What explains Republican successes?

[onehandle]

[SpiralHawk]

1. Darkside Occultism (R)

against everything Americans hold sacred.

[ZombieHorde]

2. Religion, fear, greed, and messaging. nt

[TwilightGardener]

3. I picked one and three, but to explain further--voters want to identify

with traditionally republican attributes (Freedom! Rugged individualism! Strength!) and the type of people who personify the party. They don't want to identify with the downtrodden, with minorities, with females, with working stiffs, with the have nots, with anyone they perceive as weak or inferior. But secretly, they need Democratic policies as much as anyone.

[raccoon]

26. Great post. Please consider starting a thread on this. nt

[izquierdista]

4. Marketing

Which is why only 20-some percent of voters will say they are liberal, while 80% think that millionaires should pay more tax. :crazy:

[styersc]

5. Key to their success is their reps are responsive to the base.

Our leaders are more likely to throw us under the bus where their elected reps are more likely to listen to their activists.

Unfortunately for the country, their activists are tea-bagging nuts jobs. It means nothing that our activists are well informed, altruistic patriots. Our activists have no one in Washington who is willing to work and fight on our behalf.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Rule one of being in the communications seat: it is your job

to be understood. If you are not understood, it is you who are the moran, never the listener. This is particularly true when one seeks to persuade, the object of your persuasion owes you nothing at all. They will often resist understanding, willfully. Still, if they are not getting your message, it is because you are not giving it well enough. The responsibility is on the speaker, always in politics. To think otherwise is just self indulgence.

[zalinda]

21. You are exactly right ! n/t

[Imajika]

31. Exactly correct !

Great post.

[craigmatic]

7. They follow the hitler 'big lie' model. They have tight party disipline and are funded by

the super wealthy. Who could lose with advantages like that? We on the other hand have fact and truth but we're divided because we have too many centrists in our big tent to have a cohesive ideology to put into practice. The republicans have destroyed our labor base and split working people with the culture wars. Repubs have a loyal voting base in the south while dems just have the coasts. If we're going to take back long term power in this country we need a clear ideology and messaging agenda. We also have to end trickle down economics.

[RBInMaine]

9. Sorry, but you CAN NOT WIN WITHOUT GETTING THE MODERATE INDIES.

[craigmatic]

22. There's more than one way to do that. We could actually give them a choice between a progressive and

a conservative republican. Make them choose by giving them real options. What's the point of winning if we can't govern and have a mandate to actaully do something? If we're not careful we'll end up like new labour in the UK and just be in it for the power but not know what to do with it once we have it.

[Safetykitten]

8. No leader that calls them out.

[treestar]

10. They know how to appeal to the resentful

Plus they don't have to do anything. The laissez faire thing means they don't have as much work to do when they get into office.

[pansypoo53219]

11. 'liberal gnews media' that love corporate mind sets.

brainwashing. save the fetuses!

[tblue]

12. Skillful messaging + talk radio & other media.

We are weak in all 3.

[jimlup]

13. I voted 1 and 3 but actually it is really more that many democrats are "bought"

They don't really speak the truth - they just offer a slightly better social contract than the Reptilians offer. The voters can see that they are disingenuous.

Many voters are ignorant - it isn't that they are morons. They have a nose for the truth but sometimes it misleads them badly. Especially when they are not paying attention.

[TexasProgresive]

14. Other-Democrates are cats and r'pukes are mostly sheep

with a few rabid border collies to keep them in line. Getting us together is very hard. Plus it is easy to get people energetic against something then to get a consensus for something. It use to be that the dems could count on the labor vote and labor could count on dems in congress to support them - now you have a large portion of labor being right wing because of issues that don't affect labor- guns, abortion, race and any number of wedge issues and voila! the pukes have power.

We complain that the pukes won't compromise when it is we who have forgotten how to work together to gain some and to lose less.

I really don't know what the president's game plan is. I am just as confused as anyone else. I still have hope. But I put a lot of blame on the fight he had getting his own party to back him when in the majority.

[FrenchieCat]

15. Corporate media monopoly that leans to the right,

and monied interest that own Republicans.

[bemildred]

16. Other: The Mighty Wurlitzer.

It all begins with the failure of the Fourth Estate to do its job; when it became a lickspittle servant of the ruling class, political life in this country started to decay, and the result is all around us now.

[Fresh_Start]

17. lots of money used effectively

to misdirect voters

[LatteLibertine]

18. Democrats talk a mean game

and some of them are into cronyism just like the Republicans. Campaign finance reform and term limits please.

[pam4water]

19. It the lock the corporations have on the media and the disinformation the new spews out.

[Jakes Progress]

20. Greed, fear, and stupidity.

[cigsandcoffee]

23. Ingrained cultural sentimentalism for a phony past. n/t

[Llewlladdwr]

24. Wow. 65% of respondents think that the voters are morons.

Does anyone else think that maybe that's part of the problem? When your contempt is that obvious people tend to resent it. One consequence of that is that they may tend to support your opponent over you.

[LatteLibertine]

25. KO's latest quip

"It seems, in short, to reduce his campaign logic to 'what are you going to do, vote for Rick Perry?'"

I'm starting to agree with him. I don't think Democrats will go that far, and they may do what essentially amounts to it, by sitting home.

[Evergreen Emerald]

27. propaganda --fueled by coporate money

Our treasury was raided and our government overrun by thieves. The citizens have yet to fully realize the extent of the loss of our country. The media and the politicians fueled by people like GE, Koch and Murdoch and Ailes reinforce the lies, and most citizens stay in the dark.

[polmaven]

28. GOTV

[Zoeisright]

29. 1 and 3 plus repukes are liars.

Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes "fact" in the minds of those who cannot reason.

[krawhitham]

30. They pushed fear and voters were afraid, I do not know if that makes them morons or just naive

[Honeycombe8]

32. 3 and other. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. The Democrats have neglected their traditional constituents and their commitment

to providing for the common good.

Not helping the farmers in the 1980s was a bad idea.

Pushing "free" trade in the 1990s was a bad idea.

Pushing "yuppie politics" (liberal on behavioral issues but conservative on economic issues) was a bad idea.

Your average working class person is going to look at the Democrats and say, "What have they done for me lately?"

The Republicans pander to people's prejudices on behavioral issues and race to create the ILLUSION that they understand the common people.

The Democrats issue position papers.

[CrazyBob]

34. We have a weak, apologetic party

Its just a phase, I hope. But it seems to have taken hold of the party.