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I'm not a US citizen, but considering the current global trend, isn't it also possible that the West is slowly but surely turning to fascism again?
I couldn't care less about the democratic party, so not trying to find excuses but everything I read about the US election reminds me of everything I read about... well.. most European elections in the past 10 years.
they are also fascists with billionaire friends. they just aint loud and brazen about it.
always being content with the lesser evil just brings us back to evil anyway.
It is not the failure of a single parties' leadership if a majority votes for fashism.
Keep telling yourself institutions are going to save democracy.
The ultimate responsibility of keeping a functioning democracy lies with the people. Complaining about failing institutions or parties is no more productive than armchair political activity.
Confront people about their choices and how they let this happen. Hold people accountable for all the election promises and obvious outcomes the new administration implements.
But America really has remarkably weak and poorly designed institutions that only work as long people don't abuse it... Which is to neglect human nature and not prepare for it. America's flaunted "checks and balances" never worked
“Andrew Jackson entered the chat…”
This cannot be the message.
The first, and foremost failure, is the Republican party. They are the ones who have chosen Donald Trump to lead. And secondly, they are the ones who built up an organization to turn him into the most powerful political force in America. I salute the Republicans who are still fighting the anti-Trump fight, but the cause is 100% lost. MAGA is now going to be a multi-decade ideology and there's no way to pull Republicanism out of that trap in any short-term.
That means we need to truly, armor up and organize a fierce resistance. One that can overpower and overtake the MAGA movement. This means seeing MAGA for what it is: a cultural behemoth that commands over 75-million votes today, reliably. They have Elon Musk (Twitter/X). They likely have Zuckerberg (Facebook/Meta/Instagram). They have Washington Post (Jeff Bezos, who has recently replaces the heads with former Murdoch editors). They have LA Times. They have Gannett (and their 200+ regional / local papers). I dare say they own Reddit and likely were running social media interference at the lowest levels (with false stories of hopium. If you were on /r/politics you know what I'm talking about, focusing on shitty stories that Kamala was ahead)
Do you seriously think that all the major newspapers refusing to endorse Kamala Harris was some kind of freak accident? It was a preplanned move to specifically fuck us over. And it worked.
That is the nature of our opposition. They aren't idiots. They are savvy. They are resourceful. They own the collective media space. And they use their power to get Donald Trump (a shitty man who is easily puppetted with praise), because they want a shadow puppet as their king.
And now that their king is elected, you can see Cryptobros pumping their cryptocoins, Stocks in various media companies flying high, etc. etc. They know they won and they'll take the W today. But take a good look at America right now. In your depression, as you're thinking about why Kamala won, you're missing the real message.
Ask yourself: Why did Donald Trump win. And think about it. The answer is right before you and blazingly far more obvious than any particular action that was within Democrats or Kamala's control.
I dare say they own Reddit and likely were running social media interference at the lowest levels (with false stories of hopium. If you were on /r/politics you know what I’m talking about, focusing on shitty stories that Kamala was ahead)
Finally someone else is saying it. Feels like I've been taking crazy pills.
Notice how the politics subreddit is basically operated like the_donald. It's controlled opposition. During the 45th administration they made a huge deal out of every single thing Trump did. No matter how big or small there was megathreads. What happened during Bidens administration? Fuck all of attention to anything. It was like 50/50 chance on any given week the mods would bother to create big posts for anything significant the administration accomplished. Net effect of making Biden seem more ineffectual. It's basic a strategy of skewing what people are seeing by subtly editorializing the feed.
Throughout the Harris campaign there was scarcely any good discussion about actual policies. There was no shortage of comments saying it looks like she has not much policy. Followed by rare replies that never get any upvotes pointing out yes there's actually an easily digestible 80 page document.
They let the subreddit flood with newsweek articles about how well Harris is polling. Seems to be one of the main diversionary tactics.
A lot of reddit users don't seem to understand that reddit is not a democratic content driven platform. What they see can and is editorialized by the moderators. Hell people can't even figure out the difference between admin (reddit employee) and mod (anonymous users with indeterminate biases/agendas). Some even seem to think reddit employees run subeddits. What a fucking disaster of ignorance but I digress.
All in all it appears reddit never recovered from the 2015-2016 the_donald coup. There was never an answer to that lrlourpresident account which was obviously astroturfing Democrat named subreddits.
I think much of the older userbase of anyone remotely left of center has gradually left by attrition over the years. Coincidentally between 2016 and today they've basically relaunched the platform bringing in whole new waves of unsuspecting users with the desktop redesign, phone app, and the IPO.
Something that hadn't dawned on me until relatively recently with all the Musk Twitter bullshit. After reddit the company became independent from Conde Nast their chief source of funding is Thiel and Andreessen. Both we now know are hardcore MAGA supporting billionaires.
Steve Huffman calling those white supremacists on their platform "valuable discussion" is his "very fine people" moment.
ETA: The DOJ released documents from Russia stating they are to target "community of American gamers, users of reddit and image boards such as 4chan (the backbone of right-wing trends in the US segment of the internet)". Emphasis mine. Comments linking to these documents were being inexplicable removed from the politics subreddit. This whole story got swept off the reddit news cycle real quick.
You're going to get downvoted because you're making some big swings here. I'd say you'll end up being 50% correct when the numbers come out and everything is drilled into.
The singular fact that nobody seems to want to say is that you apparently can now just win by lying to voters, cheating the law, propagandizing everything, and bragging non-stop about doing so. He will not do anything for people in this country or the world, nor will Vance. It's a bait and switch, plain and simple, and people are dumb enough to vote for it. This happened in Italy twice almost 100 years ago, and it took them 15 years to finally get mad enough to just revolt, and hang those people for display.
The unfortunate truth right now is there seems to not be the pushback for this in the US. People are willing to vote against themselves and their neighbors because Trump/Vance say they're going to get you money while they are pillaging you at the same time.
DNC as an organization is shit.
I'm talking to Democrats. I'm trying to tell you what your next move should be. The movement and overall organization of the Democrat Party goes above and beyond just its leadership.
I'm talking to you, specifically. First thing we must do is understand why we lost, and that means understanding how Trump won. And the first step there is to stop taking him as a buffoon (even if he is), because there's a lot of people helping him succeed. We need to think about the whole enemy here, not just Trump but everyone who helped him this year.
And instead of complaining to DNC leadership (who obviously tried everything they could to stop Trump), start thinking about how to defeat MAGA Republicans. Donald Trump is absolutely a shittier candidate than Kamala in every way imaginable. Its not a policy loss here.
And instead of complaining to DNC leadership (who obviously tried everything they could to stop Trump)
Emphasis mine! The last 48 hours have been wild to watch as a foreigner. American Liberals have got their heads stuck in a fantasy land, so far up their own asses, they might as well be MAGA-lite.
The DNC, and entire Democrat party, do not represent D voters. They represent the AmeriCorp plutocracy, who've bought and paid for 90+% of both parties the entire god damn time.
Let me put it this way. The greatest achievement the Dems have made in the last 15 years is the ACA — a republican plan — and what it achieved is still the worst health care system in the entire developed world (dollar for dollar). Democrats (probably you) touted this as a major success. Do you understand how much of a failed state that makes America look to the rest of the world?
Maybe one day you'll understand that neoliberalism created the conditions for MAGA to exploit; that MAGA is just as much a failure of the Democrats, and neoliberalism, as it is of the Republicans, and conservatism. Doesn't look like that's gonna be anytime soon though, so get ready to spend the rest of your life under fascism because Liberals are making it abundantly clear that they're never gonna get it.
Maybe it's time you stop directing your anger at the left or right, and start directing it at the corporate whores who line your own parties ranks.
Donald Trump is absolutely a shittier candidate than Kamala in every way imaginable.
And this approach to campaigning does. not. win. elections.
This MUST be the message.
AIPAC corruption and extremely right wing ideology in the Democrat party lead to more Trump.
Get your head out of your ass. Feel your failure. Change your mind. Rebuild the Democrat party to a Left wing platform that CAN WIN.
Ask yourself: Why did Donald Trump win. And think about it. The answer is right before you and blazingly far more obvious than any particular action that was within Democrats or Kamala's control.
Trump won because more people voted for him, plain and simple.
For 9 years now I've listened to fellow progressives wring their hands and breathlessly say "I just don't understand how anyone could vote for him!" The problem, the real problem is that for like 95% of us, this statement is the end of the conversation. If the democrats want to win, they need to sit down and really, really consider the "why" of the Trump voter.
Yes, there's racism and yes there's sexism and yes there's xenophobia and christian nationalism that all influence the far right, but there are also plenty of people voting R that don't give a damn about that stuff. As the dust settles, it's becoming increasingly clear that lots of voters voted split-ticket in this cycle, so blaming it all on dogma and party loyalty isn't going to cut it — in fact, the data is suggesting that Americans are less loyal than ever to any particular political party, so what is it specifically about Trump that resonated with so many this time around?
I don't have any exact answers to that question (which is honestly pretty embarrassing since we've all had 9 years to contemplate this), but if I had to guess, I'd say it's something to do with the fact Trump actively acknowledges that things suck right now. "Make America Great Again" is a slogan that inherently implies we're living in an empire in decline. Regardless of which side of the isle they sit on, I think most Americans can agree with the sentiment that things are getting worse, and have been for a while.
Of course, the two sides have wildly different ideas about why things suck — with the right largely blaming the decline on immigration or abortion or LGBT proliferation or some nebulous "eroding of traditional American values", and with the left blaming things on regulatory capture, military adventurism, and the general corporate cannibalization of all our institutions and infrastructure. But both sides lately agree we're heading in the wrong direction, so why is Trump's message more resonant?
Maybe it's because Trump presents them with more tangible "boogiemen" while the Democrats play ineffective defense by pointing at rising GDP or the surging stock market or low unemployment numbers — stats that do nothing to speak to the lived experiences of individual voters. Maybe Democrats need to focus their attention less on policy proposals and "hope and change" and more on "boogiemen" like the right. Stop campaigning against Trump, stop campaigning for incremental change, stop campaigning for culture wars, and start campaigning against people like Elon Musk. Start campaigning against union-busting Howard Shultz. Campaign against Amazon. Campaign against Mark fucking Cuban who hoards $6 billion for himself and then turns around and acts like he gives a damn about the working class while simultaneously padding the pockets of Democrats so that if they ever do actually win, he can be sure his tidy fortune won't be at risk.
Is rent too high? Is the price of groceries becoming a burden? Have wages been stagnant for two decades? Fucking acknowledge it— no, don't just acknowledge it, tell people they're right to feel that way and that they should be fucking angry about it. Then spend every last campaign dollar and stump speech and political add attacking the people who made it that way. Rally people against an actual enemy, the real enemy, and maybe we'll finally start voting for you without having to hold our noses. Of course, the DNC probably has too much vested interest in keeping their corporate donors happy to ever make this the message. After all, the Harris campaign raised nearly a billion dollars this cycle. Then again, what good is a billion bucks if it loses your the house, Senate and presidency?
Anyway, that's just the two cents of a frustrated liberal who isn't terribly surprised by the situation we're now facing once again. Take it with a grain of salt — I'm just as dumb as everyone else.
Kamala Harris truly is Hillary Clinton 2.0.
Many of Harris’s mistakes were similar to those Hillary Clinton made in 2016. Like Clinton, Harris cozied up to billionaire donors. Mark Cuban, for instance, said he was delighted that Harris was abandoning Democrats’ commitments to progressive principles and letting the business community propose the policies it wanted. Like Clinton, Harris and Tim Walz made hubristic campaign stops in solidly red states like Texas and Kentucky rather than spending the final days laser-focused on crucial battlegrounds. Like Clinton, Harris emphasized celebrity endorsements while failing to successfully court unions. (Most notably, the Teamsters declined to endorse her after she refused to pledge that she wouldn’t break a national railway strike.) Like Clinton, Harris focused too much on the danger of Donald Trump (which is very real) and not enough on the reasons why she would be good at being president herself.
I’ll just say that all the policies she proposed seemed entirely uninteresting to me. Credits for first time home buyers and something about building new homes seemed like her main talking point. This is great for all the people that don’t currently own a home and want to but does nothing for most people that also need help.
Democrats are not leftists, they're center right. I'm so sick of people thinking Democrats are going to fix this, protect that, and make things better. Democrats serve their corporate masters, and they'll make vague promises that they know they won't keep.
I really don't care, do you?
If people didn't vote for Harris it just means they are happy with fascists.
That's one interpretation of what it could mean but one I expect is overly simplistic.
There is a difference between being happy with fascism and not feeling motivated enough to resist it. If the tide has any chance of turning towards what would be more healthy it will have to come by creating a platform that really excites and motivates a large number of people to invest in it. It has to feel authentic to those who are feeling unmotivated today eg the millions of former Biden voters who did not turn out. It should activate people who are not reliable voters to genuinely support the cause.
I'm no leftist but I do agree that Democrats and others whose main goals are to leave unchallenged the status quo of growing wealth inequality cannot win going forward. The promise of a truly experienced greater tangible quality of life, enough food, affordable housing, access to affordable medical care, debt relief, high minimum wages and/or UBI, etc would move the needle better towards excitement and engagement than abstractions like defence of democracy. "A chicken in every pot". We need another FDR. We need a strong middle class and that has to mean powerful unions.
Edited for paragraphs.
Dude those are promises completely devoid of validity or meaning.
"Vote for me and I'll fix everything".
Trump says it: "great!! Let's vote him"
Any democrat says it: "but how? Have you considered the plight of the fruitfly??? I cannot vote for you unless you explain everything in every detail"
I forgot that trump just needs "concepts of a plan"
Pretty much this, by now pretty much everyone knows Trump and knows what he wants and what he stands for, and we had a referendum of sorts. If that alone isn't enough motivation for someone to go to the polls or request a ballot it's pretty disingenious for people to point fingers at the DNC or Harris because they weren't jazzed up enough.
Like, if someone isn't willing to stand in line for a couple hours in an attempt to ensure that their great-great-grandchildren have a habitable world in which to exist we're a pretty hopeless species, right?
I care because I'm not happy with fascists, and yet, due to others' apathy, ignorance, malice, or a mix thereof I have to live in a land ruled by fascists.
This is what happens when anyone that warns someone is sick gets burnt at the stake as a witch.
When your own party is criticizing the candidate, you need to realize that 17 million more aren't going to put the effort into complaining, they're not going to hold their nose and vote.
They're just gonna stay home.
So when the politically active tries to warn the party, it would behoove the party to listen to it's base.
Instead of saying that Harris or the dnc dropped the ball, consider that over half the voting population in the US chose a senile, white, male, racist, felon who increased your taxes unless you were rich and stole classified documents, that is chums with Putin.
Maybe instead of "the dnc dropped the ball" it could be considered that the slight majority of Americans are just racist, sexist, uneducated, short sighted idiots?
No one needed to know much beyond seeing how bad trump has been. There shouldn't have needed to be a "make Harris better" plan. America seen that trump shitbox and still chose him.
It's nice to blame voters for parties failing to win elections. That absolves the party of responsibility - "we were right, it was voters who are wrong".
But that won't win an election. And that attitude will gift the mid terms and even 2028 to the republicans.
The DNC fucked up - it backed Biden despite clear signs he was not a good candidate for this election, the primary process who a fig leaf of democracy rather than putting forward the party's best and brightest, it then fought concerns of Biden health and hid the truth, then when he finally stepped down late in the day it arranged a coronation for Harris. And then after behaving undemocratically repeatedly it had the gall to make the election about "saving democracy".
Voters didn't do these things, the DNC did.
Instead of demonising voters and non voters, it's better to ask what should the party have done differently to win them over and what does it need to do to win them over in the mid terms.
It's nice for you to ignore that over half the voters in this country voted for someone that they knew was a sexist, racist, felon. A slice of bread with no advertising should have gotten more votes than him.
Anyone who didn't bother to choose Harris deserves Trump. Enjoy!