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Vincent Oriedo, a biotechnology scientist, had just such a question. What lessons have been learned, he asked, from Harris’s defeat in this vital swing county in a crucial battleground state that voted for Joe Biden four years ago, and how are the Democrats applying them?

“They did not answer the question,” he said.

“It tells me that they haven’t learned the lessons and they have their inner state of denial. I’ve been paying careful attention to the influencers within the Democratic party. Their discussions have centred around, ‘If only we messaged better, if only we had a better candidate, if only we did all these superficial things.’ There is really a lack of understanding that they are losing their base, losing constituencies they are taking for granted.”

“We have set ourselves up for generational loss because we keep promoting from within leaders that that do not criticise the moneyed interests. They refuse to take a hard look at what Americans actually believe and meet those needs.”

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[-] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 34 points 1 month ago

Trump pretty much won on optics alone and positioning himself once again as looking out for people despite not being true at all. Dems didn't want to address people's issues with the economy and did the weird thing of tap dancing for right Dick Cheney voters who don't exist.

Just stand for something, even if the risk of loss is high. It pays off in the end.

[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Trump won on optics because the optics on the ground matched what he was saying. Democrats insisted the economy was fine when people were hurting, and lost because of that.

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[-] mlg@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month ago
[-] negativeyoda@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

The small concession is that Trump is almost undoubtedly going to trip over his dick, so we'll probably end up with a blue wave of some sort in 2028. Nothing will change for the DNC and no lessons will be learned, so 2032 looks bleak as shit.

We need to understand that Dems are not going to fight for anyone besides their donors. They'd rather lose than take pointers from someone like Bernie

[-] MataVatnik@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I've been hearing blue wave since 2016, it's almost 10 years now. Where is this blue wave, democrats barely got majorities, but hardly what I would call a wave. It's not going to happen in the next midterms, just another razor thin majority where some of the supposed Democrats vote alongside republicams to fuck over the people.

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[-] futatorius@lemm.ee 9 points 1 month ago

From now on, the elections are rigged. The media is almost entirely fascist- or oligarch-controlled (to the extent that there's a difference). The courts are so corrupted that there will be no justice from them until they are purged.

But yeay, just sit there complacently and wait for the pendulum to swing. That'll work.

[-] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Lol @ the people who think they can vote themselves back out of this mess. Trump made it quite clear that "You won't have to vote anymore" after this term. I for one believe him. Even if he dies you'll just get saddled with one of his sons, daughter, son-in-law, ...

[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

we’ll probably end up with a blue wave of some sort in 2028

Don't worry, that will get fucked up, too. A bunch of blue dogs who the DNC supports will win and they'll claim that it's a evidence that progressives can't win.

I've been through this bullshit enough times to have learned the pattern

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[-] Whirling_Cloudburst@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

People want real fucking change. One man stood up against a massive evil health insurance company and regular people from all sides of the political spectrum support him.

Dems could have won if they were willing to do the same and no one would even need to be hurt to do it.

Naturally, there are a host of other problems mentioned in this thread. The trouble is that there is too much free $peech from the ruling class in politics.

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[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Every breakdown and postmortem i see make it pretty clear:

If you paid close attention and were well-informed, you voted for Kamala.

If you believe things aren't true or didn't pay close attention, you voted for Trump as a sort of totem for wealth and success, not because of a specific policy of his you like. He just represents making lots of money to you.

Any grappling with what went wrong or improvements needed within the DNC first needs to reckon with the reality that people aren't seeing left-wing messaging and are instead exposed to a fake version of leftism pushed constantly by right-wing actors on social media.

[-] Zetta@mander.xyz 15 points 1 month ago

I think a lot of people have problems with the Democratic Party being bought by the billionaires as well ...and supporting genocidal regimes.

I voted for Harris but you boiled it down to a few lines and missed a lot of reasons why I think a significant amount of Americans didn't vote at all.

[-] WagyuSneakers@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

I voted for Harris, but I think that they're missing the point. They needed to win over more people with their candidate. You still have to be popular and you don't have a divine mandate because your opposition is intolerable.

I am a demographic Dems claim to champion, but I haven't ever seen that support materialize. Somehow they never help me. I vote Dem because I like Rep less. I get not liking Dem as a party. I don't like them either. This is very prevalent within my communities. It drives voter apathy and pushes moderates to the right. They're viewed as incompetent in addition to being just bought and paid for as Reps.

They haven't had a genuine primary in decades. They haven't tried to connect with small-midsize cities in decades. They've completely failed to communicate with their average voters and that is THEIR job to do that. The last minimum wage increase was signed into law by Bush and then Dems sat on their thumbs for three terms. I do not accept "I tried." I need a party that can win those battles. I've tried engaging with my local Democrats, but I get boilerplate responses. I'm fairly sure they're all chatbots at this point.

And most importantly, it's hard to root for a perpetual loser. Even when they win they still lose and can't do anything. It's never their fault. They just never do anything. I need someone intelligent enough to win. Dems don't provide that.

They'll get my vote until anyone else who isn't a Rep/Fascist has a chance of winning and not a moment longer. It's so wholly undemocratic that I have to choice between a Kleptocrat or a Fascist.

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[-] PlagueShip@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Left wing messaging is all focused on logic and targeted to the well-informed. They have no emotional message for the poorly educated, and that's a stupid mistake. I thought these were supposed to be the smart people? Zero EQ.

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[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 14 points 1 month ago

In a capitalist society, the role of government should be to protect citizens from corporations.

If nobody is willing to do that, what use are they?

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[-] Stern@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

We have set ourselves up for generational loss because we keep promoting from within leaders that that do not criticise the moneyed interests

Evergreen quote-

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair

[-] rayyy@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Corporations and Republicans control the media. Putin deployed psyops on the social media of the bar room and bowling alley crowd. They controlled the narrative and will continue to control it until people wake up and realize they have become wage slaves who have a shit-hole standard of living.

[-] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago

If Democrats hadn't made a bunch of unnecessary and unforced errors, then we could blame it on the corpos and the Russians.

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[-] Draegur@lemm.ee 11 points 1 month ago

The Democrat aristocracy do not care about winning.

They only care about marketing the disaster of their losses so that they can launder billions of dollars in "vote blue" spam campaigns.

All those donations are going somewhere - to "consultancy firms". To "ad agencies". And then they get to enjoy kickbacks from this mutual relationship.

THEY DON'T NEED TO WIN TO RAKE IN BILLIONS.

and so they don't even try.

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[-] kipo@lemm.ee 9 points 1 month ago

Left vs right or democrat vs republican — that framing is a distraction in this political reality. The war is between the 99% and the 1%. It’s the working class vs the billionaire class. Your republican neighbor may be a MAGA religious crazy, voting against his financial interests, but he’s been successfully manipulated by a corrupt party controlled by billionaires. Your other neighbor may ‘vote blue no matter who’, ignoring or ignorant to the fact that most democrats at the state and federal level are also influenced or bought by corporate interests and the 1%. These neighbors are clearly not the same, but they are both supporting the interests and agenda of a billionaire class that is oppressing them.

That is not to say that republicans or religious extremism are not threats — they very much are — but they have been allowed to gain power due to a broken and corrupt system of government.

The system is broken because unlimited money gets funneled into politics. It’s destroyed our checks and balances, as well as the incentive structure for our judges and our representatives — most of whom no longer have a primary interest in representing the 99% of us. We are being taxed, robbed, poisoned, oppressed and enslaved by our own government, without even proper representation to show for it.

We cannot expect that our elected representatives will act in our best interests; they require our constant input and scrutiny of their actions. Either we as a people become more involved with politics at all levels of government, or we start a revolution. The problem of corruption in all levels of our government will not be solved by the corrupted. A continuation and increase of wealth inequality will destroy this country.

The corporate-backed fascist MAGA-America regime starts tomorrow, but we are not powerless. The 99% has power. We must come together, organize, educate, exercise empathy and patience with one another, and take action; we can take back control. We have to.

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this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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