Reddy

You and I are so much on the same page all of a sudden. Haha I mean, we're *all* actually on the same side here, and want the same things.

That's proven accurate in every race since 2016, with traditionally red suburbs shifting left.

That's fucking awesome. Thank you. I'm grateful people like you are willing to put yourself out there and stand for what's right, even if it doesn't feel particularly popular while you're doing it.

It's not about chasing reliable Republican votes. It's about chasing the middle. The moderates. The swing voters. The ones who don't vote consistent party line - of which there are MANY. And potentially the inconsistent voters. But I'd rather chase someone who votes every single election and splits a ticket than someone who votes only occasionally or not at all, regardless of their political leanings.

It's an issue of sheer numbers. There aren't enough Democrats for us to choose that strategy. Trying to get non-voters to vote is - statistically and historically - a really poor strategy. The most predictive indicator of voting behavior is prior voting behavior.

Thanks for the work you're putting in. Truly. I completely agree with you. People with disabilities face so much discrimination in this country and nobody ever talks about it, which is a fucking tragedy. Thanks for sharing that, and I really appreciate your activism. It's easy to be dismissive of people on the internet because it's so anonymous, but this was a good reminder that there's probably a lot more to each of us behind the screen names than we give each other credit for.

Those things, unfortunately, don't supersede God, Guns and Gays (And now, immigration/racial issues) in the minds of Republicans in Indiana. They've proven they're willing to vote against their economic interest for all of the above. But if you think I'm wrong, then work to prove it at the local level. If you do, and it's successful, I promise people will take notice.

I agree with you, which is what's so exciting about this cycle. Women raising 40k are beating established men who raise 750k in primaries. It's awesome. And many, many establishment Dems have eschewed corporate PAC money this cycle, which is a great step forward.

Look at where you live. He's the best you're going to get right now. If you want to improve things in Indiana, focus locally.

Bless you.

For the record though, y'all are moving the goalposts. His argument was that MOST establishment Dems are bad on the economy/wall street issues, and that's simply not true.

I agree with you! Obviously! But this isn't a Democratic PARTY problem. The MAJORITY of Democrats don't support this stuff and it's not a plank of the platform. This is the ONE issue they've been bad on in the two years since Trump's election, while they've protected America from a slew of other horrible policies and managed to get so many Dem priorities funded through the omnibus. Again, no party and no politicians will ever be perfect.

You're reading the data wrong. There were 16 YES votes on rolling back regulations. 32 voted against and one didn't vote. https://projects.propublica.org/represent/votes/115/senate/2/54

By the way, Jack, how familiar are you with what happened with the Omnibus Spending Bill? Because Dems - with their minority and led by Pelosi - ended up getting almost every single Democratic priority funded, while keeping the GOP from getting anything they wanted. Don't believe me? Check out some apoplectic GOP-leaning press about the bill: https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/omnibus-spending-bill-republican-failure-humiliating/ and from the left: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/general/news/2018/03/23/448398/progressive-policy-wins-omnibus/

Does 16 out of 48 constitute a majority now? Or 33 out of 193?

This.

Then you'd be wrong.

Because in 2008-10 Obama was naive and unprepared for what he was facing in Congress. He was obsessed with bipartisanship and compromise and coming together - hoping he could win some Rs to his side and give him the ability to pass more legislation. He made a huge miscalculation. Since that time, we haven't had another opportunity to learn from that mistake. Until now.

So, because I'm hearing what you're all putting down, instead of just venting frustrations at y'all I'm going to share as much info as I can about what Dems ARE DOING, and what their plans are, and if you don't agree with them fine. But hopefully you'll see that there's a very clear difference between what the Democratic Party is fighting for and what the Republicans are trying to do. Let's start with:

Weird. The entire Dem establishment calls it a Tax Scam. They drew a hard line in the sand to defend healthcare. They did the same on Planned Parenthood defunding. They forced a vote and won on net neutrality. The list goes on. Here's the critical thing you misunderstand, though. You want Dems to obstruct the way the Republicans obstructed Obama, right? You want Dems to keep ANYTHING from happening, yes? Ok. WE. CAN'T. DO. THAT. WITH. A. MINORITY. IN. BOTH. CHAMBERS. We have NO POWER! We can't stop things from happening. We don't have that power because of the way the US government and the Constitution work. So because we have no power, we have to act STRATEGICALLY. We can't just act like petulant children because we CANNOT WIN ANYTHING that way. We'd just lose again and again and again. Instead, by acting shrewdly since 2016, we've managed to stop MOST of Trump's attempts at passing the most horrific of his policies. But we only were able to do that by getting a couple Republicans on our side. That wouldn't have happened if we weren't walking a VERY fine line of cooperating when necessary and resisting whenever possible. Please. I beg you all to understand how this works before you write off the only party that's protected America from being in an even worse position than it is right now.

Again, this is literally completely false.

Highlighted the operative word.

Absolutely, and deservedly so.

I'll be ecstatic.

You know what, fine. I'm done having this conversation. You win. I've been compromising mine too because THAT'S WHAT RATIONAL PEOPLE DO. I wanted to fix that, so thats why I'm now working in politics. I play the game to get where I need to be so I can change things and fight for the more progressive policies that I personally believe in. But we can't GET those policies if we don't have Democrats in power, regardless of whether or not they're perfect on every issue.