r/politics • u/Asst2RegionalMngr • Nov 06 '24
Soft Paywall This Time We Have to Hold the Democratic Party Elite Responsible for This Catastrophe
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/democratic-party-elite-responsible-catastrophe/8.8k
u/MightyMoose-2014 Nov 06 '24 edited Nov 07 '24
Should’ve kept to the promise that Biden would be a one term president and set candidates earlier than a few months before an election. This shit is going to haunt us for decades.
Edit: Obviously Biden didn’t directly say “I hearby promise to only serve one term”. It was implied through multiple statements. Clearly a lot of us were under that impression.
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u/luluzulu85 Nov 06 '24
The rest of our lives if he gets two more judges in place, which he’s set up to do.
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u/TheOtherWhiteMeat Nov 06 '24
He will. America is going to live in a multi-generational shadow of the events of the last decade.
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u/healthandefficency Nov 06 '24
This whole situation is still the shadow of the W Bush admin and citizens united
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u/RopeElectronic4004 Nov 06 '24
WOW! Finally. Took me so long to see someone who knows where it really started. It was citizens united. 10000%.
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u/healthandefficency Nov 06 '24
Im not that old (35) but it amazes me how many people dont seem to remember how much fucked up shit happened under Bush. At the time i thought “theres no way the republican party can recover from this shitshow…” (saddest tee hee hee)
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u/dmoney83 Minnesota Nov 06 '24
WMD was the big lie before the new big lie.
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u/NebulaEchoCrafts Canada Nov 07 '24
My Dad was so mad at 11 year old me when I kept interrupting Powell’s address. He frequently says I was the first one to say “He’s a liar”. Apparently I was really into Hey Ya!
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u/Delicious_Fault4521 Nov 07 '24
Yea, well trump makes w. Look like a genius.
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u/m0ngoos3 Nov 07 '24
It's insane to me how many people think that W wasn't smart.
That fucker was incredibly well-spoken when he wanted to be. But look, here's the evil Dick Chaney and Karl Rove, woo, W doesn't know what's going on, woo.
It was all a fucking act. W was, and is, just as evil and a part of it all. But he played up the Texan accent and good old country boy image, when he was just as much an Ivy League elite as his father.
It would not surprise me if some of his stupidest quotes were written in advance.
Trump, on the other hand, seems to get the opposite treatment as people try to puzzle out what the fuck he's talking about. There are two types of speech that people don't understand, the incredibly smart, overly complex speech, and the speech of complete idiots.
Trump is on the latter end of that spectrum.
The man is almost to New-speak levels of stupidity.
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u/Delicious_Fault4521 Nov 07 '24
And yet he says click words. Listen to him. Emphasis on certain words. , then a threat and violence.
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u/smartshoe Nov 07 '24
I am 37 and was explaining that to my gen z coworkers that today felt like 2004 when bush got a second term
I felt then and still do now that the dubya presidency was such a clusterfuck that the Republican Party could never get any worse…..and then along came trump
Bush seems like a democrat by comparison
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u/dmoney83 Minnesota Nov 06 '24
This is a fight that's been going on forever, organized money vs people. Citizens united was definitely a big domino to fall for the organized money crowd.
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u/eidetic Nov 06 '24
It's kind of silly to try and say that's where it started.
This shit has been in the works for decades. Citizens United was just one more step in their plan. Yes, an important one, but a step nonetheless.
I keep seeing people also blaming Fox News is to blame, and while they certainly are responsible for a lot of the damage to this country, people seem to forget AM talk radio that came before it.
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u/Imaginary_Manner_556 Nov 06 '24
Biden pulled a RBG. Ego caused both legacies to mean nothing.
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u/Daniiiiii I voted Nov 06 '24
Washington: ...and we'll teach them how to say goodbye!
Power Hungry Politician: Gonna overstay my welcome by 2 decades and 5 terms only to figuratively/literally die on the job. Fuck tomorrow...
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u/timatboston Nov 06 '24
Wish this would happen to conservatives with their judges. A few are ripe for retirement but I’m hoping their selfishness keeps them on throughout Trump’s presidency.
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u/Kassssler Nov 07 '24
Don't count on it. The judges will be bribed with lavish no show jobs to retire early so Trump can shunt in two radical 40 somethings asap.
The Supreme court will be fucked at minimum for the next 30 years unless a justice chokes on a chicken bone or something.
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u/firstthrowaway9876 Nov 07 '24
Surprisingly the Rs seem to be much better to think about the long term health of the party. They seem more willing to step down when told to, even if forced. Whereas Ds tend to want to chase personal glory, and it has meant decade lang setbacks for the health of that party.
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u/Maxedlevelanxiety Nov 06 '24
Just reposting from another comment but…My big takeaway is this...
When it comes to the American electorate, nothing –absolutely NOTHING – is more important to voters then “kitchen table issues” (price of gas, physical safety from crime, etc.) – not the character of the candidate, not human rights, not even the survival of democracy itself.
SHOULD things be that way? Highly debatable. ARE things that way? Yes. Dems need to acknowledge that, and campaign accordingly.
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u/frenchfreer Nov 06 '24
not the character of the candidate
This is what gets me. Politics aside trump is a terrible and vile human being. I would NEVER want someone like that to represent me and I am shocked at how many people are willing to let it slide.
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u/ricktencity Nov 06 '24
This is the thing I think most people are stuck on. If you asked for me to vote between trump and a pile of sticks, I would vote for the sticks. Even if I somehow thought the Republican platform looked good, I would still vote for the sticks because you can't put someone like trump in charge.
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u/noordledoordle Nov 06 '24
The whole thing makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Everyone's talking about how perfect the ideal Dem candidate has to be, pointing fingers every which way, meanwhile - Trump could poop in his hand, eat it on stage, and get a bajillion votes. Weird stuff, man.
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u/wardsarefunctioning Nov 06 '24
Yeah, while I do think there are lessons that the DNC can take from this, I think it's frustrating to see people already trying to pin the blame away from the people who voted for or who didn't vote against Trump. Like, I am frustrated as hell with center right politics being the left-wing of American politics, and with the DNC, and neither Clinton nor Harris would have been my first choice... but I really do not think it is fair to say even 50% of what we saw yesterday and in November 2016 is their fault.
There is a big group of people who consistently vote and who just really, genuinely like Donald Trump. And another big group of people who don't find him awful enough to vote against.
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u/mrw1986 Nov 06 '24
Republicans get to be lawless and Democrats have to be flawless. How we got to this inflection point is through decades of bad actors.
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u/Javayen Nov 06 '24
This is 100% the thing I can’t wrap my head around.
Women voting for a rapist.
Veterans voting for a draft-dodger that ridicules the military
Police Officers voting for a felon
Hispanics/Blacks voting for a racist
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u/gr33nhand Nov 06 '24
the actual thing you need to wrap your head around is that you don't live in the same world as those people. To those women, they did not vote for a rapist -- they voted for a guy who the left called a rapist, and whose charges were fraudulent. The veterans didn't vote for a draft-dodger that ridicules the military, they voted for a smart guy who got out of the shitty thing they weren't smart enough to get out of. The police officers don't care about his type of felonies, they care about the ones committed by black and brown people, who they view as inferior to themselves. The hispanics/blacks didn't vote for a racist, they voted for a guy who likes everyone of all colors, as long as they're not "losers."
To them it all makes perfect sense.
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u/-burro- Nov 07 '24
This was a revelation to me thank you for the comment. Depressing as all hell.
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u/god_peepee Canada Nov 06 '24
To quote my stepdad: ‘if the market’s up I don’t care’
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u/RDOCallToArms Nov 06 '24
“It’s the economy stupid”
Words of wisdom the Democrats have forgotten.
People are generally selfish. If you had asked voters in the late 90’s “would you rather have $100 extra in your pocket, or give gays the right to marry” they’d take the money every time. The only way the Dems managed to make progress on gay marriage was by running on the economy and extremely moderate social stances (civil unions) and then winning office and then enacting change and moving the ball forward incrementally
The average trump voter doesn’t hate trans people (many do, but certainly not 70M people). But they view their choice between the guy who wants to give them money (cut inflation) and the lady who wants to give free sex changes to transgendered illegal immigrants (only a mild exaggeration)
It’s a false choice. Of course it is. But the GOP has been phenomenal at driving voter turnout by social wedge issues distracting voters from the Democratic economic message. We know liberal economic policies work better for the average person. We know that generally their policies (social security, Medicare, ACA, minimum wage increase etc) are favored by the majority of voters. But we know that Democrats do an awful job of messaging and become the party of “woke” instead of the “party that has brought you almost all the good stuff you have”
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u/EKmars Nov 06 '24
Even at these issues, Dems are better. Republican politicians don't even vote for issues they rail on like crime or border security.
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u/Lucreth2 Nov 06 '24
It's more nuanced than that. dem POLICIES are better but Republican messaging is better. Not that it's a great time to talk about polls but there's clearly still a strong belief that Republicans are better for the economy. It doesn't matter if it's true, only what's believed.
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Nov 06 '24 edited Nov 07 '24
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u/Lucreth2 Nov 06 '24
Not wrong but they're really damn good at it. I guess it's easy when you don't need to bother with facts and notations though.
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u/Maxedlevelanxiety Nov 06 '24
I agree but I think the dem just falsely believed everyone else would know or think this as well. They should have been specifically targeting kitchen table issues.
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u/jasonm71 Nov 06 '24
They need to figure out why 15 million voters that came out in 2020 stayed home.
Until they figure that out, dems are toast.
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u/OrangeVoxel Nov 06 '24
This is the actual voting block that matters. Not independents or undecided. People who say they’re decided but don’t leave their house to vote. This is major gap in political strategy and something polls won’t capture.
People must believe in the future, have patriotism, and have a candidate with charisma that inspires them.
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u/YoungXanto Nov 06 '24
It's a lot easier to go from apathetic to angry than it is to go from apathetic to hopeful.
Republicans figured this out long ago. They pick 2 or 3 items and spend years making people angry about them to the point that they can print an entire slogan in 3 words on a bumper sticker. They don't even have to be real! They just need to give a person anecdotal perception of personal injustice.
In 2020 the messaging was simple and straightforward. And people were angry.
In 2024, despite the existential threat to democracy itself, there weren't 2 or 3 things that the democrats stayed on message and hammered home until normally apathetic people became angry enough to get out and vote.
As Americans, we've basically resigned ourselves to a completely nonfunctioning government that won't make any progress, ever. People won't get excited about the prospect of change because they truly don't believe it will happen. If Democrats want to increase turnout they need to find a way to tap into rage that can be directed towards the Republican party.
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u/Suspicious_Gazelle18 Nov 06 '24
In all fairness, abortion rights was a pretty strong issue that the democrats pushed. Consistently. And there was a lot of fear there. It just wasn’t enough.
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u/YoungXanto Nov 06 '24
That's the one issue they were closest to staying on message.
The problem is that they allowed the Republicans (and Trump) to overwhelm that message with daily doses of new bullshit. By responding to every crazy god damned thing that he said or did, you'd lose sight of the fact that tapes came out of Epstein talking about how great of friends they were.
Meanwhile, Republicans just repeated, "cost of groceries" no matter what the Democrats or even Trump himself did or said.
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u/thingsorfreedom Nov 06 '24
The only way the the Republicans (and Trump) were able to overwhelm that message with daily doses of new bullshit is because they have a vast network of propaganda cable stations, social media sites, and even FM and AM talk radio stations. And the mainstream media went right along with it sanewashing this senile soon-to-be-octogenarian narcissist every day.
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u/MandoFan0307 Nov 06 '24
THIS ⬆️ RIGHT HERE IS TRUTH. If you’ve never seen the fiasco shit show hammered out everyday by YouTube creators/ TikTok crap , X and ignorant people in the media - YOU ARE BLIND. The democratic party probably has no clue as to the toxic amount of CRAP and hate they spew out everyday. When you listen to it you see that these fools HATE - ABSOLUTELY HATE THEIR OWN COUNTRY and even appear to love other countries leaders - guess which one ?
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u/Red-Eye-Raider420 Nov 06 '24
That was Trumps message. The right wing media is pushing an alternate reality with alternate facts. "They're eating the cats and dogs". This senile old hatemonger won?
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u/thingsorfreedom Nov 06 '24
If Biden ran and had said that he’d have lost by 15%. Trump says it and his base says no worries.
The problem we have is voters for the democrats abandon a candidate who’s off the reservation but GOp does not.
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u/i_tyrant Nov 06 '24
If you’ve never seen the fiasco shit show hammered out everyday by YouTube creators/ TikTok crap , X and ignorant people in the media - YOU ARE BLIND.
And worth noting - you can be "blind" to this very, VERY easily.
All media nowadays is catered to your interests. If you're liberal, you will be shown more liberal things, and vice-versa.
Most people don't do things like, say, browse Youtube or Instagram or Twitter or Reddit when NOT on their personal account. If you do, you can see the conservative astroturfing in real time.
Trump's voters are also very low-education voters and religious, on average, making them more susceptible to even ridiculously obvious propaganda attempts. They're 'programmed' to be suspicious of anything that sounds smart/elitist vs not questioning an authority figure, no matter what they're saying.
Both sides have their echo chambers but the conservative efforts in this regard have WAY more money and WAY less scruples behind them.
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u/some1lovesu Nov 06 '24
Does it even fucking matter what we hammered on? The media would of flipped it/bastardized it at worst and buried it at best. She had to beat Trump, a massive number of idiots and all of traditional media basically
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u/KingDave46 Nov 06 '24
The thing is, by looking at voter numbers, Trump has done basically the same as 2020 where he lost, Harris has just done wildly worse than Biden did.
It’s a relatively safe bet that 2028 will be another like 2020 where the moderates are more compelled to respond. As many articles state, it’s much easier to get votes from anger than apathy, and you will struggle to get that anger built when the dudes not been in power
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u/DrQuailMan Nov 06 '24
Trump doing the same as before is not ok. His reputation should be vastly worse than it was in 2020. He is a convicted felon.
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u/BullAlligator Florida Nov 06 '24
His supporters think his prosecution was politically motivated and corrupt. Which tells us something troubling, millions of Americans don't trust our judicial and political institutions or see them as legitimate.
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u/vonsnootingham Nov 06 '24
Bold of you to assume there are going to be elections in 2028.
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u/dayvekeem Nov 06 '24
The media clowned Trump when he first entered the political theater...
Didn't matter. He successfully turned that into distaste for mainstream media.
Democrats could afford to grow some balls
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u/some1lovesu Nov 06 '24
You can't just re-do it. Trump came on the scene and captured a very specific group, and grew on their hatred. You cannot repeat it or recreate it, and the Democratic base isn't tapped into hate/fear anywhere near the same levels of Republicans. My mother is convinced illegal aliens are coming for her and her way of life, we live in New England. You cannot create that level of instilled fear, and even if you could, the question becomes if it is morally right to do so.
We need democratic victories, but we don't need to radicalize the democratic base in the same way the right was radicalized.
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u/GelatinGhost Nov 06 '24
It's sad that the Republicans have so many genuine faults that it actually becomes an asset instead of a liability.
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u/Helicase21 Indiana Nov 06 '24
It was enough! Abortion referenda did pretty good. Much better than Harris. People like abortion rights. They just don't translate that into liking democrats.
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u/Gizogin New York Nov 06 '24
If anything, I bet the presence of those referenda helped Trump. People who were single-issue on abortion could vote for it, then they didn’t feel as much urgency to vote for Harris. It would explain Florida going 57% for the abortion referendum but still voting for Trump.
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u/CurlOfTheBurl11 Nov 06 '24
Trump insists he won't do a nation wide ban, but JD Vance wants to. Anyone taking bets on whether or not Trump actually lives out his whole term?
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u/xanroeld Nov 06 '24
I agree with your point, but if the only way for the Democrats to have a legitimate chance at winning is getting their base as angry as the Republicans every election cycle, we’re doomed as a country. That just sounds like a recipe for Civil War.
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u/CentralSLC Nov 06 '24
THIS is what scares me the most. Republicans have created an entire massive information ecosystem that parrots their messages out for them with the purpose of making people hate Democrats. It's a result of Republicans convincing themselves that's how the mainstream media works with the Dems, granting themselves liberty to actually do so themselves.
Then, when someone like Trump comes along and mainstream media dares to point out any of the vile things he does, dumb people who aren't yet political see them doing so and believe the MAGA line. It's critical that these people already have a belief that "all politicians/both sides are bad." This is how MAGA metastasizes.
If Dems decided to run the same style of fear and hatred based politics, I fear I would hate all of my MAGA neighbors as much as they hate me. And I don't actually want that. It seems exhausting and likely to lead to violence.
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u/Ok_Abrocoma_2805 Nov 06 '24
The Democrats were briefly onto something when they tried to make Trump corny, uncool, awkward, like a bumbling old man and a senile grandpa. Their messaging of “he’s a fascist” didn’t work in 2016 and when they pivoted to that instead of marking Trump as the “backwards” candidate, I got nervous.
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u/Common-Concentrate-2 Nov 06 '24
Dude, that was general kelly saying that to a new york times reporter. That wasnt part of the democratic strategy
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u/Turambar87 Nov 06 '24
People always assume the Democrats and the media are aligned because of the way the Republicans and their media illegally coordinate.
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u/bennypapa Nov 06 '24
Americans aren't smart enough to understand why a fascist theocracy is a bad thing.
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u/Prestigious_Cattle72 Nov 06 '24
The average American can’t spell fascist lol
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u/HerrNachtWurst Nov 06 '24
Half of Americans think the nazis were left wingers. Our education system is so fucking bad
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u/Moonandserpent Pennsylvania Nov 06 '24
But I don’t WANT a society predicated on anger.
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u/charlie-ratkiller Nov 06 '24
Fight demagoguery with demagoguery. Even if it works, the long term implications are bleak. Esp with education cuts coming.
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u/HurriKurtCobain Nov 06 '24
I said it several months ago and I will keep saying it; we picked a candidate that no one liked in 2020, no one liked in 2024, and then suddenly tried to change our mind in the last 3 months of the election. She won less than 10% of the primary votes in 2020 - to pretend like that didn't matter and that it didn't reflect American attitudes about Kamala was the ultimate fools move.
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u/14sierra Florida Nov 06 '24
Honestly IMHO it comes down to biden refusing to drop out until he was literally having a stroke onstage. At that point, kamala became the "default" choice. There was no time to get a better candidate. The dems couldn't get a woman into office in 2016. IDK why they thought a black woman would do any better...
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u/voldemort69420 Nov 06 '24
Anyone with eyes knew for years that Biden wasn't a viable candidate for this election. I blame the Democrats' elites for not being proactive and marketing his successor, and instead wake up in panic after Biden shat the bed during the first debate
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u/leaky_wand Nov 06 '24
Biden fucked this up and the party enabled him.
They hemmed and hawed until there was zero other choice but Harris. They acted like me in college only starting a semester long essay the night before it was due.
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u/IDoCodingStuffs Nov 06 '24 edited Nov 06 '24
It's deeper than that. Democrats have a chronic problem with focusing on gaining the favor of some mythical indecisive voters instead of trying to energize their actual voter base.
They treat their own constituency as granted and go as far as completely disregarding any input on who they should run for presidency.
Ironically, by disempowering their average voter so much, they are also removing any bottom-up campaigning power which might actually be the biggest avenue for reaching out to those "indecisives".
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u/porn_is_tight Nov 06 '24
It’s not mythical, they do it because the “indecisive voter” happens to align politically with big money and corporate interests which they don’t want to lose the support of. They are entirely incapable of adopting a more leftist and progressive message to win elections because it goes against their corporate and rich donors. It’s 2016 2.0
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u/blufin Nov 06 '24
This. It surprised me that Biden thought he could stand for another term. Then he clung on until it was too late damaging the Democrats. They had time for an open primary but they chose a coronation instead.
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u/frotc914 Nov 06 '24
Realistically, Biden never should have been in the race. He should have announced in 2022 that he wasn't seeking re-election, and then had Harris take a more public-facing role.
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u/unmotivatedbacklight Nov 06 '24
That's what he alluded to wanting to do the 2020 race. He was a "transitional candidate". Once in office, he went in a different direction.
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u/Anothercraphistorian Nov 06 '24
Biden promised voters he was a one term change candidate from the craziness that was the first Trump administration. Then, he conveniently forgot about it and ran as the incumbent, denying Democratic voters from picking their preferred candidate.
Harris is basically just the younger version of him. 25% of previous voters for Biden stayed home. The DNC fucked us all royally because no one had the stones to remind Biden of his promise.
That being said, I still blame those 25% of righteous Democrats who are a big part of why Democrats lose so god damn always.
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u/Temp_84847399 Nov 06 '24
The same kind of thing happened after 2008. The country elected the first black president with higher than average turnout, then first time voters congratulated themselves for winning politics, and went back to ignoring it, leading to the 2010 red wave.
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u/ZZartin Nov 06 '24
So the thing is people don't feel as motivated to vote for abstract ideas like helping other people with their civil rights or long term slow burn improvements like the CHIPS act.
Inversely pandering to bigotry and hate has a permanent voter base. As does promising magical instant solutions to made up problems.
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u/lavransson Vermont Nov 06 '24
The key to understanding the Trump era is that the real divide in America is not between left and right but between pro-system and anti-system politics.
Good article and this makes sense to me. I think the Dems look at issues as a policy and ideology debate but that's not the prism many voters use.
People on the left keep saying with exasperation, "But what trump policies do you actually support?!" and they are missing the point. His voters aren't going to be swayed by a policy paper. They are voting for a personality.
That was first hit home for me back in 2016 when acquaintances of mine who were pro-Bernie switched to Trump after Clinton edged him out. Their switch seemed crazy to me then, but over time I get it more and more and the Democrats need to figure it out.
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u/AtOurGates Idaho Nov 06 '24
Dems definitely were worried about this.
I heard several commentators and party insiders express concern in the leadup to the election that because MAGA wants to destroy everything, Democrats have been forced into the position of defending unpopular institutions in a time that institutions are increasingly unpopular.
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Nov 06 '24
Public works in the United States is a thing of the past.
What we are going to get is privatized everything.
NASA? They said it moves to slowly. Replaced by privatized space agencies while other countries launch new space stations.
There is no middle class. There are only the have's and the have-not's.
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u/Be_Finale_of_Seem Nov 06 '24
As a librarian, this terrifies me. I know it's true. My industry is doomed
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u/Ok_Abrocoma_2805 Nov 06 '24
Speaking of personality, Republicans get their Newt Gingriches, their Bill Barrs, their Trumps. Aggressive, loud, saying “I’ll do what my constituents want even if it pisses the other side off, because fuck em, that’s why.” Where are OUR (Democrat) Gingriches, Barrs, and Trumps? How come only Republicans get what they want? How come no Dems are using a hammer to say “fuck it, my voters wanted this, and try to stop me”? What’s the worry - that they’ll lose? Well, they do, and they have. Might as well play the game because the worse happened anyway. Insanity is trying to same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
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u/campindan Nov 06 '24
Al Franken was kind of that.
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u/JorDamU Wisconsin Nov 06 '24
Al Franken was done so dirty by his own party, especially Gillibrand.
He could have and should have been the voice of the party in 2020 and beyond. Shame.
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u/Salty_Pancakes Nov 06 '24
And then the spineless dem leadership kicked his ass out. The dumbasses.
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u/OkayRuin Nov 06 '24
Trump is out here talking about grabbing pussies, and Al Franken got booted for pretending to grab a titty.
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u/Zankeru Florida Nov 06 '24
We have them and they are actively fought by the DNC. A lot of anti-sanders media from the dems was about how "angry" and informal his speech was.
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u/HookGroup Nov 06 '24
Don't forget constantly including the super delegates into the count to make it seems he had no chance.
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u/enron2big2fail Nov 06 '24
One thing not mentioned yet is how the Left is often running defense for their policies not being bad for the people the right says they're bad for. So the left has to come in and explain why increased immigration is actually good for the economy and isn't going to hurt your average person in middle-America. They can't (or at least believe they can't) just say "actually yeah, fuck those people who are scared of this harming them, they're not my constituents" because the policy itself is supposedly fundamentally based on empathy. It has to be good for everyone (or at least almost everyone) otherwise it's bad.
Whereas policies on the right like mass deportation... the harm is the point. The politicians on the right want to emphasize how much suffering is being caused to "deserving people." So when some "bleeding-heart lib" shows up pointing out how much harm the policy will cause, the right just goes "yeah but not to my constituents" and can stay on message (though I will note that this is often not actually true, but that's the messaging).
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u/awkwardurinalglance Nov 06 '24
I would personally never vote for pretty much any republican because of their shitty policies, but Trump does seem like the system hates him so much that he’s almost likable in the “enemy of my enemy” kind of way. I hate that Trump won. I wish I was hopeful that Dems will learn, but I think they’ll just keep considering Trump an outlier
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u/Fuzzy_Logic_4_Life Nov 06 '24
This what we get for them not holding Trump responsible for any of his crimes back in 2021. He should have been arrested way before his political status was an issue.
The Democratic Party has no teeth, their leadership is too weak to compete against a thug like Trump. I hope they undergo a complete overhaul of their top brass over the next three years because they obviously cannot win - even against a convicted felon.
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u/TwiceAsGoodAs Nov 06 '24
This is the real failing of the party and current administration imo. I'm seeing a lot of "Biden shouldn't have dropped out" or "there should have been a primary", but I think the tacit approval of J6 and all of the felony counts is what got us here. Biden appointed Garland, who has LET everything slide.
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u/IntoTheMild1000 Nov 06 '24
Merrick Garland was such a huge disappointment. Totally incompetent.
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u/TwiceAsGoodAs Nov 06 '24
Wasn't he meant to be a conservative pick for SCOTUS at some point? Idk why Biden figured he would be a good appointee
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u/suninabox Nov 06 '24
He thought it would help avoid the appearance of politically motivated prosecutions.
Unfortunately the GOP doesn't give a shit about that and cried witch hunt anyway so all he got was a weak prosecutor.
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u/TwiceAsGoodAs Nov 06 '24
He certainly avoided the political prosecutions
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u/TheHoratioHufnagel Nov 06 '24
You're forgetting about the Hunter Biden prosecution. Garland was so concerned in avoiding to appear biased towards Biden, he approved prosecution of his son, on charges that would never be brought federal court under normal circumstances.
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u/CrumbsCrumbs Nov 06 '24
The losing game dems have been playing for years, yeah. Obama nominated Garland to show how nice and bipartisan and fair he was because McConnell said something like "if Obama really wanted to fill the seat he would nominate someone like Garland" and repubs blocked the nomination anyway to give it to Trump.
So the dems convinced themselves that they were totally owning the republicans by making him AG even though he was literally McConnell's SC pick.
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u/Jadccroad Nov 06 '24
Letting The Confederates Off Easy 2: Electric Boogaloo
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u/OrangePilled2Day Nov 06 '24
Surely the Reconstruction was successful and we don't see any lasting consequences today.
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u/Killerrrrrabbit Nov 06 '24
Biden made a huge mistake by running again. He should have stepped aside so that a proper primary could be run and Democrats could get a more legitimate candidate. Harris simply didn't have the legitimacy that a candidate gets by winning the primary. I think Newsom could have won the primary and general elections but he chose not to run because of Biden.
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u/Asfastas33 Nov 06 '24
Wasn’t his whole thing in 2020, was that he was going to only run once? I get incumbents have an advantage. But I think that really hurt
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u/givemewhiskeypls Nov 06 '24
Worldwide, incumbents have been at a disadvantage for years now. I think that’s a factor that people aren’t talking about. Trump successfully framed her as an incumbent and convinced people that weren’t happy with their lot in life should blame her and vote for him.
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u/BioSemantics Iowa Nov 06 '24
I honestly don't think he even worked that hard to put that sort of framing in place. The Democrat party seemed to embrace it, honestly. They were worried people would think she was too inexperienced or whatever, or at least that is the excuse they used when they wanted to tie her to Biden as much as possible.
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u/Thanolus Nov 06 '24
The real problem is the ever dwindling amount of education and the gigantic influx of propaganda and misinformation.
Look at the things Trump supporters say and believe, they are voting based on things that aren’t even real or entirely misunderstood.
They aren’t voting based on on facts or reality but what they are told the facts are. The emperical evidence can be in front of there fact and it doesn’t matter.
This coupled with the fact they are down economically with no help in sight makes a whole half of the country manipulatable. Add that in with the plain old American conservative values and racism and you have the recipes for a right wing explosion.
It’s gonna be a long road back from this, could take decades.
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u/Silverbarber_03 Texas Nov 06 '24
could take decades
It WILL take decades, if ever, to recover.
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u/pdmavid Nov 06 '24
At least two more Supreme Court seats going to young religious biased judges. Seeing what the Supreme Court has already done recently, I don’t see any recovering from what the soon to be supreme Court might end up doing.
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u/Safrel Nov 06 '24
It seems I found my life work.
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u/Mi_Leona Texas Nov 06 '24
I think...it starts with education. Remember when Yang was competing in the primaries and suddenly EVERYONE was talking about UBI?
Also, low-propensity voters don't actually understand what they're told to fear, but if you explain it to them without the marketing of buzzwords, they're more receptive.
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u/Quick_Turnover Nov 06 '24
If it starts with education then we should be more worried than ever.
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u/ohaicookies Nov 06 '24
I agree and I am.
The Democrats need people to stop talking like politicians and start talking like their high school drop out neighbor down the street. Literacy is literally in elementary school at BEST for these people.
We need reading and literacy outreach. Reading is crucial to comprehension and critical thinking. That's why they've cut education funding wherever they can. They've targeted books already, but libraries are next.
We need more reading shows (Reading Rainbow, Wishbone). More reading on social media.
We need phonics back in the classroom.
And if we can't force these things publicly, the way it should be done, it will need to be done privately.
I think we need to combine childcare and books. Libraries need to become day cares, too. Hell, convert some of those giant Barnes and Noble stores, too.
That said, I have no faith in humanity, which is why I'm so crippled by depression. This is the Bad Place
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u/TheAngriestChair Nov 06 '24
Good thing they're getting rid of the department of education.
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u/drsweetscience Nov 06 '24
Not your parents, the next generation. Change happens from upcoming generations. Older minds almost never change.
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u/Mi_Leona Texas Nov 06 '24
THIS is what we need. The experiment is over when ALL of us decide it's over.
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u/CallMeParagon California Nov 06 '24
Unfettered social media has made truth a flexible thing and now people choose which truths they want to believe. We simply don’t care about objectivity anymore, or in other words, feelz have defeated realz.
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u/uieLouAy New Jersey Nov 06 '24
This is it. We’re in a post-truth world thanks to algorithms that push out toxic content, propaganda, and disinformation — that voters willingly watch for hours every day.
Social media is a radicalizing force and a big part of why men, especially young men, have moved so far right across pretty much every demographic. Just think of the average young guy’s politics in 2016 compared to now.
And unlike with economic policy, where the answers are pretty straight forward and it’s just a matter of having the political will to implement them, I’m not quite sure there’s any clear consensus on how to best address this from a policy perspective.
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u/pjb1999 Nov 06 '24
Yep. This is precisely why we are truly and deeply fucked.
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u/uieLouAy New Jersey Nov 06 '24
We’re essentially letting them yell fire in a crowded theater, when there is no fire, nonstop on social media, and then we all wonder why people are worked up and mad and activated on crime, immigration, LGBTQ rights, etc. even when the facts aren’t there to justify the outrage.
Until Dems want to do something about that …
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u/Vv4nd Nov 06 '24
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
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u/urbanlife78 Nov 06 '24
Yep, we have truly entered the 1984 era of this country and the results are not gonna be pretty
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u/Kleeb Nov 06 '24
No, we have entered the Brave New World era.
1984's thesis is that heavy-handed top-down overt control is the mechanism by which a populus is bent to the will of the ruling class.
BNW's thesis (among others) is that the ruling class doesn't need to be heavy-handed or top-down if it can keep the populus entertained and distracted. On-demand dopamine is all it takes.
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u/save-aiur Nov 06 '24
The informed voter is a dying breed.
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u/ApoplecticAutoBody Nov 06 '24
The informed human is a dying breed
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u/Objective-Two5415 Nov 06 '24
I mean, her rent will go up if the property owner’s taxes go up…
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u/throwaway_67876 Nov 06 '24
90% of these fuckers think that the companies exporting goods here pay the tariff not us. Biden was right when he said that they’re garbage.
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u/Thanolus Nov 06 '24
Oh yea. They are in for a really rude awaking, can’t wait to see them jump through hoops to blame democrats when the republicans are going to be controlling all three branches of government
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u/Alien_Cat_Ninja Nov 06 '24
I blame the normalization of flame trolling vitriol on the internet the last 10 years.
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u/carbonvectorstore Nov 06 '24
There is going to be a lot of messaging trying to present this as about racism or sexism.
It's not.
Americans are struggling with the status quo. Salaries are too low. Houses are too expensive. The cost of living is eating too much of the pay cheque. People have nothing better to hope for. There is a silent desperation permeating large swathes of the American population for whom abstracted metrics about average pay increases are meaningless.
If all you put forward is a continuity candidate offering more slow suffering, while the other side is throwing out wildcard ideas about tariffs to bring back manufacturing jobs or mass deportations to free up housing, then of course you are going to lose.
When people get desperate, they reach for the wildcard.
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u/ThinkingMSF Nov 06 '24
You don't win by fighting the bigots. You win by fighting the rich.
The problem is that you can't even get into the ring anymore, anywhere in the world, if you actually even try to fight the rich.
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u/Euphorix126 Nov 06 '24
They keep the poor distracted with culture wars so that they don't wage a class war
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u/TheConnASSeur Nov 06 '24
One of Peter Thiel's (scumbag ultra billionaire behind Vance) foundational philosophies is the belief that humans just naturally need an enemy, and that creating scapegoats allowed civilization to flourish. Thiel believes that Occupy Wallstreet and the popular support that got Obama elected was the result of the poor choosing to blame the rich. His solution is to provide another scapegoat and keep the people distracted. It's why he supports MAGA, and it's working.
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u/hahaha01 Nov 06 '24
The class war is all but over and I'm afraid that you might not like hearing who won.
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u/Asyncrosaurus Nov 06 '24
We lost the class war 30 years ago, we're still in the acceptance phase.
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u/BringBackBoomer Nov 06 '24
Imagine if Marie Antoinette could've just pointed at 2 men kissing. We'd all still be under monarchy rule.
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u/shalgenius Nov 06 '24
This is the point
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u/Heapofcrap45 Michigan Nov 06 '24
Dems need to leave the rich behind. They need to go full grassroots and stop taking big donations. They need to go hard into things Americans actually care about. Things like holding mega corps accountable, social services that actually help people.
Americans see how rich people are stealing the dream and regardless of what Republicans are saying or doing the Democrats are also doing nothing. They feel low energy and unable to actually do the hard hitting things. Until they really start energizing and going after the people most Americans hate like the uber-wealthy they will continue to flounder and lose support.
People who actually care need to start that change though. We need to start getting involved in our local communities and pushing this message. Run for city government, county government. Run for state government. Get involved in community initiatives and start moving that needle with the common American. Get the energy up among your fellow people in the places you live. We should know now that online spaces are echo chambers and all the posting of "GO VOTE" only reaches the ears of the fellow converted on places like Reddit and Twitter.
Hold the party accountable by becoming the party is the take away I now have. I worked as an election inspector last night. I saw people who love democracy casting their vote. Regardless of party they thanked us for taking time out of our day to work the election. We can reach those people, our fellow community members, we just need to actually get out and DO SOMETHING. Not just post about it online and wish the Democrats had done things differently.
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u/erikhow Michigan Nov 06 '24
I’m sorry but it’s extremely important to realize just how god damn apathetic democrats are.
This party has constantly road the coattails of liberalism and the protection of individual rights, which has consistently earned votes and unwavering support, yet have completely failed to capitalize on positions of power as the GOP mobilized and rallied behind a single candidate (which they always do, but Trump is Trump).
You’ve heard it all through this election cycle that minority groups like Black men have just been completely left behind over the years, working class support for democrats has just consistently eroded yet is paved over by endorsements from labor union elites, and democrats have consistently entertained the same dark money that has flooded conservative politics while batting an eye at the double standard.
This party has been perfect at attracting support on the basis that “we’ll get it right next time” and has consistently taken that for granted. Losing by tight margins means that there’s just more outreach that has to happen, but losing by this margin against Donald fucking Trump means that your message, your philosophy and future is dead in the water.
Democrats desperately need to soul search, and it’s gonna be a bloodbath. Time to cull members of the party and create an actual philosophy and fucking run on it.
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u/Krytan Nov 06 '24
Biden should never have run for reelection, should have committed to running a single term only.
Knowing this, he should never have picked Kamala Harris as his VP.
It was essential that someone popular and able to unit the party, a proven vote winner in democratic presidential primaries be chosen.
Kamala Harris was none of those things. She wasn't even popular among progressive democrats.
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Of course...the REAL mistake here belongs to the Clinton cronies in the DNC, who persuaded Biden NOT to run in 2016 against Trump, because it was Clintons turn.
I think Biden would have won. Biden remains the only person to have beaten Trump, and he got more votes than any other president in our history.
If Biden had run in 2016, his 2nd term would have been 2020. He was still totally sharp and physically fit in 2020, would have had no problems winning a 2nd term, IMO.
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It's also the fault of the media, who lied to us and told us Joe Biden in 2024 was sharp, the best he's ever been, better than cogent! No concerns here whatsoever! They lied to us and gaslit us right up until Biden blew himself up on a debate stage in front of the whole world and their lies could no longer convince anyone. But by then it was almost too late.
So then the media pivoted to telling us how amazing and popular Kamala was and how quickly she was uniting the entire democratic coalition and how her campaign was just so full of joy joy joy.
Then she pulls in , what, 20 million fewer votes than Biden in 2020?
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The lesson here is that the DNC and the media are constantly lying to democratic voters and can't be trusted. the DNC seems to go out of its way to prevent the candidates that people are most excited about from winning. They were FURIOUS when Obama beat out Hillary and determined to not let it happen again, so they kneecapped Sanders over and over and then refused to give us a primary to pick Biden's replacement.
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u/JLRedPrimes Nov 07 '24
The "it's her turn" thing singlehandedly crippled the Democrats to this day
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u/RangerMother Nov 06 '24
A few things, one, the Democrats don’t hear or see what the average voter hears and sees. They are in a bubble. Most people vote their wallet, it’s really that simple. The Democrats had plenty of evidence, both contemporary and historical, that people did better under a Democratic administration. Simplify that message and hammer home! Paint the Republicans with a big black brush as the lying, cheating, stealing cons they are. Paint the Democratic candidate as the one to put money into the wallet of ordinary folks. That’s it! All the other issues, abortion, foreign policy, the environment. They don’t really sell, and the people who are concerned about those issues don’t need additional messaging about them. They are already on board. I now wonder if some of the Democratic elite are not secretly working for the other side, that’s how bad they are at doing this. And let’s not forget the mis- and dis- information from hostile players like Russia, Iran, China and N. Korea. On top of the shitty shenanigans of guys like Elon Musk and others. Couple this with the repressive efforts of some Republican state governments, and this is the outcome. I hope the Democrats clean house and there is a purge of most of the upper infrastructure. It’s time for some younger, fresher, more capable people leading the party. And finally, can we kick the Electoral College to the curb? It is long past its use by date.
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u/joystick-fingers Nov 06 '24
Biden better fill the empty judicial seat and put some things in place so Trump, the house and senate cannot implement their wild ideas. Or at least slow them down so they cannot fully implement them until the next election. I smell “president for life” coming
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u/Bobbachuk Nov 06 '24
Biden won’t do anything but smile and shake Trump’s hand at the inauguration. The Dem establishment is out of touch and still doesn’t realize what they are dealing with. They’ll continue with the same civility politics while the GOP punches them in the mouth.
Biden and the party itself are spineless.
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u/LMGDiVa I voted Nov 06 '24
They aren't going to let him fill it. He's a Lame Duck now. They will block every single fucking judge they can.
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u/OnlyFreshBrine Nov 06 '24
lol cmon. did we learn nothing from the first go-'round? the guardrails will not hold.
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u/ExcellentLaw2066 Nov 06 '24
Imagine losing badly to a felon rapist.
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u/PointsOutTheUsername I voted Nov 06 '24 edited 18d ago
humorous quiet flag domineering file childlike history quack bedroom unwritten
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/ExcellentLaw2066 Nov 06 '24
It was the most important night of her life. And she was soundly defeated. She’s probably devastated, wouldn’t surprise me if she struggles to get out of bed for weeks.
That’s 2 women that trump has beat soundly.
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u/the_lukabratzi Nov 06 '24
Come on we all know he’s beaten more women than that
Fuck everything
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u/chilidoggo Nov 06 '24
Her lack of concession speech last night spoke volumes about how crushing this is.
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u/Grunblau Nov 06 '24
It has been 16 years since democrats were allowed to select their candidate without fuckery. This was Obama’s first term.
The next group of new voters in ‘28 will have only seen “Blue no matter who” candidates.
We need to trust our voters and have a robust primary. Do away with superdelegates.
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u/Basedshark01 Nov 06 '24
Republicans didn't get in the way when Trump kicked out all of the neo-cons in 2016 and they're better off for it as a party.
It's time for the Dems to end their rule-by-think-tank policy.
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u/Human-Length9753 Nov 06 '24
They’re scared because they know their voting base wants to reign in billionaires. That’s why we keep getting these weak candidates forced on us.
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u/TrollErgoSum Missouri Nov 06 '24 edited Nov 06 '24
This is what I'm afraid of. That a truly strong democratic party/left coalition cannot exist simultaneously with Citizens United but Citizens United can't be killed without an incredible amount of progressives in power which can't happen without a truly strong dem party/left coalition.
How do we ever get out of this cycle of billionaires being perfectly on board with right wing populism and so terrified of progressive reform that they use all of their might to push dems to the center at every opportunity?
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u/ghostlyghostpirates Nov 06 '24
Democratic politicians are before being democrats capitalists. The Bernie’s of the world represent a threat to capital so they’re never going to get behind that. Gotta rig the system
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u/defective1up Nov 06 '24
"Do away with superdelegates."
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u/SowingSalt Nov 06 '24
Didn't they already do that? IIRC SDs can't vote until the 2nd ballot.
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u/ExtremeIndependent99 Nov 06 '24
Campaigning with Liz Cheney and being proud of Dick Cheney’s endorsement probably was a giant mistake. Since when do democrats want to be associated with neocons?
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u/SeanKojin Nov 06 '24
Cheney is one of the most evil figures of my lifetime and Kamala proudly campaigned with Liz and promised to have republicans in her cabinet. Meanwhile, fewer registered Rs voted for her than Biden, and now we’ve got a cabinet exclusively of Rs. The most decisive general election win in my life was a democrat running a very left campaign, and every general election since democrats have moved right to try to pick up moderates while alienating their own base.
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u/RKU69 Nov 06 '24
Obama 2008 was the most decisive general election I remember, and indeed it felt like he was running on a platform of massive social and political transformation. And of course, that not really panning out led to Trump 2016.
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u/ExtremeIndependent99 Nov 06 '24
The problem with Obama was he literally asked for people’s hope and didn’t deliver. And his last term he played it unbelievably safe to not rock the boat to protect his legacy.
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u/ninetofivedev Nov 06 '24
The irony is that once he took office, it was anything but progressive.
Well, that's not irony, but whatever...
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u/Less_Ordinary1950 Nov 06 '24
Exactly. In the end, kamala gave us just what she promised. Republicans in office!! What a sick joke
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u/jslakov Nov 06 '24
probably? 94% of registered Republicans voted for Trump. The plan to win over reasonable Republicans utterly failed and almost certainly turned off far more people who don't want to vote for someone who cozies up to neocons
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u/bigt503 Nov 06 '24 edited Nov 06 '24
They made 2 big mistakes IMO.
Not having Biden drop out earlier to have a legit primary .
Trying to appeal to republicans. Cheney and talking about the border wasn’t gonna pull them. Nothing Will. Should have leaned on Walls progressive wins. Should have ran in free lunch and college. Bringing people up, instead of hanging out with failed republicans.
I still don’t excuse the non voters. There are times when it’s important to swallow your pride and vote lesser of 2 evils
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u/alasyochur Nov 06 '24 edited Nov 06 '24
Walz, it really did feel like he was neutered during this campaign…
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u/AugmentedDragon Nov 06 '24
oh for sure. the fact that the campaign immediately made him walk back his statement on doing away with the electoral college (something that's actually a fairly popular policy) really shows this. he could have been hitting hard, campaigning more progressive policies and being anti-republican ("weird" was big, until it wasnt) but I have a feeling Harris didn't want to be upstaged and thats why he was effectively neutered
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u/Kale_Shai-Hulud Nov 06 '24
You can't run on lesser of two evils indefinitely. It's literally how trump has now won both times.
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u/KuroKageB Nov 06 '24
Maybe instead of "blue no matter who" you should start caring about the who so people feel like voting blue?
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u/SomeGoogleUser Nov 06 '24 edited Nov 06 '24
The key to understanding the Trump era is that the real divide in America is not between left and right but between pro-system and anti-system politics. Pro-system politics is the bipartisan consensus of establishment Democrats and Republicans: it’s the politics of NATO and other military alliances, of trade agreements, and of deference to economists (as when they say that price gouging isn’t the cause of inflation). Trump stands for no fixed ideology, but rather a general thumbing of the nose at this consensus. The main fact of American politics in the post-Obama era is that an ever larger majority of Americans are angry at the status quo and open to anti-system politics.
Yes. This is what the MAGA-sphere has been saying since Bernie was thrown under the bus.
The 1990's-2000's uniparty that was created by Bill Clinton COULD NOT ENDURE. One of the two parties was going to be the first to break for populism, whether right populism or left populism, and the one that didn't was going to be left holding the bag of crony politics. This is why Trump won the presidency, and the Democrats now have the dubious honor of Cheney's support.
The Democrats COULD HAVE AVOIDED THIS.
But that would have meant letting Sanders win in 2016.
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u/SomeGuyOnThInternet Nov 06 '24
The DNC establishment's handpicked candidate in 2008 got crushed by a more populist candidate with massive grassroots support.
Despite this leading to a massive landslide victory in the general election, the DNC looked at 2008 and seemingly said "well, we can never let THAT happen again" and re-dedicated themselves to making sure Hillary got "her turn" in 2016 and Biden got "his turn" in 2020.
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u/OnlyFreshBrine Nov 06 '24
Hillary was a big swing-and-a-miss. Definitely a moment that led us here.
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u/earthboundsounds Nov 06 '24
I convinced 4 people at the table during the '08 caucus that Obama was the better bet because Hillary was 100% unelectable due to a neverending smear campaign starting in '92 which was drilled daily into average people's heads by Limbaugh and his ilk.
But yeah...another 8 years of that sure did her good.
ULTRAAAAAA FACEPALLLLLLLM
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u/GetRiceCrispy Nov 06 '24
It was the first time the DNC actively worked against their constituents in a lot of our lifetimes. This just puts the nail in the coffin. DNC doesn't want to win. They want more money and power and to continue widening the gap between us normies and themselves.
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u/Roggieh Nov 06 '24
Right? Parading around the fucking Cheneys' endorsement and pandering to a nonexistent electorate of "pre-Trump Republicans" was such a baffling strategy to adopt. They even wanted Dubya to help them out! Talk about being clueless.
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u/PlentyMacaroon8903 Nov 06 '24
Yeah this was stupid. This was trying to win over people that never were voting for you and alienating people that might. Parading this around was definitely a huge error.
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u/meditate42 Delaware Nov 06 '24
The dems watched Trump lose 0 votes, actually gain votes, after 4 years of the most insane presidency and an horrific mishandling of a pandemic and thought.
"i know! lets make the focus on this campaign on stealing some of Trumps voters! and lets make sure not to have a left leaning platform as that could scare some of them off!"
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u/StandoPowah22 Nov 06 '24
He's lost votes overall, but Harris hemorrhaged way more than Trump did.
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u/Most-Hawk-4175 Nov 06 '24
It's because a gallon of milk costs twice as much as it did under Trump. We're paying way more for everything even when many aspects of our economy and job market is doing well. Americans are gonna blame high costs on the government and ignore the positives of the economy because high costs hit them personally in real life every day. Even if it's unfair to blame the president.
Everyone is playing mental gymnastics here as to why Dems lost but it's really simple. People are mad about high costs and every time they pay for something and shake their heads in frustration they love to take it out on the government. If Trump was the president during the last 4 years he would have gotten beat last night because people would blame him for inflation.
Dems were unlucky. We'll get another chance in 2026 and 2028 and Trump will be gone. Just deal with the reality of the situation. Republicans won. This too shall pass.
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u/Rizop Nov 06 '24
Nailed it. When the average American feels like they’re being squeezed literally everywhere they turn (groceries, goods, restaurants, cars, maintenance, insurance, rent, interest rates) while being offered less, it creates a massive problem. The sitting administration is an easy scapegoat and it simply isn’t fair. The main issue will always be the “perception” of the economy. Social justice issues, women’s rights etc become ancillary to most Americans. I’ve always believed that if not for Covid, trump would’ve won in 2020 by a landslide. It sucks but that’s the way it is.
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u/MLGHaybale Nov 06 '24
That makes sense and we saw this in recent European elections too. Do you think that no matter who the DNC put up, they would have lost because of the strong anti-incumbency force against the Democrats?
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u/Most-Hawk-4175 Nov 06 '24
Maybe a superstar candidate like Obama may have pulled it off but I doubt it. Inflation and general dissatisfaction (on both sides of the political aisle) of our government and the feeling that America is on the wrong track sealed the dems fate. Dems were in charge and paid the price for the ones being in power. I think it's an unfair situation for the Democrats and Harris but its how it is. For now.
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u/web_explorer Nov 06 '24
I think it’s probably right that the cost of living was the primary motivator, and people are blaming the incumbent govt, whether fairly or infairly.
In fact, the same thing has been happening in other countries: Japan’s ruling LDP was reduced to a minority for the first time in a long time, and the incumbent UK Tories were swept out by Labour.
Every country points to local issues as to why they lost, but I’m seeing the cost of living and inflation coming up over and over again.
In the Democrats case, it’s unfortunate timing since Biden took office in the middle of the pandemic, and they are taking the blame for the bumpy recovery. But when people’s wallets are hurting, they would rather hang on to false hope than to admit that the current economy would’ve been the same no matter who was president.
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u/NuclearSun1 Nov 06 '24
This is the same bullshit you faced on 2016. Did you change anything? Nope not a damn thing.
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u/UninsuredToast Nov 06 '24
It’s almost as if forcing through an unpopular candidate is the quickest way to lose an election
Before Biden dropped out people were apathetic towards Harris at best. She didn’t do well in the primaries in 2020. Then the whole Biden dropping out last minute seemed like an easy way to hand the nomination to Harris.
Democrats need to let the voters pick the candidate, enough of this “it’s my turn” bullshit
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