2014 Post-Mortem: How did the Democrats screw this up so badly?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Think of how out of it and apathetic I was this election. Obviously I still voted, but how many Democrats didn't?

The truth is, there was nothing to fight for. It wasn't about fighting the war in Iraq or Bush (2006), to get us the White House and a President who'd be with the middle class in the tough economy and who was going to end the war (2008) or preserving what he had done (2012). There wasn't even much of a "fight the Tea Party!" mindset ala 2010. It was just a bland boring election. The Republicans had reason to care, we didn't.

Luckily Hillary Clinton is the type of candidate who will get people out and motivated.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This is what Democrats did wrong and Republicans did right.

This. This was a boring election. The Democrats had no rallying cause (like in 2006 and 2008) or charismatic and inspiring leader (like in 2008 and 2012.) The election was uninteresting and Democrats, especially young ones had nothing to fight for. They didn't show up. The Republicans only cause was really blind Obama hatred, but for them that's enough.

The not all that well attended DFL party I was at last night is kind of a microcosm of that, in addition to being far less attended than anyone I've ever been to (including 2010), it was also much less disproportionately young.