the single biggest issue facing democrats is getting people to actually turn out and vote. if all democrats and all republicans voted, democrats would control all 3 branches of government and many state legislatures. but the reality is, the democratic base isn't as motivated as the republican base. republicans held their noses and voted for trump because they knew a trump win = filling the supreme court seat with someone interested in rolling back social progress. young democrats didnt even consider the implications of the open supreme court seat. i mentioned it every time i talked to someone about the election before it happened. people just gazed past it.
im not a big bernie sanders fan. his campaign did some interesting things. he has a number of stances i can get behind. but he turned his big moment into a cult, and by doing that, he fractured the democratic party in two. he waited too long to drop out of the race and he waited too long to mend things with clinton. because of that, a chunk of his base decided to just stay home instead of voting, or they hallucinated and voted for jill stein. ted cruz voters didn't stay home because he lost the primary. they went and voted for trump because he has an (r) next to his name.
eric holder and obama are leading the charge to work on re-districting and jason kander is going great work regarding voting access/rights. but 2018 is not about some nuanced message or delicate take, its about getting democrats from all wings of the party motivated and convincing them to actually go and vote. if dem turnout rivals the turnout in 2016 (and that would be crazy, given that off year cycles tend to hurt dem turnout), then democrats will win back the house, hold onto all their senate seats, and possibly pick off nevada or arizona. im fine with bernie still crusading for this, that and the other, but his absolute number 1 message needs to be "get out to vote in 2018 and vote for every democrat on the ballot"...if he continues to split the party with his divisive rhetoric, 2018 might look like 2016. the other big downside to losing so many seats in government nationwide in the last 10 years is that democrats do not have a strong bench, not just at the top of the ticket nationally, but in state races as well.
i think there are a lot of lessons to be learned from 2016, and there are a number of weird things that have happened with regard to the way people are covering trump, but on the ground here, things are happening. in the 20+ years ive paid attention to politics here, its been mostly apathy, with the exception of the 2 years leading up to obama running for and winning the presidency the first time. after 2012, a sort of malaise set in. now, i see grassroots stuff happening again, i see people mobilizing again. its a promising sign. but you are normally not at your sharpest right when you wake up from a long slumber, it takes time. just like i think the full recovery of the democratic party is going to take time.
