tootoughtoremember

I’m not sure I even prepared myself.

I don't understand this. Were these people not alive in 2016?

Was it this one, from 2017?

There were certainly votes lost in Michigan over Gaza, but even if every single Jill Stein vote was a protest vote (they weren't), it wouldn't have been enough for Harris to carry the state.

The tougher thing to parse is the reason why so many voters seemingly stayed home this cycle. I think there is a very reasonable argument that not enough people were excited about her message, even the base.

It's a lot easier for door knockers, phone bankers, and everyday democrats to talk proudly about their candidate if they can rattle off a list of great things their candidate will do. It's even easier if those great things hit people where they're hurting the hardest or is the moral thing to do (healthcare for the uninsured, ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc.). It's a lot tougher to get low propensity voters to show up on the harm reduction argument alone, especially if you brush past where they're hurting or concede too much ground on your moral positions.

The biggest issue for most voters appears to have been inflation and the economy, and while democrats were technically correct to say the rate of inflation has come down and American economic indicators outperformed most other countries in this post-pandemic period, that's all pretty meaningless to someone whose real wage growth didn't keep up with inflation these past few years. The "opportunity economy" and targeted small business tax cuts is a much tougher sell to someone working two+ jobs to get by.

The other issue that dominated the media was immigration. Democrats forfeited their moral position when they offered the republican wishlist border bill earlier this year. The argument that republicans weren't serious on the border because they didn't support the bill fell flat, and instead democrats were (rightly) criticized for abandoning their framing of the issue as a choice between deportation and amnesty, and their previous claims the border wall was racist.

All of that to say, democrats failed to connect with their own base on the issues that make them the party's best messengers. Add Gaza to the list of issues where Harris could have pivoted away from Biden, instead of running into the arms of the Cheneys to chase the mythical moderate republican voter.

Counting to five, too complicated for voters.

I think there's plenty of people to be mad at, more than enough blame to go around.

Biden could have chosen to be the transitionary president he "signaled" that he'd be by stepping out of the race 6-12 months earlier, and allowing for a full primary season for democrats to rally around a candidate and a platform.

The Harris campaign could have rejected the failed 2016 strategy of courting moderate republican at the expense of blue collar democrats, rather than champion the Cheney family endorsement, in spite internal protests.

I'm not willing to scapegoat just one person for this loss, this was the whole damn team. The DNC needs to realize that people vote when they're excited to vote. That whether they're door knocking or just talking to their friends, the base is going to get those low propensity voters out if they're bragging about some great thing democrats will do. And it's a lot easier when that thing is healthcare or amnesty (Obama), rather than small business tax cuts and a republican bill on the border.

The Harris campaign dropped that after the first month, even though it seemed to be the only thing that got under Trump and Vance's skin.

They got Geoff Garin, former Clinton campaign co-chief strategist, who told them to drop "We're not going back" - not forward looking enough (they didn't) and drop "weird" - too negative (they did).

We all have our anecdotal experiences. If you're a college student or graduate, going to school or working in an urban environment or coastal state, the data may not reflect your lived experience. But this has been the growing trend in national polls for some time now.

There's also an increasing generational component to this, as millennials age out of the 18-29 demographic. If you're a millennial, this shift may feel even more incomprehensible as millennials appear resistant to the typical conservative shift as they've aged.

try to court "moderate republicans", which we very obviously just learned don't actually exist.

Exactly. For all their effort, all the campaigning with Liz Cheney, all the promises of Republicans in the cabinet, and all the war hawk endorsements, Harris lost votes with Republicans compared to Biden.

Republicans don't vote Democrat, stop running to the right to appease them. Democrats don't want to hear that shit either and you need them to show up to win, so how about courting their vote instead.

Some very broken little boys out there.

Unfortunately there are many. And no matter what their interests are, whether it's sports, video games, or going to the gym, there are right-wing groups who have set up shop to welcome them to their side. They provide them fraternity, an in-group to be part of, share their common interest, and pump a steady stream of misogyny and bigotry to normalize it.

And it worked.

Guys, stop talking to the media, you're making our expensive strategists look bad. We really want to campaign with republicans and we don't need your dissenting opinions out there to make it harder for us to do again next time.

I don't disagree, but you'll have to take that up with the Pew Research Center. Unfortunately this is kinda their area of expertise, haha

I want a country where everyone pays less for healthcare. If it can be done for seniors, why not everyone else?

I want a country where everyone's private medical decisions remain between them and their doctor, without being cleared by your local, state, or federal representative or by a judge.

I want a country where everyone who works, pays taxes, and does not commit violent crime or property theft can stay and keep working without having to look over their shoulder.

I want a country where if you work full time, you can afford your rent/mortgage, put food on the table, start a family, and still be able to retire.

There's a vision. Apparently all of these things have become radically progressive leftist positions and are attacked as such by the media and conservatives alike.