Trump shattered the record for most votes in Florida.

[geek tragedy]

Hillary beat Obama's totals there by around 250,000 voters. Difference was that Trump improved on Romney by 500,000 voters.

Similarly, in Pennsylvania Trump improved on McCain/Romney by 230-250,000 voters.

It'll take a while to sift through the data to figure out whether how many were people who switched from 2012 and how many were new voters.

But our big problem was not a lack of turnout. It was that Trump attracted a huge amount of voters who hadn't been voting Republican before.

That is not an easy fix, and it should scare the hell out of us.

[MFM008]

1. we get it

I did everything I could do.
They can go screw themselves because if they dont, the maggot will.

[JonLP24]

2. K&R

[DFW]

3. Agree--it is not an easy fix

My question is just what, exactly, is it that needs to be fixed?

The mindset of the voters, or the computers that report their votes? Until we get a thorough and exact forensic examination of their hard drives, I'm not convinced either way.

[elleng]

4. Both.

[KT2000]

5. how about people who never voted before

if you look at his rallies I am betting many of those guys are not regular voters

[LonePirate]

6. Many of his voters will sit at home in 2020 after he breaks every campaign promise and doesn't run

[Cattledog]

27. 1

[R B Garr]

7. It may be more of an indication that people are voting down expensive

social programs. Good thing we didn't run a socialist. My brother voted Trump almost exclusively to dump Obamacare. It has cost him a lot of money and he is pissed about it. There is no reaching him about it anymore. edit-and he swears that he runs into people at work and all over who feel the same.

[JonLP24]

8. Good thing?

Its still a loss and I strongly believe Bernie Sanders would have held on to those rust belt states that he did better than Clinton in those states plus she had high negatives even a year before the primary started.

[R B Garr]

11. No way. There is no way the Reagan Democrats would vote for a socialist.

One of the main things about them is that they are conservative, mostly socially conservative, and there is no way they would support many of the liberal social programs that the Democrats propose, let alone the Sanders proposals and his self-identified socialist label.

And we're not even getting into the optics Trump would have had in store for Bernie. We all know about Trump's "big hands" now from the GOP debates, and he would have appealed to those conservative types more with that kind of manly man bragging much more than a socialist. Plusses are they are both white guys, but the Reagan Democrats aren't interested in any other cultural issues except their own.

[JonLP24]

15. Reagan Democrats are dead

Obama won 2008 with a progressive campaign. He is a Democratic Socialist which is the same as the left wing party in Europe and Sanders positions on policy are traditional Democratic policies such as protecting & expanding social security, unions, taxing the 1%. You examine his policy is the right policy.

I have seen this coming because I knew how unpopular Clinton was and her tendency to gaffe like "sniper fire" would blow a sure fire election to a terrible candidate in Donald Trump who went to the left of her on free trade.

[R B Garr]

19. LOL, I was also told that Clinton's old hag supporters were almost all dead, too.

And she won the popular vote certainly with more than old hags. There is no way that region would vote for a socialist.

Obviously people don't care about anything you are talking about, especially considering how much Donald lies his ass off.

[JonLP24]

21. There are hell of a lot more people saying the same thing

[R B Garr]

24. Well, Bernie lost the Democratic primary, so that speaks for itself.

[JI7]

10. these people vote on culture more than issues . if their problem was big govt they would have went

with Cruz or some other one.

[R B Garr]

16. Maybe...sort of. Cultural issues have always been there, but Trump has made

it okay to dump political correctness? Is that what you're saying? That's very true, considering that is one of the top 5 things I read why people voted for Trump.

It was something like:

Obamacare
Sick of political correctness
The Wall
Two others that are easy, but I can't remember because it's late, lol... I can Google it.

[JI7]

9. racists

Trump gave them something to vote for that romney, mccain, and bush didn't.

[JonLP24]

12. Just one thing I don't understand

Is why does Clinton lose a higher share of the racist vote than Obama? If that's the case.

[JI7]

13. i'm not really understanding what you are saying here

i'm saying the ones that came out for Trump were racists.

[JonLP24]

17. The same counties that went to Obama last time around?

Same voters. I'm not sure why racists would have any more reason to vote than last time around. Sorry for not understanding. I probably misunderstood you.

[JI7]

18. because mccain and romney did not try to appeal to racists. romney ran on economics and mccain

defended obama against the "he's an arab" woman.

trump gave racists something that mccain and romney didn't.

[JonLP24]

20. I see

Just trying to figure out the differences between 2012 & 2016.

[BzaDem]

22. While there were certainly some Obama-Trump voters

it might be less than people think. It remains to be seen how much of the difference was increased Republican turnout in the face of stagnant or declining Democratic turnout, and how much of it was voters changing their minds.

[radical noodle]

14. What makes you say that? n/t

[JonLP24]

23. I don't think my meaning is clear

I fixed post to better ask the question.

[C Moon]

25. Either that or there was some flipping going on.

I seem to recall folks here on DU talking about that before the DU blackout.
But I guess from a political stance, it's not a good idea to focus on something that has not been proven. It's best to work on what we have in front of us.
In my view, we really need to move away from digital voting.
It's fucked up...excuse my language.

[Yukari Yakumo]

26. One step: Outreach to rural voters.

If you look at the by-county election maps for several years, the pattern of Repubs holding the rural vote, Dems holding the urban vote has been the status quo for years.

It's also why Dems are going to have a hard time ever winning back the Senate, much less holding on to it. The number of rural states way outnumber the urban states.

How to do it? Hell if I know. Though jettisoning gun control from the party platform feels like a good logical first step.