How Not to Win the Senate
in 2014, the Democrats lost the senate. In a huge rebound from a resounding defeat in 2012, in which the GOP lost the presidency, lost seats in the house, and failed to win the senate, the GOP in 2014 won more seats in the House, and won the Senate. And the mistakes made in this 2014 campaign are exactly the mistakes the Democrats are making right now, possibly costing them the senate in 2016. Does anybody remember Alison Lundergan Grimes? She epitomized the Democratic strategy in 2014, run to the right. She got all squeamish when asked if she voted for president Obama, she was against environmental regulations, and she got trounced. All over the rest of this country, Democrats ran away from liberalism, and lost big. Now what shows this? Voting turnout was a t a record low in 2014. It has been proven, that strong progressive democrats bring out the vote, look at Obama in 2008, Bernie in 2016. Democrats win big when they excite voters with a real progressive agenda. if you run Republican-Lite, then many voters either become to apathetic to vote for you, or just go vote for the real thing, Republican. Keeping all of this in mind, I just read a Politico article titled, “Senate Democrats go big in red states.” Contained inside is quote, “Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, whose striking gun control ad this week showing him assembling a rifle while blindfolded wowed political insiders in both parties.” Oy. The Democrats are going at it again. They literally tried to run a gun toting, former secretary of state against Mitch McConnel, and how did that work out for them? Lets ask Alison. Democrats win when voter turnout is high, Democratic turnout is high with a progressive on the ticket. As Democrats attempt to win a very winnable senate, they are making the same mistakes that lost them the senate in the first place in 2014. Additionally, another mistakes is one that even the DNC admits to. Hillary Clinton will not tie GOP town ticket voters to Trump. She has consistently downplayed Trump as an anomaly not representative of the GOP. She touts Republican endorsements. The message that sends it simple, “vote for me, but you can vote for the GOP down ballot if you want to.” Obama was highly unpopular in 2014, and the Democrats should have played to his left. Now, with an incredibly unpopular nominee, HRC isn’t exploiting that by tying down ticket races to Trump. The 2018 Senate map is horrible for the Democrats. There is a huge slant against them in the math behind 2018. If the Democrats wish to retake the Senate, the time is now, and I am angry that they are doing all they can to bungle this up.