this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2024
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“This is a collapse of the Democratic Party.” Consumer advocate, corporate critic and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader comments on the reelection of Donald Trump and the failures of the Democratic challenge against him.

Despite attempts by left-wing segments of the Democratic base to shift the party’s messaging toward populist, anti-corporate and progressive policies, says Nader, Democrats “didn’t listen.” Under Trump, continues Nader, “We’re in for huge turmoil.”

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[–] dhork 156 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

He is an expert, after all. He's the guy whose 3rd party campaign in 2000 siphoned enough votes from Gore in Florida to flip the state (and the election) to Bush.

[–] FlyingSquid 71 points 2 weeks ago

And people were saying the same stupid "Bush and Gore are the same" shit in 2000.

[–] Mirshe 66 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Uhhhh, wasn't that more due to Jeb! ordering the recount stopped? Like, I seem to recall reading that the recount WAS NOT COMPLETED, and the results that they had at that point had to be accepted, which just so happened to favor Bush.

Not saying Nader didn't siphon votes, but I seem to remember that there was actual skulduggery and not just "3rd party go brr".

[–] Hugin 28 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

There was a lot going on. The final count used had bush up by 537 votes out of 5.8 million cast. The close margin triggered a recount and Bush dropped to 327 vote lead.

Nadar probably cost the democrats more votes then republicans by greater then that 327. But there were other things that hurt Gore. Some intentional some random.

There were ballot design issues. In areas where the butterfly ballot was used Buchanan (who was also a 3rd party candidate) got way more votes than elsewhere. So if you wanted Gore saw him under Bush and selected the dot below you voted for Buchanan. See below.

Bush. O

/ O Buchanan

Gore. O

In another democratic area the ballot had the presidential race split on the front and back page. 21,000 votes were invalidated because they had multiple selections for president.

There was a large purge of mostly black felon voters. 15% weren't felons.

Then there were lawsuits trying to stop and start recounts in both state and federal court. The state supreme court ordered recounts while they decided if the recount should be used. Then they decided the recount should be used and set a date it was du. Then the US supreme court stopped the recount. Several days later they decided there wasn't time for a recount and ordered the Bush ahead by 537 count to be used.

So honestly it probably took all the above to swing the final count to Bush from Gore. I'm guessing if any one had not happened Gore would have been president.

A personal note I live in Florida and that was the first election I voted in. My vote for president has never be closer to making a difference in who was president. It's shaped my views on elections and voting.

[–] dhork 21 points 2 weeks ago

Well yeah, you (and the other poster who referenced the Brooks Brothers Riot) are 100% correct in stating the count ended prematurely, but if Nader hadn't siphoned away those votes, Gore likely would have had yhe lead throughout the recount and Republicans wouldn't have been in a position to pick a favorable time to stop.

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[–] Keeponstalin 33 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

In the 2000 presidential election in Florida, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by 537 votes. Nader received 97,421 votes, which led to claims that he was responsible for Gore's defeat.

However, Jonathan Chait of The American Prospect and The New Republic notes that Nader did indeed focus on swing states disproportionately during the waning days of the campaign, and by doing so jeopardized his own chances of achieving the 5% of the vote he was aiming for.

  • his wiki

Yeah fuck Ralph Nader for that. He definitely helped Bush win.

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[–] [email protected] 133 points 2 weeks ago (25 children)

They need to fire the leaders of Democratic party. Find new blood and new direction. Swing to the right didn't help them.

[–] dhork 80 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

So they did that once, Hillary was all set to take the nomination in 2008 then this young charismatic guy took the nomination. Obama served 2 terms and the Republicans lost their mind over it....

..... but maybe the Democrats did too? Because Hillary still thought it was Her Turn in 2016, and there were a lot of machinations to make sure they didnt run a Socialist. Then I distinctly remember all the shenanigans to insure that Joe Biden got the nomination in 2020. And we all know what happened this year. I actually think Harris was a good candidate, I just wish she got the chance to prove it in a meaningful primary. (Edited to add: if she had lost a primary, all it would have meant was that Democrats would have found an even better candidate.)

The Democrats do have a deep bench of Governors and Senators who might make really good Presidents. They even proved that strategy worked in 2008. I wonder why they are so afraid to prove it in a primary.

[–] givesomefucks 49 points 2 weeks ago

But when Obama won the nomination the DNC didn't support Obama in the general.

So Obama ignored the DNC for 8 years and let it fester until 2016 when Hillary's primary campaign took control of it they shady backroom financial deals that resulted in her campaign getting approval over what the DNC did during the primary.

There was a brief window Donna Brazille got in leadership and showed everyone the receipts, then Hillary's people got back in control and Biden kept them.

With Kamala losing the DNC votes for it's own leadership, and will likely retain like they always do.

Obama has the chance to appoint progressive leadership to the DNC and fix the party, but instead he ignored it as a relic.

And we're still paying the price.

I wonder why they are so afraid to prove it in a primary

Because challenging the party favorite is career suicide when the party is corrupt.

If Obama hadn't won in 08 none of us would remember his name, and the party did nothing to help him because they knew if he won he could change leadership.

They got lucky and he choose not to fix the party

[–] rishado 28 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Disagree, Harris would not have been close to winning at all if there was a primary. Even Tim Walz would have absolutely smoked her in a primary.

[–] dhork 13 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

While I'm not as sure as you are about that, if it had happened that way I wouldn't have minded at all. I liked Harris as a candidate, and feel she would have made a fine President. but I also like other Democrats.

We'll have to watch Walz. His current term ends with the 2026 election, and while he's not term limited he has already been in office for two terms. This campaign might give him the bug to try again in 2028.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Harris didn't even win her home state in the primary she actually competed in. She was always the wrong choice.

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[–] NatakuNox 10 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Obama, sadly was a failure. Better than any other president since FDR and Carter, but that's not saying much. America wanted change and all we got was the ACA from him and a few less terrible trade deals. Obama deported more people than Trump and never fixed the decline in the middle class. I turned 18 when Obama first ran and was so excited for all the "change" and nothing improved sustainably for the average American. He could have solidified himself as the best ever but road the middle too often and now the party is officially dead.

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[–] givesomefucks 35 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

The issue is the same with trump.

A lot of stuff is dependent on people "doing the moral thing".

The DNC is a private organization, and if they decide to keep making the terrible decisions they've been making, there's not a lot we can do about it.

Their platform for a decade has been "what are you gonna do, vote trump?"

So I really really think that today being the day after the election is the day we start talking about a third option in 2028. There's no reason to expect the same people who have been running the DNC to magically change this time or even just get out of the way for the best of the country.

We can't just "find new leadership" because when a Republican wins, the DNC votes for its own leadership and almost always elects the same kind of people if not literally the exact same people.

[–] BombOmOm 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Their platform for a decade has been “what are you gonna do, vote trump?”

The people: Yes

But seriously, the Democrats need to get better candidates, and they need to take a long-hard look at their policy agenda. The people don't want it and will literally vote for Trump before what Democrats are offering.

[–] givesomefucks 32 points 2 weeks ago

That's not what I'm seeing.

Obviously totals aren't in yet, but looks like trump gained a million voters and Dems lost between 8-17 million

Which is what I've been saying for years. The danger isn't cross over voters, very few people bounce between parties.

What matters is energizing your own base and getting them out to vote.

Dems keep pissing off their own base to court Republicans and it never fucking works

Because what people will do, is just not vote.

Which is what just happened. And at the end of the day the entire point of a campaign is to motivate voters, this is a failure of Kamala and her campaign.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

So I really really think that today being the day after the election is the day we start talking about a third option in 2028.

Might I recommend supporting the Forward Party.
They're trying to build a whole New Kind of Party, genuinely from the bottom up. Focusing on local politics, where election rules can be changed to make representatives more responsive to their voters. They're quite unlike other 3rd Parties that just run pointless presidential candidates every 4 years.

Then there's RepresentUs. Not a Party, but a political organization trying to do the same. Fix our election system at the state and local level.

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[–] MsPenguinette 21 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

They've already started the talking point that they swing too left and that's why they lost

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They don’t want to learn. They’re both right wing parties.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, courting far left people like Dick Cheney was the problem. Next time they will just run Ivanka Trump and if you're against her, you are a misogynist.

Just kidding, they won't run her until she's at least 60, everyone knows people who are younger than that can't politics.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

https://democrats.org/contact-us/

Their system is so bad they accepted "[email protected]" as my email so go have a blast. I encourage everyone to do so.

I told them all to resign and congratulated them on chasing the mystical moderate all the way off a cliff.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Really think they have the ability to see that? Because I don't. Nor does history. My gut tells me the Dems are going to move dramatically further right after this because "they didn't appeal enough to the 'center'" and "they can't rely on the left to support them". Our only option might be a leftist coalition committed to not voting dem until they capitulate or we gain enough support to be a viable party.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago

“they can’t rely on the left to support them”

Worse, they do not want to. That would be bad for their billionaire buddies. The same buddies that funnel untold millions to both parties at the same time, to ensure they get what they want either way.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

This is why I'm hoping that all the impending hardships reflect poorly on Trump's term, and he can merely serve as the Hoover to an FDR-like successor.

Would be great if we avoided all the unnecessary deaths along the way, but we wouldn't be human if we didn't insist on learning everything the hard way.

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[–] [email protected] 77 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Hope and change. That's the message Obama won consecutive terms with. The Republicans have always thrived on fear and insecurity--and hate, which is just ripe fear. To quote Yoda, "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate." The red scare, the Southern Strategy, urban crime, WMDs, terrorism, immigrants, China--since the 1950s, Republicans have monkey-barred from fear to fear.

It's a natural fit for conservativism. What is conservatism if not the fear of change? And when you're afraid, you want a strongman to lead you, someone who takes pride in our military and law enforcement. Someone who shows no fear, who has swagger. It's also a perfect fit for someone like Trump who would as soon lie as breathe. When you're conjuring terrors, truth is just dead weight.

Kamala didn't run on hope and change. She ran on fear, too. She tried to beat Trump at his own game with none of the advantages of his shameless distain for the truth or a Republican Party and media ecosystem at home with fearmongering. She aped his disdain for immigrants and opposition to China, but of course her main bugaboo was Trump himself. Despite widespread dissatisfaction with our nation's current circumstances, she offered only stasis, while Trump offered revolution.

Non-college graduates know they're getting fucked. Trump says immigrants and China is to blame. Kamala has nothing to say. She could point to the billionaires, the tax dodging corporations, the thriving defense contractors, the predatory medical insurance and pharmaceutical companies, the monopolies bleeding consumers dry in every corner of the economy.

She could paint a vision of affordable healthcare for all, an end to medical bankruptcy, an end to college debt, a thriving green energy blue collar economy, free early childhood education, a guaranteed jobs program, a universal basic income.

She could acknowledge the people who feel left behind and say, "I hear you. This is what I'm going to do for you." Instead, her cries of fear just assured those folks that Trump really was going to fuck shit up fighting for them, that the people who sold them down the river are shaking in their boots. Of course, Trump isn't actually going to make their lives better, but he promised he would, and that's more than Kamala could be bothered to do.

[–] IndustryStandard 14 points 2 weeks ago

Republicans can blame immigrants, LGBT, black people, brown people, women and much more.

All Democrats had to blame was Trump.

Democrats can never beat Republicans in the blame game. They must offer hope. They can never beat Republicans in threatening despair.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Liberals would choose fascism over adopting left wing elements into the party. They've made their choice and will now live with it. Repeated failure by leadership to choose a candidate people actually like is what brought us here. Never forget that.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

It's not even the leader itself that matters. Harris was a mediocre politician, but she could have run a better campaign on issues that make people believe in the Democratic party. But instead we ran up to election day wondering if Lina Khan would even keep her job and nightmares of neoliberal policies too limited and too complicated to inspire anyone.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 2 weeks ago (14 children)

Move on from the Democrats. It's over. They had their chance with Bernie.

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[–] njm1314 42 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe blowing up the Democratic party would be best for everyone.

[–] affiliate 15 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

that would only be true if there was something to replace it

[–] njm1314 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Well I'd prefer more than one thing to replace it, but certainly this is one of the rare opportunities to do so.

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[–] FlyingSquid 34 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Fuck you, Nader. We wouldn't even be in this mess if it wasn't for you.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 weeks ago (21 children)

Looking purely at vote counts, he isn't wrong. Trump lost about 3 million votes compared to 2020, whereas the Dems lost 15 million. There's certainly a lot of blame to lay at the feet of "both sides bad" people who didn't vote, but either way that's catastrophically bad turnout for the Dems.

[–] FlashMobOfOne 15 points 2 weeks ago

There’s certainly a lot of blame to lay at the feet of “both sides bad” people who didn’t vote

No. Absolutely not.

The Democrats and Republicans have spent 40 years, but more importantly, the last six months making it very clear that losing a badly-needed day's pay for a worker isn't worth the time it takes to vote. (Unless you were in Missouri with the $15 minimum wage on the ballot.)

Democrats are the reason that Democrats lose.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yes, the Democratic party is out of touch. They lost due to stubbornness - expecting Muslims to vote for Kamala without her making a plan to end the war in Gaza was a gamble that didn't pay off.

Now that the election is over, we need to focus our attention on third parties.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Good fucking riddance...

You fucked up a sure thing and let Trump win. There will never be a female president in my lifetime because Trump beats women.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 weeks ago

It's also just another piece of the Overton Window
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

Everything in this election saw a monumental move to the right for everyone .... the left (if there ever was any) went to the center, the center went to the right and the right went to the far right

Now right wing or right wing leaning ideas have become the norm and anything that is even remotely left or leftist has become extreme.

America shifted to the right and it brought along everyone, no matter their political leaning along with them.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Good. Whatever follows can't be any worse than the "we need a strong republican party" dems.

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[–] inclementimmigrant 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Honestly I would be okay with it. They've been so ineffective and myopic that I've been done with the party as a whole for a while now.

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