What did Democrats do wrong?

[johnny karate]

Of all the highly effective ads about tariffs, which one did you find most memorable?

I’m not the target audience for ads, so I couldn’t tell you. What I can tell you is they talked about it over and over again on the campaign trail and at rallies. I guess the desire for their children and grandchildren to die of curable diseases was just a more important issue for Trump voters.

And the qualifier “highly effective” is hilarious. The idea that Democrats lost to a guy who yelled conspiracy theories into a microphone every night because they didn’t properly calibrate their messaging is moronic.

 

[mumblethrax]

Because I don't count media directed at Democratic partisans to be part of Harris' messaging effort.

You think that Maddow was the only one in the media saying so?

Relying on the media to get a message out is often part of a campaign strategy. Some messages look better coming from third parties.

Were Democratic electioneers actually messaging it or did they mostly ignore inflation and focus on other topics?

Her campaign talked about inflation quite a bit, mostly in terms of how it could be further reduced.

 

[TragicMonkey]

I guess the desire for their children and grandchildren to die of curable diseases was just a more important issue for Trump voters.

Now, now, you aren't giving the family-minded, brilliant geniuses of the definitely-not-deplorable enough credit: by letting their unvaxed children die from preventable disease, they're saving them from having to carry their rapists' babies to term. And reducing the possibility that these kids will live long enough to turn trans, or believe in climate change, or other such horrific outcomes.

 

[Donal]

Voters who voted on inflation were not voting on campaign messaging but on incumbent performance; you are literally making my point for me here.

they voted for the guy whose disasterous COVID response led to rampant inflation and against the adminsistration that was actually keeping inflation well bellow the average for the industrialized world.

Not to mention the Orage Weakling's "concepts of a plan" so far will lead to even more disaster.

 

[Graham2001]

I see the usual suspects are dusting off the old “I have black friends” racism defense. An oldie but a goodie.

I'd don't think it's that old cliche. You have a situation where there is a definite shift by minorities away from the Democrats, while the Democrats themselves hold to the 'all X are one X and they all think the same' where 'X' can be replaced by any of minority racial groups.

The question then becomes not, 'Is Trump Racist?' the question becomes 'Why did racial minorities vote for the Republicans?' and the answer to that question is likely to be much more interesting.

 

[d4m10n]

A Trump voter is anyone who voted for Trump, by definition. Whether they were always in the tank for Trump or were eventually persuaded by his well-articulated position on pet-eating migrants, they’re all Trump voters.

To be clear, you're saying that none of the 76 million Trump voters "can be reasoned with" now or ever?

Seems pretty defeatist but okay. I hope none of the 2026 candidates have you on staff.

 

[Reformed Offlian]

An example of Sapir's work.

"...it is hard to think of a single transgender policy that the Biden administration did not support,

I don't think that's true at all. The Republicans were able to think of all sorts of transgender policies that the Biden administration did not support, such as performing gender reassignment surgeries on students at school without telling their parents, or using drag queen story hour to groom/recruit children, or putting litter boxes in classrooms for students who identify as furries, etc.

 

[Stacyhs]

"Trump voters are stupid."

So ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ what?

Is the intelligence of voters some well-kept secret Democratic candidates aren't cleared to know? Are the voters going to be less stupid in 2026 or 2028? Is "I'd rather the Democrats lose than lower themselves to appeal to any stupid people" the master plan here? Again?

Are we strategizing the next "let's try again to make the stupid voters understand that we're the elite and we know better" campaign already?

Because there's stupid, and then there's crazy...

They were less stupid in 2016 when Clinton won the popular vote by 2.87 million and in 2020 when Biden won both the electoral vote by 74 votes and popular vote by 7 million votes.
The Dems didn't have to "lower themselves" by "appealing to stupid people" then. We truly are the United States of Amnesia.
I guess we should "lower ourselves" and resort to incessant lying, fear mongering, racism, and bigotry in order to appeal to the stupid people.

 

[Stacyhs]

There it is, the slogan that will win back swing voters in 2028.

What slogan to you suggest?

Republicans Are Eating Your Cats and Dogs?

Republicans Are Raping and Murdering Your Daughters?

Republicans Want Open Borders?

 

[johnny karate]

I'd don't think it's that old cliche. You have a situation where there is a definite shift by minorities away from the Democrats, while the Democrats themselves hold to the 'all X are one X and they all think the same' where 'X' can be replaced by any of minority racial groups.

The question then becomes not, 'Is Trump Racist?' the question becomes 'Why did racial minorities vote for the Republicans?' and the answer to that question is likely to be much more interesting.

The actual answer to that question is best left to sociologists and political scientists, and not the “It proves Trump isn’t racist!” mouth-breathers on this forum. Trump’s racism bona fides were set in stone somewhere around “They’re eating the pets.”

 

[Samson]

I don't think that's true at all. The Republicans were able to think of all sorts of transgender policies that the Biden administration did not support, such as performing gender reassignment surgeries on students at school without telling their parents, or using drag queen story hour to groom/recruit children, or putting litter boxes in classrooms for students who identify as furries, etc.

It is true that the Biden administration advocated paving the way for gender reassignment surgeries on school students without telling their parents.
An agreed fact is there are about 200 girls 13 and under who had double mastectomies during the administration.
Fewer than that number will have fathers who agreed with the idea.

 

[johnny karate]

On Trans, Leor Sapir has started the work for the democrats, in this article.
This will be the most difficult issue in history for the party to resolve, but they will never gain office until it is fixed.
Heads in the sand is over, I take an interest from New Zealand as the malevolent Obama/Biden/Harris virus has embedded itself through every institution.

An example of Sapir's work.

"...it is hard to think of a single transgender policy that the Biden administration did not support, directly or indirectly, that Harris walked back from on the campaign trail. Bill Clinton, seeing the writing on the wall, urged Harris’s team to respond to the Trump campaign’s devastating attack ad—“Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” They ignored him."

A Democratic Reckoning on “Gender Identity”?

The Democrats’ catastrophic performance on November 5 showed their vulnerability on a number of key issues, but none perhaps as obvious as on transgender

www.city-journal.org

Obama/Biden/Harris virus (?) = Must be eradicated.
A bunch of infectious child-killing viruses = Open door policy.

 

[TragicMonkey]

I'm reaching the conclusion that some people find it easier to fight imaginary problems than real ones. There are a lot of real, serious problems in the world, and in life in general. It must feel safer, easier to just make up an imaginary conflict, flesh it out with juicy, salacious, ludicrously wild improbable stories, then spend all your time and energy prattling about that. Wages have stagnated --or sunk-- while costs have risen on everything...but the economy is hard. Solutions aren't evident, even understanding the problems isn't simple. But evil involuntary sex-changing plots, magical pedophile gangs, brain-chemical harvesters, Cylons, and semi-omnipotent fallen angels wanting to steal your soul by tempting you with alcoholic liquors and dancing...well, those are easy to figure out the problem and pick a side, and interesting enough in details to make great stories.

 

[Venom]

Donald Trump and several of his nominees showed up to UFC 309 last night. When's the last time Democrats did anything like this?

 

[d4m10n]

You, on the other hand, would make an excellent addition to those staffs. Your keen insights into how Democrats can tweak their messaging about the gender identity platform that they don’t have are next level.

EOs count as messaging IMO.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Donald Trump and several of his nominees showed up to UFC 309 last night. When's the last time Democrats did anything like this?

We truly live in the Idiocracy universe.
Except this time the president won't listen to the experts.

 

[johnny karate]

Have you considered the possibility that refuting partisans and persuading swing voters are actually two different projects?

The MAGA faithful and swing voters who voted for Trump all voted for the same message. Until you can be realistic about what that message is, you can’t have a realistic discussion about what message the Democrats should have.

 

[d4m10n]

The MAGA faithful and swing voters who voted for Trump all voted for the same message.

Yes, because we can safely assume the faithful and the undecideds were exposed to exactly the same news sources and political advertising. Nothing remotely tribalist about this "they not like us" approach to the electorate.

 

[ZiprHead]

2024's other big loser? The mainstream media. Is there any path forward? | Will Bunch

As an electorate besieged by disinformation turned to Trump, trust in traditional media has imploded. What comes next?

www.inquirer.com

In October, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found a powerfully strong connection between people who believed provably false information and whether they planned to vote for Trump or Harris. For example, Democrats held a plus-65% advantage among voters who correctly said that big-city violent crime rates are at or near record lows, while Republicans led by 26% with voters insisting this was false. The same was true for 2024’s recent sharp drop in border crossings (true, plus-59% Democrat; false, plus-17% Republican) or the stock market’s current all-time high (true, plus-20% Democrat; false, plus-9% Republican).

This very much jibes with where voters get their news. An NBC News survey back in May — when Biden was still the Democrats’ deeply troubled candidate — found nonetheless that he led by landslide proportions among the shrinking number of Americans who still read a newspaper, with a 70%-21% lead. It provides some context to the never-ending online chatter complaining about tepid “both sides” traditional newsrooms underplaying the threats to democracy posed by Trump. I agree these critiques are important — a bad New York Times headline sets the tone for the entire media ecosystem — but that’s not why Trump won. The now-president-elect, according to that NBC survey, posted his biggest margin of 53%-27% among voters who don’t follow any news. Trump’s win was a triumph of the ill-informed.

So the uninformed under-educated gullibles are now controlling the direction of the nation.

 

[TragicMonkey]

2024's other big loser? The mainstream media. Is there any path forward? | Will Bunch

As an electorate besieged by disinformation turned to Trump, trust in traditional media has imploded. What comes next?

www.inquirer.com

So the uninformed under-educated gullibles are now controlling the direction of the nation.

But that's YOUR fault for not coddling their pwecious feelings. They're very, very sensitive snowflakes and hate it when someone points out just how stupid they are.