Reddy

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 06:04 PM) Few people ever see those sorts of things. Really, not very many people watch cable news. Totally. But if you take the time to watch it, you'll see that if that type of rhetoric, and that type of talk is infused in candidates' messages nationwide, and is able to be carried through for the next 16 months, the dividends will be huge.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 05:58 PM) It really won't matter unless they want to run a suicide mission. If dems want to show what they believe in and counteract news cycles from trump, they better stop believing in platforms and ground game, and also start to get familiar with this new medium called television. Lol that's what they're trying to do. They got swallowed by Russiagate yesterday. That s***'s going to happen. You're seriously going to blame that on the Dem leadership? What's your suggestion for breaking the Trump news cycle, since you've got all these answers?

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 05:59 PM) I know that he didn't because I didn't see it and nobody saw it except 4 jacobin writers that wanted to get upset. If you didn't see it that's on you. You didn't see it because the press covered Kushner, as I mentioned above. Every single person I've shown it to had the same reaction. It's good. Really good.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 05:46 PM) "And that's why this is..." *squints* "A better deal" You can replace that last line with anything and it's still terrible. It's terrible if you deliver it terribly, and fantastic if you deliver it well. Chuck delivered it damn well yesterday.

Platform and slogans don't usually matter. That's true. This time, it matters. You can say whatever you want, but I'll be happy to see how this post matures over the next 16 months. Because the branding the Dems do to counter Trump's will matter tremendously, since the biggest criticism of the Dems IS that no one knows what they stand for.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 04:33 PM) If this was a big unveiling it wasn't even well thought out. Remember the Iraq war marketing setup - "You never introduce a new product until after Labor Day". Unfortunately, in the era of Trump, planning a presser is tough. There's always some new shocking shiny object for the media to focus on instead of the thing you want them to cover. Kushner was that thing yesterday. Can't predict crap like that.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 04:25 PM) Specifically on the bolded, because it's a policy that's been tried for decades and doesn't work. Where's Medicare for All or some other similar UHC program? Where's anything major on college? Where's the headline on minimum wage? What have they actually committed to here? What's the exciting part? I'M A PROGRESSIVE BERNIE BRO AND I WANT EVERYTHING NOW AND AT ONCE AND WILL NOT TAKE ANYTHING LESS THAN EXACTLY WHAT I WANT f*** ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS A DIFFERENT VIEW. Dude. They said they'll be unveiling many, many more policies over the coming months. Chill the f*** out.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:50 PM) I'm sure those Obama voters are going to come crawling back for business tax credits. Better to go after them than do anything to shore up your base and get non- or reluctant voters to be more engaged. You literally have no idea how to win voters. It's the economy. It's always the economy. Why are you ignoring ending drug price gouging? Why are you ignoring the minimum wage increase? Why are you ignoring that the business tax credits help to TRAIN AND EMPLOY WORKERS who have been struggling ever since 2008? These are the first of many new policies. It's a great start. It shows they know why they lost, and know what they have to do to win. But, because we're liberals, we just like whining and b****ing instead of doing the necessary work.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 04:01 PM) BTW my billionaires reference was to Heller being a no until Steve Wynn called him every day demanding that he switch to yes. It's cool when someone with more wealth than they could spend in several lifetimes has the individual power to control Senators into harming tens of millions. Agreed 100%

Haha since when did I become one of the more moderate voices of our lefties? This is weird. I got banned for a year for taking a hard line stance against police brutality.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:58 PM) And it's people who never hold him accountable for his own actions that have created his "maverick" label. He plays them for suckers. Constantly. No one's not holding him accountable for this vote. Some of us are looking at the bigger picture. If he fails to live up to his speech when his name is called in the final vote, I'll be just as disgusted as you.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:51 PM) That's not really much of a change but okay. McCain's speech won't do or mean s***. His vote had the power, and he chose how to use it. He has another vote.

And yes, I'll be out in the streets in DC tomorrow protesting and doing everything I can to stop this thing. But I've been going through a bit of an evolution over the last months, and I think a little level-headedness regarding things that easily stir up emotions and knee jerk reactions is important.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:49 PM) He could have voted No today and stopped this dead in its tracks. Instead, he voted yes and then gave a speech lamenting the fact that he just voted yes. That's all the information I need to form my judgement. Fixed.

In fact, I tweeted about how disgusted I was by McCain. Then I heard that speech, and I'm withholding final judgment until we see how this plays out. Y'all. I'm not OPTIMISTIC - don't misunderstand. I don't think McCain will actually do anything differently than he's done so far - but being so close to death can have a profound impact on people. We'll see what happens.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:43 PM) The epic story line of coming back during brain cancer to kill tens of thousands of Americans a year and throw many more into financial destitution. A firm "NO" and a presser afterwards would have had an enormous impact. He absolutely seized the moment, and he sealed his legacy as a craven scumbag. Not yet. You must have been letting your anger blind you to that speech. If he ends up voting Yes on either of these terrible bills, or some version thereof, I'll be right with you.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:42 PM) Dude, they just trucked a cancer patient across the country to make him vote to bring this to the floor and he did it. They'll pass something in a couple weeks. Literally the only thing that will stop it is John McCain dying. McCain says he's only staying a few days. It'll be quick, whatever happens.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:41 PM) Sorry, the billionaires leaned on them, and in a plutocracy, that's all that matters. Stop being fatalist. We've seen that people power can stop these votes. It's happened over and over again all year, thus far. Just keep doing the work, stop whining, and don't give up.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:39 PM) He's a long-sitting and popular US Senator who can go on any news program or call a press conference that'll get coverage whenever he wants. He didn't need to do this at all. He wanted to. Not like this. Not with the fanfare and the epic storyline of coming back for this vote, brain cancer, all of it. History was watching that moment in particular and he seized it. We'll see what it all means for him and America soon enough.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:39 PM) I'm not surprised they relented on pressure to allow them to vote, but it could lead it's way to full defeat. I could see them calculating that officially voting it down was the only way for it to truly start over. As long as it wasn't voted down it wasn't ever dead. ^ But we'll see. In the meantime, keep calling your Senators.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:07 PM) They're going to vote Republican anyway. Trying that outreach failed spectuclarly for Clinton, and it's really dismaying to see that D leadership has apparently learned nothing from 2016. And when you make outreaches like that while doing absolutely nothing for your more left base, you're going to lose more votes than you could even hope to pick up. Nobody gets excited or motivated by "tax credits for businesses to do job retraining!" and "Better Deal" is just more of the "we're not as bad as Republicans" with nothing inspirational at all behind it. Democrats need to be going after 1) their own base and 2) the ~50% of the population who doesn't vote. I really don't see anything in this platform that's going to get anyone engaged, and I can already see it's DOA with the more Bernie side of the base. SO MANY OBAMA VOTERS VOTED FOR TRUMP! It's a completely false narrative that they're "going to vote Republican anyway". I'm not going to listen to that trash anymore.

Had he voted No, he wouldn't have had the platform to give this speech. Interesting twist. We'll see how it plays out.

Depending on the final outcome, John McCain's speech on the floor of the Senate after voting to allow debate on a mystery healthcare bill either goes down in history as a great moment for the Senate and the country, or one of the great farces. It was a truly powerful speech, and it will define Senator John McCain's entire legacy. The only question is how.

This whole idea that Democrats shouldn't try to talk to EVERYONE and expand the tent blows my mind. I don't get it. Honestly.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 24, 2017 -> 05:31 PM) oh man having bad flashbacks to "check out the website" BUT DID YOU WATCH IT? haha It's really a shame that the presser took place simultaneously with Kushner's, because you would have heard things from Schumer you haven't heard before. The folks who I've spoken with who watched came away impressed regardless which side of the party they were on. I hope they keep up the type of rhetoric that was on display out there today, because I think it'll work.