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Top 5 Reasons the Democrats Lost the Election

mikegriffith1

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I think these are the top five reasons the Democrats lost the election:

1. Biden should not have immediately endorsed his far-left vice president when he dropped out but should have allowed more-viable candidates to have a chance to contend. Nancy Pelosi recently made the same point. In reality, Biden never should have run for reelection in the first place. This would have enabled the party to have a real primary.

2. Harris should have taken the border crisis seriously, both as an economic threat and a national security threat. She should have apologized for dropping the ball as the border czar. Then, she should have pledged to seal the border and to stop the disastrous catch-and-release policy. And, she should not have used the dishonest argument that Trump is "anti-immigration" and "anti-immigrant." Most people understand that opposition to illegal immigration is not "anti-immigrant."

3. Harris should have ditched the transgender agenda. Even many Democrats, arguably the majority of them, do not agree with allowing biological males to compete in female sports, and do not support allowing teens to start taking puberty blockers, much less allowing teens to get irreversible transgender surgery. Republicans hammered her on the transgender issue because their own polling showed that most Americans disagree with the transgender agenda.

4. Picking Tim Walz was an odd and inexcusable blunder. Walz, an unknown woke leftist, gave her nothing she did not already have. He gave her no new voters, and he came from a very safe blue state. Plus, he comes across as unserious and flaky. Governor Josh Shapiro, a confirmed centrist and a person with solid gravitas, was the obvious pick.

5. Harris should have frankly acknowledged that a solid majority of Americans are worse off now than they were four years ago. Exit polling shows that Trump won an astonishing 81% of the vote of voters who said they are worse off now than they were when Biden took office. Note: Only 24% of those polled said they are better off now than they were four years ago.
 
mikegriffith1 said:
I think these are the top five reasons the Democrats lost the election:

1. Biden should not have immediately endorsed his far-left vice president when he dropped out but should have allowed more-viable candidates to have a chance to contend. Nancy Pelosi recently made the same point. In reality, Biden never should have run for reelection in the first place. This would have enabled the party to have a real primary.

2. Harris should have taken the border crisis seriously, both as an economic threat and a national security threat. She should have apologized for dropping the ball as the border czar. Then, she should have pledged to seal the border and to stop the disastrous catch-and-release policy. And, she should not have used the dishonest argument that Trump is "anti-immigration" and "anti-immigrant." Most people understand that opposition to illegal immigration is not "anti-immigrant."

3. Harris should have ditched the transgender agenda. Even many Democrats, arguably the majority of them, do not agree with allowing biological males to compete in female sports, and do not support allowing teens to start taking puberty blockers, much less allowing teens to get irreversible transgender surgery. Republicans hammered her on the transgender issue because their own polling showed that most Americans disagree with the transgender agenda.

4. Picking Tim Walz was an odd and inexcusable blunder. Walz, an unknown woke leftist, gave her nothing she did not already have. He gave her no new voters, and he came from a very safe blue state. Plus, he comes across as unserious and flaky. Governor Josh Shapiro, a confirmed centrist and a person with solid gravitas, was the obvious pick.

5. Harris should have frankly acknowledged that a solid majority of Americans are worse off now than they were four years ago. Exit polling shows that Trump won an astonishing 81% of the vote of voters who said they are worse off now than they were when Biden took office. Note: Only 24% of those polled said they are better off now than they were four years ago.
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1.) Wasn't enough time to have a real primary, at least not one that would not have left the winner bruised and battered going into the general.

2.) Harris was never a "Border Czar". Please stop watching Fox News.

3.) The "transgender agenda" was mostly pushed by Republicans as a bigoted attack on a very small segment of society. If Harris had thrown them under the bus, the left-wing would have been pissed off, and Republicans would have just chosen another culture war target.

4.) Walz was a good, solid choice. No appreciable negatives, charming and likeable. Shapiro was way too pro-Isreal for the left. Given how many left-wingers did not vote Harris due to the ongoing war in Gaza, it's hard to see this as a mistake.

5.) A majority of Americans are not worse off today than four years ago (smack in the middle of the COVID downturn). They just think they are because Fox News tells them they are. A much different problem.
 
Random said:
1.) Wasn't enough time to have a real primary, at least not one that would not have left the winner bruised and battered going into the general.
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Tbh, I don't buy this. If Biden's health abruptly failed and incapacitated him forcing her to assume the presidency, and then take over on the campaigning side as the nominee, then sure... it's unforeseen circumstance and you can't really blame someone for that. This would have been the situation on the republican side if Trump didn't narrowly avoid getting assassinated back in July. So it's understandable to give that to the Harris campaign IF it was a comparable situation in any way.

However, It was clear for a very long time from videos of his interactions that he was suffering from issues and any criticism raised to point it out was shut out either by media personalities, by Harris herself, and by the party. Her compressed campaign period is simply the result of decisions made from the top, not to address a known issue early. It's a textbook case of not being prepared, and not taking timely action. I can't speak for others but seeing Biden crash in that debate after having the media and the Democratic machine drill it in this perception that nothing was wrong was not helpful to their credibility. And that's just the lowest hanging fruit among the reasons, not necessary THE main reason.

Exit polls shows America's primary concerns were in the economy, and in immigration.

Economically, we're better off now than we were in middle of 2020 considering we went through an artificially induced employment crash and recession caused by lockdowns in response to the effort to contain Covid-19. Hard to beat that... But some would argue that the recovery we've experienced since then would have been more significant had some states allowed their economies to open back up sooner, and had the government not printed so much money during that period to stem the inflationary pressures.

Immigration-wise, the administration presided over a period of record breaking illegal border crossings and opted not to do anything - even via executive order - until fairly recently. People not privy to the issue should look up what's happened in New York for the last couple of years since they tout sanctuary city policies, yet have barely succeeded in getting the majority of these immigrants on their feet, and are now moving immigrants to other areas of the country because - again in spite of their touting sanctuary status - their either don't want or can't handle the huge immigration influx. Their practices there and elsewhere have also contributed to the onset of gang violence from groups originating in Latin American countries which is adding to the issues. But the argument made, and continuing to falsely be made, is that any mention of deportations means a blanket deportation of everyone. As usual, rather than addressing the border to persuade people to go through the proper channels, people have been looking for reasons to avoid that.

Harris herself, was also not a particularly good candidate. Maybe better than Trump to many of you. But certainly not good enough to motivate the turnout she needed. When you tell the public you can't think of anything you can do differently than your predecessor to build upon your leadership, and when you don't even acknowledge the question when asked by someone that even friendly to you... That's definitely not helping ease your base about you being being able to perform.... This brought about several missed opportunities to cement her popularity boost at the convention when Trump's campaign honestly was at its weakest. This is the kind of argument that's currently playing out internally with the Party.
 
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Random said:
1.) Wasn't enough time to have a real primary, at least not one that would not have left the winner bruised and battered going into the general.

2.) Harris was never a "Border Czar". Please stop watching Fox News.

3.) The "transgender agenda" was mostly pushed by Republicans as a bigoted attack on a very small segment of society. If Harris had thrown them under the bus, the left-wing would have been pissed off, and Republicans would have just chosen another culture war target.

4.) Walz was a good, solid choice. No appreciable negatives, charming and likeable. Shapiro was way too pro-Isreal for the left. Given how many left-wingers did not vote Harris due to the ongoing war in Gaza, it's hard to see this as a mistake.

5.) A majority of Americans are not worse off today than four years ago (smack in the middle of the COVID downturn). They just think they are because Fox News tells them they are. A much different problem.
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Your answer to point 3 suggests the democrats lose in 2028 with Gavin Newsom, who is the clear front runner for the nomination.
You could not have a more incorrect and misguided understanding of the subject.
 
Regarding the "Trans agenda" stuff. Most voters don't give a flying flip what kind of sex someone else is having or even if they like to play dress up as an adult. They just want those individuals to stop telling children about it and stop trying to recruit new members from the ranks of children.
 
Responding to the individual points raised in the OP:

1. I agree that Biden should not have run, but once he did and crashed and burned in the first debate, there was no way the Democrats could run a mini-primary; Kamala had to be the nominee at that point.

2. "I screwed up but I won't screw up again," is not a great argument.

3. Not much she could do on this; it's become a point where the liberal catechism is inflexible.

4. Agreed. Walz was a huge mistake.

5. Not going to happen in the real world.
 
Walz' wasn't a bad choice. Mature but not decrepid white guy ticks the safe ticket-balancing boxes. Plus he was, as he noted, the only one of the four of them that didn't wear makeup.
 
stanfr said:
1) People are stupid. 2) People are really stupid 3) People are really really stupid 4) People are really really really stupid 5) You can't cure stupid.
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You can't cure it, but you can work with it. The trouble with Democrats is that they don't. America is now officially an idiocracy. If you want idiots to vote for you, you have to tell them what they want to hear. Not facts or reality or what should be done and what is possible, but lies that resonate with their simplistic worldview. One presidential candidate did that, the other one didn't.

So here are the things Democrats did wrong:-

1. Biden dropped out too early. The result was exactly what I feared, Harris ran out of steam before election day - after people compared her policies to Trump's. If she had started later she could have promised the Moon in vague but confident terms and people would have remembered for the few days needed to get their vote.

2. Harris should have overstated the deportation numbers to make it look like she was being much tougher on 'illegal' immigrants. 1.1 million people were repatriated from the US in 2023. She should have claimed they were all deported, and said plans were in place to deport millions more next year "no matter what the cost".

3. Harris should have been a macho white male, married to a younger white woman who looked 'hot' (preferably an ex model). Several women should have accused him her of raping them with credible evidence, as proof of her manliness. Of course this would mean going transgender with major plastic surgery - perhaps even getting a hair transplant and platform soles to appear taller. To ensure nobody finds out she just had to do what so many gay Republicans do, pretend to be against what they are. So (s)he should have given the appearance of being staunchly anti-trans. (S)he should also have changed her name to one that was incontovertably masculine - eg. Kevin (which means 'handsome' or 'noble birth' in Irish).

4. (S)he should have picked a running mate who was wackadoodle but had a cult following on both sides - ie. RFK Jr.

5. Harris should have frankly acknowledged that a solid majority of Americans are worse off now because Biden eliminated Covid and reduced unemployment. Yes, that's right. If more people had died there would be more of their stuff left over for the survivors, and lowering uneployment fuels inflation because people have too much money! As Vice President, Harris should have scuppered all of Biden's initiatives, keeping people poor and sickly until just before the election - when (s)he would announce a permanent 100% tax cut funded by closing all federal departments except homeland security. With the money saved (s)he could have had a cheque for $1 million sent out to every bribed voter citizen who signed a petition upholding the whatever amendment, with a personal note from their next president - Kevin Harris.

I'm not some intellectually superior so-called 'economist', but I do know one thing - the goverment is to blame for all the economic pain we are suffering. If we just eliminated federal taxes inflation would drop to zero and nobody would go hungry. How do I know this? The Federal budget for 2024 is $6.8 trillion. There are ~132,508,000 household in the US, so that means every family could have another $5132.00 in their pockets every year - if it wasn't stolen from them by the jackbooted thugs in government. Imagine what you could do with all that money, and no inflation too! (y)

However you might be wondering how will we fund all those deportations wihout taxes? The answer is obvious, we'll make Mexico pay for it. But what about Chinese imports taking our jobs? Tariffs, that's the answer. And remember, China pays them, not you. That's why tariffs don't cause inflation - honest!

If only Kamala Kevin Harris had given us that message, (s)he could have been president now. But the stupid cow was too stuck on principle to lie her way into power.
 
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1) Biden should have been pressured to not run much earlier. By the time he dropped (was pushed?) out, it was too late to hold an open race for the nomination (and it left whomever replaced him starting months behind Trump's campaign). Harris might have been the only viable choice given the small amount of time to campaign.

2) Immigration, even illegal immigration, is not an ecomonic threat. The US economy has become dependent on the labor of illegal immigrants. Trump's proposal to deport all illegal immigrants will most likely lead to a labor shortage.

3) Trans issues didn't play much of a role in the election. I generally don't listen to political speeches, but I don't recall Harris ever advocating biological males competing in women's sports.

4) Walz was a safe choice. He didn't add a lot, but he didn't subtract a lot either. Trump made a far worse choice with Vance than Harris made with Walz.

5) The key is that the majority of Americans THINK that they are worse off than they were 4 years ago. The reality is somewhat different: wages for non-supervisory workers have increased slightly more than prices have
 
Roger Ramjets said:
You can't cure it, but you can work with it. The trouble with Democrats is that they don't. America is now officially an idiocracy. If you want idiots to vote for you, you have to tell them what they want to hear. Not facts or reality or what should be done and what is possible, but lies that resonate with their simplistic worldview. One presidential candidate did that, the other one didn't.

So here are the things Democrats did wrong:-

1. Biden dropped out too early. The result was exactly what I feared, Harris ran out of steam before election day - after people compared her policies to Trump's. If she had started later she could have promised the Moon in vague but confident terms and people would have remembered for the few days needed to get their vote.

2. Harris should have overstated the deportation numbers to make it look like she was being much tougher on 'illegal' immigrants. 1.1 million people were repatriated from the US in 2023. She should have claimed they were all deported, and said plans were in place to deport millions more next year "no matter what the cost".

3. Harris should have been a macho white male, married to a younger white woman who looked 'hot' (preferably an ex model). Several women should have accused him her of raping them with credible evidence, as proof of her manliness. Of course this would mean going transgender with major plastic surgery - perhaps even getting a hair transplant and platform soles to appear taller. To ensure nobody finds out she just had to do what so many gay Republicans do, pretend to be against what they are. So (s)he should have given the appearance of being staunchly anti-trans. (S)he should also have changed her name to one that was incontovertably masculine - eg. Kevin (which means 'handsome' or 'noble birth' in Irish).

4. (S)he should have picked a running mate who was wackadoodle but had a cult following on both sides - ie. RFK Jr.

5. Harris should have frankly acknowledged that a solid majority of Americans are worse off now because Biden eliminated Covid and reduced unemployment. Yes, that's right. If more people had died there would be more of their stuff left over for the survivors, and lowering uneployment fuels inflation because people have too much money! As Vice President, Harris should have scuppered all of Biden's initiatives, keeping people poor and sickly until just before the election - when (s)he would announce a permanent 100% tax cut funded by closing all federal departments except homeland security. With the money saved (s)he could have had a cheque for $1 million sent out to every bribed voter citizen who signed a petition upholding the whatever amendment, with a personal note from their next president - Kevin Harris.

I'm not some intellectually superior so-called 'economist', but I do know one thing - the goverment is to blame for all the economic pain we are suffering. If we just eliminated federal taxes inflation would drop to zero and nobody would go hungry. How do I know this? The Federal budget for 2024 is $6.8 trillion. There are ~132,508,000 household in the US, so that means every family could have another $5132.00 in their pockets every year - if it wasn't stolen from them by the jackbooted thugs in government. Imagine what you could do with all that money, and no inflation too! (y)

However you might be wondering how will we fund all those deportations wihout taxes? The answer is obvious, we'll make Mexico pay for it. But what about Chinese imports taking our jobs? Tariffs, that's the answer. And remember, China pays them, not you. That's why tariffs don't cause inflation - honest!

If only Kamala Kevin Harris had given us that message, (s)he could have been president now. But the stupid cow was too stuck on principle to lie her way into power.
Click to expand...
Nah, it would have been much simpler than all those moves. All the Dems had to do was, after JD got Trump's VP pick, parade out the article I have linked below and offer to make JD their nominee for President. JD would have crushed Trump, his message in this article would have had broad cross party appeal:
Atlantic
 
Roger Ramjets said:
You can't cure it, but you can work with it. The trouble with Democrats is that they don't. America is now officially an idiocracy. If you want idiots to vote for you, you have to tell them what they want to hear. Not facts or reality or what should be done and what is possible, but lies that resonate with their simplistic worldview. One presidential candidate did that, the other one didn't.

So here are the things Democrats did wrong:-

1. Biden dropped out too early. The result was exactly what I feared, Harris ran out of steam before election day - after people compared her policies to Trump's. If she had started later she could have promised the Moon in vague but confident terms and people would have remembered for the few days needed to get their vote.

2. Harris should have overstated the deportation numbers to make it look like she was being much tougher on 'illegal' immigrants. 1.1 million people were repatriated from the US in 2023. She should have claimed they were all deported, and said plans were in place to deport millions more next year "no matter what the cost".

3. Harris should have been a macho white male, married to a younger white woman who looked 'hot' (preferably an ex model). Several women should have accused him her of raping them with credible evidence, as proof of her manliness. Of course this would mean going transgender with major plastic surgery - perhaps even getting a hair transplant and platform soles to appear taller. To ensure nobody finds out she just had to do what so many gay Republicans do, pretend to be against what they are. So (s)he should have given the appearance of being staunchly anti-trans. (S)he should also have changed her name to one that was incontovertably masculine - eg. Kevin (which means 'handsome' or 'noble birth' in Irish).

4. (S)he should have picked a running mate who was wackadoodle but had a cult following on both sides - ie. RFK Jr.

5. Harris should have frankly acknowledged that a solid majority of Americans are worse off now because Biden eliminated Covid and reduced unemployment. Yes, that's right. If more people had died there would be more of their stuff left over for the survivors, and lowering uneployment fuels inflation because people have too much money! As Vice President, Harris should have scuppered all of Biden's initiatives, keeping people poor and sickly until just before the election - when (s)he would announce a permanent 100% tax cut funded by closing all federal departments except homeland security. With the money saved (s)he could have had a cheque for $1 million sent out to every bribed voter citizen who signed a petition upholding the whatever amendment, with a personal note from their next president - Kevin Harris.

I'm not some intellectually superior so-called 'economist', but I do know one thing - the goverment is to blame for all the economic pain we are suffering. If we just eliminated federal taxes inflation would drop to zero and nobody would go hungry. How do I know this? The Federal budget for 2024 is $6.8 trillion. There are ~132,508,000 household in the US, so that means every family could have another $5132.00 in their pockets every year - if it wasn't stolen from them by the jackbooted thugs in government. Imagine what you could do with all that money, and no inflation too! (y)

However you might be wondering how will we fund all those deportations wihout taxes? The answer is obvious, we'll make Mexico pay for it. But what about Chinese imports taking our jobs? Tariffs, that's the answer. And remember, China pays them, not you. That's why tariffs don't cause inflation - honest!

If only Kamala Kevin Harris had given us that message, (s)he could have been president now. But the stupid cow was too stuck on principle to lie her way into power.
Click to expand...

Kevin Harris - masterpiece! :ROFLMAO:
 
Sorry but I don't buy this idea that the Democrats lost because of some set of mistakes. When tens of millions of Americans could look at Donald Trump and conclude that he was a credible candidate they wanted to vote for or just decided they couldn't really see much to choose between the two candidates and stayed home that is beyond the power of any campaign to change. Donald Trump reached out to something deeply broken in US politics and culture and told people things they wanted to hear, without regard for truth or facts, how could anyone compete with that especially when people are comparing the pre-COVID pre-Ukraine invasion world to the post-COVID world and its sudden surge in inflation that was beyond the power of any western government to avoid?
 
Garrison said:
Sorry but I don't buy this idea that the Democrats lost because of some set of mistakes. When tens of millions of Americans could look at Donald Trump and conclude that he was a credible candidate they wanted to vote for or just decided they couldn't really see much to choose between the two candidates and stayed home that is beyond the power of any campaign to change. Donald Trump reached out to something deeply broken in US politics and culture and told people things they wanted to hear, without regard for truth or facts, how could anyone compete with that especially when people are comparing the pre-COVID pre-Ukraine invasion world to the post-COVID world and its sudden surge in inflation that was beyond the power of any western government to avoid?
Click to expand...
he was born with a gold painted horseshoe up his ass but ate too many of it's paint chips
 
Brainster said:
Responding to the individual points raised in the OP:

1. I agree that Biden should not have run, but once he did and crashed and burned in the first debate, there was no way the Democrats could run a mini-primary; Kamala had to be the nominee at that point.

2. "I screwed up but I won't screw up again," is not a great argument.

3. Not much she could do on this; it's become a point where the liberal catechism is inflexible.

4. Agreed. Walz was a huge mistake.

5. Not going to happen in the real world.
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Agree with these, but I think for 2, it would be better than "I can't think of anything I'd do differently". For 3, I think she could have taken baby steps in that direction (we need to examine the sports issue , carefully get data on "gender affirming care"). On that note, I heard a guest on Bill Maher's show note that the ad that said "She's for they/them, Trump is for you!" also touched on the forced language issue, that some detest. For 5, maybe she could have acknowledged that the income gap has continued to grow - even under Dems - and note that we need more corporate regulation. But I also wish Biden had not run again, and there'd been a full Dem primary. Maybe Mayor Pete?
 
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