Summary
Following Kamala Harris’s unexpected defeat, Democratic leaders are scrutinizing their party’s failures, particularly with working-class voters.
Figures like Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and Ro Khanna argue the party lacks a strong economic message, especially for those frustrated with stagnant mobility and neoliberal policies.
Sanders emphasized Democrats’ disconnect from working-class concerns, while Murphy criticized the party’s unwillingness to challenge wealthy interests.
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison announced he won’t seek re-election, leaving the party’s leadership in flux as Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries prepare to assume top roles amid a Republican resurgence.
The Dems kept making big proclamations about how the economy has rebounded under the Biden administration. But no one except the wealthy has benefited from that. It felt genuinely insulting every single time. Average folks in the US keep seeing bills, grocery prices, subscription services, and especially housing costs rise steadily. People are so worried about paying for these core things.
But the party never listened to Bernie and just kept saying “look, we fixed it” when they clearly didn’t, and I believe that drove away voters.
And that’s just a microcosm of Dem policy for the last ~35y. We get it, Democrats are better at government, we all fucking know it. What everyone has been waiting for is a Democrat who’ll come along and say “the top 15% of the country has taken 90% of the wealth over the last 35y, it’s time for everyone to share in the prosperity.”
People are sick of neoliberal business as usual, this is why Hillary lost, this is why Kamala lost. This is why every single Dem candidate from here on out is going to be viewed with skepticism and voters will continue to stay home. People would rather hand the country to a narcissistic kleptocrat and hope for the best than accept four more years of neoliberal business as usual while they try to eke out a meagre existence with ever increasing costs of rent, food, healthcare, energy, insurance and corporate profits.
The Democrats funnel literally hundreds of billions of dollars to things like student loan relief, school lunches, and safety net infrastructure in general. The Republicans actively prevent hundreds of billions more that would have been spent to help the lower and middle class, sabotage any hope for universal Healthcare, and actively sabotage things we all rely on (USPS, PBS, the pandemic response program a year before covid). And the voters have the audacity to blame the Dems for not fixing everything. It’s a joke.
This is why Liberals doomed America to fascism.
Wealth inequality is worse today than it was during the gilded age a century ago, and you still believe that the Dem’s efforts were good enough to counteract 50 years of neoliberalism; the very conditions establishment democrats helped create. Liberals stuck their head in the sand and promised 4 more years of drowning, so voters chose the fascist who promised to tear it all apart.
I just don’t have unrealistic expectations for my candidates. Dems can’t magic away the effects of climate change. Nor can they “fix” capitalism. Dissapointment in the truth doesn’t justify voting for comforting lies.
Nor does it justify not voting. However, we are not dealing with rational people because they are people and not rational.
People don’t see, we imagine. Mommy Fortuna’s gotta put a fake horn on a real unicorn.
I just have realistic expectations of my elected representatives actually advocating for my interests in government.
Dems could sure accelerate our energy transition away from fossil fuels towards green energy with more initiatives like the IRA and GND.
Dems could sure undo Reaganomics and Citizens United, audit our contracts with corporations so they work for us, break up monopolies, and a heck of a lot of other things to get us moving in the right direction.
Truth is that a growing portion of Americans support these. Leftist populism is on the rise. And we might have a good chance to organize this time around because Dems have stopped telling those comforting lies to their base. Kamala didn’t do what Obama did. The Dems’ true nature was seen far and wide.
Dems are the ones smothering themselves with comforting lies, and the disappointint truth is that they’ll keep losing elections in favor of elected representatives who actually listen to their base: Republicans.
I think you’re giving people way too much credit, both citizens and representatives. “Did Joe Biden drop out” as a search term spiked in the US on election day.
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Right? That should be the message. Average folks appreciate essential services if you press them. But there have been enough scandals and mismanagement (esp. schools and healthcare) that they’re very distrustful that their tax dollars are being used correctly. I don’t know if it’s audacity so much as they just don’t understand that the GOP has been actively sabotaging our systems for decades. But the Dems never seem to call that out, like they’re afraid to name and shame their opponents as liars and swindlers.
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Student loan relief isn’t a great message for a lot of people though. It’s a handout of 10s of Thousands of dollars to people that were able to go to college. That means fuck all to those that never had the chance. College is more expensive than ever, and nothing has been done to stop the massive increase in costs.
Most people aren’t aware of stuff like this. They see, at most, a talking head or a topline message like, “Biden White House declares victory on economy.” Then they look at their personal finances and pour another drink and mutter, “same shit, different day”.
As someone looking from the outside. It smells a bit like voters decided it was easier to swallow that everyone hurts. Even of themselfs hurt a bit more. Instead of seeing the wealthy prosper wildly, and only the common people hurt.
I think that was a huge part of Trump’s appeal. It’s hard to be happy about watching the wealthy drain the country for 35y while you’re stuck working at Wal-Mart or a gig job and effectively treading water while waiting for a medical emergency to bankrupt you or for prices on everyday goods to outpace you. It’s a choice between getting fucked over while a certain class of person gets richer or fucking everybody over and that appealed to a whole lot of people.
If you say so. I went shopping this weekend and every store was crowded with people. Seems like the economy rebounded to me.
Your anecdote is only the surface level. People may be spending more at shops because they expect inflation will keep going up and the things they need will just get more expensive. And they don’t expect they can save for larger purchases like housing or renovations so they’re buying lower level items while they can afford them. These sort of shallow effects might look like a prospering economy on the outside but they can mask an uglier core.