Rift in the Democratic Party

[Belsnickel]

(07-08-2019, 03:01 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: That’s an easy pass the blame reason why Trump won. The biggest problem (not the only one) was he was able to flip enough blue collar workers that voted for Obama in those critical rust belt states. If too many voters “sat out”, how did Clinton still get 3 million more votes in the popular vote?

“We then examined each candidate’s base of support by respondents’ reported 2012 vote. The ANES data show that just over 13% of Trump’s voters backed Obama in 2012, while about 4% of Clinton’s support came from voters who voted for Romney in 2012.”

http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/just-how-many-obama-2012-trump-2016-voters-were-there/

The reason they were able to flip those voters? Trump excited them and Clinton did not. Trump actually attacked Clinton from the left on some issues, particularly those that swayed those voters. Regardless, the reason people stayed home is the same we saw Obama-Trump voters: Clinton was not a candidate that excited the voter base. We're both talking about causes for the loss in 2016, and they both are a result of, in part, the same thing.

(07-08-2019, 03:01 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: Too many people focus on Republican and Democratic parties, while the largest voting block are neither of those. We need a system with more than two parties to truly represent the electorate.

The majority are either Republican or Democrat, they just like to pretend they aren't. The majority reliably vote for one party over the other. I agree that we need more parties, but it will never happen as long as elections work the way they do in this country. Duverger's Law is holding true.