Gleaned from this website.
http://outlandishjosh.com/wp/index.php?p=799As it stands, Democrats are completely out of power in all three dimensions. These dimensions are explained in the 1, 2 and 3 boxes across the top row:
1. Prevalence of Republicans through superior bargaining resources: Pretty obvious. They control the White House and Congress. They have secretaries of state who will mess with the number and quality of voting machines in minority districts for partisan gain. They’re working on the Supreme Court. Nuff said.
2. Construction of barriers against participation of Democrats (through non-decisions, invoking of mobilization of bias): this has some more wonky language here. Basically it means creating impediments to participation by convincing people it’s not worth it, or by mobilizing their biases to misdirect or disenfranchise them. Runs from “soft” voter suppression (misinformation, cynicism, “let them decide” attitude) to the phenomena of people voting against their own interests for “moral” reasons.
3. Influencing or shaping the consciousness of Democrats about inequalities (through myths, information control, ideologies, etc): they’re kicking ass at message, they have a better media machine, they have dominated the conventional wisdom and framed the debate.
So the Democrats are taking a pounding. Their task is to proceed along the bottom row from right to left: formulating issues and strategies, mobilizing on those issues to act upon the barriers, and then moving into open political conflict with competing resources over clearly defined issues. The challenges they must overcome are on the 4, 5, 6 line.