Skip to main content


"There are many explanations for Trump’s victory, most of them surely interrelated, but an unavoidable one is that this election was a referendum on an unpopular incumbent administration that failed to address the soaring cost of everyday life."

For n+1, Mark Krotov analyzes how the #DemocraticParty overestimated itself, underestimated #Trumpism, and lost the US presidential race: nplusonemag.com/online-only/on…

#Longreads #Politics #Election

in reply to Longreads

super cool how it's always the Democrat's job to "address the soaring cost of everyday life" and never the fascist party's job to justify the actions it keeps taking over and over to get us there.
Unknown parent

Lucy B
Then we will have to disagree, as I don’t feel that Biden represented a substantially more progressive policy in 2020 than was offered in 2016 or 2024. And most voters are clueless about policy. 2020 was not about policy or hope. It was terrifying and we were all voting for an old man that we didn’t want to vote for. And it’s even more misogynistic to suggest that Clinton and Harris are just faces put up by the party.
Unknown parent

I would disagree with that assessment. Adopting that is just letting the misogynists win.

Hillary and Kamala both times heavily relied on lesser evil arguments and directly ran against progressive advocacy in the democratic party.

The Democrats set them up to fail by hiring bad consultants who tell them ineffective strategies.

It's the glass cliff in action. Forcing women to be the face of a failed strategy in order to discredit women in American politics.

Unknown parent

Lucy B
@longreads@mastodon.
Every time they lost, the nominee was a woman.
Every time they won, the nominee was a man.
Unknown parent

@burnoutqueen @Lana @thepoliticalcat
every time the dems won this past decade they were promising hope. every time they lost they were representing the status quo.
Unknown parent

𝐿𝒶𝓃𝒶 "not a poet"

We will need to disagree on this as well. Trump is not a "face put up by a party". When he appeared first on the political landscape, he ran as a Democrat, and was soundly defeated. Then he ran as a Republican, and immediately earned the scorn of nearly every single elected Republican official.

Trump is a populist candidate. He won because the population of this country actually LIKES what he is selling: fear of your neighbor, fear of immigrants, fear of the trans, fear that women have too much power and autonomy.

Suggesting anything other than that is ahistorical.

Unknown parent

@Lana @thepoliticalcat
Because fear is a shitty motivator. Encouragement is by far better than fear.

That's why Biden won in 2020, and why Kamala lost in 2024.

Unknown parent

𝐿𝒶𝓃𝒶 "not a poet"
@burnoutqueen @thepoliticalcat why isn't "the case for themselves" "we aren't fascists"? Why isn't that enough?
Unknown parent

@thepoliticalcat @Lana
The thing is the Democrats failed to make the case for themselves. They didn't convince enough of their base that they would make this country better, so they lost.

The GOP convinced their base that they would improve this country by hurting the "bad" people. (Their base being the vast majority of white people)

The Democrats were too busy shaming their base for not liking genocide and Bush-era war criminals, so they didn't turn out, and the Democrats lost.

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)