SultanOfSwing

Yeah, I had noticed that myself. Bit weird, isn't it?

dc koop

Do they actually still build any autos in Michigan anymore? I thought that many had moved to the south or across the border for the cheaper labour

Anyway the Democratic party needs to get back to it's roots, the party of the hourly paid working stiff and not the party of the PC and pseudo progressive intellectuals

robin1234

There are only two major parties in the U.S. It follows that they must appeal to a broad consensus to have any hope of electoral success. A party of or for "hourly paid working stiffs" would never win an election. Anyway, who is supposed to judge whether an intellectual is "progressive" or just "pseudo progressive?" Surely, now the election is over, these moronic Breitbart chimeras can be retired?

robin1234

That's always possible. I remember being part of the Labour Party get out the vote effort in Bedford in 1970. I was not an experienced driver, and I'd never been to Bedford before, and the car I was given to drive was an old banger ... So a hair raising situation in general. I remember one or two of the old folks I drove to the polling place announcing, when I got them safely home, that they'd voted Tory

anotherlimey

How he wasn't banned three months ago I don't know.

Steerpike

Each day I wake up thinking perhaps this whole Trump election thing was a bad dream, but each day I find it is a reality.

As I slowly come to terms with that reality, I'm now further disturbed by the fact that he's likely to appoint people like Giuliani and Ben Carson to serious positions. Surely Trump can see that Ben Carson is a walking zombie.

Interestingly, one of Trump's few decent-sounding big plans is for massive infrastructure spending, which is very 'Democratic Pary' like; but the Republicans in congress are already vowing to block that.

On another note, what's the latest analysis on the Latino vote? It seems Clinton failed to get as much of the Latino vote as Obama did in 2012. How can that be? From this NY Times article, "President Barack Obama took 71 percent of the Latino vote in the exit polls that year (2012) compared with 27 percent for Mitt Romney". Compared to this time, "Mrs. Clinton drew 65 percent of the Latino vote compared with 29 percent for Mr. Trump". Also, "Four million more Latinos were eligible to vote Tuesday than in 2012. ". This could be old news by now, based on initial exit-poll analysis, but it shows a stunning failure to me, considering how Trump absolutely demonized the Latino base.

Also, I've never understood the significance of the Vice President pick on presidential elections, but what was Clinton thinking in choosing Tim Kaine? I honestly had to look up his name just now, as I had already forgotten it. What demographic was he meant to attract? Why didn't she select a Latino or Black VP candidate? I don't know if it would have made much difference, but Tim Kaine was completely un-memorable from start to finish.

At this point, I think the focus has to be on how to limit Trump's term to 4 years, and how to minimize the damage he can do in the next 4 years - not an easy task with a Republican congress, and apparently a difficult mid-term election coming up (apparently does not favor democrats due to the specific states in play). I'm personally thinking we need to pick Cory Booker, or some other charismatic candidate who can inspire and motivate voters. Let's face it, Obama was a total unknown with zero experience, but he pulled it off with his charisma. We need another candidate like that.

RoadWarriorFromLP

Thanks for the pile of cliches, but that doesn't mean much.

What's funny is that anti-trade Trump is hiring a bunch of Heritage Foundation guys to guide him. Go look up their views on free trade and compare them to what Trump told those gullible Rust Belt cranks during the campaign.

Giantaxe

It turned out to be a truly awful pick. Such an uninspiring person who really got soundly beaten in the Presidential debate. If you look where the Clinton campaign sent him, you can see they had little faith in him nearer election day either.

zargof

George W. Bush deported around 2 million illegal immigrants during his administration. Barack Obama has deported more than 2.5 million illegal immigrants during his administration. So for all of Trump's talk of deporting illegal immigrants, the reality is that it's already been happening and those in the Latino community already know people who have been deported. So ultimately it's same shit different day.

Giantaxe

Presumably a lot of "old school" Cuban Americans also voted for Trump.

Former Lancastrian

So be it the USA, Canada or the UK etc etc should illegals be deported?
As opposed to the reasons for being illegal do you agree that they are breaking the law?
Those of us who have emigrated legally or sponsored spouses or other family members to come to whatever country we live in had to go through a legal application system and wait however long to have that application accepted and paperwork issued.
I don't agree with the groups like no one is illegal as why bother having Immigration and border checks if you could just rock up anywhere and start a life.

zargof

Those simple statistics don't disprove that argument either, because they are too simple.

The big question from the Sanders side is young voters. In the primary, Sanders got more votes from young people than Trump and Clinton combined. But in the general, voter turnout for young people was down from 51% in 2012 to 19% this time.

Why was that? The Trump campaign was actively trying to suppress that vote, and it worked. Why couldn't the Clinton campaign counter that.

As far as the Trump Romney comparison, you would need to know how large the never Trump movement was compared to new GOP voters to say if that was true or not.

dc koop

Those rust belt cranks wont go away, neither will the unemployed former auto workers in Detroit and a middle class struggling to pay mortgages and hoping for decent increases in pay that don't happen because the one percent are busy raking in the profits. There's massive discontent in evidence. Obama did much to repair the damage done during Dubya's administration but it wasn't enough.
I didn't want Trump. I was a reluctant supporter of Hillary who I didn't like either. She is quite obviously an elitist and probably as crooked as hell in her own right surrounding herself with PC pin heads. I blame her for Trump's success. The Dems are losing their identity with the voters who have traditionally supported them for so long. Let's hope that post Hillary the party will be able to mend it's fences and return to what it was in the past, the party of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Bill Clinton

zargof

The pros and cons of current immigration law aren't really relevant to the point.

Personally, having been through the immigration process, I know how hard it is, and while I don't think others should have it easier I also recognize many don't have the same opportunity I did.

zargof

Bill Clinton's triangulation is a large part of the reason the Democrats are in the mess they are now.