Not to diminish what Doug Jones was able to accomplish, but don't think this signals some huge shift

[wysimdnwyg]

Yes, a Democrat won in crimson red Alabama. But you have to consider the context. Among Moore's many faults,
a) he is an accused pedophile,
b) he was removed from the AL Supreme Court - twice - for failing to follow the law,
c) he is clearly a racist, a fact backed up by his wife's recent "one of our lawyers is a Jew" statement (I assume that means they also have a friend who is black), and
d) Moore is an accused pedophile (yes, I said that before - it bears repeating).

Even with all of that, a candidate who convicted two KKK members for one of the most infamous child murders in our nation's history, and who by all accounts seems to be a genuinely good person and promised to be an excellent Senator, won by 1.5 percentage points. That's right, the (accused) pedophile still somehow got over 650,000 people to vote for him.

Let me repeat that so it stands out: AN ACCUSED PEDOPHILE GOT 49% OF THE VOTES. If it takes a pedophile for an opponent for the Dems to pull out a squeaker of a win, we're not "on a roll" or "looking up". We've got some serious problems.

Yes, things look a little better today than they did on Monday. And yes, the African American turnout is extremely encouraging. But we've got to find a way to convince people that being a Democrat is not tantamount to evil or Communism. We may disagree on some issues, but a whole hell of a lot of these people think being a Democrat is WORSE THAN BEING A PEDOPHILE. That is not a formula for lasting success.

[SHRED]

1. My thoughts also

We have a lot of uphill ahead.
The RW owns much of the media in this country.

[TexasProgresive]

2. Maybe so but does pessimism ever engender energy?

So many on DU seem to love raining on Jones' parade. Or for that matter the turn around in Virginia. Let's just keep our hopes up that the Jones victory is the light of day at the end of the tunnel and not a thundering freight train. I'd rather die happy.

[wysimdnwyg]

13. I don't mean to advocate for pessimism...

I just don't want to see us get overconfident like we (collectively) were last year, thinking there was no way Clinton could lose to Trump. I thought it appropriate to point out that, while a win is big and we should take some joy from it, it took pretty much everything going our way (a good Dem candidate, an incredibly flawed Rep one, a deeply flawed President tying his wagon to said Rep candidate), and we still only won by a small amount.

This win should energize the party, and there are a lot of good lessons to take from the result. But don't let the good blind us to the underlying difficulties.

[TexasProgresive]

15. Thas Bettah! As Hagrid would say.

I’m not into sports analogies but no team was ever turned around in the locker room by a pessimistic speech by the coach.

[Hoyt]

3. Much better than a loss, although not an indication it will be easy to take Congress in 2018/20.

[exboyfil]

4. You are right it is a tactical victory

One vote in the Senate until Jan. 2021. We also now have one additional Senate seat that we must defend in 2018.

As the party out of power it will be very difficult for Senators and Representatives to distinguish themselves. No one listens to legislative plans which go no where. The only hope is to demonstrate the incompetence of the governing party.

[NewJeffCT]

6. Jones has the seat until 2021 at least

They won't need to defend this seat until then.

[exboyfil]

10. Sorry for clarification

I was talking about Franken's Minnesota seat which I see a fall out from Moore. Under a different set of conditions, he would not have resigned. I disagree strongly with the Democratic leadership calling for his resignation (it should have been investigated by the Senate), but it does open another seat which must be defended.

[NewJeffCT]

5. In 2014, Democrats let Jeff Sessions run unopposed for this same seat

There was NO Democrat in the entire state willing to challenge Jeff Sessions. On Tuesday, Doug Jones received 50% of the vote versus the RNC and Trump endorsed Republican primary winner Roy Moore.

13 Months ago, Donald Trump won the state by 28%

In only 3 years, Democrats went from 0 to 50%. In 13 months, Democrats went from -28% to +1.5%

Those are huge changes.

[SharonClark]

7. Yes they are huge.

[MoonRiver]

9. Thank you for that breath of optimism!

Sometimes I just SMH over the determined pessimism here.

[PatsFan87]

8. I think the key in these red states is finding people who may not be as liberal

but are representative of their state. Heitkamp is pro-oil which I hate, but I'd rather a Democrat represent ND who votes how I want most of the time than a Republican who votes my way none of the time. And I may get tons of flack for saying this, but these Democrats may be more centrist on social issues like immigration, abortion, etc. if they plan to represent a state like Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi. Better than having a Republican in that seat.

[Polly Hennessey]

11. Change starts somewhere.

[Kirk Lover]

12. I got my post hidden for saying this. I should win the appeal !!

[Wounded Bear]

14. Whatevers, let people enjoy the win for a couple of days, then back to work...

The important lesson has nothing to do with Moore. The important lesson is pretty simple: We can't win if we don't run. In so many places around the country Repubs are running unopposed because there is no Dem infrastructure in place to support candidates and GOTV.

There is truly encouraging word from Texas that virtually every seat has a Dem candidate running in 2018. Dems need to get out there and get their messages out to people. This needs to happen nation wide.

There is word that Iowa is leaning Dem going forward. We need to nurture these things in every state. Sure, some states are hopeless, but most are not. Dems need to expand their presence across this great country.

[oberliner]

16. How does that not diminish what Doug Jones was able to accomplish?

It very clearly does.

[wysimdnwyg]

17. What Doug Jones did was remarkable - but it was not the over-the-top smackdown that some portray...

it to be.

I'm happy to give Jones a ton of credit, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that he barely squeaked past a man who is so completely unsuitable to hold elected office that he was removed - TWICE - and that doesn't even touch the pedophilia. That's not a knock against Jones in any way. Jones ran a remarkable campaign and the national party could, and should, learn a lot from it. But while Alabama is as politically red as it gets, we must all agree that the fact that a great campaign by a very good candidate is just edging out a pedophile shows that we, as a party, have a lot of work to do to change the hearts and minds of a significant portion of the country. If that group of people would rather vote for a pedophile than a Democrat, the best candidates running the best campaigns are going to have a hard time winning against even moderately competent Republicans in a lot of areas. (Which, I might add, is why we have people like Trey Gowdy, Devin Nunes, and Marsha Blackburn handily winning their seats.)

[msongs]

18. Moore lost more than Jones won. Most other repub candidates would have won that election nt

[yallerdawg]

19. Moore was never popular to begin with.

It's just as likely the "out of the blue" accusations turned out Moore supporters in record numbers, making it a close race, attracting endless national attention mocking Alabama values.

The fact is, WE OVERCAME THEIR TURNOUT!

That IS a signal of a HUGE SHIFT!

I guess when you don't know you're surfing, you don't see the wave!