2024 U.S. Elections | Trump wins

I sense sarcasm but I actually believe there’s a hint of truth there. They may lose suburban voters but I do agree that they can win it back if they pursued some of those positions (like Bill Clinton did). I highly doubt they will because there’s too many special interest groups who’ll make sure that’ll never happen. Nearly every single blue state moved to the right this election, Democrats need a reality check if they think going further left will help them.
So what distinguishes the two parties in that scenario? Are Democrats just supposed to be pro-choice Republicans? They can't win if they just run on a few social issues and the idea that they are better at governing.
 
Why did Biden win in 2020? The Dems were just as woke then, no?

The US is a pretty masculinized country, so obviously male candidates are going to have an easier time winning. We’ve had two accomplished women lose to Trump by 75-90 electoral votes, whereas Biden, a retiree in the early stages of cognitive decline, beat Trump and shattered the popular vote record along the way. It’s not rocket science.
 
I sense sarcasm but I actually believe there’s a hint of truth there. They may lose suburban voters but I do agree that they can win it back if they pursued some of those positions (like Bill Clinton did). I highly doubt they will because there’s too many special interest groups who’ll make sure that’ll never happen. Nearly every single blue state moved to the right this election, Democrats need a reality check if they think going further left will help them.

I described the Kamala campaign to the letter. They ran to the right. They lost big. The same thing happened in 2016.

You are also wrong about the "special interest groups" in question. Did Sunrise make her campaign on fracking? Did the ACLU make her campaign on ending asylum? The groups you mention got the opposite of what they wanted. They still stayed loyal like suckers. And she lost.
 
I sense sarcasm but I actually believe there’s a hint of truth there. They may lose suburban voters but I do agree that they can win it back if they pursued some of those positions (like Bill Clinton did). I highly doubt they will because there’s too many special interest groups who’ll make sure that’ll never happen. Nearly every single blue state moved to the right this election, Democrats need a reality check if they think going further left will help them.

@berbatrick is describing what the Democrats did, and they lost.

Edit: too late.
 
I described the Kamala campaign to the letter. They ran to the right. They lost big. The same thing happened in 2016.

You are also wrong about the "special interest groups" in question. Did Sunrise make her campaign on fracking? Did the ACLU make her campaign on ending asylum? The groups you mention got the opposite of what they wanted. They still stayed loyal like suckers. And she lost.

Harris ran a pretty identical platform to Biden 2020 and lost, so it’s obviously not the policies, as much as the candidate.
 
Harris ran a pretty identical platform to Biden 2020 and lost, so it’s obviously not the policies, as much as the candidate.
And the context. In 2020 Biden was linked to a very popular president with a broad coalition of voters, while Harris became linked to an extremely unpopular president that had overseen a period where people were hurt financially. That might be more important than the actual policies.
 
And the context. In 2020 Biden was linked to a very popular president with a broad coalition of voters, while Harris became linked to an extremely unpopular president that had overseen a period where people were hurt financially. That might be more important than the actual policies.

That’s true to a degree, although Obama was largely forgotten at that point in favor of the Bernie juggernaut. Interestingly, the Dems have had largely the same platform since Obama. The only thing that changed was the viability of the specific candidates.
 
If the Democrats move further right they will lose. You can’t win by trying to be Republican lite.
I think Democrats best chance is to moderate their positions on social issues and on things like immigration and anti-incumbency should help them but if they move further left on those issues, I have my doubts.
I described the Kamala campaign to the letter. They ran to the right. They lost big. The same thing happened in 2016.

You are also wrong about the "special interest groups" in question. Did Sunrise make her campaign on fracking? Did the ACLU make her campaign on ending asylum? The groups you mention got the opposite of what they wanted. They still stayed loyal like suckers. And she lost.
Pivoting to the center a few months before the election doesn’t really mask the unpopular positions she took in the 2019 primary at the behest of these groups. Trump hammered many ads with quotes from then which really resonated with voters. One of the ads - “ Kamala is for they/them, Trump is for you” is presumed to be a game changer and moved a significant number of votes.

The other problem with her pivot was she never really disavowed her 2019 positions, she just brushed it off or diverted the topics. She also didn’t go on Rogan presumably because some of her progressive staffers would be upset at it.
 
I think Democrats best chance is to moderate their positions on social issues and on things like immigration and anti-incumbency should help them but if they move further left on those issues, I have my doubts.

Pivoting to the center a few months before the election doesn’t really mask the unpopular positions she took in the 2019 primary at the behest of these groups. Trump hammered many ads with quotes from then which really resonated with voters. One of the ads - “ Kamala is for they/them, Trump is for you” is presumed to be a game changer and moved a significant number of votes.

The other problem with her pivot was she never really disavowed her 2019 positions, she just brushed it off or diverted the topics. She also didn’t go on Rogan presumably because some of her progressive staffers would be upset at it.

She didn't go on Rogan because of her progressive staffers, who were completely on board with the Cheneys and sending Bill Clinton to tell Arabs how Palestinians deserve to be massacred.

Makes sense!
 
I think Democrats best chance is to moderate their positions on social issues and on things like immigration and anti-incumbency should help them but if they move further left on those issues, I have my doubts.

Pivoting to the center a few months before the election doesn’t really mask the unpopular positions she took in the 2019 primary at the behest of these groups. Trump hammered many ads with quotes from then which really resonated with voters. One of the ads - “ Kamala is for they/them, Trump is for you” is presumed to be a game changer and moved a significant number of votes.

The other problem with her pivot was she never really disavowed her 2019 positions, she just brushed it off or diverted the topics. She also didn’t go on Rogan presumably because some of her progressive staffers would be upset at it.

They also dropped the ball on immigration by completely underestimating the relevance of the border situation. By the time Biden concocted a solution to save his own campaign, it was too late.
 
I think Democrats best chance is to moderate their positions on social issues and on things like immigration and anti-incumbency should help them but if they move further left on those issues, I have my doubts.

Pivoting to the center a few months before the election doesn’t really mask the unpopular positions she took in the 2019 primary at the behest of these groups. Trump hammered many ads with quotes from then which really resonated with voters. One of the ads - “ Kamala is for they/them, Trump is for you” is presumed to be a game changer and moved a significant number of votes.

The other problem with her pivot was she never really disavowed her 2019 positions, she just brushed it off or diverted the topics.
She also didn’t go on Rogan presumably because some of her progressive staffers would be upset at it.
I agree with the bolded, I don't buy these "the Harris campaign moderated their positions!" arguments because the baggage was there. We would also not buy it if the Republicans suddenly moderated on their pet issues before an election.

But aside from anectodal voter stories here and there, I'm not sure anti-wokeness played a significant role in the 2024 election. Inflation was an absolute killer issue and the Harris campaign didn't quite seem to know how to deal with it. And we have to explain why turnout was disappointing for Harris.

I'm aware of the transgender-focused ad that apparently did very well but I think we need more data to know how much woke issues actually played a part in this election.
 
Democrats should be even more like republicans... bold strategy, let's see how it works.
 
Why did Biden win in 2020? The Dems were just as woke then, no?

They were significantly more "woke". The DNC was held about a month after the George Floyd protests and had all sorts of BLM stuff. This is when AOC was crying at the border and when people were talking about defunding the police. This is when the funniest photo of all time was taken.
KSPANZVJXQI6VEDD42N5MUQJIA.jpg


None of that was the case this time. Before the 2024 results, people like Matt Yglesias on twitter were celebrating the defeat of woke activists and the integration of the Republican anti-Trump wing into the Democratic party, solidified by the cabinet berth.

It is simply that the elections were fought on different things, against two unpopular incumbents. 2020 was a referendum on Trump's covid handling, up against approval of the Trump economy, 2024 was a referendum on the Biden-Harris inflation and general incompetence, and the rosy memories of the Trump economy, against personal dislike of Trump.

I'm a leftist and think a genuine lefty is doomed. There is no hope for AOC in a primary or general. I can separate my ideology from my analysis.
The centrists saying this stuff here and on twitter are cynical or willfully ignorant of the fact that they had their dream campaign, and it failed miserably. They have a genuinely good alibi with the economy and Biden disapproval, therefore this loss doesn't reflect the unpopularity of their type of campaign, but because their first most important task is to purge the left of the party, they are instead reduced to self-contradiction and arguing about strategy.
I do hope more left-wing organisations have the unity and cynicism needed to make a strong case that, actually, the loss is because she went to the centre, the next nominee needs to shift, etc.*

Harris ran a pretty identical platform to Biden 2020 and lost, so it’s obviously not the policies, as it is the candidate.

We can look at the conventions and the focus of each (transparently fake woke pandering in 2020, military-first strength in 2016 and 2024), which of course matter more than words on a website. And then we can see the words on the website:

https://time.com/7014604/changes-to-democrats-criminal-justice-platform/
Criminal justice:

In the 2024 party platform, there is no mention of police brutality. “We need to fund the police, not defund the police,” the text reads—a marked shift from previous progressive messaging.
Though the platform calls for things like restricting state and local practices such as solitary confinement, it simultaneously argues that there needs to be more police on the streets in order to protect communities. Democrats also do not have opposition to the death penalty on their platform for the first time since 2012.
By comparison, in the Democratic Party’s 2020 platform, they dedicated an entire section to “reforming our criminal justice system,” explicitly calling out mass incarceration, saying the criminal justice system is “failing” the nation, calling for an “overhaul [of] the criminal justice system from top to bottom” and stating that “police brutality is a stain on the soul of our nation.” It also focused heavily on community-oriented policing. There’s no mention of “mass incarcerationin the 2024 platform

https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2024...ntion-messaging-woo-independents-republicans/
Healthcare:
In 2020, the Democratic platform devoted eight pages to health care, outlining a plan for “Universal, Affordable, Quality Health Care,” with a public coverage option. The plan calls for pressuring private insurers to broaden access and lower costs, and for automatic coverage for low-income Americans even in states that refuse to participate.

Unlike the 2020 platform, the version the party adopted this week in Chicago makes no mention of universal health care – an idea that invites allegations of radicalism and wealth redistribution.

Pivoting to the center a few months before the election doesn’t really mask the unpopular positions she took in the 2019 primary at the behest of these groups. Trump hammered many ads with quotes from then which really resonated with voters. One of the ads - “ Kamala is for they/them, Trump is for you” is presumed to be a game changer and moved a significant number of votes.

The other problem with her pivot was she never really disavowed her 2019 positions, she just brushed it off or diverted the topics. She also didn’t go on Rogan presumably because some of her progressive staffers would be upset at it.
The Biden-Harris admin have "pivoted to the centre" since about mid-2022 when Ron Klain left the White House. The passage of the halfway IRA bill ended all progressive policy, with the rest of their time dedicated to supporting two wars in an incompetent way, and to the biggest right-wing shift on the border in decades, which they couldn't pass. It's been a lot longer than a few months.

For the argument of the first para, let's have a small thought experiment. In 2019, Kamala declined to endorse Medicare For All. Let's suppose she made it the centerpiece of her campaign this time, and lost. Would you blame her for
1. Running far left and turning off the subruban vote?
2. Her mistake in 2019 to not endorse M4A?
In the real world, you are choosing the 2nd option, having got the campaign you wanted and having seen it lose so horribly. And it is self-evidently the wrong conclusion, one you can reach only by motivated reasoning.

For the last line... once again, this was an anti-left, centrist platform and campaign. They snubbed these "progressive staffers" on every issue. For example, unlike in 2020, they refused to back protections for trans people, she only said she'd "follow the law" instead of making a reference to rights or saying, as Biden said in 2012, that "it's the civil rights issue of our time." They refused to even have a Palestinian at the DNC with a vetted speech. They refused to make the slightest tiniest change of policy on Israel. So, with these staffers ignored on everything, they suddenly were listened to on this one issue? It makes no sense, and indeed, the originator of that claim has now walked it back. What makes this funnier is that the only Democrat to actually go on Rogan is... Bernie, famously anti-progressive and with no progressive staffers or non-profit support.


*e - to be clear, it is quite easy to make this case:
Trump gained about a million votes while Harris lost 7, suggesting a lot of voters stayed home instead, turnout fell among young and Black voters, a campaign based on less fealty to Israel and progressive economic policy would have motivated them, reversed the popular vote loss, and provided the electoral college margins. The fact that the turnout collapse happened in blue not swing states showed that some, but not enough, of these demographics managed to hold their nose for an unappealing candidate, the better strategy would hve been to give them something positive to vote for.

I personally think it's wrong because inflation was the main driving force of this election, but it is far more valid than the "she said Latinx in 2019" rubbish.
 
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Democrats have tried that rhetoric (“the corporations are responsible for price gouging, we’ll tax unrealized capital gains”), and they can keep trying and it’ll fail. If they cannot reduce losses on culture wars and unpopular positions on social issues, that won’t really help them win elections.
That's not really what I'm talking about.

You said that the "non-profit industrial complex" bullies Democrats into taking positions that are unpopular with working-class voters.

I think the "profit industrial complex" exerts an even bigger hold on the Democratic Party and bullies them into taking positions that are unpopular with working-class voters.
 
They were significantly more "woke". The DNC was held about a month after the George Floyd protests and had all sorts of BLM stuff. This is when AOC was crying at the border and when people were talking about defunding the police. This is when the funniest photo of all time was taken.
KSPANZVJXQI6VEDD42N5MUQJIA.jpg


None of that was the case this time. Before the 2024 results, people like Matt Yglesias on twitter were celebrating the defeat of woke activists and the integration of the Republican anti-Trump wing into the Democratic party, solidified by the cabinet berth.

It is simply that the elections were fought on different things, against two unpopular incumbents. 2020 was a referendum on Trump's covid handling, up against approval of the Trump economy, 2024 was a referendum on the Biden-Harris inflation and general incompetence, and the rosy memories of the Trump economy, against personal dislike of Trump.

I'm a leftist and think a genuine lefty is doomed. There is no hope for AOC in a primary or general. I can separate my ideology from my analysis.
The centrists saying this stuff here and on twitter are cynical or willfully ignorant of the fact that they had their dream campaign, and it failed miserably. They have a genuinely good alibi with the economy and Biden disapproval, therefore this loss doesn't reflect the unpopularity of their type of campaign, but because their first most important task is to purge the left of the party, they are instead reduced to self-contradiction and arguing about strategy.
I do hope more left-wing organisations have the unity and cynicism needed to make a strong case that, actually, the loss is because she went to the centre, the next nominee needs to shift, etc.



We can look at the conventions and the focus of each (transparently fake woke pandering in 2020, military-first strength in 2016 and 2024), which of course matter more than words on a website. And then we can see the words on the website:

https://time.com/7014604/changes-to-democrats-criminal-justice-platform/
Criminal justice:

In the 2024 party platform, there is no mention of police brutality. “We need to fund the police, not defund the police,” the text reads—a marked shift from previous progressive messaging.
Though the platform calls for things like restricting state and local practices such as solitary confinement, it simultaneously argues that there needs to be more police on the streets in order to protect communities. Democrats also do not have opposition to the death penalty on their platform for the first time since 2012.
By comparison, in the Democratic Party’s 2020 platform, they dedicated an entire section to “reforming our criminal justice system,” explicitly calling out mass incarceration, saying the criminal justice system is “failing” the nation, calling for an “overhaul [of] the criminal justice system from top to bottom” and stating that “police brutality is a stain on the soul of our nation.” It also focused heavily on community-oriented policing. There’s no mention of “mass incarcerationin the 2024 platform

https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2024...ntion-messaging-woo-independents-republicans/
Healthcare:
In 2020, the Democratic platform devoted eight pages to health care, outlining a plan for “Universal, Affordable, Quality Health Care,” with a public coverage option. The plan calls for pressuring private insurers to broaden access and lower costs, and for automatic coverage for low-income Americans even in states that refuse to participate.

Unlike the 2020 platform, the version the party adopted this week in Chicago makes no mention of universal health care – an idea that invites allegations of radicalism and wealth redistribution.


The Biden-Harris admin have "pivoted to the centre" since about mid-2022 when Ron Klain left the White House. The passage of the halfway IRA bill ended all progressive policy, with the rest of their time dedicated to supporting two wars in an incompetent way, and to the biggest right-wing shift on the border in decades, which they couldn't pass. It's been a lot longer than a few months.

For the argument of the first para, let's have a small thought experiment. In 2019, Kamala declined to endorse Medicare For All. Let's suppose she made it the centerpiece of her campaign this time, and lost. Would you blame her for
1. Running far left and turning off the subruban vote?
2. Her mistake in 2019 to not endorse M4A?
In the real world, you are choosing the 2nd option, having got the campaign you wanted and having seen it lose so horribly. And it is self-evidently the wrong conclusion, one you can reach only by motivated reasoning.

For the last line... once again, this was an anti-left, centrist platform and campaign. They snubbed these "progressive staffers" on every issue. For example, unlike in 2020, they refused to back protections for trans people, she only said she'd "follow the law" instead of making a reference to rights or saying, as Biden said in 2012, that "it's the civil rights issue of our time." They refused to even have a Palestinian at the DNC with a vetted speech. They refused to make the slightest tiniest change of policy on Israel. So, with these staffers ignored on everything, they suddenly were listened to on this one issue? It makes no sense, and indeed, the originator of that claim has now walked it back. What makes this funnier is that the only Democrat to actually go on Rogan is... Bernie, famously anti-progressive and with no progressive staffers or non-profit support.

@berbatrick - Some of these were bones thrown in to court Bernie refugees. The fundamental bargain of the Dem party and its establishment however haven’t changed since Bill Clinton’s first run in the 90s. Clinton to Obama to Biden and all the losers in between have more or less advanced the same policies, as opposed to a Bernie for example, who clearly had a different set of policy prescriptions for his run.
 
Democrats should be even more like republicans... bold strategy, let's see how it works.
It's so ridiculous. If people want Republican-lite they'll just vote for the Republican candidate not the Dem one, nationally that is. I'm sure it's worked at state and local level on the odd occasion.
 
A Republican party without Trump does not turn out 76 million voters - he is an anomaly. Kamala might not have been a great candidate, but 74 million voters against virtually any other candidate, wins the election handily.
 
There's some room to debate about 'wokeness' and whether Democrats should moderate on some issues, in both presentation and the issues themselves. I don't think that's some crazy idea.

But let's be serious here.

The broad consensus among liberal and center-left political and intellectual leadership, heading into 2024, was that: 1) Joe Biden was a very good to great president, who 2) had done a very good job at dealing with the economy, and 3) was of sound mind and could run again in 2024. Andt his had nothing to do with wokeness. The Sunrise movement didn't make Matthew Ygleasis deny that Biden was too old until July. The ACLU didn't make Jonathan Chait suggest that Biden go on the offensive about Bidenomics in February of 2024. Code Pink didn't make David Brooks claim that voters did not like Biden's economy because of "a loss of faith in ourselves as a nation."

The most unpopular position held by the Democratic party in this election was that Joe Biden should run for President again because he can continue doing a great job. And you can't really pin that on woke. No one really emerges from that one unscathed.
 
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There was a good article in NY MAG about why people in New York voted for Trump. I'll copy some quotes:

Corona was devastated by COVID. It is also one of the places that has borne the brunt of the migrant crisis, which has brought more than 200,000 new arrivals to the city since 2022, when Biden lifted Trump-era border restrictions and Texas governor Greg Abbott started busing asylum seekers north. While pockets of midtown Manhattan and the Upper West Side mounted resistance against new migrant-inhabited hotels, and violence and disarray around shelters in Randalls Island and Clinton Hill brought tensions of their own, it was along Roosevelt Avenue that the influx was most visible and controversial.

The essential issue there, as an aide to one local Democratic politician puts it, is that “the underground economy is completely overground.” Roosevelt Avenue and its surroundings have become saturated with two types of new arrivals: unlicensed street vendors selling food or merchandise and sex workers soliciting customers outside makeshift brothels. There is consensus among elected officials and residents that many of the women are sex-trafficking victims from Central and South America working to pay off their debt to smugglers. These factors have led to what residents describe as a quality-of-life disaster, coinciding with an uptick in crimes such as robbery and felony assault, which increased locally by about 50 percent in the past two years.

Beneath the tracks of the 7 train, it is not difficult to find newly galvanized Trump voters. Carlos Bermejo owns an Italian Latin restaurant called La Pequeña Taste of Italy. Bermejo, who emigrated from Ecuador, says the street vendors undercut his sales and the streetwalkers deter customers and attract crime. “In the summer, in the window, maybe like ten ladies,” he said. Inflation was another concern: Facing rising costs of his own, he says he had to hike the price of his standard aluminum-container takeout from $10 to $12. When I asked whom he voted for, he looked at me like I was kidding: “Donald Trump. You gotta do that. Everybody knows that.”

Several blocks away, the manager of a grocery store complained of a spike in thefts — he didn’t want me to use his name to avoid risking further incidents — as well as of street vendors pouring their grease directly into the sewer, which he said attracted rats that wound up in his store basement. He says he voted for Biden in 2020 and Trump this time around. Carmen Enriquez, a substitute teacher from Ecuador who lives nearby in what is technically Elmhurst, says she’s a registered Democrat who voted Republican this year for the first time. She complained that migrants had received free shelter and benefits while existing residents struggled. She directed her ire at not only the Biden administration but also Ocasio-Cortez, who appeared at a local rally last year to support migrant vendors, and State Senator Jessica Ramos, who co-sponsored a bill several years ago to decriminalize sex work. (It has not passed.) “You can see it all, the boobs out. That is outrageous. That is what I am telling you — especially the Venezuelans, they came with attitude.
Farhana, who manages a store here — she didn’t want me to print which one or her last name — said she supported Jill Stein to protest Israel’s war in Gaza. One of her co-workers, a 19-year-old named Gabriel, voted for Trump. His parents came from Mexico as undocumented immigrants and feared ICE raids during Trump’s first term before becoming citizens. He says his mother voted for Trump largely on religious grounds, while he was focused on the immigration surge. “They’re over here bragging, like, about getting government assistance, when I saw my parents build everything from the ground.” He also expressed mild disappointment that Harris didn’t go on The Joe Rogan Experience so that he could “see what she is like as a person.” He asked me not to use his last name, lest anyone stigmatize his choice. “You know you’ve got to tell the girls, like, ‘Damn, I’m sorry Kamala lost.’”
While I was walking around, I took a call from Assemblywoman Karines Reyes, a Dominican-born oncology nurse who represents the area in Albany. It was striking how often the migrant crisis came up even away from its epicenter. Reyes says it was often her neediest constituents, of all races, who felt they were being forgotten. “I know so many people in our district who have vouchers that pay for housing,” she says. While they waited for city agencies to inspect and approve their lodging, among other bureaucratic hurdles, they felt migrants “were getting fast-tracked to shelters, they were getting cash, they were getting debit cards.”

Prior to the election, Reyes said, “we spent a lot of time talking about things like abortion in our community. Even though those are important issues, sometimes we feel like if we have those conversations about the immigration process being fair and equitable, that we are somehow sounding anti-immigrant. But people want us to address those things. They feel it is fundamentally unfair. For many of us, we didn’t want to talk about those things.” I asked if she meant herself, personally. “Absolutely. I didn’t want to talk about it.”
Across the street, outside the Bronx Muslim Center, Sammy Alkaifa, wearing a backward Jets hat, said he voted Trump because he thought he represented a better chance of ending Israel’s war in Gaza. Yahay Obeid, a former chair of the local community board and a regular media liaison for the community, represents an intriguing new type of unicorn constituent scattered throughout the district: the Trump-AOC supporter. He’s with Trump on tariffs, border control, crime, and “No shutdowns during COVID” but with AOC on Gaza. He sees no contradiction: “She is working hard for the working class.” Overall, the populist Ocasio-Cortez ran ahead of Harris in her district, and there’s probably a lesson there that transcends her own political talents or the uniquely cross-pressured voters in an area like this one. Ocasio-Cortez was herself intrigued by the split voters in her district, asking them to explain their horseshoe vote in a post to her 8 million followers on Instagram.
 
A Republican party without Trump does not turn out 76 million voters - he is an anomaly. Kamala might not have been a great candidate, but 74 million voters against virtually any other candidate, wins the election handily.

Nor would the Dems turn out the numbers they have over the past two cycles, many of which voted to keep Trump from winning the election.
 
Nor would the Dems turn out the numbers they have over the past two cycles, many of which voted to keep Trump from winning the election.
Which just goes to show, Democrats don’t offer or stand for anything, they just stand against a few things.
 
It's so ridiculous. If people want Republican-lite they'll just vote for the Republican candidate not the Dem one, nationally that is. I'm sure it's worked at state and local level on the odd occasion.

The trouble for Dems is that most voters are independents who exist in the political center. So unless they have a candidate who can galvanize the base and get more independents than the opposition, they are going to lose. In this cycle, abortion and “democracy is on the ballot” weren’t going to get it done when the other side was pushing an economics and border security platform.
 
Which just goes to show, Democrats don’t offer or stand for anything, they just stand against a few things.

That’s true. They are both leaderless, rudderless, and ideationally fractured among three different factions.
 
A Republican party without Trump does not turn out 76 million voters - he is an anomaly. Kamala might not have been a great candidate, but 74 million voters against virtually any other candidate, wins the election handily.
Kloppmala Harris.
 
Democrats’ inability to speak out against unpopular cultural positions clearly hurt them, in this deep-dive analysis https://blueprint2024.com/polling/post-mortem-2-nov/ Anyone vouching that more left-wing politics would have helped needs to provide more reasoning as to how that would have helped and overcome the systemic faults that Democrats have.
 
Atheist, the issue here is you are acting as if 'broad immigration support' is a strictly left-wing position that the Democratic Party was pressured to adopt by left-wing activists. This is not very accurate and does not reflect the dynamics of what happened over the last eight years.
 
Democrats’ inability to speak out against unpopular cultural positions clearly hurt them, in this deep-dive analysis https://blueprint2024.com/polling/post-mortem-2-nov/ Anyone vouching that more left-wing politics would have helped needs to provide more reasoning as to how that would have helped and overcome the systemic faults that Democrats have.

The blueprint is an incredibly damming indictment on the Dems, the Harris campaign, and the national viability of Harris herself.
 
Democrats’ inability to speak out against unpopular cultural positions clearly hurt them, in this deep-dive analysis https://blueprint2024.com/polling/post-mortem-2-nov/ Anyone vouching that more left-wing politics would have helped needs to provide more reasoning as to how that would have helped and overcome the systemic faults that Democrats have.

Sure. Answer any of the questions I posed in my previous replies to you. You people got the campaign you wanted. It lost. It lost with a measurable and vast lack of voter enthusiasm from your supposed base. A progressive campaign would have sustained higher levels of voter enthusiasm. There. That's the theory.

Do I believe it would have worked?
NO. Because this election was decided by voter perceptions of the Biden economy and administration. Every other thing - woke, abortion, whatever, was window dressing around that.

...

A bit of background:
Matt Yglesias during the Biden presidency:
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Matt Yglesias during the election:
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Yglesias after the election:
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David Shor was in charge of 900,000,000 dollars to be spent over 3 months for the Harris campaign. He was, alongside Matt Yglesias, the originator of the strategy of "popularism" which is a strategy of moving to the right, and do things based on polling. He was taken on board because of his brilliant prediction that the Democrats would be wiped out in the 2022 midterm senate election.

These are the frauds desperately covering their asses. You don't have to assist them in saving their multi-millionaire status and insider access.
 
Atheist, the issue here is you are acting as if 'broad immigration support' is a strictly left-wing position that the Democratic Party was pressured to adopt by left-wing activists. This is not very accurate and does not reflect the dynamics of what happened over the last eight years.
Supporting immigration abstractly itself is not, but letting the asylum system be abused and providing tax-payer funded benefits to them (many blue cities did this) was clearly far beyond mainstream beliefs. It used to be a mainstream position of the Democratic Party in 2000s that illegal immigrants should be deported but now the pitchforks will be out for you if a Democratic politician goes in that direction. Biden used the term “illegal” in this year’s SOTU and got a ton of blowback from the activist base. Trump is clearly extreme in his immigration policies but let’s not deny Democrats haven’t gone very left wing especially in regards to illegal immigration. They moved to the center as it became a political issue closer to the election but voters saw through the farce that Democrats were only doing it because it was politically expedient.
 
They were significantly more "woke". The DNC was held about a month after the George Floyd protests and had all sorts of BLM stuff. This is when AOC was crying at the border and when people were talking about defunding the police. This is when the funniest photo of all time was taken.
KSPANZVJXQI6VEDD42N5MUQJIA.jpg


None of that was the case this time. Before the 2024 results, people like Matt Yglesias on twitter were celebrating the defeat of woke activists and the integration of the Republican anti-Trump wing into the Democratic party, solidified by the cabinet berth.

It is simply that the elections were fought on different things, against two unpopular incumbents. 2020 was a referendum on Trump's covid handling, up against approval of the Trump economy, 2024 was a referendum on the Biden-Harris inflation and general incompetence, and the rosy memories of the Trump economy, against personal dislike of Trump.

I'm a leftist and think a genuine lefty is doomed. There is no hope for AOC in a primary or general. I can separate my ideology from my analysis.
The centrists saying this stuff here and on twitter are cynical or willfully ignorant of the fact that they had their dream campaign, and it failed miserably. They have a genuinely good alibi with the economy and Biden disapproval, therefore this loss doesn't reflect the unpopularity of their type of campaign, but because their first most important task is to purge the left of the party, they are instead reduced to self-contradiction and arguing about strategy.
I do hope more left-wing organisations have the unity and cynicism needed to make a strong case that, actually, the loss is because she went to the centre, the next nominee needs to shift, etc.*



We can look at the conventions and the focus of each (transparently fake woke pandering in 2020, military-first strength in 2016 and 2024), which of course matter more than words on a website. And then we can see the words on the website:

https://time.com/7014604/changes-to-democrats-criminal-justice-platform/
Criminal justice:

In the 2024 party platform, there is no mention of police brutality. “We need to fund the police, not defund the police,” the text reads—a marked shift from previous progressive messaging.
Though the platform calls for things like restricting state and local practices such as solitary confinement, it simultaneously argues that there needs to be more police on the streets in order to protect communities. Democrats also do not have opposition to the death penalty on their platform for the first time since 2012.
By comparison, in the Democratic Party’s 2020 platform, they dedicated an entire section to “reforming our criminal justice system,” explicitly calling out mass incarceration, saying the criminal justice system is “failing” the nation, calling for an “overhaul [of] the criminal justice system from top to bottom” and stating that “police brutality is a stain on the soul of our nation.” It also focused heavily on community-oriented policing. There’s no mention of “mass incarcerationin the 2024 platform

https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2024...ntion-messaging-woo-independents-republicans/
Healthcare:
In 2020, the Democratic platform devoted eight pages to health care, outlining a plan for “Universal, Affordable, Quality Health Care,” with a public coverage option. The plan calls for pressuring private insurers to broaden access and lower costs, and for automatic coverage for low-income Americans even in states that refuse to participate.

Unlike the 2020 platform, the version the party adopted this week in Chicago makes no mention of universal health care – an idea that invites allegations of radicalism and wealth redistribution.


The Biden-Harris admin have "pivoted to the centre" since about mid-2022 when Ron Klain left the White House. The passage of the halfway IRA bill ended all progressive policy, with the rest of their time dedicated to supporting two wars in an incompetent way, and to the biggest right-wing shift on the border in decades, which they couldn't pass. It's been a lot longer than a few months.

For the argument of the first para, let's have a small thought experiment. In 2019, Kamala declined to endorse Medicare For All. Let's suppose she made it the centerpiece of her campaign this time, and lost. Would you blame her for
1. Running far left and turning off the subruban vote?
2. Her mistake in 2019 to not endorse M4A?
In the real world, you are choosing the 2nd option, having got the campaign you wanted and having seen it lose so horribly. And it is self-evidently the wrong conclusion, one you can reach only by motivated reasoning.

For the last line... once again, this was an anti-left, centrist platform and campaign. They snubbed these "progressive staffers" on every issue. For example, unlike in 2020, they refused to back protections for trans people, she only said she'd "follow the law" instead of making a reference to rights or saying, as Biden said in 2012, that "it's the civil rights issue of our time." They refused to even have a Palestinian at the DNC with a vetted speech. They refused to make the slightest tiniest change of policy on Israel. So, with these staffers ignored on everything, they suddenly were listened to on this one issue? It makes no sense, and indeed, the originator of that claim has now walked it back. What makes this funnier is that the only Democrat to actually go on Rogan is... Bernie, famously anti-progressive and with no progressive staffers or non-profit support.


*e - to be clear, it is quite easy to make this case:
Trump gained about a million votes while Harris lost 7, suggesting a lot of voters stayed home instead, turnout fell among young and Black voters, a campaign based on less fealty to Israel and progressive economic policy would have motivated them, reversed the popular vote loss, and provided the electoral college margins. The fact that the turnout collapse happened in blue not swing states showed that some, but not enough, of these demographics managed to hold their nose for an unappealing candidate, the better strategy would hve been to give them something positive to vote for.

I personally think it's wrong because inflation was the main driving force of this election, but it is far more valid than the "she said Latinx in 2019" rubbish.
They pivoted slightly to the center in terms of economic issues but not remotely on the social ones and especially not on immigration until last year. The damage with regards to inflation due to their extraordinary spending was already done. The only reason inflation has come down is due to monetary policy by the Fed.

Again, the issue isn’t Kamala tacking to the Centre. She did not disavow her positions from 2019 clearly and brushed it off. In 2019, she was fine with decriminalizing border crossings, provide taxpayer funded gender reassignment surgeries for illegal immigrants who are under detention. The problem is not having those positions in itself but she didn’t push back on it in this election cycle.

On the turnout issue, I don’t think it’s quite clear cut that turnout has fallen fully. Plenty of votes are still being counted in blue cities, and it’s estimated to be around the same as 2020 overall. Younger men of all ethnicities moved towards the right.

On Palestine, moving left may have gotten her some more votes in Michigan but she would likely have done worse with Jewish voters who far outnumber Arab voters. Besides the Palestine issue doesn’t remotely rank in importance for voters across the board when making the decision, except for maybe a very small minority, and certainly not big enough to influence the outcome of the election.

Your reasoning for the campaign being an anti-left and centrist and hence failing for those reasons is counter weighted by much more moderate and conservative Democrats candidates doing well downballot. Elissa Slotkin won her Senate election and she’s even more pro-Israel. Progressive democrats were booted from office in DA offices in LA/Oakland, and it’s hard to see how a progressive policy at the federal level have done better. In fact, I’d argue the numbers and result would have been much more if she veered to the left on social issues this election.
 
Supporting immigration abstractly itself is not, but letting the asylum system be abused and providing tax-payer funded benefits to them (many blue cities did this) was clearly far beyond mainstream beliefs. It used to be a mainstream position of the Democratic Party in 2000s that illegal immigrants should be deported but now the pitchforks will be out for you if a Democratic politician goes in that direction. Biden used the term “illegal” in this year’s SOTU and got a ton of blowback from the activist base. Trump is clearly extreme in his immigration policies but let’s not deny Democrats haven’t gone very left wing especially in regards to illegal immigration. They moved to the center as it became a political issue closer to the election but voters saw through the farce that Democrats were only doing it because it was politically expedient.

[Harris]now says she wants to sign into law the tough border compromise that Congress was unable to pass in 2024 after Donald Trump objected to it. That bill would have closed loopholes in the asylum process, given the president greater authority to shut down the border when crossings are high and limited parole of migrants, which allows them to temporarily enter the United States. Her 2024 campaign team has said that her position on border crossings is the same as the Biden administration's, and that “unauthorized border crossings are illegal.”


https://www.npr.org/2017/01/20/510799842/obama-leaves-office-as-deporter-in-chief

Obama Leaves Office As 'Deporter-In-Chief'​

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/biden-deportation-record

The Biden Administration Is on Pace to Match Trump Deportation Numbers—Focusing on the Border, Not the U.S. Interior​

 
They pivoted slightly to the center in terms of economic issues but not remotely on the social ones and especially not on immigration until last year. The damage with regards to inflation due to their extraordinary spending was already done. The only reason inflation has come down is due to monetary policy by the Fed.

Again, the issue isn’t Kamala tacking to the Centre. She did not disavow her positions from 2019 clearly and brushed it off. In 2019, she was fine with decriminalizing border crossings, provide taxpayer funded gender reassignment surgeries for illegal immigrants who are under detention. The problem is not having those positions in itself but she didn’t push back on it in this election cycle.

On the turnout issue, I don’t think it’s quite clear cut that turnout has fallen fully. Plenty of votes are still being counted in blue cities, and it’s estimated to be around the same as 2020 overall. Younger men of all ethnicities moved towards the right.

On Palestine, moving left may have gotten her some more votes in Michigan but she would likely have done worse with Jewish voters who far outnumber Arab voters. Besides the Palestine issue doesn’t remotely rank in importance for voters across the board when making the decision, except for maybe a very small minority, and certainly not big enough to influence the outcome of the election.

Your reasoning for the campaign being an anti-left and centrist and hence failing for those reasons is counter weighted by much more moderate and conservative Democrats candidates doing well downballot. Elissa Slotkin won her Senate election and she’s even more pro-Israel. Progressive democrats were booted from office in DA offices in LA/Oakland, and it’s hard to see how a progressive policy at the federal level have done better. In fact, I’d argue the numbers and result would have been much more if she veered to the left on social issues this election.

Counting is close to complete. She is going to fall several million short of Biden's numbers, and Trump is going to be less than 2 million ahead of his previous numbers. More than the overall, the collapse is specifically in blue states and in deep blue cities - i.e. among the party base.
This is the picture for youth turnout. Specifically the young men running to the right:



You keep bringing up 2019. Once again, if she had run the same campaign as 2019, then run to the left now, and lost, would you
1. Blame the moderation of the 2019 campaign
2. Blame her running to the left now?

You make it clear in the last line, that you would blame her current campaign. Then why doesn't the actual centrist Cheney-hugging campaign she ran get the same treatment???? The fact the popularists are running to 2019 to think back to the last time she made a progressive gesture to explain her defeat in 2024 is astonishing.

And if wokeism is such cancer, why wasn't the measurably "woker" 2020 Biden campaign a winner?????

Downballot everybody did better, regardless of affiliation within the party. AOC's seat went sharp right for Trump but her numbers were better than Kamala's. She did much worse than Biden last time.
Once again a strong hint that the Biden-Harris administration was widely hated. As is evident in their approval of consistent sub-40. The second worst in American history.

I've never seen the leading faction of a defeated party declare instantly that its loss is due to the marginalised factions within that party. This self-preservation instinct is commendable, I guess.