This is one of many reasons why House Speakers and Senate Majority leaders don't become POTUS (only exception off top of my head if LBJ.)

I think Democrats are smart enough to stay away from impeachment while still conducting investigations. Basically, let Mueller do his thing but obtain the dirt that could be useful in 2020.

My bigger concern is the god damn olds from NY and CA being in charge of stuff. These people excite absolutely nobody other than donors and turn off our generation from participating in politics.

It works better though when the person is more well known. You show a picture of Pelosi and R's immediately understand. You show a picture of Lieu, etc. and R's need to be informed who he/she is and why they should hate her.

Another reason I think Democrats should stay away from impeachment is we should preserve that institution for truly extraordinary circumstances. I don't know if we want to slide down the path of midterms becoming essentially a general referendum on the POTUS.

There is no constitutional bar on removing the POTUS and then the VP via impeachment proceedings to put the Speaker of the House into the White House.

Frankly, I am not sure if this would be a good change long term on its own. But I rather not attack what some calls the "Myth of Rights" more than absolutely necessary.

The thing Democrats don't often do well is tying their investigations into a coherent narrative that matters to people.

So, Trump/Russia as sort of this thing very specifically about Trump and wrapped in national sovereignty and election security is distant and no one gives a ****, it's just really hard to imagine why a 2nd tier country half a world away is REALLY a huge, existential threat to the world's largest military and economy (and the reality is: it's not!)

But, if you turned it around and told the story about how Russia/Trump/Putin/the Saudis/etc. really sit in the middle of a global kleptocracy and how global capital is colluding to extract resources from normal people and then launder all of the criminal stuff internationally so as to circumvent our laws (tax sheltering, environmental regulations, media regulations, etc.) -- then I think there's some opportunity there. Democrats don't tell that story well.

Trump's tax returns are the same thing but I think there are absolutely fertile ground here to tell a coherent, ideological, meaningful story. I think the messaging is a little better here on the whole.

So a huge mistake would be to make it personal to Trump. Voters have baked in everything they could ever want to know about how he's a selfish and rich and boorish and a cheat.

Tell the story instead about how this sort of tax evasion and fraud, even legal chicanery is endemic among the wealthy and those tax dollars belong in the public treasuries to help people with health care, day care, rent, education, etc. And critically, that the entire GOP exists to protect Trump wealth and propagate a system where the rich keep a lot. Use Trump as an allegory rather than be seen as trying to damage Trump politically. Use Trump to tie to the GOP and let Trump's dumb crimes rub off on the entire party. Don't give an inch of space to Never Trumpers and Serious Concerns and Deeply Troubled style politics on the right; remember that whole wing of the party is using Trump as much as Trump uses the GOP. They're wedded to Trump because he's where the voter affections are, but they play coy and try to keep their distance from his obvious malfeasance. Don't let them. These sorts of investigations are a great opportunity to wrangle in their whole party and the whole apparatus of right wing bull****.

I think the investigations are a good strategy, but you just have to employ the correct tactics and messaging. The more we're seen as the party trying to personally scold Trump: bad. The more we're seen as the party trying to protect the public interest and explaining how the public interest is subverted systemically by Trump and keep our criticisms focused on the system and not on Trump: good.

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What are the investigations going to uncover that is going to change anybody's vote about anything? That he's a liar, a crook, a rapist, a racist?

We really need to find ways to get people to want to vote for Democrats instead of just not voting for Trump. But the problem is, apparently the main thing many many people want to vote for is keeping the browns, the women, and the gays in their place. I legit do not know what to do about that.

I'm not necessarily saying we shouldn't go hard in the paint. But that alone isn't going to do it.

It's not just that Democrats don't relate those kinds of arcing narratives well. The modern media environment provides little to no space for discussion of anything beyond the outrage of the moment. In a country where we can't get our elected officials to take concrete steps towards reducing climate change in the year 2018, expecting the average citizen to be in any mindset to absorb a story about the malevolent structures of global capital and integrate it into their worldview seems pretty far-fetched.

It’s also that the Democratic donor class is participating in many of the activities DVaut describes.

No doubt. But if there existed a sizable political marketplace for ideas like "The Truth About the Global Oligarchy" in the US, we'd have a much different class of elected officials.

This is an amazing game because A. that ship sailed out a long time ago and B. Dems have a pretty ****ing legitimate case for impeachment.

Like, let’s not impeach a presdient for colluding with the Russian government to subvert our democracy and obstruct justice, let’s save it for the real bad guys, lest Republicans decide to engage in bull**** investigations.

This is the area where the left has failed so hard in the west in the last 30 years or so. Representing normal working people against the establishment who exploit them *was* the left for a long time, the idea that that should be a tough, complicated sell is madness. I can understand why it seems that way given the state of play now, though.

This. Although somehow it bizarrely doesn't work the other way around. People Ryan, Boehner and Gingrich were horrible, evil people and for some reason the Dems treat them with a respect their own people don't get in return. Makes no sense.

candidates matter.

beto almost won in texas. that's huge. it wasn't because establishment democrats had a great gameplan.

Excellent poast as usual, but is it bad that while the bolded is clearly horrible...I kind of want to get in on it.

Is that part of the problem? That while kleptocracy is obviously horrible, being a kleptocrat is clearly totally awesome. You get nice houses, fancy cars and yachts, and hey even an entire banking and governmental system devoted to helping you get away with it.

I'd sign up in a heartbeat. Who wouldn't?

Do you think that, like, we just install Lieu as Speaker, and then all of a sudden he's going to be immune from Republican scaremongering?

Pretty crazy that Rosen won by more than Manchin and Tester and of course everyone who lost, solidly outperforming the polls.

Not sure why we keep doubting Nevada's blueness. Seems pretty reliable at this point.

Nate Cohn estimate of total voters is 114 million. Voting eligible population ~236 million (from here). So turnout ~48.3%, the highest since 1970 (48.4%, according to Brookings Institute).

Ds have to make sure the newly engaged voters don't disappear into the woodwork.

of course not. But the whole point is to make it someone who is more like them on the surface and from "their" part of the country.

LOL less than 50% turnout is considered high.

I think they can come up with reasons to hate a Taiwanese immigrant pretty easily

Hard disagree, that’s actually an easy story to tell and in fact Republicans have spent thirty years trying to convince everyone that corporations are your job-creating friends only to find that no one really bought it and everyone hated Romney/Ryan. People have a pretty basic distrust of corporate power. What we see now in 2018 is the Rs subverting that instinct and telling stories about Soros and Zuckerberg and other capitalist boogeymen. Heck, even the Libertairans used to rail against “crony capitalism” exploiting people.

Like, it’s all over our culture. No one had to explain to the marks why the Million Dollar Man was a heel, it was just obvious he was a rich *******. Easiest sell ever. We all knew immediately that the Weyland-Yutani corporate rep was a sleazeball who was going to screw over the working stiffs on the Nostromo. No one needed a lecture on malevolent global power structures to grasp that.

I suggest you try having a normal election where the person who gets the most votes wins. It should help things out.

Wherever Dems have power, they need to be making it so that people aren't having to queue for ages to vote. In 20+ years of voting, I've never queued for more than two minutes to get into the voting booth. Expecting people to queue for hours is crazy.