The election is over. Our new President is the Fault of Biden, Harris, and worthless Democratic consultants. Pretending otherwise isn’t going to give us a second shot.
We can’t nominate better voters in 4 years, so we better start thinking of nominating better candidates.
Let’s blame the people who forced her on us after voters totally rejected her in the 2020 primary. Some of us pushed for Biden to drop out far sooner and got shouted down. Some of us called for an open convention after he dropped out and got shouted down. Some of sounded the alarm about the Harris campaign running a Republican light strategy and got shouted down. How much failure does it take for establishment fools to shut the fuck up?
At this point, why should I care? It’s not like it’s entirely inaccurate, and I have no particular affection for racist Joe.
I try to follow a “generous tit for tat” strategy on tone, unless I’m arguing with the libertarian-right in which case going full asshole from the start just saves time.
I know that American opinions on Palestine are deeply against the genocide, but that’s a different conversation than what drives actual votes.
I can respect that. It definitely sends the right message.
If at least 1% over the electorate is swing voters, then that definitionally makes up the critical 1% Trump margin. That’s just what swing voters are.
The actual margin is more like 4-5% when you consider the extra votes Democrats need to win the electoral college.
I’m in Illinois as well. I’ve personally come to the conclusion that voting third party isn’t a great option. The only third party that ostensibly aligns with me is the Green party, but their strategies make it clear to me that they actually exist to spoil elections, not advance issues. Our votes are technically irrelevant, but I’d rather not help legitimize the Green party.
Interesting that you seem to assume that Harris would have done better with the people who didn’t vote than with the people who did.
A Democrats losing the popular vote to a Republican by 1% is a huge margin. What matters isn’t the entire population, it’s the swing voters.
Democrats straddle the desires of their wealthy patrons and the desires of voters. They always try to give the people just enough to scrape by. The result is that we consistently have elections with tight margins. Democrats are playing a game of high stakes chicken every election.
Is that what you think Bernie does?
People are scared and angry already. Not everyone has the financial stability you apparently do. Republicans focus that fear on the powerless. Democrats pretend it’s not there. You can’t respond to struggling families with “the economy is great!”
Focusing on these people was an unhealthy obsession, and most of the attempts to reach them were needlessly adversarial to the point of being toxic and hardening their resolve to not vote for Harris. Gaza was a losing issue for Harris and this attention just kept it front and center. Sad to see the obsession continue.
Anyways, this is not why Harris lost. It was a landslide and Trump won the popular vote by a huge margin. Americans don’t vote in large numbers on foreign policy - not unless Americans are getting killed. Kamala lost because she kept telling struggling families that the economy is great.
Respect the norms!
I see that as two different categories. If I have to choose, then yeah, I blame Kamala. It’s ultimately the politician’s job to reach people. Kamala failed spectacularly, with the help of the party establishment and corrupt consultants.
What I said is that it stretches my compassion to have sympathy for Trump voters. The Republican brand is all about othering and blaming the powerless. Every Trump voter with two braincells was more than happy to see some other group suffer, assuming they themselves would be spared. Sure, I still have some level of compassion, but not a shred of respect.
Let’s just agree that it’s the ones who voted for Trump that are the problem, not anyone else. I don’t care what ethnicity someone is, but it really stretches my compassion to have sympathy with any Trump voters that suffer predictable results.
No, just the 1% who threw their vote away.
If you want to argue today that the Democrats aren’t failures at fighting Republicans and specifically Trump, I would love to hear that argument.
There was nothing “shadowy” about the “anybody but Bernie” effort in 2020. They might have preferred it to be quieter, but I think just about every relevant detail of that scheme leaked, and it played out quite transparently. Are you arguing that it didn’t happen?
It’s not as much about competence as it is about perspective. The Democratic establishment is somewhat competently running strategies that are well suited for the 90s but completely out of touch with where voters are today.
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Trump seemed to get through.
Democrats are forbidden by their patrons from using too much populist rhetoric. That’s the number one reason why they fail to connect with what has become a very populist country, thanks to decades of wealth transfer to the top.
Bernie used populist language and the Democratic establishment pulled out all the stops to give us “anybody but Bernie”. Now we are living the consequences.
I understood. My point was that there is no similar link related to the autocratic regime of Bolsonaro. Autocrats can often be defeated electorally even once they gain power. I think the situation in the US is closer to Balsonaro in Brazil than Hitler in Germany.
Yeah, Germany is a model worth considering, but so is Brazil. Autocrats aren’t consistently capable of cementing their rule. Do what works for you, but I intend to stay and fight.
Nominate an opposing candidate that speaks directly to the underlying issues that made scapegoating minorities attractive. (See AOC / Trump split ticket voters.)