do going forward into 2018
Vote in your midterm election if applicable, obviously.
But for god sakes, actually read up on the people you're voting for and against. Trump was a face of the NY Democratic party until his big public temper tantrum in 2008 when Clinton lost and he switch parties in protest. Had she won the primary, he'd still be a democrat in 2017.
Just because there's a D next to the name doesn't mean they aren't bat **** insane.
Should Democrats try to work towards a middle ground with Trump and Congress?
With Congress, yes. With Trump, no.
The GOP hates Trump just as much as everyone else, and he's done nothing but throw them under a bus since he was elected. The state department has been instructed not to talk to congress, and no one on the right was told about any of Trump's EOs until the same time as everyone else.
Constituents are breathing down
all of their necks. Like we learned with Clinton and Nixon, you need control to actually impeach if it comes to that, even with a universally hated President.
Should Democrats take a note from the GOP during the last six years and obstruct whenever possible?
No. Democrats don't have a lot of political capital to spend at the moment, and part of what got people to listen to Trump was how he would **** on both parties (typically on air due to the several billions worth of free airtime the news channels gave him, but I digress there). Then, thanks to Harry Reid, there's the nuclear option one always has to consider.
The party has to pick it's battles, and obstructing for the sake of obstructing something that they otherwise never would (such as Gorsuch, the SJ pick), isn't one of them as an example, not when every current Democrat who was in Congress in 2006 voted for him then, including Obama and Biden.
However, making a show of displaying scrutiny is already. Just as long as it's kept in mind that they only get so many filibusters.
What can be done to get voters out voting at the local, state, and federal level?
The Democratic party has to actually care about their local and state government, for one thing. They've ignored it for over a decade.
Hence why, looking around, can anyone honestly name a young notable Democrat? This was the same problem that was brought up when people where talking about who Clinton might take on as a VP.
The party needs fresh blood on the national scale, but you can't actually start fresh blood on the national scale.
Does the DNC need to a change of leadership?
Yes. Nancy Pelosi is great at getting money from donors, horrible at literally every other part of her job.
What language should be used when describing Trump and his Cabinet?
Ignore the cabinet, keep it all on Trump. Bury him and it doesn't matter whose in the cabinet.
I'm also hesitant going after the cabinet as a singular entity because I honestly
do believe Mattis is the best possible person for Secretary of Defense.
What issues were not properly addressed during the 2016 Election?
Would you take "all of them" as an answer? The Republican side was a gag inducing media circus, and the democratic side was Sanders talking policy and Clinton repeatedly changing her policy. Then in the actual election, it was...basically Trump saying horrible things and Clinton saying Trump is saying horrible things.
The entire election was a train wreck.
How do you reach out to Conservative voters?
One the big things that made people listen to Trump while discounting a lot of what he said is because, for a lot of those people, their memories don't just go back the last four or eight years.
They're people who are used to getting used by both political parties, and whose problems have gone unaddressed for over a decade. They're people who aren't afraid of muslims, don't hate jews, and really don't care what two consenting adults do together, in or out of the bedroom. What they are afraid of is their mortgage payments, or having a job and being able to put food on the table for their kids. They are also, largely, the same geographical areas that voted for Sanders in the Democratic Primary.
Exit Polls have 54% of people voted for Trump specifically as a protest vote against Clinton. That's over 30 million people. Clinton lost by less votes in at least one state more than ballots that were cast with a blank space for President. 40% of the voting population, about 92 million people, didn't go out to vote at all. There is a significant amount of mistrust in our political system.
If we wish to reach out to these Conservative voters, then stop with the rhetoric that they're all racists, or stupid, or homo/xeno/semite/islam phobe. Making them dig their heels in by lumping all of them with Trump may or may not make it so they won't vote for him, but it definitely makes it so they won't vote for you.
And with so many Dem senate seats up for grabs in 2018 in states Trump won in 2016, forcing them to double down is the last thing you want to happen, not when they'll more than likely be more than happy to have a different option.
