Thought for the Day

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Originally Posted by MrFanti

I'm for ANY voter that thinks outside of the brainwashing that makes them believe there are only two parties, Republican and Democrat.

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Would you agree with me, that to build an alternative to the two main parties, it must come from the base -that a successful 'third party' needs to be established in a place and build a reputation through local politics, such as a town or city council. People are not going to vote Green because of Jill Stein, but they might if a Green Party was able to demonstrate to local people that it had the policies they support -for example, on pollution, energy saving strategies in the home, carbon reductions in the town etc- and the people to implement such policies.

I understand that the two main parties have the money and the infrastructure, but is it impossible for a third party to win local support? Or is it that potential game changers don't make the effort? The Black Panther Party in the 1960s and 1970s had many flaws, but it also had a strong social base in Oakland and a few other places, and was this not the best means to build a party with national appeal, albeit in their case a restrictive one?

This is close to the top of my reading list. It helps counter the dangerous rubbish people have heard from RFK, with the scary thought that this odious fool is being tipped by some people, if Trump wins, to be given a job related to health care, for which he is so obviously not qualified.

Maybe someone can mail him this book, though I doubt he reads books, whatever.

Breakthrough by William Pao review – the drugs do work | Science and nature books | The Guardian

Tuesday's night humiliating loss in the 2024 Election should be a wake up call for the Democratic Party,that they need to change their messaging to voters,because their current messaging isn't resenating with voters anymore. And do some serious soulsearching about what went wrong for them,and how the pollsters were way off with their projections. And go back to the drawing board and come up with a new strategy on how to rebuild and expand their base and reach new voters. And also come up with a new plan to win the 2026 Midterms and find candidates that has an excellent chance of winning the 2028 Presidental Election.

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Originally Posted by KnightHawk 2.0

Tuesday's night humiliating loss in the 2024 Election should be a wake up call for the Democratic Party,that they need to change their messaging to voters,because their current messaging isn't resenating with voters anymore.

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IMHO, Bernie Sanders was 100% spot on as to one of the reasons for what went wrong for them.

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Originally Posted by KnightHawk 2.0

Tuesday's night humiliating loss in the 2024 Election should be a wake up call for the Democratic Party,that they need to change their messaging to voters,because their current messaging isn't resenating with voters anymore. And do some serious soulsearching about what went wrong for them,and how the pollsters were way off with their projections. And go back to the drawing board and come up with a new strategy on how to rebuild and expand their base and reach new voters. And also come up with a new plan to win the 2026 Midterms and find candidates that has an excellent chance of winning the 2028 Presidental Election.

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Looks to me like the Democrat campaign has effectively killed all pollsters since most folks with a brain will never take them seriously any more.

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Originally Posted by MrFanti

Looks to me like the Democrat campaign has effectively killed all pollsters since most folks with a brain will never take them seriously any more.

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Polling is not a perfect science as most polls are 'adjusted' -we had this in the UK in 2017 when the polls suggested the Tories were way ahead of Labour and the result was a hung Parliament. Turned out the pollsters 'adjusted' the figures and in the process this reduced the assumed impact of first time voters

I am not a pollster, but I also got wrong my prediction that Harris would win the popular vote, as was the case with Clinton and Biden, because I did not believe Trump had, or could grow his voter base, which is precisely what he did. When someone is so full of rage, lies and contempt for the process, it is hard to accept the voters agree with him. And in some of the Senate and House races, the votes are close, so on one level it has not been a rollercoaster victory for Trump -either way, the US is now more bitterly divided than I think it has been in my lifetime.

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Originally Posted by Stavros

Polling is not a perfect science as most polls are 'adjusted' -we had this in the UK in 2017 when the polls suggested the Tories were way ahead of Labour and the result was a hung Parliament. Turned out the pollsters 'adjusted' the figures and in the process this reduced the assumed impact of first time voters

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The problem for pollsters is that it's increasingly difficult to get people to respond. I never get polled because I never take a phone call if I don't recognise the number. Experience tells me it's likely to be a scammer or someone else trying to get money out of me.

Non-response seems to be a bigger problem with Trump-leaning voters who tend to be mistrustful of pollsters. They try to make adjustments based on what happened previously, but as every election is different it's always an inexact science.

Here is a link to an article from CNN on how readers felt about the outcome of the 2024 Election. https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/09/polit...-dg/index.html

Two contrasting articles in the Sunday papers

In the Telegraph but behind a paywall=

"Janet Daley
Trump is obnoxious – but his victory shows the American Dream is alive
Latino voters switched over to the Republicans in their millions. They share the hope of building a richer, better life in a new country".
Trump is obnoxious – but his victory shows the American Dream is alive

And then this:

Andrew Gumbel
The US has lost faith in the American dream. Is this the end of the country as we know it? | Donald Trump | The Guardian

With Donald Trump winning 312 electoral votes in the 2024 Election,and Republicans gaining control of the US Senate and keeping their majority in the House Of Representatives,they have completed the trifecta of dominance of Washington DC and too push through their leader's dangerous agenda for the next year four years to reshape the government and the country. Will be interesting to see how the Democrats and their Party Leadership respond being in the minority,and how they are going to stop anything the Republicans try to ram through both chambers. And be the guardrail to protect democracy and keep Donald Trump in check.