this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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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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[–] [email protected] 29 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 11 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (4 children)

The only lesson to be learnt from this is that forgiving debts, pardoning marijuana offences, wanting fair elections, etc don't work.

The only lesson they could learn from this is that they weren't conservative enough.

Fuck that lesson.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

The only lesson they could learn from this is that they weren’t conservative enough.

I don't think this is even remotely the lesson.

The right wingers already go on social media spouting that "the libs" are socialist, sure, but that's just because it's what their media tells them.

The lesson should be that propaganda wins elections, not logical answers. You have to appeal to quick witty replies with even more quick witty replies. You have to use loads of smoke and mirrors to promise outcomes without any tangible methodologies.

The democrats should promise to fund the military... and then use the military funding for humanitarian ends like we did with covid vaccines. The line item looks great to dummy middle america voters to say "wow the democrats want a strong military" even though the spending really is to build homes for the poor or provide subsidized healthcare through federal military pop up hospitals (with contracted civilian doctors.)

You have to literally provide handouts about a year out from election time to subsidize a topic like gas prices leading up to the election. The day the elections are over you can remove all of those things and start replenishing it... so release that strategic reserve big time. Focus on extra subsidies in places where you can actually win the vote, so fuck deep red and deep blue. Hate to say it... the battleground is all that matters.

If you want to appeal to the common voter it can't be by pushing for educational values or refunds for people with degrees. It has to be refunds for people with high grocery bills, high utility costs. Hell, remove the SALT deduction entirely in the name of "small government" because that's one thing even lower class republicans think would be a bad move to raise... but this is still way too detailed for the ignorant voting masses to grasp... so you should probably say you are going to lower taxes rather than say you're upping it for billionaires. The latter is always assumed even though it never actually happens.

Bring out all the news about how republicans are actually raising taxes. How they actually result in higher gas costs, higher housing costs, higher grocery costs. Why the fuck "Tariffs" weren't brought out as MASSIVE tax increases for the common working person is bewildering to me! Dumpy loves tariffs but describe it in simple terms as a tax - IMPORT TAX - and suddenly it will be very unpopular. "Dumpy says tariffs are good!!!!" but the news is plastered with "import taxes called tariffs"... why are they raising taxes again? for common hard working people? "You mean i'm gonna have to pay more money at the grocery store AND the pump??!?!?!?"

Campaigning on city values isn't working because the battleground states aren't uber dense. You have to appeal to the rural people with promises that can be delivered in the short term and that will cost them in the long term, because they are HORRIBLE at gauging long term impact. They can only remember what just happened and what is happening now. Dumpy is promising that the future will be great, why are you promising that things are gonna be tough? Things are tough right now for most people, why are you saying that the economy is great? I know by many metrics we are succeeding but the complexity of economics goes over almost everyone's head. Instead you should have been campaigning on the fact that dumpy lowered taxes on the rich and that the rich didn't fulfill their end of the bargain and are stealing all the money from the hard working middle americans.

No die hard blue state is going to vote red so it's time to abandon intelligent values for dummy propaganda. Let's fucking go.

Oh and on the sidelines talk about the real policy you want to implement akin to project2025 which actually has the real DNC agenda, just like how P2025 is the GOP agenda.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

Say you will lower taxes for the working and middle class. Everyone knows what that means.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 17 hours ago (4 children)

They don't learn the lesson, because they don't want to. And your examples imo show the problem.

forgiving debts, pardoning marinuana offences

These are not solutions, they are bandaids that like a drug keep you dependent on politicians repeating them again and again. Which of course is nice when your only goal is to get relected, but longterm that magic wears off.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (6 children)

Biden rescheduled marijuna and Kamala promised to completely legalize it. Making medicine free requires 60 senate votes.

People turned down the solutions even after receiving the bandaids.

The people who aren't learning are voters.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 16 hours ago

They have also been legalizing marijuana and pressured the DEA to reschedule it, those are lasting solutions.

Democrats also support tuition free college, but haven't been able to get the bill passed yet. Student loan forgiveness can be passed with executive orders, but tuition free college would require a bill passed by Congress.

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 hours ago (4 children)

Dems lost, because Americans are idiots. There's no deeper meaning. Americans elected a con man for the second time. Con man, second fucking time. They knew how bad he is, because he already was president, yet they still voted for him. It blows my mind. No other explanation is needed, Americans are literally the dumbest pieces of shit on the face of the planet. I wish them the worst. They deserve what's coming to them.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 day 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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

There are Democratic Party people and aligned people who are realistic about why they lost and who they lost. They have contacts within the Party. Hopefully they'll be listened to.

We'll probably get a sense of what if any changes we will see in the upcoming special elections to fill House seats Trump is looting for his Cabinet. Then I believe Florida law requires an election pretty soon to replace Rubio, so that will be a national race we can watch.

Presumably whoever DeSantis appoints will have a pretty big advantage, but we should watch the message and the votes. It will be too early to be a full reaction against Trump, so we can learn a lot about what resonates with voters.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 14 hours ago

After the Democrats recently scoffed AOC for house oversight committee I severely doubt there will be any lessons learned. Depending on how poor Trump does in the coming years the Democrats might just sell out as hard as they can thinking their 2028 election is guaranteed.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (20 children)

“The things Harris said, like she was going to give $25,000 for people to buy their first home, there were a lot of people said she was giving their money away to people who didn’t deserve it. It cost her votes. We were trying to tell her that.”

What's the answer to that? On the face of it, this says that the electorate don't want public money spent on helping other people who need help. How do you achieve anything other than conservatism with such an electorate? The only thing I can think is that you have to promise to help more of the electorate, and that the money will be come from the very rich. In other words, the only counter to conservatism is a commitment to actual wealth redistribution, and to going up against the selfish interests of the super-rich. That's not yet even socialism, but it's still further to the left that the Democratic Party is willing to go. For now, its leadership would rather lose elections to fascists than challenge billionaires.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What funny is everyone knows for a fact what lesson they should've learned, and if you ask 3 people they will give you 5 contradicting answers, every single one of which will be the most important strategy advice that stupid dems don't see. It will usually can be boiled into "They need to focus on this specific issue and only on it, to the detriment of all the others".

[–] [email protected] 37 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (16 children)

All voters say Democrats should cut ties with big corporations and focus on economic populism. Taxing big corporations not identity politics whilst giving corporations a tax break.

Bernie Sanders is what people would have voted for. There is no confusion. The Democratic party does not "understand" this because they do not want to understand it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

In this political environment, when the corporations are the kingmakers, you can't afford to not be a corporatist. Democrats and Republicans are both very pro-business, but big business likes the Republicans better because they are completely mask-off about letting them do whatever they like, while the Dems have to pretend they care about stuff like regulations to appease their voters.

Bernie, or someone like him, is essentially fighting an uphill battle. You can't take money from corporations, while simultaneously having to defend yourself from far-right extremist slander and the DNC actively trying to sabotage you so they can replace you with a corporatist. Meanwhile, Trump can be the big tent and get everybody in bed with him because the right will clearly stoop to any level to win and businesses have no scruples about who sits in the chair as long as they get a return on their investment.

It's frustrating. Maddening. We are completely screwed for the foreseeable future unless Trump manages to fuck up even worse than he did in his first term or a grassroots left wing movement really gets going in time for the next election, presuming the institution of voting isn't completely ratfucked or dismantled by then.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago

If this is true then we’re well and truly an oligarchy.

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