this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2024
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This is maddening. It will never stop. The democrats refuse to campaign on progressive policies, which are incredibly popular among the entire electorate (yes, also among republicans, see the recent ballot measures in Missouri on paid sick leave and higher minimum wage, for example), instead opting to position themselves as "republican light". They completely capitulate to republican messaging on pretty much every issue (border wall, fracking, pro war, etc), and predictably lose to the people who invented this messaging. And then comes the worst part: angry libs start blaming the electorate instead of the people who lost. It's not the lack of the dems even mentioning universal health care, no it's the trans people. It's not the genocide that the current democratic regime is committing, no it's probably actually latino voters. It's not the fact that the Harris campaign asks us to pretend everything is hunky spunky with the economy, offering nothing to relieve the 80% of the population who live paycheck to paycheck. Noooo you know what it's actually white women and muslims faults. You fucking morons.
Can't wait for the 2026 anti-transgender dem ticket, and the anti gay marriage ticket in 2028. It's gonna be great.
I feel like even calling them "angry libs" gives them some measure of undeserved credibility. Let's call them "fucking crybaby closet fascists" because that's what they are.
Try some lefty moves or keep losing Dems.
Money.. the big donors won't let them
California couldn't get minimum wage, rent control, health care, it even slavery, One state moving progressively is not winning the federal election
The point that I'm making is that across the board, progressive policies are popular. And that does win elections, just look at Obamna's and Sanders' campaigns. That one state was just one extreme example of this fact.
It's absolutely absurd how no one mentioned how regressive Harris's platform actually was.
Zero mention of universal healthcare. She acted like that concept doesn't even exist. America needs healthcare in the worst way. My girlfriend has diabetes and it's so rough to pay for it all.
She also basically sprinted backwards in terms of fighting climate change. I couldn't believe what I was hearing when she was debating with Trump and they were both yelling over each other about who was more pro fracking. Fucking insanity.
Not to mention that her border policy was even harsher than what Trump wanted in his first term. Does anyone else not remember how outraged we all were about the kids in camps being separated from their parents? But when a Democrat does it all of the sudden it's a good thing? Fuck that.
this IS true, but it is not true among left leaning candidates. Just look at florida. People are way too functionally stupid to do anything in line with what they actually want.
I believe there is even some older data to support this, something along the lines of "people like welfare they don't know they're paying for, but when they know they're paying for it, they don't want to"
as far as economic measures go, it is. Inflation is still fucking people over, but the popular sentiment sort of lags the economy. But just because inflation is brutal on goods, doesn't mean that inflation is high, or that the economy is "struggling" it's just that people don't feel good about rising tides. Until they start to lower. (which they can't do)
it's just a human psych thing.
80% of people live paycheck to paycheck. Don't bullshit me.
yeah, and nothing changed that, people are still living paycheck to paycheck.
Now if you can find stats of MORE people living paycheck to paycheck (which do exist) that would be more convincing, but even then the underlying truth is still that it's going to take time for things to improve, as well as inflation can't be undone. So prices are at a new normal.
So the fact that "more stats abt people living paycheck to paycheck" would convince you strongly, strongly indicates that I'm not explaining myself well enough. I'm not under the impression that if I did communicate effectively you would magically be convinced. And that's not necessarily my goal, but I would like to be able to have a productive convo with you, so I'm gonna give it another shot.
Here's two facts that I'm convinced of:
If you believe these facts (and you don't need to), then an unavoidable conclusion is that if Harris would've run a progressive campaign, she would've had a much higher chance of winning.
The weakness in my argument is the two facts I mentioned. They require evidence. I've given a smidge of evidence for the second fact (the smoking gun of the ballot measures in Missouri). A better way to go about it is to find some policy oriented polls targeting a good cross section of the electorate which show that people (R, D, and I) generally support progressive policies (think paid sick leave, think universal health care).
The first fact is much harder to prove, but I would argue that common sense gets you a long way here. But for a more empirical approach, look at the Sanders and Obamna campaigns and the fairly broad and enthusiastic support they enjoyed.
The reason I think I wasn't explaining myself well enough is because the stats you're asking for do almost nothing to support my argument. At best, they're indirect, weak, evidence of the second fact. It shouldn't convince you if I find you some stats about the working homeless and paycheck-to-paycheck livers.
EDIT: I feel like I understand a bit better where your response is coming from. You think that I'm arguing in favor of the effectivity of progressive policies, rather than the popularity. I happen to believe both, but we're talking about why the dems lost, and in a democracy, the popularity of policies is what matters un such discussions, not their effectivity. Again, it's a bit off topic, but for the effectivity you could look at the rate of homelessness and paycheck-to-paycheck situations in more progressively legislated and often poorer countries in western Europe. You'll find that aside from popular (which is what matters here), these policies are also crazy effective.