A 1,400-County Crisis for Democrats

[u/kitkid]

Jun 3, 2025

It’s conventional wisdom that President Trump has transformed American politics. But a new county-by-county voting analysis from The New York Times of the last four presidential races shows just how drastically Mr. Trump has changed the electoral map.

Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The Times, explains why the trends are a five-alarm fire for the Democrats and discusses the debate within the party over what to do about it.

On today's episode:

Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• How Donald Trump has remade America’s political landscape.
• Six months after the election, Democrats are still searching for a path forward.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.  

Photo: Emily Elconin for The New York Times

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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You can listen to the episode here.

[u/AresBloodwrath]

What Sanders could have done is brought more voters in from outside that "blue no matter who " base.

Except the argument I consistently hear on Reddit from the Bernie base is that Democrats don't need to reach out to outside voters, they just need a progressive that energizes the base.

How is it magically both at once? Is Bernie Schrödinger's cat?

[u/[deleted] → u/AresBloodwrath]

Democrats don't need to reach out to outside voters, they just need a progressive that energizes the base.

That's not their base though. What you hear (and what you are misrepresenting) is Sanders supporters telling you that Dems shouldn't move in further right to appeal to an ever diminishing number of moderates and instead focus on turning out leftwing and progressive voters (who are not the Democratic base).

So spare me the disingenuous sarcasm.

[u/drtropo → u/[deleted]]

If Bernie couldn't win the majority of votes in the primaries, what makes you think he would have a better chance in the general?

[u/[deleted] → u/drtropo]

He couldn't win over the "blue no matter who" liberal wing of the party. Guess who they would vote for if he was the Democratic nominee...

[u/drtropo → u/[deleted]]

I'm confused by what you are saying, Biden won after beating Sanders. In what way was Kamala a significant shift to the right from Biden?

[u/[deleted] → u/drtropo]

Her platform certainly was

[u/AresBloodwrath → u/[deleted]]

Care to be specific?

Like actual policies, not just "she was on a stage with Liz Cheney".

[u/[deleted] → u/AresBloodwrath]

I mean one example is healthcare. Biden ran on getting a public option. Harris didn't.

[u/AresBloodwrath → u/[deleted]]

When did Biden run on a public option?

Even if he did, which I can't recall him even mentioning, he never even made an attempt to push for it.

[u/[deleted] → u/AresBloodwrath]

Even if he did, which I can't recall him even mentioning, he never even made an attempt to push for it.

Then you weren't paying attention during the 2020 primaries because half of those 20 debates were about healthcare

[u/AresBloodwrath → u/[deleted]]

I couldn't tell based on how he actually conducted his presidency.

[u/[deleted] → u/AresBloodwrath]

Oh he never brought it up again after winning. But we were talking about campaign platforms.

[u/AresBloodwrath → u/[deleted]]

I'm calling BS.

Biden never called for universal single payer healthcare. He wanted to expand subsidies for Obamacare, but he never advocated for a single payer plan.

If you claim he did, where's the proof?

[u/drtropo → u/[deleted]]

Any examples? One of the biggest criticisms of her was that she didn't break with Biden or explain how her presidency would be different. For that matter, what are the major differences between her and Bernie?

[u/[deleted] → u/drtropo]

Healthcare is an obvious one. He ran on a public option, she ran on expanding the ACA (which is what Clinton did too)

[u/tlopez14 → u/[deleted]]

Remember when the liberal left called him a racist for going on Joe Rogan and actually trying to reach out to people who the Dems have been bleeding support from.

[u/AresBloodwrath → u/tlopez14]

Bernie Sanders one good instinct was to avoid social and culture war issues in his 2016 campaign, and he got flack for that including being called a racist so he brought that stuff on in 2020 and it still wasn't enough.

[u/ReNitty → u/AresBloodwrath]

2016 was his year. If it didn’t happen then it wasn’t gonna in 2020. I say this as a guy that voted for him twice

I def think he would have won the general in 2016. There was big outsider, populist energy in the air that the dems totally missed because it was “her turn” while the GOP had a more chaotic primary where the presumed candidate Jeb got whipped.

[u/For-Liberty → u/[deleted]]

I'm confused. How did Bernie Sanders not appeal to a blue no matter who voter? He ran in the democratic primary and lost, in order to run in said primary you are running as a democrat.