One somewhat nasty but interesting way to think of what the Democrats ought to do next is to flip the table and ask, "What would the Republicans do if they were to find themselves in the situation the Dems are in now?"
To take one of my favorite examples, look at how the Dems handled the Republicans' refusal to advance Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Surpreme Court. What did the Dems do? Nothing. As far as I know, the Dems failed to make a single Republican Senate incumbent pay even a single vote for this obstruction.
What would the Republicans have done under similar circumstances? They would have gone bat shit fucking crazy, inventing a new way to harrass and punish the Dems every single day. If a Dem Senate was blocking a Trump Supreme Court nominee, would anyone put it past Trump to have them all arrested and tried for treason?
And don't forget that under the Democratic President Obama, the Dems lost roughly 1000 state legislative seats, with barely a whimper, if that.
So I don't think it's altogether surprising that poorly informed voters might decide, in a world full of true bad guys to vote for the party that at least shows it's capable of fighting for something, rather than lying there like a dead dog.
Trump has created an enormous opening for someone capable to stepping forward and going after the Reps with hammer and tongs. Anything less isn't worth wasting the time. Bernie Sanders took a couple of good shots, but there wasn't the right combination of the right person at the right time for him to break through. But the opening is there, waiting.
One somewhat nasty but interesting way to think of what the Democrats ought to do next is to flip the table and ask, "What would the Republicans do if they were to find themselves in the situation the Dems are in now?"
To take one of my favorite examples, look at how the Dems handled the Republicans' refusal to advance Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Surpreme Court. What did the Dems do? Nothing. As far as I know, the Dems failed to make a single Republican Senate incumbent pay even a single vote for this obstruction.
What would the Republicans have done under similar circumstances? They would have gone bat shit fucking crazy, inventing a new way to harrass and punish the Dems every single day. If a Dem Senate was blocking a Trump Supreme Court nominee, would anyone put it past Trump to have them all arrested and tried for treason?
And don't forget that under the Democratic President Obama, the Dems lost roughly 1000 state legislative seats, with barely a whimper, if that.
So I don't think it's altogether surprising that poorly informed voters might decide, in a world full of true bad guys to vote for the party that at least shows it's capable of fighting for something, rather than lying there like a dead dog.
Trump has created an enormous opening for someone capable to stepping forward and going after the Reps with hammer and tongs. Anything less isn't worth wasting the time. Bernie Sanders took a couple of good shots, but there wasn't the right combination of the right person at the right time for him to break through. But the opening is there, waiting.