The Democratic party refused to understand that courting the right doesn't work, and now it's cost them the election
The Democratic party refused to understand that courting the right doesn't work, and now it's cost them the election
If the Republicans are going to call the Democrats communists and socialist regardless of how moderate a campaign Democrats run, Democrats might as well lean further left on economic policy. Appealing to the right does nothing because the right can appeal to the right better than the center-left can
None of that will work anymore. The far right owns the house, the senate, the government enforcement agencies, and the Supreme Court. We're nearing the end of the monopoly game and you don't get anything extra for landing on free parking. The restraints for any of the rich and powerful just got taken off.
Which is precisely why they don't. They don't exist to threaten the establishment, they are part of it, and are there to provide the illusion of choice so that the public feel like we're helping while those in power do whatever they need to at our expense to keep that power. Playing by the rules and within the systems they have set out for us can and will only ever maintain the status quo.
This makes sense if one has never been in any sort of leadership role or public-facing organization before.
It’s true in very narrow senses which are stretched to breaking because really it isn’t true.
This assumes the dems have any interest in actually improving the lives of Americans.
Jangling keys of "maybe if I get the senate I'll raise minimum wage? Do you want... Legal weed sometime?" sure works well. Just look at that electoral map!
Joe Biden suddenly turns into Joe Stalin...
Yup. Democratic leadership would rather trump win than run a left-facing campaign and candidate. What's the definition of insanity?
100%
Here in deep-red Missouri the $15 minimum wage passed in a landslide, but for some reason, all Democrats wanted to talk about was tax cuts that no one thinks they'll actually pass anyway.
Democratic consultants. The problem.
The Democratic Party is basically dead now. Time to sit back and watch the MAGAs eat themselves. Clock ticking.
Magas will eat a lot of good people first, unfortunately. And the show will be extended over many years. Another enemy or bad group will always be found.
The "and then they came for" moment won't hit critical mass for aomg time if ever. It's terrifying to think how long an authoritarian group could maintain power with the technology and military power available today.
Well that’s one way to look at this positively.
How do you see this going down? Internal power struggles and tantrum hissy fits?
Democratic Party : Republican Party :: Washington Generals : Harlem Globetrotters
Democratic leadership is those of us who do the thankless work of playing politics to help others.
Find something different. You won’t. Sure Progressive Party Whatever - they’ll run into the exact same thing. You’re re-inventing the wheel because you don’t know that.
That’s…
I’m not sure we’re all talking about the same thing. The Democratic Party has been playing to the “center” longer than any of us have been alive, while shunning, excommunicating, and often literally arresting anyone to the left. And all that accomplishes and has ever accomplished is the Overton window shifting further and further right. Kamala was running on bragging about hiring “the good” republicans while sidestepping the massive issues anyone even slightly progressive wanted to talk about (and what almost surely turned off a huge portion of voters), which is the ongoing genocide in Gaza. She finally said the day before the election that she would do “everything in her power to end the war,” which is still not nearly enough when discussing a fuckin genocide.
So many of the people I know are leftists. None of them voted for her because of it. Sure, the democrats and liberals I know did—my parents, for example. But they have voted democrat the entire time I’ve been alive. They are solid, reliable Dem voters. They’re not the people she needed to appeal to either—but keeping them was certainly more important than any mythical “centrist/swing” voter.
Everyone that was arrested for sitting in school buildings protesting the genocide, everyone who is sickened by what we’re seeing. Who couldn’t stomach voting for someone who didn’t feel the need to say it was a genocide that sickens them. THOSE are the people the dems gain when, like in 2020, things are so bad they hold their noses and increase turnout, and they’re the votes they lose when they hold office and maintain the genocidal status quo.
Yeah no. I hate the democrats, I'm a registered libertarian. The popular vote said they're fine with project 2025.
I don't really care what issues anyone had. It was exesetential. We failed. That's not a party issue, it's an American issue. I don't care about turnout, if you didn't turn out you don't care. Thats not on the party that's on you. I don't care about policy, it's all about to get worse, we've seen it. Parties cease to matter when there's dead bodies in the halls of government. We all saw the worst fucking coup attempt in history... And it worked. There is no party to blame for that. 2016 came down to poor leadership, this is just... deserved.
We'll see what's left to re-build with.
It is a party issue. The reason Democrats couldn't effectively run on the issue of democracy is that they THEMSELVES did not treat Trump as a threat to democracy. Actions speak louder than words. Democrats called Trump a fascist and a threat to democracy. But they didn't even start an investigation of him til two years into the Biden term. That man should have been arrested day one, hauled in front of a military tribunal, charged with treason, and dealt with accordingly. Any SCOTUS justices that tried to prevent this should have been charged as accessories after the fact and similarly tried as enemies of the republic.
THAT is the rational response to a former president that tried to overthrow the government. Trump should have been six feet under before Biden finished his first 100 days. That is the kind of urgency that is needed when a true existential threat is present. Look what happens when a random citizen tries to walk into the White House carrying a rifle. Do you think they weigh the political calculus of dealing with the person and how to respond to them without angering voters? No, they do what is necessary, then and there. That is what you do in an emergency.
What kind of existential threat do you just ignore for two years and then slow-walk? If China were invading Hawaii, would we move with that kind of sloth? No, an existential threat requires immediate action. By giving so much deference to Trump, Biden made extremely clear that he didn't believe Trump to be an existential threat to democracy. Entirely because of his actions, any later campaign pleas about the threat of Trump fell of deaf ears. If the president of the United States won't take something seriously as a threat to democracy, why would anyone expect voters to?
But Dick Cheney! Dick Cheney!
They gonna go hunting with him?
America's far left is just normal shit.
"Hey how about everybody gets food and can see the doctor"
"How about suck my dick and be my slave"
"Whoa whoa you two, let's be civil. Especially you, first guy 😠"
Too scared of the spooky communism👻👻
A spectre is haunting the United States 👻
America's left is what you describe as the far-left, but the far-left is much the same as it is everywhere else, Marxists and Anarchists. The far-left is relatively consistent internationally because its built on centuries of theory and practice.
America's democratic party is much further right than any left leaning European party. Yet, even in the countries where those are or have been in power, the scary communist vision American propaganda promoted never materialized. People's lives got just a little better as a whole in most cases. American capitalism is a cancer just as much as communism is an unattainable utopia. The answer, as in most cases, lies in the middle, but that's something the American electorate really struggles to grasp.
The awful thing is they don't even see what's wrong with what you just described.
Extreme left and extreme right are both pieces of shit in my opinion. I'm not a centrist, but I'm not an extremist either. I just want people to not be put in concentration camps because of who they love or what they said online.
I guess it's just too much to ask for from some people. Well, at least 20 million of them.
They refuse to actually campaign and address people's concerns. They gaslight, minimize, denigrate, guilt trip, and verbally abuse people and then are surprised Pikachu when no one is happy or motivated to vote for them.
"You owe it to your country to vote." "You are a bad person/stupid/russian shill etc if you vote for anyone but Kamala."
These things just stroke your ego and are otherwise thought terminating. They do not get votes. Like holy fuck, if you just listen to people's concerns and talk with them, it tends to work.
But with Citizens united, campaigns focus around a capitalist spending strategy like it's Election Christmas. Bernie Sanders, Stacey Abrams, and AOC all had what I'd call "authentic" campaigns, where they requested help with canvassing and phone calls before they requested donations. Like donations were fine, but most emails and texts were asking for workers, volunteers, and physical help. Those requests were completely absent from Kamala's campaign.
The status quo just doesn't want the common person to have political literacy. If they teach us how to canvas, then we'll do it for someone who isn't status quo. If they show us how to run for office, then we will just run ourselves like AOC did. They are in direct conflict with themselves because they are trying to suppress anything except status quo Dems.
Remember Primaries? Of course that would require the DNC not to turn out the lights when they hear something they don't like.
"But you had one with Biden and he appointed Harris so you chose that!!!"
Absolutely, we need to place blame where it belongs. Democrats fucked up bad, it is basically 2016 all over again
It's worse.
Everyone is terrible here. In the past I could forgive Republicans because "they didn't get who he was." They know and don't care. Billionaires fighting each other over who gets hegemony is boring. This is their world and we just happen to live here.
Absolutely, we need to place blame where it belongs.
Then instead of blaming one half of the establishment, blame the establishment itself. It is working exactly as it is designed to.
Yea but they won’t court the “left”(what little of a left exists in America) because the DNC doesn’t want leftist or even center-left policies, they like and want center-right policies that republicans 30 years ago pushed.
The problem with that strategy is that moderate Republicans don't watch the news. They believe that all other Republicans are just like them and hold all the same beliefs, because all their friends are in the same echo chamber. So then they believe all Republican politicians are the same way. They intentionally don't pay attention to the news because it is full of sensationalism and depressing things they can't personally control like terrorism and mass shootings. They still believe it's important to vote, because that's the patriotic thing to do, and they can just fill the bubbles next to every name marked REP and not have to worry about doing research and learning facts. It's just the easy way and they've lived their whole lives doing things the easy way because of white privilege and generational wealth, but any low points in their lives they will consider to be "hardship" so they "know" that anyone living in poverty is just not trying hard enough, because they personally made it through that "struggle" with barely more than the average effort they usually contribute to anything.
How do I know this? I was raised in a family that is exactly how I described here. The only reason I'm not just like them is that I went to public school and made friends with kids who did not come from the same background. It took about 17 years to finally see all the flawed logic and head-in-sandness before finally breaking free and forging my own path based on my own beliefs.
That's intentional. A conscious decision made by the DNC.
They don't want to give up their share of rich donors and insider trading privileges.
Exactly. In bourgeois "democracy" political parties serve the wealthy Capitalists and Imperialists that can afford to buy them. Socialism is the only path to actual democracy.
Somebody is paying attention.
I mean, there's a whole lot that went wrong, but the big one was subverting the democratic process with primaries that didn't really pick a popular candidate (2016 and 2024).
The primaries are the time for the candidate to energize a base of support. Harris has never energized anybody, and it was silly to think that affection for Biden would carry her.
Conservatives vote in force to signal their loyalty to their chosen community.
Progressives stay home when they perceive that their community doesn't chose them. Harris' vote totals at the end of this will sit somewhere below Biden 2020, for that reason.
I wouldn't leave 2020 out. Having politicians ahead of Joe Biden pull out to endorse him ahead of super Tuesday was really irregular and didn't result in a good candidate either
There werent primaries. None of the challengers had sufficient ballot access.
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Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to the Workers to protect themselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it, the point is that organizing is the best thing any leftist can do.
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Read theory. A good primer is Blackshirts and Reds. It will help contextualize what fascism is, what causes it, and how to stop it. I can offer a good introductory reading list regarding Marxism if you'd like, but this is a good starting point.
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Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground.
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Be more industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well. Theory guides practice, which sharpens theory to be reapplied to better practice.
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Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. The Democrats will not save us, we must save each other.
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Be persistent. If you feel like a single water driplet against a mountain, think of the Grand Canyon. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.
https://www.optionsri.org/post/chattering-classes-activism-is-the-best-remedy-to-authoritarianism
Rest, recuperate, get into a sustainable rhythm. Only we will keep us safe.
If I had canvassed for Harris in Tennessee I'd have been shot.
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Yay oligarchy.
Democrats just aren't going to be the progressive party. How many times are you going to fail to learn this lesson?
The DNC actively kneecapped Bernie Sanders twice. And the SCOTUS said it was their perogative.
Without a Sanders platform from which to pilfer popular talking points, the Dems had zip. That doesn't get John Q out of his Lazyboy. As the results showed.
How's that "Schumer Strategy" working out for ya?
The DNC knew it would fail. That was the plan. Perhaps not this spectacularly, but they knew it wouldn't work. They did their job. They defended the interests of Capital.
Yes, pass the buck to the DNC. They're the ones that held the gun to your head and forced you not to vote against a fascist dictatorship.
That sarcasm, by the way. I know how thick you people can be, so I thought I'd just point that out.
Looked at the dem votes for the last few elections and it looked consistent except for biden. Who somehow got way more than normal.
2008 69 mil 2012 65 mil 2016 65 mil 2020 81 mil 2024 66 mil
The Biden campaign offered something, notably student loan forgiveness, but both Clinton and Harris's campaigns relied on the dumbfuck Pied Piper strategy that they would offer nothing to the voters other than being not-Trump.
That's a dumb fucking strategy because there are fewer people that will vote Democrat as the lesser evil than will vote Republican just because Republican. They have to court people with policies they actually want.
And the absolute crazy thing is they tried this in 2016 and it failed, yet somehow had the balls to try again when it mattered more.
And the absolute crazy thing is they tried this in 2016 and it failed, yet somehow had the balls to try again when it mattered more.
They could blame 2016 on Hillary, not on the "I'm not him" strategy. Go figure that a 20+ year campaign to paint a woman as the literal devil would in fact cause problems for her at the ballot box, right? Who would have guessed except for anyone with a functional frontal cortex?
Tbf, you would have to hate yourself a lot to look at trump and say "eh... i dont agree with him and he's likely to completely fuck the country and endanger millions of innocent lives.. but look! The democrats are only saying that they arent trump. I better not do a damn thing and hope for the best!"
I guess democrats are just are idiotic and short visioned as republicans. Perhaps they are in fact the same.
The Harris campaign put out an 80 page policy guidebook explaining what they were offering. Stop denying responsibility from the voters. A bunch of people wanted this and a bunch of others figured this was better than rallying around the one viable alternative, be it a form a protest or laziness. Voters are ultimately responsible for who we collectively elect.
Also the only white male in those years…
I had the same thought....
One quote from last night stuck with me (though I can't remember who said it): "Republicans have been trying to grow their party for 4 years. Democrats have only been trying to grow their party for 4 months."
meanwhile im already seeing "moderate" "pundits" saying the reason Harris lost is because she was too woke and Democrats need to move further right 🙃
In part, yes, but it's a more complicated issue though. It's a death by thousand cuts.
There's also the whole doubling-down on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Twitter propping up the far-right everywhere it can, etc.
I find this whole Israel-Palestine vote-boycott so stupid and irritating.
Did anyone ever think beyond virtue-signaling? What were they hoping, that Trump forgets he wants to stand behind Nettanyahu no matter what?
In order to "boycott" a "fascist President", they let their own country elect another one. Great, now there are two of them.
Seriously, they want to "stop fascism at all costs", but when they actually have the chance to stop a fascist from taking office, they refuse.
I have lost all hope for humanity, have a nice day.
Imagine if the election had been between Cheney and Trump... Would you have bothered to show up? I wouldn't have. I'm not saying Kamala is actually as bad as Cheney (who I consider to be the most evil human on earth) but for young people barely paying attention, or paying a lot of attention to the whole getting arrested for protesting genocide thing, they might not have seen much difference and felt turned off by the whole thing, so didn't show up.
The question is, why would 10 million Biden voters, not show up this time? And I think the answer is, no one gave them a good enough reason to... And that's on the Dems who should have been figuring out what those people want and promising to fight for it instead of figuring out what maga wants and fighting for that
They can be satisfied they did less than nothing when Gaza is turned into a parking lot for the newest Israeli Megamall.
Then again, since it apparently didn't matter either way, I guess there was no hope for the Palestinians. Maybe they'll all be reincarnated as white people next time around as a universal consolation prize or something lol
What % of total voters is a "registered republican"?
It's almost as though -maybe, just maybe- the people who are registered Republicans like the Republican Party.
For this groundbreaking insight, I'll take my $20k/month consulting fee from the DNC now.
After everything that's happened with trump, you guys elect him the 2nd time.
You guys suck.
Maybe if they got a couple more celebrities to endorse Harris she would have won. Or maybe all the celebrities could have sung Imagine like what they did during COVID.
No, you ignorant fool... they needed more scorned establishment Republican figures to support her. Liz Cheney wasn't powerful enough, that much is clear now. The absolute genius of having our vehemently pro-choice candidate on stage accepting the endorsement of rabidly anti-abortion figures almost payed off. It's the voters who were wrong!
Hey, I'll probably delete my account soon because I shilled so hard for this campaign and it feels so gross. I knew day one enthusiasm was going to sink the dems and pushed back against the apathy as hard as I could. I was pretty devastated when kamala took the stage at the DNC and gave her support for, "a strong military" and talked about her gun or what ever. After that was just going through the motions and convincing myself I wasn't crazy for not wanting trump to win this badly.
The way I see it now, and will remember as we go in the future the DNC offers nothing. That's not fair, they do a lot of good for state and local governments but at a federal level, they will never be able to effect real change. Maybe it's because the way the fed is setup or for what ever other reason. It's not that the leadership has failed, it's that they can't win. I've hopped to lots of different possible solutions for Americans over the years and I guess there is one way out. Until we see liberals migrate away from the cities and take root in the land we will never have a government that represents them. That's where the war will be fought. Until then, even if Trump doesn't crown himself king asshole it's the RNC's game the DNC just resets the board.
I am sorry, but this is not going to happen. Liberals are found in cities because of class interests, not genetic opinions. People's ideas are driven by their material conditions. But, hope is not lost. The Dems are, but they were never a path out, they represent their donors above all else.
Revolution is necessary. Voting can't get us there. I recommend reading Reform or Revolution and The State and Revolution for why reform is pretty much impossible and revolution is necessary.
I can offer a good intro list to Marxism if you'd like, or answer any questions you may have.
I think the Democrats needed a solid message and populist policy. The "opportunity economy" sounded like a vague platitude, and her policies were weak tea like increasing the child tax credit and helping to fund down payments on houses.
It's the populist policy that's the hanging point. The DNC Services Corp will never let that happen. They're all too happy to let fascists win and fundraise off the fallout.
This country is cooked. The empire is finally dying. My big concern is that this empire has nukes it will use on the way down.
This right here is why the Republicans won. All I see below me is finger pointing and blame tossing. Republicans have got their shit on lockdown. You guys can't even figure out who to blame.
They know exactly who is to blame. But that would involve some degree of self-reflection so, on with the show.. i guess.
*woops misread the implication
It's easy to look like they "got their shit on lockdown" when they're straight-up copying the fascist playbook.
The blame game isn't helpful, though. Divide and conquer is from that same fascist playbook. Blaming anyone except the Republican establishment serves only to diminish their primary role in this situation, and further divide us from each other. We have to stop attacking fellow victims and put that blame squarely where it belongs.
The problem, the worlld is now confirmed as knowing already, is that Americans are, for want of a better word, scum.
Happy to say that I was in the 6% and 5%.
I don't know how normal it is to be registered in the US but I would assume the target were moderate voters, not party members
In many states you have to be registered if you want to vote in the primary. I would imagine most active voters are registered.
Thanks for the context. Makes sense. Do you register each time anew? In that case I would assume people stick with what they registered for. But on the other side, people might register for voting a more moderate candidate and don't want Trump and vote Democrats. I guess that's what the post is about. Now I get it.
How does anyone know who voted for what?
Why did they even have to work so hard for your young left vote? You saw the alternative, and you knew the consequences to staying home. You will suffer it not their party. I thought you guys were the smart ones and would know to take the lesser of two evils, instead of standing to the side to let the worst one in. And again you will suffer, no matter how much you say "that's what Democrats get I hope they learn", while you burn.
Anyways I just don't get it guys. Sometimes in life you have to eat shit and like it. But instead you decided to cut off your nose to spite your face.
-a very disappointed Canadian of color
they didn't have to work hard. they just had to not genocide and toss some red corporate meat on the fire for the masses to devour. sadly even that was too heavy a lift for them.
I'm a trotskyist and care very little for capitalist mouth peaces. Most socialists and anarchist have similar sentients.
You may have us confused for liberals.
It's because they're cucks. 20 million Americans get off on watching their government and their country get fucked by a fascist dictatorship.
I'll trust a magat over these cucks any day. At least I know what the magat stands for.
The most disappointing part will be they won't even realize how bad they fucked up until they go to a protest protesting the removal of our civil liberties and immediately get put into a camp. Only then will they maybe finally understand how bad they fucked things up.
They will never court the left, never.
Like all political "analysis", this one is just another bit of meaningless preaching.
Seems more like a boastful "I was right" from those that ensured they were right.
So many times I saw people on Lemmy saying they weren't going to vote because of [insert Reason X]
Everytime I told them they should, I was brushed off with some stupid Argument.
Well, I congratulate everyone who did that. You now live in a country headed by someone openly flirting with fascism. I really hope [Reason X] was worth it. And I really hope [Reason X] won't get worse under Trump (it will). You failed to prevent a fascist from raising to power just so you could virtue-signal.
The democrats shifted right, and yet the fault is still on those that didn't vote?
yes. yes, it is. Those that didn't vote failed to stop fascism from rising.
Even if you think that Democrats are too conservative, the alternative you chose and got is Trump.
Also the phrase goes "stop fascism at all costs" not "stop fascism at all costs except when the alternative has shifted a bit to the right (but in no way as far as the fascists we would be trying to stop) and now is too conservative for you"
Really think it was the the leader not offering enough.
I genuinely think it can be both. Voters were too short-sighted to see their self-interest and Dem leaders didn't convince them
You see... The Dems did that too... What was really needed wasn't "well you should vote", it should have been, "what would it take for you to vote"... And then fucking do it
And how did the absolute number of them changed? The chart is meaningless without that - as far as we know the pleading worked, all the moderate Republicans left and are no longer registered Republicans. The percentage of Democrat votes among Republicans got smaller because they not only voted Democrat, they also changes their party registration.
I don't think it happened, I'm just saying these percentages alone aren't proving anything either way.
I agree, the chart is meaningless. Votes are anonymous, they don't have your name on them or anything. So the only way they can get this info is by people self reporting it, or something seriously fraudulent happening.
IMO, the chart amounts to "we asked registered Republicans to tell us who they voted for and 94% of respondents said they voted Republican" ..... And?
The information is without merit or value.
If you didn't vote, or voted third party, because the Democrat candidate wasn't "Left enough" for you, then like it or not you got exactly what you voted for.
You have to vote like we have the system we have, not like we have the system you want.
Stein got 0.6 million votes. Over a hundred million stayed at home. I sincerely doubt that each of those hundred million is a dyed-in-the-wool anti-electoralist, so why focus on the "Not left enough" people? They had no effect on the election one way or another, just like they kept telling you. Your problem is that the majority of people in this country are completely alienated from politics. If you continue to focus on the left to the exclusion of the Democrats' very real shortcomings, if you continue to ignore DNC's failure to offer a winning platform to everyday people, then you are damning us all to an eternity of the current moment.
I hate the blame for third party voters, they still showed up and voted there are more things on the ballot than president and they almost certainly voted the progressive option for them which was good.
If literally every person who voted for a third party candidate, left or right, if literally all off them voted for Kamala Harris she still would have lost...
Block, block, upvote, scroll, upvote, block, upvote, upvote, block
I'm sure them supporting and paying to kill women and children didn't help either, and that their online cult acted almost as fascist as the person they claimed they were trying to stop.
and that their online cult acted almost as fascist as the person they claimed they were trying to stop.
Yeah, like how Harris fans were talking about people poisoning the blood of the country and their plans about deporting millions of people, which would require concentration camps. And then there's the Democratic party's genocidal persecution of queer people.
Basically no difference at all.
I don't want to leave this country, but I'm so fucking glad I'll get away from these sort of stupid lies.
Nobody is under the illusion that Trump is better for the situation in Gaza than Harris.
But, too many left-leaning voters feel they have to "take a stand" by staying home or voting third party. I have several friends who did exactly that, even though it's abundantly clear that staying home is effectively a vote for Trump.
Meanwhile, NOBODY on the conservative side is doing that shit. It's been true since the Reagan era, the conservatives put aside any personal distaste they have, and they get behind their candidate.
But, too many left-leaning voters feel they have to "take a stand" by staying home or voting third party. I have several friends who did exactly that, even though it's abundantly clear that staying home is effectively a vote for Trump.
That is the big problem here that people just don't want to admit.
You can stop now. Putin isnt paying overtime.
