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.
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 incarceration”
in 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.