I’m pretty far left of Harris ideologically and never really liked her or thought she was worthy of these powerful offices. I also never really expected that much from her. That being said, I was passionate about dropping Biden and supporting her campaign even at that late hour, given the immense implications of electing trump for a second term. I donated money, and rallied friends and family to get on board. Then she did that DNC speech and talked about the ‘strongest military’ yadda yadda yadda. All of that energy and enthusiasm instantly evaporated. Nothing she or her campaign did after that motivated any active support from me and I had to really fight off the urge to not vote for her. I’m entirely done with the Democratic Party as run by the current regime. Unless that party reforms, the US is absolute toast.
Well said, I had the exact same thought experience, and I am at the exact same conclusion.
Billionaires chose Trump, so Trump won. That’s how US politics works
seeing all the red, it wasn’t just billionaires.
a lot of hundredaires voted for the billionaire.
He is 100% right like always
I never felt Harris actually stood for anything. This is easily the first election where I felt all the decisions made by the DNC were hard wrong - and I already thought the DNC fucked everything up when the turned on Sanders - but this time they really chose every bad option they could. A senior citizen that was absolutely having problems (outside the debate performance) and choosing an inclusivity* candidate that really had a checkered past of making climbing the ladder a priority while having no real policy gains or stances. Even in the lead up to everything, the other candidates were all but brushed aside. No real debate over policy or where the country was going.
She said whatever middle of the road thing needed to be said to appeal to enough people while leveling mealy criticism at best for the real problems, from Israel’s shitty war to attacks worker’s right in the US. We went from a candidate that should have never run again to a candidate that hadn’t given anyone a reason to want her to run at all at the last minute. And that’s awful, especially to lose against trump.
- I hate to even say it, but the fact is that the DNC wanted to run a black female. They banked on the (I can’t think of the word/name for it - people who want to do things for a minority community, but do so cluelessly, remove agency of the group, disregard the actual needs and culture of the group. Usually modestly wealthy white people making “programs” for minority communities) people to vote for the feel-good of voting a minority person up while not actually thinking that people would have needs and policy concerns that would influence their vote, or their willingness to vote at all. The DNC already had “protect the rich white people” as a top priority. They didn’t think people were smart enough to sense that, and everyone really had a feeling that the Democrats didn’t care about them anymore.
Edit: found it. It’s “white saviorism” or “white savior complex.”
Yeah. I don’t know if there’s a term for it, but the Alt-Right Book describes it too: https://youtu.be/wCl33v5969M
That’s an interesting video, and I don’t think it defines exactly what I was trying to say, but it absolutely is tangential to it.
I want to say White Paternalism, where white people think they know what is best for minority groups, but that name often has an association with racism.
Edit: found it: “white saviorism”
Ah, saviorism. Yeah that’s definitely what you’re describing.
I guess what the video is describing is yeah tangential and/or like a superset. Groups high on the power structure use those who’re lower as proxies for their vying for power/resources/etc.
Yes, the video definitely suggests groups can be used as pawns and virtue signaling for those trying to “help” or use the appearance of it to further an agenda.
This guy’s videos are one of the few things on youtube (other than music videos) I’ll watch sometimes.
Yeah it’s pretty well researched. It’s kind of jarring viewing these videos now because they describe a time when fascists weren’t nearly so overt.
I see a lot of these postmortems and I don’t know what combination of them is the actual truth, but I wasn’t the slightest bit surprised when she lost. As soon as she got the nomination I thought it was likely.
For what it’s worth, here is my take on her as one Californian that’s had to deal with her since before 2010 when she ran for attorney general:
- Even before she ran for attorney general, I was constantly hearing about all kinds of awful stuff the SF district attorney’s office was doing under her leadership even though I’m not from SF county.
- I was very disappointed when she got the nomination for attorney general because I didn’t want her policies applied statewide. I voted against her in the primary but of course I held my nose and voted for her over the R in the general.
- I don’t recall who I voted for in the 2016 primary for Senate but it wasn’t her, or blue dog Sanchez. I think I barely tilted toward Sanchez in the general but I honestly can’t remember. I was so disappointed in those choices that I didn’t really give a shit. I thought we could do better in California than two conserva-dems, especially with the top-2 primary system.
- Never even considered voting for that cop in a presidential primary.
- Didn’t like that she was the bottom of the ticket in 2020 especially considering Biden’s age, but the alternative was clear.
- Of course, due to the alternative I voted for her in 2024 but without one iota of enthusiasm. I think I may have been more enthused to vote for John fucking Kerry, but that was a long time ago, it’s hard to remember my feelings for a block of wood.
A small silver lining to her losing is I’ll never have to hold my nose and vote for her ever again.
She lost because she just sucks. Whether an individual’s reason for thinking she sucks and not being excited about her was based on misogyny, racism, her record of public service, her policy goals, or her personality doesn’t matter. I didn’t know anybody excited to vote for her. I knew some people excited to vote for a WOC, but not her as a person. A little enthusiasm was what was needed to turn the tide in the three states that mattered this time.
As soon as Biden dropped out too late for an actual primary, we already lost.
LMAO drop the act, you and all Dems know that if they run her again you WILL VOTE for her, no matter what
Until the Dem party tells you to vote someone else
I would vote for even your overused waifu themed cumsock over any MAGA candidate, so yes. Yes I would.
i hate the dnc but my perspective is mostly dont vote for the fascist
How about revising to “vote for the lesser evil”.
Sadly there’s a lot of ignorant and stupid voters out there. It’s fun to watch leopards eat their faces as a bitter consolation prize now that we’re in a full-ass fascist hell.
That disqualifies democrats as well.
She tried to dance to the middle when Trump had a stranglehold on his cult of voters. Really stupid.
The middle? She was cavorting with Liz Cheney!
Oh I fully agree, I almost didn’t vote for her, she sucked ALL the hope out of her campaign, she had SO MUCH MOMENTUM, all she had to do was keep constantly showing up on the press to point out how incompetent Trump was and clearly appear competent. All she had to do was keep putting out positive messages about protecting rights and returning the country to normal and not insane racist hate land and it would have been a slam dunk. Coming up with ‘‘well… I am totally willing to meet genocide in the middle, if that’s important to you’’ was an insane gut punch.
Voters don’t get to decide where the middle is.
I’m pretty tired of people nagging voters to follow the rules the framing they set forth. Trolley problem, “voters dont get to decide where the middle is”, etc.
We do have other options, but I don’t think they are realistic. Mass obstructive protests will probably push the DNC closer to the right (granted I could be wrong about this, but we are talking about a very out of touch and clueless institution of what amounts to be another ruling class) or violence which I do not think anyone in the country is truly ready for despite what everyone says.
Why should we be agonizing about what they will do instead of making them ask what we will do? We’ve turned the power dynamic around. What we need to band together and let them know that we wont vote for any of them if they continue with the sellout shenanigans on many fronts. No more deals. No more assumption that the dem brand means they are on our side.
And we cant just play chicken with them, we have to mean it. If they dont come to us and earn your vote, then dont settle for whatever 99% republican drivel they try to serve us. This isnt a negotiation with the rich, its us deciding if the dems will even exist anymore as a party.
No more “vote blue no matter who”. They just use that to ream us. That “D” needs to mean what we make it mean, not what they tell us they want it to mean. Thats exactly how we ended up supporting some theocracy’s dirty war crimes.
From now on I dont give the dems my vote by default. They earn it, and if I dont know their policies, I wont assume they are good.
Yeah, but Trump does the same. Kamala had better taxes planned for the working class and the poor. Trump also has a very poor track record. You can blame Kamala for not doing it right, but imo the issue is mass disinformation and people being extremily dumb.
deleted by creator
DNC is an enemy of the people.
Sure, they might not be starting concentration camps and sieg heiling. but the actions they have taken have directly enabled the ones who are goose stepping down Pennsylvania avenue.
deleted by creator
DNC has repeatedly refused to listen to the demands on their voters, too, and actively sabotaged candidates the people want to try and force HRC and Harris down our throats… to a massive collective tanking that had nothing to do with their gender, and opening the door to the usurpation of America to foreign powers and money.
deleted by creator
The “nice” style liberals have no tools to fight actual fascists. They’re career politicians. They don’t understand an ideological opponent.
They don’t get that these people will literally demolish governments, throw us into civil wars, and poison the planet for all humanity, rather than feel their power to dominate the weak diminished by one nanoangstrom.
In FPTP, you don’t have much choice but to vote against what you don’t want, but I would argue that it’s still important to vote, so long as that isn’t all that you do.
I’m also living under FPTP, and voted “third party” because I believe a plurality of choices is beneficial, even though our conservative party was scary close to winning… but that’s just how it’ll always end up under FPTP: the right end will get more and more ghoulish until the centrist party is the safest vote in opposition. Together, they both suck up all the votes into the neoliberal duopoly, where neither side meaningfully challenges the underlying conditions that make life worse for increasingly large sections of people.
Anyway, of arguably greater impact than voting is actually figuring out who represents you, and letting them know what’s important to you. Canvassing for candidates who you actually do support. That sort of thing.
Sorry about the little rant. I’m sure you’re aware of this dynamic. I just felt compelled.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
A few posts down in my feed is a photo of children zip tied in immigration court and it is fucking disgusting. There would be other problems in a Harris admin. But maybe we wouldn’t zip tie little kids.
Yes, the Democratic Party is more subtle in regard to their support for oligarchs and corruption. With exception to Senator Sanders, the old coots should fucking retire. The election loss proved the AmeriKans are sucking down the Orange Kool-Aid and want the US Constitution to burn.
Yeah. The DNC either don’t realise, or refuse to realise, that electing Trump is not in approval of him, but expression of disapproval of the Democratic Party.
I don’t dislike Kamala, and Trump is a sociopath. I realize Joe Biden probably had cancer before he dropped out and that’s why he dropped out. But I have to also say that voters probably didn’t like the bait and switch approach where they suddenly felt they had to support her simply because she appeared as the candidate in the last legs of the campaign. I think diversity and female leadership is important, but probably asking undecided voters to go for a POC woman when that’s not who they started out supporting probably didn’t help. Old white centrists don’t like that, and she didn’t have time to build a campaign and show her skills like Obama did. Probably a good chunk of people straddling the line vote wise didn’t love that. We had this happen in Canada recently with our new prime minister Carney, but he’s an older white centrist dude, and we were clearly ok to hold our noses and do it to keep out the conservatives, but I think if it was someone like Kamala they might not have won.
Biden didn’t drop out because of his cancer. He dropped out because that disastrous debate made it impossible for him to win. If he had really wanted to drop for his health, he would have done it at least the year before to give time for a primary.
Even without the debate, Bidens poll numbers for years before the debate made it impossible for him to win. No candidate has ever come from that far behind and won. When Roe went down on his watch his numbers cratered and never recovered. The DNC knew this but they wanted their AIPAC war to continue uninterrupted, or else give the chair to trump, who was their desired pick anyway. So they bought that outcome.
It is perfectly fine, in fact it would be incredibly refreshing & welcome, to admit…she was a shitty candidate. Fuck, she was so terribly bad. And Tim Walz was a bad pick, too.
Everything was fake. Every day it unraveled more. She was caught saying things like, “I am different than Biden, I am not Biden, do not let his presidency reflect on me.” What would you do differently? “Nothing, I wouldn’t change anything.” Okay…so…how are you different if everything Biden did was totally great & you wouldn’t do anything differently?? 🤡 Heavily paraphrased, of course, the convos were more detailed (which only made it worse).
It’s fine to say Kamala Harris was a cringe candidate. Completely unwanted, unelected, unqualified. Biden bowed out & the DNC shoved her in; there is no logical reason to continue to own her as your candidate & representative. You don’t bring dead babies to Passover. This is an opportunity to rebrand the Democrat Party, to refocus on issues that actually matter. That is to say…if anyone still gives a goddamn about the issues that actually matter.
