Jeff Van Gully wrote:Pointgod wrote:Jeff Van Gully wrote:
right. i'm in no way suggeting cutting off 74 million americans with myriad political differences. that wasn't quite the point of this. it is the notion of accepting that there will be a subset that you can't reach. to what extent do you accept that and how do you proceed?
As far as I’m concerned those 74 million Americans have demonstrated their irrelevance. Their concerns s don’t take precedent over the 80+ million that voted for Biden. Legislation shouldn’t be watered down or compromised to appease them. Now as harsh as I sound, I still believe that Biden and Democrats need to show a positive message to these people, don’t divide the country like Trump did but at the same time the page needs to turn. Democrats need to focus on turning out their base and registering new voters instead of trying to turn Republicans. On the whole the Democratic legislation will help everyone from Democrats, Independents, Republicans and non affiliated. They need to start messaging that specifically to Republicans and Independents instead of always using the stupid word bipartisan. Pass Democratic policies but the rhetoric should have mass appeal.
i don't disagree in that i don't give trump voters a pass. i guess the argument here is that there is maybe a large number of trump voters who can come back to the table as opposed to maybe a loud minority who are GONE gone. complete diametric opposition of a nearly half and half variety is not sustainable.
edit: i live in the south. south carolina, which in a lot of ways is willfully ignorant and worse off than it needs to be out of an antiquated sense of stubbornness dating back to antebellum times. and i've spoken to people down here AND up north who voted for trump the first time, were horrified by the term, remain conservatives, but wouldn't support him any further -- let alone vote for him again.
You see though those voters you’re talking about are a small sliver of Republican voters. It’s not like these voters were convinced by Democratic policies, they were turned off by Trump. In 2024 they’ll go back to voting Republican, even if the person is just as evil, reckless and morally bankrupt, they just hide it better. The concern is that there were a ton of voters that saw four years of Trump and thought yeah I want more of that. That number far outweighs the number that were disgusted with Trump and decided not to re-elect him but also a less than Joe Biden’s voters.
And by all means I believe that Democrats should pass and talk up legislation that will affect rural voters like infrastructure, postal banking and rural broadband but I think they shouldn’t compromise in some hopes of appeasing them (this is assuming that Democrats end up controlling all 3 branches of Congress). I think just a big thing is messaging. Like instead of talking about coronavirus funding in general terms like states and local governments they should go out of their way to mention majority Republican states and local governments and specific Senators and members of Congress from those states blocking the funding will lead to teachers, police, fire departments being laid off or higher taxes.
