The problem with all these takes is that the only way for Democrats to “win” the way the Republicans are right now is to find a cult leader and ~50 million low-info, easily triggered people who literally believe every word he says. That’s a tall order, and it sucks.
You can’t counter disinformation and populism with sober realism.
Kamala Harris actually did better than Ilhan Omar in her district, apparently.
Don’t forget billionaires willing to bankroll a left wing alternative media ecosystem even though it goes against their self interest.
So I see we’ve lost a seat in the house. Is the house totally fucked too?
Sober realism sucks.
The winning plan for Dems has always been give 'em stuff and tell 'em about it. People who say they hate socialism love the socialism they receive personally. Medicare, social security, even Obamacare, etc., are all big winners for the Dems. When people see the cheque in their hands they don’t hate socialism anymore, weird.
But they are literally cult followers. Don’t fool yourself about that.
It’s way more difficult to convince normie semi-rational people who barely pay attention.
We were talking about it in the house and senate thread. Looks like most likely result is GOP by 3-5 seats. Which isn’t hideous and mayyyybe could cause some gridlock here and there, but losing it sucks obv.
Honestly expected much worse given the huge rightward shift across the board that we got.
I wasn’t paying close enough attention I guess leading up to the election, but why did everyone get so worked up over de-taxing tips, making promises etc?
A) Why is this income something that should be special and not taxed to begin with?
But more importantly
B) Who cares? None of the caddies I know claim that income on their taxes, ditto the handful of servers I know.
Yeah, I think I got 2020 for Omar instead of 2022.
I’m sure the eDems will take this lesson to heart and tack hard left!
Another huge component to this is people just get sick of the status quo. I’ve long thought remaining in power for more than 2 terms is impossible these days. Reagan had to win every state for 2 elections just to get GWHB over the finish line, and then he got dumped immediately.
Maybe the cycle is shortening now to one term. The problem is these dumbass voters don’t realize they may not get to throw the authoritarian bums out when they get sick of them.
Nate Silvers post mortem
Suprisingly let’s go of the ‘She should have picked Shapiro’ saying it wouldn’t have mattered. Nothing in terms of concrete steps, just that he was right when he said his gut instinct was that Trump would win. Says Trump’s got more of a mandate and is probably going to act unhinged.
Islamophobia still exists. Whoulda thought…
Not sure what you disagree with in my post? I agree with you that people are no longer able to understand reality or truth. I think that makes my point stronger.
If you’re saying that environment didn’t make a difference, then I would ask how you would explain all the other elections around the world that are showing the same pattern? Incumbents are getting voted out.
IMO it’s in large part because people are unable to distinguish reality anymore, they get all their news from social media, etc. They’re used to getting everything they want instantly and when they don’t get it, they vote out the ruling party.
We’ve got at least 50 on this very forum!
The post mortem is these people need to be launched to the sun:
https://x.com/joncoopertweets/status/1854195891705455040?s=46&t=hICOYYyCHuimCJQWftVfBQ
I got kinda mad last night with my housemate. Her job for the last few weeks was as a canvasser for the Dems in local races. Of course everyone wanted to instead discuss POTUS and she obliged where she could. She is a rape survivor and a woman of color. At least one person opened the door and called her the n-word. We more than once discussed Trump’s racism and how he is a literal convicted rapist.
I’m mad because despite all of this, she said she didn’t vote. WAAF when the people whose job is to get out the vote decide not to vote themselves.
Did she have some weird ideological reason, or was she just too busy? I mean it seems silly but I guess I could justify it if she feels like she helped earn hundreds of D votes and then on E-Day she just realized it got really late and she couldn’t stand in line. As an executive dysfunction kinda guy, I could see that happening to me, lol.
