MT-AL: Rob Quist (D) vs. Greg Gianforte (R) vs. Mark Wicks (L), May 25

[Yank2133]

What the hell? Even though Jacobs shouldn't have gone into the room, this is not a good thing for Gianforte to do. I'll still support him because I like his positions on the issues but this was very idiotic and cruel.

lol

[Yank2133]

Bradd Jaffy  @BraddJaffy
38s
Fox News crew witnessed it—says Gianforte grabbed @Bencjacobs by the neck, slammed him to the ground and punched him

How the **** is this guy not in jail?

[Yank2133]

A reminder that the DCCC spent a tenth on this race what they've spent in GA-6 so far.

Quist has also raised millions of dollars, getting a fundraising advantage over The Piano Man.

Quiet, it just easier to blame the DCCC then to admit that left-wing populism isn't some magic elixir that is going to win over rural voters.  

[Yank2133]

A reminder that the DCCC spent a tenth on this race what they've spent in GA-6 so far.

Quist has also raised millions of dollars, getting a fundraising advantage over The Piano Man.

Quiet, it just easier to blame the DCCC then to admit that left-wing populism isn't some magic elixir that is going to win over rural voters. 

uh I was agreeing with you that the DCCC is not to blame?

why can't anyone on this forum read?

I know.

I was being sarcastic.

[Yank2133]

Beet, your posts are bad.

Some of it is deranged, but he's making pretty astute points about how left-wing populism is failing to deliver.

Yeah, Beet is a chicken little. But he is right about this, D's need to kick Bernie to curb. His message just doesn't translate to any electoral success.

[Yank2133]

Beet, your posts are bad.

Some of it is deranged, but he's making pretty astute points about how left-wing populism is failing to deliver.

Yeah, Beet is a chicken little. But he is right about this, D's need to kick Bernie to curb. His message just translate to any electoral success.

Coming within 4-5% in Montana with a flawed candidate ain't so bad (granted, Trump and Assaultforte helped).

It is good moral victory, but Bernie-backed candidates (outside of the NH delegate) have been failures so far.

[Yank2133]

Beet, your posts are bad.

Some of it is deranged, but he's making pretty astute points about how left-wing populism is failing to deliver.

You know, this is a R+11 district, and the only district in the country more Republican than R+5 with a Democrat has one who endorsed Bernie in the primary?

But what happened to the "most popular politician in America" and his legendary appeal to WWC? I'll concede that Montana is not the best place to test that theory, but it looks like his popularity among that demographic doesn't translate into votes for candidates of his mold.

Teachout underperforming in 2016 should have been a warning sign. National D's really overrated how much appeal Bernie truly has.

[Yank2133]

It's becoming a vicious cycle at this point. National Democrats don't support progressive Democrat enough compared to Republican opponent, progressive Democrat loses in an underdog race against Republican opponent by single-digits, and moderate Democrats regardless toss it aside as a reason why populism can't work.

If anyone really thinks this race wasn't winnable and the DCCC was right all along, you're being naive. Sure, Quist was a flawed candidate. But that doesn't mean he couldn't have beaten Gianforte if he had received more support from the party, not just outside grassroots organizations.


If you care so much about data and which races are "winnable" or not, look at this graph and see that Democrats aren't supporting their candidates as much as Republicans.

Quist got more then enough funding.

[Yank2133]

It says a lot about how low the opinion of the democratic party is in rural areas of middle america when a reality tv star and a man who beats up reporters defeat democrats.

Or it says more about the character of the voters in the region.

[Yank2133]

A reminder that the DCCC spent a tenth on this race what they've spent in GA-6 so far.

Quist has also raised millions of dollars, getting a fundraising advantage over The Piano Man.

Quiet, it just easier to blame the DCCC then to admit that left-wing populism isn't some magic elixir that is going to win over rural voters.  

Is that the new meme, that Bernie can't win rural whites?

All of Bernie-backed candidates (outside of the NH delegate) has lost and in some cases they underperformed Clinton.

[Yank2133]

A reminder that the DCCC spent a tenth on this race what they've spent in GA-6 so far.

Quist has also raised millions of dollars, getting a fundraising advantage over The Piano Man.

Quiet, it just easier to blame the DCCC then to admit that left-wing populism isn't some magic elixir that is going to win over rural voters.  

This is the easy answer. Instead of looking at vast swaths of the country disappearing from Democratic control over the course of a decade, and Republican governments in states like Wisconsin and Kansas utterly DECIMATING the livelihoods of their voters, it's far easier to say that either you've just lost one giant group of voters forever and/or that rural folk just decided to become anti-establishment for no apparent reason besides spite. It can't possibly be that Democrats lost their way with rural voters and fell out of touch when it wouldn't support the policies that would alleviate their economic stress.

If the answer for the Democratic Party's future lies in suburban "Panera bread" districts, then it has no future. As soon as Trump's out of office, most likely before or after 2020, these anti-Trump Republicans that are voting for guys like Ossoff are going to go back to voting Republican. That could happen as soon as 2022. Suburban voters don't support liberal policies. They don't even support centrist policies like Obamacare that tried to balance private health insurance with Medicare. Suburban voters have, throughout history, been some of the biggest breeders of fascism in multiple countries including our own.

Suburban whites across the board are more liberal then rural whites, since a good portion of them are college educated.

If you want to win over rural voters, you are going to have to shift to the right on both economics and  social issues and I know that is something you don't want to do.

[Yank2133]

We can win these voters for sure (here's me being optimistic), but it'll take 3rd way Clintonite centrists like Jim Justice, John Bel Edwards, and Joe Manchin, not far-left purity troll-endorsed candidates who are foisted on the party by the likes of ssuperflash and jfern.

Ah, yes, let's just keep doing the exact same thing we did in 2016. That worked out really well.

Suburban whites across the board are more liberal then rural whites, since a good portion of them are college educated.

If you want to win over rural voters, you are going to have to shift to the right on both economics and  social issues and I know that is something you don't want to do.

You really think Democrats couldn't successfully appeal to rural voters stricken by massive economic anxiety with policies that involved broad wealth redistribution?

History says no.

Just look at the type of Democrats who had any kind of success in those regions. Some on the left don't want to hear it, but left-wing economics isn't some silver bullet that will win over these type of voters.

[Yank2133]

We can win these voters for sure (here's me being optimistic), but it'll take 3rd way Clintonite centrists like Jim Justice, John Bel Edwards, and Joe Manchin, not far-left purity troll-endorsed candidates who are foisted on the party by the likes of ssuperflash and jfern.

Ah, yes, let's just keep doing the exact same thing we did in 2016. That worked out really well.

Suburban whites across the board are more liberal then rural whites, since a good portion of them are college educated.

If you want to win over rural voters, you are going to have to shift to the right on both economics and  social issues and I know that is something you don't want to do.

You really think Democrats couldn't successfully appeal to rural voters stricken by massive economic anxiety with policies that involved broad wealth redistribution?

Nope sorry to break it to you but rural areas are finishing a turn red that has been happening since Reagan an now suburban areas are shifting blue. An like some reps would of been saying about rural voters with Reagan you are dead wrong on suburanties be only a temporary shift

Yeah, we are going through a political realignment right now.

[Yank2133]

We can win these voters for sure (here's me being optimistic), but it'll take 3rd way Clintonite centrists like Jim Justice, John Bel Edwards, and Joe Manchin, not far-left purity troll-endorsed candidates who are foisted on the party by the likes of ssuperflash and jfern.

Ah, yes, let's just keep doing the exact same thing we did in 2016. That worked out really well.

Suburban whites across the board are more liberal then rural whites, since a good portion of them are college educated.

If you want to win over rural voters, you are going to have to shift to the right on both economics and  social issues and I know that is something you don't want to do.

You really think Democrats couldn't successfully appeal to rural voters stricken by massive economic anxiety with policies that involved broad wealth redistribution?

History says no.

Just look at the type of Democrats who had any kind of success in those regions. Some on the left don't want to hear it, but left-wing economics isn't some silver bullet that will win over these type of voters.

You have made comments showing very little intellect & continue to make false statements (like Trump) & acting like a political hack.

The Democratic party under FDR & Truman were wild left on economics & won rural white voters & voters everywhere in huge margins. No1 could touch FDR who is considered one of the greatest POTUS' in history.

There is absolutely no statistical or empirical evidence to say rural whites are economically very conservative in which case Rand Paul or Ted Cruz would be the nominee & not Trump. Obama, the so-called Kenya born Muslim socialist communist won the rural votes in Iowa.

As we type, Quist is going to lost by 7% odd, much better than Hillary's 21% margin. KS-04 went from 30% to 6% loss, a massive boost for the Democrats - Both ran as unabashed liberals. Jason Kander who ran a pretty liberal candidacy ran 15-16% points ahead of Hillary or so.

Bernie Sanders was running 10% ahead of Hillary in all polls after a gruelling primary campaign. So you can keep making generalized statements which are completely political hackery & have no business with reality.

Rural whites supported left wing policies when they were the sole benefits of them. FDR had to cut out African Americans when it came to the New Deal to win enough support to get these programs through congress.

There is a reason why these type of voters fled the Democratic party in the mid-1960s, even with Johnson's Great Society being the sequel to the New Deal and it has nothing to do with economics.

[Yank2133]

I mean come on, democrats improved by 14 points compared with Hillary. It's not a bad result.

That's the real story people should be paying attention to. A 14-point swing towards Democrats nationally would be a complete wave.

The swing also may be indicating a warmer, more active response to left-ish populist tactics (taking into account Quist's mediocre campaign) from the Democrats over hurrah-centrism of the past cycles.

Or it is a response to an unpopular president. Just like how it was in 2010 and 2014.