Here's the kind of thinking we have here in Georgia (and around the country). FB friend posted about how Ossoff "hasn't live in Georgia" for 12 years and do we want to elect a guy who is already lying to us. I corrected him, saying Ossoff lives a few minutes from the district with his girlfriend and will be moving back when she finishes grad school. He accepted the correction, but still said something dumb.

THEN...a lady chimes in, saying, "She's been his girlfriend for 12 years. 12 years, really? His only interest in this district is her, not the citizens of the district nor the state of Georgia! Check this freak out:"

What follows is the attack ad with him dressing as Han Solo in college.

Me: "Wait, so a guy liked Star Wars and acted goofy​ in college? Where's my fainting couch? Did he drink a beer and stay up late playing video games, too?"

Now for the kicker. She replies with this:

"True commitment is what this pawn lacks. If he cannot commit to his girlfriend after 12 years, does anyone think he'll commit to his constituents to a district that he doesn't even reside in? Observe his potential and his honor and respect for women in the video."

I haven't replied. I just can't.

I'd have replied with some snark regarding honor being star trek not star wars.

I came very close to saying something about Ossoff having dinner with a woman that wasn't his girlfriend, but I decided it wasn't worth it.

She must be really upset about a man who grabs pussies while his wife is pregnant.

ETA: The less 'whatabout' response is to ask why a long relationship means a lack of honor. Maybe he's been dying to get married, but his girlfriend wanted to wait until she finished her schooling. How long is someone allowed to date and remain honorable? Two years, three years and 43 days? Pearl-clutchers everywhere need to know.

I mean, ****, 12 years is a pretty solid commitment if you ask me.

LOL. The party of the participation trophy.

You can dissect these races all you want, and you will. You simply cannot see the log in your own eye. This probably has more to do with the losses than anything else.

When you win, you act like it's a mandate. When you lose you spend all your energy on delegitimizing the other side.

Keep it up. Seems to be working great (that and outspending competitors by insane amounts).

You're right. If Democrats really want to succeed in the long run, they need to focus on the mechanisms of democracy. Republicans can only win by using means like the Electoral College, gerrymandering, and voter suppression. In a fair fight the Democrats win in a landslide every time. Even in this last election Hillary would have won by 2.9 million if every vote counted equally. It is important for Democrats to recognize this and focus on the fundamental mechanisms of democracy in addition to winning individual races. It's a very good point.

You pick and choose what elements of democracy are important and conveniently ignore others.

What are the elements of democracy that Democrats ignore? "Everyone gets a say" is a pretty basic tenet of democracy that the USA is fairly shaky on. I'm fairly sure that "smaller states get an outsized say compared to larger states" is a uniquely American invention that isn't a prerequisite for "democracy" whatsoever.

I'll admit up front these are kinda stupid nits to pick, but you're the one who could have just said "those are the rules, deal with it" and instead chose to start making grand appeals to the idea of "democracy" and how apparently Democrats don't respect it.

Do you think Trump has a mandate?

Amongst his base he clearly has a mandate to aggressively deport undocumented residents.

his base is pretty sure anyone who remotely looks non-white needs to go. Let's not get all politically correct and pretend they care about residency status or anything.

Sums this thread up:

"Democrats begin to wonder: When do we win?"

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...-ossoff-237348

November 2018.

Unfortunately, the map doesn't look particularly appealing for us next November.

I was at a local Democrats meeting last weekend and Ossoff's campaign manager spoke. A few points of interest

* They managed to increase early voting locations in Dekalb to 4. There was only 1 in the first round. Ossoff carried Dekalb by something like 20 points.

* Last week was the biggest fundraising week they have had since the start of the campaign. Presumably due to Trumpcare.

* Their internal polling had Ossoff up a point

Handel's strategy is apparently to scurrrrr you of the Moooslims. The only commercial I've seen on TV for her lately is "TERRORISM IN OUR MALLS! JIHADISTS IN OUR STREETS! OSSOF/IRAN DEAL...STATE SPONSOR OF TERROR!"

Sadly, that is probably not a bad strategy for her. Of all Trump/R positions, hating Muslims is the one that is probably most popular with voters.

Related, the runoff for the vacant Georgia Senate seat is today. It's similar to the GA 6th Congressional district, but smaller and from what I can tell, doesn't cover as much of the "blue" areas.

If the first election's stats hold anywhere close to true, the Democrat, Christine Triebsch, doesn't stand a chance. Though she "won" that election, Dems only totaled 39.8% of the vote.

From my limited observations, there was very little campaigning done. I received a few calls and one or two mailings in the past week. If the turnout isn't high, I would assume it's a Republican rout. Also, Kirkpatrick (the Repub.) has way more yard signs.

Getting rid of abortion is, always has been, and always will be #1 in this regard.

I should have said Georgia "state" Senate seat in my above post to avoid confusion.

58.1% Kirkpatrick, R ….. 41.9% Triebsch, D, most of the way home; turnout will likely be 30,000+.

Another cosmetically good showing, but no win, for the #Resistance

27% of registered voters. That's pretty pathetic. Would've been interesting if this election was at the same time as the Ossoff/Handel runoff. I think Triebsch still would've lost because of the makeup of the state Senate district, but it would've been closer.

One of the great ironies of American politics, at least to myself, it that the worst thing that could ever happen to R politicians is for Roe to be overturned.

Nah. About half of GOPers would not overturn Roe, and about a third say abortion should be legal in all or most cases (source: Jan 2017 Pew poll). Muslim ban however polled with something like a quarter of Democrats and ldo an overwhelming majority of Republicans.