Kamala Harris truly is Hillary Clinton 2.0.
Many of Harris’s mistakes were similar to those Hillary Clinton made in 2016. Like Clinton, Harris cozied up to billionaire donors. Mark Cuban, for instance, said he was delighted that Harris was abandoning Democrats’ commitments to progressive principles and letting the business community propose the policies it wanted. Like Clinton, Harris and Tim Walz made hubristic campaign stops in solidly red states like Texas and Kentucky rather than spending the final days laser-focused on crucial battlegrounds. Like Clinton, Harris emphasized celebrity endorsements while failing to successfully court unions. (Most notably, the Teamsters declined to endorse her after she refused to pledge that she wouldn’t break a national railway strike.) Like Clinton, Harris focused too much on the danger of Donald Trump (which is very real) and not enough on the reasons why she would be good at being president herself.
You’re right that she was Hilary 2.0, but for the wrong reason.
It has very little to do with policy.
The difference between winning and losing was almost certainly just people who preferred a man over a woman as president. Whether they will say it or not, America is still not ready for a female president.
“In 2020, men were almost evenly divided between Trump and Biden, unlike in 2016 when Trump won men by 11 points.”
This election, Trump won men by 10 points again.
Democrats have got the largest share of women’s votes in every election since 1988.
Losing 10 points of the male vote isn’t caused by support for Israel, or a lack of progressive policies.
This is the sad truth.
It’s the economy. They can scream the economy numbers are great but the people are feeling it differently at the grocery store, gas station, paying rent, etc.
Right, economy. Both candidates ran on fixing it. But one wasn’t a black woman…
“It’s broken because of Biden and she should have fixed it during the last four years.” It’s stupid logic but that’s what it came down to for some.
Women didn’t buy that logic, but men did?
Harris won essentially the same percentage of women as Biden did, but lost entirely on the fact that fewer men voted for her (by a wide margin)
I’m pretty sure the simple explanation is right here, and it had nothing to do with the economy.
but lost entirely on the fact that fewer men voted for her (by a wide margin)
it had nothing to do with the economy.
Thats not true at all-- its just what you wish was true.
She lost in every single demographic besides white college educated women. She especially lost amongst the poor voters. She lost amongst nonwhite women and not college educated women.Gender and race certainly had a part in it, but the facts dont match your conclusions. Lies dont become anyone – even someone dealing with a hard loss.
We have enough lies to sort through already and your adding to the pile will not help matters. How about we make some effort to get to “the truth” not “your truth”.
I’m not talking about who lost vs won each demographic, I’m referring to changes to percentages which you don’t seem to understand.
Harris lost more male votes than female, far more. It simply doesn’t make sense that she would lose such a massive difference in men if the economy was the primary reason. Men don’t care about the economy significantly more than women do, it’s an issue that both genders put at the top of their priorities.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Harris being female cost her at least some votes, and she didn’t lose by very much. Only 3 people changed sides this election out of every 100 voters(net of course), that’s it. It’s not hard to think that may be due to her gender or race.
thereasonAnother reason
I’ll just say that all the policies she proposed seemed entirely uninteresting to me. Credits for first time home buyers and something about building new homes seemed like her main talking point. This is great for all the people that don’t currently own a home and want to but does nothing for most people that also need help.
It benefits you by reducing homelessness and poverty in general which has a much higher cost for society in the long run. Holy fuck you guys are so self centered.
Holy fuck you guys are so self centered.
You’re awfully preachy defending a campaign message that was such an abject failure.
I really don’t care, do you?
If people didn’t vote for Harris it just means they are happy with fascists.
That’s one interpretation of what it could mean but one I expect is overly simplistic.
There is a difference between being happy with fascism and not feeling motivated enough to resist it. If the tide has any chance of turning towards what would be more healthy it will have to come by creating a platform that really excites and motivates a large number of people to invest in it. It has to feel authentic to those who are feeling unmotivated today eg the millions of former Biden voters who did not turn out. It should activate people who are not reliable voters to genuinely support the cause.
I’m no leftist but I do agree that Democrats and others whose main goals are to leave unchallenged the status quo of growing wealth inequality cannot win going forward. The promise of a truly experienced greater tangible quality of life, enough food, affordable housing, access to affordable medical care, debt relief, high minimum wages and/or UBI, etc would move the needle better towards excitement and engagement than abstractions like defence of democracy. “A chicken in every pot”. We need another FDR. We need a strong middle class and that has to mean powerful unions.
Edited for paragraphs.
Dude those are promises completely devoid of validity or meaning.
“Vote for me and I’ll fix everything”.
Trump says it: “great!! Let’s vote him”
Any democrat says it: “but how? Have you considered the plight of the fruitfly??? I cannot vote for you unless you explain everything in every detail”
I forgot that trump just needs “concepts of a plan”
There is totally a double standard.
88% of the dems didnt agree with assisting in the Israeli war crimes. And yet Biden/Harris (and trump) were going to do it anyway. But you want to preach about people who didnt vote for harris embracing fascism…
Biden was pushing Netanyahu to stop the genocide. Trump said he’ll let him finish the job.
Instead of saying that Harris or the dnc dropped the ball, consider that over half the voting population in the US chose a senile, white, male, racist, felon who increased your taxes unless you were rich and stole classified documents, that is chums with Putin.
Maybe instead of “the dnc dropped the ball” it could be considered that the slight majority of Americans are just racist, sexist, uneducated, short sighted idiots?
No one needed to know much beyond seeing how bad trump has been. There shouldn’t have needed to be a “make Harris better” plan. America seen that trump shitbox and still chose him.
It’s nice to blame voters for parties failing to win elections. That absolves the party of responsibility - “we were right, it was voters who are wrong”.
But that won’t win an election. And that attitude will gift the mid terms and even 2028 to the republicans.
The DNC fucked up - it backed Biden despite clear signs he was not a good candidate for this election, the primary process who a fig leaf of democracy rather than putting forward the party’s best and brightest, it then fought concerns of Biden health and hid the truth, then when he finally stepped down late in the day it arranged a coronation for Harris. And then after behaving undemocratically repeatedly it had the gall to make the election about “saving democracy”.
Voters didn’t do these things, the DNC did.
Instead of demonising voters and non voters, it’s better to ask what should the party have done differently to win them over and what does it need to do to win them over in the mid terms.
It doesn’t absolve. If people are acting like it does, then they’re wrong and it still is true without absolving. It just points out that people voting for trump is overwhelmingly the problem.
And also, the Democrats ran their failed diet republican strategy. But if they fucked up twice as bad as they did, there’s sill no reason to vote trump, and that remains the main issue.
The non-magas have to lock arms and stand together until ranked choice, no electoral college, and no citizens united. That’s the front door to the future.
