Yeah and, “unintelligent,” too apparently. 
I don’t know we keep going right and losing. How about we give an actual Democratic platform a try? We are turning off a lot of young and more left leaning voters.
It was almost completely a battle of ideas. No one ended up caring about Trump being an asshole, January 6, or all the other stuff that Democrats hung their hats on. Swing voters went to Trump because they perceived him as better on crime and the economy and Harris had an extremely weak, even counter-productive approach to those issues. The fact that voters may have been misinformed about inflation and crime rates or that Trump’s proposals to deal with those things are stupid is an indication that the more than one billion dollars that the Harris campaign spent on its messaging was wasted. You control what you control.
The problem that Democrats can fix without making Trump or his core supporters change their behavior is the fact that they employ a thousand people who think just like this and get six-figure salaries for doing so - an army of utterly clueless campaign strategists who consistently lose elections, deliver excuses as to why it doesn’t “count” because it was so unfair, then collect their checks and do it again 2 and 4 years later.
Most Democrats are perfectly capable of conceiving of “socially conservative minorities.” What they can’t handle is the idea that there are millions voters of Hispanic descent who do think Trump is a racist and would prefer he be nicer to immigrants, but voted for him anyway because they care about their small business tax rate and safe streets more than that issue. “Just not placing primary value on identity politics” is more alien than being wrong about identity politics and doesn’t enter into their race-obsessed thinking.
If you can’t recognize the signs of someone who’s constantly popping Xanax from how she moves and talks, fine, it seems pretty obvious to me. It’s the same affect as millions of other middle-aged women in this country with the same prescription who you run into every day.
At least once she got the nomination someone told her to stop doing the “snake trying to swallow a rhinoceros whole” unhinged-jaw fake laugh thing that was her signature move previously. But it’s another sign of how much of her persona is offputting and manufactured.
Here’s how Democrats can get more in touch with the reality of voters:
1: No more self-awarding criteria-free titles like “ran a perfect campaign” or “won the debate” and then acting surprised when the Good Election Witch of the North doesn’t descend from the sky and magically make you president for getting a perfect score on the test you made up. Fire anyone who is getting paid as a consultant who thinks this way.
2: No one who went to a liberal arts college that costs more than $20,000 a semester or has any kind of graduate degree allowed to advise on messaging. Ivy League alums allowed only if they got a job outside of politics after graduating.
3: Stop treating everyone like an idiot if you don’t want them to vote like idiots. If you managed to emerge from COVID and the money-printing stimulus with 2% inflation in 2024, run on that. The idea that a single number or graph will make people’s heads explode can’t work if you are trying to be “the smart candidate” or make a case for yourself.
4: Actively tell the DSA wing to fuck off. Not only are their core issues complete poison to the electorate and usually objectively stupid, they are all snakes who will never support the candidate. The student debt thing was a fiasco from start to finish and the political reward for it was the people who claimed it was the #1 issue in 2021 spending all of 2024 campaigning against Biden/Harris. You can’t please these people, they hate the U.S. and the Democratic Party, and the more you get associated with them by letting your negotiation over their issues become the subject of the news cycle, the more votes you lose.
Yeah, someone like Fetterman might be the future (I can’t speak to his medical issues or whatever). A good question to ask would be, why is someone whose entire political platform is essentially “whatever the median Democratic voter believes” and able to win in Pennsylvania as a result (something neither Harris nor the other Democratic Senate nominee was able to do) so reviled by the left, and it’s not just because they are obsessed with a maximalist anti-Israel position that most people find offputting or irrelevant, it’s because they fucking hate it when Democrats win elections! As a practical matter, the people making decisions in the Democratic Party actually do have to choose between “the electable Democrat” and “the people whose identities revolve around destroying the electable Democrat” and the amazing thing is that a lot of them don’t think that question has an obvious answer.
I’ve given Trump’s team credit (or maybe just Trump himself) for some of the stunts like the McDonald’s thing and the garbage truck.
But, in general, a lot of the ways that MAGA won the social media space was engaging in dirty tricks and foreign money, and I’m not sure that we want to go down that road.
Let me be clear: I don’t know what the answer is, I’m not claiming to have it. I’m just questioning whether being more charismatic is going to beat out memes of people eating pets, or getting the world’s richest man to buy a social media platform and help spread propaganda.
You know, just because you don’t like her and how she laughs doesn’t make her a zanax addict. Geeze, if you don’t have a cite than drop the, I know one when I see one crap.
By “war of ideas” I mean when the electorate has generally correct awareness of the issues affecting society and then votes based on who has the best solutions to those problems.
Neither of these happened: people believed misinformation on the issues, and largely didn’t hear directly what Kamala’s solutions to those problems was.
In terms of the money being badly spent, sure, I can agree with that. As I say though, it’s not trivial to fight ownership of local news, a social media platform, several cable TV channels etc with advertizing.
NB: I know many will quibble about the degree of dominance of social media and cable TV. But the issue is, that MAGA media is happy to just lie, all day every day. The supposed left-wing media, like MSNBC, not only breaks its back trying to look “centrist”, but also is hamstrung by a desire to maintain contact with reality.
Obama won. Biden won. Fetterman won. Dozens of Democratic governors and Senate candidates won in 2024, many even in states where Trump won the presidential vote on the same ballot! “It’s so unfaiiiiir that Joe Rogan and Fox News exist” is just more excuse-making from the people collecting their checks for designing the disastrous Clinton and Harris campaigns. Democrats can win with the right candidate and the right campaign and Harris was neither.
It was a common Republican accusation that Biden and Harris were frequently taking drugs before public appearances.
Which translated from Republican to reality, means Trump frequently takes drugs before public appearances. The Republicans always accuse the Democrats of the things the Republicans are actually doing. See Trump’s accusations against Clinton, Biden, and Harris that they were the ones committing sex crimes, taking bribes, committing election fraud, practicing nepotism, being senile, and practicing identity politics. Apparently it was standard practice at Trump headquarters to figure out what the worst things Trump could be accused of and then accusing Trump’s opponent of it first. That way the public would shrug and say “both sides are doing it, amiright?”
Cite please.
Otherwise this is jaw-droppingly insulting to both older people and older women in particular.
Without a credible cite this is offensive, jerkish, broadly ageist and misogynistic.
“You’re not allowed to notice this” might work fine on a message board you control, but it’s a pretty bad campaign strategy, as 2016 and 2024 proved.
It’s not meant as an excuse it’s just trying not to limit the discussion purely to what Harris could have said or phrased differently. Because, the reality is, most people either didn’t hear it or heard it through the filter of RW memes.
And is the logic here that as long as any Democrats win anything we are not allowed to point out Republican lies and gaming the system?
Are you fucking kidding? No. No no no.
She’s fine. I voted for her. I think she’d have been a competent enough president. But what in the world is so special about her that we should fucking run her again after she proved she’s a loser against a guy who was a terrible candidate and wasn’t even really trying to campaign? Is she some once in a lifetime genius that the payoff would be so good that we have to risk everything to force her into the presidency? No. No one cares about her that much, no one is that enthusiastic for her, and there’s no reason to suspect she’s some amazing statesman that would make it all worthwhile.
I can’t believe you guys aren’t getting this. Would it be great if the country was ready for a woman president? Absolutely. All else being equal, it’s always nice to see people who traditionally were kept out of the traditional power structure being able to overcome that. But delaying representation a decade or two in one office is not a fucking existential threat to the existence of our democracy. But what happened as a result of trying to force that to happen is.
We got Trump TWICE when a generic white guy would’ve beat him both times. Do you guys seriously not see that? It is absolutely shitty that Americans aren’t ready for a woman president. They should be. But are you going to choose facism AGAIN to try to force the ignorant American public to take their medicine? And when your plan fails, you’re going to set back human rights for minority groups again rather than drive them ahead.
Even if you’re a disadvantaged minority like women, people of color, LGBTQ – what would you like more, a chance at someone non-traditional winning the presidency or the possibility the likely result will be someone elected who will enthusiastically crush you under his boot? What do you think would’ve advanced the cause of tolerance and equality – generic white guy democrat or a high chance of a Trump victory?
You guys basically lost our country to fascism for at least a couple of decades and you want to double down and keep making the same mistake. It’s hard to fucking believe it. Stop this. This is not the time for a “wouldn’t it be nice…” while everything is already on fire and if your risky gambit fails we dump a barrel of gasoline on it.
Who are you talking about? I think only the OP has stated an explicit desire for Kamala to become president in 2028, and even then, it was just the argument that she should run again, not that everyone should fall in line.
The political landscape changes a great deal in four years. There’s no telling who will be the best Democratic candidate for the world as it is in 2028, because we have even less idea than usual just how the next four years will play out.
At the risk of being called out for threadshitting, it just feels like a waste of brain cells to even think about 2028 when we’re 33 days away from what’s likely to be the fight of our lives, assuming we don’t have a timeline where too many Dems just roll over and play dead.
Harris was the candidate because she had to be the candidate. It wasn’t a matter of choice. Does she have the ‘chops’ to win the nomination next time around, starting from scratch? I doubt it. I’m sure she would have been a competent and able CiC.There are a lot of politicians who would have made solid presidents: Gore, HRC, Harris…even Mitt Romney. The problem, as always, is winning the swing states. Capturing the voter’s attention and imaginations.
I don’t think Harris is even the best female candidate in 2028. That would be Gretchen Whitmer. Why? Because, apart from her experience and ideas, she is also likable and relatable. We can’t pretend those things don’t matter in a U.S. presidential election. Or in the contest for mayor of Podunk.
I believe a woman could be elected president. Should Harris run again? Sure, why not, but I don’t think she can win unless the republicans have completely screwed the pooch (quite likely) or she somehow squares off a someone even more compromised than the thing about to take office.
Terrible, terrible, terrible idea.
The Ds might as well run Hillary again or waste time engaging in the Michelle Obama fantasy.
All are terrible ideas.
Honestly, I think it highly likely the first female to actually be elected President is more likely to be a Republican at this point.
I believe the actual delay has been… checks notes …about two hundred and fifty years.
Moderating:
You’re not required to provide citations for what you assert, but you won’t be taken seriously here if you don’t. Whether you choose to be taken seriously or not, failing to offer a cite does not give you a pass to slam other members with comments such as the above. Dial back the insulting non-cited assertions.
So, you don’t have any data or back-up/cite that she’s taking Xanax except for what you think you see in her, and perhaps a dislike of how she laughs. Thanks.
Anyone who still thinks the democrats should try to run a woman as their candidate for the third time, of course. Some are on this board, but I’m responding to the article linked in the OP and people that agree with it.
Irrelevant. We can’t change the past. Cultural forces will probably keep pushing towards greater representation and tolerance and all that stuff such that it will be viable to elect a woman president in 20 or 30 years. We don’t have a choice to go back and time and elect one a century ago, so it’s irrelevant to that consideration.
Actually, I’m not so sure about this anymore. 10 years ago I would’ve been 100% confident that we’d keep moving in the direction of greater tolerance, less bigotry, more representation of underrepresented and oppressed groups in desirable positions in society, but man we have such a backlash that I’m not so sure of that anymore.
In any case, if you’re a woman or literally anything other than a straight white financially secure male who is an asshole and hates his fellow human beings, you’d take a generic white guy democrat over even a small chance at Trump or whoever follows him. Representation is nice, but not rolling back all the rights you’ve managed to fight for is far more important.