American Politics from 2019 on

[Sean Hayden]

That last bit is a tall order. I’ve been mocking the idea of the left as saviors for ages. Mostly because a) they don’t know any regular folk, and b) wouldn’t like them if they did. They don’t even like themselves when they find out!

[pErvinalia]

Yeah the left has abandoned the working class.

[L'Emmerdeur]

While I understand disdain for the Democratic Party's ability to actually broaden their appeal (they've proven to be consistently inept and feckless in that department) the Democratic Party isn't leftist in any real sense. Harris is center-left at best with some unmistakable center-right policies, clinging to the once useful neoliberal approach rather than embracing truly leftist policies like universal medical care, strengthening Social Security, inexpensive or free university education, significantly raising the federal minimum wage, abolishing the tax bonanza for corporations and the wealthy, etc.

I think if she'd been bold enough to adopt actual leftist populist domestic policies (closer to those of Bernie Sanders for instance) there may have been a different outcome. Damn the duplicitous, hypocritical 'tax and spend' Republican torpedoes and full speed ahead. Right now that isn't in the books for the Democratic Party, which appears to have determined that it needs to tack to the right, foolishly convinced by the goose-stepping Trumpists that's the only way to win.

[Tyrannical]

Ending Russo-Japanese war..... earned Teddy Roosevelt a Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump could win and deserve a Nobel Peace prize over ending the Russo Ukraine war

[JimC]

To repay the favour that he owes Putin, ending the war will mean Russia permanently gaining Crimea and the eastern part of Ukraine, while avariciously contemplating Poland and the Baltic states...

All down to a golden shower...

[Brian Peacock]

That last bit is a tall order. I’ve been mocking the idea of the left as saviors for ages. Mostly because a) they don’t know any regular folk, and b) wouldn’t like them if they did. They don’t even like themselves when they find out!

Aye, and that last part also frames 'the issue' as an 'us and them' thing - there's not enough of us educated suburbanites to defeat them uneducated dipshits etc. This places the problem with democracy squarely on the shoulders of the voters - specifically the wrong kind of voters who voted the wrong way &/or for the wrong kind of reasons. This is exactly how the other lot operate too - so that framing effectively admits that the principles of right-wing identity politics are, or should be, at the core of US (and possibly all) politics.

I see this as The Right's major strategic victory of the last 25 years, and The Left cannot 'win' with counter arguments that simply associate authoritarianism with, and therefore blame authoritarianism on, the people who vote for it. Rather, The Left need to articulate narratives that highlight the systemic/structural factors which facilitate the fash, acknowledge the material factors which make the fash look like a good idea in comparison to the circumstances ordinary people find themselves in, and attempt to reiterate - and if necessary renegotiate - arguments that explain how govt derives it's legitimacy by security, maintaining, and enhancing the well-being of ordinary citizens and not by its ability to impose a top-down enforcement of political agreement and conformity.

[Svartalf]

Ending Russo-Japanese war..... earned Teddy Roosevelt a Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump could win and deserve a Nobel Peace prize over ending the Russo Ukraine war

Only if he manages to have SEAL team 6 pull an osama on putin

[Tero]

To repay the favour that he owes Putin, ending the war will mean Russia permanently gaining Crimea and the eastern part of Ukraine, while avariciously contemplating Poland and the Baltic states...

All down to a golden shower...

When we have a president who is out to destroy the administrative state, give his donors and backers billions in taxcuts, we can't really label it treason. Even giving Putin data on Ukraine is not treason. Because in a sense THE PRESIDENT IS THE SAME AS THE COUNTRY. If the voters voted for him to do all this, he is doing his job.

[Tero]

Pastor rolls up sleeves, gets to work:
As one of the architects of the “Moral Mondays” movement, he helped lead a racially diverse coalition that is credited with toppling a Republican governor and turning North Carolina into a swing state. Though Harris lost North Carolina, Democrats in 2024 won races for governor and attorney general, and the GOP appears likely to lose its veto-proof majority in the state legislature.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/24/us/rever ... index.html

[JimC]

To repay the favour that he owes Putin, ending the war will mean Russia permanently gaining Crimea and the eastern part of Ukraine, while avariciously contemplating Poland and the Baltic states...

All down to a golden shower...

When we have a president who is out to destroy the administrative state, give his donors and backers billions in taxcuts, we can't really label it treason. Even giving Putin data on Ukraine is not treason. Because in a sense THE PRESIDENT IS THE SAME AS THE COUNTRY. If the voters voted for him to do all this, he is doing his job.

"Treason doth never prosper, what's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason."

[Tero]

The medium is the message.
Elsewhere

The disadvantage that Dems have in talking to people isn’t just limited to policies. It also involves how the candidates words are discussed.

You can go back to 2016. Hillary says (accurately, IMO) that half of Trump’s base is deplorable. Trump says that anyone who votes for Democrats is crazy, insulting all of the Democratic party’s base. Well, only one of those comments was discussed by the right-wing propaganda media, as well as the mainstream media. Only Hillary took a hit for that.
There’s probably 25-35% (maybe more) of the voting public that lives in a fact-free Fantasyland that rivals Disney World’s Peter Pan ride. These people are completely unreachable. There’s no point in even trying.

Dems need to find ways to speak to the 65-75% that ARE reachable. In the current landscape, Dems are only trying to speak to part of that 65-75%…There needs to be a strong fact-FILLED propaganda arm of the Dems that puts everyone that isn’t completely in the MAGA-cult back in play.

[aufbahrung]

[Sean Hayden]

—it should be noted that the jackass doesn’t deserve the negative connotation, it’s good company.

[Tero]

MSNBC: As things stand, according to the latest tally from the Cook Political Report, Trump won 49.86% of the popular vote — a margin of 1.6% over Vice President Kamala Harris. (The Democratic nominee, interestingly enough, came up short while winning a higher percentage of the popular vote than Trump received in 2016 or 2020.)

[Tero]

One of my threads hot 20 comments. On 2028 election. I did not post about women. These people did.