That lady is a perfect of example of the type of voter who likely voted for Trump this year but who probably stayed home in 2008, 2012, 2018, and probably even in 2016. People like her were energized to come out and vote for Trump and ended up voting straight ticket R. IMHO this is likely why the Democratic congressional candidates didn’t do as well this year as they did in 2018.
I’m sure republicans will totally stop calling people socialist now.
…I mean the only people really using the words “socialist” and “socialism” were the Republicans as talking points and as a smear tactic. So I wish Spanberger good luck with her evidence-free campaign to get the Republicans to stop doing what they have done for decades: but I’m not liking her chances.
And can we finally accept that yes, the far left is already being demonized already? How much more evidence do you need?
It’s not demonizing if they have it coming. Apparently.
But did you see what they were wearing? Totally asking for it
Here’s what AOC had to say about that:
It seems to me that she agrees with you, and that’s why she and the other members of the so-called “Far Left” DID NOT CAMPAIGN ON SOCIALISM. Republicans called her a socialist; but Republicans call Joe Biden a socialist, or maintain that he may not be but Kamala Harris is, and she’ll depose him for senility and institute her socialist policies on Jan 21st.
In other words, the only people talking about socialism are the Republicans, they do so with no evidence or reason so trying to distance yourself from socialism isn’t going to work, and anyways, there aren’t any socialists in congress (aside from Bernie, but him and his state are a special case and considering how long he’s been in the senate you can’t tell me it isn’t working).
How is any of this AOC’s fault again?
I can’t find a cite offhand, but one of the defeated Dem congresspeople was quoted as saying “We need to never hear the word “socialism” again”.
That’s not “criticism”, that’s telling half your party that they don’t even have a right to participate in the discussion.
Because obviously Republicans would have played fair and not tarred anyone with the Socialist brush if only we hadn’t had a few members of the Democratic caucus who held ideas that are slightly left of America’s rightwing mainstream. I mean, it’s not like they went after Obama as a socialist, or after Kerry as a socialist, or after Gore as a socialist, is it? It’s not like they attacked Pelosi as a far-left Democrat, is it? Republicans are scrupulously fair. And I am the queen of Romania.
I had no idea, your majesty!
It appears that turnout by voters under 30 was up by as much as 10% this election compared to 2016. Data from here:
- Pennsylvania: Youth made up 14% of the vote and supported Biden by +23
- Michigan: Youth made up 15% of the vote and supported Biden by +29
- North Carolina: Youth made up 16% of the vote and supported Biden by +16
- Georgia : Youth made up 21% of the vote and supported Biden by +15
- Arizona: Youth made up 17% of the vote and supported Biden by +28
Young white voters preferred Biden by 6 points (51% vs. 45%). Young Black, Asian, and Latino voters, respectively, supported Biden by overwhelming margins of 77, 72, and 49 points.
62% of youth (ages 18-29) voted for Biden, and 33% voted for Trump. While not exactly comparable, because of separate sources and methodology in each year, this is higher than the level of youth support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton received in 2016, and higher than the level of youth support President Barack Obama received in 2012.
In other words, we won this election thanks to young people, who overwhelmingly supported candidates to the left of Biden during the primaries. Will these people continue to show up and vote Democrat in the future? If Biden’s policies in office are aimed at not scaring off the Lincoln Project voters, I’m not optimistic.
Precisely the reason the Lincoln Project did what they did.
I never objected to far left - I think there’s a place for outspoken progressives. Where they went off the rails was in their twitter attacks on fellow Dem members of the House. They have gone out of their way to put pressure on other members and even threatened to support primary challenges. They’ve called out centrist democrats on twitter the last few years, and I think centrist Dems are now looking at the election results and saying “We told you so, now shut the f*ck up.”
But it would be a mistake to abandon progressive ideas. I’m not sure free college is an idea that would sell, but new and improved Obamcare would. Make an offer to state governments that they can’t refuse.
Don’t forget they called Biden socialist too.
I remember during the primaries those opposed to Sanders were wailing about how the right would paint him as a socialist.
Oh gee…not that…be sure to get someone the republicans won’t make that claim about! 
Who did those attacks?
From Yanis Varoufakis:
The tragedy of progressives is that Trump’s supporters are not entirely wrong. The Democratic party has demonstrated time and again its determination to prevent any challenge to the powerful that are responsible for the pain, anger and humiliation that propelled Trump to the White House. Democrats can talk until the cows come home about racial justice, the need for more women in positions of power, the rights of the LGBT community etc. But, the moment politicians like Bernie Sanders threaten to challenge the power structures that keep black Americans, women, minorities and the poor in society’s margins, they go all out to stop them.
Trump’s supporters are unlikely to articulate this in so many words. However, their contempt for the liberal establishment is rooted in the realisation that the rich Democrats behind the Biden-Harris ticket won’t ever truly change conditions for the poor. Any redistribution of wealth and power that threatens their kids’ trust fund, or soaring asset prices on Wall Street, are off-limits – and those voters know that.
Against this background, however hard Biden tries to speak the language of some Green New Deal, no one can imagine him uttering a phrase like Franklin Roosevelt’s, who referring to bankers once said: “They are unanimous in their hate for me – and I welcome their hatred.” Without a readiness to confront the greatest concentration of corporate power in the history of the United States, even the most amiable of presidents will fail to deliver either social justice or serious climate change mitigation. At least Trump wasn’t hypocritical, his supporters might say.
So yes, Joe Biden has won. And thank goodness for that. But let’s understand that he did so despite, not because of, his social graces or promise to restore normality to the White House. The confluence of discontent that powered Trump to power in 2016 has not gone away. To pretend like it has is only to invite future disaster – for America and the rest of the world.
Right? As long as Democrats are focused on trying to avoid Republican smears, they’re gonna be disappointed. Democrats need to be talking to the same people Republicans are talking to, and saying, “Look: Mitch McConnell is not your friend. Mitch is making his rich friends richer while the country falls apart around him. Your schools, your highways, your health care: they’re all suffering, right? It’s because of Mitch and his far-right, anarchist, government-dismantling policies. He’s destroyed more government buildings than antifa could ever hope to destroy.”
That message needs to be going out constantly. Fox News isn’t gonna stop spewing bullshit about Democrats, but at least they can get some counter-programming.
And yeah, it’s hard, and no, I don’t have all the answers. All I know is that mollifying the abuser doesn’t make the abuse stop.
The “far left” needs to learn to play politics. You can promote the exact same policies you’re promoting without using the word socialism. They’re right, it’s toxic. And unless they are advocating for the abolition of privately owned businesses it’s highly inaccurate, as bad as Defund the Police.
The far right conservatives never use the word “theocracy”, yet everyone on the right knows that’s where they are heading.
If they want to get anywhere, they need to get to the place where over 50% of the country will support their ideas. And 45% NEVER will. And I don’t think they’ll get the rest unless they can find a way to add prosperity to their message. There’s not enough altruism in the world for any other way.
I’m not knocking their ideas, I’m knocking their complete and utter lack of salesmanship.
Right. It’s one thing to argue that the Republican attacks on “socialism” cost us votes. It’s quite another to say that we can stop those attacks just by not having any socialists in the Party.
Like if we’d nominated Bernie, we would have lost all the voters who are both opposed to “socialism” AND understand that, although some Democrats are in fact socialists, Joe Biden most certainly is not. I don’t think that’s a very large group.
But it’s certainly not true that 40% of Republican politicians support a higher minimum wage. Indeed, unless we can flip the Senate it is certain that the Republicans will stop the idea in its tracks, 40% of their voters be damned.
The only politicians who were actively campaigning on that proposal five years ago were, at least by American standards, radical leftists. Hillary’s people, remember, were terrified that even mentioning the idea might scare off "centrist’ voters. The only reason the idea is now relatively mainstream within the Democratic Party is that radical leftists pushed for it.
I
That has some truth to it with regards to the poor, but many people think that Bernie did not focus enough on racial justice. And Biden got a lot of support in the primaries from older black people. So, while the general consensus can be wrong, it doesn’t seem like the feeling is that Bernie would be more woke than Biden race-wise.
Which isn’t true with regards to economics. Some people who feel disenchanted with the system would equally be likely to support Bernie as they would Trump because they both say what they want to hear.