# Why did democrats lose so many presidential votes in 2024 in safe democratic states **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [February 4, 2025, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851 "2025-02-04T03:26:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/69 "2025-02-05T18:33:50Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > The Inflation Reduction Act was government spending to encourage green energy and other lefty priorities. I would even go further and say calling that bill “The Inflation Reduction Act” was tone deaf and an insult to lower income people truly suffering from rampant inflation. Can’t afford to fill your gas tank? Buy an electric car! Can’t afford to pay your electric bill this month? Buy a new heating system and install solar panels! ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/70 "2025-02-05T18:40:11Z")
Hey, who else remembers this hit from the South in 1973, > local residents in the South, traditionally unsympathetic to Northerners, are spreading the sentiment with a bumper sticker that reads, “Let the Bastards Freeze In The Dark.” > **[U.S. Energy Crisis Stirs Self‐Interest of Regions (Published 1973)](https://www.nytimes.com/1973/12/20/archives/us-energy-crisis-stirs-selfinterest-of-regions-us-energy-crisis.html)** > > NY Times survey on impact of oil and gas shortages finds Southerns pol reviling environment-conscious Easterners for using Southern energy and barring development of Atlantic Ocean oil and natural gas ---
**Author:** ![Sooner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sooner/32/7875_2.png) [@Sooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sooner)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/71 "2025-02-05T19:00:50Z")
I agree with you, but we just saw; many (maybe a majority) center to center left voters do not. Which I understood to be the focus of this threa. ---
**Author:** ![Sooner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sooner/32/7875_2.png) [@Sooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sooner)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/72 "2025-02-05T19:03:13Z")
It was tone deaf at best. Personally I felt mildly, intellectually insulted; by the name. ---
**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:** [February 5, 2025, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/73 "2025-02-05T19:11:36Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Yes, this country would be a socialist paradise if it wasn’t for those damn Democrats. In all seriousness, yes, to a great extent. If the Ds had had the heart and will to do so, and made maximum use of the years in which they controlled the White House and both houses of Congress, we could very much have Canada-type laws or even better. ---
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/74 "2025-02-05T20:05:19Z")
Can someone explain what this is all about? > Blockquote Split this topic 2 hours ago 9 posts were split to a new topic: [DLKeur posts](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dlkeur-posts/1013927) > Blockquote Why were DLKeur’s posts removed? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/75 "2025-02-05T20:28:46Z")
> [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > Can someone explain what this is all about? They were likely a trock: a “sock puppet” account created by a previously-banned poster, in order to return and troll the board. Creating a second, “sock puppet,” account, specifically for the purpose of making posts without letting on that you have (or previously had) a different account here, is against board rules, and is a bannable offense. We regularly have banned posters try to come back, under different account names, nearly always just to stir up shit. My educated guess is that one or more people flagged that now-banned account’s posts to the moderators; the moderators then were able to determine that it was a sock/trock, and banned it. When the mods discover that a poster is likely to be a trock, they ban the new account, and move the posts made under that new account to a thread that’s not visible to non-moderators. In essence, any posts made by the trock vanish from view. ---
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/76 "2025-02-05T20:55:23Z")
Interesting, never heard of that. Thanks for the reply. I thought I clicked on the name though and the poster had been a member for a while, but that may have been my error. I hope this isn’t just censorship of views people find disagreeable. I didn’t see anything in his recent posts that warranted being banned. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/77 "2025-02-05T21:16:36Z")
I don’t think it’s the content of the posts so much as the having been banned in the past (if that’s what happened) and trying to sneak around that. As far as I can see, people aren’t banned for content so much as behaviour. You could ask in the ATMB forum if you want to know. I don’t think they’ll discuss the specifics, but they will the generalities and policy. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/78 "2025-02-05T22:55:46Z")
> [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > I hope this isn’t just censorship of views people find disagreeable. If one is earnest in one’s opinions, provides reliable citations for arguments (rather than parroting partisan talking points, or cites from highly-biased sources), treats one’s fellow posters with respect, and follows the board rules, one isn’t going to get banned. > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > As far as I can see, people aren’t banned for content so much as behaviour. Agreed. We don’t have many posters anymore with strongly conservative views, particularly in the political conversations. It’s not because being conservative got them into trouble; it’s because they wore out their welcome with trollish, combative, and disrespectful behavior. Most of them accumulated a long list of notes, warnings, and/or topic bans from the moderators, before they were finally banished. Also, it’s worth noting that brand-new posters (or posters who return after long absences), who leap headlong into some of the more heated political threads, and immediately start posting opinionated, cite-less screeds, are going to immediately attract the attention of other posters, as well as the moderators. More often than not, such posters are one flavor or another of troll, and won’t last long. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/79 "2025-02-06T00:07:25Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I agree. Basically, leftist _economics_ tends to be popular. Leftist _social views_ tend to be unpopular. > > Unfortunately, Democrats rejected the former while embracing the latter. In this case, they seem to have run into problems by not embracing the latter enough. There is [polling](https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/biden-voters-passed-kamala-harris-because-gaza-new-poll-shows) showing that a lot of the more progressive wing stayed home because the Democratic administration was too pro-Israeli. This is not to say that I think you’re wrong that going too far to the left in the social axis was a mistake for the Democrats - I think it was a mistake. And I think if they had been more Palestine-supportive they would have lost (at least some) centrist votes. But they seem to have a big problem now, where they have an extreme who are quite numerous and powerful and will punish them for not being extreme enough - in the same way that MAGAs punish Republicans they don’t like. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/80 "2025-02-06T00:11:07Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Agreed. We don’t have many posters anymore with strongly conservative views, particularly in the political conversations. It’s not because being conservative got them into trouble; it’s because they wore out their welcome with trollish, combative, and disrespectful behavior. Maybe I should post more often? ---
**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:** [February 6, 2025, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/81 "2025-02-06T01:25:34Z")
As I frequently say, if you can’t express your opinions without being a certain kind of hole, then there’s either something wrong with your opinions or there’s something wrong with you. ---
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/82 "2025-02-06T22:12:09Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > they seem to have a big problem now, where they have an extreme who are quite numerous and powerful and will punish them for not being extreme enough - in the same way that MAGAs punish Republicans they don’t like. But do we really know just how “numerous” either party’s extremes are? We know they vote in the primaries and they’re the loudest voices in both parties, but in terms of numbers, I have to wonder. They’ve certainly increased their influence by having chased some moderates from the two parties, but I’m inclined to believe that, like social media, the loudest voices are given a disproportionate amount of attention when they often don’t represent the majority at all. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/83 "2025-02-06T22:48:01Z")
Are you familiar with the “Hidden Tribes” categorization into activists/supporters/moderates?" [https://hiddentribes.us/media/qfpekz4g/hidden\_tribes\_report.pdf](https://hiddentribes.us/media/qfpekz4g/hidden_tribes_report.pdf) Activists are the smallest group, but big enough to sway elections. And, of course, primaries. One thing that limits their influence is moderates taking them for granted. If activist groups start fighting back against that by sitting out elections when their single-issues aren’t being given enough attention then I guess there are two ways moderates can go - bow down to the activist wing in hopes of getting them back, or forget about them and head for the center ---
**Author:** ![songsoflovetrouble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@songsoflovetrouble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/songsoflovetrouble)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/84 "2025-02-07T15:52:30Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > In this case, they seem to have run into problems by not embracing the latter enough. There is [polling](https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/biden-voters-passed-kamala-harris-because-gaza-new-poll-shows) showing that a lot of the more progressive wing stayed home because the Democratic administration was too pro-Israeli. The “progressive wing” is essentially a full-time left flank of Trumpism devoted to sabotaging the Democratic Party, and would have found something else to “stay home” about were it not for the Israel pretext. Indeed, they only landed on Israel as the One True Issue after years of insisting that $15 minimum wage, student debt relief, climate change action, etc. were, and as Biden became the most progressive-friendly president in history on each of those issues, suddenly they didn’t matter and a new reason to work for Trump’s re-election was found. The number of people who even _claim_ to have refrained from supporting the Democratic ticket in 2024 because it was too pro-Israel is dwarfed by the number who think it was too anti-Israel, and in turn, both of those groups are small compared to people who do not understand why a war in a foreign country is the only thing some American voters are concerned about and simply don’t care about it at all when making their presidential vote. The general behavior of the pro-Hamas protestors and the “progressive wing” outside of their specific stance on this issue is also a huge turnoff to most centrist swing voters. There are more people who think progressive-run campuses allowing masked goons to set up Jew screening points at the door to the library reflects badly on Democrats than there are people who have particularly strong opinions on Israel itself. As always, one of the first things that Democrats can do in order to reorient themselves to appeal to normal people again is heartily tell the “progressive wing” to fuck off, in the manner of amputating a gangrenous limb. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/85 "2025-02-07T16:00:07Z")
> [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > But do we really know just how “numerous” either party’s extremes are? I still consider the MAGA faction to be very extreme, and they are extremely numerous in the Republican party, all over the House and, of course, the presidency. On the left, uh, ? Maybe the members of the SQUAD, except AOC isn’t really that extreme? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/86 "2025-02-07T16:22:33Z")
My dad, a lifelong Democrat, considered sitting out the election because of Gaza. Ultimately, he did not, for the obvious reason that not voting against Trump was unconscionable, but it’s an anecdatum that at least one voter took that position in good faith, and held it for a couple of months. He voted for Harris, but I don’t know if he would have cast a vote for Biden or stayed home. My stepsister and I lobbied him quite hard to rethink, even though we have also been horrified by the situation in Gaza. ---
**Author:** ![songsoflovetrouble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@songsoflovetrouble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/songsoflovetrouble)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/87 "2025-02-07T16:56:44Z")
> **[The Democrats Show Why They Lost](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/dnc-meeting/681548/)** > > At a meeting of the DNC, the party seemed to be at pains to demonstrate that it learned nothing from its 2024 defeat. In summary: -Stop focusing on nonsense that only the leftist wing of the party cares about. It is not the case that “leaderships quotas for nonbinary individuals” or “land acknowledgements” are moral imperatives that you should rather lose an election than put on the back burner for a while. -Get out of the bubble. Why is David Hogg, a Harvard graduate who has never had a job outside of politics, the new vice-chair of the DNC? Because he really, really hates gun owners? Because having a whiny, hectoring child in a position of outreach is such a great idea? If anyone in the inner circle had been able to tell Hillary Clinton in 2016 not to make the message of her campaign’s final week “we’re going to punish gun owners in Pennsylvania” she would have just finished her second term as president. This is a loser issue with swing voters and it certainly doesn’t need any MORE representation in the DNC leadership. People setting the agenda for the party who insist on picking at this scab should be treated as insane or saboteurs. -If you’re going to run as the party of the constitutional order, clean governance, and competence, then actually do it instead of running corrupt dumbasses and proclaiming people aren’t allowed to notice. Brazen graft and an indifference to street crime in Democrat-run cities is the worst advertisement for the national party and is a tremendous reason why traditional blue constituencies started to shift to Trump in 2024. Stop coddling people like Larry Krasner and Brandon Johnson and start actually putting your money where your mouth is on this stuff. And no more bizarre, obvious lies like Kamala Harris claiming she spent her college years smoking pot and listening to Tupac. You’re just giving people license to say Trump’s horseshit doesn’t matter if it’s a choice between one lying idiot or another. -Counter Trump’s attack on American values by embracing them. Stop adding “but we stole all the land and need to be ashamed of that” to every sentence about welcoming immigrants. Champion assimilation. If Bernie Sanders can’t make the case for publicly financed health care without adding “and that’s why everyone in Cuba was an illiterate slaveowner who got what they deserved from Castro” every time, then get someone else to talk about it. -Embrace candidates who have succeeded in real elections in battleground states by unabashedly promoting what the normal Democratic voter believes, like Josh Stein and John Fetterman. When the Chapo people and the other “progressives” with a monomania about Jews start clawing at them, push back on the leftist crazies, not the candidates. -Stop being led around by the nose by Republican negative polarization. You got conned into defending indefensible people like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib because you don’t like the way Republicans talk about them. You’re allowed to just stay silent and think for a second instead of letting Elon Musk set the terms of every debate. ---
**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:** [February 7, 2025, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/88 "2025-02-07T17:10:50Z")
You can’t be serious. You really think that Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders and their followers are secret Trump supporters in disguise? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851.md?page=5)