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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: November 6th, 2023

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  • Except that basically every angle except geopolitics, MIC profits, and AIPAC money, pointed towards curbing Israel/Bibi as a a good move. Even a free and independent Palestine has supermajority support - from a Nov-Oct poll of American Jewish voters:

    Jewish voters… priorities include a major speech proposing a Palestinian state and diplomatic relations between Israel and Arab states (72 percent) and increasing humanitarian aid to Palestinians (71 percent). There is also significant support (66 percent) for sanctioning Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for aiding violent settler attacks against Palestinians.

    Emphasis mine. Review the data if you care, but the continuation of Bidens policies was a huge self own. Resolve the issue and Republicans/Russian messaging of ‘Genocide Joe’ falls flat.






  • Perception is (unfortunately) reality. While the campaign website and position papers were solid - especially contrasted with Trump’s “concept of a plan” nonsense, if you don’t effectively communicate how those plans are going to impact voters positively, it isn’t going to help you.

    Biden did in fact win the primary in 2024 before he dropped out - as the incumbent he massively benefited from recognition and campaign staffing, but he still had to run. Had he kept to his “one term president” statement, there would have been an open primary instead of Harris’s ascension.

    Corporate news and engagement driven profit motive has poisoned democracy for a long time, yellow journalism dates to the 1800s. A mad dash to make a network of “liberal Joe Rogan podcasts” will be effective for direct messaging. But if your messaging is still a defense neoliberalism and globalization, you are going to keep losing. To someone for whom having an extra $50 in their pocket is a big deal, the centrist-Dem message is not worth considering. Paid maternity leave, free healthcare, childcare credits, food stamps, stable employment, worker protections, etc are way more important to working poor voters.



  • Correct, that’s my argument.

    Economy/ Cost of living: Beyond pithy “I feel your pain” statements and a late-election focus on price gouging and new homebuyer credits, there was not much for the working poor.

    • Nothing about corporate tax dodging or enforcing consumer’s rights - Lina Kahn at the FTC would have been an easy layup and she’s gotten results already
    • Very shy on pro-union messaging Silent about healthcare costs (beyond in-home carers)

    For someone pinched by inflation and/or predatory corporate pricing, being told “more of the last four year’s policy is coming, sorry we have no money - except for Israel” is a huge turnoff.

    State of Democracy: I think the DNC/establishment Dems massively misread this issue as purely J6/dictator Trump - because ignoring the massive democratic disengagement and apathy means they don’t have to address why voters are unenthusiastic about electoral participation at most levels, and instead “it’s all the MAGAs fault” without questioning why the MAGA movement exists beyond “they’re deplorable”. Trump’s vote total basically flatlined from 2020, two different assassination attempts barely moved polling, he isn’t an unknown figure and voters at large do not like him. What he is however, is a break from “more of the same” no matter how damaging or foolish that may be for the world/country. In no order, here’s what Dems should target/message on:

    • Actually running a primary
    • Not cheating in those primaries
    • Alternative voting like ranked choice
    • Not platforming billionaires
    • Evidence of the party coming down on the side of the worker, instead of corporate/moneyed interests during tough choices. The rail strike is a perfect example, but also the East Palestine spill
    • Evidence of the party listening to voters concerns, like not running Biden again or heeding the ‘uncommitted’ movement.
    • Not surrendering to the Republican narrative on the outrage of the day, and being the adults in the room that deliver results for voters instead of distractions. Clap back with “It’s weird to focus on that - we have an economy to solve.” instead of allowing them to controls the narrative

  • Not right enough?

    Harris represented a “return to normal” which for the working poor pinched by inflation and rising cost of living, meant more slow misery. Abandoning the supposed foundation of the party whilst running against a supposed anti-establishment/disruptive candidate via an appeal to neocon decency was foolish. “Banking” on voting blocs they actively rejected was foolish.

    The party needs to do better, and that starts with us holding them to account for dropping the bag and critically misreading/ignoring the situation, and demanding change.



  • And how effective was the Liz/Dick Cheney appeal to the suburbs, in the end? Given the growing demographics since 2020 Trump should not have effectively flatlined given a growing electorate - until there was depressed turnout he’s never actually had the popular vote.

    2016:

    • Trump - 62,984,828 / 46.1%

    • Clinton - 65,853,514 / 48.2%

    2020 Cycle with heightened turnout for all parties

    • Biden - 81,283,501 / 51.3% [+ 15,429,987 vs 2016]

    • Trump - 74,223,975 / 46.8% [+ 11,239,147 vs 2016]

    2024:

    • Trump - 74,644,300 / 50.5% [+ 420,325 vs 2020]

    • Harris - 70,910,573 / 47.9% [- 10,372,928 vs 2020]


  • Any criticism of The Party immediately means they want Trump, “no it’s the voters who are wrong”

    I vote in all the primaries - and it’s a sobering assessment that pulling “Uncommitted” in 2024 was my most enthusiastic electoral participation since 2008. I still voted for Dem harm reduction for the general - in a swing state thankyouverymuch - but look at where we are. 100% unified neo-fash/nativist government with Trump at the helm.

    Why is the Democratic National Committee so afraid of either listening to, or allowing the electorate to participate?


  • Bruh if you wanna argue with yourself, go ahead and build the straw man already

    The argument I’m making in reply to your “stop complaining” post (and that you seem to deliberately be ignoring) is that the DNC and/or establishment Democrats routinely silence internal dissent at any and all times. And that right now they still aren’t listening internally, and have demonstrated a commitment to gaslight voters that inflation isn’t real, and that voters shouldn’t be trusted/allowed to pick who they get to vote for.

    Voters have told us in exit poll after exit poll, that their primary issues are economic uncertainty and cost of living, loss of faith in governance, and then immigration.

    32% of voters nationwide said the economy mattered most in deciding how to vote in the presidential election. 11% said immigration, 14% abortion, 34% the state of democracy, 4% foreign policy.



  • “Now is not the time for criticism, it’s not election season - save that for the primaries”

    “Now is not the time for criticism, the primaries are soon”

    “Now is not the time for criticism, there’s only 100 days to go before the general”

    “Now is not the time for criticism, we just had a huge, crushing loss”

    So are liberals/democrat faithful/etc really committed to never learning, or never listening? When am I allowed to criticize half of the political duopoly that is increasing out of touch not just with my concerns, but openly snubs voting blocs and demands fealty in return for the status quo?




  • I will tell you something about the Holocaust. It would be nice to believe that people who have undergone suffering have been purified by suffering. But it’s the opposite, it makes them worse. It corrupts. There is something in suffering that creates a kind of egoism. And when such monstrous things have happened to your people, you feel nothing can be compared to it. You get a moral “power of attorney”, a permit to do anything you want – because nothing can compare to what has happened to us. This is a moral immunity which is very clearly felt in Israel.

    Uri Avery, speaking after the IDF’s massacre at Sabra and Shatila

    Uri was a Zionist poster child - his immediate family fled to (then mandatory Palestine) after the Nazis took power; every other relative who stayed in Germany was murdered in the Holocaust. During his youth in 1938 he joined the Zionist terrorist group Irgun, in reaction to the first execution of a Jew for the attempted bombing of an Arab bus. He remained a member in the group until partway through most of WWII, when he leaned into nationalism publishing far-right news articles and opinion pieces.

    The turning point for Uri was his time in the IDF during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and the ethnic cleansing and displacement that occurred, percolating through decades of his life until during the 1982 Lebanon War he became the first Israeli to meet Yasser Arafat for an interview.