Maybe West Virginians and North Dakotans would surprise you and triangulation isn't what they want anymore than Californians want it.

There's every reason to assume this is an empty set. OrP pulled me up on this a week or so ago. You guys probably can't afford to go full Tea Party on marginal-seat Dems.

Judicial branch once again rescuing us from the sinister GOP forces.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slate..._overhaul.html

Donald Trump won 68% to Hillary's 26% of the vote in West Virginia. WV voters don't want the same thing that Californians want. Furthermore, Joe Manchin, who has been winning statewide elections in West Virginia since 2001, probably has a better understanding of how to win elections in West Virginia than the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Wow +42. That is an impressive level of idiocy.

West Virginia went hard R after Republicans broke the unions

No need to let Jimmy Carter off the hook here.

isnt there about 30 states to try this out in without risking a current senate seat?

I think holding Democrats accountable is important. It worked well for the tea party. But you can't throw common sense out the window either. After all, the goal for liberals is to get liberal policies enacted, right?

Manchin is a good example of someone we should basically leave alone IMO. Save the ire for blue-state Democrats and the leadership.

Tea party targeted democrats because they were the opposing party. The democrats should be targeting the republicans. Democrats as well, but it makes no sense to make their life difficult first, while letting republicans have it easier.

Oops, sorry for being unclear. I mean the tea party held Republicans accountable. But yeah, agree with the rest of your post.

Remember, in 2010 during peak Tea Party hysteria, crazy witch lady in Delaware beat out the former governor in the Senate primary. That **** cost them a seat! Does anyone think Republicans are happier, or better off, to have Chris Coons representing Delaware instead of Mike Castle?

Bernie beat Hillary by 16 points in West Virginia, but he lost to her in California and New York. Maybe it's not as simple as Trump is far right so the Dems should run the most right wing Dem possible.

Not that this will happen, but if there's any state that could have a socialist revolution, WV is a likely candidate.

It's not. I remember a Nate post saying getting liberal policies enacted is a balancing act between cutting red state Dems some slack and dragging blue state Dems to the left. Tee off on Feinstein all you want.

That's right of course - the specific issues where he should deviate from the party will be regionally specific. But some are obvious. For instance, 83% of Republicans think Trump is doing a good job. Joe Manchin needs a bunch of Trump voters to support him in 2018. These voters are turned off by obstructionism that doesn't accomplish anything.

FWIW, I wouldn't be surprised if Manchin wants the WaPo to write articles about how he is standing up to the left. I'm doubtful that he can be successfully primaried by progressives in West Virginia, where many conservatives and Trump voters are still registered D (45% to 31% Democrat advantage over Republican in voter registration). Articles like this might actually help him in the general.

Yeah, well, as you say, not going to happen.

Or the inverse, Scott Brown was probably more liberal than Manchin, got light Tea Party backing, and stole a senate seat in ****ing Massachusetts for 3 years.

Maybe Joe Manchin isn't the best example, but we do need to hold our party accountable across the board. We can put up primary opponents against these guys who are not insane like Christine O'Donnell, and we can also simply activate now and get them in line before we ever have to primary them.

The other thing is, the Tea Party had a specific strategy--try to primary establishment R's, but then always, ALWAYS vote Republican in the general election. This is an important tactic for Democrats to emulate if we want to be successful. People voting for third party candidates in general elections is KILLING us.

Nitpicking here because I agree with the rest of your post, but voters almost always blame the people in power and not the people obstructing. Republicans figured this out during Obama's term (they also found the limits during the government shutdown).

This is more a general statement though and not particular to Manchin. I do agree he likely wants to be seen as someone willing to stand up to the left.

so where is the line for you guys with democrats like manchin? so far he has supported every trump nominee, and i think was the only democrat to vote for our new racist and homophobic attorney general. not to mention his own daughter (the ceo of mylan) was responsible for raising the price of a pack of epipens from $100 to $600 while he stood by and did nothing.

his state of west virginia is an opioid nightmare, probably the worst in the country, and i just can't see how center-right policies can be an answer. bernie beat hillary there by 16 points because a simple message of drug treatment and free public college education were real solutions for people dealing with addiction and the reality of their jobs never coming back.

Republicans don't seem to have as much fear of the "other guy" winning as much as Dems do. They appear to care more about wanting their pols to stand for and do X,Y,Z regardless of if it may win or not. They nominated Trump ffs a guy that everyone thought was a joke and no way he can win but it didn't matter because he was their guy and that's what they stood for. Bernie couldn't win either if you recall even from people that preferred Bernie. Fear of the other guy > just sticking up for what you want.

Right which seemingly forgets the fact that just because somebody has a (D) by their name does NOT mean they have your back. And if we are giving up on WV and abandoning it completely to the Republicans, and all the other red states, well we might as well go ahead and get ready for the concentration camps.

I guess this link is worth reposting:

Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda

The Tea Party was successful because it focused its energy and got its members to target local members of Congress. Local grassroots action was the key.

WVA is a weird case. Lots of old-timey union guys who register as Dems but are functional Republicans in many ways. I'm not saying write it off, but it will be a tougher battle than you might expect.

Maybe I am misunderstanding you but I am not saying to abandon any state. I just agree with locknopair where he asked "where is the line?" on what we are ok with our party candidates doing just to get votes from the other side. Votes that they may not even get and may instead just piss of their own voters.

Well, I have a deep and abiding feeling for Jeff Sessions, since he's from my home state and I've been following him for a long time. His position as AG is going to damage voting rights for decades to come, so I take that very personally.

I tried to help black people vote. Jeff Sessions tried to put me in jail: Voices
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...ices/97572474/