Thanks for this. BTW, "Democratic leaders, donors and strategists"... are *not* the Democratic voter base (or what may becoming stronger third-party voter bases).
You make a great point, which I wish would fit on a t shirt because I’d definitely put it in rotation with my “Nasty Woman” and “Nevertheless she persisted” shirts: “Eye-rolling stupidity is slightly different from irredeemable sexism.”
Saying Hillary and Kamala lost because they are women ignores the real reasons they lost and blinds our side from properly learning from those losses. In 2008 you could say this country had its share of Islamophobia and racism, so a black guy whose dad was Muslim (and gave him the middle name “Hussein”) should not be able to win (add in the fact that he represented Chicago and had no experience, too). In fact many on Hillary’s side made just this argument (apparently they didn’t think the country was too sexist to support her, or at least racism was more a handicap for him than sexism was for her). They were wrong—turns out if you’re a strong candidate your weaknesses can become strengths.
Hillary and Kamala were not strong candidates—both played too conventional in a race against a guy who necessitated an unconventional approach, both were risk averse (look how Kamaka responded with a weak canned and focus grouped response to Trump’s anti-trans attacks), both seemed afraid to be themselves or show emotion. Both seemed, in many ways, to believe being a woman was a handicap and were afraid to lean into their feminine side to make it a strength (compare with Nikki Haley or even Sarah Palin, who in some ways did better than they had any business doing, by adopting “tough Mom” imagery). Both were also unnatural in their interviews and rallies, as if everything was run through a committee (which it all may have been). And yes it didn’t help that they had men in their lives fucking things up for them (Bill and Joe) but recognizing their weaknesses and campaign choices is necessary for who ever gets the next nomination.
Without Covid, trump would have cruised to re-election, BUT, without the Project 2025 and J6 insanity, he would have been much less worse than he is now.
Also thsse goddamn 'Republican-Lite' alleged 'Top' Democrats can all go DIAF. They're the same mincing, flinching, terrified of being labeled 'liberal' assholes who have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for the party time and time again.
Yes, alas, if Trump was going to serve two terms anyway, it would've been better had Biden not won at all. (Breyer is still alive!)
Liz Cheney would still be in leadership, possibly the next GOP Speaker, and despite my issue with her, she's not a toady like Johnson. Pence is obviously preferable to Vance.
"Hmm...the last woman we ran got beaten after she had 107 days of campaigning to distance herself from an unpopular president...and the woman before that won the popular vote, but lost because the electoral college is rigged to help Republicans...both of them had an extremely hostile press corps that was overtly in the bag for trump as well as help from Russian hackers and propagandists... increasing swaths of the country and especially our base are non-religious and view Israel's genocide as utterly horrific...They also support trans rights and the right to choose...THE ONLY POSSIBLE SOLUTION IS TO RUN A STRAIGHT WHITE CHRISTIAN DUDE AGAIN!"
Democratic leadership, displaying once again their brilliant strategic acumen and ability to read the room. /S
Dem consultant class is still beholden to AIPAC and don’t seem to notice that the right AND the left hate the Zionist entity more than they like any democrat
You write some very fair and logical arguments in this post... I wish we lived in a time when fair and logical arguments meant something. I agree with you completely, but Christ on a couch, the idiot elites of this country are just dummer than mud.
Yes, exactly. Women still vote Democratic in higher numbers and more women vote. Which is why the misogynistic GOP is trying to roll back women's suffrage. It's not simply the amendment. It's trad wives and obey your husband Christian hierarchy. Women easily won gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. The men who would not vote for a woman are already lost to Trump and MAGA. That's not going to change.
I live in California, so I don't get to choose the candidate in a primary. I voted for Warren in every presidential primary she's run in.
I do, however, tend to think there is more misogyny in America that we men realize. To what degree that plays a role in Harris and Clinton's losses is up for debate because there is a media ecosystem that constantly puts out hatred of liberal democracy, liberalism, diversity, and equality and constantly blood libels good people as Satanic baby-killing pedophiles and groomers.
But I don't think the misogyny factor in those losses was zero.
Now, whether that means we ought to respond with cynical misogyny and give the misogynists what they want is a question every person has to ask themselves.
I can't imagine what Democrat right now would have a decent shot in 2028. Newsom is from California and Americans have been trained to hate California... he's also too slick... too triangulated... too much a politician who chooses his principles daily after he reads the poll data. Pritzker? Maybe... Whitman? She seems to have burned her chances by playing nice with Trump. Warren is going to be a perennial protest candidate. Harris seems unlikely to try again. Clinton has probably entered the "fuck you all, you had your chance" stage of caring.
Anyway... I don't know. Like I said, I won't get a chance to choose them. I'll just have to hope that whomever other states pick is good enough to convince ignorant and hateful fools that it will be in their best interest to maybe try to build a better country instead of burn it all down to spite women, minorities, educated people, and immigrants.
EDIT: For the record, I thought we should have all rallied around Biden since our voters picked him instead of spending three weeks deliberately undermining our candidate and reinforcing the media spin on him. But we didn't. I voted Harris. Seventy-seven million other Americans chose this instead. Fuck them forever.
Maybe, but I don't think three weeks of a lot of Democrats publicly screaming that "the media was right, he's so old and senile, and we need a new candidate" exactly helped our cause with those folks or did Harris a lot of favors.
Oh well, what's done is done. No sense in rehashing it again. We're all stuck in this Hell together for another God knows how many years and it's not anyone's fault but the seventy-seven million assholes who voted for it and the millions who stayed home.
I totally agree, Stephen. The important thing is to nominate a candidate with some CHARISMA (male or female) who can motivate voters to get to the polls. And secondly, a candidate who will confidently and proudly articulate big-D democratic principles, who will rebuild our standing in the world again, and who will defend the role of government in making our lives better. And lastly, a candidate who will protect our natural resources, and finally at long last, advocate proudly for what the rest of the developed world has already accepted, that solar and wind power is practical now and will free us from the destruction caused by our dependence on fossil fuels.
It is also easy to be skeptical of Democrats when 300,000 voices are telling you that Democrats are child groomers that want to outlaw meat and pickups and will let teachers trans your little boy in one afternoon and make Sharia Law immigrants take over the USA.
Alternately it can even be that people know Democrats = government spending which = government giving "hard earned money" to Black people so we can live in luxury.
Thanks for this. BTW, "Democratic leaders, donors and strategists"... are *not* the Democratic voter base (or what may becoming stronger third-party voter bases).
You make a great point, which I wish would fit on a t shirt because I’d definitely put it in rotation with my “Nasty Woman” and “Nevertheless she persisted” shirts: “Eye-rolling stupidity is slightly different from irredeemable sexism.”
"... when he disgracefully left office older than when he entered."
:D :D :D
Saying Hillary and Kamala lost because they are women ignores the real reasons they lost and blinds our side from properly learning from those losses. In 2008 you could say this country had its share of Islamophobia and racism, so a black guy whose dad was Muslim (and gave him the middle name “Hussein”) should not be able to win (add in the fact that he represented Chicago and had no experience, too). In fact many on Hillary’s side made just this argument (apparently they didn’t think the country was too sexist to support her, or at least racism was more a handicap for him than sexism was for her). They were wrong—turns out if you’re a strong candidate your weaknesses can become strengths.
Hillary and Kamala were not strong candidates—both played too conventional in a race against a guy who necessitated an unconventional approach, both were risk averse (look how Kamaka responded with a weak canned and focus grouped response to Trump’s anti-trans attacks), both seemed afraid to be themselves or show emotion. Both seemed, in many ways, to believe being a woman was a handicap and were afraid to lean into their feminine side to make it a strength (compare with Nikki Haley or even Sarah Palin, who in some ways did better than they had any business doing, by adopting “tough Mom” imagery). Both were also unnatural in their interviews and rallies, as if everything was run through a committee (which it all may have been). And yes it didn’t help that they had men in their lives fucking things up for them (Bill and Joe) but recognizing their weaknesses and campaign choices is necessary for who ever gets the next nomination.
Without Covid, trump would have cruised to re-election, BUT, without the Project 2025 and J6 insanity, he would have been much less worse than he is now.
Also thsse goddamn 'Republican-Lite' alleged 'Top' Democrats can all go DIAF. They're the same mincing, flinching, terrified of being labeled 'liberal' assholes who have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for the party time and time again.
Yes, alas, if Trump was going to serve two terms anyway, it would've been better had Biden not won at all. (Breyer is still alive!)
Liz Cheney would still be in leadership, possibly the next GOP Speaker, and despite my issue with her, she's not a toady like Johnson. Pence is obviously preferable to Vance.
"Hmm...the last woman we ran got beaten after she had 107 days of campaigning to distance herself from an unpopular president...and the woman before that won the popular vote, but lost because the electoral college is rigged to help Republicans...both of them had an extremely hostile press corps that was overtly in the bag for trump as well as help from Russian hackers and propagandists... increasing swaths of the country and especially our base are non-religious and view Israel's genocide as utterly horrific...They also support trans rights and the right to choose...THE ONLY POSSIBLE SOLUTION IS TO RUN A STRAIGHT WHITE CHRISTIAN DUDE AGAIN!"
Democratic leadership, displaying once again their brilliant strategic acumen and ability to read the room. /S
Dem consultant class is still beholden to AIPAC and don’t seem to notice that the right AND the left hate the Zionist entity more than they like any democrat
It’s wild that dem consultants can look at Shapiro and Newsom and be like “yeah this is what the country craves!” Losers.
You write some very fair and logical arguments in this post... I wish we lived in a time when fair and logical arguments meant something. I agree with you completely, but Christ on a couch, the idiot elites of this country are just dummer than mud.
Yes, exactly. Women still vote Democratic in higher numbers and more women vote. Which is why the misogynistic GOP is trying to roll back women's suffrage. It's not simply the amendment. It's trad wives and obey your husband Christian hierarchy. Women easily won gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. The men who would not vote for a woman are already lost to Trump and MAGA. That's not going to change.
I live in California, so I don't get to choose the candidate in a primary. I voted for Warren in every presidential primary she's run in.
I do, however, tend to think there is more misogyny in America that we men realize. To what degree that plays a role in Harris and Clinton's losses is up for debate because there is a media ecosystem that constantly puts out hatred of liberal democracy, liberalism, diversity, and equality and constantly blood libels good people as Satanic baby-killing pedophiles and groomers.
But I don't think the misogyny factor in those losses was zero.
Now, whether that means we ought to respond with cynical misogyny and give the misogynists what they want is a question every person has to ask themselves.
I can't imagine what Democrat right now would have a decent shot in 2028. Newsom is from California and Americans have been trained to hate California... he's also too slick... too triangulated... too much a politician who chooses his principles daily after he reads the poll data. Pritzker? Maybe... Whitman? She seems to have burned her chances by playing nice with Trump. Warren is going to be a perennial protest candidate. Harris seems unlikely to try again. Clinton has probably entered the "fuck you all, you had your chance" stage of caring.
Anyway... I don't know. Like I said, I won't get a chance to choose them. I'll just have to hope that whomever other states pick is good enough to convince ignorant and hateful fools that it will be in their best interest to maybe try to build a better country instead of burn it all down to spite women, minorities, educated people, and immigrants.
EDIT: For the record, I thought we should have all rallied around Biden since our voters picked him instead of spending three weeks deliberately undermining our candidate and reinforcing the media spin on him. But we didn't. I voted Harris. Seventy-seven million other Americans chose this instead. Fuck them forever.
Our rallying around Biden wouldn't have helped him. The problem was the non-Dem partisan swing voters.
Maybe, but I don't think three weeks of a lot of Democrats publicly screaming that "the media was right, he's so old and senile, and we need a new candidate" exactly helped our cause with those folks or did Harris a lot of favors.
Oh well, what's done is done. No sense in rehashing it again. We're all stuck in this Hell together for another God knows how many years and it's not anyone's fault but the seventy-seven million assholes who voted for it and the millions who stayed home.
I totally agree, Stephen. The important thing is to nominate a candidate with some CHARISMA (male or female) who can motivate voters to get to the polls. And secondly, a candidate who will confidently and proudly articulate big-D democratic principles, who will rebuild our standing in the world again, and who will defend the role of government in making our lives better. And lastly, a candidate who will protect our natural resources, and finally at long last, advocate proudly for what the rest of the developed world has already accepted, that solar and wind power is practical now and will free us from the destruction caused by our dependence on fossil fuels.
It is also easy to be skeptical of Democrats when 300,000 voices are telling you that Democrats are child groomers that want to outlaw meat and pickups and will let teachers trans your little boy in one afternoon and make Sharia Law immigrants take over the USA.
Alternately it can even be that people know Democrats = government spending which = government giving "hard earned money" to Black people so we can live in luxury.
Excellent post.
YES
THANK YOU
put up the best candidate, period. stop overthinking and trying to game voters
Ignore the gotdamned "consultants" and TALK TO YOUR VOTERS!
…and LISTEN to them!