Why Do Democrats Keep Losing Elections: video

[illinoisprogressive]

Alternet has this video posted by D. Weston. He wrote a book about election and the political brain.
Here he explains why we keep losing elections so much. Good thing to think and discuss.

for the video link:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/#55665

[MGKrebs]

1. I saw this guy speak a few nights ago. He's good!

It's like Lakoff, maybe not so dry.

I think it boils down to "trust". We don't give voters reason to trust us. A lot of it's perception, but perception is important.

[illinoisprogressive]

2. I think this guy may be right in that none of our picks connects.

[blm]

4. Gore and Kerry WON - strategists WANT to keep selling their goods while letting complicit

media and rampant GOP election fraud off the hook.

The problem with many Democrats is that they think someone new is always someone better until their guy goes for a year of getting his words twisted and the truth ignored while the detractors and liars are given all the airtime they need.

Let the media completely off the hook for their complicity - don't secure the election process - we'll see how Gen. Jesus Christ the charismatic Gov. of Ohio does running as a Democrat.

[Kurovski]

12. Agreed. Strategists have a lot of money at stake.

They don't appear to have a clue as to what reality is, nor to they much give a shit.

They are worse than worthless.

[Zynx]

14. The Republicans could steal two national elections by massive margins, but

couldn't sway two Senate races that were decided by fractions of a percent last year? All they had to do was win ONE of the seats they lost by narrow margins in order to keep the Senate. Just ONE, and they couldn't do it.

Gore was robbed, but he did run a lousy campaign and that race shouldn't have been that close. Kerry lost by the average of the final polls:
http://pollingreport.com/2004.htm
http://surveyusa.com/Scorecards/Scorecard2004AllGeneralX.html

Bitch about exit polls all you want, but I recall seeing a Democratic analyst, Ruy Texeira as I recall, point out that virtually all early exit polls have a Democratic bias to them.

[blm]

16. You think MSM couldn't string together all the clips of JFK's or Clinton's more boring

aspects of their campaign speeches and create a narrative against them?

Right now they are editting Obama's speeches to capture every part that makes him sound like he's inexperienced and won't take a firm stand on Democratic issues. Should he win the nomination, that is what he will be pummelled with relentlessly by the MSM - will that make the narrative true for you and I? No - but some strategist will say so afterwards if the GOP steals another election.

[PBass]

19. It's not a false narrative created by editing

Al Gore's stiffness even became a running joke on Saturday Night Live. Gore actually went on the show after the election was over, making fun of his own "stiffness". It wasn't a phony MSM construct, anymore than the "Bush is dumb" stereotype... it's based on peoples' reactions to something tangible. Do you think the "Bush is dumb" meme was casued only by selective editing? I certainly don't.

The type of mistake Dukakis made (not reacting emotionally to a question about his own wife's hypothetical murder) was duplicated by Kerry when he allowed the Swift Boaters to smear him, and did nothing. Why couldn't Kerry have said "How DARE you question my service???!!!"

I voted for Kerry, but I definitely thought he was stodgy... the conventional media's knock that "Kerry is stiff" was right on target, IMO.

I will chew my own fingers off, if I have to watch another Dem try to appeal to average voters by talking like a Super Wonk. It's not that a Super Wonk is a bad thing to be, it's just a bad way to CAMPAIGN. Political junkies may dig it, but it turns most people off.

[blm]

20. Talking like a goddam fool who can't string a sentence together is the way to win

in a strategist's book because Bush won twice? That's really the bottom line here.

And....If that is true then why did BushInc have to go to such great lengths to suppress votes, purge voter rolls, and rig machine counts all the over the country in 2000, 2002, and 2004?

Not to mention the quasi-legal moves they pulled with vote-caging.

After the three debates, the analysis was that Kerry WAS presidential and knowledgeable and competent on many issues.

My, my how quickly we let the media and strategists distract us from the RW lie machine that steals elections.

[Vincardog]

3. Why is it that they keep stealing elections and we keep on explaining why we lost?

Could it be because GORE AND KERRY WON
and we need to explain why we keep letting them steal it?

This clip actually implies that GW lieing a$$clown bush "won" because he "connected" they are still saying that KKKamander KKKOKKOOObunnypants beat President Gore because he brought VALUES back to the WH.

Right if "VALUES" means Jeff "Top" Gannon sleeping over 45 times.

[blm]

17. Also lets corpmedia off the hook for creating a narrative that LIED EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.

.

[L. Coyote]

5. MORE IMPORTANT: Why do they keep winning elections?

And still not get into office!

[depakid]

6. He's absolutely right

So long as the Dems don't hand the far right AND the assholes in the corporate media their asses on a platter, they'll keep losing- irrespective of problems with the voting machines.

Many if not most Dems have earned their reputation as wimps who won't stand up for what they supposedly believe many times over- and responses like the ones portrayed in the video just reinforce those perceptions.

[blm]

13. Media could take just boring parts of JFK's speeches and create an incomplete

portrayal of him - and take all the soundbites and lies from Dick Cheney and make him sound strong and heroic.

And if JFK himself had run against BushInc in 2000 and 2004 and THIS CURRENT FASCIST MEDIA that creates campaigns in their EDITTING ROOMS, similar criticisms would be made.

[Totally Committed]

7. Jeezuss... that was painful to watch.

But, he's correct, of course. (Whether Gore or Kerry actually "won" or not, they were both cardboard versions of themselves during their campaigns.)

TC

[PBass]

8. Voters don't want a Super Wonk who rattles off boring factoids...

They want somebody who makes them feel good about who they are voting for. This guy Westen nails the problem. In 2000 Gore was shredded for being "stuffy" and in 2004 Kerry was too. People blasted them both for being BORING. Part of the job as president is "spokesmodel" and you can cover your ears and deny that until the cows come home, but it won't change the reality.

Was there election fraud in 2000 and 2004??? Yes, I think so. But that's a totally different topic!!!

Democrats have to do a better job of connecting emotionally with voters during the campaign. You can't connect emotionally with voters by basing your campaign on statements like this:

"54 percent of the taxpayers between ages 35 and 45 are paying 3 times the national average compared to what they paid just 10 years ago. A two percent raise in the federal income tax would reverse that to levels we haven't seen since 1972". Talk like that makes most peoples' eyes glaze over REAL FAST and they will totally tune out.

I see a lot of people wishing Gore would enter the race (me too). But if he campaigns the same way as he did in 2000 ("Let me explain the issues one more time, in excruciating detail") he's going to have a hell of a problem winning, again!!!

We at DU all laughed at Bush's shallow grasp on the issues, and we scorn the "bumper sticker" approach to politics. But the fact is that average voters don't have the time or energy to delve deeply into all the isssues, the same way that we political junkies do. There's not enough political junkies in America, that candidates can win a national election by campaigning like a Super Wonk.

[Hippo_Tron]

9. He's partly right, but issues are extremely important for Democrats

Since we have the majority of the country on our side with most issues, it is extremely important to emphasize them. What people who say that we need to have more "vision" fail to take into account is that we got our 49% in 2000 and 2004 with issues. Yes we need to have more vision, but we can't sacrifice the issues for it.

[PBass]

10. Oh, don't get me wrong. I think Dems can work 'both' angles...

(emotional and intellectual). You can explain your positions without overloading people with factoids. The time to get wonky would be in the Democratic primary, to differentiate yourself from the other candidates.

In the general election, you need to go for bigger over-arching ideas.

Compare this:

"ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

to

"33 percent of college graduates below the age of 25 are unemployed for the first three years after graduation. By adding another 50 thousand members to the Peace Corps funded by .02 percent capital gains tax increase, we can reduce that number by 25 percent, which compares favorably with other industrialized western nations who have a rate closer to 15 percent".

Which statement seems like it would play better on TV?

JFK did have a "call to service" plank in his campaign, but I doubt that he made the Wonk aspects front-and-center in his campaign, like Gore and Kerry seemed to do, WAY too often. (I wasn't old enough back then, to know for sure). Yes, at DU we are Democrats and political junkies so we respond well to Wonk Talk. But most people don't respond to wonks the way that we do.

[sorechasm]

11. Succinct, heartfelt thoughts on target....

...shows that the candidates respect the voters limited time and available attention. Connecting to people is not all about manipulation. Sometimes it's about respect.

Maybe democrats should hire a few poets.

[blm]

21. Try going back to the articles that came out after the three debates and see what people

ACTUALLY said about Kerry and the way he appeared to them on all the counts that mattered when assessing who would be the next president in a post 9-11 world.

[ruggerson]

15. didn't we win last time in a landslide?

n/t

[Vincardog]

18. IN bushWorld a landslide is only loosing by 15% when you had it rigged to steal 12%