How to win back a state like Alabama in a polarized country?

So I just thought about this in the Alabama topic. In a highly polarized country how does the Democratic party win over a red state like Alabama or how do the Republicans win back a state like California?

My thought was to offer incentivizing legislation that accomplishes what the state is interested in and is not be offered by the party in power. Here's the logical problem my brain is running into, wouldn't the base of that party get upset for giving priority to a state that didn't even identify as the same party? How does a party work around this or do they just count their losses?

Actually pandering to them.

Remember when Bernie Sanders got a standing ovation from Trump Supporters in a heavily red state (It may even have been Alabama), remember when Trump took down the entire democratic firewall? None of those had to do with their positions on the LGBT community, or women, or religion. Instead it had to do with actually promising and campaigning to make their lives better.

I guess my thought is that the way a state votes for president doesn't necessarily translate into turning the state red/blue. Indiana voted for Obama in 2008, and still has a very republican controlled state. I'm talking about what it takes for a party to get state governments and federal representatives on board with them that have voted the other way for a very long time. Is that still just pandering to them, or is it something beyond that after the elections are over?

THe problem with Alabama voters/poor conservatives is three fold:

1. They're poor from being taken advantage of by the elite (corporations, government, etc) both sides, however they only blame Democrats/liberals because the left comes off as unsympathetic and wants to [rightfully] blame the people for their own predicament. The right wants to blame other people.

2. They all delude themselves into The American Dream simply through hard work, thinking they will be rich one day. Republicans help foster and encourage this delusion. This is why they buy into all that bullshit about jobs, immigrants, and so forth..."rabble rabble it's my job for the taking, I work hard, I can get rich, nobody gonna take it from me rabble rabble"

3. The left generally wants to institute social/welfare programs, increase or broaden tax programs, and so forth. The poor right often views this as "they want to take more of my money away", which is false.

Alabama is a lost cause for the next generation or two, it's going to at least take some time, until the Cold War vets die off. You can't stop progress, and the left is progressive, the right regressive. But sometimes progress is slow.

@mrbojangles25: Improved education could help.

You need somebody to walk the line in the middle. You can't come across way from the left and expect to garner their ear.

Not possible. Those red states are too far gone to have a rational political conversation over. The fact that they are ready to elect an alleged pedophile is evident of that.

Nope.

Right winged people want someone extremely racist/right winged. The left wants someone extremely Liberal. They'll reject the moderates. Look how both parties tore Hillary Clinton apart. The Republicans didn't like her because she was a Democrat while Liberals didn't like her because she wasn't Liberal enough.

@Serraph105: California will never be republican and there is a bigger chance of California becoming it´s own country.

As to Alabama , well here Moore seem to have destroyed a very red state and made it turn to democrats because he did not spend time fighting the alligations.

The whole deep South is a lost cause. Those states have been ruby red for decades with a few specks of blue (cities) gasping for life, and the people who live down there literally don't care if their states have the highest rates of poverty, and the worst education and median household income.

If Moore is elected, Alabama can secede again for all I care, except this time, I hope they don't come back.

If you want to turn a state do what trump did during the campaign last year.

Unapologetically lie,

tell people only what they want to hear even when you contradict yourself day to day.

Don’t get into stats or information, just use memorable buzzwords, 1 liners, and catchphrases.

ALWAYS paint yourself as a victim and have a villian to blame.

And this is probably the best case scenario.

I actually live in the South, right in the middle of the "Bible Belt." (which is also a contributing factor, like it, or not...)

I have all my life. I cannot wait to get out of here! Just a few more years is the plan...

Here, intelligence is basically a pariah. Science, or even logic are (falsely) seen as 2nd rate belief structures to be easily dismissed. In Louisiana we have the most prisoners per capita than any other state in the U.S. The States have more criminals per capita than any other nation on the planet. It isn't because we have more criminals in the South, its because we have an insane "justice" system. Take Louisiana for instance: It is literally aimed at keeping the democratic vote down by suppressing black people voting (even still today), and to keep cheap slave labor in the guise of "rehabilitation work programs." That is even before you get into something like gerrymandering of districts.

Alabama has a lot of the same theme, most of the south does in fact.

Mississippi just ratified the 13th amendment in January 2013. It was the amendment that "banned slavery."

I simply laugh at the notion of "southern hospitality," as its nothing, but a joke.

Do I think the South will one day grow up? Yes I do, but it will likely take too long for me to stick around, and deal with it.

People have been saying that about Texas (it could never be a blue state) but it will be one within the next few elections. I wouldn't discount any state from changing, especially given the volatile culture of politics in this last year or two.

If a Republican ran that was Catholic and didn't hate immigrants, legal or otherwise, California just might go red. Honestly all it would take is the GOP getting the frack out of the medieval ages and become a little more socially progressive. Hell I might even vote Republican if the candidate's fiscal policies were sound.

California also has a history of electing Republican governors, but then again "California-Republican" is not really Midwest- or Southern-Republican :D

@mrbojangles25: Would you ever consider trickle-down economics to be fiscally sound though? Like, I agree that I could support fiscally sound economics, but republicans have been married to the idea of trickle-down for decades now, and I can't ever see myself suddenly believing that this will work out well for the country at large.

I would not count that as fiscally sound :D

GoP has been married to that idea like you said, but their bread and butter is generally no "new taxes/get rid of some taxes". I think that someone who actually knows what they are doing can stick to that plan if they just make the whole system more efficient and less wasteful. There's a lot of money out there going to relatively nothing.

Hell, just focus on defense; if we could actually get the GOP to find an appealing candidate that could convince all the Republican voters that maybe we cut the defense budget by 5% and don't go to war for 8 years, shit man, problem solved.

I mean the problem is we have accepted the stereotypes of the parties as the truth of the parties. Why can't a Republican be pro-education? Smart people earn more, contribute more, bolster the economy, make us a leading power in tech, science, and everything else. Pro-environment? There is buttloads of money to be made in that sector, and plenty of ways to use oil still that doesn't hurt the environment that much. Why can't democrats be against new taxes? If things are tough, yeah we shouldn't be forcing people to give up a chunk of their money when they might need it.

But no, we just go "that's not a very Republican thing to do" or whatever and accept it.

Also get the god damn money out of politics, that is what's really poisoning the well. Make the election campaigns/cycle two months long, force them to speak the truth and not cater to anyone, give them each a commercial to run five times a day on select channels at no cost. Give them a fixed allowance to finance their campaign.

That was the worst part of the 2016 election, the fact that it went on for like 6+ months (felt longer. Was it longer?) and it was just bullshit after bullshit after bullshit. Don't give them time to bullshit!

/rant

What is Atlanta up to? Ask Georgia. Two states work better than one.

Can we term this act the "Trump-fecta?"

Well, i am not one of those who said Texas will always be Republican. Which it of course wont since it's growing hispanic population is more likely to vote for the democrats than republican.

Also why would a republican suddenly go democratic on those issues? wouldn´t he just be a moderate democrat. But i see your point and the chance of that is luckily slim to none, especially illegal immigration is a major problem in America.

Fiscal sound? hmm, so you think Obama did a good job adding more than 9 trillion to the national debt , expanding social programs beyond their limits and costing more than it benefits.

Yup, we all remember the Governator, but most California republicans are more middle democrats than true republicans which is why they can win in an otherwise very very blue state.

Just to leave this bit of information here.. while on the subject of "fiscally sound."

Obama: Added $7.917 trillion, a 68 percent increase from the $11.657 trillion debt at the end of George W. Bush’s last budget, FY 2009. - D 68%

George W Bush: Added $5.849 trillion, a 101 percent increase from the $5.8 trillion debt at the end of Clinton's last budget, FY 2001. - R 101%

Bill Clinton: Added $1.396 trillion, a 32 percent increase from the $4.4 trillion debt at the end of George H.W. Bush's last budget, FY 1993. - D 32%

George H.W. Bush: Added $1.554 trillion, a 54 percent increase from the $2.8 trillion debt at the end of Reagan's last budget, FY 1989. - R 54%

Ronald Reagan: Added $1.86 trillion, a 186 percent increase from the $998 billion debt at the end of Carter's last budget, FY 1981. Trickle down economics didn't grow the economy enough to offset tax cuts. (Its actually been shown to be one of the largest contributors to the worst wealth/income gap this nation has ever seen.) - R 186%

Jimmy Carter: Added $299 billion, a 43 percent increase from the $699 billion debt at the end of Ford's last budget, FY 1977. - D 43%

Then to understand this information you must be able to grasp the concept of "context." Though most republicans I have seen have a hard time with that concept, among many other concepts (like science) I might add.

@Lach0121: I wonder what the numbers will be for Trump.

Alabama.

You can put the D in a 14 year old girl, but not in the senate

You don't.

Every state has their pockets of opposite parties. Texas may go red but its cities generally go blue. Same with California but instead of cities, rural areas go red. Alabama is one of them. It's black belt may go Democratic but as long as abortion is a major issue in states like Alabama, they will never go blue. It's important to make that distinction, especially considering the voter turnout tends to be poor in a lot of these states.

Although it's early, Roy Moore is winning. The GOP is the epitome of hypocrisy. First they elected a celebrity to office and now a sexual deviant to represent the party of "moral values."

If a man who has prosecuted two KKK members as well as criminals loses to a faux-cowboy pervert, there's no hope for Alabama.

This is mostly right. The big problem that immediately popped into my head is that Democrats have actually been trying to appeal to conservatives for a long time and not getting anywhere. Conservative voters complain and complain and complain about how they're not well-off financially, they need jobs, they need investment in their communities, etc. So Democrats come along and say "Oh, you've got some of the lowest rates of access to medical care in the developed world, let's try to fix that for you," and they call Democrats a bunch of commies. Democrats try to improve access to college to help them get jobs, commies. And so Democrats said "okay, communism bad, got it. We're going to embrace free market principles and talking about tweaking policy to make the market more efficient. Let's start by removing subsidies for dying industries like coal." And conservatives went ballistic and voted for people who favored corporate cronyism over the free market. Even on social issues Democrats can't win. Even when Democrats vote for military action and supporting the troops, they labelled as weak on defense. Even when they embrace gun culture, they're accused of wanting to take everyone's guns. How many southern Democrats have thrown LGBT issues and abortion rights out the door to appease southern voters, and how often has that worked? The answer is a lot and not often at all.

Here's the real problem, Republicans have created a brand and conservative voters are unflinchingly dedicated to that brand. They say they're devoted to the free market and family values, but really those things are just decoration. They're idols that conservatives prostrate themselves to without really understanding what they mean. No matter how much Democrats try to prove they care about conservatives' pet issues, they're never going to get conservatives' votes because they're just the wrong brand. My personal opinion, it's time to break up the U.S. Make four or five smaller countries, and let Alabama band together with the rest of the southeastern states, see how they like being disconnected from some of the most economically powerful cities and states in the world. Then they might finally realize that it's not the federal government stealing from them that's making their lives worse and come back into the fold, or they might still blame the other countries for their problems and angrily vent about how they're still ruining everything. At least then they wouldn't be contributing to putting dangerous sociopaths in positions of power in our government.

That is a radical proposal @theone86. I can appreciate the motives behind it but that is out there!

Didnt the democrats win?

@horgen: So yes, but this was made 2 days before that. Also this is more about winning over the people long term as opposed to getting a single winner in there once every 20 some years. Doug Jones, a democrat, beat Roy Moore yesterday, but that wouldn't have happened if not for the pedophile accusations and dimished turnout, and yes, the increased enthusiam among the black population.

With that said, how do you change the hearts and minds of the people more generally so you can win more than a one off election, and change the actual state?

You change the apathy from those that don't generally vote and get them to polls. Had that happened on 2016 we wouldn't be under trump.

I was going to say that since you won now, use this to prove you're better than the Republicans... But your way works as well.

This is true and I agree 100% regarding President Trump. If you end the apathy among large sects of voters results would be different.

I don't agree with Alabama though. Jones won by a razor thin margin. And he was opposed by a blundering alleged pedophile that openly opines for the days of slavery. And he barely won. ANY barely competent(even less than competent) Republican candidate would have won this race in Alabama versus Jones. And probably will next election cycle.

That doesn't mean Jones shouldn't try to affect change while he can. And we can all hope for the best. But Alabama is Alabama.

You speak so highly of the average Alabama voter.

Because Republicans tend to turn out more than Democrats. Majority over minority. That all plays a part.

Easy. Just have your opponent be an accussed child molester.