# Now what should people on the left do? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 6, 2024, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778 "2024-11-06T12:13:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/341 "2024-11-26T18:27:00Z")
Seems 95% of the comments are whines, gripes, and complaints. But the OP’s question is, “Now what should people on the left _ **do** _?” (Emphasis added.) ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/342 "2024-11-26T19:05:27Z")
Did you read the article I linked above? It has a bunch of observations about what went wrong for Democrats, not just in this election but for quite some time. Here a couple of quotes that are relevant - > The overarching pattern is clear. In election after election, Democrats underperformed among traditional Democratic constituencies during the Trump era. Sometimes, it was merely a failure to capitalize on his unpopularity. Other times, it was a staggering decline in support. > While the damage was mostly concealed by Mr. Trump’s unpopularity, the backlash to his norm-shattering presidency drew the Democratic Party even further from its traditional roots. The extent of that damage is now clear. > These arguments had been central to Democratic campaigns for decades — evident in a half-century of Democratic slogans: “Middle Class First,” “Change We Can Believe In,” “Putting People First,” “On Your Side,” “A Leader, for a Change.” They’re the arguments that brought millions of working-class voters to the Democrats. Indeed, it was what the Democratic Party meant. > Mr. Trump flipped all of it around. His populist pitch deprived Democrats of their traditional role in American politics, gradually weakening their bonds with working-class voters, as well as nonwhite and young ones. Seriously, **read the article**. I hesitate to quote more from it because of fair use issues. But there are a lot of things there that explain how the Democrats have lost their way and as a result a large chunk of their base. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/343 "2024-11-26T19:13:10Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > The whole gist of this thread seems to be either “We should change nothing” or “we can change nothing.” > > Focus more on economics and bread-and-butter issues? We already did that! > > Focus less on identity politics? No. Focus more on identity politics? No. > > Focus less on wokeness? No. Focus more on wokeness? No. > > Champion Palestine more? Can’t, that will lose the Jewish vote. > > Move further to the left? No. Move further to the right? No. > > Argue with Trumpers and persuade them? Can’t, it doesn’t work, they are closed-minded and won’t heed. Your observations are mostly correct. The big investment of money and energy Democrats should make at this point is engaging with voters at the grassroots level, focus on redistricting and fight gerrymandering at the state level so there are fewer super-majorities in so many swing states. Eric Holder and his nonprofit The National Democratic Redistricting Committee have been working to accomplish some of these goals since 2017. The DNC should focus on getting these things done for the next few years. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/344 "2024-11-26T19:45:34Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > The Democrats are fucked on the national level for the next few elections. Fantasies about taking things back in '26 or '28 make no sense. The demographics have shifted hard right and will stay there for the next 10 years at least. Don’t be so sure about that. 20 Republican Senators are up for re-election, as opposed to 13 Democrats, and the House majority is razor-thin. Two years of who knows what can have a serious effect; take a look at 1992 and 1994. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/345 "2024-11-26T21:20:14Z")
I only see 1 GOP Senator out of that group of 20 (Collins-ME) who is possibly vulnerable. On the D side I see 2, Ossoff GA and Peters MI, who are likely toast. Smith in MN is another Democrat who will likely be in a close race. Meaning the GOP may lose one seat but the Ds will more than likely lose two, maybe three. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/346 "2024-11-26T21:34:25Z")
Now what should people on the left do? Stop voting for Ralph Nader, Jill Stein and Cornell West, then blaming Democrats for losing because they went too far to the “right”. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/347 "2024-11-26T22:30:04Z")
If every single person who voted Jill Stein in this election had voted Harris, you know how many more swing states she’d have won? Zero. Y’all need to find a new scapegoat. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/348 "2024-11-26T22:30:48Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > On the D side I see 2, Ossoff GA and Peters MI, who are likely toast. Smith in MN is another Democrat who will likely be in a close race. Why is the Michigan Dem “likely toast,” when the Dem won in Michigan _this election_ at the same time Trump won Michigan? ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/349 "2024-11-26T23:50:35Z")
Some of them, also , did not even vote and some, here in MI, may have gone all the way over to trump. And it we’d had a President Al Gore and a President Hillary Clinton we probably would have had different candidates this year anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/350 "2024-11-27T00:58:02Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Some of them, also , did not even vote and some, here in MI, may have gone all the way over to trump. Right, it was the progressives who jumped to Trump, a man who represents that absolute antithesis of progressive values, and not centrist Dems, who were already half in his camp to start with. That makes total sense, and is absolutely not just a cope. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/351 "2024-11-27T03:41:53Z")
> [@John\_Bredin](#): > > > [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > > > On the D side I see 2, Ossoff GA and Peters MI, who are likely toast. Smith in MN is another Democrat who will likely be in a close race. > > Why is the Michigan Dem “likely toast,” when the Dem won in Michigan _this election_ at the same time Trump won Michigan? Easy answer - numbers and trends. Peters only got 49.9% of the votes in 2020. Polling at the time had him ahead with a lead of 5.4% to 7.6%. On Election Day he won by 1.4%. The trend since then has been against Democrats with the Cook Report listing MI at R +1. Slotkin won in 2024 by a much smaller margin. At the end of the day it is clear MI is trending to the GOP and will likely continue to do so. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/352 "2024-11-27T13:46:44Z")
Hey, I don’t explain em. I just point out that they exist. Like the duck-billed platypus, some folks just defy explanation. ---
**Author:** ![Hawkeyeop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@Hawkeyeop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hawkeyeop)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/353 "2024-11-27T15:08:56Z")
US elections are way more or pendulum then a straight line. The last 5 mid term elections the incumbent party lost an average of 31 house seats and 3.6 senators. The Democrats won 4 of 5 swing state senate races in a bad year and looks like will gain a couple house seats. Not to mention that in non-presidential elections Democrats have been showing up in much higher numbers. Nothing is guaranteed, but there no reason to think Georgia, Michigan, and North Carolina aren’t very winnable senate races. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/354 "2024-11-27T16:26:26Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > If every single person who voted Jill Stein in this election had voted Harris, you know how many more swing states she’d have won? > > Zero. Elections are won in the margins. It’s not just one thing that sways an election- it’s a bunch of small influences which decide it. One snowflake doesn’t trigger an avalanche. We had Jill Stein diverting votes. We had constant shitposting on social media. We had ballot boxes being blown up in blue areas. We had ballot locations being closed in blue cities. And my favorite, of course, was that Harris had less than four months to campaign against a guy who’s been campaigning for over ten years. Anyone who blames the election loss on one single thing simply wasn’t paying attention. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/355 "2024-11-27T17:04:16Z")
The base has abandoned the Democrats and shifted to Trump. Did you read the article I linked? Did you at least look at the statistical shift in the base over the last twelve years that I put in the posts above? Everything indicates a shift to the GOP by blue-collar voters, union voters, voters without a college degree, Hispanic voters, black voters, Asian voters, **non-white voters with a college degree** for crying out loud! People can ignore it or handwave it away but this situation will not magically correct itself if Democrats ignore it and just tell these voters they are stupid for voting this way. They have to do things to communicate with these groups and make them feel like they respect them instead of talking down to them. I don’t see anything like that happening. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/356 "2024-11-27T17:16:10Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > I don’t see anything like that happening. Agree. The current strategy appears to be, “The people who voted for Trump are really stupid/racist/sexist/bigoted/etc.” Great message. Good luck with that. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/357 "2024-11-27T17:20:38Z")
The only way the Ds will ever beat the right is from **within**. They need to really infiltrate Trumpism from within and corrupt/steer it in a different direction. Trumpers will never listen to anything that’s perceived as coming from “the enemy,” but they will swallow almost anything if it’s seen as coming from a fellow MAGA ally. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/358 "2024-11-27T17:43:10Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > The current strategy appears to be, “The people who voted for Trump are really stupid/racist/sexist/bigoted/etc.” That’s certainly what I see on this board. That’s not at all what I saw as the message from the Harris campaign, or from any Democratic campaign I’ve been following, or as in any way the strategy of the Democratic party in general. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/359 "2024-11-27T17:48:27Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > The current strategy appears to be, “The people who voted for Trump are really stupid/racist/sexist/bigoted/etc.” > > Great message. It’s not a “message”, it’s an assessment. And ignoring that they _are_ in fact ignorant, stupid or evil won’t accomplish anything. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778/360 "2024-11-27T18:11:58Z")
Dwelling on it won’t accomplish anything, either. Complaints are a dime-a-dozen. Takes no effort. What are you going to _ **do** _ about the situation? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-what-should-people-on-the-left-do/1009778.md?page=19)