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Didn't Democrats raise a record amount of money this election cycle? And they were supposed to use it to get out the vote?
There is money pouring into these campaigns, and it doesn't make any difference at all. It's all just a corporate welfare project for local TV media in swing states.
Harris only had months of campaigning, while Trump had over a year. That alone put her at a massive disadvantage, since much of the vote is often decided (in people's minds) well before the elections.
But the reality is, as long as 50%+ are OK being in a cult run by an incoherent madman, they'll ignore the self-harm and keep voting the same way.
Money only gets you so far. The unfortunate truth is Harris didn't run a campaign that incentivized people to vote. "Better than Trump" doesn't bring people to polls.
I'm so sick of this; that wasn't her platform. People constantly saying that was her platform stopped people from actually looking at her platform. I'm so sick of Dems that think they can just not vote because they don't fall in love with their candidate. Politics is practical and the USA just shit the bed and it will have a real impact on the world. All of the Dems or left leaning people who didn't vote are complicit.
If the DNC wanted immigrants to vote for Harris, they should not have messaged that they will build the wall and prosecute immigrants. Instead, they courted racists who obviously decided to vote for Trump promising Hitler style mass deportations.
If the DNC wanted the peace lovers to vote for Harris, they should not have advertised accepting the Cheneys. Instead, they welcomed the architect of the War on Terror with open arms while Trump lied about being a peaceful dove who never caused any wars.
If the DNC wanted the disaffected youth to vote for Harris, they should have promised change. Instead, they promised that nothing will change, that the economy is doing great right now, actually, while Trump represents a sledgehammer to our society. A horrible change that will affect everyone negatively, but he just lied about the negative bit.
If the DNC wanted progressives to vote for Harris, they should have adopted progressive policies. Instead, they aggressively courted "Moderate Republicans" with stuff like promising to put more Republicans in the Harris Cabinet. The people who want more Republicans in positions of power are obviously just going to vote for Republican administration.
The DNC threw away every advantage they had. Their messaging was, "We're only a little bit better than the Conservatives" and people believed them. The informed voter obviously knows that Trump is 1000x worse than Harris, but most people aren't well-informed. The DNC failed to understand that and failed to inform the voter base, instead relying on the psychopathic message of, "It votes for the Harris or it gets the Trump again".
Where is build the wall and prosecute immigrants in her platform?
Associating with the Cheneys was a terrible move; I agree.
Look at her platform, there is plenty of economic change proposed. The president also has a small effect on the economy, usually at least. Trump wants to shock it with tariffs.
Actually look at her platform because you're wrong about almost everything in this comment. People, and bots, on social media perpetuated the claims your making on social media, not the platform.
Because what a candidates actual platform is doesn't matter at all. You can write up whatever you want on your campain website, nobody is ever going to read it. Campaigns are built upon rallies, tv appearances, and social media. In all three spaces, Harris continually reached out to conservatives and ignored key progressive issues.
Don't get me wrong, I agree that her platform as written was fine. Some of her policies were interesting, but that's not what she campaigned on.
Harris shouldn't have needed to reach out to progressives. We have two parties in the US. We have one vote only. Progressives had a choice to say "let's let Trump win and move the country significantly further right" or "I like most of Harris's policies and something is better than nothing". The choice for progressives was crystal clear. Let's not pretend otherwise. The progressives that didn't vote let everyone down, including themselves. Their argument is completely invalid when you look at the real world in front of us.
If anyone calls themself a progressive and didn't vote in this election, I have news for them: you're not a progressive.
Think about what you're saying right now. A politician shouldn't have needed to motivate their own base? Treating progressive votes as a given is absolute bullshit, especially after progressives were already put into the same hostage situation last year.
Maybe stop treating progressive votes as a given, actually campaign and try to court them, listen to their issues without dismissing them at every turn, and then you can get angry when they don't turn up. Telling everyone to shut the fuck up and hold their nose while they vote is clearly not working though.
Her platform had plenty that progressives agree with! Progressives need to not act like toddlers when they don't get everything they want; we're only going to move to the left gradually. They need to stop asking everyone to treat them like the prettiest girl in school and instead start understanding that politics isn't all or nothing. We almost got Bernie, gradually. We could have potentially gotten someone like him if we didn't let Trump catapult US politics so far right in just 8 years. (Yes I know the the Republicans have been moving in this direction since Reagan, but the acceleration in the past decade is crazy)
I don't buy that any progressives looked at both platforms and avoided voting in good faith. That's absolutely ridiculous. It makes no logical sense at all. Anyone who did that is simply not progressive. That's not a no true Scotsman argument either; it's just bananas that anyone who agrees with progressive ideas would let Trump win.
Think about what you're saying. If a politician doesn't bend over backwards for progressives we should let fascism win? What the fuck? People love saying Republicans are voting against their own interests. Well, progressives who don't vote are also voting against their own interests by abstaining.
I will repeat it one more time; what politicians write out as their policy platform on their website does not matter. American elections are based purely on emotions, there is no logic or reading. Nobody is asking Harris to "bend over backwards" to support progressives. I don't think openly condeming the genocide in Gaza and publicly promising to take steps to end it would have cost her the election. I don't think calling out the corporations that are keeping prices inflated would have cost her the election. I don't think taking a firm stance on LGBTQ rights would have cost her the election. I don't think promising to enshrine abortion rights into law would have cost her the election. I think running a campaign that ignored those issues and championed "more of the status quo" while ignoring or attacking anyone who offered genuine criticism did lose her the election. You can point to everywhere in her platform that guarantees she would definitely try her best to support these progressive issues once elected, but if she's not saying it at rallies, on TV appearances, and on social media, then it does not matter. That's not how elections are won.
If the progressives are too dense to read a website, read between the lines, and make even a modicum of effort to understand the actual political reality of their country we're fucked.
Americans are fucking stupid, have you met us? People have been increasingly less capable and less willing to do basic amounts of reading for like a generation. Critical thinking is all but dead. It's nice that you have high expectations of citizenry, but that just doesn't comport with reality.
People need to feel incentivized to vote. The reality is Harris went too far in courting the right and ended up alienating a lot of progressives in the process. There were a lot of warning signs, people just didn't want to listen.
No. https://kamalaharris.com/issues/ this is not too far right. People need to stop just listening to sound bites and talking points. All of the socialist voters think we're going to just randomly have a socialist state one presidential cycle? Come on. I don't buy it. The real fact here is that people who considered themselves unaffected by Trump couldn't get off their high horse and try to help. You know what drags us more right? Trump winning and Republicans owning Congress.
Her platform and campaigning wasn't good enough. It's the unfortunate truth and people need to accept it. Trump got less votes than 2020, and he still won. Because Harris didn't inspire enough people to vote. She tried to work with the "progressive" Republicans and get their vote. Like I said above "Better than Trump" is not something that incentivizes people to vote for.
Better than Trump wasn't her platform. I will die on this hill because I'm so sick of this. Look at her platform. What is too far right about her platform? Tell me specifically.
No her platform and campaign weren't the biggest problem. The way you're talking and everyone is parroting that was. The "everything or nothing" people were. The left sows its own apathy.
And, regardless of all of that, regardless of the fact that her platform was actually good, the idea that you only get to look at her platform in a vacuum is a complete joke. The idealism of the left is fucking us all. This isn't a theoretical exercise. You realize Trump wants to pull out of NATO? That the right wants to outlaw life saving medical procedures? You realize real people are going to actually, without hyperbole, die because of this election?
We're in a fight against a Christian fascist state right now. Miss me with this bullshit. I would have been 100% motivated to vote for a turkey sandwich. This is all such a joke and this narrative is infuriating. The left is constantly acting like a bunch of toddlers kicking and screaming because they got the wrong ice cream flavor while the right marches towards the end of everything I thought we believed in.
Exactly this. The average leftist can talk for ages about how Harris has to 'earn their vote' but at the end of the day you vote for the political party you have, not the one you want. The fact Trump won the popular vote is shameful on the part of the US left. Voter suppression definitely played a part but the lack of urgency, the constant infighting and demands for Harris to appeal more to them absolutely did not help matters.
I'm not happy about this outcome either, it's an incredibly shitty day for any progressive in any country. But the end result is simple. Less people felt compelled to vote for Harris here than they did for Biden in 2020. It's not about a "everything or nothing" mentality, it's about delivering a message that makes people want to go out of their way to vote for her. She alienated a lot of people by doing stupid shit like campaigning with people like Liz Cheney, saying she'll have Republicans in her cabinet, supporting Israel, being tougher on border policies, supporting fracking, etc. They banked on having more Republicans vote for them than progressives being disenfranchised. Harris isn't much of a progressive, especially on the world stage. She just looked to be a progressive when comparing her to Trump.
There's no doubt there were other things like misinformation campaigns and such. But they knew about this for a long time and should have prepped for it better.
Democrats seem to consistently get record breaking funding from running aganst Trump, many are probably ecstatic they have four more years of free money from people who hate Trump.