# 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:** 11\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![songsoflovetrouble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@songsoflovetrouble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/songsoflovetrouble)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/129 "2025-02-11T15:36:15Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Biden was fine, and Harris was a great candidate. Both were far better than trump. But the inflation doomed them. The constant “the emperor’s clothes are the most beautiful vestments I have ever had the privilege of seeing!” stuff where you keep talking yourself into falling in love with mediocrities has two problems. First, it leads to bad campaigns. Kamala Harris is, of course, anything but a “great candidate” in terms of her political and campaigning instincts. A “great candidate” does not go on tape pledging free trans surgeries for people in immigration jail when it’s incredibly obvious what kind of hay will be made of that, or get 1% of the vote in a Democratic primary, or appear in public obviously under the influence of prescription drugs and ramble in gibberish during most of her interviews. This is just simple reality about what “candidates” are supposed to be doing. Secondarily, by constantly hammering talking points about how Kamala is a “great candidate” (and of course she listened to Tupac in college even though he was 12 at the time and worked at the phantom McDonalds that never generated any tax records, etc) or that Hillary Clinton, who would never have held any political office if it weren’t for her husband, is “the most qualified candidate in history,” you give up any advantage against Trump the bullshit artist. **If you want to take a stand against lying, corruption, and the post-fact epistemology of MAGA, then you have to stop doing all the same things yourself.** How can this possibly be disputed? ---
**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 11, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/130 "2025-02-11T16:34:15Z")
I was with you until the McDonald’s thing. Well, no, actually, I think refusing care to Trans people because you’re afraid of how it might look to bigots is pretty bad, too. Biden was fine. Harris would have been fine. Her campaign was fine. It’s voters who could choose “fascist” over “meh” that are the problem. A nation of grown-ups doesn’t need to be in love with or excited about their leader. ---
**Author:** ![songsoflovetrouble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@songsoflovetrouble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/songsoflovetrouble)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/131 "2025-02-11T16:58:48Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > I was with you until the McDonald’s thing. Well, no, actually, I think refusing care to Trans people because you’re afraid of how it might look to bigots is pretty bad, too. > [One grim irony](https://www.joshbarro.com/p/trump-didnt-deserve-to-win-but-we) about the political cost of this promise is that, of course, the federal government that [only got seven electric vehicle charging stations built in two years](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/03/28/ev-charging-stations-slow-rollout/) has performed [zero transgender surgeries on detained migrants](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/oct/18/donald-trump/harris-support-for-prisoner-access-to-transgender/). That’s the Democrats in a nutshell: the party that promises trans surgeries for illegal immigrants but doesn’t deliver them. If your pledge is entirely symbolic, because of the Democrats’ well-known inability to actually accomplish anything while in governance, then being judged by how it is received is important, merits of the “free trans surgeries for prisoners” cause aside. > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > A nation of grown-ups doesn’t need to be in love with or excited about their leader. And yet, we have people earnestly trying to convince themselves that Kamala Harris was a “great candidate.” ---
**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 11, 2025, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/132 "2025-02-11T17:41:26Z")
> [@songsoflovetrouble](#): > > And yet, we have people earnestly trying to convince themselves that Kamala Harris was a “great candidate.” I don’t think we are a nation of grown-ups. I think we’re a nation of aging teenagers in arrested development, who voted based on looks, charm, charisma, popularity, and other intangible factors, or else vote on single issues. (I include myself in this category, as since 2016 I’ve been reduced to the single issue of “not in the party of Trump.”) And it’s factually incorrect that Democrats don’t accomplish anything. I’m more sympathetic to the claim that Democrats consistently fail to communicate their accomplishments. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/133 "2025-02-11T20:02:13Z")
> [@songsoflovetrouble](#): > > A “great candidate” does not go on tape pledging free trans surgeries for people in immigration jail when it’s incredibly obvious what kind of hay will be made of that, or get 1% of the vote in a Democratic primary, or appear in public obviously under the influence of prescription drugs and ramble in gibberish during most of her interviews. Well, since I am not a bigot, I have no issues with that. And the bigots will vote for trump no matter what. Harris dropped out before the voting started. Dec 3 2019. First primary was february 3 . And the last is simply not true. > [@songsoflovetrouble](#): > > or that Hillary Clinton, who would never have held any political office if it weren’t for her husband, is “the most qualified candidate in history,” y Hillary was active in politics before she ever met Bill. She then after became a US Senator then Secy of State, and did well in both. This is starting to sound rather misogynistic. > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > I was with you until the McDonald’s thing. Well, no, actually, I think refusing care to Trans people because you’re afraid of how it might look to bigots is pretty bad, too. Yep. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/134 "2025-02-12T04:56:42Z")
Moderating: > [@songsoflovetrouble](#): > > A “great candidate” does not go on tape pledging free trans surgeries for people in immigration jail when it’s incredibly obvious what kind of hay will be made of that, or get 1% of the vote in a Democratic primary, _or appear in public obviously under the influence of prescription drugs_ and ramble in gibberish during most of her interviews. (Emphasis mine.) You are welcome to argue enthusiastically for others to see things your way, but again, you have brought no citation or evidence for the assertion you make about Harris being “obviously under the influence of prescription drugs”. Bring a citation for this assertion or stop making it. This is the last mod note I will issue on this concern. It’ll be a warning next time. You don’t get to repeatedly assert bullshit and expect others to simply accept what you say without question. ---
**Author:** ![songsoflovetrouble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@songsoflovetrouble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/songsoflovetrouble)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/135 "2025-02-18T07:26:01Z")
I don’t expect anyone to “accept” anything. Is there a general rule against stating “this public figure appears to me to be acting like someone under the influence of drugs acts,” which obviously is not going to have a “citation”? Does this only apply to Kamala Harris, or only to me as a poster, or only that combination, or is it more broad? Does the fact that it’s relevant to the topic, i.e. a discussion of Harris’s strengths and weaknesses as a candidate, matter? Need some clarification here. ---
**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 18, 2025, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/136 "2025-02-18T07:33:54Z")
I thought it became a thing after he was already president. But I could be wrong ---
**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 18, 2025, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/137 "2025-02-18T07:35:17Z")
> [@songsoflovetrouble](#): > > Is there a general rule against stating “this public figure appears to me to be acting like someone under the influence of drugs acts,” which obviously is not going to have a “citation”? You didn’t say “appears to me”, you said “obviously under the influence” and that should be citable. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/138 "2025-02-18T19:50:30Z")
> [@Sooner](#): > > I thought it became a thing after he was already president. > But I could be wrong Profiles in Courage was written in 1956 . ---
**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 19, 2025, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/139 "2025-02-19T01:09:20Z")
I was more speaking to the PT109 fame. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851.md?page=6)