[alt text: a screenshot of a tweet by @delaney_nolan, which says, “Biden/Harris saw this polling and decided to keep unconditionally arming Israel”. Below the tweet is a screenshot from an article, which states: “In Pennsylvania, 34% of respondents said they would be more likely to vote for the Democratic nominee if the nominee vowed to withold weapons to Israel, compared to 7% who said they would be less likely. The rest said it would make no difference. In Arizona, 35% said they’d be more likely, while 5% would be less likely. And in Georgia, 39% said they’d be more likely, also compared to 5% who would be less likely.”]
I steadfastly refuse to accept an apology on behalf of single-issue voters. Those abstentions and/or third party protest votes got us here. Anyone who refused to coalesce around (or at least hold their nose and vote for) the biggest “not Trump” candidate was failing to see or even acknowledge the bigger picture and larger threat. And now we all have to pay for that.
The electoral votes in a state go to the single candidate with the most votes. “Not Trump” was not a candidate. Furthermore, a third party candidate was never going to win. So, I will absolutely blame these so-called “allies” as I find them to be worse than the people who voted for Trump (at least they were honest about what they were doing).
I sincerely hope there is a future election where they have learned something from this. In the mean time, good luck everyone.
most of the people you have probably argued with online about Harris and genocide probably did in fact hold their nose and vote for Harris. The people that stayed home were young people and Arab-Americans that have become disillusioned with the Dems, and the genocide was just the last straw. Many people who voted for Biden 4 years ago have found that their economic situation is worse than it was 4 years ago. Harris did little to convince people that her policy would be substantially different from Biden’s. Most of her campaign’s messaging was vibes-based shit like “coconut-pilled” and “we all need to heal” and “Madam President”. In the rare instance that she talked economic policy, it was clear that she would be like Biden, except with more neoliberal cozying up to corporations.
The people I know who are plugged into politics simply sucked it up and voted for Harris, because they are realistic about things. If you are following the news like that, it is obvious that Trump is worse in every way conceivable. Most Americans are busy, poorly-educated, and not that plugged into politics. They get their news from Facebook or TikTok. For those people, it is the candidate’s job to bring them on-side. Harris failed at that, plain and simple.
How about instead of blaming the people that Harris failed to convince, we talk about how we can invite those people back into our coalition? Personally, I’m ready to throw the Democratic party in the bin and start something new.
Did you?
The fact that you read my entire comment and laser-focused on that one detail. If we’re descending into purity tests on the Left, we will never win another election.
I absolutely did not read your entire comment. The hypocrisy just stuck out to me from a glance. I wasn’t planning to continue to read.
Along with, of course, the hypocrisy of the fact that you’re now applying a purity test before you will vote for a Democrat, even in hindsight, even if she has only the vaguest of connections with the holocaust in Gaza, and even if the alternative is a hundred times worse including for Gaza.
It’s done. I’m not sure why I’m still talking about it. I think I just still have some nervous energy left over because of the question of what the fuck I’m going to do now.
I did, absolutely. I’m much more suspicious of the older, more Centrist people who told me they didn’t think America was “ready to elect a woman”. I suspect that most of them really meant they weren’t ready, and sat out.
I apologize for nothing. I didn’t vote for genocide, the stripping of trans rights, the building of cop cities, the placement of Republicans in the candidate, increased hostilities on the border. I have nothing to apologize for.
You, on the other hand, voted for all of those things and STILL lost. Why? Because those are right wing policies, and Republicans are right wing. If the policies are right wing, the Republicans win. That’s how its always been. Not that hard to wrap your brain around.
We painstakingly spelled it out for you in slow motion for a year, and you kept your head lodged firmly up your master’s ass.
So quite the opposite, I wouldn’t accept the apology you lack the self awareness to extend me.
If everyone who voted for Harris voted for 3rd Party instead, the Electoral College shows Trump still would have won.
I went third party.
Frankly, with what I have seen, I find it hard to believe that Stein didn’t even get 1% of the vote. Massive organizations went all in on Green. Anyway.
That said, you need to remember that for every disenfranchised Democrat who voted third party, 2-5 disenfranchised Democrats simply didn’t show up.
Why is that?
Because instead of spending a year pushing the DNC left and going to war with Republicans, all the Blue MAGAs went after undecideds and berated them into apathy.
My reputation points on this site are -391. Why? Because I spent the past year calling out that the Biden/Harris neo-conservative policies were going to disenfranchise Democrats and win Trump the election.
What response did I get? Overwhelmingly I was told that Biden had a perfect presidential record, his age wasnt a big deal, he was going to the general election, and he was definitely going to win. Then when everyone who piled up on me ended up wrong about that, and I continued to say we could not accept Harris, we needed to get someone who would court people on the Left, not someone who would court Republicans, all I got bombarded with is “BuT TrUmP!”
Counting still isnt quite done yet, but Google says we are at 140,999,052 votes. The adult population of the United States is estimated at 335,893,238.
The majority of this country does not support Trump.
The majority of this country had noone to vote for, and were berated into silence by Blue MAGA.
If we had an actual Left wing candidate, they would have dominated. Just like they always do. Because America is a Left wing country. We just cant get our elected representatives to respect that. They insist on being Right wing.
I would agree, and do to an extent, but everyone also could have voted to not have a Republican senate, and skipped the Presidential vote.
In the Weimar Republic, the Social Democrats (SPD) were the largest party as late as 1930, and had control thanks to a coalition with centrists.
In 1931, the Communists of Germany (KPD) – who had long taken offense at the compromises of the SPD – caucused with the Nazis to topple the Prussian government and remove the SPD from power, believing that Nazi rise would accelerate the collapse of capitalism and would trigger a “German October,” a proper communist revolution that would eliminate the Nazis and solve the shortcomings of the SPD.
On April 1, 1933, the Executive Committee of the Communist International stated:
They were… incorrect. Their gamble cost 85 million lives, and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union can be traced back to the knock-on effects of the war. Accelerationism is creating a monster to defeat an enemy you cannot, then being startled to discover you can’t defeat the monster either, and then blaming your original enemy for the product of your own hubris. No matter how you justify it, no matter what issues drive you, refusing to find common ground and build coalitions against the fascists helps nobody but the fascists.
Given you’re expecting an apology instead of giving one, nothing was learned apparently.
this is where i’m at. Maybe instead of loudly shouting for months that people should just get over the genocide and hold their nose and vote for Harris, Harris and the Dems should have been working to convince Americans that she would actually work on the issues that people care about? Americans are feeling like things keep getting more expensive and while their wages stay the same - what was Harris doing to address that? What was she suggesting that didn’t feel like a band-aid on the problems with our top-heavy economy? Some stayed home because of the genocide, but more than that, Americans just weren’t convinced that Harris would do anything to improve their economic situation.
Why would they? She never proposed anything specific AFAIK except like 1 week before the election after early voting was already over. If she hadn’t avoided taking any policy positions except unconditional aid to israel, lower proposed tax rates for the rich than even Biden was proposing, continued fracking, no improvements to healthcare, and more lethal military/border while avoiding talking about abortion for months, maybe people would have reason for some hope for improvement.
How many Americans know about proposals about things like tax credits for parents or plan to expand medical care coverage under medicare (or was it medicaid?) to at-home care except the small percent who follow that kind of news.
Third party voters didn’t change a single state.
I’m right there with you. I haven’t so quickly shifted my perspective on such a large group of people so quickly, but now here I sit, jaded.