Obama won, with record turnout and vote count. Clinton won the popular vote in 2016, despite her severe unlikeability and controversial history.
While it is important to recognize the role that white supremacy and misogyny have, it has demonstrably not been a hard ceiling.
Perception is (unfortunately) reality. While the campaign website and position papers were solid - especially contrasted with Trump’s “concept of a plan” nonsense, if you don’t effectively communicate how those plans are going to impact voters positively, it isn’t going to help you.
Biden did in fact win the primary in 2024 before he dropped out - as the incumbent he massively benefited from recognition and campaign staffing, but he still had to run. Had he kept to his “one term president” statement, there would have been an open primary instead of Harris’s ascension.
Corporate news and engagement driven profit motive has poisoned democracy for a long time, yellow journalism dates to the 1800s. A mad dash to make a network of “liberal Joe Rogan podcasts” will be effective for direct messaging. But if your messaging is still a defense neoliberalism and globalization, you are going to keep losing. To someone for whom having an extra $50 in their pocket is a big deal, the centrist-Dem message is not worth considering. Paid maternity leave, free healthcare, childcare credits, food stamps, stable employment, worker protections, etc are way more important to working poor voters.
Either you are with us, or you are against us
Where have I heard that before? 🤔
Division only occurs as people follow their rational self interest - enforcing orthodoxy and silencing dissent to protect the party that failed us all, will only perpetuate their poor performance electorally. People who cannot afford the luxury of blind fealty will go somewhere else - even if that person is a charlatan grifter who never delivers. You cannot defeat populism with more elitism.
If you interpret an ally trying to help as an attack? Clearly I can’t help you brother
Correct, that’s my argument.
Economy/ Cost of living: Beyond pithy “I feel your pain” statements and a late-election focus on price gouging and new homebuyer credits, there was not much for the working poor.
For someone pinched by inflation and/or predatory corporate pricing, being told “more of the last four year’s policy is coming, sorry we have no money - except for Israel” is a huge turnoff.
State of Democracy: I think the DNC/establishment Dems massively misread this issue as purely J6/dictator Trump - because ignoring the massive democratic disengagement and apathy means they don’t have to address why voters are unenthusiastic about electoral participation at most levels, and instead “it’s all the MAGAs fault” without questioning why the MAGA movement exists beyond “they’re deplorable”. Trump’s vote total basically flatlined from 2020, two different assassination attempts barely moved polling, he isn’t an unknown figure and voters at large do not like him. What he is however, is a break from “more of the same” no matter how damaging or foolish that may be for the world/country. In no order, here’s what Dems should target/message on:
Not right enough?
Harris represented a “return to normal” which for the working poor pinched by inflation and rising cost of living, meant more slow misery. Abandoning the supposed foundation of the party whilst running against a supposed anti-establishment/disruptive candidate via an appeal to neocon decency was foolish. “Banking” on voting blocs they actively rejected was foolish.
The party needs to do better, and that starts with us holding them to account for dropping the bag and critically misreading/ignoring the situation, and demanding change.
You could, possibly, potentially, consider that criticism is coming from a direction that outflanks you on leftism? And that it’s frustrated at the constant party/DC Beltway elitism clutching to neoliberalism during democratic apathy and distrust, and not you?
I reject this beggar mentality that we can’t do better because of how the chessboard stands today - as if it has sat forever unchanged and immutable - Obama stands in stark contrast to that. Clinton (awful politicaly and personally toxic as she was) still won the popular vote against Trump. In 2016 when he lied and ran as an outsider, promising to “drain the swamp”.
And how effective was the Liz/Dick Cheney appeal to the suburbs, in the end? Given the growing demographics since 2020 Trump should not have effectively flatlined given a growing electorate - until there was depressed turnout he’s never actually had the popular vote.
2016:
Trump - 62,984,828 / 46.1%
Clinton - 65,853,514 / 48.2%
2020 Cycle with heightened turnout for all parties
Biden - 81,283,501 / 51.3% [+ 15,429,987 vs 2016]
Trump - 74,223,975 / 46.8% [+ 11,239,147 vs 2016]
2024:
Trump - 74,644,300 / 50.5% [+ 420,325 vs 2020]
Harris - 70,910,573 / 47.9% [- 10,372,928 vs 2020]
Any criticism of The Party immediately means they want Trump, “no it’s the voters who are wrong”
I vote in all the primaries - and it’s a sobering assessment that pulling “Uncommitted” in 2024 was my most enthusiastic electoral participation since 2008. I still voted for Dem harm reduction for the general - in a swing state thankyouverymuch - but look at where we are. 100% unified neo-fash/nativist government with Trump at the helm.
Why is the Democratic National Committee so afraid of either listening to, or allowing the electorate to participate?
Bruh if you wanna argue with yourself, go ahead and build the straw man already
The argument I’m making in reply to your “stop complaining” post (and that you seem to deliberately be ignoring) is that the DNC and/or establishment Democrats routinely silence internal dissent at any and all times. And that right now they still aren’t listening internally, and have demonstrated a commitment to gaslight voters that inflation isn’t real, and that voters shouldn’t be trusted/allowed to pick who they get to vote for.
Voters have told us in exit poll after exit poll, that their primary issues are economic uncertainty and cost of living, loss of faith in governance, and then immigration.
32% of voters nationwide said the economy mattered most in deciding how to vote in the presidential election. 11% said immigration, 14% abortion, 34% the state of democracy, 4% foreign policy.
A popular mandate. That’s literally the bar we’re talking about here, and I’m amazed to see people upset that others are pointing out how low it is.
But when they fake a primary, you don’t get a genuinely popular candidate. When they don’t even hold a primary, you never hear the other opinions in the electorate. Biden owns a lot of responsibility for this loss, but the leadership has their share too for trying to walk this over the line on diet republicanism in a quest to scrape by 270.
“Now is not the time for criticism, it’s not election season - save that for the primaries”
“Now is not the time for criticism, the primaries are soon”
“Now is not the time for criticism, there’s only 100 days to go before the general”
“Now is not the time for criticism, we just had a huge, crushing loss”
So are liberals/democrat faithful/etc really committed to never learning, or never listening? When am I allowed to criticize half of the political duopoly that is increasing out of touch not just with my concerns, but openly snubs voting blocs and demands fealty in return for the status quo?
No gods, no kings, only Atom?
Holding my breath, but not too optimistic. If you present Michigan voters a duality choice, it’s an edge to Harris. If you ask them their choice on an open ballot, the Muslim protest vote is pretty firm on either Jill Stein, Harris, or staying home.
Go vote people! Michigan is basically a required win for Harris to become president, but was uncomfortably close in 2020.
You mean the same guy who said he hopes his (then) partner gets “raped by a pack of n****rs” isn’t voting for Kamala? I’m shocked I tell you.
He’s been unhinged for years, we should have cancelled him decades ago and let Mel succumb to his own alcoholism.
It’s an angry buzzing sound that is very distinct, you can usually hear them from dozens of meters away.
WITNESS ME BROTHERS!!
Earlier this year, investors filed a class-action lawsuit, accusing company executives of overstating the devices’ capabilities and claiming that “Evolv does not reliably detect knives or guns.”
It’s fraud. The company knows it’s unreliable and the investors know it’s unreliable, I wonder why NYC is still going to expand the trial run? 🤔
[Mayor] Adams has touted the Massachusetts-based company since taking office in 2022.
Just shy of $18 billion for Israel. Nearly unlimited diplomatic cover and significant patron:client posturing that has Ukraine and Taiwan jealous. US troops, deployed using US weapons, to defend Israel.
Contrast that to hand wringing about “now that Haniyeh /Nasrallah /Sinwar/ ??? is dead, we need a ceasefire”, the refusal to demand more aid trucks daily and prevent famine, or hollow commitments to a two-state solution, without any action - of course it’s optics.
Please stop. We don’t need a blue “stop the steal”, take this L and learn from it instead of boosting impossible conspiracies about Starlink and packet tampering