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Ok. First. Those votes were not, like, commies or something. Communists broadly (but not universally ) have no faith in electoral politics beyond the ability to demonstrate how useless electoral politics are for the kinds of change they see as required. The missing votes are likely non-explicitly-ideological Americans, and the disenfranchised left wing of the Democrat coalition, who are not revolutionary socialists - they are better described as social democrats. And why so many of them voted for Biden was, at least in significant part three things that you're pretending don't exist with this meme.
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Tremendous dislike of Trump.. which is actually still true, but he was not currently the president during this election. Trump had just spent the last few months massively fucking up the pandemic response very publicly and got covid immediately prior to the election, which made him look stupid and incompetent.
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Because of COVID policies, voting had literally never been easier. Shit loads of people voted early because it was universally available. Led to highest turnout ever.
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A competitive democratic primary process meant that we had a candidate selection process people could believe in to some degree. Brenie and Biden ran, and Biden won. Bernie voters saw that, looked at the situation and said "This is tolerable because we had a real process, and we can accept Biden as a stop gap under the conditions of Trump needing to be removed, and Biden being a 1 term President". It wasn't 2016, where a significant portion of potential Democrat voters saw the DNC's treatment of Bernie as unfair, and it wasn't 2024 where Biden decided to run with no true Primary after the deal was "single term president", then abruptly dropped out (good idea, shoulda done it 2 years earlier) and effectively appointed his successor by decree.
2020 was an anomaly, and as is true of 2020 in most data sets, using it as a comparison point requires many many qualifications, but Trump gained 40000 votes, Harris lost 10 million. Trump did not perform better, Harris lost voter enthusiasm, which hasn't actually been on the Democrat's side in presidential elections (which have more non-explicitly-ideological voters) since, like, Obama. It's not even necessarily that she needed to be "more left". It's that she needed to reflect the public's distrust of the political status quo and promise material gain for working people explicitly at the expense of someone else (Trump chose , for instance, immigrants and the democrats as the bad guys, but Harris could have chosen, say, rich fuckers like Musk) . She needed to be ready to rip up the floor boards, and she wasn't even ready to say she'd break from fucking Biden (who is broadly unpopular) on policy.
I really, really wish y'all democrats would stop trying to purge your own party of any dissent, because y'all coming out of this with the right lesson will be the difference between a brief period of Republican control, or several elections cycles of Democrats being unviable as a party.
True. Thank you. It's frustrating seeing the DNC shoot itself in the fucking foot to watch people on Lemmy start swinging on anyone but the people who made and executed the failure of a campaign strategy.
Hey everyone, when you see comments like this from a ""Leftist"" who only ever criticizes "The Dems" for right-wing victories, and never puts the responsibility on the actual, y'know, Trump supporters, that user is a MAGA supporter trying to divide the left and prevent the formulation of a broad antifascist coalition capable of changing the course the GOP has set.
These "non voters" did not actually sit out the election, they are trying to convince you to sit out the next one (or vote third party etc etc). Don't fall for it! We are in this together.
Ugh. This is such a toxic attitude.
Dissent is a good thing. Criticizing yourself is necessary to prevent rot.
Claiming that anyone that disagrees with the party lines is a Russian or a Trump supporter is insane and smacks of McCarthyism.
This comment is arguing against points I did not make, and continuing to blame the antifascist coalition for the rise of fascism.
I wonder, what was the Democratic party wearing when they lost the election?
But blaming the party and sitting out, or voting 3rd party, everyone knew would lead to Trump winning, just like it did. Not voting for Harris was a vote for Trump, and makes those people just as complicity in his being elected as the people that voted for him. Trying to rationalize it as "Dems need to run a better candidate/campaign/etc" is just cover for not wanting to take responsibility for allowing the man everyone left of the GOP knew was a bad idea, back into power (and with numbers that are going to feed his ego into fascist wet dreams).
Moral of my rant is this - criticism of the party is fine and should be allowed/encouraged, but trying to blame the party for millions of people handing Trump the presidency is a bad faith argument and should be called out as such each and every time. We are all adults, everyone knew the consequences, and we all made a choice. And people need to start owning that instead of blaming the DNC for not being their unicorn party able to 100% represent a **WAY ** more diverse set of ideals than Trumps singular ideology of hate/fear.
/rant
I'm very sick and tired of being punished by the DNC for not falling in line.
Like why did they not make Ruth Bader Ginsberg retire before Trump got into office? How could they have not seen that one coming? Everyone saw that happening apparently except for the DNC.
Same with codifying Roe v Wade. They had many opportunities to codify it and then they supply did not. Now it's gone.
Same thing with running the oldest presidential candidate of all time. When people started calling for him to step down, the DNC acted like there was so contingency plan for an 80 candidate.
And then it was the same shit when they ran Harris. She was so unpopular in the last primary that she had to drop out before any votes were cast. Then they just skipped the primary and ran her as the candidate anyways. Then she lost.
The DNC acts absolutely hapless.
I think a great deal of the issue on the "left" is that being such a large coalition, with takes all over the place on many topics, is that we have a very hard time getting everyone to fall lockstep behind many things.
The right has no real platform, and thus can just use their wide propaganda network to just spread their new deflection of the day 24/7, and everyone in that network of lies does their part without question.
I watched a good video last night talking about how we need to build a network like the right has to spread the lefts talking points, our victories, and our goals. Because the current media landscape constantly bends themselves in knots to not offend the right instead of calling out their lies and bullshit for what it is. We need to stop giving the disinformation a platform outside of the Rights network.
You could, possibly, potentially, consider that criticism is coming from a direction that outflanks you on leftism? And that it’s frustrated at the constant party/DC Beltway elitism clutching to neoliberalism during democratic apathy and distrust, and not you?
That's the narrative they espouse, but if you think about it for more than a second, no rational antifascist would attack another antifascist when there are fascists around. It's all about trying to divide a meaningful antifascist coalition.
Either you are with us, or you are against us
Where have I heard that before? 🤔
Division only occurs as people follow their rational self interest - enforcing orthodoxy and silencing dissent to protect the party that failed us all, will only perpetuate their poor performance electorally. People who cannot afford the luxury of blind fealty will go somewhere else - even if that person is a charlatan grifter who never delivers. You cannot defeat populism with more elitism.
If you interpret an ally trying to help as an attack? Clearly I can’t help you brother
First, I voted. I have never missed an election local or national, and I am actively involved in my community. Second, I criticize Democrats primarily on this platform because, one they're the parry I need to be more effective, and two there aren't any Trump voters on this community. If there were Trumper in chat saying outlandish shit, I would want the smoke with them too.
I really, really wish y'all democrats would stop trying to purge your own party of any dissent, because y'all coming out of this with the right lesson will be the difference between a brief period of Republican control, or several elections cycles of Democrats being unviable as a party.
a brief period of Republican control, or several elections cycles of Democrats being unviable as a party.
a brief period of Republican control
y'all don't get it do you. It hasn't sunk in yet.
Don't worry, you'll get there. Probably in about six months.
Say it then. We're in the period of time where we must critically evaluate the failures of the political machine that delivered this. I'm trying my level best to provide detailed, informative assessment of what I'm seeing without resorting to vitriol or anger, both online and in real life. If you have additional details, provide them. This is the time for vigorous debate, and reassessment, and I see the Democrats as much more of allies than the Republicans, so if you, or any other liberal can get past the phase where you're upset with the leftists who have broadly provided critical support for the Democratic coalliton, I welcome your input.
the leftists who have broadly provided critical support for the Democratic coalliton
have you not been on lemmy the last six months or are you just blind?
y’all don’t get it do you. It hasn’t sunk in yet.
Don’t worry, you’ll get there. Probably in about six months
Blue conservatives jerking themselves off over what trump will do to the people they dislike is so fucking god damn cringe.
Fuck First-past-the-post voting for making me have to be "allies" with you.
If you actually read Project 2025, I doubt you would feel the same way.
I find people using the word "cringe" as an adjective embarrassing. I'm embarrassed for you.
Fuck First-past-the-post voting for making me have to be "allies" with you.
You know what the problem with socialists like you is? You went AWOL on us while we had the fascists on the ropes. Why in God's name you would make an enemy out of both the fascists and the Democrats, I have no idea. But you guys did it, now we're all done.
So don't worry, the feeling is mutual. I really don't think that we're gonna have to worry about that after the next six months though.
Be sure to stock up on your Victory Gin and have a double plus good time before they open the "re-education camps".
It's funny that even with this much of a massive loss, you diehard democrats find a way to blame leftists. If such a massive margin of loss is the result of leftists, then that would mean leftists are too big of a group to ignore, but ignore is all you and the rest of the democratic party strategists did during the election so that you could instead curry favor with war criminals like dick cheney and telling people that their concerns of genocide don't matter. Turns out democrats are more scared of leftists gaining any power than they are of project 2025.
I voted for Harris but if "you guys" were really responsible for loosing then we should have given "them" more representation. But hey, at least this way we don't have to blame Zionists, transphobies, xenophobes, or misogynists. Right?
Oh I get it now. You're saying that "there won't be a next election". Careful with the self fufulling prophecies. If you don't want to succumb to that, I recommend getting involved locally. Whoever you trust electorally will need your help now to build a bulwark for 2026, and getting your hands dirty will help you get over the pessimism.
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