that they move on to after the AHCA go through, that will change. If they continue to fail at everything and that becomes more and more visible, that will change. They're the party in power and that has never been advantageous for anyone electorally, because they will be to blame for everything.

all the democrats have done for almost a decade is lose. Even with good favorability ratings they lose. Why should that change because Trump's numbers get worse? Republicans vote republican and democrats vote democrat, Panera be damned. They are just going to continue to lose.

30 million dollars gained Ossoff a .01% increase in votes from the primary. But Dems did what they were supposed to do, run a centrist candidate that can appeal to moderates and steal the votes of the regretful Trump voters. Still, its fine that he lost. It's fine that every vacant house seat lost. I didn't expect a single one of them to win because this party can't win an election to save its life. Libs should not feel confident in 2018 when they are losing to vacant seats with a retarded toddler leading the opposition and lib grassroots energy at an all-time high.

How can anyone find 24 districts on a map in 2018 and feel comfortable taking them? Maybe pick up a few gimmes in CA and NY, 1 or 2 across PA, Ohio, and Florida? That's it. It is a joke that the democratic party and their loyalists feel good about anything.

Shit the Senate just spent more time working on Russian Sanctions than making a stink about AHCA and republicans in the House just blocked the Russia sanctions. It's a fucking clown car of idiots that everyone wants to continue to support because who the fuck knows why. Everyone should want to burn this party to the ground. It's embarrassing that people don't want to.

[Yuri-G]

Anyone on the dem side looking at 2018 and not 2020 is a) adorably optimistic and b) wrong

[Xajii]

I don't buy for a second that the Democrats can sway moderate Republicans to their side based on some queasiness over Trump. That hasn't happened. Every moderate R I see or know has grown MORE DEFENSIVE OF HIM OVER TIME because he's conforming to their policies more often than not and because the left is talking shit about anyone who even looks like a R. They are rallying. The left is floundering.

It's also worth noting that *even if you think the anti-Trump angle works* they couldn't even fucking do that right. Ossoff's campaign didn't run a single ad linking Handel to Trump, and she managed to link him to Kathy Griffin because she tweeted about him once.

Pathetic party. Pathetic leaders.

There's a lot I don't like or agree with about the far left. I think their rhetoric and their level of realism is garbage, I think their understanding of national security and foreign policy is below elementary, and their hero worship of traitors is vile. But they are absolutely right about the Democratic party and about domestic / fiscal issues. These people aren't fighting for you.

[Guitarman]

I don't buy for a second that the Democrats can sway moderate Republicans to their side based on some queasiness over Trump. That hasn't happened. Every moderate R I see or know has grown MORE DEFENSIVE OF HIM OVER TIME because he's conforming to their policies more often than not and because the left is talking shit about anyone who even looks like a R. They are rallying. The left is floundering.

It's also worth noting that *even if you think the anti-Trump angle works* they couldn't even fucking do that right. Ossoff's campaign didn't run a single ad linking Handel to Trump, and she managed to link him to Kathy Griffin because she tweeted about him once.

Pathetic party. Pathetic leaders.

There's a lot I don't like or agree with about the far left. I think their rhetoric and their level of realism is garbage, I think their understanding of national security and foreign policy is below elementary, and their hero worship of traitors is vile. But they are absolutely right about the Democratic party and about domestic / fiscal issues. These people aren't fighting for you.

I have a very micro understanding of the whole political landscape, and I'm just recently getting into politics in general, but the bolded is such a huge, huge piece that is being constantly overlooked. I live in one of the most blue states in the lower 48, and anyone that even dares to mention they are Republican, even if they LOATHE Trump and his policy, is verbally berated and humiliated that they go completely defensive. You don't get votes and change minds by calling people ignorant pieces of shit.

[kuronosan]

She was 99% to win this time but managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by running an incompetent campaign.
I'm sure this time she'll have learnt from both her 2008 loss and her 2016 loss and manage not to fuck it up? Right ?

All she has to do is actually visit states that matter instead of fundraising in California and she can't lose!

You must have family here in the states.

Democrats have this huge problem that consists largely of "our base loves us and will never vote for the shitty Republicans" coupled with "our message isn't the problem, people who don't resonate with it are". Nobody should be surprised that they can't fucking win, because they thumb their noses at anyone who disagrees with their platform.

In this day and age, who seriously thought "lol we don't need single payer" was going to drum up turnout? I mean, seriously?

In other news, I wrote my senators and told them I oppose the AHCA and its "secrecy" and think we deserve to see what's in the bill if it's purportedly "better than the ACA" because this cock-fighting over who has the better bill does jack shit for the patient.

I was greeted with the standard "Well, [______] we appreciate your concern about the health care bill. Rest assured we care about blah blah blah".