Everyone is sitting around scratching their heads wondering why Democrats lost big. It's Obama's fault, we didn't have strong enough candidates, our candidates weren't progressive enough, they were Republican-lite, etc. Let me explain to you the Republican's true strength and how they are able to motivate their people to vote for them. It's one simple word: Hate.
Of course we all know about the right's hateful rhetoric. What the left fails to understand just how powerful an emotion hate is. The Republican party knows, it isn't simply that Democratic candidates weren't strong enough. One look at the Republican candidates will tell you that theirs were worse. But the thing is, no matter how bad a Republican candidate is, conservatives will vote them back into power. It's not because they adore their candidates, it's because they HATE and I mean HAAAAATE liberals. To them liberals are the worst things ever. They are Muslim terrorist loving, lazy, race baiting, gun confiscating, America hating, troop hating scum. Right leaning media has worked years and years to cultivate this hatred.
Now look, I'm not going to go full Godwin here, Republicans aren't that bad. But there's no denying how much of a motivating force hate is. Republicans can run terrible candidates and it doesn't matter because their people will come out in force to vote simply to vote against the liberals. Progressive minded citizens are the opposite, in general they are looking for someone to vote FOR. It's so much easier to convince people to vote against something than for something.
Look at Rick Scott and Scott Walker. Those two candidates were so atrociously bad, with corruption and just awful records and yet they won. Why? By all rights they should have lost big. It's because their voters turned up at the polls. Their voters hated the liberals and Obama so much it overpowered their reason. Unless you have a spectacular candidate, you just aren't going to win against that.
Well that begs the question, how do you defeat the Republicans? It's not easy, hatred is the easy path. It yields big results with minimal effort. You don't need good candidates to win with hate. Who has managed some success against Republicans? Al Franken won big, how did he do that? Obama won 2 Presidential elections, so did Clinton. What do they have in common and can Democrats vet more candidates with their strengths?
Democratic candidates need 2 things to beat Republicans. Charisma and intelligence. They need to be likable. They need a good sense of humor and they need people to feel that they have compassion. They need intelligence and wit so they can win debates and handle any questions thrown at them in interviews, press conferences, and town hall meetings. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Al Franken are 3 examples of candidates who have charisma and intelligence. It was those qualities that allowed them to defeat their opponents.
What candidates don't need are "qualifications." Despite what conventional wisdom would have you believe, things like experience, degrees, having run a business, or even graduating high school don't matter to the electorate. Republicans win with candidates that don't have any qualifications or education whatsoever. Or any redeeming qualities for that matter.
Charisma and intelligence and passionately advocating for the little guy is what will win elections. Either that or go the dark side and convince progressives to hate the conservatives as much as they hate liberals. That could lead up to another Civil War though.
