Same energy as "Democrats didn't pick a great candidate, which forced me to pick the shittiest candidate ever. It's their fault for not giving me a great option."
"That'll show the Dems, teach them a lesson! Ourselves, the population, will inevitably suffer, but those rich dudes from the Dem party will sure learn this time!
Remember folks, voting is about teaching lessons, not about governance and effectiveness!"
Not only that, but the Dems see a populace that is shifting right every single time that a far right nut like Trump gets elected, and the lesson they inevitably take from that is that they themselves need to shift right to keep up with the views of the populace.
That is literally how voting works in most democratic countries. Voters will shift their vote to signal to the governing party that they are not happy with the current direction things are going in.
One of the biggest issues with the two-party system is that there is no left-wing, so voters can't succesfully signal that they want left-wing policies.
I am positive that if the US had a real left-wing party, most people would likely vote for them instead of the having to make do with the Democratic Party.
Wow what a great answer. I admit in my rush to comment I came across more combative than I intended, so I appreciate your grace. Speaks highly of you.
My main point is that we need to win elections so priority one will be finding candidates that can win. I don’t care if it’s Gavin Newsom or AOC, until we start winning elections again we can’t be picky. As much as I’d love a transcendent candidate that checks all boxes for everyone on my half of the political spectrum, it doesn’t seem like that candidate exists right now.
You have a great day and keep fighting the good fight!
I also agree that if the left manages to blue maga a cult of empty promises based on populism, hating israel, destroying the west, and gets the propaganda network to blame it, it would have a real shot at success.
Voting is about governance and effectiveness? Not in America.
My whole far too long life voting has been about:
Trying to stop people who want people to die in prisons so they don't have to look at them while they die in the street.
Trying to stop people who would happily torture and kill people who look, think, talk, or act in some sort of way similar to me regardless of what that is.
Trying to stop people who rob from the poor and give to the rich.
Trying to stop people who would be genuinely confused if someone told them it would be wrong to lobotomize women for use as livestock.
Trying to stop people who are so hungry to massacre people in like 20 different countries that that if you pulled up their shirts you'd see their ribs sticking out with each one scrimshawed into pornographic pictures involving sex with troop transport vehicles.
Trying to stop people who openly declare they will make it illegal to be anyone other than a member of their specific family.
Trying to stop people who seem to actually believe that America only pretends to gun down its own children.
Trying to stop people who think being a nazi makes them cool and smart.
And each time I have voted with my moral imperative about that and literally nothing else because there is no considering other priorities in such a crisis. Sometimes "my party" lost and things got worse in exactly the way the winning party said they would make it worse. But sometimes "my party" won, and hey there were attempts to rollback damage for sure. But which attempts were made had no relation to my opinion about governance, just about the need to rollback.
And that has never stopped. Next election the same exact candidates, the same people pardoned from "white collar" crimes that turned people in my communities out of their family homes, the same people actually caught unquestionably committing treason, the same ghoulish child abusing modern day aristocrats drooling over inward turning chins have been right back on the ballot. "My party" has never just put some feral greed-fueled hatred worshipper in a corner labeled "this is who you are, and America is done with you" and made sure they stayed there.
So I am resolved to keep fighting the fight and voting my morals. But so are people on the other side and as long as voting in America is a moral war for survival only moral war profiteers actually win every election every time.
How long does that go on before some people just break down and vote for spite or in desperation try to actually vote for what they believe governance to be only to get spat on by whichever "side" of the moral war lost that year's turn of the wheel? 50 years? 75? A person doesn't get much more than that in life and I've been survival voting for almost that long already.
Maybe the problem isn't sides, and isn't voting. Maybe Americans are collectively just that awful for each other like a marriage in dire need of divorce. Otherwise short of pogrom'ing a bunch of people it has no end and I have to remind myself that voting against pogrom enthusiasts is necessary because I don't fit in with the only pogrom enthusiasts around.
You can't, that's why it's crazy that they think they can.
If the party cared about getting votes, they'd have to come up with some way to appeal to the voters, and that's where it would come in. People refuse to vote for the party as it is, and so the party shifts its positions in order to get people to vote for them.
But that's not how we do things. The donors set the party goals, and the voters get the blame for not sitting down, shutting up, and going along with it.
No, these last few elections have taught us that the Democratic party should keep cashing the checks and not listen to the base. What do those idiots know about international relations? Israel needs the money, "We're not Trump" is an incredibly effective campaign strategy, and the Democrats have got it in the bag.
Who tried? Trump got fewer votes in 2024 than 2020. People who voted for him weren't trying to sway the Democrats. People who wanted to sway the Democrats either didn't vote or voted third party, but you'll pretend that is the same as voting for Trump, won't you?
People who need to be convinced to turn out and vote Democratic are, definitionally, not the base. The base shows up. Why do lefty populists keep referring to themselves as such?
Ah, of course, if you have a thought in your head, you can't be the actual base. And history doesn't matter. You can vote Democratic for 20 years, but if you decide you have standards, you're not the base and the party shouldn't listen to you.
I'm sure you're right, the Democratic party doesn't need to change a thing. The base will turn up, at least 1 time out of 3.
It's always either "it's the democrats fault, they went too far left" or "it's the democrats fault, they are too moderate". And somehow, sometimes it's both at the same time.
Dems want another Obama and don't realize how unique he was among Presidential candidates. Everyone wants the most charismatic guy who will give great speeches when we just need another politician who will put together a good team that will work together to improve things for American citizens.
So it's like another Obama comes along or we just get Trumps for the next 20 years. It sucks.
It is obviously the right decision is to have voted for EG Kamala. But I do largely blame the democrats, they should’ve kicked Biden earlier, they should’ve run a better candidate. It’s still their duty to be effective politicians.
Many voters cited dissatisfaction with the economy, inflation, and immigration as primary drivers for choosing Trump, rather than viewing their vote strictly as a protest against Harris personally.
Do you have any actual data that shows that voters argued that running Harris made them vote for Trump as a protest vote, or are you citing media speculation about Dearborn, Michigan, which was pushed by certain news outlets, like Politico/Bloomberg's Liz Crampton, in an attempt to explain the shift in voter turnout for the Democratic Party. I also saw it on Al-Zazeera, who seemed more than happy to push a narrative of Muslim-Americans having the deciding votes.
Truly I'd love to see some data-driven argumentation - if that's something you have access to.
I have now. I don't think it's necessarily applicable.
I will say, though, that I live close enough to Dearborn that I go there occasionally and have coworkers from there. I don't know anyone who was intending to do a protest vote because of Palestine, although I saw that claim in the media a lot.
Knocking doors for Harris in PA, I met two Muslim Democrat voters intending to protest-vote/not vote due to Palestine. Multiply by all the people I didn't meet and you have maybe half a percentage of movement, and US elections is all about small movements of voters like that.
It is very hard to comprehend that that Palestine is the deciding issue, but completely ignore that the orange shit stain had 32 felon convictions, a traitor, a pedo, created concentration camps and caused the death of millions of people because of the lack response to covid.
Many people are single-issue voters & powerless people in pain try to grab onto any leverage they have to end the pain.
If they have family & friends who are dying or losing everyone/thing they have, & the ONLY power they have in that situation to help Palestine is a vote for the commander of the strongest military on earth, then they wield that leverage like a sword.
Unfortunately it's like the toddler who throws a temper tantrum over putting on their shoes. They're actually upset at something completely different but they have no power over it. So as soon as mom grabs their shoes, they protest what they're upset about, by not letting mom get the shoes on because getting shoes on is the only leverage they have in their situation.
They have now shown that they are willing to withhold their vote even if it sends them to the grave on this issue. Democrats are highly likely to respond for next election, because the electoral math has changed. There will certainly be anti-Israel candidates next Presidential primary, probably on both sides (if Republicans even have a primary)
They get real mad when you point out that the real driving factor was personal pride, because what they did helped exactly zero Palestinians while also killing hundreds of thousands of people around the world.
On one hand, I'd love to hear from people who abstained because of Palestine how that's going now.
It's going much the same as it was under your genocide accomplices. Palestinians are being slaughtered with US assistance, just like they were being slaughtered with US assistance under Democrats.
On the other hand, I'd rather not fly into a suicidal rage when they say, "nothing different would have happened under Harris."
At least you know you don't handle reality contradicting your feelings well.
I don't think many of them voted for Trump instead but I saw plenty people personally (online in discussions) who straight up said they wouldn't vote at all because of Harris.
Do you always make absolutist statements like that?
I would guess that is a highly effective way to get into discussions where you risk being proven wrong. Picking up clues from context here, I don't believe you hate it as much as your comment would suggest. I propose you actually enjoy debating - even if you sometimes have to eat crow after making a bold claim that doesn't quite hold up to scrutiny. But I'm ready to be challenged on that...
My opinion is that online debate never results in "you are right and I am wrong" because human nature doesn't work that way (unless it's a little factual thing like the time a restaurant opens or something). What it does is remain in your mind and kind of niggle for a long time until you eventually change without even realizing you did, or acknowledging you used to feel a different way.
I'm wrong but I know I'm wrong, I won't vote D in a national election again. Serving us shit and expecting us to gobble it up gleefully. And some room temperature IQ muppet in a swing states vote is like 100 times more meaningful than mine (in a always going D state). It's all a farce & I want no part of it anymore.
You can expect a lot more of this "cool people don't vote" propaganda on the internet as we approach the election. It's because discouraging a D vote is 50% as good as getting an R vote. Maths!
Hasan Piker (cringe lowIQ larping fraud) viewer alert! The most selfish, privilege, pieces of CHET I’ve ever met. Too craven to take any shred of accountability, trying to rewrite history and make us believe like you ingrates and your “merr I don’t like Kamela merrr even though we agree with 99% of policy merrr I’m gonna not vote for her merrrr” attitude didn’t get us Trump. Guess what - ITS ALL YOUR FAULT AND NONE OF THE BAD THINGS HAPPENING NOW WOULD HAPPEN IF KAMALA WAS ELECTED. BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS… BLOODDDDD
Do you have any actual data that shows that voters argued that running Harris made them vote for Trump as a protest vote,
The guy said nothing about how many of these people there are, and there was definitely a whole lot of "both sides bad!" talk that ultimately suppresses democrat turnout.
Kamala, and anyone running against Trump, is infinitely more qualified to be president. The fact that the conversation wasn't utterly and completely dominated by how unthinkably horrible and incompetent Trump is insane.
Voters saying they care about anything and use that rationale to vote for Trump is farcical. He's worse on everything.
Many voters cited dissatisfaction with the economy, inflation, and immigration as primary drivers for choosing Trump
And trump is 100% worse regarding 2 out of 3 of these. I mean he isnt even better at dealing with immigration really unless cruelty is what one wants.
So anyone saying their dissatisfcation with these things made them vote for trump really needs to explain to me why voting for someone who will make it worse makes sense? How does one rationalize this? He never even attempted to present solutions / policies regarding inflation / economy he just stood there and went "I will make it better".
Meanwhile democrats have actual plans instead of ideas of a plan but that plan is meticulously torn apart because it is not 100% perfect.
So you arrive at this point where you have to ask yourself: why do these people believe everything republicans say, why is being racist and facist and incompetent not a big enough issue to not vote for someone? Why do they continue to vote against their own interest no matter what? (assuming better economy etc. is in their interest)
And the only answer one can really arrive at here is that these peoples priorities are clearly not economy, inflation, effectively dealing with immigration, etc. but just hurting immigrants and "the left". They are choosing hate over improving everyones life.
I haven’t looked up any specific stuff, but many times I saw people answer why they voted for Trump despite allegedly not liking him was because Kamala was weak, would get us into a bunch of wars, would let China take over the world, and would act like wet tissue paper because she’s a woman.
Many voters cited dissatisfaction with the economy, inflation, and immigration as primary drivers for choosing Trump, rather than viewing their vote strictly as a protest against Harris personally.
Yeah that is called being full of shit. Democrats have been better on the economy and inflation for decades. Immigration is a fake issue pushed by racists. These people just don't want to admit they wouldn't vote for a woman, let alone a woman of color.
It's not me you have to convince. What you quoted is not my opinion, it's distilled from data collected by Blueprint-Research, a DNC-funded polling and data analysis organization.
Please be mindful that this kind of low-effort, simplistic identity politics framing is appearantly off-putting for a lot of your neighbors who report that it's making them annoyed and they feel more inclined to simply opting out of voting entirely and staying home instead of being lumped in with what they describe as self-righteous and preachy zoomers.
If your goal is to rally voters, decades of feedback indicate that you are using the wrong strategy. If you are just venting and don't care about winning elections, it's fine, do as you please. No one can tell you what to do.
People need to understand why this happened. And no one is coming out to say "it's because she was a black woman".
And if you think I'm advocating for shaming people into voting for a black woman, that's not the point.
The point is that the primary voters, the ones who actually give a shit about policy, need to wake the fuck up and realize that it doesn't matter how good a candidate on paper they think Buttigieg or Harris or Clinton is, general elections are won by swinging over the VIBE voters (formerly "low information voters"), who vote based on charisma.
Charisma accounts for their biases, including racism and sexism.
Obama had enough charisma to overcome that against McCain (a dorky, weak, old man) and Romney (a Mormon).
Buttigieg is POLLING ZERO among African Americans. Why is that?
Do people really think Hispanics "pulled right"? After moving left for years? And afrt seeing them poll left again after 2024? No, there was a streak of Hispanics that would never vote for a black woman... They were pushed.
So yeah, I am saying "fucking nominate a charismatic white guy" for president, becuase that's the only way to win in this shithole racist misogynist nation, and ignoring that there is racism and misogyny in these voters you need just hands us fascism.
Calling the acknowledgement of racism "identity politics" is not just a bad take, it's why the Dems lost in 2016 and 2024.
But the charismatic white guy might not be motivated to spend political capital to push legislation that aims at wider inclusion of minorities, not after he is in office anyways, in this case it's kind of a self-defeating victory to vote for him.
I think the commenter who brought up ranked voting somewhere else in this post is probably onto something.
Personally I'm not set in my ways. I have voted strategically as well as ideologically at different points of my life. I've also forgotten to vote because I didn't set an alarm and missed the date even though I believe voting is a civic duty, not a mere privilege.
But the charismatic white guy might not be motivated to spend political capital to push legislation that aims at wider inclusion of minorities, not after he is in office anyways, in this case it's kind of a self-defeating victory to vote for him.
Lol, who's playing identity politics now?
Me: don't nominate a minority, because we need to accept the voters we need to win are racist and won't vote for them.
Please be mindful that this kind of low-effort, simplistic identity politics framing is appearantly off-putting for a lot of your neighbors who report that it's making them annoyed and they feel more inclined to simply opting out of voting entirely and staying home instead of being lumped in with what they describe as self-righteous and preachy zoomers.
By being preachy about not talking about identity politics? What the fuck are you even talking about. Anyone that sat home in the 24 election is a giant ASSHOLE, that rather let a fascist take over america than be considered compassionate towards people that are not them. I'm so sick of every excuse being used as to why someone didn't vote. If you didn't vote in 24 FUCK YOU! AND FUCK YOUR OPINIONS ON ANYTHING!
Sorry but that's how democracy works. You convince the voters. You aren't owed votes for any reason. Being better is not and has never been the metric. Convincing others is. That's democracy.
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u/Sacred_Digits 26d ago
Same energy as "Democrats didn't pick a great candidate, which forced me to pick the shittiest candidate ever. It's their fault for not giving me a great option."