General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOur next Democratic President MUST NOT lose Congress after only two years
President Barack Obama is a classy guy. A real family man. An accomplished statesman and politician.
Unfortunately, he committed the same grievous sin that Bill Clinton committed in 1994. After only two lousy years, Obama helped scuttle Democratic control of the House and the Senate, just like Clinton. No real push to grow the party and consolidate control of Congress. No strategy to push back against the Tea Party movement, although Tim Kaine deserves a lot of blame for that as well.
While the Democratic Party undergoes some much-needed soul-searching and wandering in the desert for the next two years at the very least, maybe its presumptive leaders can actually formulate a long-term strategy for strengthening and preserving the long-term health of the party, not to mention a new sense of message discipline that the party can unite behind.
A lot of people say that the President is the leader of his or her political party. If so, our next Democratic President must take that sentiment to heart and grow the party, grow the party, grow the gosh-darned party.
Takket
(21,634 posts)derby378
(30,252 posts)Plenty of time to start retooling the party. Ditching the dead weight, refocusing the message on labor and working families, demonstrating that we can restore the middle class and some measure of financial security.
uponit7771
(90,364 posts)... the narrative of congress !!!
Takket
(21,634 posts)guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)uponit7771
(90,364 posts)derby378
(30,252 posts)In light of the disastrous campaign by Trump, I'm willing to say that there is a simple yet infallible test to prove that Hillary Clinton did something wrong during her campaign: she lost.
A drunken goat could have beaten Trump. Sure, Clinton beat him in the popular vote, but the votes weren't distributed in enough states. Why didn't we seal the deal in PA, OH, or even VA, which was Kaine's home state?
uponit7771
(90,364 posts)... thinking here.
Its a tangible factor and a known factor calling it something else doesn't make it so
delisen
(6,044 posts)Drunken Goats just got the UK out of the EU, and is on the verge of winning east and Western Europe. Drunken Goats are winning the western world.
If we just want to win anyway we can, maybe we should be running Drunken Goat candidates----
derby378
(30,252 posts)At least we have that. But we lost OH, PA, WI, and MI. Yikes.
appal_jack
(3,813 posts)The most essential recent action to fight gerrymandering would have been retaining Democratic control of Congress in 2010. As derby378 points out in the OP, Obama failed to do this, dismissing Dean from the DNC, turning his back on the 50 state strategy that had a whole lot to do with his own election, etc.
More info/history:
https://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/dean-absent-as-obama-introduces-his-pick-for-dnc-chairman/
-app
uponit7771
(90,364 posts)... bashing when there's ... KNOWN.... voter suppression involved.
Again, telling half the story isn't telling all the truth... I'm not a LIV
frazzled
(18,402 posts)FDR lost 71 House seats and 6 Senate seats in the midterm of his second term.
He lost 55 additional House seats and 9 Senate seats in the midterm of his third term.
Harry Truman lost 45 House and 12 Senate seats in his first term; and 29 House and 6 Senate in his second.
Kennedy did best: he lost 4 House seats and gained 3 Senate seats.
LBJ lost 47 House and 4 Senate seats
Carter lost 15 House and 3 Senate.
Clinton lost 52 House and 8 senate seats in his first term, but gained 5 House seats and lost no senate seats in his second.
How did the Republicans do? Pretty much the same:
Eisenhower lost 18 House and 1 Senate seat in his first term; and lost 48 House and 13 Senate in his second.
Nixon lost 12 House seats but gained 2 Senate seats.
Reagan lost 26 House seats and gained 1 Senate seat in his first term; he lost five House and 8 Senate seats in his second.
Bush pere lost 8 House and 1 Senate seats.
GWB was a winner in his first term (which shows you just how crazy this is): he gained 8 House and 2 Senate seats his first term; lost 30 House and 6 Senate seats his second.
Obama? The Tea Party craze of 2010 (plus Bush's recession) lost him 63 House and 6 Senate seats (still better than FDR in his second term); and 13 House and 9 Senate in the second.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/mid-term_elections.php
It is not wholly the president who determines the wins or losses in Congressional races, though it is most common for the electorate to try to "balance" a Democratic presidency with a Republican Congress, and vice versa. Other factors intervene: redistricting, local politics, recessions, wars, etc.