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You don’t need to convince republicans, you need to convince moderates who can be persuaded to vote one way or the other in a given election. In the context of
by lizardking 7y ago
You don’t need to convince republicans, you need to convince moderates who can be persuaded to vote one way or the other in a given election. In the context of a general election, we’re talking about thousands of people in a handful of states. I’m struggling with how the idea of “condescension isn’t persuasive” is finding so much friction here.
- Zarath 7y agoThe democratic party still hasn't learned from their mistakes of the last election unfortunately.
- travisoneill1 7y agoThe condescension isn't really coming from the democratic party. Mostly it's from their allies in the press. The democratic party probably knows what the problem is, but doesn't really know how to deal with it.
- pas 7y agoMaybe the assumption that its condescending is the problem? Someone some time ago figured out that calling evidence based arguments condescending, and for some reason it stuck. Maybe because those arguments are not perfect. After all they are messy, based on the complex reality filtered through the ugliness of statistics and bounded rational arguments. ... and The Ugly Orange's tweets and one-liners are gospel, but anything that starts with data is condescending.
- harimau777 7y agoThe issue that I see is that due to the electoral college and gerrymandering, it can be difficult to win even if you can convince moderates. The other issue is that many of the issues that progressives are concerned about (e.g. climate change, inequality, gun control) require action by society as a whole. Ideally we would negotiate and find policies that address the priorities of both progressives and conservatives. However, that doesn't currently seem to be possible.
- EricE 7y ago> The issue that I see is that due to the electoral college Please read the federalist papers.
- harimau777 7y agoCare to elaborate?
- Glide 7y agoBecause of the electoral college, voices are not wiped out and discounted entirely in this country. I do not want the equivalent of a yellow vests movement happening here. Gerrymandering is a huge issue, and it makes it so that moderates don’t have to exist because of safe districts. The fundamental disagreement about priorities between the parties somehow turned into disagreement about facts in the past decade.
- harimau777 7y agoI don't think the electoral college is an effective way to give everyone a voice because it creates a situation where some votes count more than others and it allows a minority of the population to hold the country hostage. I believe that something like proportionate representation is a better solution. It would still allow minority populations (e.g. rural areas) to band together and get representatives elected that reflect their priorities. However, since the system is no longer winner takes all it promotes finding solutions via negotiation.
- Seanzie 7y agoThis reveals that it is possible to combine the Persuasion and Zero Sum methods that the poster above described: "Once I have persuaded 51% of voters to my view, I no longer need to care about your view."
- sgift 7y agoThe idea that moderates or "the center" would win an election just broke Labours back in UK. It's also what broke Clintons campaign in 2016. The left has a big enough voting base to win elections, what it lacks is motivating them to vote. The exact opposite of what happens when you water down your positions in search of "moderates". Interestingly, right-wing parties understand this quite well. If they loose an election you never hear that they have to convince moderates. Instead they get even more radical.