What happens to the Democratic Party now? (1 Viewer)

[Heathen]

I’m sure much of us are having 2016 flashbacks this morning with a sick feeling to our stomachs..

2 of the last 3 elections Democrats have lost to a far right demagogue

Harris didn’t get close in many states to even Biden’s performance. We could very well lose the Presidency, Senate AND House depending on results the next few days…..

What went wrong?
What could’ve been done better?
What can we change in the future to ensure voters are motivated like they were when Obama was elected?

Democrats have no choice but to admit there’s a huge problem with some aspect of their platform— and to do a deep introspection of what’s going wrong..

 

[Saint by the Bay]

With Trump not on the ballot Democrats will do well in the mid terms and regain some exuberance. They did in 2022 and they actually lost seats then.

With Trump not on the ballot we will go back to some sense of political normalcy in 2028.

The Democrats won’t change.

 

[B4YOU]

The Democrats won’t change.

Then they will keep losing.

 

[Saint by the Bay]

Then they will keep losing.

I don’t think so. I really believe without Trump on the ballot we are back to the normal ebb and flow. There has never been a political figure like him in this country and I don’t think we will see another any time soon. The way he supercharges his base and is completely untouchable is unparalleled. He does things on a daily basis that would end anyone else’s political career.

I think the worst thing the Dems can do is overreact to the impact of a unique political figure.

 

[Taurus]

Just to add to your sentiment: very much yes. But it seems impossible for Dems to appeal to your average straight white person who lives paycheck to paycheck (and there are way more of those than many think), and who's probably packing. Michelle Obama's soundbite, "the privilege of generational wealth" was a great soundbite, but ignores the very large portion of white people who do not have wealth, let alone generational wealth.

If the Dems want to advance their progressive agenda, they need to seize power first, and to seize power, they need to put their progressive agenda in the back burner until they seize power. That's the catch.

I'd say they need to embrace Bernie's progressive agenda. Economics. Class war. 'Cause that's what it is. Call that spade a spade and own it.
The black/latino/gay/trans part, like the sexist/racist part for the GOP is the part you don't talk about. It's assumed to be part of your efforts but not your main focus.

 

[Neworleansfan]

Are Rural Americans, not predominantly white? Union Members? Faith Communities? Young People and Students? Are we living in a different country now.

You are right but white men don’t see it like that. They see African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, Women, etc but where are White Americans and Men.

 

[barbar]

The American people aren't who we think they are.

We aren't a tweak or two from being ok.

The most important thing a country produces is it's people. We've been getting progressively worse at producing good people for decades. There is no fixing it at this point when we have several generations of people who are just forking idiots and think their opinions are just as good as experts on a topic.

I couldn't care less about the future of the country. fork us.

This is where I am. I haven't lived in the USA for 8 years and I don't plan to live there at any point in the future.

I need to stop caring about this and just live my life without all the drama. I will still vote Dem every 4 years, but the day to day following of American politics is over for me. It's forked.

 

[barbar]

Sell one broad message, not 16 different messages to 16 different groups. Also, whites are tired of lists that omit or exclude them.

It's implied that they are included. These lists mean "also included" not "only included."

 

[Heathen]

I just can't accept this as the deciding factor, or even close. Was it some small smart? Sure, but not to the extent to what is being talked about in this thread. You had voters in WI splitting their vote for a female senator, but not a female president.

It would have been hard for anyone to win in the scenario Biden handed the party.

He ran as a bridge candidate in 2020. What happened?

I agree.

I definitely think it was a factor, but don’t think it was the biggest one.

 

[Heathen]

I don’t think so. I really believe without Trump on the ballot we are back to the normal ebb and flow. There has never been a political figure like him in this country and I don’t think we will see another any time soon. The way he supercharges his base and is completely untouchable is unparalleled. He does things on a daily basis that would end anyone else’s political career.

I think the worst thing the Dems can do is overreact to the impact of a unique political figure.

I think this is a slippery slope myself, and that the worst things Dems can do is say “it’s fine, we’re fine, this was a unique candidate and one we won’t see again so just keep our heads down and do the same thing”.

I think if we continue to do the same thing we’ll continue to be cooked.

Also consider that Trump’s success formula is HIGHLY likely to be duplicated in the future. Who’s to say we won’t see a Trump clone? I think there’s a good chance…

 

[RobF]

I think this is a slippery slope myself, and that the worst things Dems can do is say “it’s fine, we’re fine, this was a unique candidate and one we won’t see again so just keep our heads down and do the same thing”.

I think if we continue to do the same thing we’ll continue to be cooked.

Also consider that Trump’s success formula is HIGHLY likely to be duplicated in the future. Who’s to say we won’t see a Trump clone? I think there’s a good chance…

I think the assumption should be that there will always be narcissistic power-hungry demagogues who want power and will cross most lines to get it.

A democratic system is supposed to stop them getting it; it has to, or it ceases to be a democratic system in effect, even if it nominally remains one. Heck, the US system was designed to prevent that (or at least limit it), but I'm not sure it can hold up in an age where the reach of populist demagoguery is greater than ever and the population is too receptive to it. It's clearly possible for all three branches to fall.

The challenge for the Democrats is to work out how to defeat that without - and I cannot stress this enough - without becoming it.

 

[bird]

We have been staring into the abyss, warning about it, pleading about it. The abyss stared back and a damn high percentage of citizens embraced the abyss.

Because nobody thinks beyond me, me, me, and who can take my hatred and layer it on those I hate.

What can be done about the Democratic Party? Tear. It. Down. Do the “autopsy”. Admit that they forked up. The party abandoned “traditional Democratic constituencies” years ago when the so-called Third Way came into being.

The problem now lies not with having and claiming so many groups which is actually a good thing but with being unable to put together a coherent message that can hammer the absolute, ever-living schlitz out of Republicans.

The first thing I would do and I know some of you will pile on me for this, is to show the Clintons the door. No more Third Way bullschlitz. Thank them for their service surely but times have changed. The Party must differentiate itself from anything vaguely Republican-lite. It must also disassociate itself from the F.I.R.E. sector.

Yes, everything that has been said by myself and others about racism and misogyny and poor critical thinking is true. Has that made a difference? Nope. Because the electorate IS racist, misogynistic and poor critical thinkers. This is symptomatic of the toxic society we live in. Every generation that arises we hope that they will be different and yet the racism, misogyny and poor critical thinking continue. Maybe it is slowly wearing away but it won’t disappear in my lifetime or likely any of ours. The emergence of a mature society in this country is likely multiple decades away.

The Democratic Party has to deal with that reality.

 

[superchuck500]

There’s some interesting post-election analysis going on – like the fact that apparently 30% of the people in Florida, who voted in favor of recreational weed and in favor of the abortion protecting amendment also voted for Rick Scott.

Or that there’s a significant number of voters in Arizona that voted against Kari Lake and for the abortion protection . . . but also for Trump.

Some people think it’s evidence of potential foul play – but I just think it’s signs that this is a goofball, unserious electorate

 

[faceman]

I think this is a slippery slope myself, and that the worst things Dems can do is say “it’s fine, we’re fine, this was a unique candidate and one we won’t see again so just keep our heads down and do the same thing”.

I think if we continue to do the same thing we’ll continue to be cooked.

Also consider that Trump’s success formula is HIGHLY likely to be duplicated in the future. Who’s to say we won’t see a Trump clone? I think there’s a good chance…

I'm going to agree with SBTB. I believe it's going to be a long time before we see another Trump. If Vance had said and
done the things Trump has done this election he would have been placed in a mental ward.

 

[porculator]

Are Rural Americans, not predominantly white? Union Members? Faith Communities? Young People and Students? Are we living in a different country now.

All those groups include people of all colors obviously. I'm saying if you're making this giant venn diagram of "people we serve" that encompasses 80% of Americans, expect the other 20% to tell you to kick rocks.

I'm a 40 yr old suburban white dude and don't fit any of the categories. I personally don't take offense to it, but there's a lot of sensitive people out there.

 

[efil4]

There’s some interesting post-election analysts going on – like the fact that apparently 30% of the people in Florida, who voted in favor of recreational weed and in favor of the abortion protecting amendment also voted for Rick Scott.

Or that there’s a significant number of voters in Arizona that voted against Kari Lake and for the abortion protection . . . but also for Trump.

Some people think it’s evidence of potential foul play – but I just think it’s signs that this is a goofball, unserious electorate

Unserious because uneducated imo. ( i dont mean in the college sense- just overall knowledge regarding national platform vs local platform )

Its still tribal. Its still "meme politics" ( owning libs ).

Twitter yesterday was AWASH in R/Maga just bombarding D/Liberal accounts with some really vile memes/gifs/comments. Exerting whatever "power" they felt they had over the losing side. And identifying with the winning side allots you that power and an opportunity to feel accomplished. Its about feel rather than substance

Take the market yesterday- all 3 indices were up massive amounts 3-5%. No major blowout revenues reported, no stellar economic news...shoot, you even posted about how tariffs will affect the market, and yet it skyrocketed. ALL on "feeling". Its insane.

This era of political debate is as divided and nasty as its ever been. And every time you think the majority are tired of it, it ramps up to be even nastier. I dont even know where the bottom is.

 

[superchuck500]

Unserious because uneducated imo. ( i dont mean in the college sense- just overall knowledge regarding national platform vs local platform )

Its still tribal. Its still "meme politics" ( owning libs ).

Twitter yesterday was AWASH in R/Maga just bombarding D/Liberal accounts with some really vile memes/gifs/comments. Exerting whatever "power" they felt they had over the losing side. And identifying with the winning side allots you that power and an opportunity to feel accomplished. Its about feel rather than substance

Take the market yesterday- all 3 indices were up massive amounts 3-5%. No major blowout revenues reported, no stellar economic news...shoot, you even posted about how tariffs will affect the market, and yet it skyrocketed. ALL on "feeling". Its insane.

This era of political debate is as divided and nasty as its ever been. And every time you think the majority are tired of it, it ramps up to be even nastier. I dont even know where the bottom is.

I think the markets were up big is sensible - the markets have been strong all year, but volume gets thin the weeks for the election because there’s a wait and see attitude. So that deferred volume is just waiting to go. And Trump winning means we won’t have another contested election and J6, which is good for markets, plus Trump means that business taxation will either not change or improve profits.

His inflationary policies, unpredictability, and ineptness are likely to make markets volatile or even down at some point, but for now it’s risk on.

 

[porculator]

There’s some interesting post-election analysts going on – like the fact that apparently 30% of the people in Florida, who voted in favor of recreational weed and in favor of the abortion protecting amendment also voted for Rick Scott.

Or that there’s a significant number of voters in Arizona that voted against Kari Lake and for the abortion protection . . . but also for Trump.

Some people think it’s evidence of potential foul play – but I just think it’s signs that this is a goofball, unserious electorate

Yes part, probably most, of it is a dumb electorate - case in point all of the November 5 google searches about where Joe Biden is on the ballot.

But there are plenty of reasons not to vote party line at every level. The one I sympathize with most is those who want smaller federal government and to give the states more control. Abortion and weed are actually two good examples. What works for California or Vermont isn't going to work for Alabama or Utah. So you vote republican in national elections to keep the feds out of your business, but that doesn't mean that you can't support liberal policies to be implemented statewide or locally.

 

[coldseat]

All this elections proves to me is that propaganda works. If Democrats want to compete with Republicans in the current environment, they need to create a separate left wing propaganda media ecosystem where they turn everything Republicans do into they worst thing ever and blame them for everything. Turn simplistic messaging like, "Every time Republicans control the government they turn to economy to shirt." into mantras. Make every negative thing that happens into Republicans fault and distort every piece of news to their advantage. Lie to the American people every chance they get. Ignore all other constituencies and cater only to white men. That's what works in this country.

Of course I'll long have checked out if they go down that road and they will never get my vote. But that's what the plebs in the country need and want, so give them that. That's the only secret sauce to Republicans and Trump.