November 15, 2016

"This interactive lets you play with the balance of power between the two parties by shifting the loyalties of the twelve groups."

"This year, when Pew Research collected its data, forty-eight per cent of voters identified as Democrats, and forty-four per cent identified as Republicans. As you move a group’s slider in either direction, you will see each party’s share of the electorate change. Winning coalitions are fragile—internal squabbles among groups are almost inevitable. That gives the opposing party an opportunity to woo disaffected voters. But bear in mind that, in order to achieve gains with a group, you may have to take positions that will alienate others. As you move the groups around, the interactive will point out any incompatibilities in your coalitions."

From "HOW TO SAVE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY/With this interactive, change voters’ political loyalties to build a winning coalition" (in The New Yorker).

55 comments:

mockturtle said...

Shit on steroids! Our new prez hasn't even been inaugurated yet! I notice 'they' are already bashing Pence, too. We need to boycott these assholes.

Crimso said...

Crusader Kings 2 is much more fun, much more fascinating, and much more educational.

Gretchen said...

So funny Monday before the election Democrats kept trying to tell me it was the Republican party that need to get its poop in a group.

JackWayne said...

Considering how far off Pew was on their final poll, I suspect this is more of a farce than something serious:

mockturtle said...

I notice that 'White Evangelical Protestants' are only allowed to be 'non-college-educated'. [Eye roll] Leftists can't conceive of college-educated Christians. Nor, presumably, black conservatives.

Saint Croix said...

What an idiotic and stupid way to divide the American people. By God these idiots never learn. White, white, white, black, black, black, black, hispanic, hispanic. Idiots. Racial twits with their racial theories. "We have the whites now!" No you don't, moron.

I look forward to the day Jesse Jackson announces that he is pro-life (again!) and the media shits itself.

Will said...

So this is the famous Ada algorithm we have been hearing about?

Bill & Hillary were so impressed!

And the consultants only charged them $60 million

mockturtle said...

I have learned my lesson, I think. Ignore any posts stemming from article in the New Yorker, the NYT or the WaPo.

Let's have something from the Telegraph, Le Monde or Al Jazeera for a change. It's bound to be more intelligent.

khesanh0802 said...

Of course you know that this article was originally written as "How to revive the Republican Party". Took some speedy re-writing to meet deadline.

I suppose playing with arrows is better than sitting in a corner and sucking your thumb, but not much. Sure you can work the interactive, but the question is how to get the shifts and that will only come with changes in the D leadership and platform, but we won't see any real movement in the Ds until Trump begins canceling Obama's executive orders and signing legislation. The Dems will not return to power on the basis of their "progressive" policies. No matter how hard one tries to make it so, this is not a leftist country; occasionally center-left but normally center to center-right.

One would be delusional to think that the D's will not get their act together over some period of time. Their biggest problem right now - beside their dependence on the politics of division - is their lack of leadership with any national stature. That the Dems in the House are actually considering voting in Nancy Pelosi again speaks to the thinness of their bench. Keith Ellison may be attractive as a muslim but I find it hard to believe he has the ability to rebuild the party. Hillary was a lousy candidate ( and is a lousy person) but she wasn't helped by being pushed left by Pocahontas and Bernie. I heard Howard Dean interviewed today and though he may be a bit nuts he knows the Dems have to win back white working voters or they are lost.

I think Trump will be a very pragmatic executive ( as opposed to Obama's doctrinaire stye). As a result he will continue to appeal to a broad base.

madAsHell said...

This is for 14-year-old girls. Cosmo usually runs this under the "What Will Your Future Boyfriend Look Like" banner. oh yeah.....take the test now!!

mockturtle said...

That the Dems in the House are actually considering voting in Nancy Pelosi again speaks to the thinness of their bench.

LOL! Yes, I read that. They represent the Gold Standard of idiocy.

paminwi said...

So.......according to the HRC campaign it was "internalized misogyny" of white woman that caused them to lose.
We white women just can not accept women seeking positions of power. And then we must justify why we can't give them power.

Are ALL Dem women so FOS or just the ones that worked on this campaign?

http://www.theamericanmirror.com/now-clinton-campaign-blames-women-loss-internalized-misogyny/

mockturtle said...

Remember 'blue dog' Democrats? I might have voted for Jim Webb had he run but, the party, as it currently exists, would never tolerate his views. They are resolved to push their very radical agenda even in the face of abject defeat.

n.n said...

Class diversity based on "color of skin", rather than "content of character". One step forward. Two steps back.

Sal said...

We need to boycott these assholes.

The most meaningful first thing Trump could do is to boot NYT, Wapo, CNN, NPR, and ABC from the White House press corps.

Michael K said...

I think Trump will be a very pragmatic executive ( as opposed to Obama's doctrinaire stye). As a result he will continue to appeal to a broad base.

I agree completely. The Democrats are frantic to try to derail his train. Hence the ridiculous stuff about Bannon.

Too bad some people who are allegedly on the right are falling for it.

Podhoretz is indulging old feuds that have little to do with Trump. He is being used by the left as a club,.

Sebastian said...

"Let's have something from the Telegraph, Le Monde or Al Jazeera for a change. It's bound to be more intelligent." I recommend the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

mockturtle said...

Hell, even China Daily is a better rag than the NYT!

Wince said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sane_voter said...

I have said it before, the left is making the bar so low for Trump that he almost can't fail.

mccullough said...

This assumes no change in legal immigration policy, which has been basically the same for 50 years. As Europe continues its decline, why not open the door to their immigration here?

sane_voter said...

I also think the Dems need to make Debbie Wasserman Schulz minority leader. She is a natural at making her party the minority!

Michael K said...

"As Europe continues its decline, why not open the door to their immigration here?"

Agreed. I personally know skilled Europeans who have waited for years on a lottery for immigration visas.

One told me he would never be able to have his own business in Germany. He is a master plumber and his wife is a nurse midwife.

Wince said...

An improvement in the economic condition of the working class in particular is one exogenous variable that is likely to disrupt the assumptions behind these models in two ways.

First, all groups are likely to move toward the party to whom most of that economic success is attributed without the associated trade-off between normally contentious issues.

Second, it seems these models assume every white group as a share of the vote will decrease over time. An improvement in economic conditions might alter those fertility rates and affect the predictive force of the models.

All of which explains why the Democrats want the country mired in contentious issues and slow economic growth.

Achilles said...

How to save the democrat party? Give it to people who want to do better by the american people. That means the socialists. Currently the democrat party is the party of graft and corruption and that is pretty much the whole platform.

mockturtle said...

How to save the democrat party? Give it to people who want to do better by the american people. That means the socialists.

Seriously, Achilles?

Sebastian said...

"That means the socialists. Seriously, Achilles?" Achilles may not be entirely serious but the Bernie/Warren faction is. Plus it would be a reasonable gamble. The Dems need a coherent and attractive alternative. For now, Trump and the GOP have cornered the market on populism, which in practice will include much of what used be moderate liberalism. There is no great constituency for enlightened liberalism. Dem energy is on the left. Plus socialism offers a vision. So for coherence, constituency, and passion, socialism is a viable alternative. That, or Oprah. Meaning: the Dems can try running a complete outsider as a lefty version of Trump. Oprah has the money, the celebrity, the persona, the female affinity, and by Dem standards the optimistic pro-American vibe. I would love to see them lurch left, but they should really run Oprah. You read it here first.

mockturtle said...

Margaret Thatcher was spot on when she said, "Socialism is fine until you run out of other people's money". Don't leftists know where capital comes from??

Freeman Hunt said...

You slide white women who've graduated college to the max, and you "win."

It was the first thing I tried on the assumption that that's the group The New Yorker likes best.

Qwinn said...

Socialism isn't the cure to corruption, it is the source of it. Every time, everywhere it's implemented.

walter said...

!. New Yorker
2. It defaulted to 48 Dem, 44 Repub

I'm tired tonight..is this as accurate as Global Shawarming/Climate Change modeling?

walter said...

mockturtle said... Don't leftists know where capital comes from?
--
I have a friend who married a woman from Barcelona...flailed out of graduate level Econ, found her niche in Environmental Studies..currently shaping minds at UIC.
She once told me "All wealth comes from taxes".

Achilles said...

mockturtle said...
How to save the democrat party? Give it to people who want to do better by the american people. That means the socialists.

Seriously, Achilles?

I didn't say I agree with them or that I like their policies. But most of them have good intentions. The people running the democrat party right now do not have good intentions. There is a big difference.

The first thing we need to do is defeat destroy the criminal element that is now running the democrat party. Illegal aliens that voted in the election should be deported. The people paying for the violence and the people committing the violence need to be put in jail. The media/DNC collusion needs to be terminated and/or the in-kind campaign contributions made by NYTCNNNBCABCWAPOCBS to the democrat party need to be recorded as such.

The people who are willing to destroy the integrity of the republic to obtain power need to be taken out one way or another.

Alex said...

The difference between Trump and the Democrats is he is pragmatic and willing to compromise where it doesn't fuck America up the ass. That's why he will succeed and they will fail.

Alex said...

Nice to see that the Dems are 100-tupling down on racism/sexism/homophobia crap. The next 2-4 years will be a treat.

Saint Croix said...

You slide white women who've graduated college to the max, and you "win."

That's what I'm always telling them in the bars. "You're a white woman who graduated from college? I know you! I know what you want, I know what you need. I know how to manipulate you. I own your ass. Let's get it on."

Works like a charm.

fivewheels said...

With all the concern 'round these parts about parts of speech and the proper usage of verbs such as "do" and "be", where's the justified outrage over the use of "interactive" as a noun? Since when has that been a thing?

tim maguire said...

So far, everything I see from the Democrats tells me they are settlng in to be the minority for a very long time. Another thing to hate them for--one party rule is nearly always bad for everyone involved. We need a healthy second party. Which means we need the Democrats to pull their heads out of their asses and take a cold hard look in the mirror.

So far, I see no willingness to do that.

tim maguire said...

Blogger mockturtle said...Margaret Thatcher was spot on when she said, "Socialism is fine until you run out of other people's money". Don't leftists know where capital comes from??

The street thugs have not the slightest clue. The oligarchs do, though. It comes from government connections.

tim in vermont said...

Well, the problem with letting working class people who actually work for a living back into the Democrat Party is that they are so yuckie! Liberals get more emotional mileage out of belittling and ridiculing them while shutting down the industries where they work.

tim in vermont said...

I sort of agree with Achilles. They need to get away from the corruption of the Clintons and, I hate to say it, Obama. Although I think Obama's disrespect for the rule of law was more ideological than venal, like the Clintons, end of the day, not a dime's worth of difference, to pile on the cliches.

Drago said...

So complete is the understanding of the electorate by our superiors that they can gin up an interactive exercise that "totes" reflects precisely the complex interactions of all critical voting variables.

That's why all the pre-election prognostication was spot on don't you know.

JHapp said...

That this even exist is sad. The arrows should be specific policies, not stereotypes.
I can't imagine having the kind of mind that would consider such a tool, I think I would rather be dead.

BN said...

1. Hillary, despite decades of being proven--demonstrated--to be nothing but corrupt, incompetent, and foolish, still won the popular vote. And Trump got less votes than Romney. So don't get cocky.
2. I kept turning the nob looking for the impact of global warming raising the seal levels and wiping out the coastal elites. Never found it. So I just drove around a few hours spewing CO2, etc. And I wore a coat and ran the A/C. Doing my part to change the world.
3. "Socialists have good intentions." No they don't. They pretend to. Stealing OPM requires breaking eggs. Period. Corruption is just another way of making an omelet.
4. "Trump is... pragmatic and willing to compromise." That's what they all say. "Compromise" is something the Republicans have always done. It's called the EPA, OSHA, NCLB, etc., etc., etc. I hope that Trump is willing to force the dems to compromise for a change.

Anonymous said...

BN: 4. "Trump is... pragmatic and willing to compromise." That's what they all say. "Compromise" is something the Republicans have always done. It's called the EPA, OSHA, NCLB, etc., etc., etc. I hope that Trump is willing to force the dems to compromise for a change.

Yup. My vote was pretty much based on that same hope. Or rather, that Trump would be willing to force the Republicans for a change to get on board with forcing the Dems to compromise.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

California put Hillary over the top in the "popular" vote count. 1 in 8 people live there. CA should break off and float over to North Korea.

Anonymous said...

tim maguire: So far, everything I see from the Democrats tells me they are settlng in to be the minority for a very long time. Another thing to hate them for--one party rule is nearly always bad for everyone involved. We need a healthy second party. Which means we need the Democrats to pull their heads out of their asses and take a cold hard look in the mirror.

So far, I see no willingness to do that.


They're not capable of getting their heads out of their own asses. As with the 'pubs, some forces from outside of the entrenched party apparatus is going to have to do the pulling. And even then...

Party dominance is ephemeral, but you know the Dems are in a bad way right now when even the psycho-chicks-all-hopped-up-on-goofballs demographic - once a Dem slam-dunk lock - are stumping for Trump.

BN said...

"CA should break off and float over to North Korea."

Two problems with that:

1. CA has long been a leading indicator for the country as a whole.
2. TX will break off before CA does. Then what?

BN said...

"CA should break off and float over to North Korea."

Two more problems with that:

1. CA is full of crazies.
2. NK has nuclear weapons.

tim in vermont said...

Dems didn't compromise on Obamacare either, and now they are in the wilderness. I doubt that they are thinking of compromise as a way out.

tim in vermont said...

But they will always have the press. No compromises required there!

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/798725782625517568/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

mikee said...

In the 1970s the Republicans made their own elected President resign, after he won the most lopsided electoral victory in history. The Republicans knew he had committed serious crimes and weren't going to support him through an ultimately unsuccessful impeachment defense. They chose to denounce criminality.

In the 1990s the Democrats moved heaven and earth to protect an even more slimy President, elected with only a plurality of the popular vote, and "won" in the Senate against a very valid impeachment. They chose corruption in their leaders over Party, the nation, the people and whatever they called principals and ethics and morals. They continued to choose corruption in the person of Hillary as a presidential candidate.

It was the founder of the Republican Party, Lincoln, who famously said something about the impossibility of fooling all the people all the time, wasn't it?

BN said...

"Dems didn't compromise on Obamacare either, and now they are in the wilderness. I doubt that they are thinking of compromise as a way out."

Trump is. He already said something about keeping parts of it. Pajama boys and no refusal for existing conditions.

Dems will do anything just to keep the appearance/namesake in place. The details never did matter to them, they still haven't read the thing.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

CA should break off and float over to North Korea."

Two more problems with that:

1. CA is full of crazies.
2. NK has nuclear weapons.


LOL -
NK's nukes usually backfire- Like a terrorist who accidentally blows himself up.

Larry J said...

One of my coworkers has a son who is a freshman at Mississippi State. His son told of going to check out some of the protesters following the election. Interestingly enough, there are a number of students from California at Mississippi State and some of them were carrying signs calling for succession. His son told them, "Well, we tried that about 150 years ago and it didn't work too well for us but you go right ahead. Odds are no one would try to stop you from leaving." Smart kid.