Watch this film. Things are messed up beyond our comprehension.

http://watchdocumentary.org/watch/lifting-the-veil-obama-and-the-failure-of-capitalist-democracy-video_47b0db8d1.html

I did not really learn anything new watching this, but it was a fantastic compilation of the last decade's events. Probably could benefit many people that do not spend as much time on this stuff as most of us do. The end speech by Hedges was new to me, I enjoyed it and was inspired by it.

Thank you.

So, who do you think is more likely to motivate hitherto non-voters to come out and vote for the Democrats?

First, i think that Bernie being in the primary is generating more interest in the Dems. That means more people will be paying attention to Clinton, O'Malley, and Chafee.

If Bernie does not win the primary, he will be campaigning hard for the nominee. Ditto for the other candidates if they don't win. In the end, they will all be united.

But the issue of turnout is not primarily on the shoulders of presidential candidates. The quality of grassroots efforts are most important.

We shall see in due course.

I'm far from an expert, but my understanding is that the congressional districting is such that the odds of the Democrats taking the House before 2020 are very, very slight indeed.

And Republicans still control a lot of state legislatures, so it's probably not safe to assume that things will improve rather than getting worse in 2020.

The most the Democrats can realistically hope for before then is to control the presidency and the senate, and to make a start on taking some states.

I cannot stress enough how important it is that we start to pay attention to redistricting.

Rahm's candidates. They weren't very progressive, and far from liberal, that it didn't make any difference.

at least until 2021. The 2010 disaster is biting us in the ass big time.

in the general election. Sending a Democrat nominee into the general who can not win will give the presidency to the GOP.

The disagreement is more about which candidate or candidates cannot win.

Unlikely the House. It's gerrymandered until 2020.

It's time to take back America from Pukes and Baggers, at ALL levels of America.

GOTV!

That's the main reason the Republicans have tried to keep a low profile.

All those Sennate seats they have now - that just means they have more territory to defend. And more at potential risk. Don't care how much they raise, somebody (hopefuly quite a few somebodies) will come up short.

Harry Reed said he was retiring so there will be a new leader.

Patrick Leahy is next in line followed by Dick Durbin.

I'd rather see Al Franken.

colorado voted out a good liberal last year in favor of a bagger puke (lots of dark money was spent on that race) and i think michael bennet has burned himself with some of the unaffiliateds with his support for keystone and tpp. personally, i would like to see him primaried from the left.

i am lucky that both my state rep and senator are wonderfully progressive and i'd love to see either of them in my seat, but i'm sure either of them would be considered too fringe.

I am a supporter of the Democratic Party, especially for "a progressive". Listening to Hillary was just another speech. I just can't get excited about anyone that speaks from a script anymore. I listen to Bernie Sanders, and I see a real difference. The guy speaks form the heart...all the time.

As someone earlier mentioned though, if we don't take the Congress, we are just stuck with another four years of battle to move the boulder down the road; and we're really not moving this country forward at all. We're just slowing the gap that is widening between us and the rest of the democratic nations.

A revolution is more than likely necessary to get anything substantive done, and that's NOT going to happen.

If the Supreme Court allows it to continue as is, that one step will save thousands of lives. That one ain't perfect, but it passed by 3 votes in the House of Representatives. I recall that especially close vote. 217-214 on that vote. Yes, we must get that majority or as close as possible. If very close to a majority perhaps a few will join us. There are very few moderates GOP left, but maybe ?? Clearly the Senate must be brought back to us. We will see.

She should be able to make a lot of progress having them in control

If you think the republicans lost their collective mind, over a man of color being elected president. Wait until a female Clinton is elected. You thought congress was out of control during Bill's term, just wait, you will see a temper tantrum the likes of which has never been seen in history. The only way to get anything done is to target congress. Dump the bros and get some states persons, preferably more dem women.

Every Senate or Representative seat that is open for election in 2016 needs strong Democrats running and being supported.

Id rather see progressives be given a choice too, downticket with Bernie as Democratic nominee. This will end the rightward tilt.

Which is actually typical of American political trends. The party in control of the White House will struggle in the states. Why? It's an odd fact of our political landscape. But it's been that way for several decades and there is no indication that is changing at all.

The Democrats continue to get routed in the state and local levels of American government. We may get the Senate back in 2016 because the GOP is playing defense with so many seats up. But we'll likely lose it again in 2018 if a Democrat is in the White House. It's just how the cycles go.

Holding the White House while winning back the House is something that I just don't see in the realm of possibility.

Look into the DLCC's Advantage 2020 - where they're focusing, NOW, on that very thing in the three election cycles ahead, 2016, 2018, and 2020. They're FINALLY catching on about what's happening at the state level and why Dems won't be able to get much of ANYTHING done unless we take back the statehouses AND the state legislatures. Because THAT is where the poisons are spreading. THAT is where the bad guys are fucking with the right to vote, a woman's right to choose, ANYBODY'S right to marry, anyone's right to have affordable health care, immigrants rights, workers' rights to organize, unions' rights even just to exist.

It all stems from who controls the state on the "0-years" - EVERY TEN YEARS ON THE ZERO YEAR. That's when the census is taken, population shifts are noted and Congressional reapportionment happens accordingly, and whoever's in power gets to make all the decisions about how Congressional districts are drawn to respond to those new population realities as determined by that new census. WE HAVE TO MAKE SURE that DEMS control the majority of statehouses in the "0-years."

http://dlcc.org/news/2020-war-room-inside-secret-plan-beat-gop-gerrymandering-0

Our team is FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY starting to wake up.

We just got spanked in 2014's midterms.

The reality is, most Democrat voters seem to believe the Presidency is all that matters. That seems to be the only political race most people give a damn about. Ask the average people on the street who their governor is, who their state reps are, who their mayor is, and the vast majority will draw a blank.

Look at ballot totals in 2012 and notice how many more votes the president race got compared to other races down the ballot. That means we have a ton of people in this country that go to the voting booth, they vote for president, and then leave the rest of the ballot blank. It boggles the mind on how the hell a person can vote that way....but the numbers don't lie. It's happening.

People seem to want the federal government to fix ALL their problems. But that's not the way our government is organized. There are certain things that the states do for themselves. Your governor is likely to have a far greater impact on policies that directly effect your life than the president.

Not sure I understand your question.

Advantage 2020 only just got STARTED in 2014. I'm just glad SOMETHING has. It seems mighty urgent to me, so I'm just glad somebody in our party decided to wake up and focus on this for a change, instead of being myopically focused on what's inside the almighty freakin' Beltway.

"Your governor is likely to have a far greater impact on policies that directly effect your life than the president." Clearly true. That's why it makes perfect sense to turn more attention to what's going on at the state level.

Democrats are getting destroyed in some of the state elections..especially in non-Presidential years

It's no coincidence that Mittens (Romney) chose this weekend to attack President Obama's foreign policy at his assembly of sheep in Utah this weekend, and give a whole new meaning to "Death by PowerPoint."

Regardless, we need to load the ballot with viable candidates who can seize the majority in both houses, not just retain the White House. I, too, believe it's time for an American Spring,a peaceful political revolution that eliminates the power of special interests -- on both sides of the aisle. However if the forces that be bring Hillary to the ballot, so be it. We must show solitary. Too much is at stake here!

It's the only viable way.

And yes that means running Blue Dogs.