As, I’m writing this, the most recommended diary is about how terrible some people who didn’t like Hillary are. There is a good response on the intellectual substance.
On some level, I do understand that the author of the first diary is in pain. He’s a very macho type, so the sort of brutal rebuke he suffered back in November probably still hurts a great deal. I’m genuinely sympathetic.
That said, I really do want to interrogate what the plan for 2018 and 2020 is supposed to be. The most robust findings in all the available data say that:
- Donald Trump was viewed highly negatively the day he won the election.
- Hillary and the Democrats were very successful at getting this message to resonate.
- Trump won the election because of a favourable electoral map a bit of luck and Hillary and the Democrats also being viewed very unfavourably.
Is there any plan at all to change any of these dynamics? Going into the election, nobody thought it would be close, so why was it? Have Democrats decided that there’s literally nothing to be done, so they’ll just run the same candidate / message / campaign again, in the hope that Trump’s even lower popularity will win it?
If not, all this focus on berating marginal voters who didn’t like the 2016 Democratic message seems like a huge waste of time. So maybe I figured it out?