I’ve been quiet the last few days, not because I’ve withdrawn, but because I’ve been trying to make sense of Tuesday. I’ve been looking at the data as it comes in, reading and processing all the hot takes. I didn’t want to add to this because some of the featured opinions were pretty stupid. that pile.
So this is what I got.
The voters of this country are literally all other countries around the world, I was angry. A universal truth this year is that voters are punishing governments for inflation, no matter whether the party in power is right-wing, left-wing or centrist.
The message is: In times of disaster, like the coronavirus pandemic, voters would rather see some people suffer and even die than have the government provide economic stimulus. Inflation is the new global third rail of politics.
But that’s only part of it. The answer to this question is always more complicated, no matter how easily people try to understand it.
senator bernie sanders claimed The Democratic Party’s defeat on Tuesday was because the party abandoned the working class. But President Joe Biden was the most pro-worker president since FDR. he rescued union pensions Reaching $36 billion. He was the first sitting president to do so. walk the picket line.
Hey, he Freeze Elon Musk and Tesla The company was removed from the 2021 Electric Vehicle Summit after auto unions were outraged by Musk’s anti-union activities. That was the beginning of Musk’s radicalization to the right, but what did Democrats get in return? many of them voted for trump.
Old alliances need to be reconsidered. Teachers and service unions (often female and often college-educated) contributed to the Democratic Party. Occupation (white, male, non-college student) disappeared. Democrats need to adjust their focus accordingly.
Unsurprisingly, Vice President Kamala Harris seems to have had a bit of a hard time Vermont is better There was no greater champion of the working class than Mr. Sanders than Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown. What would he do? oh yeahhe lost. So much for that theory.
On the other hand, a disproportionate amount of infrastructure spending were in red states and districts. Republicans, including members of Congress representing those states and districts, opposed the investment. How did these areas benefit Democrats? By voting Republican on even numbers, bigger numbers. Again, everything needs to be rethought.
Some claim it was Gaza! of exit poll In fact, Harris won voters who thought her administration was doing a good job of balancing the crisis (59-39) and voters who thought U.S. support for Israel was “too strong” (67-30) and This shows that the government has lost voters who want to do more. (82-17). In reality, the pro-Palestinian side was on the wrong side of public opinion, with only 30% of voters. The darling of this crowd, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, barely managed half a point.
The following two theories make better sense to me.
Some point to the vast right-wing noise machine and marvel at how the Republican Party has been able to push its agenda into the mainstream, despite having no counterpart on the left. That power was greatly amplified when the radicalized Mr. Musk bought Twitter and made it his propaganda center.
I spent 20 years begging Democratic donors to invest in liberal media, but they accepted the idea that the media was already liberal. Why spend money on new liberal media when we already have the New York Times and NPR?
Republicans, on the other hand, looked at the huge success of Fox News and AM radio overall and said, “We want more.” They founded and funded the Drudge Report, Breitbart, the Daily Caller, and said more, more, more. Despite Fox’s dominance, they launched two more cable networks, Newsmax and OANN. The more the better! They aggressively expanded into podcasting, that It was so successful that the Russians decided to provide funding.
And Republican leaders, from members of Congress to Mr. Trump himself, have regularly appeared on and promoted all right-wing media outlets, from the most prominent to the most obscure. Meanwhile, Democratic leaders are distancing themselves from progressive news outlets instead of helping build their own progressive media infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the entire so-called liberal press downplayed President Trump’s threats and brainwashed his dangerous gibberish. At an internal meeting, New York Times Editor-in-Chief Joe Kahn made this statement: told the staff I was angry at their brainwashing. [the critics are] We are interested in having them represent their predetermined point of view. ”
That’s not what we’re interested in, but he’s right anyway. The Times’ work do not have To promote liberalism. Perhaps now the political party donor class will wake up and build the media infrastructure. perhaps.
I also believe that some far-left movements bore a significant responsibility. President Trump’s ad about Harris Supporting transition surgery with taxpayer funds Prison inmates were featured in more Trump ads than any other. it worked.
“Kamala is for them,” the ad said. “Trump is on your side.” That was patently absurd, breaking through the confusion and legitimizing the claim that Harris was too radical.
Discussions about defunding the police, land recognition, pronouns, etc. all come from a genuine place of trying to right historical wrongs and build a society built on tolerance, equality, and respect. Masu.
But instead of building public support over time, as the gay rights movement did with marriage equality, strategic, deliberate, gently Taking people in, activists tried to denounce and shame the masses into consent. “Latin” is so stupid that I can’t either, and neither can I most latinos. The new version “Latin” is even better. Pretending that borders don’t matter…did.
Harris beat Latino in Arizona. 55-42Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, who was seeking a state Senate seat, won 61-37. Yes, he is Latino and male, which probably helped. But he also Loud Latin Critic and, border hawk. He knows how to actively focus on what people are concerned about, rather than simply trying to make a certain group of people feel better. I can keep going forever.
There is a large core of Americans who are struggling to get by, wondering why the Democratic Party is focused on things that seem irrelevant to them. Most Americans aren’t unionized, but the vast majority use Apple products, so great, let’s get the Department of Justice to work with us. sue apple Because of its closed ecosystem, let’s move forward with the PRO Act. punish independent contractors People who like the flexibility of working for themselves.
Is it all about going after Big Tech? Big Tech is overwhelmingly Democratic. The San Francisco Bay Area. Great, let’s burn that bridge too, how about that?
It doesn’t matter how much, if any, Harris agreed with this. The loudest voices within our party brand our party. Just as we didn’t believe President Trump when he distanced himself from Project 2025, people are not willing to give politicians the benefit of the doubt when assigning policies to candidates. That’s why President Trump’s prison ads were so powerful. It told voters, “Oh, she’s the next one.” Of them.”
FDR was great at boiling everything down to a simple core message. check him out second bill of rights:
The genius of Trump is that he is doing the same thing, albeit far more destructively. What we need to discuss, and I’ll talk more about this in Part 2, is how today’s Democratic Party needs to learn how to do the same thing.
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