Reid: Democrats failed to take message to rural America, Nevada

[Freddie Stubbs]

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Sen. John Kerry lost the presidential election partly because Democrats “neglected rural America,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday.

“I think around the country people just thought they could win in the cities,” the Nevada Democrat told The Associated Press.

Reid said he expects new Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean to help reverse that trend, especially in the South and West, and he predicted Democrats will close the gap Republicans hold in the Senate in the off-year elections.

“We are going to pick up Senate seats in 2006, it’s only a question of how many,” Reid said at a Reno news conference before his scheduled address to the Nevada Legislature in Carson City.

more: http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2005/02/23/92959.php?sps=rgj.com&sch=LocalNews&sp1=rgj&sp2=News&sp3=Local+News&sp5=RGJ.com&sp6=news&sp7=local_news

[blm]

1. The GOP controlled media IGNORED the Dem message all over America.

Reid needs to open his eyes and deal with the GOP controlling most of the mainstream media and most of the voting machines.

[cestpaspossible]

9. You're right, but what can Reid do about it?

[Bostonian]

24. If the GOP controlled the media, why was the Bush AWOL story all over?

It seems to me that if the GOP controlled the media, we would not have heard the dozens of top-of-the-hour stories on Bush's TANG service.

Also, we would have first heard about the SBVT in May when they had their first press conference... rather than in late August, when their book was already #1 at Amazon.

What's up with that?

[blm]

25. Horseshit. The TANG records were NEVER thoroughly examined and

the media was falling all over themselves to claim the CBS documents were bogus or forged, yet intense scrutiny came up with NOT ABLE TO DETERMINE whether the letter was forged, which means no way were they forged, because if they were all the experts would have an easy time spotting them as forged.

We heard plenty about the SBLiars. Too bad the press did such a piss poor job giving those FUCKING LIARS SO MUCH AIRTIME WHEN NIGHTLINE PROVED THEY WERE LYING WITH AN INDEPTH INVESTIGATION IN VIETNAM.

A Tribune editor also wrote a piece describing his time on a swift boat with Kerry and it matched the official NAVY report.

Too bad so much press was given to the LIARS and not the truthtellers. But then, GE/MSNBC and AOL/Saudiroyal/CNN couldn't let the truth come out could they?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

West and midwest, yes.

South, no. I have no hope for the South at all. You could send any message to these people and they still won't vote for us, simply because we're "not their kind".

[Freddie Stubbs]

4. VA, NC, LA, and TN all have Democratic governors

Some Democrats are able to send a message that resonates with southern voters.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

5. Not a national Democrat.

All of those Dem governors could be described as "Repub. Lite" too. I don't think those candidates could win on a larger level against a better Republican candidate, not even within their own states.

[Freddie Stubbs]

8. Senators Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson, Pryor, Rockefeller, and Byrd

may disagree with you on that. All of them have been elected from southern states.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

11. I wouldn't want any of them to be President

Nor would they get elected over good Republican candidates. That's the point that was made.

[tx_dem41]

16. What's your problem with Rockefeller (Byrd I can understand because...

of age)?

[PROGRESSIVE1]

12. Warner(Va) and Bredesen (Tn) are NOT "Repub-Lite"!

[PROGRESSIVE1]

13. Bingo!

And I'll say that "Non Southerners" are BETTER PEOPLE than "Southerners"!

[Freddie Stubbs]

22. It's bigotted attitudes like that

that make it very difficult for Democrats to get elected in the South.

[ComerPerro]

2. Rural America didn't want to hear it

They would rather hear the lies of the Republicans and their official spokesmen on the radio and television.

[Freddie Stubbs]

3. Tell that to Montana

They elected a Democratic Governor last year. Democrats control the State Senate and are tied in the State House. And one of its US Senators is a Democrat.

[havocmom]

7. Yep! The wingers in my area, the VERY GOP eastern Montana, actually

liked Dean very much. His message resonated with people here, DESPITE controlled and filtered media! They recognized that powerful people put him out of the primaries and they were very unhappy as many would have supported him in November.

The national Dem leadership wrote us off and people tend to resent that.
Feels like being looked down at and laughed at. People voted for the junta because they at least pretended to listen and that makes folks feel validated.

Sadly, people all over the nation are too often ruled by emotions than concrete logic. Dean getting pummeled by the distorted scream shows that Dems are just as prone to it as republicans are. We need to keep in mind that people have feelings. It is how Newt managed to work his little takeover back in the 94 election.

Think back to Max Baucus's first campaign. He walked the state and pressed the flesh. Time and labor intensive for the very few electoral votes we have for president, but a lesson none the less: If you want the rural vote, you have to friggin ask for it! Thumb your nose and you get what you offered!

[knight_of_the_star]

17. Then we just roll over and let it go?

If we don't fight back then we don't give them a reason to listen to us. Last time I checked the Democratic Party is the party of ALL the people, not just the Blue State or non-rural people.

[napi21]

6. I absolutely agreee with Reid.

Not only did Kerry ignore the South, the Dem Party here is TERRIBLE!

I've tried as hard as I can, but the party representation just isn't there. I sent several requests to the Dem Party Chair in N. Ga last year. I found an application online and the instructions said enclose the fee and mail your application to us. BUT, there was no mention of how much the fee was, and NO ADDRESS to send it to!

In the Nov election, other than the top of the ticket, all the other Pub incumbants were running unopposed!

We had a small group of Deaniacs who had meetings, went to churches to register voters and sell bumperstickers, and buttons, but we had no help with suggestions or ideas.

I know this is Ga. but damn it, if you don't even try, you can't ever hope to win!!!

[havocmom]

10. My daughter had complaints about how disorganized and just plain foolish

the Dem party was where she lives (the southwest, where they almost went blue) and tried to work for the party.

She went to meetings to organize different kinds of activities, strategies were discussed and then the activities went contrary to the decided upon plans. The biggest problems: the very same local party organizers telling them to do it one way in organizational meetings being the ones to get off the plan and onto wild tangents during events!

She was just about convinced the people supposedly doing the decision making locally were all neocon operatives, they were THAT bad.

She also had many instances of not getting the promised calls back when she offered to work at various party functions focusing on voter registration and getting honest info out to the voters. She is extremely articulate, very good at reading people and bringing them a message in a way they can appreciate, she is fluent in 'populist'. The local party just couldn't seem to get back to her most of the time. She is also very persistent, so they had to actively ignore her attempts to be a part of the solution.

She is probably going back to being a registered Independent after all the frustration last year. The ONLY reason she would consider working for the Democratic party again is because of Dean. She figures that just might offer some hope. Beyond that, she had pretty well written off the farce that is the party in her area.

[blondeatlast]

20. Lemme guess--the Phoenix area?

Don't even get me started...

[politicasista]

18. I still think that was one of the biggest mistakes of the campaign

I guess had Kerry lived in the South, he would have won, huh? :cry:

[JI7]

14. farm subsidies

[Celeborn Skywalker]

15. I think the west and upper midwest are our best chances.

Although states like Idaho, Montana, Wyoming are hardcore GOP now, they are of the libertarian version, somewhat similar to New Hampshire. I think if the fundies get to crazy we may win them over. The South is a tougher situation, but we may be able to win Arkansas, Louisiana, and West Virginia again.

[LeftyLizzie]

19. Rural Florida needed attention . . .

I think Kerry could have carried Florida (and thus the presidency) if there had been more concentration on the rural areas. I know he visited FL lots of times, but it was always to urban areas. Rural FL (which is in the center of the state, and in the panhandle) tend to be very conservative, but I think that could have been what made the difference. Of course, I don't trust Jeb and his crew, so who knows if Kerry did actually win FL? . . .

[Freddie Stubbs]

21. Although rural Florida is quite conservative,

many of those people are registered Democrats. They still vote for Democrats for local office, but have been voting less and less for Democrats running for Federal office.

[robbedvoter]

23. Isn't Diebold lucky? Ashes over the head and self flagellation

What did W said to Pootiepoot today?

"Yet democracies have certain things in common; they have a rule of law, and protection of minorities, a free press, and a viable political opposition."

Threads like this prove we are screwed on all counts.

[Hidden Stillness]

26. Do They Know Us at All?

I also agree with Sen. Reid's comments, and have actually been pleasantly surprised by Reid as a leader, even though I don't agree with many of Reid's opinions. If you pay any attention to C-SPAN's coverage of debate on the floor of the Senate, you've probably already heard Sen. Reid stand up, fight these people, and keep it up. I wasn't sure about Reid's soft-spoken manner up against these throat-slitting Republican devils, but I have been very pleasantly surprised. You don't have to be loud and pushy, you just have to fight them. It takes courage and will. (By the way, the poster Houstonian--or, excuse me, " 'Bostonian' "--is a Republican operative plant, if anyone was not able to tell. Read post #24, for some phony, duplicitous "wide-eyed innocence." These bastards are destroying the reality of everything.)

I also believe that the national Party has been bizarrely distant and unaware of our (upper Midwest, where we elect Democrats all the time ) way of life, and often fall into the media-set trap of believing we are not that liberal, and just about to vote Repub at any moment, when really we are some of the most radical people in the country, they just don't bother to relate to us. I do not mean the fact that Kerry came from the Northeast, either. Many of the greatest families ever--the Roosevelts and Kennedys, to name just two--came from the NE, and I am sick of the Republican tactic of destroying the total reputation of whole regions of the country just to manipulate elections. Since when is New England not respected anymore as the birthplace of the nation? Since the capitalist pimp casually fucked around with yet another slander.

Often, DLC-type Democrats don't even know what our issues and problems are. We are the "Rust Belt," suffering great industrial job losses, with no replacement, and struggle to make ends meet with two (or three) crappy, back-breaking minimum-wage jobs; we are farm families, squeezed to death by agribusiness and ignorant legislation, such as the killing of subsidies, etc. Yet too often, when national Dems speak to us, they use this shorthand phrasing--"Health care!" "Outsourcing!" etc.--with no elaboration, which indicates they either do not even know what the problems are, or have no intention of helping. There is a strongly felt opinion here that all the "national/DLC" types believe they and their "cosmopolitan culture" are superior to us. Referring to "Red state America" only makes it all worse--What the hell does it mean? It makes it frighteningly alien, which is what "they" want. "How are you supposed to appeal to these people--go to car races??"

About a month after the election, there was a panel on C-SPAN on the future of the Democratic Party, and this Al From actually said, toward the end, "You know, I sort of look at trade as the spice in a savory stew." Huh? When somebody like that is doing the strategic planning for our party, you know we are going to be so far off the mark, that you will end up with this infuriating, corporate "plan" of having Kerry only go to about 20 states during the whole campaign. WHY...? You have to wonder how many elections we have lost because of this peculiar, cut-off-from-the-real-world decision-making. During Al Gore's 2000 run, I got countless phone messages from those taped vote appeals; it was very heavy. During Kerry's campaign, I got one, and not from Kerry's campaign. More lazy sloppiness? It wouldn't surprise me if, as others on this thread have noted, we don't lose because anyone disagrees with us so much as that we lose because of this horrible, long-term "top- down" neglect of the entire Party structure.

This is a huge topic, but regardless, I agree that the whole Midwest, South, etc. base of the Party has been ignored for a long time. How fucking many times do we need to beg, "Raise the minimum wage!"