The left wrote the book on grass root organizing but we should take cues from the Tea Party, a movement that "succeded" thanks to a) astroturfing by the Kochtopus and b) no response from Democrats?

This is ironic, since the Tea Party modeled itself on Saul Alinsky's book Rules of Radicals (intended to strengthen the Left at the time it was written). The Team Party copied 1960's movements like the Students for a Democratic Society.

Dan makes a few good points. The Hamilton Electors, the Jill Stein Recount, these things all work to plant seeds of doubt in the American mind about Trump's legitimacy. Did Trump really win the election? How can we ever know if the courts blocked the recount in MI and PA? Is Trump actually in the back pocket of Putin? The very second he endorses anything that would even remotely benefit Russia, even tangentially, throw that in his face.

Now, the next step: The Emoluments Clause. We need to sue Trump over his businesses which all take money from foreign governments.

Oh, and Eli, lose the angst over Bernie voters. You're NOT going to win us over by talking about us as if we were cancer. And whether you want to admit this or not, you need us if you're going to win anything. Especially in WA.

Where do progressive Americans meet? Unitarian Churches. Used book stores. Cafes. Book signings. Socialist Alternative meetings. Local Democratic clubs.

I favor Dan's argument over Eli's. I think that Rich, for all his bluster aimed at Bernie supporters realizes that the Sanders campaign was better able to articulate both what and who the problem were. People could wrap their heads around the idea that the 1% were the problem. That made more sense than "Vote for me, I'm not Trump" or "If you don't vote for me, you must be a sexist".

Peter Thiel is on the board of Facebook. Thiel heavily supported Trump, who benefits from fake news stories on FB. Whatever gave you the idea that FB was interested in stopping fake news? They want to appear to be dealing with the problem, but to them, this is not only not a problem, its a solution to what they see as the problem- Trump's opposition.

Well, if masturbating in public is really the answer, I will give it my best shot.

Same stuff I've been doing since the 1960s, and it works! By the way, Bernie would have won.

The time you gave to the Hamilton thing last week was really embarrassing. It didn't take someone with a crystal ball to know it would go nowhere.

If the "beest had chosen the bern, she would have won. She pissed off too many people on both sides to win it "on her own"...but that is who she is. No room for anyone else at the clinton table.

Personally, I was steeled to the idea of hildebeest being the next president...and was gleefully surprised all the media polling missed the obvious.

Sneak attack supreme on so many elites: coastal, urban, hollywood, academic, media...all caught with their hilary popcicles melting in their mouths.

Joyous to witness after two elections of poser GOP candidates who deigned to fight.

For those who are worried about crossing a line and becoming (dare I say it) deplorable: remember that the bad aspects of the Tea Party is not their volume or aggressiveness, but the lies and cruelty that the loudest in their party spew, and how the rest of the group are willing to tolerate these attributes.
We can keep that high road by being right. But. Being loud and being connected to our system of governance. We need to stop pretending that running for office is a sign of moral deficiency. We need to stop equating being passionate about stopping global warming with being passionate about stopping Death Panels.

Punk Rock was a reaction to a system that not only created poverty, but went further by making the poor feel ashamed of the poverty they had to endure. It wasn't bad enough you were getting screwed- the system got rich off your labor and used you for cannon fodder during whatever insane wars they felt like declaring or wore you down while the rich never had to lift a finger their whole lives. On top of all that, you were told you should be embarrassed for not being rich.

But how can the poor develop social graces and or develop etiquette when you've deprived them of a decent education and then sent them to work in coal pits and steel mills? Or when you incarcerate them for the most minor offenses? Sure, you won the birth lottery and got to attend a private boy's academy in your youth and your Dad could afford the lawyers who got you out of trouble when you got caught drunk driving at age 16, so no fucking wonder you know what side of the plate the salad fork belongs on. The kids enlisting in the Army don't, because they're too busy trying to dodge bullets.

Now you call them a basket of deplorable, because they're crude in speech and mannerism. And they're doing what we punks did back in the day, they're taking your hatred of their poverty and turning it back around on you. You hate me because you stuck me in a shitty position in life from birth? Well fuck you too, then. I'll wear that hatred like a badge and shove it in your upturned nose, you snobbish asshole.

Its ironic in a sense that they went for Trump, who's every bit the elitist bastard himself. Then again, so was Clinton. At least Trump had the good sense to kiss their asses at his rallies, whereas Clinton didn't even bother to talk to them. She merely talked about them, and never in a heartwarming way. There was never a sense that Middle American steel workers or farmers or coal miners were appreciated for the votes she needed them to cast.

Trump used them and has installed a cabinet that will take advantage of them. Clinton and Martha Coakley on the other hand couldn't figure out how to shake their hands.

Listen, do you know who uses the word 'deplorable' in everyday speech? Not steel workers. You never hear anyone on the blast furnace talking about how deplorable the raw ore is they're processing into steel. They'll say it's shitty or poor quality and bad stuff, but they don't use words like deplorable. Rich people say words like deplorable. Poor people do not. And when you call the poor a basket of deplorable, what you're really saying to them is, "I'm better than you because I'm rich."

And there is an irrepressible punk rock attitude that arises in reaction to that.

Trump nor Stein nor Johnson peeled any votes from Hillary. Donny's base are a majority white older Christian and formerly middle class in the fly-over states. These are the party faithful and would have even voted for Cruz.

The simple fact is that these people stay politically active and the left and moderates don't bother voting unless it's for a symbolic victory. The best way to defeat Trumpism is to get your own people stop voting like children who go pout in the corner when they can't get their way.

Since there are so many still shouting "Bernie woulda won it!" good luck with that.

I'm still pondering the shoe-size IQ level of all the wildly rabid Trumpists, particularly in the deep red coal states, clinking beers, cheering, and who honestly believe they'll get their union wage mining jobs back--complete with full benefits (gee, you folks aren't on Obamacare by any chance, are ya?). Yeah, right! China DOESN'T need U.S. coal, and will most likely mine their own supply if their middle-class consumer demand comes to that.
Meanwhile, good luck to Trumpland once red state water resources become irretrievably poisoned and /or dry up, crops and livestock die out, severe drought, floods and extreme weather conditions plague, mountains are stripped to nothing, and rivers reduced to sludge. 300,000 West Virginians, let alone folks in Flint, Michigan, already can't safely use their own tap water.
These people may have their reasons for not supporting Hillary Clinton, but failed miserably in seeing the overall big picture. Instead, they got blindsided by a grinning unscrupulous asshole with a repulsive combover in an expensive suit who promised "jobs" through his campaign of hatred and ignorance. Let's see what happens when Orangeman can't---or won't---produce and have the sheer audacity to call his poorest of supporters "Losers", laughing his ass off.

@10 mubhappy: You have some points. I liked a lot of what Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, had to say during his run for president. But I agreed with Sanders once he graciously conceded his Democratic ticket to Hillary as the best suited choice for presidential candidate. It's too bad so many of us will instead truly feel a BURN.

I REALLY want us to get that "having a unified strategy to win" is not the same thing as taking the low road. I think a lot of Progressives think they are equivalent. We have GOT to get over that thinking. Dan started to say it...we aren't going to villify racial minorities, but villifying SOMEBODY works. And we can do that with integrity because Republicans do villainous things. Having a unified, simple message works, but we turn our noses up at this strategy as "spin" or making the message too simplistic.

We can't progress without winning. We can't win without strategy. And a winning strategy has to include some shallow things like messaging and charisma. But shallow isn't the same thing as unethical. What we need to learn from the Tea Party is their strategy, not their message. Part of the strategy is villifying someone. Part of the strategy is showing up to Town Halls and asking confrontational questions. Part of the strategy is pointing out the crap the other side has done. Part of the strategy is using simple catch phrases. All of those things can be done without taking the low road.