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.”
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.
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.
Say you will lower taxes for the working and middle class. Everyone knows what that means.
They don’t learn the lesson, because they don’t want to. And your examples imo show the problem.
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.
The majority of the US voting population ignores the long term.
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.
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.
Biden promised it on his first campaign trail… and did almost nothing to that end.
The Parsons for cannabis that actually mattered happened after the election. And the “starting to consider maybe pushing the fda to maybe consider it” came 3.5 years after election.
Cannabis was rescheduled under Biden and he pardoned thousands of offenders, Idk if anybody has crunched the numbers yet but he’s probably pardoned the most people of any potus LINK.
Cannabis is NOT rescheduled. It is still a schedule I drug.
The consideration, to maybe reschedule started about 8 months ago.
The pardons before the election only impacted about 50 people, and didn’t include expungement.