No. You’re rationalizing an objectively bad campaign. “Playing it safe” would have been running a good campaign with popular policies and listening to voters’ demands, running on improving the average American’s material conditions and communicating what good they’ve done to that end thus far. Not picking up reactionary right-wing policies and trying to come out on top by completely ceding the issues to the side that invented them, hoping that cynicism alone will somehow get everyone to turn out to vote. The Republicans are not going to be beat at their own game.

I just thought the population would be more sober minded about the threat of ceding democracy to a demagogue who now has unchecked legal authority to remake society in his own image.

Most normal people don’t want to believe that this is the case. They don’t have to, they have had the privilege of ignoring it, for they are not the ones being persecuted. It’s background noise and if anything it turns them off.

People care about healthcare, education, cost of living, career prospects, inflation, basic rights, y’know stuff that pertains to them in their everyday lives. If the Republicans are the only ones pointing that stuff out and offering any solutions, even if their reasons and solutions are bullshit and serve bigoted ends, people will be swayed to vote for them and will doubt and explain away all the negative media because it’s unpleasant to think about.

Democrats just don’t seem to be willing to champion popular policy, and that is why they lost.

Anyways, seems like we’re only somewhat in disagreement.

We must be watching different elections and your version must have historic turnout, since americans are so enthusiastic about deporting immigrants and flattening gaza, no?

Cause in mine I just see two unpopular candidates except one of them has cultivated a delusional cult to propel them forward and the other has the american electorate convinced that being evil is non-negotiable.

No, I am very acutely aware of how we got here. Clearly their strategy did not work or they would have won tonight. It’s a trick and you fell for it, hard. Of course you wouldn’t want to admit that.

Anyone out there that is gung ho about the border and arming Israel was always going to vote Republican. Ceding the narrative on those only reinforced the Republican base, and not offering anything material depressed the Democrat base. The whole time they’ve been pandering to imaginary voters and you’ll first gaslight yourself into believing those voters exist and your country is a horrible place of garbage people before you’ll admit that your side could have done things differently to appeal to more voters.

I think we need to stop wondering why Republicans are doing so well and with that, lamenting that just over half of the minority voting population in this country will proudly vote for open fascists; stop imagining voters in the middle who are going to magically defect from the right if Democrats outflank them on the right’s own invented issues; and start asking ourselves whose votes the Democrats are actually campaigning for if not ours.

If what you say is true, and I’m not suggesting it is- if our furthest left “viable” party can win on a platform that is funding genocide and barely opposing the fascists Republicans, then we were doomed no matter what.

Firsf of all, don’t project your own arrogance onto the rest of us. Second, even ignoring Palestine, it was an objectively bad campaign. She didn’t offer anything material to vote for beyond not being trump.

arming a genocide and going in on anti-crime and -migrant rhetoric is “playing it safe” jfc

Always has been.

Actually it would be $14.50 if you want to get really pedantic

Buddy I think it’s time to lay off the porn…

If you’re saying that earning an endorsement from antisemites for going against Israel makes Stein an antisemite, by extension, for going against Israel, because that is why Duke endorsed her, then yeah that kinda is what you’re saying…

Oh come on. They’re a little overzealous about posting but it’s a major stretch to call them disingenuous and bad faith simply for disagreeing with you.

If the Democrats want my vote they are more than welcome to adopt a thing or two from the third parties that split their vote. How else would I communicate my size as a voter bloc and the specific policies we support, and how could I have any sway in any direction if my vote is to be taken for granted?

They seem to understand this when it comes to Republicans… I wonder why it never goes the other way. Seems that kind of strategy would be much more effective as a viable party in winning voters from a non-viable party, and much easier to triangulate, no?

The boat is already full of holes, so who put them there? Why didn’t they spend the last 4 years patching them, why haven’t they thrown the other guy off the boat already, and why have they adopted his boat-cutting rhetoric? Why do you have to deny the democrat’s agency in this situation in order to make your point? Their platform is not immutable, it can and should change to one that captures more voters, and the fact it hasn’t at such a supposedly critical point with such loud opposition should be a clear message to you: either this election isn’t as important as they say it is, or they think they can leave us behind and we will vote for them anyways.

This does not bode well for your future protests, which by the way have already been happening on college campuses and have been met with police violence, uncontested smearing in the media, and not even the barest minimum of defense or policy change from your candidate and current vice president.

You can sit here and try to convince me and the other guy all you want but ultimately we snd the rest of lemmy are a drop in an ocean. Nothing will change unless there’s a change in strategy at the top. Their strategy is actively working against your efforts to convince us and yet they urge you to believe that Trump is the most dangerous man on the planet and that they fear for the country if he wins.

If this is true, then why aren’t they running a more dynamic and broad-reaching campaign and making real compromises with voters that would split their vote if they broke away? Do you not see the glaring contradiction in their actions vs their words? Is that really a strategy you want to endorse? To promote fear instead of democracy?

Do you not see the value in demonstrating that their losing strategy is, in fact, a losing strategy? How it does you a disservice to cave so easily - to genocide, I might add - without first making demands? What should motivate them to meet your demands if you’re just going to vote for them anyways and you never exercise any of your bargaining power to make them sweat?

Oh yeah, we’re getting all the classics now. “all criticism of Democrats is Russian propaganda, war is peace, and Democrats can’t be blamed for actively funding genocide and letting the leader of a foreign nation very publicly walk all over them in an election year” and you still think you came up with all of that yourself. How quaint.

Lol there it is, off comes the mask. Dishonestly suggesting that criticizing Israel’s actions is antisemitism just because the democrats made a big show about facilitating negotiations and writing strongly worded letters and sending care packages while Netanyahu openly defies and sabotages the negotiations and continues bombing innocent civilians without recourse.

You can lead a horse to fresh water but you can’t make them drink. This conversation is over. You don’t give a fuck about Palestine.

Read my full reply and I promise it will make sense.

Policy/actions and talking points are two different things. The democrat’s walk does not match their talk. You’re falling for talking points and feel-good finger wagging while the policy and action is effectively the same.

Netanyahu is already running the show, we’re already helping him carry this out. It doesn’t make a difference if the guy signing the checks has an ® or (D) next to their name and feigns pride or concern in doing so, if either way there are zero consequences for escalating the situation to a full multi-front war.

Democrats are at least attempting to work towards peace and provide humanitarian aid.

That’s what they say and what they’d like us to think but that’s not what Biden’s policy reflects, nor Kamala’s language and conduct in her campaign.

A Palestinian-American voice, a rather reasonable and balanced one, wasn’t even allowed to speak at the DNC. Plenty of time for the families of hostages and a pandering cop from Genesee County, Michigan, though.

We are long past “self defense” and deep into genocide territory, yet Kamala keeps droning on about Israel’s “right to defend themselves” even as Israel sabotages peace talks and opens a new front in Lebanon. When does self defense end and genocide begin if not at any point before now? Why is it unprovoked terrorism when the brown people do it but defensive war when the west does it? When are they going to stop “urging” and start threatening aid?

This is a clear bias and they’ve given us absolutely no sign that their pit of generosity towards Israel has any bottom to it, yet because the republicans are more open about their hatred you’ve given a pass to policy that will end in the exact same outcome. Total destruction of Palestine and a continuing violent apartheid with zero consequences for Israel.

If all the children are dead either way then you haven’t actually murdered less children.

lol

Regardless

There are things that are popular to the majority of this country that will motivate people to turn out to vote other than keeping Trump out of office, and those things definitely aren’t being tough on immigration or funding Israel’s war on the middle east.